Page 14 of Kiss the Dawn (Order of Helsing #4)

F rederick confirmed what Eliza had told me, then added salt to the wound by telling me that my request to see my mother had been denied.

I was saved from exploding at him by Lorenzo’s return. I filled him in on the Circle’s plan, and he wasted no time in summoning Daphne for a chat.

The head of Bloodmere House arrived in minutes, head held high, expression stony because no doubt she knew why she’d been called.

Lorenzo wasted no time in getting to the point. “You brought us here under false pretexts,” he said coldly. “The consortium won’t take kindly to this.”

“I can live with that,” she said. “What I cannot, will not live with is uncertainty. Miss Lighthart will complete the binding with the covens chosen before she leaves. ”

Like hell I would. “Good luck with that. You’ll have to drag me to your ceremony kicking and screaming.”

Something passed across her features…fear and doubt. Wait a second. “You need my consent, don’t you?”

Her eyes narrowed. “And you will give it.”

I scoffed. “Yeah, right. Lorenzo, I’m ready to leave now.”

Lorenzo looked down his nose at Daphne. “We had a deal. I’d examine the contract and Miss Lighthart would meet her family. I’m done with my examination. You’ll open a doorway for us now or face the wrath of the consortium.”

Daphne inclined her head. “I can do that or…” She fixed her cold blue eyes on me. “You can do the ceremony and save your mother’s life.”

My heart stuttered, and then anger burgeoned inside me. “You manipulative bitch.”

She flinched and took a step back as I advanced before finding her spine and holding her ground. My eyes sizzled in their sockets as I glared at her. “You refused to let me see her—for all I know, this whole thing is an elaborate setup. She might not even be incarcerated or set for execution.”

“It’s not a lie,” Clara said. “I was there when they took her. I visited her the first two weeks before they…” She pressed her lips together. “Began their physical interrogations.”

Jules covered her mouth, eyes wide with horror .

My stomach rolled with a mixture of nausea and rage. “I want to see her.”

“We can set up a halloscreen viewing,” Daphne said. “Then will you do the ceremony?”

“No. I want her here in the flesh. I want to speak with her in person. I want her given passage off this fucking Isle. Then I’ll do your ceremony.”

Beside me, I was sure Clara held her breath.

Finally, Daphne nodded curtly. “You have a deal.”

My sisters and Frederick left not long after Daphne and I struck our deal, but not before Clara and Jules, both choked up with gratitude, hugged me.

I couldn’t help but go stiff in their arms, couldn’t help but wonder what I’d agreed to, but as much as it scared me, walking away and leaving my mother to die frightened me more, because if I did that, what kind of person would I be? If I walked away, then the wicked voice inside me that said I owed these people nothing, that I was doing enough by helping to stop Loviator, would win.

My darkness… her darkness would prevail.

I couldn’t allow that to happen.

Lorenzo poured tea, sipped it, raked his fingers through his hair, and sighed. Then he drank more tea and sighed some more .

“Just say it.”

He set his cup down. “Fine. I think we should leave.”

“They’ll kill my mother.”

“Will they? If they do, then they lose their most valuable leverage against you.”

I hadn’t thought of it that way. “This is all becoming a mess. We came here to look at the contract. I came to meet my family, and now…” I had to ask… “Is there no hope of finding a loophole in the contract?”

“I was confident that there would be a weakness somewhere. There usually is. Placed deliberately by one party or the other, hidden to allow for contestation down the line if needed, but not with this one. It’s written in blood and sealed with ancient magic. They knew I’d find nothing.”

His jaw ticked. He was pissed we’d come all this way for nothing but to give the Circle exactly what they wanted.

“It’s fine. It has to be done. Either this or they keep coming for me, but this time to kill me.”

His eyes narrowed, and a look came over his face as if he’d thought of something.

“What? What did you think of?”

“Nothing.” He drained his cup and stood.

“Bullshit, you just had an idea.”

“Maybe I did. But I need to test it out first. Stay here. I’ll be back soon.”

He left quickly, closing the door behind him .

Great. Now what? The sun had set, and if I thought Ezekiel could reach me here, I’d have taken a nap, but?—

The sound of the door opening interrupted my thoughts. “That was quick.” I turned, expecting to see Lorenzo, but a stranger stood in the doorway.

“Who are you?”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

Pressure filled my head, and the lights went out.

Eliza’s voice tugged me toward consciousness.

“This is wrong. I won’t let you do this,” she said.

A man replied. “I’m not asking your permission. This is decided. We decided.”

“Brennan?” Eliza’s voice shook. “You too?”

A deeper voice spoke. “Yes. I won’t lose you, Eliza.”

“You won’t have to. She promised that I could stay, that?—”

“We don’t want her.” A third voice spoke up. “We love you and we won’t lie with another.”

Fuck, Eliza’s mates had me. And it didn’t take a genius to figure out their intention. My mind raced as I formulated a strategy, a speech, something to get me out of this situation. Maybe if I faked being unconscious for a little longer, they might say something to confirm their plan .

“She’s awake,” the deep voice said.

No use pretending now. I opened my eyes and tried to lift my head but came up against constraints. My heart burst into a canter as I tried to move my arms and legs and found them restrained too.

“What the fuck? Eliza?”

“Orina, don’t be afraid. I won’t let them hurt you.” I couldn’t see her because I couldn’t move. I fucking couldn’t move. Panic burgeoned inside me, something primal and savage pushing up from beneath my skin.

“What is that?” one of the males said.

“I can feel it too,” another replied.

“Null it. Do it now,” a third voice demanded.

The power surging inside me died, leaving me weak and trembling. “What did you do to me?”

A blond-haired man appeared in my line of sight. “I nulled your power. Power you shouldn’t have. What are you?”

