“Except Olivia enjoys making me miserable,” I finished for him when he trailed off.
“I think she enjoys more than that,” Sebastian intoned suggestively. I would have punched him if I wasn’t so tired. Instead I made a disbelieving grunting noise.
“I need sleep!” I groaned, running rough hands over my face.
“That you do,” Sebastian agreed as we ambled down the staircase and through dark corridors to the opposite side of the castle.
After we found the humans on Machu Picchu, Sebastian and I set up a sick ward in the south tower as soon as we returned to the Citadel so that Gabriel’s nuns, Olivia and Ophelia could recuperate. The nuns were under the least amount of strain of the humans, so it didn’t take long for them to heal and get back to their work in Peru. I didn’t know exactly where they returned to, though. I was told that Gabriel’s church had been burned to the ground in their absence- something else that was probably eating him alive.
Olivia also healed quickly, or so she said, although there were moments when we were together that she was completely freaked out, like something was still wrong with her. It was clear whatever was left haunting her, whether painful memories of her time in captivity or injuries from her torture, the feelings were separate from her sister. Whatever happened with Ophelia left her vocal and angry. Whatever was going on inside of Olivia, she kept to herself. Her reserve had inched deep inside my curiosity so that I was almost desperate to find out what was bothering her. As obnoxious as she could be, I felt responsible for her pain and suffering. It was my people that did this to her, and it was my failure that kept her sister from getting better.
Ugh.
Sebastian and I climbed the south stairwell in silence, lost to our own thoughts. We were put in charge of the Citadel until Kiran and Eden came back; then we would be relieved of our duties. But now with Lilly and Silas gone, and Eden pregnant, we were left in a sort of limbo. Eden and Kiran were back, but not really back at the same time. Somehow, without anyone ever really making it final, we were put in charge of this sick ward that now consisted only of Ophelia but was left maintained and stocked for the unmentioned, future patients.
Everyone knew without a shadow of a doubt there would be more Immortals coming, maybe even humans, too; it was just a matter of time. Although, so far, everyone else we’d found had been dead. We were always too late to give them help.
My prayers at night were pleading and desperate that whoever would come through these doors needing medical attention wouldn’t be my friends or my loved ones. I knew my silent petitions were the worst kind of selfish, but after watching Olivia grieve her sister, I couldn’t help but beg to God that wouldn’t be me on my knees, next to the bed of someone I cared about.
I had lost too much already to Lucan.
And to Kiran.
“Go easy on her,” Sebastian practically whispered as we neared the top of the staircase. “She’s exhausted, and been through hell. She’s just worried about her sister.”
“I know,” I growled in response. As if Sebastian was Mr. Sensitivity. Plus, where did he get off telling me how to behave? I had been practically attached to Olivia for months trying to get her through this. “What else do I need to know?”
“Eden’s in there,” Sebastian said somberly before slipping into the bedroom where I could hear the bed creaking under Ophelia’s seizing.
My heart stopped.
Damn it, Eden.
I placed a hand against the doorframe to steady myself, and sucked in a sharp breath. I was over Eden. Completely over her. It had been years since we were together, and I was the one that ended things between us.
So my chest shouldn’t hurt when I was in the same room with her, and my breath shouldn’t quicken whenever she was around. She was a married woman that was now pregnant. There was nothing left between us, not even echoes of a love we shared or kisses we stole.
Still, she was this ethereal creature that occasionally haunted my dreams and left scars on my wounded heart. I knew she chose the better man for her when she picked Kiran. They were created for each other out of the same mold, destined for each other since the beginning of time or whatever soul mates crap was left to spew in this world. Even Amory had acknowledged the undeniable fate they shared.
I was just the speed bump along their road to eternal happiness.
Well me and a shitload of other problems.
It was less about still being in love with her and more about wondering if I would ever recover from the heart lobotomy she performed on me after just a few short months together. Eden was the kind of supernatural creature legends were told about, the unearthly being that haunted dreams and drove men to insanity. When my life was lost and all hope dead and buried, she was the North Star that pointed me home, the lone light in utter darkness.
And her heart had always, always belonged to another.
I had been a fool to fall for her. And I was still a fool for letting her affect me.
I finally found the determination to enter the sprawling room that was usually reserved for regents and cabinet members. Ophelia’s frail frame flopped stiltedly on her large rumpled bed while a few of Avalon’s Titan Guard stood around her awkwardly. Syl had told us to let her be when one of these happened, but it was almost impossible to stand and simply watch. They weren’t very successful at hiding their discomfort either, but I knew they were as afraid of Olivia’s wrath as I was if anything happened to her beloved sister.
Olivia was there, sitting on the side of the bed, her deep blue eyes tired and tear-filled, her hands gripping the sheets so tightly her knuckles turned white. Her light blonde hair was pulled up tonight, sitting on top of her head in a very short ponytail; not the kind that girls tried to style artfully, but the kind that made me think she hadn’t touched her hair in at least twenty-four hours, the kind that was actually messed up. Her hair was short to begin with; I idly wondered how she got it to stay up that high.
