Immortal Prophecy, page 7
“I will find you and destroy you,” Adele vowed as she slowed down. He would get away this time but the next time she saw him, he wouldn’t. Adele had a duty to protect Ally. She needed to get back and keep her safe before the vampire found Vincent and gave away their location. Ally was not ready to face Vincent again. Once James returned they’d plan to leave tonight. There was no other choice now. If they stayed, Vincent would kill her by sunrise.
Adele arrived back at the house to find Kat and Ally lounging on the sofas with Chase. Most of the guests were leaving, and she needed to have a word with Chase before talking with Ally.
“Chase,” Adele said, as she approached the trio.
He looked up, eyes alert, sensing something was wrong.
“Can I have a word?”
He turned to Kat and Ally. “Excuse me, lassies.”
Chase smiled at Kat, and then turned back to Adele. “What’s going on, Addie?” he asked as they walked out of earshot.
“There was a vampire here, watching Ally.”
Chase could see the concern in her eyes, tinged with a hint of failure, which led him to guess the outcome. “He got away?”
“Yes,” she sighed. “He ran and I could only chase him so far whilst Ally was unguarded.”
“She wasn’t unguarded,” he said insulted. “I was with them both.”
“I had hoped you were Chase, but things are very dangerous right now. I can’t take any chances with her.” The worry was clear in her voice.
He nodded and took a sip of his drink. “And things just got worse?”
“It’s just a matter of time before that minion reaches Vincent and tells him our location.” Adele looked over at her granddaughter and best friend, laughing and talking, unaware of the danger around them. It was a bittersweet moment.
Chase followed her line of sight. His heart expanded looking at Kat. Chase believed he’d found his soulmate. “How did you know we would be a match?”
“I didn’t,” she answered, her gaze fixed on Ally. “A word of caution, don’t confuse attraction with a match, Chase.”
Chase studied her face thoughtfully for a moment. “How do I tell the difference? I have to be attracted to her.”
“You’ll know. Be very careful with her though. If she isn’t the one, then you have to let her go quickly.”
Chase took her advice on board, but he was more convinced Kat was the one with every moment that passed. “What are you going to do with Ally?” he asked, as something else occurred to him. “And where is James?”
“On his way back from the ranges,” she answered. “It seems he was lured out there to get him away from Ally.”
“Was it Vincent that lured him out there?”
“James didn’t say. He just told me it was a decoy and to get Ally to safety.” She sighed with a heavy heart. “We’re taking Ally to Scotland, tonight,” Adele said, with a hint of resignation.
“You don’t any have any other choice.”
“We’ve been backed into a corner.” She sank down onto the lounge behind her. “What are your plans?”
“I plan on returning there myself, with Kat,” Chase said as he sat opposite her.
Adele looked at him startled. “Have you told her what you are yet? You can hardly take her to our homeland without telling her what she’s in for. Most importantly, you must be certain she’s the one, Chase.”
“Not yet. I plan to tell her when I take her home tonight. There’s no time to waste, my home is in Scotland, and her place is with me,” he crossed his arms.
Adele shook her head at him. “You’re as bad as James. You immortal men think your word goes, and that females will just do as you say. That isn’t how it works anymore. Kat is human, remember.”
“I know that, Addie. I also know how much she cares for her friend. She’d do anything for her. Scotland is where she’ll want to be once she learns the truth.”
“I hope for your sake you’re right, Chase.”
“I won’t let any harm come to her.”
“No, you won’t or you’ll answer to me,” Adele said with a seriousness that took Chase by surprise. “She’s been like a sister to Ally and a grandchild to me.”
“I will protect her with my life, Adele.”
“That isn’t always enough.”
Chase ignored her warning. “I have plans to start the conversion on the flight over. She’ll be an immortal by the time we reach Scotland.”
“You can’t do that until you’re certain.” She narrowed her eyes. “What if you change her then realise she isn’t the one? What will happen to her after that?”
“I won’t change my mind. I have made my decision.” He was unaccustomed to having his judgement questioned and was getting annoyed.
“Just make sure you know what you’re doing.”
It would be hard on Kat, but he felt he had no choice. Her life was at stake if he took her to Glencoe without changing her. She would need all the help she could get to stay safe.
Adele interrupted his thoughts. “I hear a car approaching, it must be James. Keep the girls busy. I don’t want them knowing he’s back.”
He stood with a nod and sauntered back over to the girls to keep them busy while Adele spoke to James.
When Chase and Adele were far enough away so their conversation wouldn’t be heard, Kat turned to her friend with a big grin. “Isn’t he wonderful,” she sighed.
“He sounds like your perfect man.” Ally smiled.
“Oh, but he is, isn’t he?” Kat said wistfully.
Ally was getting swept up in the excitement radiating out of Kat. Both James and Chase looked like they’d stepped out of a romance novel, with perfect chiselled looks, taut bodies, chivalrous to a fault and not to mention being Scottish.
Ally frowned. “They’re too perfect.” Why did that suddenly make her wary?
