I know I had a little bit of an audience increase from this weekend's hop, so if you're just tuning in: listen up. Start at the beginning of the series which you can find HERE. For a complete list of chapters or to view my other stories, click HERE. Haha, okay now that everything is settled in that department, let's move on.
We are nearing the end everyone and I'm kind of sad about it, but I'm also happy. By the end of this summer, I will have completed the first three stories in my vampire series. This means more time to revise Cade and then give it a shot at publishing. So I'm kind of excited for that. :) I hope you're all excited too, because that means a lot of new material from Cade and Micah. *Squeals* And hopefully all in one book...to read all at the same time...with a pretty cover. Oh my God...Gahhh. Calm down, calm down. It's not anywhere near done yet, but I can dream.
Let's get to the show though shall we? Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you like tonight's piece of Yes, Master. :D
XOXO NIGHT TEMPEST
Last time on Yes, Master....
Confusion between the three parties was now at its peak, but
fate had another doozy to add into the mix. More gunfire came from outside. A
voice sounded from a megaphone. SWAT
filled every entrance of the warehouse loading dock. That was when I looked at
King and he nodded. I clutched Tate to me and ran for both our lives.
Yes, Master 16.2
“N.Y.P.D.! Put down your weapons and put your hands in the
air, now!” A static filled megaphone announced to the warzone filling the
loading dock.
Girls screamed, some trying to run for it, some hiding at
the back of the truck for shelter. I housed Tate in my arms, taking cover
behind a crate that was three feet from the door. If I could get outside, I
could get to that car, and get my boyfriend to a hospital. For some reason
though, I had a feeling that if SWAT got a hold of us, we wouldn’t be the
victims here. We would most definitely be the criminals from their view.
The leader of the SWAT team held his rifle higher, his men
fanning out around the boys from the Cartel. “I said put your weapons down or
we will have no choice, but to open fire!”
Hopping down from the crates J.J. took off after Joss, who
was being thrown over the shoulder of a rough looking vamp. This guy wasn’t
pretty in the least—looking more like a mountain man that lived in a back alley
than a vampire supermodel. Joss kicked and punched, scratched and bit. She knew she had a chance now—her father’s
men coming to her rescue only serving to fuel the last of the fight within her.
She was getting out of here, it was in the way she moved, the way she tried to
catch someone’s eyes for help.
Focusing my eyes back on Tate, he coughed. Hiding his face in my chest, he stirred while
I tried to put pressure on his wound and that’s when I felt the tip of
something sharp touch my fingertip. It burned on contact, leaving my hand with
a strange, yet amazing feeling. Pulling Tate close to me, I looked down to the
back of his shoulder. He hadn’t been
shot with a bullet and it was only now that I realized what had done all that
damage.
About the diameter of a pencil, a metal rod was just peeking
out of Tate’s back. How deep it went, I
wasn’t sure, but I knew that it had to come out. I’d seen enough television to know that
pulling the rod out of his back would probably cause him to bleed faster, but
he looked like he was in so much pain. Then again as I swept his hair out of
his face, the look of pain started to morph into something else entirely. His short breaths of anguish became deep,
almost sensual. His mouth opened softly,
his eyes dazed and heavy. Was he…high?
Oh hell no. What was this thing in his back?
“Oliver,” he moaned my name, his nails starting to bite into
my arms.
With a look of shock, I searched what I could see for
another wound. Maybe his body was in such a state of trauma, this was his way
of coping. What the fuck did I know though, I wasn’t even good with band aids,
let alone this shit. “Baby, snap out of it. You’re bleeding all over the
place.”
“Feels so good, Olly. Ah yeah,” he sang, his voice carrying
to the SWAT now rushing past our hiding place.
Clamping a hand over his mouth, I looked between the boxes
at the officers trying to secure the loading dock perimeter. Yeah, good luck
with that, I rolled my eyes. A rustle inches from me stopped my train of thought and
possibly my heart. Turning to the other foot of space next to me, Ghost was
looking down at Tate with confusion.
“I thought you said he was shot. What the fuck is he doing?” His whisper was
thickly accented, his dark brow raised almost comically.
Again situating Tate against my chest, I showed Ghost the
rod in his shoulder. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s no bullet, and he just
started doing this cat in the cream routine a few seconds ago.”
“He take anything before we met up earlier?” Ghost touched
the rod gently.
