25. Bexley

25

BEXLEY

With a wave of his hand, the gooey, slimy bindings around my body slithered away. They seemed to meld back into the wall as I plummeted to the floor with what I could only be certain was the stupidest look on my fucking face. The jarring impact of the floor snapped me out of it, though. I shot to my feet, rubbing my wrists as my wide eyes beheld the sight in front of me.

Jacob. My partner. My brother. The only shred of family I once had left.

Standing there.

Breathing.

“Jacob?” I asked breathlessly as I studied the red glowing whites of his eyes.

But all he did was nod before he disappeared into the darkness all around us and panic gripped my throat when he did.

“Wait, Jacob!”

I scrambled to catch up with him. Was this a nightmare? A dream? Holy shit, was I dead? I peered over my shoulder at the eerie purple glow of the undulating wall that seemed to be teeming with life. The darkness ushered us through a doorway I could barely see, and it dumped us out into a hallway lined with warm white candle-lit sconces. My brow furrowed tightly as I took in the sights. Everything around me was draped in darkness and what looked like shimmering powder. The scones on the walls illuminated the closer we got. My feet scuffed softly against the floor, echoing off the walls and vaulted ceiling of the hallway over our heads.

Then his voice finally pierced the silence.

A voice I heard in my dreams so many other times before…

“So,” Jacob said, clasping his hands behind his back, “how have you been?”

I scoffed as I continued to rubberneck. How the hell did I answer that? How had I been? Try miserable. Try on the run. Try homeless. Try?—

“How are you alive?” I asked as I swiveled toward him.

I stepped in front of him, stopping our walk in the middle of the hallway.

“I’m serious, Jacob,” I said breathlessly. “I saw you die. I saw you peppered with bullets in your legs on that mission.” My gaze slowly slid down to his legs. His pristine, unscarred, perfectly working legs. “You shouldn’t be here. Delilah, she?—”

That’s when Jacob finally reached out for me. He took my hand, and his touch was ice cold. I hissed as I pulled it away, but all he did was pluck my elbow from my side and thread my arm with his. The chill sent a shiver down my spine as he stepped closer, smiling down at me with a smile I’d seen so many times in daydreams where he was still alive.

“Jacob,” I whispered softly as I shook my head. “What happened to you? Why would you choose to become…this?”

He chuckled and patted my arm with his free hand, then continued with our walk. It jolted me to his side, and while I was rooted to his side in shock, I sure as hell wasn’t letting him out of my sight. Wasn’t he supposed to want to kill me? Wasn’t that kind of their whole…thing? I mean, it’s what I’d seen of them. Of vampires, I mean. Nothing but bloodshed and murder. And yet, Jacob was escorting me down a hallway? In something that felt like the castle from some Disney movie?

“Jacob, please,” I said again, wrapping around in front of him and stopping us in our tracks. I hated how tears lined my eyes. It always made me feel so fucking weak. But, then again, Jacob was the one that helped me become comfortable with my emotions. He was more than just a partner. He was once the only person I trusted.

I looked up at him with a desperate stare. “You were the only shred of family I had before that mission. Please, you have to tell me what happened to you.”

But instead of answering me, he merely smiled as he reached out to his right. I heard the swinging open of a door and it tugged my attention away from him for the smallest of moments. And that’s when the dining room came into view.

An opulent dining room with a gorgeous dark green crystal chandelier hanging over a bronze-coated table that held every single piece of food imaginable. The decadent smells filled my nostrils, pulling me beneath the arched double doorway that led into the gorgeous room. Floor-to-ceiling windows allowed the moonlight to bleed in, and I wondered how much time I lost. Was it still the same night? Had I been out for a few days? It had to be the same night. I didn’t pass out. We didn’t travel by plane, or train, or even car. It had to be the same night.

“Come,” Jacob said as he placed his hand between my shoulder blades. “I can only imagine how hungry you are.”

Right on cue, my stomach growled out as he ushered me to the table.

He pulled a seat out for me, and I promptly sat. I didn’t want to admit that I was starving, but if I was going to keep my eyes peeled, I had to have the energy to be on high alert. Jacob sat in front of me, watching me with those dark brown eyes of his. The whites of his eyes glowed that same sort of red I saw in the other vampire’s eyes, but my hunger overrode my need for answers.