Her gaze swept over to where Chase and Adele had sat down. They appeared to be locked in an intense conversation. Judging by the amount of side looks they both kept giving them, it involved her and Kat.
Was Chase somehow involved in this too? It wouldn’t surprise her. Both Chase and James were too perfect looking, too otherworldly. Nobody looked that good in real life without being airbrushed and photoshopped. She wondered how far spread this secret was. Adele knew more than she was letting on, and she’d never heard any mention of Chase until tonight. Ally hadn’t met all her grandmother’s friends or acquaintances, but if Chase was so fabulous, Adele would’ve mentioned him before. So, why hadn’t she? It was James all over again. A friend appearing out of nowhere. All of this was extremely puzzling. She had suspicions everything went back to Madame Isabella’s mention of a prophecy, James, and Vincent. She was getting more confused and more frustrated with each new development.
“Hello? Earth-to-Ally?” Kat waved a hand in front of her face.
Ally shook her head. “Oh, sorry.”
“Did you hear a word I said?”
“No, I was puzzling something out,” Ally replied, apologetically.
“What’s going on?”
“Look at Gran and Chase.”
Kat followed her friend’s gaze and looked at them. A shiver of unease ran throughout her. “It looks intense.”
“It does.” Ally stared trying to read their lips or hear their voices, anything to indicate what they were talking about. “Some odd things have been happening today, and I intend to get answers.”
“Like what?” Kat asked as she looked up at her.
“I can’t remember last night, after a certain point anyway, and when I saw James again I had this strange image in my head like a daydream,” she said remembering what had happened earlier. “Either I’m going mad, or something really strange is going on.”
Ally took a deep breath and filled Kat in on the events of the morning.
Kat’s eyebrows furrowed together. “You met Vincent last night?”
“Honestly, I have no idea.” Was she going insane?
“This might sound crazy but going with everything that’s been happening, it may not be so bizarre.”
She leaned forward. “I’m listening.”
“What if last night was real and you saw all that?”
Ally stared blankly at her friend.
“You’re not following me, are you?”
She shook her head. “Not really, no.”
“Alright, try it a different way. You saw James, and you met Vincent last night but there’s a reason you don’t remember?”
“The reason being?”
“Someone made you forget,” Kat finished.
Ally looked like she’d been smacked in the face. “Made me forget? As in drugged me?”
“I don’t know the how’s or why’s, Ally. I’m just trying to figure it out.” Kat appeared to be horrified that someone may have drugged her friend, but also excited that they might be getting somewhere in sorting out the mystery.
Ally’s mind ran through a list of suspects. “Why would someone do that?”
“You stumbled upon something you shouldn’t have?”
As Kat said the words, a wave of fear crashed over her. What could she have stumbled upon?
“Ally, James is back,” Kat said her eyes locked on Chase.
“What?” Ally exclaimed. “How do you know?”
“I read Adele’s lips.”
“Really? Did you get anything else?”
“No. Just that James is back and we aren’t supposed to know.”
Her beloved grandmother was hiding something, and it must have been big. James and Chase also seemed to be in on the secret. Her head spun at the betrayal.
“What are they hiding?” Ally whispered. Tears welled in her eyes and her heart constricted, threatening to splinter into a thousand pieces. How could she? How could they?
“I don’t know, Ally.” She didn’t know how to comfort her or make it better. She was also concerned about Chase and what his true motivations were. Was he a good guy? Or was he pretending? When she met him, she’d experienced an irrepressible feeling he was linked into her life. For better or worse, she hadn’t a clue, but he was important.
“You know what.” She slapped her hand on the table. “I’m not going to stand for it. Someone has some explaining to do, and they are going to do that right now,” her voice rising in anger.
“Chase is coming back.”
She glanced behind her. “Wonderful. We can start with him.”
“I’m back, lassies,” Chase said as he sat beside Kat. Unaware of what was about to happen, he grinned at Ally. She saw that as an opening and took it.
Ally stared at him with a mask of calm but underneath, she was seething. His eyes flicked back to her face of their own accord, and she saw apprehension in them. She leaned closer and in a quiet but firm voice, she asked, “What the hell is going on here, Chase?”
He looked back at her warily, assessing what she knew or, more to the point, didn’t know. “What are you talking about?”
“I want to know what’s going on between you, Gran, and James.”
The guests had left and there was no-one around, except for them. Nothing would stand in her way. Nothing.
Chase realised he had to do some damage control, or he would be in a lot of trouble. “What do you think is going on, Ally?”
“I have no idea. That’s the problem, and I’m looking for answers.” Ally assessed him. An idea formed in her mind. “Tell me Chase, if you were in my situation, what would you do?” She told him everything that had happened since Madame Isabella and the events of this morning and tonight.
Chase gave her his full attention as she spoke. He felt for the girl. She was lost, confused, and scared of what was going on around her. But she still showed courage and daring in the face of adversity and uncertainty. She could move him by speech alone, and he’d felt a subtle compulsion being sent his way. Ally was powerful already. He could only imagine what she’d be capable of when she’d been brought fully over.
