Page 54

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

ENDER

There’s a hammering on the door that startles Mads, who is clearly caught up in whatever he’s making. As soon as it was done cooling, he was back on task and spared not a second for anything else. Not that I wanted him to stop what he was doing just to stare at me or something.

“FUCK,” Mads hisses before tossing the current thing he’s working on into the sink.

“What was that?” I ask.

“Open the door!” Finn shouts.

“Coming,” I say as I hurry over and swing it open.

Finn looks quite anxious about something as he comes in with the others following him.

“Soooo, funny story. You know how you wanted us to figure out who was on our side with the council before calling for a council meeting… guess what? A council meeting was just called. They insist the VRC be present. We tried to hold them back. We told them about the attack, how we couldn’t be there right now…

it’s obvious Abel is going to be there.”

“Fuck, fuck, no,” Mads says as he scrambles around. “I need to do this again, and it needs time to cool, and what if it’s still not right?”

“You don’t have the powder ready?” Finn asks.

“I have enough ready for one use. I wanted to make more, but it takes so long and so many resources. I have that and the antidote, but I wanted to make sure you all had more stuff. If Abel is calling this, you know he’s going to be prepared.

He’s going to have a lot of people there.

What if there are people outside too? I made a couple of bombs for you too, but like…

will you even have a chance to use them if innocent council members are mixed in? ”

Marcus doesn’t look concerned at all. “Well, if Abel is going to have a lot of people there, it sounds like it’s best to implement our plan now.

He’d expect it even less if he’s the one who had them call the meeting.

And I’m sure this meeting is to figure out who is on his side and who isn’t.

The longer we wait, the more people will die.

We have our plan. You tell us how to distribute the powder.

We will inject the antidote into every council member to be positive that we don’t miss anyone and… go from there.”

“Go from there?” Mads asks. “That sounds like a horrible idea.”

“This should at least weaken Abel. I understand it won’t kill him, but it’ll weaken him, right?” Finn asks, sounding quite hopeful.

Mads nods, but it’s apparent he’s not on board. “Hopefully, but… just don’t go. He’ll call another one, and then we’ll be more prepared.”

“But that’s just it,” Alexei says. “He’s doing this so we’re not prepared. He wants to get at us while we’re already down, but we won’t let him. And like Marcus said, the more we wait, the more death there will be.”

Mads looks panicked and turns back to his work. “I don’t… what if we just run? Leave it to someone else? Why do we have to be the ones to do this? There are other people.”

I reach out toward Mads, not wanting to disrupt what he’s doing but positive that he needs to be calmed down. “Mads.”

He hesitates before turning to me. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize. The rest of us have been doing shit like this for hundreds of years. I mean, maybe not the baby human over there, but the rest of us have.”

“Baby… human. Excuse me?” Finn asks with a raised brow.

Ignoring him, I continue, “Even if we can’t kill him, we can knock down a significant number of his followers. Okay?”

Mads slowly nods. “Okay… Right… yes. You’re right.

I’m sorry. Okay, so antidotes have to be administered before this is released.

This shit is the most lethal dose I could possibly make, do you understand?

Do not let this canister get damaged before you have taken the antidote or you will die.

If a vampire even touches it, it could kill them. ”

“I’ll do it,” Finn offers.

“No, I will handle it. Finn, you will stay out of the room. We have no idea what this could do to you,” Marcus says.

“So I’m supposed to just stand outside while you guys do everything?” Finn asks anxiously, obviously not pleased by this.

“Finn, if you are staying outside of the building, you will be in charge of multiple Soup 2.0s,” Mads says, and I think this might be the only thing that would get Finn to agree. “This version might kill the vampires. But in case it doesn’t, you can apprehend them while they’re down. Understood?”

Finn looks even less reassured. “Umm… I guess, but dear god, it sounds terrifying.”

“Find a good spot for it. The radius isn’t huge because I don’t want to kill innocents. You saw the radius with Grady? These are about the same. I believe they’d be best spread out. They just need friction to go off, so shoot them with a bullet and they should detonate.”

“This… is terrifying,” Finn mutters.

Mads turns to face everyone. “Any questions?”

“How long does the antidote last and how long is the powder lethal?” Claude asks.

“The antidote… I don’t know… five minutes, maybe?

I haven’t done enough testing on it since it’s a bit…

risky. The powder becomes inert and safe to breathe or touch within a minute or less.