I didn’t even have the equivalent of a plate of food all day, and my stomach surged with a need for sustenance.

“Please, dig in,” Jacob said.

Instead, I reached for a jeweled chalice and peeked inside. Jacob snickered.

“It’s just water, Bex.”

I peeked at him from over the rim and sipped the water. The cool liquid touched my tongue, and it was as if something inside of me snapped. I tipped the chalice, chugging as much of the crystal-clear liquid as I could. And when I was done, I held the chalice in my lap.

I watched it magically refill with water.

“Jesus,” I whispered breathlessly.

Jacob chuckled once more. “If you want me to take a bite or two first to calm your mind, I can do that.”

His voice snapped my attention back to him. “You’re a vampire. Even if the food was poisoned, would it even affect you?”

That trademark grin of his spread across his face and I couldn’t help but smile. Dear God, I missed my brother from another mother more than I cared to admit.

“Jacob,” I whispered to myself as tears crested my eyes.

“I was scared when she found me,” he said.

I paused. “What?”

He leaned back. “You’re right. If I ingested any of this food, I wouldn’t know if it was poisoned or not. We don’t need food the way other beings do.”

My head grew light with dizziness. “Right.”

“But,” he said as he pushed a plate of fruit toward me, “if it’ll help settle your mind enough to eat, I’ll answer your questions.”

“Really?”

He tilted his head. “You have to eat if I’m going to, Bex.”

“Why?”

He snickered. “Why? Because you’ll starve to death otherwise, that’s why. There’s no ulterior motive.”

“For you, maybe,” I muttered.

“She’s not as bad as you think. You’ve just seen a rougher side of her.”

I finally put fruit and vegetables on my plate. “I take it we’re not talking about me any longer?”

His grin grew into a smile. “No, we’re not.”

I finally got brave enough to take a bite of pineapple. I chewed it slowly before I moved to the vegetables, making a slow round robin of the plate that I filled. And after a few minutes, when no immediate side effects set in, I picked up my fork.

I practically used it like a fucking shovel.

“As you were saying,” I said after taking a few bites and wiping off my mouth with the silk cloth napkin afforded to me.

Was everything in this fucking place so opulent?

Jacob waited until my attention was fully on him. He kept his promise. “When Delilah finally wrangled you back onto that chopper, she came for me. She wasn’t gonna leave me behind, Bex. We don’t leave people behind, remember?”

I blinked. “But she asked me to leave you behind.”

“Because she knew you’d get peppered just like me if you weren’t on that chopper. She knew that you were vulnerable, but she wasn’t. That’s why she had you abandon me. But she didn’t. She got to me before I bled out through my legs and Bex? I was scared out of my fucking mind.”

I continue to eat. “I can only imagine, Jacob.”

He shrugged. “So, when she skidded to a stop in front of me, she covered me with her body and that’s when she told me who she was. What she was doing. Told me I had options, believe it or not.”

There. I finally had an in. I reached for my chalice of water and took another long pull. “And, uh… exactly what are you guys doing, anyway?”

Honestly? I didn’t expect him to answer. After all, no one just gives up whatever dastardly plot is brewing behind closed doors with that bitch. However, when his smile grew, I knew I was in for a wild ride.

I just didn’t realize how wild until he started talking.

“In the middle of the desert under the cover of night, with all of those bullets whizzing by us, Delilah covered my body with her own and told me that she was picking and choosing the best and brightest to convert and place within positions of power in our government.”

My heart dropped to my toes. “So, she’s taking over the government?”

He barked with laughter. “Not everyone is out to destroy the world, Bex. That’s what Delilah showed me. It’s easy to fall prey to that concept when we’ve lived the lives we’ve had to live and we’ve done the things we’ve had to do in the name of our government. But, look at what happened on that op. Look at what happened to me and what you were forced to do because you’re only human? Think of everything we could accomplish personally, and as a country, if our agents like you and me weren’t vulnerable to the kinds of things humans are?”

Oh, boy. “I suppose that makes sense.”

He held out his hands to me. “See? I knew once you heard the explanation, you wouldn’t be so spun up. How’s the food?”

I ate until I was content, but I sure as hell didn’t eat until I was full. I needed my wits about me at all times, and being in a food coma didn’t exactly help that much.

