Blade (RBMC: Dallas, TX #4)

Chapter Twenty

“Riptide”—VanceJoy

W e came to a sliding stop on the gravel drive, surrounding Squirrel’s truck. It was immediately evident that it was empty.

We all made eye contact and got off our bikes, pulling our guns as we did. Though I preferred a knife, in a situation like this, it wasn’t practical. Not until I could assess the situation.

When I heard a scream, all common sense fled and I raced to the weathered barn and shouldered through the old walkthrough door. It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the low light. When they finally did, my worst fear was unfolding in front of me.

Eliska went flying off the top of a hay loft and I took off toward her. Despite running as fast as I could, she landed on a wheelbarrow with a sickening crack, then rolled to the floor when it tipped over.

I was in a living nightmare. That was the only explanation for this. My chest was in agony as if it had been ripped open and my heart rested in tatters on the dirty, dusty ground.

Blood ran from her nose and mouth and she wasn’t moving. At first, I was afraid to touch her. Was she already dead? What if I made it worse?

She coughed and blood sprayed from her mouth and nose but she didn’t move. Her gray eyes stared at me, filled with confusion. Each breath was a struggle and I didn’t like how wet it sounded.

I knew I was babbling words, but had no idea what I was saying. Squirrel approached, but I didn’t hear anything he said.

On the verge of going off the deep end, I held Eliska’s broken body close.

She coughed again and her lips moved but no words came out. Her eyes were rolling and in my guts I knew she wasn’t going to make it. An anguished roar unlike any sound I’d ever made burst from my soul, ending in a sobbed litany of fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

“Let me see her,” I finally heard Angel say and impossible hope blossomed. So lost in the unfolding horror, I’d forgotten he was here.

“Help her,” I begged. “Fuck, brother, help her and I swear I’ll leave her alone.”

“Blade,” Squirrel said, as if in shock. “What are you talking about?”

“This is why I don’t deserve to be happy!” I shouted. “I ruin everything I touch. Everyone I care about dies and it’s all my fault!”

Voodoo got to his feet from where he’d been crouched over a body I hadn’t noticed before. “Brother. Stop! This isn’t your fault!”

“Don’t you see? It is. Everything is my fault! Sage getting beat within an inch of her life after enduring Luis’s evil, my mother being killed because I took Sage from him, now this….” I leaned against a stall front as Angel’s hands hovered over Eliska. Elbows on my knees, I grabbed my hair and tugged. “I promised her she’d be safe with me,” I whispered to myself.

The little bit of my remaining humanity was crumbling. If she didn’t make it, I doubted there would be any of it left.

“We need to get her back to the clubhouse,” Voodoo muttered as he looked around with unease.

“What?” I asked.

“Something isn’t right here,” he muttered. “We need to go.”

“You noticed it too?” Squirrel’s gaze was darting around as well.

“What about that guy?” I asked as I motioned to the dead man lying in a pool of blood.

“Leave him. Help us get her in the truck,” Voodoo quietly instructed. “Leave the bikes here.”

Between the four of us, we carefully maneuvered her out the door. I was shocked to see the sky was full of dark, churning clouds. Lightening cracked as it flashed from one cloud to another.

The wind picked up and blew dead leaves and dirt around us. Our hair whipped around like it had a life of its own. Voodoo stopped in his tracks with a blank look on his face.

“Voodoo!” I shouted over the gusts.

It took a moment before he shook out of it and we started moving again.

We got Eliska in the back seat with her head resting in my lap and her legs folded up and propped on Angel. Still unconscious, her body was boneless and I had to feel for a pulse and see if she was breathing. When I looked over at Angel, I noticed the dark circles under his eyes and the way his usually tan skin appeared bleached. He was drained.

“Wait! Where’s Raptor?” I asked unwilling to leave our president behind.

“He said he’ll meet us back at the clubhouse before he flew off after that helicopter,” Voodoo quietly explained as he cast nervous glances out the window from the front passenger seat.

Squirrel was already backing the truck up to turn it around.

“Hurry,” Voodoo urged Squirrel, who shot him an incredulous stare.

