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Grace's screams were muted due to the loud wind that blew around us. I moved forward, not paying attention to the hunters as they ran about frantic beside me. I assumed Michael and Rob were with Grace, helping to take care of whatever was wrong with her.
A moment in front of my father was one I wanted, but not quite yet.
"I felt your power only moments ago. Brilliant," he whispered reverently as his dark hair moved about his shoulders due to the strong breeze around us.
"I hate you!” I hissed in a quiet voice, sounding more calm than I felt. “You’ll die for all you've done."
"We all die, Rouge. Immortality is a lie and one we've all bought into." He tilted his head to the side and studied me with his dark eyes. "Did you kill Rebekah? Oh... you did." He tutted.
I shuddered at the thought of him being able to pry into the memories inside of my head. If I ever doubted his power, my wayward thinking was righted in that moment. "She died trying to save me," I pointed out, not really believing the fault belonged to anyone but me. I hadn’t cared what happened to her moments before her death, I was too angry at the lies and the hidden secrets that had plagued my life. My heart ached now at the idea of her sacrifice. Whether it was for me or Rob, or both of us, it didn’t matter. She laid down her life once again for us, and my parting words to her had been incredibly harsh. Words my father would have said, not words I should have uttered. I’d spend the rest of my short life trying to fix my wrongs.
"So many people have already died and will continue to die for you." He shrugged and took a menacing step toward me. "Is it all worth it, my dear Rouge? To bring death and darkness to so many people?"
I had no answer for him. Nothing was worth the loss of life of others for me. Nor was it worth what I had suffered, nor would undoubtedly continue to. My life was worth nothing, and yet everyone around me believed different. Except Caleb. Maybe he was right in his thinking.
I glanced behind me and caught Michael's gaze.
Fear sat on his features, the grimace on his mouth not at all belonging to him.
I jerked back around and growled at Bentos. "Let him go. This is between you and me."
"No, child. It's between us and them, I know the future enough to realize that you have chosen a different path to walk. I killed you in the woods and you sent the angel to do your bidding." He shook his head as if disappointed. "He requires a price, but I'm sure you found that out moments ago, hmmm?"
"The darkness?" I muttered as Grace screamed again. Was the darkness that poured from me related to my Grollic inheritance or because of entangling myself with the Michael's father? Something told me the latter rang true.
"Save your brother if you can." Bentos smiled as a chill ran down my chest. "Today is not the day you die."
"I won't thank you for your help." I took a step back, ready to turn and see what was wrong with Rob, but unable to let my father out of sight for too long. He would most likely take complete advantage of us all if I did.
"No need for thanks. I didn't come to offer aid, but to protect something that means a great deal to me." He smirked and took a step back. "You will die soon, child, but these hunters won't get to celebrate that victory. It belongs to me and me alone."
He moved far too quickly for my eyes to make sense of where he went. I let out a sharp exhale and turned as the wind died down. Carnage lay all around us, the hunters who had gathered being brutally murdered without ever feeling the sting of a weapon.
Grace glanced up from beside the car, tears streaming down her face as she yelled for me again. "Rouge! Get over here. Rob's not breathing." She held my brother tightly in her arms and it took a few tries to get her to back off of him, but with Michael's help, I finally had unrestrained access to Rob.
His eyes were glossy, but opened, the beautiful amber having dulled significantly.
I leaned over and pressed my ear close to his mouth, listening for signs of him breathing and getting nothing. Grace screamed again and I glared up at her and Michael.
"Get her away from us until I can figure this out."
He nodded and dragged his sister back into the building behind them, the girl hysterical as she kicked and screamed the whole way.
A calmness settled over me that didn't make sense, but I wouldn't deny my gratefulness for it. Rob was going to make it through all of this with me. I just knew it.
"Breathe, dammit." I pressed on his chest, starting CPR. Leaning over, I forced air from my lungs down into his chest and then moved to repeat my sequence on his chest.
It took six times of moving back and forth between offering Rob the air from my lungs and beating on his chest for him to come to.
He jolted up and sucked in a deep breath before looking around wildly.
I didn't give him much time to get his bearings before I wrapped him in a tight hug and let out a sob. Fear rushed in and destroyed the peace I held onto for as long as possible.
Rob wrapped his arms around me and held me tightly as he shook slightly. "What the hell happened?"
"Dad showed up and poured darkness all over this place. I guess it affected you, though it shouldn't have." I moved back and ran my hands down the side of my brother's face, making sure he looked well enough to stand before getting up myself.
He took my offered assistance and stood, reaching out and propping himself up with the side of the SUV. "Where’s Grace?"
I bit back the tears threatening to fall. "Get in the car. We need to get out of here." I looked around as bile rose up in my throat. There were far too many lives lost and yet it would have been us lying lifeless on the ground if Bentos hadn't shown up. “I’ll get Grace and Michael.”
