The Gates

17

PRIORITIES

Both sets of wooden doors flew open and more guards poured in to surround us, careful not to lunge toward our protective hedge this time. They noticed their comrades were down, stepped over their bodies as they filled the throne room, packing it like sardines. Gavin pulled me closer, glancing at his mother every few seconds, and once again our flock pulled together, backs to one another to form a circle. I scanned the mess before us, discouraged. No matter how well protected we were from every enemy in the room, Samira had the one bargaining tool with the power to bring our doom. I stared at the meek, beautiful woman sitting at the edge of the granite stairway, realizing she’d be the literal death of us. There was no way Gavin would keep her in the way of harm. There had to be another solution to this.

“Your Majesty, the Amaranthians are trying to escape,” one of the guards announced from the doorway. “Many died in the flood, but there are still too many. We can’t hold them all. What do we do?”

Samira narrowed her eyes at him. “Escape? Where do they think they are going? The portal is not open. What do you mean you cannot hold them all? They are merely mortals, you fool. Do whatever necessary to usher them back behind the gates, you idiots!”

“They’re trying to storm the castle, to help these traitors fight us,” he gestured to our group, “the traitors.”

“Keep them behind the gates!”

“But last time this happened, Gérard—”

“Silence! Do as I say. Now.” Samira returned her attention to Gavin and rested her chin on her hand, her elbow propped on the armrest. Have you decided to obey, Mr. Devereaux?”

“Gavin, even if she lets your mom go, she’ll just kill us all,” Josh whispered, keeping his voice low. He was right. And we would still have to hide away for the next few days until the portal opened, giving her more than enough time to come up with a plan to destroy us before the resistance arrived.

Gavin eyed the guards’ bodies and then our little group, his gaze finally settling back on his mother. His conflicted face sprang alive with determination, looking around once more, taking in the others’ measures while his mind’s wheels cranked into overdrive. His brow furrowed and he pursed his lips, concentrating hard.

“If you can’t beat ’em … join ’em,” he muttered with a slow step forward to stand in front of Samira. The lines of guards moved backward as he advanced, and our little flock followed behind him.

“What … did you just say?” I asked him, wary, although I had a vague feeling that what he was proposing might actually be a good idea. A nagging gut feeling told me an alliance of some sort would hurt Samira’s pride, but that it would somehow diffuse her fear, give her a feeling of false security. Which translated to an advantage for us.

“Samira,” Gavin cleared his throat, “you said in order to break the curse, we’d have to destroy Gérard, not you.”

She raised her eyebrows and straightened her posture. “You say that as if it is even possible.”

“If you so much as harm one hair on my mother’s head, you have my word that I’ll see to it Gérard’s power source is drained. When the resistance arrives, I won’t stop until every last Amaranthian is set free and sent back to earth. And what will he do with you then?”

Gavin took another step forward as he continued speaking, tilting his head to the side. “What I mean is, what will a conjure father, who has control over you, do when he sees how poorly you’ve managed your kingdom? During the last uprising, he almost killed you for allowing the war to get so out of hand. You almost wiped out every mortal in exile. He’ll have no use for you.”

Yes, yes. Good, Gavin, good! Keep going.

“Why, you reckless, worthless …” Samira lifted herself from her throne.

“Let me finish,” he strolled toward her, stopped at the bottom of the throne steps, staring straight up into her piercing blue eyes. “What Scarlet said is true. You have only the illusion of power on your side. You’re completely dependent on Gérard. Your power, your position, your immortality—he has a say over all of it.”

“You know nothing of this.”

“He sent Arianna to live with my family.” Gavin glanced at his mother. “I know a lot more than you think.”

“To live with your …” Samira remained calm, cold, but an unwilling curiosity colored her face.

“Why not bring him down? Instead of sitting there on your throne, century after century, bitter and heartless, why not do something about it? Why not reclaim your own freedom and make Arianna proud of you for once? Or would you rather just sit around and continue to threaten and kill? Is that all you’re good for? That’s a sad existence.”

“Simply draining his energy source will not kill him.”

“So let’s figure out what will. You know him better than anyone, I presume. Or perhaps you have something better to do?”

My newfound strength began to pulse harder, the surge of energy desperate to claw its way from my system as I pushed through the lingering, faint burning sensations in my head. My mind told me to lurch forward and lasso Gavin, slap him hard across the face to wake him from the crazy train he’d boarded, then catapult our entire group out of there before Samira even knew what hit her. But my instinct told me his strategy was just right. I grabbed Josh’s hand and he pulled me close, wrapping an arm around my shoulder, shock still evident on his face.

“Never in all of my days …” Samira took one step forward and reached out to touch the invisible hedge of protection with her nails, drawing back her hand when she felt the jolt, “have I encountered such a brazen, defiant …”

“Why don’t we destroy him, Samira? Work with us, not against us anymore. Together we can do this. And with Vivienne on our side …”

“Gavin, no!” his mother cried out, breaking the heavy silence that filled the room. “That’s enough, say nothing more, son!”

