Chapter 9
The next halfhour felt like a whirlwind, the details jumbling in my head until nothing made sense anymore. Sam introduced me to his sister—and the new alpha of the New Orleans Pack—Aimee. Her handshake was firm, but her words were a jumble in my head. I couldn’t focus on anything anyone said, because my mind was elsewhere, tangled in a web of denial and despair over Chris.
Josh’s words echoed hollowly in my head. But he had to be wrong. Chris was more than just one of my best friends; he was one of the Academy’s top slayers. He was strong, adept, and a master of combat. I knew from firsthand experience that he could take care of himself. The idea that he’d fallen and wasn’t out there somewhere waiting to regroup with us was unthinkable.
Someone called my name, but my thoughts were too muddled, murky, and exhausted to focus on anything else right now.
Jaden gently took my arm and guided me away from the gathering. There was too much laughter, too many happy voices, too many hugs and kisses happening right now. I needed away from all that, which she seemed to understand.
“Let’s get you somewhere a bit quieter,” Jaden murmured, leading me toward the stairs.
My body ached with every step, and not just physically. I felt heavy, as though I was dragging myself through a thick fog. Jaden led me through a door, and I lifted my head, noting the pastel décor and the unconscious vampire stretched out atop the bed.
Behind me, the door clicked softly shut, enveloping me in silence. I stared at Gabriel, desperate for him to wake, if only to hold me. But we still had hours to go until sundown. It seemed cruel, after everything he and I had been through, to be separated from each other again.
Cheeks wet, I turned and stared at Josh and Jaden. Their grim faces haunted me, and my eyes burned with fresh tears.
“It can’t be true,” I whispered, sinking onto the edge of the bed. I reached blindly behind me, my fingers wrapping around Gabriel’s. “Chris can’t be gone. Could it be a mistake? Maybe someone is lying? Or maybe they only think Chris is…” I choked on the final word, unable to speak it aloud for fear it would be true.
Jaden sat beside me, her presence the quiet support I so desperately craved. “We don’t need to talk about this now,” she said. “You’re exhausted. I’m sure you’d like nothing more than to shower, eat, and sleep. We can discuss this later when you’ve had time to rest.”
“Rest?” I breathed, my voice incredulous. “You think I could possibly rest right now?”
“It’ll be hard, I know. But sweetie, you look like you’re about to collapse.”
I felt like I was about to collapse. But that didn’t mean I’d be able to sleep. The thought of lying down, closing my eyes, and pretending my world hadn’t just imploded was unfathomable. I’d spent the last three—or was it four now?—days fighting for me and Gabriel. I’d been so focused on our survival and escape that I’d never considered Chris might be dead.
What a fool I was. So na?ve. So…stupid.
Of course, the council hadn’t let him go. He knew everything. He’d witnessed our abduction. He’d been there when the council showed their true colors, when we’d learned that all five members were corrupt. The truth had sealed his fate the instant we’d stepped foot inside their doors.
“Please,” I murmured, my voice as broken as my heart. “Just tell me. I need to know.”
Jaden slowly nodded. “Okay.” She squared her shoulders as though mentally preparing herself for this conversation. “When the three of you didn’t return from the Academy, we knew something was wrong. We started asking questions to see if anyone had heard anything. The next night, I received a phone call.”
She drew a steadying breath and slowly released it. Then she took my other hand and held it fast. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one hurting here.
“Someone… called and said they’d found Chris down by the river. They said we needed to come see it with our own eyes.”
My breath quickened, and my chest stuttered as I fought to compose myself.
Josh took a step toward us and sat next to Jaden, his jaw tight. “Jaden and I went, hoping it wasn’t him. But it was.”
The room seemed to spin, the pastel walls blurring into a mess of colors as my heart constricted and my tears fell. “By the river?” I choked out. “They just…left him there? Like he was nothing?” My voice trembled. The very idea that the council could treat Chris like that ignited a mix of fury and agony within me. He’d dedicated his life to them. And they’d thrown it away like it meant nothing.
Jaden’s own sob broke through my pain. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into a tight embrace.
“How?” I mumbled into her shoulder. “How could they do that to him?”
“We still don’t know all the details,” Josh admitted. “But we suspect they did it to send a message to us. To anyone who would dare oppose them.”
