“
Marcus, couldn’t you have gotten through the guards?” Even I could have done that much.
“
Yes my dear child, but I fear they would have pierced her heart before they let me take her.” My mouth dropped open. Were they really so cruel? “Half-breeds are highly illegal in the states. The VC believes that there is a vampire in the city creating more half-breeds.”
Claudia sighed heavily through her nose. “That means the VC will invade the city.” She laid her head on the table, distraught. Marcus came to stand behind her. “We’ll have to leave.”
“
Not if you don’t have Nadia with you,” Dominick remarked.
I was glad that Claudia and David glared at him enough so that I didn’t have to. “That’s not very helpful,” Claudia said with disgust. He just grinned at her. I was barely paying attention to them though.
Several things became suddenly very clear. One: Nadia was alive; two: she was still in the city; and three: someone had to go get her.
Chapter Thirty
–Five
“
I think I should go.”
“
No.” Dominick had his arms crossed over his chest in a no nonsense way. His expression was dark.
Anger was my immediate response. “Who asked you?” I snapped.
“
It doesn’t matter.” He didn’t move.
My eyebrows came together in rage. “Listen—” I started but he cut me off.
“
I will not have you going on a suicide mission to save some half-breed.” His own eyebrows came together to match mine.
“
I don’t have to listen to you, you’re nothing to me,” I said through clenched teeth.
“
It doesn’t matter.” He separated each syllable. His eyes flashed anger.
“
You’re right. It doesn’t matter what you think.” I tried hard to sound nonchalant. He made a noise low in his throat. “Are you actually growling at me?” I hissed.
“
You’re not going.” He took a step closer to me.
“
Yes, I am.” I took a step towards him.
“
No, you’re not.” A step closer.
“
Yes, I am.” Our faces were inches away from each other. We were both breathing heavy and glaring.
“
Ok, ok, ok.” We both snapped our heads to see who had spoken. David was standing with his arms outstretched.
“
Ok what?” I demanded.
“
You two fighting isn’t going to solve anything.”
“
He has no right to tell me what to do.” I jabbed my finger into Dominick’s face, which was still too close to mine. It irritated me that I noticed the way he smelled.
He pushed my finger roughly away from his face. “No one is going to let you go.” He turned pointedly to David.
“
Are you going to take his side?” I asked David.
“
No, I’m just…”
“
Because you know,” I cut him off, “that he just called her a half-breed.” David’s eyebrows raised a fraction. I turned back to Dominick, who hadn’t moved. I was momentarily confused by his closeness.
“
That’s what she is,” he said evenly.
“
That’s what I am too.” I watched his eyes narrow as he heard my thoughts. “Would you just leave me?”
“
You are different,” David interjected before I could embarrass myself any further.
I took two steps away from Dominick before I looked at David. “Why am I different?”
“
You wouldn’t need to be saved,” he said simply and matter-of-factly.
I processed that for a minute. “You’re right,” I agreed. I would not need anyone to come rescue me, I could escape by myself.
“
But Nadia does,” Dominick said.
David and I both turned to look at him in disbelief. “But you just said—” I shook my head. I would never understand him.
“
I said you weren’t going,” he moved his eyes slowly to look at me.
“
I widened my eyes. “You’re going to go?”
He snarled his lip. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
I growled in frustration. “I’m going!” I shouted.
“
Ok, Eva,” Claudia bravely put herself between Dominick and I.
“
What?” I snapped at her.
“
I actually agree with Dominick,” she said hurriedly.
“
That she’s not worth saving?”
“
I didn’t…”
“
That you shouldn’t be the one to go,” Claudia interrupted him before he could start again.
“
Who do you suggest goes?” David asked.
“
Me,” she stopped when Marcus opened his mouth to protest, “or you,” she finished. “Someone strong.”
“
I am strong,” I reminded them. My declaration fell on deaf ears; they kept talking as if I hadn’t said anything. Dominick listened to them, but kept his eyes on me. I did my best not to glare at him.
“
If you just catch them off guard and take her,” Claudia was saying.
“
Yes, but we don’t know what kind of physical state she is in. I may have to carry her.”
“
You’re not strong enough to carry a half-human?” Marcus appeared disgusted.
“
It’s been a long time since I’ve fed on human blood,” David defended himself.
“
How long?”
“
Years,” he answered elusively.
“
Come on, how long?”
“
I haven’t fed on human blood since I joined with Neleh,” David admitted.
“
What?”
“
Maybe even a few years before that.”
“
And you’re a third generation,” Claudia added.
“
What’s a third generation?” The way Claudia said it, a third generation was obviously bad. “What does that mean?”
Three pairs of eyes turned to look at me, finally realizing that I was still standing there. Then they turned back to each other. They weren’t even going to answer me!
“
A third generation,” Dominick’s voice suddenly purred, “means that David is not as strong as the rest of us.”
I reluctantly turned to give my full attention to him. “Meaning?”
“
Us, meaning me, Achilles, Elizabeth, and Marcus,” he said calmly.
The man made my insides boil. I bit the inside of my mouth until I tasted blood. “Eva, don’t do that,” David scolded off-handedly.