“No. I was with him the whole time.” I tried to be quiet as
Tate’s hands started to roam my body, his breathy voice making low moans that I
was scared others could hear.
“Hm. Then he’s been drugged. That thing, whatever it is,
needs to come out.”
Ghost received a look of obvious menace from me. “Yeah, no
shit. We have to get out of here
first. Why aren’t you out there with
them?”
“The cop disappeared when SWAT found him and this big ass
motherfucker just showed up with some nasty looking boys. I’m getting you out
of here like promised before shit goes down.
J.J. is getting Joss and they’ll meet you at the car.”
“How Ghost? How is any of that going to happen? J.J. just got into that trailer with a bunch
of…thugs by himself, we’re surrounded by NYPD wearing enough Kevlar to be
immortal, it’s about to be west side story meets the mother fucking apocalypse
in here, all while my boyfriend is bleeding out and having a great time doing
it. How…” I tried not to cry, but the frustration of our situation was starting
to get to me. “How do I keep him safe during all of that?”
Ghost stopped and looked between me and Tate slowly. His
deadly eyes softened, his hand found my shoulder. “You love him?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. “Then trust me.”
“Trust you?” It wasn’t really a question, more of an
agreement I was trying to make with myself. Trust the assassin who killed
people for one of the ugliest mob families in the city? I could do this, for Tate.
“Trust me.” Ghost agreed quietly.
“Fine, tell me what to do.”
“We’re going to have to take that thing out of him first. If
we have to run and the rod is jostled, it could go deeper into the wound, and
we’d lose it.” Ghost twisted around a small pack from his back, zipping it
open. “Take his shirt off and try to rip
the front into strips for me. Just lay him on his side.”
Growling, screaming, more gunfire—the cops were firing back
now. I took a deep breath trying to ignore the war around me. We were working
on time we didn’t have. The minute one
of those red eyed blood suckers came close enough to specify the alive, but
leaking human, we were fucked. With that thought, I draped Tate over my chest
to cut the shirt off his back with the knife Ghost handed me. He in turn kept
his gun ready in case of immediate danger in our vicinity.
Once Tate’s chest was free of fabric, Ghost instructed me to
keep him still against me. Not liking his limited writhing room, Tate fought
me.
Ghost sighed, looking to the side. “Uh, keep him occupied
yeah? You know what I mean?”
“He’s like a toy dog going at my leg here, Ghost. What do you
mean keep him occupied?”
The enforcer gave me a questioning eye. “I mean, give him
what he wants. Keep him satisfied while I pull this out. I’m sure you can think
of something.”
“You mean you want me to? Here, now?” This little ass hole
was suggesting I grope my boy in his presence? Not going to happen. But, then again, when did I become so damn
conservative? Just a few weeks ago, I had made Tate jack off in front of that
security guard. Why was this any different? Oh I remember. We were sitting in
the middle of a vampire war for world domination. That’s right.
“Look Oliver, I’m not asking you to have him sit on your
dick for me to watch. Just kiss him or something. It’ll distract him from the
pain.” Ghost rolled his eyes, scooting closer on his knees to inspect the
wound. The blood looked almost watery as it dripped down Tate’s back, the
result like some emo’s idea of a craft project.
“Right, just be…be gentle.”
I whispered. Tate nuzzled his face into my neck, his tongue tracing
today’s dark stubble around my jaw.
“Got it. Hold him still.” Ghost put his fingers to my
boyfriend’s back, getting a moan from Tate’s lips.
Holding Tate around the waist, I brought my mouth to the
opposite side from Ghost was. My lips
sealed over Tate’s skin, and he stilled with a small tremor of excitement. He
was so hard in my lap, it was eerie that he could be experiencing this much
pleasure while he had a rod—who knew how long—penetrating his shoulder.
Whimpering into my neck, Tate rolled his hips in my lap, my arms tightening to
keep him still.
“Shh, just be still baby.
Almost done, right Ghost?” Kissing Tate’s neck, I looked over. The rod was an inch farther out than before.
Ghost’s gloved fingers were covered in Tate’s blood.
“It doesn’t feel that deep.
