Chapter 19: Chapter 18

We drove through town and stopped once to put blindfolds on. I thought Emily was going to hyperventilate, but Bennett skimmed a kiss over her forehead and she quieted. Even as the ‘bad guy’, he still had power over her. Then Kates turned and handed me the blindfold. I looked at it dumbly for a moment, but saw the appeal in her eyes. If I fought it, I wasn’t sure if she would’ve overtaken me and put the blindfold on or if she would’ve allowed Bennett to do it. It didn’t matter either way. I tied it behind my head and waited for Bennett to finish tying Adam’s.

Adam. What could I even say about him? I couldn’t think about him, not yet. I didn’t even know what I thought anymore. Kates. Adam. Myself. Emily—betrayal was running rampant in these parts of Benshire.

After the blindfolds were checked a second time the van pulled ahead and we drove in silence the rest of the way. It slowed and turned upwards onto a gravel road. It wasn’t long until we stopped and not one word was spoken.

The air felt heavy.

Suddenly, the door was thrown open and the cold blasted us. I flinched once, but refused to do it again.

“Come on, Davy,” Kates urged softly.

I swallowed tightly and jumped out of the van. I felt Kates’ alien touch as she grasped my arm and aligned herself to walk beside me. Emily whimpered behind me. Bennett shushed her in a seductive voice and then a door opened ahead of us and classical melodies greeted us. It seemed like an odd contrast, but the music echoed around us as we stood there. The place was large. Then I felt another ominous feeling start to tingle in my gut. Murmurs of conversation stopped when we stepped further into the room and I heard people, vampires?, stand up.

It was our entrance. Our hostage entrance—the thought struck me as amusing. I grinned, but I was instantly revolted at the idea that I might find something like this entertaining. Nothing was funny about the situation. Then I heard Emily’s sobs of terror and sobered completely.

“Come on, Davy,” Kates’ restrained murmur hit my ears. Her request was unwelcome, but I couldn’t fight back. I wanted to do something, to use my powers in someway… and then suddenly I was.

I gasped silently as I saw the room. My vision was slightly blurry with a dark reddish tint to it. I felt Kates look to her right and I saw that side of the room. That’s when I realized that I still had my blindfold on. I wasn’t seeing this through my eyes. I saw through Kates. I had slipped inside of her and was viewing the room through her eyes.

I had been right. The room ~was~ full of vampires. All of them stood and watched our slow trek. I instantly knew these vampires weren’t from Benshire. They were dressed differently. Some wore leather vests. Some wore long flowing velvet red coats, fringed at the ends. Some dressed in feather tunics. Still others wore nothing except tight jeans. The one thing they had in common was a symbol that ran over the left arm and left shoulder. It was the letter L. That was the entire symbol, but it spoke volumes.

This was Lucan’s Family.

I counted thirty on that side of the room before Kates glanced to the left and there I was. My head was bent. The blindfold was perfectly placed. I had a sneer of anger on my face. I smiled and watched as my lips tried to curve upwards, but failed. It didn’t look pretty. I sighed and saw myself sigh. I wished Kates would look somewhere else.

She didn’t and I felt remorse blast throughout Kates as we walked forward.

I tripped when my foot hit against a step and I saw nothing anymore. I stumbled out of her and concentrated on the stairwell. It curved upwards for two flights of stairs. We went down a hallway and then climbed another set of stairs. It felt more like a mausoleum. There was a dull swish across the floor ahead of us and I knew it was the sound of a heavy door being opened.

Kates led me inside and released my arm. A second later the door closed and I waited, holding my breath. When nothing else happened, I lifted my blindfold. I rapidly blinked as my eyes adjusted to our surroundings. The room was dark so I crossed to the wall and felt for a light switch. As my fingers ran across a cold plastic box, I felt the outline of a switch and flipped it up.

Light surrounded us.

We’d been put in a room that looked like a museum display. A huge king-sized bed stood in one corner with gold posts that led and hooked to a sheer canopy. It dipped halfway to the ground.

I counted six chairs that looked like thrones. Each of them was upholstered with red velour material. It reminded me of medieval times and I almost expected a court jester to dance out from behind one.

“What?” Emily gasped and whirled in a tight circle with her blindfold still on.

I rolled my eyes and reached to remove it. She shrieked until she saw that I held the blindfold in my hand.

“Oh.” She sounded a little disappointed.

“You need to drop that guy, Em.” It wasn’t a suggestion.She flushed and hung her head. “I know, but I’m weak and I think I’m on a little something.”