“
That, with the fact that David feeds on synthetic blood doesn’t make him the best candidate to go,” Dominick continued. He seemed amused by the whole idea.
“
I’m still stronger than humans though.” David stood with his arms crossed. No way would I let him go.
“
Explain third generation to me,” I demanded.
“
First generation is Kiera and the guards. Second is the warriors,” David explained, “and third would be the vampires made by the warriors.”
“
Like you and Claudia?”
“
Yes. Like me and Claudia.” His eyes darted to where Claudia stood. She seemed very intent on listening to David.
“
And that makes you weak.”
“
It makes us weak to the warriors,” Claudia said distastefully.
Dominick smiled.
“
The mutation gene gets weaker as it is passed along. In the vampire world — third generations are only about half as powerful as the warriors and the warriors are only half as powerful as the guards.”
“
So in the vampire world, you are the weakest,” I concluded.
“
Yes.”
“
But not to humans,” Claudia pointed out.
“
To humans, we are all humans,” Marcus said.
“
So eventually the vampire gene will disappear?”
“
It’s never been tested. We aren’t allowed to make new vampires.”
“
What does it matter anyways? We aren’t going anywhere.”
“
And you, David, would be weaker still,” I acted as if Dominick hadn’t said anything, “because of the synthetic blood.”
“
Boy, you catch on quick,” Dominick taunted me.
I clenched my fist and opened my mouth to retort, but David put his hand on my arm. “Eva, it will be fine. I will go.”
“
You are not going.” Why did I sound like Dominick? He smiled, hearing my thoughts. I really hated when he did that.
“
We’re wasting time.”
“
Exactly. Just let me go.” I thought about crossing my arms, but I didn’t want to look like a little child.
David took a deep breath and crossed the room to sit by himself on the couch. He pinched the bridge of his nose. I could tell he was worried about Nadia.
“
Where are they now?” I asked.
“
I can’t hear them anymore,” Marcus said. “They are most likely out of the city by now.”
“
Where are Elizabeth and Achilles?”
“
They said they would be back within an hour.”
“
They’ve only been gone twenty-nine minutes.”
“
We need to go.”
“
We’ll wait for them, then we’ll go.”
“
Then we need to decide on a plan.”
And there we were, we had talked ourselves into a circle. I rolled my eyes and went to join David on the couch. He looked up when I sat down, even though he had to have known it was me. He didn’t bother to smile, he was calculating — figuring things out.
The others were still talking, but I wasn’t listening to what they were saying. “David,” I whispered.
His eyes focused. “Yeah?”
“
Will they kill her?” My whispered words echoed through the suddenly silent room. I kept my eyes on David.
“
The VC won’t kill her. They won’t have to.” His eyes lost focus and his expression became pained. “The colonies are brutal Eva. They’ll kill each other.”
I blinked and looked away. Nadia’s face flashed in my head. I saw her as she was that morning. Incredible that it was just that morning we were laughing about her feelings for David. She had been so scared when the VC stopped us. And I had just left her.
I fingered the bandages on my wrist. Horror filled me. “David…”
“
Yeah,” he quietly acknowledged what I had guessed.
They would have already cut off Nadia’s hand. She could already be dead. If she wasn’t, it was impossible not to imagine what they must be doing to her. Anger and desperation washed over me.
I bit back the bile and the tears that threatened to show my weakness. They would never let me go if they thought I was weak.
“
We won’t let you go anyways,”
Dominick’s voice sounded so close I had to turn and see if he was sitting next to me. He was still standing over with the others but he was staring directly at me. Had he spoken?
“Eva, you can’t go. They will catch you again. It’s too dangerous.”
I heard his voice again but his lips never moved.
I hated that I felt so connected to him.
“It’s not your decision,”
I thought loudly, hoping he would hear.
“
Why are you so eager to get yourself killed?”
“
Dominick, just trust me. I won’t get killed.”
“
Just imagine that I was Nickolas.”
“
What?”
“
Would Nickolas let you go?”
“
I don’t…”
“
No, he wouldn’t. I wouldn’t Eva.”
“
But you’re not Nickolas!”
Even though I didn’t say it out loud, I was pretty sure that the whole room heard that thought.
I stood up abruptly and stomped all the way to the front door. Who cares if I was acting childish? Let them think whatever they wanted; I need to get out of that room.
“
Where are you going?” David’s voice made me pause.
“
Outside.” Maybe I could find Elizabeth.
“
Why?”
“
I need some air.” She would help me find Nadia.
“
Don’t go far; I don’t want you captured again.”
Me captured? Why would he think that I would let them…I sucked in a breath of air. The thought was genius. If I was captured again, they would… I stopped my thoughts and glanced quickly at Dominick. Had he heard me? He was looking at Marcus. They seemed to be having an internal conversation because Dominick nodded his head. He must not have heard. “I won’t,” I said out loud to David.
“
Eva, stay close.”
“
I heard you the first time,” I snapped.
He looked at me with narrowed eyes but let me duck outside. Before my thought could fully formulate a plan, Dominick was beside me. “What are you doing?” he purred.