Hupotasso (Vampire Bachelor Games #2)

57

57

I’m already beginning to feel a little more like myself.

Last night I’d blubbered through a pretty horrific description of everything that had happened since I’d married the vampire, and Yin had listened patiently and contributed her usual quiet wisdom.

After I’d calmed down she’d run a bath for me and ordered I soak and sleep. I don’t know if it’s because I was just exhausted from stress and travel and the pregnancy, or if the shock of everything in the past twenty-four hours had zonked out my batteries, but I did as ordered.

Twelve hours passed before I finally woke, and I still feel tired.

I watch now as she makes us a cup of herbal tea and begins to tell me of her adventures since her escape from The Games.

I realise I’ve been so focused on myself and my woes that I hadn’t even asked how she was faring being on the run from vampires and her powerful father.

“I’m so sorry about Phil,” I murmur as she hands me my cup. “I wanted to tell you before you flew off, but I didn’t get the chance. Isabel said you broke every bone in his body.”

“Ah, yes, Phil,” she grimaces. “Two bodies, one heart, or so I thought.”

“How did you find out about him being part of The Free Men?”

“He told me,” she shrugs. “Once I’d settled in my safe house I phoned him and he joined me, as we’d planned.” She looks out the window as she speaks, her tone introspective, as though she’s reliving the past as she explains it. “He was over the moon that I’d escaped, as was I, but he said he had something to tell me. He said the vampires would find me and kill me, which you and I had already deduced, because I knew too much of their world. His solution was for me to take my place at the table of The Free Men,” she frowns and turns back to me. “The fact that he was part of that organisation wasn’t the big shock, of course.”

“Of course,” I murmur.

‘It was the fact he tried to kill me more than once.’

“It was his revelation,” she goes on, “that my mother had also been part of that group, and he’d never told me, not in all the years we were together.”

“What?”

“Yes,” she sighs. “My father killed my mother when she opposed his plans to put me in The Games. Phil knew all along.”

“No,” I gasp. “Why didn’t he tell you?”

“He said he was waiting for the right time. He went to The Free Men when I was selected for The Games and asked them to save me. When they learned who I was they agreed to help him win a spot as a camera man, providing he also helped them get their candidate chosen by Falcon. There’s always a price with The Free Men, Angie,” she gives me a quick look. “The deal was struck. I was to receive The Life Token and get out alive and unharmed. It suited them, my mother was apparently an important member of The Free Men prior to marrying my father, as was her mother before her. They were keen to sign me up too, no doubt because of my wealth and connections.”

“Only I got The Life Token,” I shake my head, “and screwed up all their plans.”

She nods.

“And Isabel wasn’t looking like she was going to be the favourite. She had to get to the final two somehow, and eliminating the rivals was the only way,” Yin sighs.

“Hence her trying to kill me.”

“So anyway,” she shrugs, “my relationship with Phil obviously couldn’t go on. He’d lied to me. I told him I couldn’t trust him, but he declared his love and promised there would be no more secrets. He said I should trust him above everyone because he’d joined The Free Men for me and only me. I so desperately wanted to believe him.”

She pauses to sip her tea.

“I had no one else, you know. No one but him had ever shown me love. And being on the run, alone in the world, I needed him. I thought I did, anyhow.”

“Yin,” I groan.

“So, I believed him. But something still didn’t sit right. There was something behind his eyes whenever I mentioned you, something I didn’t trust. So one night, I asked him if there was anything else he wanted to share with me. I guess he was tired of all the lies, or perhaps he truly wanted to repent. I don’t know. He told me what he’d done to you in The Games.”

She stares into space and I wait for her to finish, thinking the break-up must have been long, painful, and full of recriminations and tears.

But this is Yin.

“So,” she shrugs, “I broke his arms and legs and dumped him in a field. I took his phone, texted Isabel his whereabouts, and left for my new safe house.”

I shake my head at her blunt narration.

“Yin, I’m so sorry. You must have been absolutely heartbroken.”