“I’m a member of the Order, so get these damn straps off me now!”

“Brennan, please,” Eliza said. “This is wrong.” She came into view, golden hair spilling over her shoulders, eyes filled with a plea. The guy shook his head and walked away from me. She followed, and my heart sank because now I had no doubt as to what they planned to do to me. The one thing that would allow them to keep Eliza without restriction.

They were going to kill me .

I needed to reason with them. “If you do this, then you doom us all. You realize that, don’t you?”

A man with dark hair stepped forward. “We know about Loviator. The story that’s been told about the vampire king’s curse. Who knows if it’s even real?”

“So that’s what you’re telling yourself to justify murdering me?”

Brennan came back into view, a storm of conflict raging across his face.

These weren’t bad men. They were desperate men. Cornered men. And I’d dealt with their kind plenty of times. All I needed to do was insert a little doubt to weaken their resolve.

“I know the stories are true because I’ve seen it. I was in his head. I saw Ezekiel’s memories. Loviator is real.”

“Don’t listen to her.” A silver-haired man joined them to peer down at me, his lips a thin sneer. “She’ll say anything to get out of this.”

There was no doubt on this one’s face. He had to be the driving force for this plan. Their ringleader. “I’m sure as witches you have a way of checking if I’m lying or not.”

“She’s not lying,” Brennan said.

Shit, I’d gotten lucky with that one.

“So Loviator is real, so what?” Silver Hair said. “Doesn’t mean the curse terms are real. They could be fabricated to keep Dracul in check and?—”

“The public doesn’t know about the curse terms. Not even the nobles know about it.” Now even silver-hair guy looked worried. He glanced at Brennan, who nodded, confirming I was telling the truth. “Heck, I wager you only know about it because the Circle wants to replace Eliza with me.” I realized my mistake in mentioning her when all their expressions hardened.

“I can’t lose her,” silver-hair guy said. “Loviator or not. I won’t.” He turned to the others. “We have power. The Isle has wards. This isn’t our problem.”

No. This could not be happening. Heat flooded my veins, and a vise gripped my lungs. “Kill me and you could doom the fuckin’ world.”

“Zarin.” Eliza clutched the silver-haired guy’s arm. “We can’t do this.”

She’d gone from I won’t let you do this to we can’t do this …This was bad.

Zarin cupped her face and stared deep into her eyes. “You don’t have to do anything, my sweet. You don’t even know about this.”

Her eyes widened. “No.” She tried to break free of his grip. “Zarin, you promised that you would never?—”

“Sleep and forget.”

Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she dropped, but Brennan caught her and carried her out of view. Zarin retreated, and for a moment it was just me and the dark-haired guy.

“What’s your name?”

“Sten,” he said .

“Look, Sten. I have people I love waiting for me. I have a life. Please, don’t take it away from me.”

“I’m sorry. I truly am.” He walked away.

No. No, no, no.

“Argh!” I strained against the straps, tears burning my eyes. “Fucking let me go, you bastards!”

Zarin returned holding up a syringe filled with green fluid. He flicked it to dispel the bubbles—ironic, considering his goal was to kill me.

Oh fuck, he was about to kill me. “What is that?”

“I call it rest in peace,” he said. “You’ll fall asleep and not wake up. I would have given it to you while you were unconscious, but it wasn’t quite ready.”

A weight sat on my chest, a fist around my heart and another at my throat as I pushed out the words to beg for my life.

“Please don’t do this. If Loviator goes free, your wards won’t matter. She’s a goddess. A fucking goddess.”

“Zarin…” Brennan said from across the room. “Maybe we?—”

“Enough!” Zarin rolled up my sleeve. “This is how it must be. We can worry about Loviator when she breaks free. If she breaks free.”

“She will. Without me, she will.”

He grabbed my arm.

“Stop! Don’t!” I thrashed as best I could, but the bindings were too firm, and without my blessing or my darkness, I was powerless .

The needle bit into my skin, cold and deadly, and an eerie calm settled over me. Because there was nothing I could do. No escape. I was going to die here. I wasn’t ready. I didn’t want this. “Please, don’t…” My vision blurred, throat tightening.

“I’m sorry.” He squeezed my arm, and I anticipated the rush of ice or heat or whatever he was about to plunge into my veins, but it didn’t come. Instead, he jolted straight with a shocked cry, then went flying out of view.

The other guys exclaimed in shock, then fell silent.

“Orina!” Lorenzo appeared above me, his silver eyes bright with the residue of magic. “I’ve got you.”

“Oh, Gods above,” Frederick said from somewhere out of view. “Guard, take them in.”

The clatter of boots filled the room.

The cavalry was here, but I had eyes only for Lorenzo as he undid my neck strap, then freed my wrists.

He was here. I was safe. I was free. “Oh God.” I choked back a sob and wrapped my arms around his neck, squeezing him to me.

He hugged me tightly, whispering words I couldn’t decipher. And I breathed with him, matching my heartbeat to his until the horror and the residue of terror melted away.

Finally, he pulled away slightly, his face still close, his breath mingling with mine. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you. I failed. ”

“No. You came for me. You found me.” I grazed his lips with mine, wanting to feel him to feel life.

“I thought I lost you,” he whispered against my lips. “I thought I’d be too late…”

Too late…

Darkness closed in on us.

Too late…

His face melted like wax, his body pooling into a puddle and vanishing.

Too late…

Oh God. This wasn’t real.

I looked down at my arm, at the blue hue climbing over my skin. And a true memory surfaced, sharp and bright.

“I’m sorry,” Zarin said as he squeezed my arm and depressed the plunger, filling my body with poison.

It was done.

I was dying.