I wanted to owe him nothing, although the truth was that I owed him everything in that moment.
Michael emerged from the building with my backpack over his shoulder. He helped Grace into the backseat. She moved quickly to help my brother get in beside her. She pulled him into her arms and cuddled his head against her chest.
"I'm thinking whatever just happened might well be worth it." He forced a chuckle that fell flat.
I climbed in the front and looked at Michael. "Get us out of here, now."
"You got it. Caleb’ll be here any minute." Michael put the SUV in reverse and hit the gas, jerking us backwards as he spun the wheel.
I gritted my teeth and held on to the door handle as we swung around only to take off again toward the exit.
"Let's get on the road and we'll figure all of this out after everyone's had a moment or two to chill out." Michael reached over and took my hand. "I don't even know what to s..."
I cut him off. "Don't. I'm not in the mood to answer a million questions that I don't have the answer to. I’ve no clue what happened back there.” I gritted my teeth and faced forward, not even Michael able to calm the terror building inside of me. “I'm working at not falling apart."
I didn't want to hear his lecture on me being evil or dark and having to work all of that out of me. I didn't need to analyze anything just yet, because the answers were simply too frightening and I was too fragile.
"I was just going to thank you, Rouge. You saved all of us. Unconventional way of doing it, but we're safe. Grace and your brother are alive and the baby’s okay. Right?" He glanced toward my stomach and back to my face.
My peripheral vision showed me his actions. "I think so. I feel fine. Besides, well, exhausted. Confused. Horribly sad, but fine." I squeezed his hand and rested my head against the back of the seat as I let out a long sigh.
Grace's hushed tones lulled me toward my weariness. She was talking to Rob about how much she cared about him, how scared she was that something happened, and how she would protect him until he was strong enough to do it himself.
Gratefulness swam in the pit of my stomach and I lifted Michael's hand to my face, pressing my cheek to it and closing my eyes.
"It's okay, baby. We're all okay. I'm right here." His voice was soft and far more caring than I had heard him be in a while.
I nodded, not trusting myself to say anything without letting the waterworks go. There was no time for crying, plain and simple.
My father was playing a game with all of us, one that I couldn't deny anymore. We weren’t in search of him at all. He was tracking us. We would find him and have our final showdown the minute he was ready and not a moment before. I wasn't in control, nor did I have the upper hand.
He did.
I huffed in frustration.
He always did.
"Rouge.” Michael’s voice shook me out of my desolated thoughts. “Caleb’s going to have to clean up the mess at the facility before he begins tracking us. He can’t afford to leave that massacre just lying there. The Higher Coven is going to have questions for him.”
I stared blankly at him, no idea what he was trying to tell me.
“We can stop somewhere for the night and get back on the road tomorrow." Michael handed me his phone. “We need to stop. I need to rest. I haven’t slept in two days. I can’t keep going like this and be on top of my game.” He shifted, his body sore from the beatings he’d taken. “We’ll be useless against Caleb, Bentos, or whoever, if we don’t.”
“Okay.” Was he asking me for permission or just telling me as a courtesy? Why hadn’t he asked Grace or Rob what they thought? I glanced back at my brother, his arm around Grace as he dozed against the window. He looked exhausted.
Why had he collapsed? Had he come back to life because of the CPR? I knew one thing for sure: he was dead when I got to him, and the chilled feel of his skin made me realize now that he must have slipped off at Grace's first scream. That was why she had been hysterical.
If his heart had stopped then he’d died. I shook my head. Too much terror and information in one short period. If Rob had died and come back, was he half hunter? Could he be like me? How was that possible? None of it made sense.
Except, the answer was a logical one. Rebekah was his mother and like me. If he’d died, he would go through the internal transformation soon.
"Can we get something to eat? Being kidnapped, beaten and nearly dying is tough business." Rob coughed and lifted his head off the back of the seat.
"Yeah. I'll drive through somewhere." Michael glanced at my brother in the rearview mirror. "Want anything in particular?"
“Rouge, you hungry for anything?” Rob asked me.
"I don't care." I shrugged. I needed to eat but it didn’t matter what. Just fuel. My stomach hadn't been ill for the last day or so, but it was most likely do to the high level of adrenaline that pumped through me because of our race against time.
"I'm going with a burger, six please." Rob sat back.
"Six burgers? You're such an animal." Grace laughed and propped her feet up between me and Michael.
Rob ignored her banter, which was far out of character for him. It had to be because he was simply exhausted, like the rest of us.
Worry rose in my chest over where Rob’s thoughts were. He had to be scared of what happened to me back at the warehouse, of what I was capable of. I was scared, and if that was the case, then Michael was terrified too. Shoot we all were, including me.
I flipped on the light above my brother and Grace, illuminating the darkening car.
"What's that for?" Rob covered his face with his hand and growled at me.
