Heart of Ash Page 17

  “Go on,” Dane said to his guard.

  Bennett cringed as he tipped the glass, filling his mouth with blood. We watched him swallow . . . we waited . . . and waited . . . but nothing happened.

  The crowd was agitated, but in a good way. Abuzz with the idea of what a drop of my blood could do.

  “As you can see, Ashlyn’s blood is not only the cure, it’s the vaccination. One drop and the immortal killer is no longer a threat to you.”

  “What’s in it for you?” Mr. Davenport asked.

  “Other than your word that no one will make a move against us, we ask that you let us handle the boy in our own way. Without interference.”

  “And let you control the most deadly poison in the world?” Mr. Jaeger said. “I think not.”

  “You have my word that he’ll be secured until his natural death. His blood will never be harvested as a weapon.”

  “Your word?” Mr. Jaeger laughed.

  “Then how about my word?” I said as I stood next to Dane. “My brother’s blood was being stolen from him. He would never consent to hurt a living soul. Even you. I’m willing to bet my freedom on it. If my brother’s blood is responsible for another death, you have my permission to come for me.”

  “Do we have an accord?” Dane asked.

  One by one, the council members shook Dane’s hand, slapped him on the back, and kissed his cheeks, as if all were forgiven.

  Dane announced, “When you’re ready, there will be private jets, cars, boats, whatever you need, so you can return to your lives. And we’ll meet again next year, under much happier circumstances. But for now,” he said as he held his arms out wide, “all I ask is that you toast to our marriage.”

  As the glasses were handed out, an excited rush of emotions swept through the crowd.

  Dane nodded to his personal guard to place a drop of blood from the blood bag into each glass. “Make sure all the other guards get a glass. You too.” He smiled warmly at Lucinda.

  “Now, if you’ll excuse us,” Dane said as he swooped me up in his arms, “I’ve been waiting over four hundred years for this night.”

  Everyone cheered and congratulated us as he carried me up the grand staircase.

  “Was that too much?” Dane whispered in my ear. “I think that’s how Coronado would’ve handled it.”

  “I believed every word,” I said as I nuzzled into his neck.

  I couldn’t help thinking of the last time Dane carried me like this. I was naked, covered in blood, when he carried me out of the corn and into the lake. It felt exactly the same, like it was us against the world all over again.

  Dane opened the door to my bedroom. “Are you ready?” he asked as he threw me onto the bed.

  “Ready for what?” I replied with a shallow breath.

  “To rescue your brother. I just got word. He’s in Madrid.” He grinned down at me. “What did you think I meant?”

  I pushed myself up on my elbows. “Nothing, I just—”

  “We may be married, but this time, you’ll need to come to me,” he said as he traced a pattern on my ankle with his thumb. “When you’re ready, I want you to unlock the door between our chambers. I want no barriers between us. No doubts.”

  As I sat there trying to catch my breath, he grabbed a pair of black jeans, a black T-shirt, and some sneakers from the armoire, placing them on the bed.

  “I assume you’ll want to check on Beth before we go,” he said.

  “Yes,” I replied, desperately trying to pull my thoughts out of the gutter.

  “I’ll meet you there,” he said as he slipped out of my room and went into his own room to change.

  Before I could even give myself a chance to contemplate removing the key from the agate box, I dressed and snuck across the breezeway. There was plenty of time for all that. Eternity, to be exact.

  I nodded to the guards, and when I opened Beth’s door, I found her crouched on the floor, her ear to the ground.

  “Beth? Are you okay?” I asked as I sat next to her.

  “Yes,” she answered in a daze as she sat up. “I’m just trying to piece things together.”

  “I have the best news,” I said as I took her hands. “We found Rhys. We’re going to get him right now and bring him back here.”

  “Back?” she asked.

  “The other immortals are leaving. They’ll be gone by the time we return. It’s going to be the four of us, just like your vision. If you can make some snow happen by the time we come back, that would be great.”

