Page 26

Luc

I was standing outside the Castle, staring up into the mountains.

“So, is this where you’re hiding now?” Tick was teasing me, but I was in no mood for jokes.

She grew serious. “Everything is in place. They are assembling the weapon and it will be transported to the air base. ETA 24 hours until lift off.”

There was a moment of silence between us, heavy with things unsaid; the implications of how these actions would affect us were enormous.

All I knew was that I had 24 hours to find Ruby or she would die. I was sure she was somewhere in the South, most of which would be turned radioactive in one day.

“I have to leave for a few hours,” I said, not looking at Tick. “I will be back for the launch.”

“You can’t leave now!” her voice was panicky.

“Everything is in place,” I said reassuringly.

“But… but,” her eyes grew wide and I had to speak firmly to her.

“I need to find Ruby, Tick. She is down there, I have to get her out of danger.”

“What if you don’t make it back in time? It’s too dangerous!”

I nodded. “Then so be it.”

She stared at me, open-mouthed. “No, you can’t be serious! You can’t go, we need you!”

“I appreciate that you don’t get it,” I said, looking at the dark sky over the mountains again, “but my work here is done. I’ve arranged everything, systems are in place. Now it will all go according to plan and if it doesn’t, you or Harris or any of the very competent generals can sort it out.”

She was blinking furiously.

“I have to try to find her.”

I couldn’t tell Tick that the thought of being without Ruby was inconceivable. Living in a world without her, knowing that I didn’t do everything in my power to try and save her? I was responsible for upending her life like this, for putting her mother in danger. It was my responsibility to look after her now but more than that, I loved her and didn’t want to live in a world if she wasn’t in it. It was as simple as that.

Tick hung her head. “Just answer your phone, please,” she begged me.

“I will,” I said and smiled at her. “I promise you, everything is in place.”

She didn’t look convinced and quite unexpectedly, I put my arm around her shoulder and gave it a clumsy squeeze.

“Come on, kid. Shoulders back. You can do this.”

“Fuck you, of course I can,” she came back, visibly bucked up.

I was glad to see it. I didn’t want to have to worry about her falling apart while I ventured into the lion’s den down south.

I winked at her and launched myself into the air, heading down south as fast as I could. The big problem was that I didn’t know exactly where to go. It was frustrating, but for some reason, my connection to Ruby was not as it was before. I didn’t know exactly where she was, I could feel her but it was fuzzy, an almost dull ache but when I tried to follow the sensation, it seemed to move away. She was somewhere in the South but figuring out where was proving to be difficult.

My first location was near Buzzard Creek. We had launched an attack on the town and there were houses on fire and car wrecks lining the street. I checked her house, which had not been damaged, but which clearly was unoccupied. It seemed she was even further South. I didn’t want to go too close to Sunny’s compound as it increased my exposure to shifters.

I had spent the previous evening at the peace talks organized by the Human Council and had seen very quickly that the humans had switched allegiance. The shifters had sent a negotiating team led by a slick character with an oily voice who demanded that vampires relinquish not only all property and assets in the South but also pay the shifters reparations for all kinds of perceived damages.

It was preposterous.

The human delegation seemed to think this was reasonable, which it clearly wasn’t.

I told them I would take the offer to the king, but I had no intention of doing that. I called Harris and told him we had to move fast to attack the shifter stronghold in the south. I told him what Saufin had told me and he agreed.

“Let’s nuke ‘em.”

But I had to try to get to Ruby.

Beyond the swamps, I arrived at a small town on the outskirts of a river. It was close to the coast and uncomfortably hot. The sun was beating down and I would have preferred to get out of there as soon as possible but I could feel Ruby was close by. I still couldn’t get a clear fix on where she was, but I was definitely closer. I wished I had an idea of where she was. We didn’t have much time. She’d obviously gotten rid of her phone and I had no other way of tracking her.

I looked at a map of the area, noted a number of coastal towns and figured she must be somewhere there but I didn’t have the time to go to all of them. I needed to find a way to narrow the options.

Then I got a call from Dennington, saying he’d had a lucky break. One of his men had found an aide at the hospital who said Ruby’s mother had asked about buses going to Cape Falls.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Not only was Ruby’s mother still alive and well, but now I knew where Ruby was.

I had not a second to waste.

Within the hour, I stood outside a white-washed hotel close to the sea. I knew Ruby was inside. I could feel it. I could feel her. The sun had started to set and it was cooler now, the air positively mild. It was quite a sweet town, I had to admit, if you went for that sort of thing. Quaint houses, fishing boats, restaurants and a promenade. Sea gulls, the sound of the waves. Romantic, in a way.

I was thinking about how to approach Ruby when I saw her and her mother leaving the hotel. I followed them down to the pier. They bought ice cream from the man at the stand and I came as close as I dared. It was still the South, I didn’t want a scene.

Ruby must have felt me because she turned around and looked right at me.

“Luc!”

She ran towards me and hugged me, awkwardly holding the ice cream. I had not expected such a warm response from her, but my arms instantly closed around her in a warm embrace.

“You’re safe,” I said. “And you’re blonde! I like it!”

She touched her hair self-consciously.

“Is your mom here too?”

“Yes! I found her!” an elated Ruby said. “Come and meet her!”

I picked up a much less friendly vibe from Charlotte Lucas, but she shook my hand and said, “I hear you’ve gotten Ruby out of quite a few scrapes. Thank you for that. Will you join us for dinner?”

I told them that we would have to get out of Cape Falls right away.

I kept my voice low as I didn’t want my words overheard.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Mrs. Lucas said with narrowed eyes. “We just got here.”

“What do you mean?” Ruby asked me, ignoring her mother.

“I can’t tell you all the details but it’s not safe here.”

Ruby faced her mother but her mother turned away.

“Tell your friend, we thank him for his concern, but we are fine on our own.”

I held back, thinking how I was going to convince her but Ruby was ahead of me.

“No, mom. If he says we need to go, we must.”

I could see the surprise in her mother’s eyes.

“Ruby, listen to me,” her mother urged her. “I am your mother… and he is…”

“I trust him, completely,” Ruby said, interrupting her mother. “If he says we need to leave, then we do.”

She turned to me without waiting for an answer from her mother.

“We’ll go,” she said to me.

“I have a helicopter landing in an hour, it will take us to the capital. I have organized accommodations for you,” I said.

“No!” Charlotte Lucas said. “I’m not going with you!”

“Mother!” Ruby cried out but Charlotte Lucas shook her head emphatically.

“He may have charmed you, Ruby, but I am not fooled that easily.”

She glared at me.

“I am sorry you feel that way Mrs. Lucas but I do understand. You don’t know me and you have made assumptions about my kind. I get that but it’s not safe here. I know the war is coming here, soon.”

“I will take my chances, thank you,” she said coolly, walking away.

“Make her change her mind,” Ruby said to me, grabbing my arm.

“Are you sure? It will only make her hate me more.”

Ruby pulled a face. “At least she’ll be alive.”

I knew she was right.