"How’re you feeling?" I pushed at his hand and took his chin into my grasp, forcing him to look up at me.
His amber eyes were full of fire once again, but showed no signs of blue.
It didn’t make sense. He had to belong to Bentos and Rebekah just as I did, and yet he hadn’t gone through the transition.
What were the chances that I'd simply brought him back to life with normal human means?
Slim.
Maybe it was because he wasn't the seventh offspring of the seventh son.
No. That had nothing to do with it. It was Rebekah's blood flowing through his veins that would cause him to come back to life, to have another chance. A sudden thought jarred me. What if Rebekah wasn’t his mother? Impossible. She was his mother. She’d admitted it.
"Hey! Earth to Jamie." Rob pulled from my hold.
"It's Rouge," Michael barked from the front seat beside me.
"What’re you doing?" Rob took my attention again, his eyes filled with questions.
"I was just checking your color and making sure you were okay. You scared me back there." I shrugged and turned, taking my seat again and letting my analysis of the situation die down. Nothing was going to be solved as quickly as I liked.
Maybe the transition took longer with boys?
I growled and looked over at Michael as he lifted an eyebrow at me.
"What's on your mind, Rouge?" He pulled into a fast food burger restaurant and stopped by the order-board.
"We'll talk later. I'll take a number one, plain and dry." I stared out the window closest to me and ignored the rest of my friends as they placed their orders.
With so much to figure out, I did what I usually did when overwhelmed. Nothing. I shut down, forcing all thoughts from my head.
I needed a warm meal, maybe take a long bath and then snuggle up next to Michael and hope for a good night of sleep. Tomorrow I could spend the day working through the events of the fight and how everything turned out so poorly. I could lament over my mother's death and the horrible way I ended things with her, but not tonight.
Michael handed the food bags to me and drove to the closest hotel.
We all piled out of the SUV and waited outside as Michael went in and got us two rooms. After locking the vehicle, we moved into one of the rooms and huddled around the table, eating fast and furiously, ignoring each other. I realized then that I hadn't had more than a bag of chips and a soda over the last twenty-four hours.
I needed to be more responsible. A new life was growing in me. It wasn't just about me anymore.
"I can't believe what the hell’s going on. We were supposed to get in, get Rob, get out." Michael sat back and ran his hands through his blond hair, his eyes focused on me. "All of those hunters... dead."
He didn’t say anything else, but I heard my brother’s words on the tip of his tongue. He knew better than to say the words out loud.
"I want to know how the hell they died. What the hell happened?" Rob took another bite of his third hamburger and leaned farther in toward us. "It was like a dark cloud settled over the place."
"I didn't see a cloud." Grace crossed her arms over her chest. "I saw everyone running around as if insane, but no cloud."
"I didn't see a cloud either," Michael added and reached out to me, squeezing my arm softly. "Did you?"
"I need to figure out what exactly happened. I'm pretty sure it's related to the dark angel I've mentioned a few times, but I need to be sure." I nibbled at a fry as images of the darkness swept in front of me.
"Hey, stay here with us, okay? Your eyes are shifting to black." Michael tightened his hand around my arm. "I don't want you going through any more today."
I nodded and let out a soft sigh. “I’m here, and I’m fine.” I stood. “Just need a bathroom break.” When I walked into the bathroom I leaned my head against the door and listened to their conversation. The three of them went straight into a deep conversation over the dark angel.
"Right, but we need to be really clear here. We're not just dealing with Bentos now... but some other evil force?"
“It appears so.” Grace kept her voice low. “Apparently Rouge can speak to it or something.”
“What?” Rob’s word rose sharply.
I flushed the toilet, washed my hands and went back out to them.
Rob glanced up at me as I returned. "What do you know about the dark angel?"
"Not much, I'll find out more after a night of sleep. I'm going for a quick walk to get some air and digest my food. I'll be back." I headed to the door.
“Uh-uh.” Michael stood.
“Why not?” I snapped. My anger wasn’t meant to be directed at him. “I just need some fresh air.” I bit my tongue, ready to cry.
"You’re not going on your own. I'm coming with you." Michael moved up beside me and opened the door. "You guys want to split the rooms by girls in one and boys in the other?"
"No!" Grace and Rob said at the same time. "You guys take the other and we'll stay in this one."
Michael growled as I tugged him from the room, letting the door close behind us.
"Grace is old enough to be a big girl.”
“No, she’s not,” he mumbled.
“She’s the same age as you. And it’s my brother.”
“That’s the point. He’s a Grollic.”
Despite the pain of the day, I started laughing. “Really? Our mother died today, Caleb wants us dead, Rob did die today. We’re probably not going to make the week and it bothers you he’s a Grollic? So am I. You don’t seem to mind sleeping with your Grollic." I slid my arm around the back of his waist and tucked myself against his side as we walked out into the peaceful evening. “Get over it, Michael.”
