AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Barrett rose his eyes to Damien, brows furrowed.
“We’ll need Thalia.”
“But she’s tied down training new recruits. Without her—”
“I know, but she’s just as skilled as the three of you are. We need her. We’ll figure out how to make it work. Every one of us will chip in to assist her with training if need be.”
Barrett rolled his eyes.
“Barrett,” Damien warned.
Barrett threw his arms up. “I know, I know. I’ll talk to her.”
I rubbed my eyes, looking up to the others who lingered in the doorway. The mention of the name left me curious, but there were more important things to discuss. I spoke up before they had a chance to leave. “I did see something else in Cole’s mind… There’s an old building somewhere on the outskirts of town. It’s metal, rusted, some sort of old salvage shop, I think. There’s a lot of scrap and junk metal lying around. I couldn’t get a good view, but it was near the river. I could hear the water nearby.”
“That’s a good start,mea luna.” Damien turned back to the others. “Zephyr, I’ll leave the search to you. Gather a team. I want them found and captured.”
Zephyr nodded. Before he could leave, though, Damien grabbed his arm. His voice was a growl in his throat as he spoke. “If you find Marcus, I want him brought to me.Alive.”
Zephyr nodded his head, and a part of me understood the weight and meaning of Damien’s words, of how he would be the one to finish Marcus.
“Vincent, you keep working on Cole. See if you can get any more information out of him.” Damien paused a moment, taking a deep breath, his voice lowering a bit. “I don’t care what you have to do. He knew what he was doing the moment he betrayed The Order.”
Vincent nodded and left with the others. Damien stood in the doorway, still as stone. His eyes burned into the ground, calculating what we needed to do, what our next move would be. We were going after Marcus, that much I knew.
“What are we going to do about the darkling’s nest?” I asked as Damien walked back over to me.
He eased down onto the couch beside me, resting his chin atop his hands. “We’re going to need to build our numbers. It’s going to get ugly, faster than we can prepare for, I’m afraid.”
My throat went dry at the thought of it. This unique darkling who could control the rest could form an army powerful enough to level entire clans of Damien’s race. My imagination ran wild, the thought of those creatures overtaking the city, slaughtering every human and immortal they could find. I couldn’t imagine encountering that many darklings after seeing the horde that hunted us in the streets. My parents, Kat, Cody; I feared for their safety.
I knew how bad it would be when the darklings unleashed themselves on the human world from the devastation I’d witnessed through Lucia’s eyes on the battlefield. I needed to learn more about my abilities, and fast.
Otherwise, we didn’t stand a chance.
24
The headaches and nausea persisted for several hours after I entered Cole’s mind, and it had kept me up late into the night. Damien had taken me back to the house to rest. No matter what I did, though, I was unable to sleep for more than an hour, unable to even keep water down.
Damien remained at my side the entire night, unwavering. His apologies never ceased, and the guilt he felt for asking me to dive into Cole’s memories overwhelmed him. What he didn’t understand was that I was happy I was able to help him for once. I wanted to do so much for him, so badly, that I didn’t care what happened to me.
It wasn’t until the early morning hours that I’d finally become exhausted enough to fall asleep.
I awoke to the sound of the door opening, and Ethel entered. “O, mah dear, sweet child. How is yer head? Still hev a headache?” she asked as she walked over to my bedside, carrying a tray of various things.
I pushed myself up to greet her, forcing a weak smile. “It’s pretty much gone,Mitera. Thank you again for the medicine you gave me.”
“O, donnae push yerself darlin’!” She nudged me back down to lean against the headboard and pulled the blanket back over my lap. “Take all the time ye need. I brought ye a wee somethin’ tae eat. I ken ye had a rough night o’ it.”
“How late is it?”
“It’s almost noon.”
I still felt tired, but I didn’t want to sleep any later than I already had. “Where’s Damien?” I asked, resting my arms atop the blanket in my lap.
“He’s doonstairs wi’ Barrett an’ the others. Terrible news aboot the darklins’.” She took a cool damp, rag, tenderly pressing it to my forehead.
The coolness soothed me, and I sighed, closing my eyes. The remnants of the headache melted away at her touch, and my shoulders sagged in the relief of its absence.