“This fucked up driveway will rattle our teeth loose and possibly hurt her,” he motioned toward the backseat with his thumb.

“Better hurt than dead.”

“What?” I shouted, then winced as I checked to see that I hadn’t upset Eliska. She was still out.

Squirrel gunned the truck. How he managed to dodge the majority of the ruts and holes was crazy. I gently braced Eliska the best I could.

Voodoo turned in his seat to make eye contact. “What can you do?”

“Huh?” I was confused.

“What can you do?” he repeated. Then he clarified. “What special skills do you have?”

“I can talk into people’s heads. That’s it,” I swore, unsure what he was getting at. “Why?”

He ran a hand over his face as we finally pulled out onto the highway. Squirrel hit the accelerator and we flew back toward the clubhouse.

“When you fucking roared back there, the ground shook.”

“It could’ve been a coincidence,” I argued, my fingers absently smoothing through Eliska’s hair.

“The sky went dark… and I had a vision.”

My blood ran cold and chills skated over my skin. He hadn’t yet said what his vision was, but somehow I knew it was bad.

“I saw smoke… then a flash of light… then a man stepped out of the smoke. He looked kind of like you. But it wasn’t you. Before the smoke dissipated, I saw glowing red—as if I was looking straight into the depths of hell.” Voodoo stared at me without saying anything further.

“I have no idea what that was, brother, but I wasn’t hatched from the depths of hell, my mother gave birth to me in Miami, Florida. I have a birth certificate and everything,” I insisted.

“When we get back, I need to talk to Facet,” Voodoo announced before mumbling something I didn’t understand as his thumbs were flying over his keyboard.

“Yeah, well, if it’s about me or Eliska, then I’m going with you,” I boldly informed him.

It wasn’t long before we were turning back into the clubhouse driveway. Squirrel entered the gate password, and we rolled through as soon as it opened.

“Do we need to take her to the infirmary?” I asked Angel.

He shook his head weakly. “She jus’ needs res’ now. I need help gettin inside.”

“We got you brother,” I assured him.

He nodded slightly before closing his eyes. We got him situated in the cabin he and Korrie were staying in with their kids. Jasmine was in there waiting with Angel’s family and Chains. Then we dropped Eliska off at my place where Sage, Kira, and Sloane were standing on my porch. They promised to look after her while Voodoo, Squirrel, and I went to see Facet.

I tucked Eliska in, promising her I would help her shower after she woke up.

Thankful that Angel had been here, I squeezed my eyes closed. If everything hadn’t played out the way it had, the Ankeny boys wouldn’t have been here. I would’ve lost her today. I simply stared at her a moment, drinking her in. Then I kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll be back soon baby.”

We hurried to the clubhouse where Facet was sitting at his makeshift office in the corner of the common area.

“What was so important?” he asked us with a frown. His midnight black hair was sticking up all over the place as if he’d been clutching it moments before.

“How did Chad keep Chains from seeing through him?” Voodoo immediately asked.

Facet sighed. “I think I know, but we need to talk to Calix to confirm my suspicions.”

“You might as well call your father while you’re at it. I have some questions that I’m hoping he can answer,” Voodoo explained.

Facet blew out a heavy exhale. “I already called Calix. He’s on his way from Louisiana with several of his brothers.”

“Brothers?” I asked, confused.

“Yeah,” Facet confirmed with a nod. “He’s a member of the Kings of Anarchy MC down there. Has been for a couple of years now.”

Damn. I had no idea. I wondered if Eliska knew.

“Good. Then call your father,” Voodoo instructed.

“Fuck. Okay.” Facet pulled out his phone.

“What exactly are your suspicions?” I asked Voodoo.

“He’s on his way,” Facet replied as he hung up the phone, and my question was momentarily forgotten.

“Watch closely when he arrives,” Voodoo insisted. We all nodded.

The rest of our brothers filtered into the clubhouse. While we waited, Voodoo filled them in on what happened.

“Raptor isn’t back yet?” Gator asked, voice laced with concern.

“Not yet,” Phoenix muttered, also obviously worried.

