this meant. Had to be.
“You always had them.”
“I did?” I cocked my head to the side, but the words never left my lips. I asked The Immortal this.
She answered, “You were angry with me. I was becoming too much for you, so you silenced me. It was just recently that you allowed me to talk again. I’m not happy with you.”
I laughed. “You’re not happy with me? You were trying to take over.”
I felt her shrug. “You weren’t doing anything. Something had to be done.”
“I wasn’t doing anything? Me?”
“Yes. You.”
My teeth were still grinding against each other. She was self-righteous, looking down on me for being a captive. I said back to her, I couldn’t do a thing. “The witches—”
“Could’ve been killed,” she interrupted me.
“What? How?”
“Next time they try, because they will try again. Let them have me. I will go to them, but I will infect them. One by one, I’ll move through all of them. I’ll soak up all their power, and I’ll return to you. Don’t fight it next time.”
“Fight it? But . . .” She was delusional. How was I supposed to know to do that?
“You should trust me.” A calming and reassuring wave passed from her to myself. “You are The Immortal, Davy. I am merely a part of you. I will never be taken from you, and I will always return to you. It’s as if you would be loaning me to them, but a darker and sinister feeling came from her next, remember that any that I go to, I will poison. All will fall beneath me. All will fall beneath you.”
I gulped. That sounded ominous.
I felt her withdrawing, but she whispered again, “Remember. All will fall.”
“All will fall?” I echoed her.
“Good.” Gregory clapped me on the shoulder. “Let’s use that, whatever it was, and go with it. Come on. Let’s return to the others. You can let them know you’re one with your Immortal self again.”
He started back, but I couldn’t move. I was rooted in place, gazing around. I’d been so close to Roane. I heard his laugh. He’d been amused by Saren. I wanted to go back there, and I realized now that I had been there. It was a brief instant, and I could go back. The Immortal powers were awakening in me again, but as soon as I thought that, I knew I couldn’t.
My original plan to leave on my own was here now.
“Davy?” Gregory called from farther down the path. “Are you coming?”
“Yes.” I coughed, clearing my throat. “Coming.” My legs moved on automatic pilot. My body was with them, as we went back to camp, and as I explained that I had accidentally cloaked myself, but my mind was ahead. I was planning my route back to the Mori village, and a few hours later, as the vampires fell asleep, it was time to go.
I packed a bag of food, pulled on a coat that Tracey gave me, and cast a sleeping spell. They were already asleep, but this ensured that they wouldn’t wake when I left. Even though my powers were coming back to me, I was learning I needed not to assert them. I would tire, and I wouldn’t have them when I needed them. Because of this, as the others snored, I walked out and left them behind.
Kates doubled over, coughing up blood. She gazed down at it. A good solid pool of it had formed beneath her hands. She wanted to disappear in it. She wanted the torture done and over with, so her body could fall in the blood and become one with it.
“Come now,” Lucan taunted her, coming to stand over her and gazing down. He lifted an eyebrow and shook his head, an ugly smirk appearing. “You wish to leave me? That’s not the Kates I know.” His eyes darkened, turning lustful, as he ran a hand down her arm. She recoiled, feeling even more disgust rising up as his laugh grew louder. He said, “We used to have such fun, Kates. Where’d that girl go? I miss that girl.”
Her teeth were clattering together, but she tried to seethe out, “That girl left when you compelled me to betray all my friends.”
“Oh yeah.” He withdrew his hand from her and shook his head, still laughing. “I figured that would be a wrench in our relationship.”
“You’re an asshole.”
Her insult came out with less heat than she wanted, but she couldn’t muster up the extra oomph. He had taken her life in his hands, ending it, having the witches give it back, then torturing it out of her again so many times that she was almost a shell. Any fire she still had in her had been reduced to one small coal. Even that, she didn’t know if she could light it up. She didn’t have the strength anymore.
“Okay. Come on.” He flipped her back up and slammed her onto a table so she was face first, lying on her stomach.