Blood Seeker Read online

  Stas scowled after her. “That’s helpful.”

  “What has Sethios found?” Luc asked, his emerald irises blazing with unworldly knowledge. Sometimes his omniscience frightened her. Yet she couldn’t doubt the useful nature of his strategic abilities.

  Her heart gave a slight pang for the loss of his father, his death having occurred on this very beach.

  If it bothered Luc, he didn’t show it. However, the bags beneath his eyes indicated he hadn’t slept in quite some time. While Hydraians didn’t require sleep, she suspected it hurt to go without it.

  She cleared her throat to focus on his question, telling him about the conversation she’d just had with her father and Gabriel and how they were speculating that her mother might not be at the bottom of the ocean at all.

  “They ran into Osiris?” Alik asked, his dark brow winging upward. “And I wasn’t invited to the party?”

  “He ambushed them in Maine,” Stas explained. “I guess he knew they’d show up there eventually because it was near my mother’s drowning site. But he told them she’s no longer there.”

  “And they believed him?” Alik didn’t bother to hide his irritation at the concept.

  “He released Skye from her compulsion,” Stas added. “He claimed it was a gift for me.”

  Luc stared at her. “A gift?”

  “Yeah, Gabriel convinced him that I needed a show of good faith to consider talking to him.” She snorted. “Not that it will ever happen.”

  Alik scoffed, just as Stas had when she first heard the asinine idea. Luc, however, nodded, mostly to himself.

  “That’s a decent strategy. I imagine he also suggested your mother as an offering, which Osiris claimed he couldn’t do because she’s not where he left her.” He dipped his chin again. “Yes, I see why they believe him. Caro would be the best card for Osiris to play, and he hasn’t. That indicates it’s not his card to play. Interesting.”

  Alik considered it and shrugged. “Maybe he plans to play that card later.”

  Aya, the Seraphim just issued Gabriel an edict to rid his premises of the abominations—preferably by death—and then report to the council. With you. Issac’s warm tones belied the ice of his words.

  Stas froze. What did he say to that?

  He vaguely agreed.

  Has Ezekiel returned? she wondered.

  Not to this room, no. The Seraphim has only seen me, Sethios, your brother, and Owen. My guess is he’s tending to Skye.

  What about Tristan? He was the only other Ichorian at Stark’s right now. Everyone else had returned to Hydria for the time being.

  He’s staying silent upstairs.

  Stas didn’t particularly like the sound-controlling Ichorian, but he was Issac’s progeny and therefore important. So she felt a small measure of satisfaction at learning he was all right.

  Do you need me to find Jacque and send him to you? She phrased it in a way that didn’t give her location away since he didn’t want her to tell him where Ezekiel had taken her.

  No, the Seraphim seems to feel the edict is enough to force Gabriel’s compliance.

  Is it? She’d meant that as a musing more than a real question, but Issac replied anyway.

  Was it enough for your mum? he countered, a smile in his voice.

  No.

  Then I doubt it’s enough for your brother.

  “The Seraphim delivered an edict to Gabriel. They want the abominations removed from his property, preferably by death. And they want him to appear before the council. With me.” Stas looked at Luc. “That’s not going to happen.”

  “You’re right. It’s not,” Leela agreed, reappearing again. “If they have your mother, then she’s being rehabilitated. Which is exactly where they’ll take you and Gabriel after you arrive. That’s where I’ll end up as well if the theory about Chanara—your grandmother—is accurate.” She visibly shuddered at the words.

  “How does one rehabilitate a Seraphim?” Luc asked.

  “Rehabilitation is used to correct the broken ones of our kind,” she replied softly. “It’s a program that helps us relearn our status in life and reminds us why emotions have no place in our society.”

  “By doing what?” he pressed.

  “Whatever is necessary.” She swallowed. “If Caro is there, well, they would do everything they can to break her blood bond with Sethios. Or, at the very least, degrade it to a point where she no longer considers it relevant.”

  “Which would explain why my father can’t sense her.”