My anger bloomed into full-blown fury. “Then I’ll return the favor,” I bit out, my voice hardening. “If they think they can get away with this, that they can just discard people like they’re worthless…” I pulled back from Jaden. “I’ll kill them for this.” I pictured the council in my head, my thoughts going dark.
“No, Maddie,” Jaden said, her voice softening. “You can’t. They’re human. They fall under human jurisdiction. If you kill them, the police could arrest you and send you to jail. Then we’d lose you too. If we’re going to take them down, we need to do it the right way.”
Frustration boiled within me. “What does that even mean? What’s the right way?”
“I don’t know yet,” she said. “Honestly, we haven’t had a lot of time to process this yet. But we’ll figure it out like we do everything else. Together.”
My anger quickly dissipated at the sight of her own tear-stained cheeks. Resolve settled like a stone in my stomach, and I nodded. “Together.”
Jaden drew another deep breath. “I hate to say this, but I don’t think we should return to Jackson yet. We aren’t ready to handle this. And unfortunately, we’re targets in Jackson.”
“Not to mention you’re running on empty, Maddie,” Josh added in. “You and Gabriel need to get your strength back.”
I sighed, then spared a glance back at my vampire. Gabriel would be fine after he had a little more blood. The joys of an undead life. I, however, needed more TLC than that. I hated the thought of waiting to get my revenge, but I refused to risk anyone else’s life. Plus, I’d promised Avery to help her kill Nash. I had a commitment to fulfill here first before we could head home.
“I understand,” I said. “If we went home tonight, the council would probably try to take us out again. But right now, they likely think Gabriel and I are dead, which will keep us off their radar for the time being. Adrian, however, is the bigger problem. He knows we escaped. He’s going to be looking for us, and likely expects us to be looking for him. He’s the more pressing concern right this second.”
I truly hated the next words that came out of my mouth. “The best course of action is for us to remain here, put an end to Adrian, then head home to handle the council.” My heart broke when I thought of Chris. He would want us to be smart and survive, but it was hard to ignore my overwhelming desire to rip the council to shreds. I owed them so much pain, and the vindictive side of me wanted to collect.
“Josh and I were thinking the same thing. I’m so glad you agree,” Jaden said.
“Where is he now?” I asked quietly. “Chris, I mean.”
Jaden sighed. “At the local morgue in Jackson. The police haven’t released his body since he’s part of an ongoing investigation. They’ve put out a call asking for anyone with information to contact them, but Josh and I were afraid to do so. We had no idea where you were, and we were worried the council would retaliate if we went to the local PD.” She squeezed me tightly. “When Sam called to say they’d found you…I was so relieved. We feared you and Gabriel were dead. We kept waiting for the phone call that someone had found your bodies too.”
I winced, the pain in her words shredding whatever remained of my fractured heart.
Jaden rested her head in the crook of my shoulder, clearly not caring about my stench. True friendship at its best.
“But you’re here now,” she continued. “And you’re alive. Both of you. Let’s keep it that way, okay? We’ll deal with Adrian, then go home and deal with the council. No one else is dying.”
I wished I could believe her. But considering the events of the past few days, it was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Adrian wouldn’t quit until Gabriel and I were dead. And who knew where Elias stood on that matter. Then there was the council, and truly, they seemed even more formidable than Gabriel’s father. The Academy had an army of slayers at their disposal. If they named us traitors and ordered the others to kill us, we were screwed. There was no way we could survive an attack like that.
“Do you think you can tell us what happened?” Josh asked, his voice soft. “At the Academy, I mean. And afterward, if you’re able to.”
Exhaustion tugged at my eyelids. Sleep beckoned, and while I knew I would have to cave eventually, I wasn’t ready. They deserved to know everything that had happened. Especially if those were Chris’s final moments alive.
“We spoke to the council and laid everything out. We told them about the corruption, about the people within their ranks who were taking bribes for contracts against vampires. We told them that we suspected one council member was involved. They wanted more proof than we had to give, or so they claimed. Then Harold,” I growled his name, “called in Adrian and a small force of vampires.”
I paused and raked a hand down my filthy face. “They just strolled into our Academy like they belonged there. Gabriel recognized his father immediately. Adrian and Gabriel spoke, and Adrian revealed that the only reason we weren’t dead was because someone else wanted to see us first, who I later learned was Elias, Gabriel’s brother. Then Adrian injected Gabriel with holy water, and me with liquid silver, which took us both out. The last thing I saw was Chris, surrounded by?—”
Panic surged as the memory of Adrian’s vampires surrounding Chris assaulted me. My breath quickened and I dropped my head into my hands. “Vampires killed him, didn’t they?” I asked through my tears. “That’s how they did it?”