You know what I mean? It’s not
stuck,” he responded and
I wanted to throw up. Blood started to flow from the wound faster than
before. Not gush like most people would
automatically conclude with a situation like this, but it did trickle a little
quicker, a little thicker, not so watery anymore. By far though, the craziest
part was that instead of crying and screaming like most people would, Tate
moaned. His pleasure surpassed any pain
that he possibly felt. Oh God, he really
was high. LSD, cocaine, heroine—what was
he on?
The last of the rod slipped from Tate’s shoulder, a whole
four inches with a razor sharp tip, into Ghost’s palm. We both stared at the
weapon of choice for a minute before Ghost’s eyes widened as he looked back to
Tate’s shoulder.
“Ay dios Mio,” Ghost gasped.
“Oliver, look.”
As Tate continued to moan and grope me, I held him tight to
look at the wound, what was left that is. The hole that had been bleeding
profusely began to move, the inverted edges of the circular wound flexed
slowly. The skin pulled tight as those
edges met in the middle, sealing together again. Tate, had healed himself. Not possible. Not
fucking possible.
“Fucked up shit,” Ghost breathed, palming the crate for
support. The crate that was whisked away , bringing Ghost’s gun up to greet the
face of Yuri.
“Get up!” He roared. “Get them outside. Our people have the
ground covered. South East gate, look for a black car, go now!” That was when I
noticed the SWAT team. Their moves were robotic, their aim was perfect, they
had been…
“You didn’t!” I screamed back, lifting Tate in my arms.
Yuri pulled his gun out and shot above us several times. A
vampire body with half a head landed between us. I looked back to Yuri, blood
spattered across my pants, and he growled. “How the hell did you expect to get
out of here? They are safe, safer than
you at the moment. You, get these two out of here. We’ll meet up later, I have
your number.”
Ghost narrowed his eyes, his bloodied glove sliding over his
gun in thought. “Call me.” He grinned, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. Two
killers making a temporary pact, but one didn’t know he was no match for the
other. Ghost was smart to just say yes, even if he didn’t say it that way
exactly.
J.J. appeared at the end of the open trailer, Joss under his
arm, blood covering them both. Joss had a gun in her hand, J.J. had a small
weapon of mass destruction along his arm.—some kind of rifle that must’ve
worked if he made it out of that trailer alive. He was hurt though and that
much was clear as Joss helped him hobble to the edge of the ramp, where a group
of Cartel was covering them.
Time slowed down in that moment. The smell of sulfur united
in the air with the coppery scent of freshly spilled blood. Every hair on my body rose to attention,
goose bumps poured over my flesh with the rise of fear in my chest. My
heartbeat next to Tate’s became the only sounds I could make out over the
deafening noise of guns blasting from every direction. Yuri screamed something
and Ghost lunged forward like a lion ready to murder his prey.
Hands snatched us back, arms locked around our bodies, as
Alex appeared from the back of the truck. J.J. and Joss were halfway down the
ramp when Rutovsky raised his gun at Joss. Alex’s mouth moved, J.J. turned as
fast as he could, a shot rang out above the others, or maybe that was a trick
of my mind. But, I saw everything clear as day.
This shot was different from all the mindless violence going on around
me. I knew J.J., I’d known him since I was in high school, he was family—Cartel
or not, he was part of us.
Shoving Joss out of the way in the blink of an eye, J.J.
took a shot to the neck, a shot to each shoulder, and a shot to the hip. His body jerked with each hit, his feet
managing to stay upright for the duration of the blasts. Then he went to his
knees, his head hanging low, his hair hiding his eyes. Joss scrambled out of
the way, the Cartel moving in with the thunder of a hundred bullets for their
dying comrade. Time moved again, and Alex slipped down the other side of the ramp
like a snake into the grass—his thugs creating a wall of defense for his
escape.
Those girls were now on that truck and that was a blazing
thought among many as the gate to the back of the big rig trailer was pulled
down from the inside. Delicate, yet piercing screams were sealed inside those
four walls of moving hell, leaving us with another horrific reality. This was
hell on earth. This was the true
definition.
“Ghost, I will take care of him. I will not let him die!” Yuri was yelling to
Ghost. The Latin’s nostrils flared, his
lips were pulled back to reveal his clenched teeth, his eyes narrowed
dangerously. I prayed to never be on the receiving end of that kind of hate,
because even human, Ghost was Death among the living. The vampire at Ghost’s back let him go.
Making his way to Yuri after shrugging off the vamps, Ghost
put his gun to the Russian’s chest. “If he dies, if you let my best friend die,
I will kill you and your entire family.”
