Chapter Thirty-Four
Damon.
She finally stopped shivering and is asleep in my arms, but I don’t dare let go of her. Not when Maverick put her feet in his lap, not when Jonas asked me to “give her” and then sat between my legs so he could rest his head on her thigh, his hand on her tummy by mine.
She’s mine.
One hundred and fourteen hours and forty-three minutes.
That’s how long she was gone from my sight.
Never a-fucking-gain.
The first twenty-four hours we roamed around the fence, trying to find a break in the barrier. Thank God we’re used to an even more bitter cold climate than here and that Sebastian had included military-grade tactical pants, jackets, gloves, and rations. I’d never seen Maverick so in his element.
By the thirtieth hour, we were able to calculate the time of rotations, determine the distance between the first break of trees to the gardens in the back and side yards, watching the exit and entry points.
By the seventieth hour, we were getting sick of the cold, but we finally found a portion of weak bricks and mortar where we could push the bricks one by one or wiggle them loose .
It was the fourth day when we saw someone approaching us in the far distance, but Jonas recognized him immediately as Ivan, Elena’s favored bodyguard and he almost wept at his feet.
The man was a sleuth, speaking to us with a rich Russian accent as we watched and waited. “The blueprints to this mansion,” he rasped, “show there’s a wine cellar that was renovated and revised.”
“Who owns this property?”
Ivan’s face grew grave as his eyes narrowed. “Ainsworth. This is where the Bones chapter conducts their… initiations.”
Jonas paled and swallowed.
“What does the Bones chapter do for their initiation?” Maverick wonders aloud.
“Did you ever read The Most Dangerous Game?”
My stomach dropped to the cold ground beneath our feet.
Maverick grimaces, understanding what Jonas meant. “They hunt humans.”
Jonas nodded. “Initiates stalk someone, make them disappear without a trace, hold them hostage here for five days, no food, just a bag of IV fluids. And on the fifth day, they hunt them,” He nodded towards the thick trees we’re in, trees that go into the property and beyond.
“While the Elders watch the hunt from the terrace. But like the Syndicate, they take back the body with ID so they can be identified. You still have to get away with murder.”
“That’s barbaric.” Maverick spits.
“I know.”
“Your mother came from that?” I ask.
Jonas nods. “Always said the Syndicate chapter was the best of all the chapters. Kill someone, and make sure the body is found. No extra.”
I couldn’t imagine it - didn’t want to imagine it. Not my little bird in someone else’s cage being prepared for slaughter. I swallowed down the bile that rose in my throat and pulled out my phone again only to stare down at a dot that hadn’t moved in days .
I wasn’t allowing myself to feel hopeless or for any negative thoughts to cross my mind. I couldn’t. We had gone through too much for it to end like this.
I wouldn’t allow it to end like this.
There is no end to us.
Not now, not in fifteen or even thirty years.
Not even in death will we ever part.
I only allowed myself to simmer in my anger, watching and waiting for our perfect moment.
It was Ivan who brought us silencers for our guns, and although Maverick explained they were still loud, they just suppressed the noise enough, that we still took them.
And it was Ivan that went through the hole we finally created in the brick wall, stayed behind, and closed it up enough while we trekked through the wooded area.
But it was Jonas who took down the first guard, grabbed him, pulled out a knife from his pocket, and sliced through his jugular.
I grabbed the second and followed in his execution. No remorse even when the blood poured down my forearm, hot and sticky.
We dragged the bodies back to the tree line and left them in heaps.
It was me that found vines that led up to the terrace strong enough for us to climb. It was dark when we landed with soft thuds and it was Maverick that was able to quickly pick the fucking lock as we entered what seemed to be the office, bloody and exhausted, but we were in.
As we traveled through the house which seemed like it had over fifty fucking rooms, we stacked bodies, each kill becoming easier, and more precise, knowing we only had a few rounds of ammunition in our pockets. The more we slayed upstairs, the less we would have to downstairs.
But then we were spotted and all hell broke fucking loose.
I’d never been in even a range of gunfire and soon we were all too hyper-aware of everyone and everything.
The blood, the ringing in my ears, the matter on the walls.
Bullets grazed my arms, my ear, Maverick and Jonas, and even Ivan shouting “ Shi t !” every now and then told me I’d have more than my own wounds to stitch up.
