Awakened Read Free Page A

end well
     for the Council.
    In Minsk, when the infection broke out, my father had been one of the first to succumb
     to the Chorý blood disease, and as I watched as he drank my siblings dry, I swore
     to end his life and the life of all the diseased. While I had failed to kill my father,
     I still planned to keep that promise of ending the Chorý race, but right then I needed
     to focus on Ella. Searching for Ella using the Council’s resources while working with
     Kale was going to be problematic. I was already going to have to explain why I had
     given Ella a choice in the matter of leaving Cedar, but I’d felt it necessary. She
     would be fed so many lies by the Council and myself, I needed to counteract some of
     the distrust that would soon have followed once she returned with me. Aleixandre had
     no qualms with holding her against her will; I, on the other hand, wanted her stay
     with the Council to be one of mutual agreement. We needed her on our side, because
     she would be a very powerful enemy otherwise.
    “Fine, we will meet, but not now. Your phone records will be pulled, as well as Ella’s,
     and now you will both be connected to me. We’ll need to change the plan.”
    Kale had to be talking to Alex. We’d told him not to call unless it was an emergency,
     and I highly doubted that there was one big enough to warrant a call so soon after
     we’d left him.
    “I understand that they questioned you. Why would they not? You came home and found
     Ella missing.”
    I shifted in my seat. The fact that Ella had been taken added another choking layer
     of uneasiness in the car.
    “Just calm yourself. We will find her,” Kale finished and hung up the phone. He shoved
     the phone in his pocket, nearly crushing it. He seemed to be dancing on the blade
     of a knife, and understandably so. With Ella missing and the top Council members in
     Cedar, he needed to be tense if not outright scared.
    “Shit,” Kale whispered quietly. “Pull over here.” He pointed to the side of the road.
    I didn’t comply—because I do not take commands from Chorý— and Kale cast me an irritated
     glance.
    His hand tightened on the door handle as he spoke. “Either pull the car over, or I
     will assume that you are offering me a chance at your vein, Vesco.” His eyes shone
     obsidian, dark and soulless, in the moon’s light. I had no doubt that his bloodlust
     was clawing its way to the surface. I hadn’t been completely honest with Ella about
     bloodlust, or “ la Luxure ” as it was called in France when the disease ravaged Kale’s war-torn country. I couldn’t
     have told her the truth and kept her trust; she wasn’t ready for it.
    I slowed the car and asked, “Tell me, Chorý: How long have you been struggling with la Luxure ?”
    Kale’s eyes widened, and he quickly turned away. Perhaps he hadn’t expected me to
     be so direct, or maybe he thought that he had hid it well enough that I wouldn’t suspect.
    I would always suspect that he would fall. After watching my father murder his own
     children, I knew that la Luxure was strong enough that it could break any man’s will.
     Whether Kale believed so or not was not my concern at the moment.
    He grabbed the door, yanking the handle so hard it groaned under his strength. I had
     an answer—not to the question asked, but to the one I needed to know. La Luxure had
     already started to claim him, but a more imperative question remained. “How long do
     you think you can hold it off without the blood of your master?”
    The concern in my voice surprised even me. The thought of my father had weakened me.
     As much as that disgusted me, I needed Kale for Ella’s sake. She trusted him. Laurent
     would tell Ella about her parents—not for the first few weeks that he had her, because
     he was smart—but that truth would take her away from the Council forever.
    Kale said nothing as he flung open the door, and he disappeared into the night. I guess Tamsin and Servitto