There was a hissing sound that had all of us going still. In the center of the room, a small tendril of smoke rose from the floor. It darkened and swirled until it resembled less of a cloud or smoke, but more like… shadows. Then there was a flash of light that sounded like electricity zapping, before Facet’s father, Séamus, stepped out.

The shadows seemed to shrink away into the corners of the room.

He straightened his very expensive suit, then stared at us all.

“What was so important that I had to come rushing over here? Not that I don’t love visiting with you and Willow,” he told Facet. “And Satan’s toenails, why are you all in Texas?”

While Gator and some of the other brothers filled him in, I could only stare with my mouth hanging ajar. Voodoo noticed and cocked a brow. “You see what I was talking about?”

“You don’t think he’s my….” I couldn’t finish my sentence. It was too crazy—and too much of a coincidence.

And though Voodoo and I were talking quietly amongst ourselves, Séamus stopped Gator by holding an elegant hand up. “What were you talking about?” he demanded of Voodoo.

Voodoo lifted his chin and crossed his arms, completely unfazed by Séamus’s intense stare. “I think Blade here might be related to one of your kind.”

One of your kind.

I had a flashback to the first day I’d met Voodoo’s grandmother. How she wouldn’t let me come in her home until I drank the vile concoction she had in that bottle. How she’d referred to me as your kind .

My eyes bugged and I shook my head in disbelief.

Séamus honed in on me. His head tilted to the side and his gaze narrowed. “Indeed?”

He approached us slowly, like a jungle cat stalking its prey. He then took a deep breath as he leaned into me. “Give me your hand,” he said in a tone that brooked no argument.

Reluctantly, I did as he said.

Before I knew what he was doing, he sliced my palm open with one of his fingernails, then swiped through the blood, and lifted it to his nose. I jumped and grunted. He appeared shocked.

“It can’t be,” he muttered. Then he placed his finger covered in crimson between his lips and swallowed it. What was really weird was that as he did it, I could actually imagine what it tasted like. I almost craved it.

He appeared startled, then angry.

I was confused as fuck.

He shouted, “ Hayden! Come to me!”

But when no one reacted, I realized he hadn’t moved his lips. I took an involuntary step back.

Séamus simply blinked at me. “You heard that?”

“Yeah. But that’s uh, new.”

“Explain.”

So I filled him in on my ability and how I’d never heard anyone else talk into my head. Before he could respond, another whirlwind of shadows appeared and out of it, stepped a blond man. All I could do was blink.

Because he looked uncannily like me.

“Hayden,” Séamus calmly began. “Would you like to tell me why you hid your son from me all this time? And then, pray tell… why does he also taste like… a witch?”

The guy he called Hayden had the look of a man who’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t have.

“I can explain,” Hayden began. I stumbled backward and fell into the wall where I used it to keep me on my feet.

I was thankful for that because I was metaphorically and almost literally, knocked on my ass by this turn of events.

“Can we go somewhere private?” he asked Facet’s father who looked at Gator in question.

“You can use the conference room—the chapel,” Gator told them.

They both shuddered, then motioned for me to follow. We entered the chapel where Séamus cured his lip momentarily. “Couldn’t you have called it something different?”

“I didn’t fucking name it,” I grumbled. At the moment, I was very confused.

When he explained everything, I was speechless. And angry.

“So you’re telling me that my mother lied to me my whole life?” I demanded.

“No,” Hayden simply replied. “She absolutely believed you were her child, I made sure of it. She’d been a kind woman to me and she was desperate for a child. She got what she wanted and you were protected because no one knew who you were.”

“So what? You brainwashed her?”

“In a matter of speaking.”

“Fuck,” I muttered. “And you just let us struggle? Like you couldn’t have helped her out so she wasn’t working her fingers to the bone?”

Hayden looked truly regretful. “If I had given her money or fancy things, they would’ve known. You had to live as if you didn’t exist to me. It was the only way to keep you alive.” He paused as he seemed to search my face. “Did she love you?”

My throat burned. “Yes. Very much.”

“Good,” Hayden said softly as he took deep breath and let it out.

“This is so fucked up. I hope you know, I’m not calling you Dad. Ever. You look like you could be my brother,” I grumbled, then dragged a hand down my face.