It was the last man, and Ivan had the last bullet.
He didn’t even hesitate to shoot him at close range between the eyes.
Jonas and I dragged him by the feet away from the matter-splattered door he was guarding, then opened the door, running down the steps in quick succession, to find my little love, my life, my killer beauty, already straddling Prescott.
I saw her visibly relax when she felt our presence and let out a soft sob when she heard my voice.
But it was as though something else had overtaken her, possessed her.
I’d never watched her kill before and it was such a swift thing.
So fucking graceful in her execution even though I had pumped the man full of whatever was in those vials.
When she put on that mask, I knew… I knew he had known for a while who she was and what she was doing – exacting her pound of flesh.
I have so many questions but now isn’t the time.
She stirs in my arms, just as Ivan’s van drives over a bump, her hand fists my shirt.
Although she was wet and in a clean hospital gown, it doesn’t take away that she smells different.
Her jasmine and berries scent is gone, the hospital gown smells sterilized, and I know she’s coming down from something.
I kept the vials.
I’m going to have them tested in a lab as soon as we get home. All I pray for is that she doesn’t regress.
That Jonas can bring her out of it, be her light in the dark again.
That she trusts Maverick’s form of torture.
That she lets me love her the way she deserves.
“Daddy,” she rasps, caramel eyes fluttering open.
Maverick and Jonas jump at the sound, facing her quickly. The back of my eyes burn at her voice. I scrub my hand down my face when the tear flows. “Yes, Amourette.”
“Thank you.” She speaks so clearly, although her voice is still hoarse from screaming when we found her. Screams that echoed and ricocheted off those grimy walls until I took it upon myself to lift and carry her up those filthy stairs, away from the aftermath. She weighs nothing and I hate it.
“I love you so goddamn much, Little Bird. So much. I told you once not barred windows nor steel doors… There is not a goddamn thing on this earth that could ever keep me from you. Morals be damned, mon Coeur, I love you with all I am.” I breathe into her, feeling my heart finally beat properly in my ribcage.
I plant a kiss to her forehead, her temple, her cheek, her lips, and stay there for only a moment so she can feel my love.
I need to get this scent off of her immediately.
It’s making me want to hurl.
“Please, Damon. Let me hold her now.” Jonas’ voice cracks. He straightens up, sitting in the seat caddy corner to me, and holds out his arms. She goes to him, but Maverick doesn’t let go of her feet. He hasn’t said a word. Just covers her toes with his hands and bows his head.
“Are you okay?”
He nods. “There’s a bullet lodged in the tip of my shoulder and there is going to be so much for me to unpack in therapy.” He jokes, but he’s serious.
“There’s a bullet lodged in your shoulder?” Jonas repeats.
Maverick nods.
“Is okay,” Ivan says from the driver’s seat. “We almost to destination.”
Raven looks petrified.
“Don’t worry, Little Bird. We won’t be around people. I’m having Ivan take us to my family's manor.”
“You have a fucking manor?” Maverick coughs, grimacing when Ivan goes over a bump in the road.
I raise my eyebrows quickly and point to myself.
“Old money, long line of Oxford graduates and physicians.” I remind him.
“The kind of person you love to hate, remember?” Mav rolls his eyes, but I continue.
“It stayed partially staffed and now that my father is back over the pond, it’s fully stocked with food and medical supplies.
I can get that bullet out of your shoulder, fix us all up, help our girl detox, feed and hydrate us.
I’ve already sent a message to the house manager.
She’s sent one of the maids to get our… brand of items and clothes in our size. ”
The important one being Amourette's scent and to have her comfortable in clothes she’ll like.
“When did you do all of this?” Maverick asks, a slight groan when the van lurches forward.
“Before we were even on the plane.”
Jonas smiles at me, twinkle back in his eye, skin going back to its usual color even though we're all still caked in blood. “Told you. He’s proactive .”
________
Raven is sitting beside a shirtless Maverick, holding his hand and he’s getting pale from blood loss and shock.
“I can feel it. It’s just under the surface,” he grunts, pressing his fingers around the wound.
I nod, grabbing the sterilized utensils I need along with the isopropyl alcohol, slipping on surgical gloves, then drench the gauze with it. “Ready?”