He ignored her plea, intent on maintaining eye contact with the frigid queen. “You can’t possibly enjoy being his slave, Samira. So why fight for him any longer? Just so you can maintain power? What, because you love him? You have a daughter out there who is alive and well. Who you’ve done nothing but let down from day one. Do something selfless for once in your life.”

“She was taken from me.” Samira swung her lace train around and floated toward the fireplace, peering at Gavin’s mother and the wolves from the corner of her eye.

“But you crushed your daughter’s hope with Joel. You meddled in their relationship and destroyed her spirit. He was her one true love, and now he’s dead because of your monsters. Do you expect her to ever forgive you? You can’t possibly redeem yourself from that.” He turned and resumed his place next to Josh and me. “But you can start over and prove to her you’re sorry for all you’ve done. You can show her you choose the hope of her forgiveness over your own selfishness.”

Samira stood with her back to us, her head sagging as the room’s silence cut into us once again. It felt as if hours passed before she uttered a word.

“Never in all of my days …” Her voice was a faint whisper.

“We’re going to get our friends and help the Amaranthians recover from the flood before the resistance arrives,” Gavin caught his mother’s helpless gaze, holding it with a promising intensity. “Think about what I’ve said. We’ll be back when the crescent moon rises.” He nodded to his mother solemnly, slowly encouraging our group to retreat. We exited through the throne room doors quietly and quickly, leaving nothing behind but the sound of the fireplace’s soft crackle and Samira’s gentle weeping.

* * *

“Well, you bloody well did it now, didn’t you?”

“Who died and made you king?”

“How do you even know Gérard can be destroyed? He’s the father of us all!”

Voices came at Gavin from every angle while he worked to subdue them, and I just sat there in our little flooded living room on a log, ready to run, climb, fly—anything but sit there. Josh passed around blood and gave me the please-help-me-in-the-kitchen-before-I-pass-out look, and I happily obliged. He was flustered and out of control, and I was glad to surround myself with fresh blood.

“I’ve supported Gavin with everything, Cam. Everything he’s ever done. Every mess he’s ever made, every mess he’s dragged Joel and Gabe into … but this? This is beyond saving.” His hand trembled as he poured the blood into spare cups he found around the cooking area.

“Josh, I’m sure no one minds drinking out of the bags.…” I reached for him to try to steady his hand.

“No. I just want …” He pulled away and shook his head, attempted to stop the trembling before pouring another glass. “We need … normalcy around here. For just two damn minutes. Normalcy!” His soft, youthful eyes welled up, the creases of his eyelids bunching as he struggled to hold himself together.

“Josh, listen to me.” I eyed the glass he poured liked a starved animal, stealing it before he had a chance to take a sip. “Out of all of those so-called messes Gavin’s gotten into over the years, how many of them did he come out of unscathed?”

“I don’t know, I guess …”

“Pretty much all of them, am I right?” I knocked back the drink in one gulp. All of the revulsion I’d originally felt about drinking it had disappeared. All I could think about was getting more. So. Much. More. “That’s because he doesn’t need saving. He’s bold, he takes huge risks—always has, apparently—but he takes them based on his instincts, and he seems to emerge from each catastrophe just fine. Visiting his parents here when he was younger, encouraging the resistance, planning the attack, and now this. All of it is crazy, I know. But we have to trust him. And Samira’s … afraid of something. I don’t know what. As soon as Gavin proposed an alliance, she relaxed a bit. That has to mean something.” I moved to lean on the little brown table, kicking pots and pans away from my feet. The soft, mushy ground sloshed underneath my feet and I kicked a chunk of muck from the tip of my shoe.

“What could she be afraid of?” he said. “All it means is, she wants her daughter back. She’ll still kill us the second she gets a chance. Afraid of something? Are you kidding me? And you didn’t seem so trusting yourself back there.” He gathered a few of the filled cups in his hands. “You were just as shocked as I was.”

“That was before.”

“Before what?”

“Before I saw the determination on his face. The way he looked at his mother. He never would’ve said those things to Samira if he didn’t believe we really had a chance, Josh.”

“She’s right.” Gavin appeared behind me, his eyes widening when he saw Josh’s scrappy little arms struggling to carry all the cups. “Let me help you out there, man.” He took a few and gathered them. “We have the upper hand, and Samira knows it. Why do you think she went silent? You think it was easy for me leaving my mom there? She’s the only leverage Samira has left, and if she loses that … she knows we’ll retaliate. And I doubt she wants Gérard showing up if we drain the city.”

“Do you really think that? I mean, are you sure there’s a way?” I took another cup from Gavin and downed its contents.

Josh eyed me as I tossed the cup aside. “Um, Cam … we’re going to have to have a chat about that.”

“Yes. Definitely.” Gavin stepped back and hugged the remaining cups to his chest, scrunched his brow in disproval.

I folded my arms across my chest, still eying the thick, luscious blood that sloshed around in the cups with every slight movement. “Gav’s right, Josh. She knows her arsenal’s running low. And something else is scaring her.” I tried to replay the scene from the castle in my head, tried recalling any part of the conversation that would reveal what she was afraid of, but the burning sensations returned full force, causing me to cringe and grasp my forehead, breaking my concentration.

