14. Brielle
14
Brielle
M y eyes burn from the lack of sleep I have gotten in the last twenty-four hours. Tina’s is as busy as I expected for a weeknight. Nothing unusual showing itself quite yet. Azra and I are on the roof of the building across the street. Vampires are stationed at random places in the surrounding areas. Some even inside, pretending to be civilians.
My skin crawls having them close and not chopping their heads off. They’re so close to humans, I can barely sit still thinking of what they are capable of. Azra has reassured me many times tonight that I’ve began tuning him out. I know he won’t let anything happen to those helpless people but still, it’s driving my core instincts crazy.
“What do you think caused Andrea’s dream?” I ask, only to put a stop to the racing violent thoughts.
“I don’t know. She has puzzled me since the day she arrived,” he mumbles the last bit of his sentence. I turn to where he is standing behind me with his hands in his pockets.
“Why? Is it because of your neanderthal brother attacking her for no reason? I’ve known her my whole life, I would know if she was some witch reincarnated.” I huff and lean on the concrete ledge. His small dimple on his cheek, that I love oh so much, appears with his smile.
“You know, you have a gift for describing people perfectly. Ash is many things but for him to attack completely unprovoked, especially someone he knows is important to us, it’s strange. We can forget trying to get information out of him though. There are things about Caroline he has never told anyone.” The worry in his eyes causes pity to roll my gut when I think about how tragic it must have been for Ash.
Screams sound from the pub, startling me enough to jump. It takes every restraint in my body to not jump off this roof to get in Tina’s as soon as possible.
Turning to Azra, I realize quickly he’s gone. My eyes frantically search the entire roof.
He left me.
I search for a faster way down than going through the actual building. Noticing a fire escape on the right side of the building, I don’t give myself time to think about how old and rusty it is before lowering myself onto it.
I need to get to her parents. I need to get to her parents.
Telling myself that the entire way down, there is only a few feet of ladder left so I let go, dropping the rest of the way. My ankles groan at the impact but my adrenaline has replaced any other feeling in my body.
Running, daggers in both hands, my mind is racing as I push through the people in the street screaming and rushing away from the restaurant. My eyes are locked on the windows of Tina’s to see what’s going on. I don’t notice the figure that steps before me or the hands stopping me until I’m still.
“Brielle, wait.” The voice of the last person I want to talk to right now. My eyes snap to Azra’s.
“You fucking left me up there!” I push him but he doesn’t budge.
“You don’t want to see?—”
“Move out of my way.” I bare my teeth at him. Red crowds my vision before he releases me and I run past him.
Vampires that were stationed in the diner have a waitress pinned to the wall behind the bar. The same glazed eyes as the guards and bartender in Kai’s living quarters. I don’t recognize her. She must have been hired after I left.
“Where are they?” My eyes are wide as I frantically search for my best friend’s family who has treated me as their own since I lost my mom. Even thinking about losing them makes me want to vomit all over these floors I have mopped thousands of times.
Hands grip my shoulders, halting the gruesome scenes I start to imagine.
“Some of Kai’s vamps have them, they are erasing their memories of what just happened. Torin has been at their house with Salem making sure it’s warded tight against anything and everything getting through. He should be here shortly. Salem is making sure they get home safe. We can trust her.” Azra runs his calloused hand down my biceps a few times. “They are safe and won’t remember anything that happened.”
“What happened?” I finally ask, searching around the empty restaurant I know like the back of my hand. Azra only steps to the side and reveals a table with fresh food still steaming on it. In the middle, a large object sits with a black cloth over it.
I step forward and Torin appears, Kai next to him leaning on another table nearby.
All four of us exchange glances waiting for another to say something. Azra stares at the side of my face as my eyes lower to the black cloth.
A gentle voice mutters my name beside me but I ignore it. I can’t ignore the dark luring trance pulling me to this concealed object, though.
