Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
ORPHEUS
The magnificent Salisbury Cathedral tower loomed crookedly in the sky. An entourage entered via the front, unlocked as it always was, guarded at night by one lone vampire. They dragged Jadeon to the rear of the church and down to the lower catacombs.
Once inside the dark secret chamber, they removed his hood.
Within these Gothic walls, candlelight flickered on ancient stone, echoing the quiet rhythm of centuries-old worship. We could enter this place just not touch anything holy; I’d reminded them of that.
I’d be okay—the younger vampires, not so much.
They removed the hood over our captive.
Jadeon looked around finding the place familiar.
A sharp sting of realization pierced through him that this was his first refuge, his cradle of vampirism.
That weathered stone tomb of an illegitimate cousin of King Henry II the same one he’d leaned up against and sobbed that first night I had turned him.
A divine memory.
Jadeon’s face pained as he recognized more about the chamber.
I stepped toward him. “You hid here after I transformed you.”
“You have to let me go.”
“Déjà vu, Jadeon,” I said and checked my watch.
“Orpheus, Alex is in trouble. I have to get to him. You must listen.”
“Ah, I doubt even I could make such a flight now.”
He struggled frantically. “I promised him . . .”
“You have murdered him.”
“No!”
My men held him. He struggled, as only a brother could when freedom meant forsaking his own blood. Panicked and distraught, he fought with staggering strength, but they overwhelmed him.
They threw him to the ground.
“I share your pain,” I said.
“No. Not this time, not this way.”
“Choose. Catherine or Alex,” I said.
“What?”
“Who do you choose to live, Catherine or Alex? Time is of the essence, so—”
“No!” he screamed.
“Sorry, so much noise in the room I didn’t hear you. Say again?”
“Why? Why do you do this?”
“Habit, I suppose. Now which one?”
“Let me go to him.”
“I see,” I said. “Wait.” I placed my hand to my temple and closed my eyes. “No, I fear the worst. Prepare yourself. Your brother Alex is . . . dead. Yes, not so much a snapping of his mortal coil. More like a disintegration of it.”
Jadeon fell forward, glaring at me, shattered. “You lie to me again. I don’t believe you—”
Jadeon's pain was an exquisite gift to behold. A storm of agony that tore through him. There came a delicious and yet bitter satisfaction as I stood over him. This was all I could ask for, his suffering almost equal to mine.
Almost.
Even if his was the kind that didn’t just hurt, it hollowed him out. His destruction felt like a glorious gift. A divine unraveling of a man who still denied his vampirism.
His agony felt as if the heavens themselves had ordained his fall.
“Who was it, Jadeon, who asked him to wait? Who was it who promised to return to free him? He trusted you. Go back to your bleak castle. It’s over, and you’re once again the cause of your own grief.”
“I beg of you,” he said.
I paused for a gut check.
Was the centuries-old pain finally gone? Had all his suffering meant something? Had it pierced the heart of loss, erased the agony of losing Sunaria? Had justice, at last, been served? And in the wreckage of it all, had my own relentless torment dulled to something I could finally endure?
No, actually. That grief still burned brightly, and I was far from done with him. “If you want to join me, if the loneliness becomes too great, come to me.”
“Never!”
“We have so much to do.”
“What?”
“The time for mortals is running out. It’s now time for us to take our rightful place. We will no longer hide within the shadows.”
“What are you planning?”
“Members only,” I said.
“I could never be part of any of your dark schemes, and I will do everything within my power to stop you. You are Satanic.”
“Satan had his chance but failed. I’m something altogether different.”
“I will kill you!”
“Catherine. She’ll be interested to hear that you chose Alex over her.”
Jadeon was thrown into a corner.
I strolled through the open doorway, my immortals trailing closely, and the door was slammed shut. We headed into the darkened vehicle that awaited us. Jadeon pulled himself to his feet and banged at the door.
It was locked.
He turned and slid down the wall.