She lifted her eyes when I walked through the door and her sharp gaze caught mine from across the room and held it.
My lungs lurched in despair after taking her in, my chest contracted empathetically from her obvious agony. I hated that this girl was suffering, that her sister was suffering. She didn’t deserve this…. hell, nobody deserved this. And even though I had nothing to do with her initial pain, or how she got involved in this whole mess to begin with, I couldn’t help but feel the stinging bite of responsibility. Whether I wanted her or not, I had made her my issue and I wouldn’t rest until she and her sister were tucked safely back home, completely free of my people and what they had done to her.
I tilted my chin, beckoning her closer. She stared me down for a moment longer with those intense, unnerving blue eyes before fleeing from the bed and crashing against my chest. The solid thud of our bodies colliding reverberated through the room above the struggling of her sister. I wrapped my arms around her and held her as tightly against me as I could without crushing her. I knew, from many nights before, that she needed to feel my heart beat to remind her that there was still hope, that she needed the warmth of my body to heal her open wounds and that she needed my strong arms wrapped around her, caging her in and offering her protection.
She needed me. Nothing else mattered. Not lack of sleep, or keeping a job that I wasn’t qualified to oversee. Not dealing with her outrageous demands or denying the overwhelming instinct to hunt that swelled up inside my blood. That bloodthirsty drive shouted that I find my missing friends and extract vengeance for all the wrongs recently done, but it couldn’t compete with my call to protect this girl. Nothing could.
“What took you so long?” she sniffed with a muffled voice since her face was crushed against my chest.
“I was sleeping,” I whispered in her ear, using my most soothing voice. My hackles had risen and inside I was eager to defend myself. But I kept my irritation where it originated and stayed quiet. She needed me and I wasn’t here; that was the only thing she could understan
d right now. So I wrapped her up in my embrace, even closer than before and did my best to make up for my absence. “She’ll be alright, Liv. You know she will be.”
“I don’t know that,” she sniffled, burying her face deeper into me, as if she could open a door to my soul and crawl inside. She was tiny against me. At least eight inches shorter than me, she fit perfectly molded to me; her body bent to mine naturally. Her hair tickled my jawline as I bent to press a comforting kiss to the top of her head. We were a bizarre pair, most of the time we stayed at each other’s throats, spurring the other on to make this situation better by shouting at each other and barely restraining the urge to rip each other apart. But there were a few times, like right now, when I knew she needed me more than breath, when my friendship was all that mattered in the world; in these moments we became the closest of allies.
“Yes, you do,” I reminded her gently. “She was much worse last night and she came through it. It’s scary, but she’s strong Liv. And she has you. You won’t let anything happen to her.”
She shook her head to let me know she agreed with me and snuggled in deeper. I leaned against the wall to support the force of her. For such a little thing, she was so strong and not just physically. She was a fighter and even I could be scared of her at times.
I lifted my gaze to the room, but kept my cheek resting on the top of her head, because I knew she wanted as much physical contact as possible. She just needed to be comforted and that nearly broke me. Especially while her family, her real family and the people that actually cared about her, were still off in America completely ignorant of their daughter’s struggle for survival or the hell their children had lived through.
She had called home the day after we rescued her to check in with her family. They hadn’t heard from her in weeks and were beyond anxious, but she soothed their fears as best as possible. Apparently, it wasn’t strange for her not to check in. She was something of a lone wolf, even at home. Now she called them regularly to keep them updated on her and Ophelia’s change of plans. They never asked to speak to Ophelia, so I wondered if they knew something was wrong and were just afraid to ask or if Ophelia was worse at communication than even Liv.
My eyes scanned over Ophelia as her seizing receded and she let out a strangled whimper before falling still on the bed. The Witch, who was the only other constant staple to this room walked over to check her vitals, his billowing ivory robes flapping behind him. I watched him for only a moment, familiar with the routine before I scanned the rest of the crowd for Sylvia. She had been an important addition to the castle recently and not just for Eden and her well-being but also for Ophelia. Even though it was an Immortal issue, she understood the human body better than any of us.
My searching stopped when my gaze met Eden’s across the room. Her thick, insane mess of black hair tumbled over her shoulders and her onyx eyes glittered with concern. She was breathtaking. And I was afraid she would always be breathtaking…. that she would literally always steal my breath when she was near, that I would never recover from her.
A small, curious smile pulled at her full lips and I watched as her gaze dipped to Olivia’s head in question. I shook my head as if to assure her it was nothing like that, but she didn’t look convinced, which kind of irritated me. I had the absurd urge to take Eden aside and assure her there had been plenty of girls between her and now and that if I wanted Olivia I could have her. But obviously, that was irrational. I would sound contrite and bitter, like I was using those girls to get over her, the Queen.
And what would suck the most would be that it would sound like the truth…. That I was just trying to get over her, trying to find someone, anyone that would replace the dynamite-sized hole in my chest our breakup had created.
But I still had my pride.