I quickly lift the cloth and a gasp squeezes out of my lungs along with the air in them. Blonde human hair stained red, hair that I’ve run my hands through hundreds of times before. Stomach bile lurches up my throat as I fall to my ass with wide eyes and shock. I don’t even have to see his face to know it’s Dominic.
Only his head.
“May I ask who is that and where is his tongue?” Kai asks casually as he approaches the table that my exes’ head is occupying.
Warm palms on cover each of my shoulders but Azra doesn’t say anything. Something catches my eye jutting out the side of his head. Azra’s jaw flexes as I grab the hair of the head and hold it up.
Torin winces slightly.
There is a dagger stuck in his right ear. A dagger so similar to one I have seen before.
Many, many times.
I turn the severed head to see the other side of the handle and immediately drop the head.
The initials D.W. are shallowly carved into the blade right before the hand guard.
My ears muffle as blood rushes through them and the world around me spins faster on its axis. I look at Azra with wide eyes. My name becomes clearer the more he says it.
“What did you see, Brielle?” Azra’s words finally filter through the rush in my head. I glare at the waitress still pinned to the wall behind Azra.
“Is she who brought this out?”
“Yes, she is glamoured. She doesn’t remember anything. Kai tried to undo it but her thoughts were too scrambled.” Azra shakes his head as he searches my face.
Glamouring, a skill that takes vampires a while to master. Thankfully, most of the ones I have killed have been too new or too stupid to know how to use it.
Still such a nasty trait to creep into someone’s mind and alter their memories to make them think whatever the vampire wants. It only boils my blood more to think this was done to her.
“We have to go to my house right now.” I turn back to Azra, confusion on his face. “That dagger, I have one just like it but instead of red wrapping, mine is blue.” I close my eyes and take a deep breath to work up the will to finish. “It was my dad’s. It even has his initials in the same spot as mine. Whatever this is, must have raided my home and found it somewhere I haven’t.” My brows pinch as I open my eyes and see an equally worried Azra.
“Zach,” he whispers as he runs his hand through his hair.
“Yes, he is all alone, and he checks on my house occasionally. What if he happens to be there when that thing decides to snoop around again.” Panic wraps around my chest and begins to crush me. I can’t lose another person, I can’t.
“It’s okay, baby. We’ve warded your house, it has been that way since Lilith took you. Are you sure you’re not mistaking this dagger?” He steps and examines the initials.
“I’m sure, I have never seen this one, but it looks exactly the same as all my other ones.” My mind roams over every spot this could have possibly been in. There is no way I never found this in my house. Where else could it have been?
“So no one is wondering where his tongue went?” Kai’s lip curls in disgust as he peeks into Dominic’s mouth which will be stuck open that way until he decays. He must have been trying to scream as he was dying.
“That is my doing.” Azra straightens as his eyes roam over the head and the jagged skin around its neck. “Trust me, I would love to take credit for ending this fucker but whoever did this had to have done it with a fucking saw.” My stomach turns. “Slowly,” he finishes.
“Human deaths are like stomping on an insect. Usually boring and uneventful. Thanks for an entertaining night.” Kai kicks off the table he was leaning against.
“You have one chance to reword that before you are the next head without a body.” My teeth clench to the point of breaking. A sly grin blooms on Kai’s perfect, deep brown face which only intensifies my anger.
My veins run cold. Like a lighter you keep clicking to ignite and it only sparks.
Torin pinches the space between his eyes and lets out a sigh before vanishing with Kai. Azra gave that order no doubt. Torin appears again moments later beside Azra, alone.
“Can I talk to her?” I glance toward the girl still pinned to the wall.
“You can try, she hasn’t spoken since we apprehended her.” Azra runs his hand over his beard, worry fills his expression.
I slowly walk over, examining her vacant stare. I fucking hate vampires. Her blonde hair hangs over half her pale face. The blue of her eyes only accentuates how blood shot they are. Whoever made her do this made sure she was tortured first.