  “Yes,” Leela whispered. “Because there would be nothing to sense. She would consider herself nonexistent and therefore be nonexistent. No heartbeat. No thoughts. Just a being waiting to be reborn into whatever purpose the council chooses.”

  That sounded… awful. “Gabriel thinks her memories are playing on a loop.”

  Leela’s bright blue-green eyes flickered with understanding. “They’re using her pain in a practical manner to manipulate the emotions of those bonded to her. If it hurts too much to pay attention to her mind and soul, then you ignore the obvious.”

  Stas didn’t know how to reply to that. Mostly because she couldn’t wrap her head around such cold cruelty. But with every piece of information falling into place, it seemed more and more likely that her mother was no longer drowning. She’d been transferred to an even worse prison—Seraphim rehabilitation.

  Issac, Stas whispered before relaying to him everything Leela had just said. I think Stark and my dad are right, she concluded. The Seraphim have my mom.

  No, Aya, he replied, already knowing what she was going to suggest. You are not going there with Gabriel.

  But it makes sense, doesn’t it? They’ve just presented us with a perfect opportunity to find and save her.

  Or trap you in the same damn state, he snapped. Absolutely not. However, even as he said it, she sensed his mind working through the same calculations that she’d already done.

  I’m not saying I’ll go right now, she confirmed softly. I just… I think we need to explore the opportunity.

  He didn’t reply, his hesitation and fear vivid in their bond.

  Tell Gabriel, she said, the two words more of a suggestion than a command. See what he says.

  I already know what he’ll say, Issac muttered back at her. I’m going to tell your father instead. He’ll see reason.

  She snorted. Ganging up on me with my dad now?

  If that’s what it takes to keep you safe, then yes.

  Just consider it.

  No.

  Liar, she accused softly. I know you see the opportunity here.

  She could admit it was a rash decision, one she intended to think through entirely before agreeing. But she wanted her lover to at least consider it with her.

  Instead, he fell silent once more, causing her to sigh.

  “Your brother is being stubborn,” she told Luc. They technically weren’t brothers by blood, but they shared a father figure in Aidan. He was Luc’s dad by blood, and Issac’s maker.

  Jacque teleported in with a plate in his hand and a fork at his lips. He appeared to be eating some sort of cake. “B needs you, Feathers. He says to meet him at Jay’s place.” He was already teleporting again as the last word left his mouth.

  “Feathers?” Stas repeated.

  “Leela,” Alik explained, rolling his eyes. “It’s Jacque’s pet name for her.”

  The Seraphim smiled. “Have you come up with one for me yet, handsome?”

  “Trouble,” he drawled.

  Her sea-colored eyes sparkled. “I like it.”

  “I’m sure you do,” he returned. “Go play with B. He’s more your style.”

  “And how would you know?” she asked him.

  “Because you saved his life on the beach?” Stas suggested, arching a brow. “Not that I’m complaining, but why did you do that, exactly?”

  “She saved Balthazar’s life?” Luc asked, his eyebrows shooting upward.

  Leela put on an expression of co
ntrived innocence. “I’m sure I have no idea what any of you are talking about.” She shot a look at Stas, then disappeared into a flurry of purple once more.

  “What did you see?” Luc demanded. “Are you talking about the night of the wedding reception?”

  Uh, oops. She hadn’t meant to step into a situation she knew little about.

  “Um, yeah, she was there that night and took a few bullets that were meant for B. At least, I think that’s what I saw. But everything happened in a blur, so I could be wrong.” She wasn’t wrong. She knew what she’d seen that night. It had distracted her so entirely that it’d caused her own death in the process. Which had led to being buried alive, and yeah, that had sucked.

  She cleared her throat. “So, how’s Lizzie?” Her best friend was very pregnant, despite having conceived in October. And it was only January, or was it February now? Stas had lost track of the time, what with dying and coming back to life and then saving her father from an insane, millennia-old immortal, and everything else that had happened in between those events.

  Her head spun from the events that had occurred since Christmas. Learning her best friend wasn’t exactly human and likely about to give birth to a Seraphim was just the icing on the cake.