“If you let those two die and waste more of my time while my
boss is out there in the middle of this, I’ll kill you. Deal?” Yuri pushed Ghost’s gun down until it
pointed to the ground.
“Deal,” Ghost hissed through his teeth. He took one look at
J.J. as the vampires and a few Cartel thugs rushed him down a dark hallway. Joss
flung herself at Ghost with tears, words escaping her. With a strangled breath,
Ghost put his arm around her and looked away from the hallway.
Yuri nodded, grabbing the nearest SWAT member. Lifting the
guy’s shield, Yuri shared a long look with the man. Putting the shield back
down, the man seemed to break free of the spell and grabbed his radio on his
shoulder. “Be advised, the rig has hostages. Proceed with caution, suspects on
board are armed and dangerous.”
Yuri looked to us. “I’ve got this. Get them out Markos.”
“How do know my…” Ghost screwed up his face.
“It’s my job to know everything,” Yuri replied. With that he turned his back to us and
pointed his finger. “Open fire!” Every member of SWAT—completely under the
vampire’s control--circled in on Alex’s remaining guards, pelting them with a
lead shower, and giving me a nightmare show that I would never forget. Even if Yuri wiped my mind, I still would see
the mayhem in my head for years to come.
Tate stirred in my arms, his ecstasy turning into
exhaustion. He was shaking, his high
coming down, and his skin cool yet sweaty.
“Ghost! Let’s go.”
Wordlessly, Ghost glanced at me to follow him. His arm
locked around the young Joss and his gun in the other hand, we were led out by
a mixed group of Cartel and vamps. The truck’s engine vibrated outside as we
broke through the back door—a set of yellow concrete steps waiting for us.
Black SWAT vans and numerous city patrol cars were parked across the concrete
grounds. Red and blue lights twirled against the night, radios and phones
chattered against the otherwise silent sounds of the waterfront, and over a
hundred faces watched us descend the steps.
I waited for them to rush us with guns and handcuffs, but I
noticed the glazed look in their eyes.
Then I noticed the plain clothes men mingled among the police. They watched us back silently, the vampires
reminding us of how powerful they really were. If these were just the guards, I
wondered exactly how powerful the queen and her crew were.
“Who the fuck are they?” Ghost growled, clutching Joss to
him.
A large vamp behind me hummed with humor. “Don’t worry about
it. Just be glad you’re on our side tonight.”
A horror movie set.
That was what this was comparable to.
Littered across the grounds were dead vamps, some poor souls that might
have been cartel, but I could be wrong. But, the cops just standing there
watching was the scariest part of all. Like at any moment they were going to
morph into zombies and come for our brains. The last cop I walked past was so
close, I could feel his breath across the back of my neck. If I didn’t have a
person in my arms, I would have punched him for giving me more goose bumps.
Once we reached the edge of the grounds, the last two vamps
in our party turned around. An army of
boots shuffled along, weapons were positioned, and the hundred plus cops
silently moved into position under the eye of the vampires. Like pawns for the
queen, the humans surrounded the rig—the driver behind a tinted windshield.
“Leo,” the vamp spoke into an ear piece. “Let the driver
move away from the dock. We want that rig a distance from the others. Once it’s
reached the gate, take out the tires, then the driver. You know what to do from
there. Good, get it done.” The guard
turned back to us.
I took a step towards him. “What are you going to do with
those girls?”
“Relax, they will be cared for and returned to their
families.”
That wasn’t good enough. “But, those guys are still in there
with them.”
“You care for your own and we will care for the girls. They have seen things that they weren’t
supposed to. We can’t just return them
without having cleared a few things up, could we?”
I got what he was saying. Those girls had seen quite a bit
of fangage and then some. That kind of information would be dangerous, not only
for the ‘deep in the closet’ vampire community, but for the girls in general.
One word of vampires from them and the wrong kind of people could come a
knockin. Or worse, they could be locked up on the grounds of insanity. They had
to be cleaned. It was the only way.
The vamp seemed to sense my inner struggle, tapping my arm
to reassure me. “They’ll be alright. I
give you my word.”
“Fuck all of this. Let’s go, Oliver. No more, just…no more.”
Ghost said over his shoulder before walking back towards the gate.