“Mizu ni nagasu. It means let it flow in the water. You have nothing to be sorry for, and I’ve forgiven him. We’re not together, of course, but I forgive him. He’s the only one who ever fought for me. He risked his life to try and save mine, just as you did. There’s something in that.”

“There is,” I murmur. “Thank you for saving me , Yin. For risking your life for me, again.

“Side quest,” she smirks. “I’ve just taken a little detour to pick up my best friend. Besides, I’m still trying to process my life and direction knowing what I know now about my mother. I could use a friend to help chart my course.”

“Wow,” I shake my head, trying to wrap my mind around how it must feel to know your father killed your mother and then sacrificed you to a game knowing you might die too. “I guess your father was even more of a bastard than I thought.”

She snorts.

“He underestimated his daughter. One day I’ll avenge my mother. In the meantime I’ve single-handedly evaded him and all the vampires chasing me.”

I frown.

“But how? How did your rescue plan for me come about? You must have had the help of The Free Men, surely?”

“I did,” she nods. “When I watched your performance on the family tour I knew something was very wrong, but I didn’t know what, or how to get a hold of you. Then Isabel called and passed on your message.”

“Thank God!” I breathe. “I was sure she hadn’t. You know they double-crossed me. They tricked me into killing a vampire and left me holding the body — and didn’t do a thing to rescue me.”

Yin shakes her head.

“I can’t say for sure if they were going to save you or not. I waited a month. When I hadn’t heard word that they’d done anything to free you, I made some calls. Isabel wasn’t answering her phone, neither were her parents. They all disappeared the same night you left Barcelona.”

“Oh shit.”

“Yeah,” she nods. “So I decided to rescue you. The Free Men already had elaborate long-term plans in motion to recover Isabel, so I managed to dovetail into those plans.”

“Recover?” I frown.

“They believe Falcon had Isabel and her family taken. If they’d been killed the vampires would have displayed their bodies and made a show of it — but there’s been no word. The Free Men want them back, and they have a plan to get them back.”

It’s my turn to shake my head.

“If he’d done that I’d have known. Falcon didn’t even know The Free Men were involved until I told him. He suspected Spider was the one to supply me with the poison for Caroline.”

“Spider?” She frowns, sipping her tea. “Then if Falcon wasn’t responsible, someone else took them.”

“Who?”

She shrugs.

“I guess Spider’s a start.”

“Yes,” I nod. “Jag told me Falcon believes Spider might have connections with The Free Men.”

“If he does I don’t know about it,” she frowns. “I’ll pass your information on. It’s a tad too little, too late, but it’ll give them a new lead.”

“So, you’re part of them now?”

“No, not officially. They helped me and I owe them a favour, that’s all.”

“But why is it too little, too late?” I frown. “Have they already done something to Falcon?”

The thought of him harmed sends a shiver down my spine, and I involuntarily place my hand on my stomach where his child rests.

“Angie,” Yin says quietly. “They have his mother.”

“They kidnapped her?”

“For all intents and purposes, as far as the world is concerned, she’s dead. But yes, they have her. If Isabel and her family are not returned by a given date, she’ll truly be dead.”

I gasp and cover my face with my hands.

“Oh, no. She wasn’t to blame. She was good. This is all my fault. I’m to blame if they kill her. I’m the one who asked The Free Men to save me.”

‘He loved his mother. He never said it to her, or to me, but it was obvious. She was the heart of his castle.’

“C’mon Angie,” Yin shakes her head. “You said Eleanor put you in The Games and holds secrets from the son she professes to love that he has every right to know. Viper being his half-brother, the fact he had a sister…from what you’ve told me she sounds like she’s well and truly enmeshed in vampire power games. She’s hardly the innocent. She’s more like a master manipulator.”

“True, but,” I frown, a horrible new thought coming, unbidden, “the flowers, the note. I told you I had to get word to her about what Viper had done.”

“And you did,” she meets my gaze, “she got the flowers.”

“But did she have time to act on the information?” I murmur.

“She met with Falcon after they were delivered. I know that much. But as for her kidnapping, I told you, Angie,” Yin says quietly. “The help of The Free Men always comes at a price.”