This canister they got me was perfect. It needs to be placed somewhere central, and once it’s set off, it will be lethal for a short period until it becomes too exposed to oxygen. ”

“We’ll try our best,” Finn says. “You’re going to have to stay here, though. We can’t have Abel seeing that you’re alive or he’ll know something is up.”

Mads nods, and I’m surprised he’s willing to agree. The others shuffle out, leaving just the two of us.

“I’ll see you in a while.”

Mads looks worried. “Please be careful. If you’re getting overpowered, draw back. Please.”

“I will,” I assure him.

“I’m begging you.” He steps up to me and his hands slide into my hair. “Please.”

“I promise. I’m going to be very careful. I’m aware that Abel will likely target me, but if I can just keep him preoccupied, Marcus, Claude, or Alexei can drive him down.”

“Yeah,” Mads says quietly as his hands tighten in my hair. He sets his forehead against my own and closes his eyes. “I can’t lose someone again.”

“I’ll be careful. And you promise me you’ll stay here? You won’t get involved? You’ve already done so much and… I mean… let’s just say fighting with your fists isn’t your strong suit.”

Mads grins as he pulls back enough to look at me. “Trust me. No offense taken.” Then he leans in and kisses me. It’s quick, since I can tell he’s anxious about something he has on the table and he’s already left it for quite a while. But hopefully we’ll have plenty of time to kiss after this.

He squeezes my hand before drawing away. “I’ll see you shortly.”

“I’ll be back soon. After this is all over, I’ll help you find the vampires who killed your family.”

“Thank you.”

“Just… if something does happen to me, promise me you’ll find a safe place for Rylee?”

“I would take care of her myself. I promise you that she is the safest of us all.”

I nod, really hoping that’s true. “Thank you.” And with that, I rush out the door. I don’t get far before Finn, who’d been right outside the door, grabs my wrist.

“That favor you promised me?” he asks.

“Yeah.”

“I want to use it.”

“For?”

“Please keep Marcus safe so he can come home to me,” Finn whispers.

“You don’t need to use your favor on that,” I say. “I will do everything I can to make sure he doesn’t get hurt.”

Finn nods, but he still looks quite anxious.

Once we’re in the transport vehicle, it starts toward the council hall. Marcus goes over a few finer details, but my mind is running wild. What if I fuck up? What if we don’t do this right? What if… what if…

When did I begin panicking so much?

“Can I talk to Rylee?” I ask.

“Yeah, River has her. Let me call him,” DeGray says before pulling his phone out and calling River. “Hey. Can you put Rylee on? Thank you. Yep… I will be. I love you so much.”

He passes the phone to me as I realize that I’m surrounded by so many people who could lose so much if I fuck up. I feel uneasy as I reach out and take the phone, but I know I can’t show it to Rylee.

“Hello?” she answers.

“Are you dragging that poor cat around some more?” I ask.

“He loves it. When are you coming back? You keep leaving and I don’t like it.”

“Soon. Very soon. And then we can watch whatever movie you want. Or do you want to play a board game? We can play a board game. Or even a video game.”

“You told me video games aren’t fun.”

“Yeah? Well, that’s because I’ve never played one. So why don’t you show me how to play one? You think about it and tell me what game you want to play.”

“But I don’t have anything to play it on.”

“I’ll buy you something,” I assure her. “You tell me what you want, and when I’m done, we’ll go buy you all of that stuff.”

“But if we’re moving around, you said it’s hard to take a bunch of stuff with us…”

“Maybe we don’t have to.”

Rylee sounds excited. “Yeah? We could live here? Can we have a pool?”

“I don’t know about that.”

“I’ll have a room? And stuff that’s my own?”

“Of course.”

“We can share a room. I don’t care. As long as you’re not leaving. I really don’t need anything as long as you don’t leave.”

I’d love it if she didn’t have to worry about that.

When I took her from her abusive mother, she didn’t care about anything.

And now she seems to care about me and clearly this cat…

but I want her to care about stupid little things too.

I want her to be a child, to not have to worry every time I step out that door that her life will go back to how it was before me.

It’s like she doesn’t even realize that the life we have isn’t that good.

Rylee deserves normalcy. She deserves a chance to go to school and make friends. She deserves so much.

“Okay. Sounds good,” I say, knowing we both have a long way to go, but hell… at least we’re headed in the right direction. “I have to go, but I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“I love you so much.”