Chameleon (Supernaturals) (48 page)

“I know,” I whispered. I just wished I believed it.

Princeton’s campus was so beautiful
it made me homesick. Not that anything in Carmine, Pennsylvania had rows of manicured trees lining old stone paths and buildings that looked like they’d been painted there, but my history geek parents would have loved Princeton. I wished I were here with them taking a college tour and not with the man I hate most in the world rushing to save my husband from the Angel of Death.

The Councilor heard my sigh and guessed my thoughts. Or, close enough anyway. “Your life is not over, Danielle. One day after the resistance is stopped and we are at peace, you and Gabriel may yet be able to attend a university such as this.”

“Right. Because Princeton accepts supernatural high school dropouts.”

“We will see to it that you finish your education.”

“Meaning that once again you are taking claim over my life.”

The Councilor looked like he thought he had the worst end of that arrangement. “Unfortunately you are needed,” he admitted. Grudgingly. “You have responsibilities.”

I gave up. My staying at the consulate was inevitable and I knew it. “And it’s Gabriel’s home,” I relented. “He wouldn’t be happy anywhere else.”

The Councilor glanced sideways at me. “You have finally accepted your fate then?”

“I’ve accepted Gabriel,” I clarified. “I will listen to him and respect his wishes, but you’re still a bastard. Good luck trying to get me to do anything you want without him.”

Mentioning the possibility of losing Gabriel killed the conversation and we picked up our pace, walking as fast as we could without drawing attention to ourselves.

“Figures,” I muttered when the Councilor led me to a huge building that looked like a medieval castle. “Haven’t you supernaturals ever heard of cliché?”

“Pyne Hall,” the Councilor said proudly. “My dormitory once upon a time.”

“Looks like it’s haunted.”

“Most likely. I couldn’t tell you for sure though. Never had a necromancer around to tell me.”

We entered the building and the Councilor led me down a long hallway, stopping in front of a giant tapestry. He looked around to make sure we were alone, and then waved his hands the way he’d done to uncover his secret elevator at the consulate. This time the tapestry melted away to reveal a large wooden door.

I groaned when it opened up to a dark set of steep spiral stairs. “Of course.”

“Careful now, Danielle. We do not know what we are walking into.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a really creepy room with Gabriel sleeping on an altar. I just hope we got here before the blood sacrifice part.”

“I meant, Danielle, that we do not know if Councilor Mason is alone.”

“He was alone in the vision.”

“Yes, but we do not know when the vision will take place. Right now he could be down there with a legion of resistance members. Stay close behind me and be as silent as possible.”

The Councilor closed the magical door behind us and the room went pitch black except for the faintest flicker of light coming from the bottom of the staircase. We moved slowly and when we reached the bottom of the stairs I recognized the large round room. My view was obstructed by a thick stone pillar, but I knew that just a few feet away I would find an altar and most likely Gabriel would be there lying in a magic-induced coma.

I tugged on the Councilor’s sleeve and whispered, “Give me your hand.”

“Do not tell me you are frightened, Danielle.”

“I’m not
scared
.” I refrained from calling the Councilor a nasty name. It wasn’t easy. “I’m a
Seer
. A little magic might come in handy here in a second.”

The Councilor stopped. “I will deal with Robert,” he said firmly. “He is an extremely powerful warlock and I do not wish to risk your safety more than is necessary. You just worry about freeing Gabriel.”

Before I could respond, the Councilor and I were ripped apart by an invisible force. I was thrown across the room and pinned up on the wall. I was tossed with just a bit too much force and smacked my head hard enough to rattle my vision.

“Sorry about the bump to your head there, Dani. Didn’t expect you to be with the Councilor,” a voice sang out from below me. Not just any voice though.

“Alex?” I called into the dim light. “What are you doing here? How did you find out about this place? Have you found Gabriel yet?”

“Gabriel’s fine.”

“Great. Let us down before Robert finds us. The Councilor is on our side. I promise. We’ve got to get out of here.”

“Robert is not coming, Danielle,” the Councilor said in a strained voice.

I followed the sound with my eyes and found him pinned on the wall opposite me. His body was trembling from the way he was trying to fight the magic holding him there. That’s when I realized Alex wasn’t there to help us. He was standing in the middle of the room, deep in concentration and starting to break a sweat as he held both the Councilor and me frozen. At his feet was a sleeping Gabriel, lying on the stone altar I’d seen in my vision.

“It’s
you
?” It was so impossible I couldn’t believe it.

Alex sighed. “I’m very sorry you had to find out about this, Dani. You and Russ were never supposed to know.”

“But—” I had so many questions running through my mind I wasn’t sure which to ask. I started with, “How did you find us?”

Alex laughed ruefully. “I’ve had a tracking spell on you and Russ since the first time Deputy McHale brought you home in the back of a squad car. I will always know where you are. I have to admit you snuck up on me though. I wasn’t expecting you to find me quite this fast. Of course, I didn’t think you’d go running to the Councilor either.”

I was a whirlwind of emotions and for the moment anger was winning out. “Gabriel was kidnapped! He was going to die! What was I supposed to do?”

“You were supposed to choose Russ!” Alex shouted.

I’d never seen him so angry. It was overwhelming enough that I finally realized what his being here meant. What he was trying to do. What he was going to do to Gabriel. “Alex this is crazy! Why are you doing this?”

“Because of Kate,” the Councilor said.

