Chapter 77
Beryl:
After our sweet moment, my mates were able to tell me what was going on with the prisoner, and we headed to the dungeons together. Nicholas and I walked hand in hand, and he kept glancing down at me as if I might fade away into the night.
As we approached the dungeon, I could feel the dark magic at work. When I entered the cell that held the prisoner, I could tell that he was connected to the darkness in a much stronger way than Nicholas had been. It would take much more than a touch to release him.
Armand and Solomon nodded to me, knowing that I had been through a lot recently, and just needed to get to work on this, and then get back to bed.
I stood before him and gathered myself. He looked up at me, hopeful for a moment, until he saw the light forming in my hands. “What are you going to do to me?” His words were a bit slirred, having taken a pretty severe beating.
I looked into his eyes for a moment, and then smiled down at him. “I’m going to free you.” I filled the room with light, pushing it further around me than I ever had before. Every eye in the room grew wide at the power that radiated from me.
“Wow.” I heard Cheney whisper, his awe apparent. I kept my focus on the vampire in front of me, and began to direct my light into him, keeping the darkness that surrounded him in my view. It took much longer than it had with Nicholas, but little by little, the darkness disappated.
By the time I was finished, I was breathless, and the vampires head was hanging to his knees. A chair appeared and I was guided into it by gentle hands. My vision was slightly blurry, and it to me a moment to compose myself.
When my mind was again clear, I looked into the faces of my mates. Seeing that I was alright, they each kissed me and again turned their attention to the prisoner.
Armand was speaking to the vampire, who seemed more awake now than he had been since he was captured. “I’m not sure what just happened, but thank you.” He was looking at me, ignoring Armand.
“Whatever you did, I don’t know, but I havent felt like myself in almost a year now. Something has been controlling me, and I am finally free. Thank you.” He turned his attention to Armand now.
“Whatever it is that you need, you can have it.” Shocked eyes filled the room. Whatever Amy had done, had been against, at least some of, the vampires will.
He then went on to tell us of the connection between Amy and the dissenting pack. She had apparently known Clara and her father since she was young. They had always hoped to overthrow Armand and his family, and gave Amy the idea to make a connection with him and use his brother against him.
This information was shocking and hurt everyone in the room, but made sense and cleared our minds. We had to completley disconnect from the dissenting pack and get rid of them once and for all.
We knew when Amy’s rescue attempt was going to be, now we just had to plan how to proceed. We needed her to think that it was still going to happen, so that the vampires would fall into our trap. That meant we needed to keep the dissenting pack close to us.
“Nicholas, can you make Clara think things are alright?” Solomon, not knowing what I had caught Nicholas and Clara doing, asked trying to figure out our plan.
Nicholas immediately looked to me and shook his head. “No, I won’t talk to her.” His eyes locked on mine, I knew what he was thinking. He thought that talking to her would hurt me.
I smiled at him. “It’s alright. I promise. I know how you feel about me. I trust you. It would basically be acting. You can do this.” He was shaking his head at me again, so I reached for his hand.
“Nicholas, it’s really alright. You and I both know the truth. We just need you to make her feel as if things are going well for them, just for now. To make the plan work, they need to stay close.”
He looked at me for another moment, sighed, and then turned back to Solomon. “I can make her believe that things are alright. She thinks she still has hold on me, so I’ll make her believe it.”
A plan was set in place. Nicholas would make the disssenting pack feel comfortable, keep them close, and the rest of us would use the captured vampire’s information to lay a trap for Amy and her cohorts.
Nicholas:
On my way to talk to Clara, I kept playing over and over what I would say to her. Beryl’s face when she had seen Clara and I kissing kept creeping into my mind. Even though Beryl had forgiven me, the guilt was still strong.
Knowing I was getting near my destination, I closed my eyes and cleared my mind. I took a deep breath, and pushed through the door ahead of me.
She was sitting at a desk in her temporary room, writing something down. She jumped when I came through the door, turning startled eyes to me.
Confusion, and a flash of fear, crossed her face. “What...” She began, but I held up my hand. Another flash of fear, as she turned fully around to face me.
“I came to apologize. What I did earlier...” I hung my head, feining guilt, taking another breath. I had to push through this, even though it was making my sick to my stomach.
I looked back up at her. “I was wrong. This, there’s something here. Some kind of connection I can’t explain.” I shook my head, not knowing how else to explain. She looked at me for a moment, then got to her feet.
She walked over to me, a strange look on her face. “You feel our connection?” She asked, stopping a few feet in front of me. She was watching me closely, and it took everything I had to stay were I was.
“You know I do. You felt it, in our kiss. You felt, you felt me.” I looked into her eyes, pushing all the fake sincerity I could into my face.
She was still watching me. I thought frantically of what I could do to convince her. I took a step forward, dropping my eyes to the floor. I moved slowly towards her, leaning in to wrap my arms around her, pulling her into an embrace.
I knew I couldn’t fake a kiss, but I could hug her safely enough. I prayed to the moon goddess that it would be enough. After a moment, I felt her sigh, and lean into me, wraping her arms tighly around me. I had achieved my goal, she believed me.
I let the hug continue for a few minutes, even adding a few back rubs to help with the affects. After awhile though. I pulled back and looked at her, “ I need to go. I have to keep up appearances, at least for now. Do you forgive me?”
She practically purred back at me, leaning in, keeping her hands on me. “Of course, my darling. I would forgive you anything. When can I see you again?”
She was rubbing my shoulders, my sides, reaching up to run her fingers through my hair. I took all my will power not to flinch away from her touch. I grinned at her, using my previous womaning ways to lead her on.
“Soon, baby, real soon.” I winked at her, and turned to leave. “Be ready for me, ok?” I put as much sultry bravado as I could into the question, knowing the kind of reaction it had gotten me in the past.
She flushed, “God yes, I’m always ready for you Nicholas.” She was breathless and needy as I left the room, finally allowing the disgust to show in my face now that she couldn’t see it.