Think? She was.

Adam groaned from the corner and I turned to see that he had sat on a chair. He gripped his blindfold tight in his hand and didn’t look at us. No one said anything for a moment. It was almost as if there was too much to say that we didn’t know where to start.

Then Emily exclaimed, “We’ve been kidnapped! I can’t believe it. Why? Are they doing it for ransom? What’s going on? Why are you so calm, Davy?”

I ignored Emily for the moment and stood in front of Adam. He saw the tips of my ballet slippers and gulped. His jaw clenched before he lifted his eyes to mine. There it was. I saw it in his eyes. I knew a cheater when I saw one.

“You’re with Shelly?” I asked it quietly, but so damning.

Guilt was all over him, but he rasped out, “I didn’t… I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. Shelly was lonely and crying the other night when we went out with that guy. You kissed him and I… I got so jealous. I kissed Shelly. Your friend, Kates, saw us. She was going into the Shoilster and caught us.”

I frowned. That explained… some of it.

They’d said the Immortal and the Immortal’s boyfriend. Adam had looked guilty… none of this made sense. “Adam, they took us because of you. You know that, right? They grabbed you first.”

“Because Kates is psychotic!” Emily laughed hysterically. She rounded to perch precariously on a dark purple velvet couch beside Adam’s throne. She shook her head and her hand lifted to pull at the ends of her hair. “She was probably so angry that he was two-timing you that she seduced Bennett. She persuaded him to kidnap us all. It’s all because of her.”

My roommate was crazy, stupid, ~and~ under the influence of vampire lust.

Adam frowned, but didn’t address Emily’s weird ramblings. Instead, he sounded sincere. “I am so sorry, Davy. The thing with Shelly happened so quick and then I asked you out yesterday. I never thought you’d actually say yes. You were with that guy, even though you said that the kiss was just because of his girlfriend. And then you said you liked me and I liked you too—I ~like~ you. I still like you, but this happened… and… I was going to break up with Shelly tonight. I just didn’t call her yet.”

Well, if my math added correctly, I highly doubted he would’ve gotten in touch with her. Kates and the Lucan Family thought Adam was the Immortal’s boyfriend. I knew that Roane had the Immortal. Everything should’ve added up so that meant—Shelly was the girl that Talia had brushed arms with the night before she jumped. They thought Shelly was the Immortal.

“But why kidnap you?” I asked the question out loud to myself, but I jumped when Emily answered.

“Kates is behind all of this. I already told you that. She’s doing this to get even with Adam because she thinks he cheated on you. She’s crazy. Your friend is crazy.”

The crazy one was the one talking. I sighed and closed my eyes. My insides were a whirlwind. Everything was happening too fast and not fast enough. “None of this makes sense.”

“What guy?” Emily must’ve finally heard Adam.

“Huh?” Adam looked at her.

“You said that Davy kissed a guy. Who? She only likes you.” Could my roommate be more blunt?

“Emily,” I hissed. “Shut up.”

Adam frowned, ever so helpful. “I never got his name. We were never introduced, but he was tall.”

“These people…,” Emily murmured, tearful. “What kind of people could do this?”

Kidnappers. Heartless soulless people. Vampires.

I watched as my roommate tried to make sense of what she couldn’t understand. She really thought Bennett was a person, someone with a soul. She didn’t understand the power he had over her. She clung to what she wanted to believe. And Adam—he just saw his own guilt. I felt a tear at the corner of my eye, but I swallowed painfully and brushed it away. Adam was the guy that I had thought all along. He was so human that he was… human. He got jealous. He made a mistake. Then he got caught up in the situation. Neither of them had a clue what was really going on. I was envious of their naiveté. It was my fault Emily was crying. It was my fault that Adam looked so shameful. Both of them were innocent in this entire thing.

I was the Immortal.

Then the door was pushed open. Emily jumped, but she didn’t squeal this time. Thankfully.

Adam looked up.

“Davy,” Kates called me. A strand of her dirty blonde hair had slipped down to frame the corner of her cheek. Her sea blue eyes were bright and clear. She fully knew what she was doing. There was no vampire lust that filtered her decisions.

I took a small breath. I needed to accept the inevitable. Kates had betrayed me, but the sad part was that she didn’t know she betrayed me. I did know one thing, though. Kates wasn’t there to kill vampires. She was there for an entirely different reason.

“Come on,” she beckoned and I went.