“Look, we can deliberate about all of it later,” Gavin said while he handed me a cup of blood, and then gave me a comforting squeeze. “When I saw my mom, I got desperate. But what’s done is done. Right now our focus should be on convincing Samira to join us, and meeting up with the resistance so we can get the hell out of here. We need to get to Vivienne as soon as possible, to help us figure all this out. She knows the most about the Book of the Ancients.”

Josh let out an exhausted breath and drained his cup. “Doing this means leaving Amaranth again. If we leave these poor people, who knows what’ll happen while we’re gone, Gav. Not to mention your mom.”

“We need to keep the Amaranthians here, anyway,” Gavin said. “If we set them free when we leave, it’ll just bring Gérard straight to us. We’re not ready for that. I told you, my mom’s all Samira has. If she really wants Arianna back—no doubt she does—she won’t touch Mom. And as for the people … we’ll just have to do our best to keep them calm. Unfortunately, the damage is done and there’s not much else we can do.”

Josh shook his head, his face adamant. “But look at what just happened to their villages and their families, Gav. Dead bodies are everywhere. There isn’t the slightest possibility they’ll trust a word we say anymore. They’re in turmoil out there.”

“Someone should stay behind,” I said, thinking of our group of friends in the living area. “Maybe try to assure them that we’re coming back, and we’re still on their side.”

Josh nodded with finality. “I’ll do it.”

I spun my head around to meet his eyes. “What? No! Not you, Josh. I meant someone else—”

“Would you look at them over there?” He gestured to the group of vampires, shook his head. “Still arguing like idiots. They’re so focused on the problem, they can’t think clearly enough to come up with a solution. Their heads aren’t in the game. They’re spent. I’m scared, too, but I’m invested. I’ll stay.”

And that was that. We had a plan. A shaky, weak, crazy plan, perhaps. But it was something nonetheless.

Josh watched over the group while Gavin and I took off for the haven, to get Audrey and Gabe and pick up the Book of the Ancients. We’d just exited the front door when the sight of scattered bodies of innocent villagers stole my breath. “My God. Cecile.” I let my head drop into my hands, stricken at the reminder of her face before the guards sunk their fangs into her. “And all of these poor people. What will I tell Audrey?”

“Hey,” Gavin’s arm encased me. He pulled us off to the side of the street and away from the sickening aftermath. “I know this is a mess, love. I hate that you have to see all this. And changing you was singlehandedly the most horrific thing I’ve ever done. The effect those bodies in the street have on me? It’s nothing compared to what I feel when I look in your eyes now, seeing what you are because of me. Every time I recall looking at you right before—”

“Don’t do this, Gavin.” His voice soothed my sobs, at least; I sniffled and wiped my tears away. “I begged you to change me. I didn’t want to die. Not like that. It would’ve been the worst way to go.”

“Camille, all I could think was I’d never see you again. If she killed you, I couldn’t live with it. I would’ve begged her to end me, too. Right there. So I could be by your side, so you’d be the last thing I’d ever see before I died. It’s selfish, I know—”

“Don’t talk like that, Gavin. I’m serious. That’s what I would’ve been: dead. For good. It was this or nothing at all, so just stop talking like that. I asked for this.”

He pressed his forehead to mine. “Words fail, baby.” Leaning down to sweep me up into the most earth-shattering, passionate kiss he’d ever given me, he let his words pour over my lips. “I can never take back the pain I’ve caused you, but I meant what I said at the bayou that day. If you let me, I’ll dedicate the rest of my life to making it up to you in any way humanly possible.”

“You’re not human,” I murmured against him, a tiny smile curling my lips, thankful to be able to breathe him in, to have him here, alive with me, when so much senseless death surrounded us.

“I’d never object to you leaving me,” he whispered. “You know that, right? When we all make it out of this, I’d understand if you’d want to leave and forget you ever knew me.”

“Like that’s even possible,” I tilted my chin up to kiss him again. “And after all we’ve been through? I could never. Besides,” I bit down on his bottom lip, enjoying my new fangs. “I have these, and a ring on my finger. I think it’s safe to say I’m pretty much stuck with you.”

“Hmm. You have a point.…”

“And where’s the victory without opposition?” I smiled at Joel’s words, wishing he were here right now to wrap me in his bear hug and tell me, It’s all going to be okay, princess. Suck it up, will ya?

Gavin gave me a sly smile, interrupting my daydream about our dead friend. “Before we head over to the haven,” he lifted me up and into his arms, wiping the remainder of my tears away, “I think we need to have a little Vampire 101. To make sure you’re familiar with all aspects of the vampire lifestyle.”

“Oh?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“You know how I feel about being called ma’am.”

“Make you a deal. I’ll call you whatever you want, as long as you promise to be a good student.”

With a quick jump, he hoisted us into the air, my new ability to fly with him exhilarating, and we whizzed up the hill toward the windmill. The mayhem, the chaos, all of it would still be there waiting for us. All we had right now was this moment. No promises for any future. I intended to live every full, passion-filled, all-consuming moment with him for as long as I could.

Besides, I had heaps of new energy I needed to burn off.