He thought about what he’d do in her situation and admitted that he’d be demanding answers from anyone who could give them as well. Damn, he’d be in trouble for this. “You’re right. Something is going on.” He was having second thoughts about telling her. Too late now. “Everything Isabella told you was true. And something did happen last night that they wanted you to forget.”
“How could I forget a whole night? The only thing Kat and I thought was that I’d been drugged because I saw something I wasn’t supposed to.”
“I’ll come back to that. Adele and James will give you more answers, but I can tell you this. You aren’t what you think you are.”
“Madame Isabella informed me of that as well, but I still have no idea what it means.”
“You will.”
“I wanted answers, not more questions.”
“Sorry, lass.” He held up his hands in surrender. “I’ve already said more than I should.”
“Tell me this then, could they make me forget something that happened? And would they drug me?”
Chase laughed. Adele or James drugging her was preposterous.
Ally threw her hands up in disbelief. “I’m glad you find this so amusing,” she said dryly.
“I’m sorry. It’s not that. It’s the thought of the James or Adele drugging you. I can promise you they didn’t drug you. They don’t need to.”
Ally studied him for a second. “What do you mean they don’t need to?” she asked, regretting the question as soon as it left her lips. She had a feeling she wouldn’t like this answer much either.
“We can control people’s minds.”
She looked at him confused for a moment. “Mind control? How sci-fi,” Ally said dryly. “And what do you mean ‘we’?”
Chase chuckled. Amidst the chaos and turmoil, he found it amazing that she could make a joke. It was something he found surprisingly endearing.
“Sci-Fi or not, that’s what ‘we’ can do,” Chase said, expecting her to implode on the spot, from confusion or shock.
Ally stared at him with big wide eyes. “You realise this sounds insane?”
“To a person who wasn’t born with the ability it would sound insane, but I assure you, it’s the absolute truth.”
Ally studied him for a moment and discerned that he was telling her the truth. Mind control was a foreign concept to most people, but somewhere, deep inside, it resonated with her. Ally didn’t understand how or why it seemed to make sense, but it did.
“What else have they done that’s tampered with my mind?”
Kat watched her friend with quiet concern, and placed a hand on her shoulder with a soft smile to let her know she was there for her. Ally realised again how lucky she was to have a friend like Kat.
Ally turned back to Chase. “So, they altered my mind to make me forget meeting Vincent, and they are hiding all this from me because...” her voice trailed off as she tried to understand why they had hidden it from her. Pondering, she came to the startling conclusion. “They hid it from me because it wasn’t supposed to happen that way. I had no idea what the secret was, so the events of last night, whatever they were, needed to be wiped so they could reveal it to me themselves?”
Chase looked surprised. She had a quick analytical mind. It would serve her well in the coming times. “That is exactly what happened lass.”
She understood the concept of mind control and why they fogged her memories, but her brain hadn’t accepted it as a reality. Ally was also angry that Adele appeared to have so little faith in her. What part of the last five years made them decide she was incapable of dealing with the truth? “Was it Adele or James that did the mind thingy?” Ally asked waving a finger at her head. Whoever did it was going to get a damn good telling off.
“No idea, I wasn’t there. I only found out tonight what had happened.”
“What exactly happened?” she asked.
“You met Vincent.”
She had to ask the obvious question. “So, why am I still breathing then? He wants me dead.”
Chase stood up and paced around the room. His legs were cramped and he may need to run like hell when Adele and James caught on to what was going on.
“James saved you.”
The flashback started again only this time, she saw James at her bedside, whispering to her. “I remember,” she paused for a moment before continuing. “It was bloody James. They had no right to do that.”
Ally was hurt and betrayed by their decision. “Why didn’t they tell me?” she asked, not really expecting an answer.
“To keep you safe. They both love you dearly, lass,” Chase said.
Ally snorted. “They’ve got a funny way of showing it.”
Chase stopped pacing and sat down again next to Kat. She’d been sitting quietly absorbing all the information, whilst being there as moral support for her friend. Kat looked at Ally and then to Chase. She could hardly believe it, but it all made sense. She was relieved to know Chase was a good man. He wanted to protect Ally, which made Kat like him more.
Ally seemed to collect her thoughts when she asked him the question she feared the most. “This prophecy... I have no say in it?”
Chase locked eyes with her. “It’s your destiny.”
Something in her rebelled at the thought. “No, damn it. Nothing is predetermined.”
“Your destiny is set, Ally, whether you like it or not. The only thing that isn’t set in stone is the outcome. Fight it all you want, but you cannot run from your destiny.”
She stood and walked out to the terrace. She needed some fresh air. The room was suffocating her.
9. COMPLICATIONS
“Where is she?” James demanded the information. “What happened?”
Adele filled him in on what happened with the vampire in the garden.
“Is she ok?”
“If I hadn’t gotten there when I did...” Adele didn’t have to finish the sentence, they both knew what would have happened.
“Where is she now?”
“She’s with Kat and Chase in the lounge.”
His muscles relaxed. Ally was alright. Now he could take his anger out on the vampire who wanted to abduct her. “Where is it?”