“What about, you know,” I whispered to the vamp, cocking my
head to Ghost as he walked away.
He leaned forward. “We don’t leave loose ends. Don’t worry
about a thing. He will be dealt
with.”
“Oliver!” Ghost hissed over his shoulder. “Now.” So the bad boy had a breaking point? Yep and I think we just found it.
“Go,” the vamp put a hand on my shoulder. “Bana will take
you to Micah.”
“What about my father and Isaac? Are they…” Tate shivered violently in my
arms, his body slackening.
“If you don’t get in that car, I’ll put you in it.” The vamp
began to lose his gentle façade. “The queen will contact you about those
matters."
“The queen?” I backed up. I’m not sure that I wanted to meet
their queen after all this. Hell, I wasn’t sure all the sudden I wanted to get
into the car with the head of the Cartel either. But a sudden fierce grip on my
arm decided for me.
“Bye Oliver!” The vamp waved as Ghost directed me to the
car. A long, black Lincoln luxury
sedan—new, tinted windows, meant for a criminal—sat waiting for us.
The door was opened, Ghost helped me maneuver inside with
Tate, and then the door shut behind us. Two bench seats faced each other,
leaving me staring right into the soft brown eyes of an elderly man. His hair was
a thick gray, his frame small, but stocky, and his arms were wrapped around his
young daughter who was in tears. Joss
was whispering over and over in Spanish, her mind taking a back seat as her
heart poured out in the form of rambling words.
I held onto my own loved one while sandwiched between Ghost
and one of the vampires. My body was finally feeling the effects of tonight’s
events just like my mind was coming to terms with everything that had passed
comprehension with all these vampire, drug lords, and Alex…hold up Alex!
“Wait, Alex is still out there.” I tensed, getting ready for
something, but I didn’t know what yet.
“Look out the window,” the vamp on my right said
calmly. Sure enough, the truck was being
moved away from the dock by Alex’s boys. About ten yards from the entrance, the
tires were taken out by the police—or vampire’s if we were getting technical.
Like any stupid criminal would have done, the back to the trailer was flung
open, and SWAT began the process of taking out every dumbass vampire via sniper
from the roof as the bloodsuckers came to the edge like lemmings. This was
real. I wasn’t imagining this or watching it on television. I was actually
viewing this in real time.
So it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me when Alex and
his remaining crew came around the corner with guns blazing for their
merchandise. Apparently Alex—the top of the top—still had an ass to kiss. His
boss must be something to behold if the guy could get Rutovsky to actually go
to all this trouble.
“And, there he is.” The vamp broke the silence with a smug
tone. ‘He’ came in the form of one very pissed off Yuri. Both side doors burst open, the remaining
SWAT on the inside flooded the asphalt to surround Alex. My heart beat against
my chest in anticipation. Even though I
knew wanting someone to die was wrong, I couldn’t help but savor this
moment. I swallowed hard, squeezing Tate
gently, and watched Alex realize he had no way out. Sure his vampire minions tried to calculate
an escape with their red eyes. In the
end though, it was a hopeless plot that never even began to take flight.
One of our guys handed Yuri something large, something that
he swung onto his shoulder that connected to a pack on the ground. I couldn’t
quite make out what it was, but I knew where the large cylinder was aimed at.
As our driver switched on the ignition, I had a second to see Alex’s face turn
toward us. He may not have been vampire, but he knew where we were, and who was
sitting behind this tinted glass. His face wasn’t clear to me. Then again, you
didn’t have to see someone’s eyes to know that their gaze was burning into you.
Our car slowly rolled forward and through the chain link
gates, we all watched as Yuri set the entire lot of them on fire. Alex Rutovsky melted into the throng of
screaming bodies and I turned my face away. Oliver Caldwell: alive. Alexander
Rutovsky: dead. That was the only score I needed to know tonight.
After a good ten minutes of mulling over tonight’s events,
Joss looked up. Her doe eyes searched over Tate while Bana rubbed her back. “He
okay?”
“I…I think so, but I don’t know.” It was the most honest I
had been with myself all night. Now that
the action was over and done with, or so I hoped, Tate was all I could think
about. Was he alright? Did he need a hospital? He was still breathing and his
skin was warming back up, but was that good or bad? Shit.
“I hope he’s okay, you know. And…and Juan, I hope he’s
good. What he did, I just hope they
can…” She burst into tears again, burying her face within the safety of her
father’s chest.