“Do you know what could happen if it gets out that his mother was a witch? An actual witch?” Séamus restlessly paced.

Hayden crossed his arms and cocked a brow in judgement. “Oh? You mean like Maribelle?”

Séamus stopped in his tracks. “How did you know that?”

Hayden scoffed. “Why do you think I hid Finley? Maribelle knew. She warned me and Finley’s mother that we couldn’t keep him. That if we loved him, we would give him up. It wasn’t a choice we made lightly. We chose to never know our child, than for him to be sacrificed.”

I had to sit down.

“I didn’t know about Facet until you told me,” he told Séamus. “I swear.”

Séamus nodded curtly.

“When did you start having the ability to speak into other people’s minds?” Hayden asked.

I swallowed with difficulty. “After my first kill.”

Hayden closed his eyes and Séamus threw up his hands. The usually cool, calm, and collected demon was unusually flustered. “And today… you said you almost lost your woman. Voodoo said something strange happened when you thought she died.”

“I guess so, but I don’t really remember it.”

“Oh fuck,” Hayden cursed. “That’s what that was?”

Séamus and Hayden stared any each other. It was weird but it was like there was an invisible barrier around them. Then they looked at me.

“We might have a problem,” Hayden began as he straightened his tie.

“What kind of problem?” I warily asked.

“The Archontes may know you exist now. In your grief you kind of set off a… shockwave of sorts. You also kicked in more of you ability. I’m going to have to call in some friends and some favors,” he explained.

The door opened. “Well, that’s not the only problem we have.”

We all looked to see Raptor in the doorway. He was disheveled, as if he’d dressed quickly, and a deep frown tugged at his brow.

“I caught up to the helicopter for a bit. I know who it is. It seems that we’ve indeed made some very powerful enemies. Several of them. And when the RBMC finds out that we’re going to be starting our own club, I’m not sure that will go over well either,” Raptor explained.

Séamus lifted his brows in mock horror. “And the plot thickens.”

“While I’m not happy about this mess, we’re gonna figure it out,” Raptor assured me. “We’re family and that’s what we do.”

He was right. We were a family. And no matter what storms fate may be blowing our way, as long as we stuck together, we were ahead of the game. It also sounded like we would have Hayden and Séamus by our sides. From what Facet had told me, his father was almost like a King in their society.

My gaze fell on Hayden. It was crazy. After thinking I had no family for most of my life, I found a family with my club.

And now with the most unlikely suspects. I shook my head.

“We will need to sit down and discuss all of this with the brothers,” Raptor added.

I gripped the back of my neck and glanced at the door.

Thankfully, Raptor was one helluva perceptive man. The corner of his mouth kicked up and he waved me out. “We can do it tomorrow morning. Go be with your woman.”

“Yes, we’ll be around for a while too,” Hayden concurred. “And I can’t wait to get to know you and meet your lady.”

“Thanks,” I said, then lifted my chin to Hayden and Séamus. “Gentlemen.”

Then I hurried out the door while I had the chance.

I made it to my cabin and hugged Sage and Sloane. Kira had already left to go get her kids ready for bed.

“Thanks for staying with her. She’s okay?”

“Yes, she’s doing well, but she hasn’t woken up yet,” Sloane replied as she gathered her things.

Sage paused at the door as they were leaving. “I’m so happy for you Blade.”

“Thanks.” I shoved my hands in my pockets, feeling uncomfortable with all this fucking emotion today.

“You deserve happiness. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.” She smiled and followed Sloane out.

Anxious to check on Eliska, I locked the door and went around the wall that separated my bedroom area from the rest of the cabin.

The women must’ve washed her hair somehow. I’d have to thank them tomorrow. Eliska’s shiny, golden waves were fanned out over the pillow. I lifted some of it and inhaled the clean scent.

Suddenly exhausted from the days events, I undressed, brushed my teeth, and climbed in behind her.

“You’re mine baby. I hope you know I’m never letting you go,” I whispered.

She turned to her side and snuggled her backside into me. It made me grin and I wrapped my arm around her waist.

I fell asleep feeling like I was whole for the first time in my life.