After a moment, Jaden murmured a quiet, “Yes.”
I started sobbing. Vampires had murdered Chris’s entire family years ago. It was why he’d become a slayer—to avenge them and to protect other families. To ensure no one went through what he had. To know that he’d shared the same fate as his family broke me.
“He must have been so scared,” I mumbled into my palms.
“Hey,” Josh said, rubbing my back. “Nothing scared Chris. You know that. He would have fought to his very last breath.”
“Chris was one of the bravest people we knew,” Jaden added.
It killed me that they spoke in the past tense.
“He wouldn’t have given the bloodsuckers the satisfaction of seeing him afraid,” she concluded.
I sighed, finding a bitter comfort in their words. Somehow it helped me to believe that he’d faced his end with courage. But I couldn’t erase the guilt that clung to me like a second skin, or the gnawing feeling that I should have been there with him. If we hadn’t gone to the Academy that night, none of this would have happened.
“Please don’t blame yourself,” Jaden said.
I gave a weak laugh. “That obvious, huh?”
Her half-smile did little to lift my spirits. “I know you. And I know how you operate.”
“This is all my fault though. It all started with me.” I jerked a thumb over my shoulder at Gabriel. “And him. Because I discovered he was my mate, I opened the floodgates to all of this. If I’d just let Chris…” I couldn’t finish that sentence, could barely even stand to think it.
If I’d let Chris execute Gabriel, I would have lost my mate. And just the thought of that hurt more than any other pain I’d ever experienced.
“No,” Jaden said, her voice shaking with anger. “This did not start with you. It started with the Academy. They’re the ones who were lying to us. They’re the ones who were using us to commit their murders. You are not at fault here. None of us are. But we will be the ones to take the Academy down. I don’t care if we have to dismantle it one person at a time. We will stop them.”
Josh chimed in, his voice firm, “She’s right. You can’t do this to yourself. This blame is not for you to carry. The Academy played us. Chris’s death is on them. Not you.”
The conviction in their voices soothed my frayed nerves. They were right. Dwelling on what-ifs wouldn’t change the past. But it was hard—so incredibly hard—not to spiral down into a vortex of guilt and self-blame. Especially when there was a little voice in my head telling me if I’d just kept my head down and my nose out of the council’s business, Chris would still be alive.
“Promise me you won’t hold any of this against yourself,” Jaden said, staring me in the eyes.
I gave a slow nod.
“Good. And when you forget that promise, I’ll be there to remind you,” she said with a half-smile.
I made a small noise, slightly amused that she knew me well enough to know I would eventually backslide into the guilt again.
“What happened after they took you?” Jaden asked.
I waved a hand. “The usual. Torture, torment, and threats of death. They kept Gabriel on a constant regime of holy water injections, to keep him down. I stayed in wolf form to avoid any more liquid silver injections. Eventually, Elias showed up, and he gave me the idea to feed Gabriel my blood. Once he was alert again, we escaped the cages and got the hell out of there. We found Avery along the way, and she’s the reason we made it here. Without her help, we’d likely be in the belly of some alligator right about now.”
“Remind me later to thank her for helping you,” Jaden said.
After a moment of silence, Josh pressed his hands against his thighs and stood. “I think we’ve chatted enough for now. Why don’t you go take a shower and then get some rest?”
I stared at my filthy hands. “Yeah. Did Aimee say how long we can stay here?”
“I’m guessing you didn’t hear her downstairs when she said we’re welcome to stay as long as we need?” Jaden replied.
I shook my head. It’d all been a buzzing of noise.
Jaden took my hands and helped me up. “She also said there’s a bathroom down the hall from here. So let’s go find it and get you all cleaned up.”
“I can shower by myself,” I told her.
Jaden chuckled, though the sound was quiet compared to her normal laugh. “I know that. But I need to fetch the bag of supplies I brought you, so best we go together.”
“You brought me clothes?”
“Of course,” she said, patting my arm. “I figured you’d need them. We brought one for Gabriel too.”
Emotion welled within my chest, and I tugged her into another hug. I had a feeling we’d all be hugging each other a lot for the next while. “Thank you.”
Jaden squeezed me. “Of course. That’s what best friends are for.”