“Because of all humans!” Alex roared. “Kate was the strongest of them all and the truth drove her mad! She tried to kill her own child! You were right, Valois. I should have listened. Humans are worthless.”

“How can you say that?” I gasped. “My parents are human.”

“Your parents are idiots. If it weren’t for me you’d have grown up to be utterly useless.”

“But you’ve always been so nice to them. My mom and dad are your best friends.”

“Your mother and father had something I needed.”

“But—but—”

That’s when the betrayal sunk in. My eyes started to burn, but I refused to cry in front of Alex. He thought I was weak, raised by incompetents. Well he was going to be sorry. If I changed forms on my own once, I could do it again.

“The Angel of Death, Alexander?” the Councilor asked. “Leading the resistance to start a war between supernaturals and humans?”

“I have nothing to do with the resistance. As soon as I’ve raised Addonexus, my next item of business will be stopping them. They nearly killed my son. They will pay for that.”

“This is not the way,” the Councilor said. His voice sounded so full of pity that it caught my attention. His next words shocked me. “I am sorry about Kate, Alexander. Truly. All I ever wanted was to spare you that heartache, but let us not waste her death. Come back to the council, friend. Stop this nonsense and release the Seer. With our differences resolved we can create a peaceful world for our people together.”

“Our differences will never be resolved, Jacque. You made sure of that when you destroyed my wife. Kate is gone because of you, and now you’ve turned my children against me. You’ve taken my family from me.” Alex looked down at Gabriel with a hint of regret and muttered, “Eye for an eye.”

“Alex!” I cried. Tears began pouring from my eyes even though I’d promised myself I wouldn’t cry. Seeing this side of him hurt me. “How can you even think about doing that? Gabriel is innocent! You wouldn’t even let me kill Simone when she hurt Russ.”

Alex’s bitterness returned. “Only because we can use Simone. If it had been anyone but her they would have all been dead. I’m sorry Dani. I would let you keep Gabriel if I could, but we need a sacrifice.”

“For what?” I asked. “Why would you want to raise Addonexus?”

Alex narrowed his eyes at me. “I’d love to explain it to you but I’m afraid I just don’t trust you enough right now.”

Apparently I could add Alex to the list of people whose hearts I’d broken in the last twenty-four hours. When I’d chosen Gabriel, I’d chosen him over not just Russ, but Alex too, and it really hurt him. He’d done a good job of hiding it until now.

“You are a fool if you believe you can accomplish this task,” the Councilor hissed.

“And you are a fool if you think you can stop me.”

I tuned out Alex and the Councilor as they bantered back and forth. Their argument was the perfect distraction for me to try and do something. “Concentrate, Dani,” I muttered to myself.

I could feel the magic Alex was using to hold me in place licking the surface of my skin. It was warm and prickly and it called to my inner warlock. I tried to grab on to it. Tried to use it to pull my own magic to the surface and for a brief moment I felt Alex’s grip on me waver.

Alex felt the pressure too. His head whipped back my direction and it felt like a wall slammed into place against my entire body. “Not so fast Dani,” he said, chuckling. “I love that you’re really starting to get a handle on those powers of yours, but you need to hold off just a little while longer.”

Alex snapped his attention suddenly back to the Councilor and shouted some word I didn’t understand. The Councilor went smashing back against the wall again. I noticed he didn’t receive any apology for the nasty bump he’d soon have on his head.

“You can’t hold both of us forever,” the Councilor said. “You will exhaust yourself soon and all of your efforts will be wasted.”

“Well you’re very right about that, unfortunately.”

Alex sighed and then looked back at me. I could see now how much he was struggling to hold his spell. His brow was sheen with sweat and his chest heaved severely. His skin was growing pale and there were even dark circles forming beneath his eyes. He didn’t have much longer.

He met my eyes and smiled at me, that same endearing fatherly smile I’d known forever. It broke my heart in two. It hurt because I hated him for being able to still look at me like that, and yet I was relieved to see his affection for me.

“Sleep, Dani,” he said—almost cooed—warmly. “And when you wake up everything will be as it should be.”

Alex muttered an incantation and I immediately felt another warm rush of magic swirl around me. I was gently lowered to the floor and as I dropped I could feel the effects of sleep taking over me.

I realized I was going to end up taking a magical nap with Gabriel, just like Romeo and Juliet. I appreciated the irony, but it turns out tragedy isn’t quite as beautiful when it has your name on it. I couldn’t let Gabriel and myself share the star-crossed lovers’ fate. We could not die today. Which meant I couldn’t pass out. I had to fight the spell.

I tried to stay awake, but it felt like I’d swallowed about eighteen bottles of NyQuil. It was too big an effort to breathe, much less make my way to Gabriel.

Across the room I could see that a battle of magic had begun between the Councilor and Alex. I could see them flying about and hear their crashes and angry shouts, but I couldn’t focus on them. I couldn’t tell what they were doing or who was going to win. I could barely keep myself awake enough to remember Gabriel was near.

I started to crawl toward the middle of the room but the more I tried to move, the more tired I became. I only got half way before I felt my eyes close. I was so tired that the second I stopped moving it felt so nice to give up that I relaxed and let the sleep come.

Instead of the world turning black around me everything faded to a pure blinding white light. I shielded my eyes and a figure came into focus. Just a silhouette at first, but as the figure drew near I could see the outline of a woman. A girl really—no more than twenty.