  “Can I see her?” she asked when no one responded.

  “That depends. How do you feel about hormonal women?” Alik considered her while he spoke. “Never mind. You’ll be fine.” He turned on the beach, walking away from the homes and toward a more remote area. “If anyone needs me, I’ll be patrolling.”

  “I’ll take you to see Lizzie,” Luc offered, his voice soft. “If you tell me exactly what you saw that night.”

  Yeah, he wasn’t going to drop that anytime soon. Primarily because he was all-knowing and the Hydraian King. He needed to understand what had happened to better process the situation. “Can I detail it along the way?”

  “Yes,” he agreed, gesturing toward the path behind them rather than to the trail Alik had created with his sneakers. “Then you can tell me the plan my brother disapproves of. Perhaps I can be of assistance.”

  Stas hadn’t mentioned that Issac disapproved of her idea, but she wasn’t surprised that Luc had inferred as much from her “your brother is being stubborn” comment. It also didn’t shock her that Luc might want to help. He tended to be the voice of reason. Which was why she obliged him with the details he craved as they walked, leaving nothing out, including her seeing Aidan fall.

  It hurt to discuss that night. Yet it also provided her with a therapy of sorts. Jonathan had taken so much from them. He was dead now, yet his legacy hung over their heads in an ominous cloud, one she very much wanted to dismantle. And with every word, she could feel that presence weakening.

  It was fascinatingly cathartic.

  She only hoped Luc felt the same because if anyone needed to release some of his anger over the events, it was him.

  Unfortunately, something told her it wouldn’t be that easy for him. He’d lost so much that night. Rather than grieve, he bore the brunt of those events and carried all of it on his shoulders. Because he had to be strong for his people, which didn’t allow him to break.

  How lonely he must feel, she realized, her heart aching for him. Alas, she knew better than to breathe a word of it. He couldn’t afford for anyone to see through his show of strength. So, instead, she confided in his wisdom, providing him with the power he needed to thrive.

  We’re on our way there, Aya, Issac informed her just as she reached Jayson’s house. See you in a few seconds, love.

  Astasiya’s best friend was very pregnant. Sethios had met the woman once before under less-than-comfortable circumstances. He’d helped her escape his father’s captivity by compelling her to run.

  While his actions probably appeared gallant to her, they weren’t meant for her. Sethios had merely wanted to infuriate his father.

  The bastard had persuaded Sethios to sew his mouth shut as a punishment for his lack of obedience—something he hadn’t understood at that time but realized now was a residual for his dalliance with Caro. To get the old man back, Sethios had encouraged the curvy redhead to flee.

  Then his father had paid him back by forcing his hair to grow.

  That’d been excruciating, yet worth it. Especially now that he knew the girl’s importance to his daughter.

  The two of them were sitting on the couch with bowls of ice cream. Elizabeth, or Lizzie, as she preferred to be called, was talking animatedly about the nursery Jayson had built for the baby. Sethios had never heard of a Hydraian being able to procreate, which he said now to Issac.

  “Elizabeth was created in Jonathan’s lab,” the male replied softly, his voice pitched low so as not to be overheard by the females in Jayson’s living area. The reason for his softness was evident as a result of the sensitive nature of his comment.

  “Jonathan, as in the Ichorian who forced truths from others?” Sethios asked, clarifying whom he meant.

  “Yes. He and your father were working together on experiments through the Catastrophic Relief Foundation.”

  “I’m familiar with the CRF and my father’s pet projects,” Sethios confirmed. “But I wasn’t privy to the details.” Nor had he honestly tried to learn more about it. He just assumed it was another one of his schemes to craft and mold a stronger army against the Seraphim.

  “One of those pet projects is Elizabeth. She has Seraphim genetics but was carried to term by a mortal female,” Issac murmured. “From what Ezekiel has said, your father had her created for mating. To replace you.”

  Sethios snorted. “Sounds like something he would do. But the baby isn’t his, right?”

  “Jayson’s the father.”

