Chapter 53
Chapter Fifty-Three
JADEON
It was ironic that my once-suicidal thoughts had now turned to those of survival. With my eyes closed, it was easy to pick up the rich aroma of blood permeating the air. My blood.
The drag of frustration nagged at me. I was always in such a hurry that my ability to use sound judgment was impaired. This was something I had to bear in mind. If I failed to learn from this lesson, I would be doomed to repeat it.
As quickly as the vampires had appeared, they left, commanded by the female who lingered behind me. Her scent of lilies reassuring, and strangely familiar. She pressed her wrist against my lips. Unable to resist the offer, I grasped her hand and suckled. Death’s taste soon dissolved.
I opened my eyes and turned awkwardly.
“Catherine!” I drew back, wiping the blood away from my lips and sat up.
Shame filled me, a hazy realization dawning that it had been a sacred moment, and I had taken from it savagely, unaware it was her.
Are you real?
“Jadeon. I won’t let them hurt you again.”
My heart leapt. Looking around, I checked that we were alone. She had saved me, and the idea that they might come back for her was more than I could endure, even as I had seen her command them.
“We don’t have much time,” she said.
Reeling with emotions, stunned to see her, I reached out and touched her. “I never gave up.”
Catherine had not changed at all. She offered her wrist again as tears fell.
I grasped her hand and held it in mine. “Why did you not come to me before?”
“Impossible.”
“I’m so happy to see you.” I sighed. “Are you all right? Has he harmed you in any way?”
Catherine shook her head.
“I let him take you. I should have known . . .”
“Jadeon.” Catherine’s hands roamed my face, moving over my lips. “Orpheus is too quick for all of us. I should not have gone with him in the first place when he came for me at the convent, but he told me you were in danger. I was so naive.”
“Where did he take you?”
“France, a chateau in Marseille. I knew that you followed us. He threatened me that he would kill both you and Alex if I ever left him. I kept you safe by staying with him.”
“Why did you not contact me. I . . .”
“He watches my every move.”
“But no message?”
“Impossible. He has me constantly guarded.”
“I have you now,” I said.
Catherine glanced into the darkness. “You have to stop him. He vowed that he would break you, destroy your will. I became his to protect you, but not a day has gone by that I have not thought of you. Jadeon, you are not strong enough right now. You must go to the ancient one, the Alchemist.”
“Who?”
A noise startled her. “He’s an immortal who will guide you to the truth and then you will return to free us and, indeed, Orpheus from himself.”
“I am not leaving you here.”
“You have no choice,” she said. “He has Alex.”
“We’ll find him.”
“I can’t leave just yet.”
“No. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“I know it seems hard.”
“Catherine, you are my dearest friend.”
“Then trust me. Find the Alchemist.” Catherine kissed my cheek with affection, and it was tender and honest and exquisitely innocent.
All thoughts melted away.
All these years, no, these endless decades, I had pursued her through centuries, haunted by the ghost of her presence. And now, at last, we were reunited. Her kiss was a benediction, her touch a divine absolution.
“Do you love him?” I asked, confused as I read her thoughts.
“I have grown to love him,” she said softly. “In the way you love a wounded animal, needing to save it, save him.”
No, she felt any affection for him shattered me yet. It was so like her to try to make the world kinder and safer.
“What has he done to you?”
“It’s complicated,” she whispered it.
Whatever enchantment had been woven around Catherine, I would not rest, not while he held her in his dark thrall. I would find a way to break his hold, to drag her back from whatever abyss he’d pulled her into.
“How do I find him?” I said firmly. “This alchemist?”
She fumbled with the engraved ring on her middle finger. I sensed she wanted to give it to me, but it clung to her finger refusing to give.
“Well isn’t this cozy?” Orpheus stepped out of the shadows.
I rose to my feet, still weak, determined to stay focused. Determined to protect her from him.
“Catherine,” he said, “we talked about this, remember?”
“Orpheus, they would have killed him,” she said. “What were you thinking?”
He folded his arms. “What’s your point exactly?”
Catherine caught a sob.
“You know I hate seeing you this way,” he said. “Jadeon, you’ve upset her enough. Oh, and by the way, if Catherine’s your ‘everything,’ what exactly were you doing with Ingrid?”
I winced, the sting of guilt blooming sharp beneath my skin. And then, worse still, came the shame of needing what Ingrid had given me, the bitter truth that I had craved it, hungered for it, even as it unraveled me.
Catherine reassured me with a gesture.
“She’s so forgiving,” Orpheus said. “Jadeon, how about we see how your brother is?”
Catherine followed him, and I limped after them. The wounds left by his men, his vampire followers, were merciless, lingering long enough to remind me that even I was not beyond harm.
Orpheus led us down the darkest of the three corridors. It would only be a matter of time before he got bored and would finally attempt to kill me.
This I knew with a surety that bled from my heart.
Orpheus turned and stared. He had picked up on my scrambled thoughts. The beauty of his face was marred by a sinister smile, one that betrayed his pleasure in my pain.
We ascended a stairway leading to the first floor. At the top of the stairs, his men waited.
“Take him,” Orpheus said and faced me. “I’m bored with playing you.”
As Orpheus’s men dragged me away, Catherine’s protests echoed behind me. Her cries rose into a panicked scream, and then there was nothing.