“Ooooh, come now,” Jacob said in that beckoning little grunt of his. “I know you’ve got questions.”

I finished eating my plate of food and leaned back in the cushioned chair. “Plenty.”

He leaned back in his chair, too, and shrugged. “I’m an open book.”

I studied him. “Are you really?”

He didn’t hesitate as a smirk crossed his face. “I am, really. Pepper me all you want.”

My face fell. “That’s not fucking funny.”

He held his hands up in mock surrender before he shrugged. “It’s… a little funny.”

I pinned him with a look. “Burying you at your fucking funeral wasn’t funny.”

His face grew solemn. “I’m sorry, Bex. I… couldn’t.”

I had to close my eyes and take a few deep breaths before I asked my first question. “So, our boss is picking and choosing people to turn into vampires in order to place them in important governmental positions to… help more people?”

“It’s more selfish than that for her.”

Bingo. “How so?”

He shrugged. “She’s tired of burying agents when she knows she could help them be capable of more. And I don’t blame her.”

Oh. “How many has she put in government positions? Do you know?”

“I know that she’s wanting to put enough there to run entire teams of vampires through covert operations. You know, those suicide cases that no one in their right mind takes on? She believes that covert teams of vampires would be more than able to execute those plans without a hitch.”

“So, she’s weaponizing vampires.”

His face grew legitimately frustrated, which told me that he believed what he said. But the question was: was it the truth?

“Bex, I get it. You’ve seen a rougher side of Delilah?—”

“We caught a vampire.”

He paused. “What?”

I sighed heavily. If I was going to get answers, I had to try and re-establish a connection with this man. Whether or not this was the Jacob that I knew was still up for debate. But, he looked like Jacob, sort of. And he certainly sounded like Jacob. He smiled like Jacob and laughed like Jacob. He even had Jacob’s mannerisms. So, I took that for what it was worth, and I drew in a deep breath.

I did my best to leave the guys out of it while I explained. “There’s a vampire that’s been shackled to some chains in a cave somewhere far away from here.”

Recognition swept over his face before he waved his hand in the air dismissively. “Oh, that. You don’t have to worry about that. We don’t hold you responsible for that.”

I wanted to ask who he did hold responsible, but I fought the urge. “That’s not the important part.”

“What’s the important part, then?”

I had to take a risk. It was the only way. It was a calculated risk. I still had no idea if the man sitting in front of me was someone who I could trust. It was clear that he was put in my path to manipulate me. Delilah wouldn’t have revealed him otherwise. I was fresh out of options, I had no idea where I was, and I didn’t have a fucking choice.

At least the guys are all right

I lowered my voice, not that I thought it would help in any way. “The vampire in the cave said that Delilah was building an army for battle, Jacob.”

He stared at me for a while before he snickered. “Bex. Don’t tell me you work for the CIA, but don’t realize that’s what we do day in, and day out.”

“We didn’t go into battle, Jacob. We?—”

“Fought our way out of the most ridiculous scenarios. I mean, come on, Bex. Did you not realize that every mission we were sent on was a miniature war? Complete with illegal automatic weapons firing at us every now and then?”

It took me some time to wrap my mind around his words. “So, she is gearing up for battle.”

He nodded. “To fight the fight we always do.”

“Against…?”

“The forces that want to do us wrong.”

“Which would be…?”

He paused. “You really don’t believe me, do you?”

I rolled my eyes. “If you’re preparing for battle, Jacob, then you’ve got a target. Who’s her target?”

He blinked. “Anyone that wants to do the U.S. wrong.”

I wanted to ask him how that justified slaughtering innocent shifters in the middle of the fucking woods. I wanted to ask him how the fuck that justified anything I witnessed while in those woods. I didn’t know if Jacob was brainwashed, or if he genuinely believed the bullshit pouring out of his mouth. But the evangelism of our love for our country did have a way with him sometimes. He was once a proud man with a proud badge and an even prouder disposition. Now, however, he just sounded like a walking propaganda poster.

But before I could find the words to respond, he nodded to my plate. “Eat up, Bex. You’re going to need your strength.”

His words sent a shiver down my spine as I reached for an apple. I didn’t know what the fuck to believe. I didn’t know where I was, what happened to Jacob, or even what time it was. But I knew one thing for certain. One thing, above all else.

I couldn’t trust anyone until I could get back to the guys.