“Your daughter has already been sacrificed for the greater good. You have already agreed that she wouldn’t want us doing anything reckless, that winning this war is far more important than any one life.”
“She has not been sacrificed!”
“Caleb has her in his possession. She may be alive, but you must face the fact that she will not come out of there the same. Caleb is not Braith; he will not be kind, especially if he has any idea how much Braith may care for her.”
“Jesus Gideon,” Jack muttered. He wished the vampire had one ounce of tact and decorum in him. Gideon didn’t understand the close bonds between these people, much as Jack hadn’t when he’d arrived to spy on them. However Gideon had to understand that though Braith and David had backed off, for now, they wouldn’t stay that way if they were pushed.
David was as white as a ghost, William and Daniel remained quiet, but their faces had become nearly as pale as their father’s. “Your daughter was strong enough to realize that her life isn’t worth the lives of so many others, including yours. You should be strong enough also. If Braith ever found out about our agreement, my life would be forfeit too. I was willing to accept that, and I still am if it becomes necessary.”
Jack groaned; he was tempted to rip Gideon’s tongue from his relentless mouth. For a moment Jack thought David was going to fall over, and then he rounded on his sons. “You knew what she intended!” he exploded.
“Not this much of it,” William admitted as he glared at Gideon. “But we knew she proposed to leave after the war. I was going to go with her.”
“And you? Were you going to leave also?” David demanded of his eldest.
Daniel shook his head. “No, I intended to stay.”
“This was the only option dad,” William said softly.
“Letting her die is an option?”
“We didn’t know about that part.” William’s gaze flickered resentfully to Gideon again. “But I suspected Aria might do something this drastic if it became necessary to sever her bond with Braith.”
“The needs of many outweigh the needs of one, or two.”
“For God’s sake Gideon, shut up!” Jack yelled at him when all of the humans turned to glower at Gideon.
“And Braith, what of him?” Max inquired.
“He can’t know about this, any of this.” Ashby moved from the shadows. He face was hollow, and ashen, but his shoulders were set in determination. “I know better than any of you what the two of them are going through, but Braith cannot know about this plan. He’ll destroy us all, he’ll storm that palace with little thought to anyone else, and he’ll get them both killed in the process.”
“You know that I disapprove of this whole situation more than anyone, but what do you think is going to happen to him when this is over? What will happen to him if Aria dies? In case you haven’t noticed he’s a little unstable right now, and she’s still alive,” Max retorted.
“And in case you didn’t notice he still chose the right path. Braith has been raised since birth to be a leader, he’ll be unsteady in the beginning, but reason and centuries of preparation will eventually win out.” Max’s lips compressed, his gaze turned to the woods as Gideon continued to speak. “Especially if there’s no way for him to get her back.”
“I’m not going to let you kill my daughter!” David exploded.
“Are you telling me your daughter is a stronger person than you are?”
David’s hands fisted as he began to shake. “Gideon stop talking!” Jack snapped. He stepped forward to block David if he flew off the handle and attempted to attack Gideon. “I am not going to let that happen, David.” He shot a pointed look at Gideon. “I never agreed to Aria dying. I will take her; I will keep her safe…”
“I thought he could track her anywhere if his blood was inside her,” Max interrupted.
“We’re hoping that diluting his blood with that of another vampire, probably the three of us in order to confuse Braith further, will help with that.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“Don’t!” Jack thrust a finger at Gideon when he opened his mouth to speak again. Gideon glowered at him but remained silent. “We will cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“You’re not promising to keep her alive.”
“I will keep her safe,” Jack vowed. “I swear it. She’s important to me as well.”
David was shaking his head, “So her life is sacrificed no matter what.”
“None of us like it,” Ashby agreed. “At all. This was not an easy decision and it was not made carelessly.”
Max stared blankly at him for a moment before turning to Gideon. “I don’t trust you.”
Gideon lifted an eyebrow as he quirked his head in a small nod. “Fair enough, I’m not exactly certain about you either, but you must realize that we’re not doing this to be cruel. You heard what Calista said, they will not accept her as a human. They admire her, hell, even I admire the girl, but admiration does not make her a vampire.”
David turned away; he walked to the edge of the clearing where he leaned tiredly against a tree. “She’s my daughter, she deserves happiness. I want happiness for her, more than anything.”
“We all do dad but they’re right, Aria’s right, there are some times when our wants no longer matter,” Daniel said softly.
David wouldn’t look at them; Jack could smell the scent of tears in the air as his head bowed and his shoulders shook slightly. “If she is to leave after so be it, but we have to get her soon. She can’t be kept in there…”
“We’ll get to her soon,” Jack promised.
Max shook his head ardently. “No, now. You didn’t see what Caleb was doing to her; I don’t think he’ll keep her alive…”
“He’ll keep her alive,” Jack asserted.
“He was draining her!”
David finally turned away from the tree, tears didn’t streak his face but his eyes were watery. “He’ll keep her alive,” Jack insisted.
“How can you be so certain?” Max demanded impatiently.
“Because he’ll smell Braith on her, in her. He won’t kill her.”
“So he’ll just torture her?” Max accused. Jack’s eyes flitted nervously to David as he stepped away from the tree. William and Daniel were beginning to shake as their jaws clenched and a muscle jumped in William’s cheek. “Abuse her? I know that you’re one of them Jack, but you have no idea what goes on in there from our viewpoint. Aria was lucky last time, but by all accounts Caleb is a sadistic son of a bitch.”