  “Ash, I—”

  Dane appeared in the doorway. “Are you ready, Mrs. Dane Mendoza Coronado?”

  “I’ll be keeping my name, thank you very much.”

  “What?” Beth inhaled sharply.

  “It’s true,” I said as I showed her my ring. “We got married. I know it’s crazy, but it’s certainly not the craziest thing I’ve done with this man.”

  Beth smiled, but it was strained. I thought she’d be ecstatic, but maybe she was just disappointed that we didn’t include her, or maybe it was cabin fever.

  “We should go,” Dane said.

  “Soon, this will all be over,” I said as I squeezed her hands. “The next time you see me, I’ll be with Rhys.”

  “I know,” she whispered.

  With the sound of revelry and corks popping in the background, we snuck out a side entrance and into the night air, a team of six of Dane’s closest guards waiting for us.

  When I looked back at the castle, I saw a figure in the tower window. It was Beth.

  Only this time, she didn’t wave.

  33

  WE DROVE TO a nearby airstrip, boarding a private jet to Madrid. Dane’s team of guards was swift and thorough, attending to every detail. Clearly, they’d been well trained. As soon as we were airborne, they went straight to work on setting up a quarantine section in the back of the plane: a boxy frame covered with thick, clear plastic sheeting.

  They were under strict instructions not to come into direct contact with my brother’s blood. It made me uncomfortable, but we had no idea what condition he would be in, and the last thing Rhys needed was additions to the body count. I kept thinking about the alchemist talking about twins and vessels, giving away my light. Maybe that had something to do with how I could help my brother.

  As if reading my thoughts, Dane wrapped his arm around me. “We’ll have medical assistance standing by, whatever he needs—”

  “It’s not necessary.” I shook my head. “My blood. I’ll give him my blood. That should seal any open wounds.” The thought made me woozy. Rhys hated blood. I couldn’t imagine anything worse for him than being trapped and drugged for a year while they slowly drained him.

  “We should go over the mission,” Dane said as he led me to the front of the plane, where food and drinks had been set out. But I wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t thirsty. There was a pit in my stomach that I hadn’t felt since Dane and I walked into the corn for the last time. But I wasn’t walking to my doom this time. I was going to rescue my brother. I pushed the darker thoughts out of my head. Beth saw us together. I had to believe this was going to be okay.

  “This is where we’ll enter,” Dane said as he spread a full set of blueprints out on the table.

  Spencer Mendoza Residence was listed on the top with Max Pinter, Architect listed beneath.

  “Where will Rhys be?” I asked as I studied the plans.

  “We think he’ll be in this area.” Dane pointed to the windowless room, beneath a small dining room off the kitchen. “The access point should be here somewhere, although there’s no door listed in the plans. But we know the room exists.”

  I traced the outline of the room with my fingertip, trying to imagine what it was going to be like seeing him again after all this time. But then I thought of Dane. “How do you feel about seeing your parent
s?” I whispered.

  “Angry. Hurt. Right after the solstice, Spencer reached out to me—thinking I was Coronado. He didn’t care that his son was dead. All he wanted was money. I think that’s when he and Lucinda must’ve struck a deal. Because when I refused to give him the money Coronado had promised, this is what he did. I can’t help thinking that maybe I could’ve stopped all of this.”

  “It isn’t your fault.” I took his hand in mine. His thumb lingered on the platinum band of my ring.

  “Probably not your ideal wedding night,” he said as he looked around at the men putting on their hazmat gear.

  “It’s kind of perfect for us.” I let out a burst of nervous laughter. “But finding Rhys,” I said as I squeezed his hand tight. “That’s the best wedding gift I could possibly ask for.”

  I looked down at the ring, the gray stone glittering like a tiny universe made for Dane and me, and I hoped Rhys would want to be a part of that. I hoped he could accept Dane . . . accept us.

  As if Dane knew what I was thinking, he stroked my cheek. “Together, we can conquer anything.”