  “Interesting. I’m surprised Osiris allowed her to keep the child.” Another thought occurred to him immediately following that statement. “Ah, I see. He considers this a test run.”

  It would be just like his father to fully trial the experiment before bothering to use the product. Unfortunately, that meant Elizabeth was a ticking time bomb. The moment she proved viable, Osiris would come for her again.

  “What security measures are in place to protect her?” Sethios wondered out loud. “Aside from the usual Guardians.”

  “Should I take that as an insult?” Jayson asked as he entered the kitchen area that overlooked his living room. “You don’t think I can protect my wife?”

  “Wife?” Sethios’s eyebrows hit his hairline. “Is that your pet name, or did you actually buy into that human bullshit?”

  Issac grinned, explaining, “Elizabeth was raised in a mortal society. She very much values the sanctity of marriage. I’m waiting for her to plan Astasiya’s wedding.”

  Sethios gaped at the man. “You’re going to marry my daughter now?”

  He lifted a shoulder. “It’s a frivolous ceremony meant to appease family and friends.”

  Yeah, fuck that. “It would not please me in the slightest.”

  “Does that mean I don’t have your blessing?”

  “Considering she’s still seven in my eyes, no. You absolutely do not.”

  “Then I suppose it’s fortuitous that Astasiya doesn’t require your approval to marry,” Issac replied without missing a beat.

  “I’m doing what now?” Astasiya asked as she joined them, her green eyes wide as she gaped at the suit-clad male. “We’re already married.”

  Issac’s lips twitched. “Indeed we are,” he agreed.

  Sethios’s blood ran cold. “You married my daughter?”

  “I’m sensing a hint of animosity surrounding the whole wedding thing,” Jayson interjected, waving his hand in the air. “I had no idea you bought into this ‘human bullshit.’ ”

  There was a time when others feared Sethios and what he could do. He wondered when the fuck that had changed. Less than two decades of imprisonment did not compare to several millennia of life.

  “Did you just call our wedding bullshit?” The feminine voice drew everyone’s gaze to the
pregnant female in the doorway.

  And the pigment in Jayson’s skin went from tan to stark white in a second.

  Sethios smirked, delighted by the change.

  Until the female began to cry.

  That put an immediate end to his amusement and struck a chord of terror inside him instead. Dealing with upset women was not in Sethios’s repertoire.

  “No, Red. I swear, that’s not what I meant at all.” Jayson tried to console the female with his outstretched arms, but she stepped back, her lower lip wobbling in a way that had Astasiya jumping in to wrap the female in a hug.

  “They were talking about me and Issac,” she quickly explained. “You know Jay loves you. He planned the whole wedding, Liz. He did it for you.”

  “But considers it bullshit,” the girl said, her shoulders hunching.

  Oh, for fuck’s sake. “I said it was bullshit,” Sethios interjected. “He was throwing my words back at me. Weddings are a human invention, one I clearly don’t understand.”

  How the hell had they gone from discussing Caro’s whereabouts in the Seraphim world to bantering about weddings?

  Sethios shook his head and left the room, not having time for this asinine discussion. He’d explained the situation with a few words. If the girl chose to give in to her pregnancy hormones, that was on her.

  He stepped through the threshold to breathe in the island air, his heart thudding painfully in his chest.

  A part of him couldn’t stand being around the pregnant female inside because she reminded him too much of Caro and her pregnancy with Astasiya. What he wouldn’t give to go back to that time and hold them once more, to safeguard them within the protection of his arms.

  Caro hadn’t spoken to him again since the Seraphim’s arrival. It almost made him wonder if he’d imagined the entire thing. Yet he’d felt her. Just for that brief moment, she’d been inside him, much different from the visual he’d been sent a few hours prior.

  He suspected that image from the coast of Maine had served as a test of sorts, one he and Gabriel had failed. It wasn’t a coincidence that hours after they’d visited the area, a Seraphim had arrived with an edict. They’d planted that memory into his mind with the purpose of drawing him out, to find them. And they’d likely tracked him and Gabriel right back to the South Pacific.