“Hi, I’m Brielle. Do you remember who sent you here?” Her eyes slide to mine and Azra quickly steps beside me. “Can you understand me?” I ask, she barely nods her head. “Let her go,” I order the vampires that are gripping her biceps. Both of them look toward Azra who nods his approval and they release her.
Once her feet touch the ground, she lunges toward me screaming and grabbing something out of her apron. In a flash I am pinned to the wall with a steak knife to my throat. Azra grabs her but I shake my head before he can send her flying off me.
The crazed stare in her eyes makes me believe she can slit my throat at this moment without another thought.
“Who sent you?” My voice is stern, not an ounce of fear in it. The girl begins to laugh. She is a beautiful woman. A true shame this has happened to her.
“She has you right where she wants you,” she whispers with a serpentine smile before her eyes widen. The tip of the blade pinches my neck where it breaks the skin. She doesn’t have the chance to do more than that before Azra snaps her neck and she drops to the ground.
The two vampire’s fangs click down at me. I touch my neck and feel the blood dripping down from the prick of the steak knife. Torin quickly grabs each vampire and vanishes.
“Why the fuck did you kill her? She could have told me whoever ‘she’ is!” I scowl at Azra.
“She wouldn’t have. She wasn’t aware of anything until you told her your name. Her trigger was your name. Whoever sent her told her to relay that message to only you and kill you if she has the chance. I’ve seen Kai use this same method for centuries.” Azra slides his hands into his pockets.
“How do you know this isn’t all Kai’s doing?” I wipe the blood from my neck with the napkins on the bar beside me.
“He doesn’t have a death wish.” Azra steps forward and pulls my hand that’s holding the napkin over the small cut on my throat. His other hand snakes around my neck and gently tugs my hair until my head falls back slightly, exposing the wound. He lowers his head and softly presses his lips against the cut. It stings for a second and disappears just as fast.
He pulls his head back and I search for where the blood was moments ago. The wound is gone.
“Show off,” I mumble. A smirk pulls at his perfect lips before extending his hand to me.
“Do you want to check your house?”
I only nod and a second later, the familiar sounds of cicadas fill my ears.
We searched my house high and low until the sun came up, nothing was out of place. Azra insisted we stay in Crowlyn to rest up for a few hours but I can’t stand thinking about Andrea in the same house as Ash for a minute longer.
After I scolded him about leaving me on the roof, he bent me over the desk I use to spend most of my time at and sincerely apologized, as he described it.
I warned him that if he ever does such a stupid thing like that again, I will castrate him the moment I reach him. He only responded with how much I would miss our favorite part of him. Which only made me want to do it more so I could prove to him how serious I truly was.
“Are you ready, angel?” I glance around waiting for Torin to appear, “He will be coming after a small errand I have him on.” I raise my brow at Azra, his hand is outstretched for me to take.
I’m too exhausted to ask questions. As soon as our hands touch, a dark wind devours us. I close my eyes for mere seconds before the cool familiar breeze of the Forsaken hits my face.
I barely wait for my feet to hit the solid ground before sprinting into the manor. Chatter comes from the kitchen then a laugh I know all too well. The tightness in my chest eases. Celeste and Andrea are having their morning coffee in their usual spot at the table with no sign of Ash.
Andrea’s smile drops when she sees me in the doorway and she rushes over to me. “You look terrible.” She brushes my hair behind my ear, I try to smile but my body is too exhausted to even do that. “Ash told me everything.” I search for the being she mentioned. “He left, as soon as he knew it was safe to.”
I almost mistake the expression on her face for sadness at the mention of him leaving but I chuck it to the lack of sleep. The doors to the manor fly open, shoes screech across the floor and I reach for my dagger strapped to my thigh. Azra appears first and my hand relaxes at the hilt of my weapon. Then I see Torin with his hand wrapped around the bicep of someone I’ve seen before.