  • • •

  The moment we landed on a private airstrip outside of Madrid, we were whisked away in a black van. Dane and I sat in the front, while the rest of the team rode in the back, loading ammo into their guns, putting bulletproof vests over their hazmat suits.

  “Is that really necessary?” I asked.

  “We have no idea what we’re walking into. It could be a trap. The way they’re imprisoning Rhys . . . if we’re not careful, they could do the same thing to us.”

  “But what if they shoot Rhys by mistake?”

  “What’s rule number one?” Dane called out to his men.

  “The boy will not be harmed under any circumstances,” they answered back with military precision.

  They handed Dane a hazmat suit, but he refused. “It’s more than just your blood protecting me. Even if he wanted to harm me, he wouldn’t. We’re family now.”

  God, I hoped that was true. The last time my brother saw Dane, he tried to hit him, and that was before he even knew the truth about what Dane did to me, did to our family.

  The closer we got to the blue dot on the GPS, the more apprehensive I became. Everything in the past year had led me to this moment. Dane held my hand. He didn’t say anything. We didn’t need to. We were both a tangled-up mass of nerves and emotion.

  As we pulled up in front of a house, the men put on their night-vision goggles. The house was dark, the windows boarded up. There was a construction sign out front with Max Pinter’s logo on it.

  “Stay alert. Do not harm the boy,” Dane said to his men.

  At precisely two a.m., we emerged from the van, silently moving toward the front of the house. I was expecting them to bash down the door, but they put some kind of device into the locks, which opened them right up. As soon as we entered the house, I nearly gagged on the stench of eucalyptus and blood. My brother’s mixed with someone else’s. It was so fresh I could taste it, but cutting through it all was the acrid scent of fear. It was everywhere, practically suffocating me.

  The men swept the house, homing in on an interior room with the soft flicker of candlelight seeping out from under the door. It was eerily quiet. Just the sound of heavy breath along with a low, painfully slow drip.

  One of the guards showed us the thermal image reading. It looked like there were two people in the room. One image was so weak it hardly showed up on the screen. The other was strong and angry, almost pulsing through the screen.

  Dane looked at me and I nodded. He gave the signal; the guards kicked in the door, guns aimed and ready to fire.

  Dane and I stepped in to find a stark room furnished with only a farm table and two chairs. Teresa and Spencer were seated on either end, with a single lit candle between them. Teresa was slumped over the table, clutching an empty glass, her eyes wide, blood seeping from her eye sockets, nose, and mouth, funneling into the cracks of the wood, before dripping to the floor. She reeked of my brother’s blood.

  Spencer sat there, at the opposite end of the table, his hands gripping the cup of red liquid in front of him.

  “Should we call for medical?” one of the guards asked.

  Dane shook his head. He looked furious. I’d never felt such hatred and fear pouring out of him. He crossed to Teresa, placing his hand on her neck, feeling for a pulse. He clenched his jaw as he closed Teresa’s eyes.

  “Where’s Rhys?” I asked.

  Spencer didn’t answer. The only movement was the bead of sweat trailing down the side of his face, disappearing under his chin. “I know we were supposed to drink at the same time,” he murmured. “But something stopped me. I knew, I just knew—”

  “I’ll deal with him,” Dane interrupted. I could feel him trying to keep control of his emotions. “Find Rhys. There should be an entry point in this room. Is there a false wall?”

  “I’ve located a possible entry device,” one of the guards called out as he slid the cover off a fake electrical socket. Dane dug a set of keys out of Spencer’s pocket and slid them across the table. But still, Spencer didn’t move. It was as if he were frozen in fear.

  As soon as the guard found the right key, the wall popped open.

  The stale scent of my brother’s blood, saline, and iodine flooded my nostrils.

  Fluorescent lights pinged to life, casting an unnatural glow on the concrete walls of the hidden chamber.

  I descended the stairs, calling out Rhys’s name, but my heart sank when I reached the bottom only to find a makeshift hospital room with no one in it. There was a hospital bed, IVs, blood pumps, syringes, gauze, bandages, morphine . . . everything one would need to keep someone prisoner for a year of bloodletting, but no Rhys.