“Aw mija, it’s
alright. Don’t cry,” Bana murmured to
his beloved daughter. “Juan is too
strong to let go. He will not leave us
tonight.” His eyes were unsure of his words, but he masked his own grief for
the sake of Joss. It was clear that this man was a softie when it came to his
boys. Juan was probably like a son to him, maybe even Ghost if the guy let
anyone get that close.
“You are Oliver then?” Bana looked at me again. A gold cross
ring glinted as he rubbed his hand over his daughter’s back.
“Yes.”
“I have my daughter in my arms, Oliver. Whether it is
because of you personally or not, I heard that your men helped mine bring her
back to me. For this…” He paused and held out his hand. “…I give you our
friendship.”
Staring at his hand, I felt that this was
planned. I was being put in a position of authority on some level—a seat at the
power player’s table had been created for me. This meeting was bound to happen,
this man meant to be across from me, my hand covering his in an agreement
between mutual players.
Sparing a glance at the vampire next to me, his eyes
confirmed my discovery, a knowing tilt of his lips giving away what I had just
figured out. Putting my hand in Bana’s,
I knew I was sealing my fate.
~~~~~~~~~~
The tarmac was clear of anything except for the sleek
private jet that belonged to the queen. The vampire that had eventually
introduced himself as David has filled me in on that minor detail. I was beginning to see the bigger picture on
how far the queen’s right arm went, pretty damn far. The luxury that dripped whenever
her title was mentioned went beyond classy.
A class all her own, this queen was really something, and that was
without having met her in person yet.
Moving my gaze away from the jet, I watched David gently
carry Tate from the car to the descended staircase of the aircraft. Micah was waiting at the top step, his face
blank. Something bad had happened. That
look was one I had perfected myself. Instead of following David though, I
watched Bana step out of the car, diverting my attention from Micah. Ghost
followed him with a half-masked exhaustion.
“Oliver, I wish we had time to celebrate this new friendship
between us, but I am afraid circumstances obviously are not allowing such
festivities.” Bana clapped me on the back with a sad smile. “You will take care while you are away?”
“Yeah, I will. You
take care too, alright?” I looked at him hard.
He was giving up his seat as the head of the Cartel to Ghost temporarily.
On our car ride over here, his men had called. Word was the Jing had put a
price on Bana’s head for the loss of their merchandise. The Cartel had made it clear they weren’t
pussies and stood united, but they wanted Bana safe, Joss safe to grow up, so
they made arrangements for Bana to go home to Spain. It was almost surreal to
know that these mob families really were family—that they cared for one another
after a day of cutting off fingers and selling kilos of cocaine.
One could almost forget that Bana was one of the smartest
criminals in the United States. His soft eyes looked up at me and it was then
that I saw the dangerous glint behind his gaze. “I always take care, Oliver,
always.”
“I’m sure you do.” I smiled and let go of his hand. “Ghost,
I uh…I…” I thrust my hand at him in lieu of words.
His eyes flicked to the jet then he moved into my space,
clutching my hand in a death grip, his lips moving to my ear. “I didn’t forget
what I saw earlier, Oliver. I don’t know what the fuck your boyfriend is or who
the hell these things are, but you better watch yourself.”
“Markos,” Bana warned carefully, reading Ghost like a book.
Ghost moved back with a smile that read like a knife across
my throat. “Have a safe trip, Oliver. I’ll be here when you get back. Don’t miss me too much.”
Before that icy feeling of dread could travel too far up my
spine, David came walking back over. His hand on my shoulder ended the rest of
our lovely parting chat. “See ya round,
Bana.”
“Count on it, Oliver.” He raised his hand. Joss offered me a small smile and Ghost
crossed his arms over his chest—no goodbye there.
Turning around, I walked toward the plane that was bright
enough to cut through the dark backdrop of the night. My hands grabbed the
railing to the stairs, my feet felt heavy as I took one step then another. Something urged me to turn around. I looked
over my shoulder to see two men walking forward from the airport tower. They smiled at Bana’s guards before David
made me turn back to the doorway.
“It’s necessary, Oliver. They can’t know about us. Would you
want to always be looking over your shoulder knowing that the person behind you
could have fangs? Or worse, what if they
said something to the wrong person, someone connected to the enemy? They would all die, Oliver. Trust me, this is best for everyone.”