And Olivia. I would never do that to Olivia. Never. There wasn’t anything physical between us other than the determination to make her sister better and get them home. For some, unexplainable reason she had latched on to me through this whole ordeal and I would never take that away from her. How could I when everything else had been ripped out of her arms?
“Who’s that?” Olivia whispered against my chest. I looked down at her and followed her gaze across the room only to realize she was talking about Eden.
Eden and Kiran had been back to the Citadel briefly after they were attacked in Omaha, but Olivia had still been unconscious at that point. They had left almost immediately to escort the nuns who were kidnapped by Terletov back to Peru and have a visit with Gabriel before he took off to find Silas. From there they spent time with Kiran’s mother before returning. Analisa was shut off from the world, recovering from years of trauma with an abusive, bastard of a husband and hadn’t heard about Terletov or the new baby.
The golden couple only recently returned to the castle, and introductions had yet to be made. I looked down at Olivia to answer her question and almost laughed out loud at the extreme distrust I registered in her expression.
“That’s the Queen,” I whispered against her disheveled head of matted hair. “I’m sure she’s here to help.”
Olivia snorted sarcastically and I wasn’t sure if it was because she didn’t believe there was help for her sister or because she didn’t think Eden could help. Either way I found her amusing; she was such a firecracker.
“She’s pretty, isn’t she?” Olivia asked, but it didn’t sound like a compliment.
I made a noncommittal noise and then put some space between us, suddenly not comfortable with how wrapped up in each other we were with a room full of people watching us. “Tell me what happened tonight, and how her seizure started.”
“Only if you promise not to leave again,” she demanded fiercely. I looked down at her, taking in her steely expression and the way she pressed her lips together in determination. She was a gorgeous girl, with pale, creamy skin that heated to a pretty pink when she was angry, pouty lips that she was constantly mashing together making them bright red to stand out even further against her softly milky skin. And if it wasn’t for her huge, deep blue eyes I would have believed that she was completely full of herself. But it was in those depthless cobalt orbs that I saw the myriad of emotions that defined her and right now she was flooded with fear. Of course I would stay, I was her friend, or at least her friend during this terrible time in her life. If she needed me here, I had no place else to go.
“I won’t leave you again tonight,” I promised and the terror that was there before dissipated into the briefest expression of relief.
I was tired and grumpy and completely overwhelmed, but that little bit of reprieve, the little bit of stress I just removed from Olivia’s shoulders made certain that sleep was not important.
Olivia needed me.
And I would give her what she needed.
Chapter Two
Olivia
I walked over to Ophelia once I came back from my shower and brushed her bangs out of her eyes. She slept calmly again, and the tranquility on her face made her appear angelic and peaceful.
I knew better.
My heart ached in my chest and my blood pulsed with fire from the remnants of what they did to me- those horrible creatures, those monsters that kidnapped us.
My thoughts flashed back to the three minutes of stupidity that sealed our fates and turned our world upside down.
And it was all my fault.
A Peruvian beer… in a Peruvian bar… I’d wanted the whole experience! Instead, we’d walked into four guys that couldn’t stop leering at us. Of course, I had to make an issue out of it.
If I would have backed down… If I would have taken O’s advice and just walked away. If I would have let it go. Then where would we be? Enjoying the sights on the top of mountains or maybe back home by now?
But that wasn’t me.
I didn’t let things go and I didn’t back down.
Besides, after seeing what these freaks of nature could do, I didn’t think my actions mattered. They would have been
able to catch us no matter how fast we ran or how determined we were to get away. We fought as hard as we could, but in the end they were superhuman, they were…. mutants.
And we were just… nothing special.
Normal.
Human.
Unlike our attackers.
And unlike the people that now held us in this outdated, Dracula-esque-circa-Middle-Ages castle. Even though they were kind, even though they seemed to want to help, they were still inhuman and part of this weird freakish alternate universe. How could I ever really trust them, when they were just like the people that tortured us, held us captive and changed us? Ophelia was comatose and violently ill. And I was…. different. They did something horrible to me; something I feared was irreversible.
I would never be the same again, and it was because of these people.
“See? She’s alright,” Jericho murmured next to me. We were alone in the room after I’d kicked everyone else out once I returned from getting clean. Everyone except him, because he’d refused to leave. Typical.
I felt his presence linger over me; he was everywhere. His body heat seeped into my back, his large, masculine hands rested on my shoulders; his aura seemed to eat up every bit of air in the atmosphere that filled the space we occupied. He was this dichotomy of everything I loathed and the one constant thing in my life that felt real…. that felt safe.
The only thing that felt safe.
At the same time he sucked every last breath from my lungs with his unnatural skillset and cult-like community, he seemed to breathe it right back into me, filling my chest with reassurance and hope. And in the exact way my emotions walked the same thin line, teetering between trusting him completely and running as far from him and his bizarre world as fast as I could.
Which, in my current, volatile state, wouldn’t be very fast.
But it was he that kept me here. It was because of him that I stayed.