  Heavy canvas straps dangled from the sides of the hospital bed. There was dried blood on the sheets. As I pushed the fabric to my face, taking in a deep whiff, the guards took a step back, breathing into their respirators. “He was here,” I whispered. “Do you see what this means?” I lay down on the hospital bed, reenacting it, seeing what he saw, trying to feel what he felt. “He must’ve gotten ahold of something sharp,” I said as I inspected the restraints. They’d been cut.

  “And look, this blood spatter on the floor must’ve happened when he ripped out his IV.” I followed the drops of blood to a utility closet filled with cleaning supplies, fresh scrubs, and linens. “Maybe he grabbed a pair of scrubs.” I then followed the few random drops leading back up the stairs. “He must’ve escaped,” I said to Dane as I reentered the room. “How long has my brother been gone?” I demanded an answer from Spencer.

  Dane kicked his chair. “I’ve tried, but he won’t say another word. Maybe he’s still trying to protect Lucinda.”

  “Please.” My voice quivered. “Rhys is my twin. He’s the only family I have left,” I said as I gripped the edge of the table. “I need to find him.”

  Spencer finally met my eyes and it took me aback. His face was full of despair, remorse and pity—he seemed nothing like the arrogant man I remembered. “You should know . . . you should know the truth. He’s not who you—”

  Dane snatched a knife from one of the guard’s belts.

  “Please, don’t. No, Coronado, not like this,” Spencer screamed.

  Dane plunged the blade into Spencer’s neck.

  As Spencer’s blood painted the walls, the guards stepped back, watching Dane unleash a fury like I’d never seen before. But it wasn’t Dane anymore. He stabbed him again and again and again.

  “Dane,” I said as I grabbed his blood-spattered face, forcing him to look at me.

  Tears sprang to his eyes, and his hands began to tremble.

  “Leave us,” I yelled at the guards. As they filed from the room, I pried the knife out of Dane’s hands.

  “I did this?” he whispered.

  “It w
asn’t you.”

  “You don’t understand. I let Coronado take over, completely. I couldn’t face it. After everything my father did to me, everything he did to you, and now Rhys . . .” He glanced at what was left of Spencer, then back to his bloody hands. “But look what I’ve done,” he said as he crumpled to the floor. “I killed my own father.”

  “I know.” I clutched his blood-drenched hands in mine.

  As I sat with him, nestled between a pool of his mother’s blood . . . his father’s blood, my first instinct was to wrap my arms around him, tell him it was going to be okay. But none of this was ever going to be okay. I didn’t wipe away his tears. I didn’t wipe away the evidence. He needed to do that himself. When he was ready.

  This was something he’d have to live with for the rest of his life—better to face it now. Head-on. Blood and all.

  “I let Coronado take over because, on some level, this is what I wanted. But I was too weak to do it myself.”

  “You are anything but weak. You came back to me. That’s all that matters.”

  “Rhys . . .” His chin began to quiver. “I promised you—”

  “And you will keep that promise.” I held him firm. “For all we know, Rhys could be on his way to the estate right now. He’s alive. He’s out there. I can feel it. We’re going to find him.”

  I stood, taking it all in. I wasn’t sorry they were dead. Teresa was finally at peace, and Spencer finally got what he deserved. I would’ve liked to have gotten some answers out of him before he died, but Dane had his own reasons . . . his own demons to contend with.

  “Let’s go home,” I said as I pulled him to his feet. “Tomorrow we’ll regroup. Start again.”

  He looked up at me, his eyes so full of anguish and promise that it made my heart ache. This was the Dane I remembered. This was the Dane I wanted.

  We’d both killed a parent. We’d both been possessed by our ancestors. We’d both been pulled back from the brink by love.

  If he wasn’t my equal, I didn’t know what was.

  And if he could be redeemed . . . so could I.