Stepping onto level ground within the frigid plane, I turned
around. “Is it though, David? What is so
wrong with them knowing the truth?”
“Everything.” That was my answer, a solid challenge for me
to go against him on this. His long fingers gripped the door handle and he
pulled it closed with a sealing noise as he cranked the latch in place. “Why don’t you take a seat Oliver? It’s going to be a long flight.”
I walked into the cabin.
Just what you would expect from someone richer than a rich person—it was
luxury that knew no bounds. Marble, leather, the smell of new, this place was
enough to make a blue collar cream themselves at the mere sight. I on the other
hand could care less where we were, as long it involved safety and Tate, I
didn’t give two fucks and a buffalo nickel how much the plane cost.
Tate was laid out on a three piece leather couch. His shoes and socks had been removed, and his
dirty skin was covered with a light blanket. I chose the floor next to my
boyfriend. He needed the sleep and I
needed to be near him, so it made sense.
“Oliver, there are…” David shook his head when I gave him a
look. “Fine.”
From somewhere behind the partition, Micah appeared with the
same grave face as before. His eyes were rimmed with red, glassy and glazed
around the iris. He’d been crying.
“Micah?” I stood up,
my thoughts immediately going to my father. Please, no. Please not yet. We had just…
He put his hands on his hips and took a deep breath. “Isaac
and Melaina are dead.”
“What?”
“Dead,” he repeated, collapsing into a chair. “The vampire big wig had them followed. He took them out while we were dealing with
the warehouse.” Micah ran his hands through his hair with a labored
breath. “Fucking just blew them up. For
what?”
I went to my knees and gripped his shoulder. “Micah, are you
okay?”
“No!” He shouted and smacked my hand away. “I’m not
okay. They were like family to me. Now
they’re gone and Cade is unprotected while I’m traipsing off to Europe. What if they kill him while I’m gone,
Oliver? I just…just can’t.”
“Cade?” I stood and he looked up at me.
His eyes softened as he pulled out a red journal from inside
his jacket pocket, looking at it as if it was the most precious thing in the
world. I knew that look too, fucker was in love. “Yeah.”
“Okay, I need a second to process all of this. So much to
sift through.” Without thinking, I pulled Tate’s upper body into my arms and
sat down. His arms wrapped around my lower body, a sigh of pleasure from his
mouth. Much better, I blew out a long breath, and tried to still my shaking
hands. Isaac and Melaina? Fuck.
David came and sat down across from us and I rubbed my eyes.
“This is what I know and then you can fill me in on the rest.” Keeping calm
under stress was what I did best, in business anyway. “Alex is working for
someone bigger then all of us. He’s using scapegoats to do his dirty work as
most crime bosses do. He’s trying to collect the members of the mob families in
his pocket so he can be on top of the city. My guess is those missing people
Ghost was talking about earlier were brought over to the dark side. They were
promised to be turned or something for services rendered, just like Alex. Who wouldn’t want that?”
“So now you see my point? Why we can’t tell them? Humans are scared to death of death, even the
criminals. Not only would it be detrimental for their safety, it would be for
ours as well. Everyone would want to live forever.” David pointed out.
I stroked Tate’s head. “I get that, but if that’s your
stance, tell me why you brought me into this?
You could’ve just wiped my mind. Let Tate and I live in peace, instead
of this big show.”
“I didn’t bring you in, Oliver. You were hand-picked by
Isaac and the queen. Your impressive
business skills, your fresh perspective on development, your ability to command
attention, it was decided that you were the future. Isaac was going into
retirement and he knew Cade didn’t want to be at the top unless he had to, not
to mention Cade has his own role to fill. We just didn’t know that the decision regarding
you would be made so quickly or under these circumstances.” David rubbed his
knees. He was upset as well. Isaac and Melaina had meant so much to a lot of
people. My eyes stung with tears, why did this have to be so hard? When did my
life get so complicated?
“I just got off the phone with your father before you
arrived.” Micah murmured. “He wanted you to know that everything was gonna be
okay, that he was fine, and to call him tomorrow. But he also called to say that the queen had
made the decision final.”
“Oliver?” David looked at me seriously. “The queen has
declared you the new manager of New York City.”
My eyes went wide, my brain not understanding. “I’m sorry, what?”
TO BE CONTINUED….
