Page 65 of Born Chaos

No gifted. No vampires. No threat to Juliet.

“Shit,” the word breathes out past Roman’s lips. He stares at the words for a moment and darkness gathers in his eyes. Next, his gaze shifts to the files.

“I don’t know how he did it,” I say, shifting through the pages. “I didn’t get to look through it all. I wanted to get out of the hospital before I got caught. But these are tests he ran. This is data he gathered to use against vampires, against the gifted. He studied Sigrid’s DNA, yours.”

“He betrayed his own kind,” Roman says, his tone oddly calm but deadly.

I shake my head, still unable to wrap my brain around this. “Just after we got engaged, he started working all these extra hours. He told me it was for some year-end review at the hospital. But it was this. He was running tests and doing lab work. And he somehow accomplished what he set out to do.”

“No vampires,” Roman reads off the note. “There’s dozens lying in a coma in that hospital. And more are going down each day.”

“And the gifted, they’re losing their gifts so quickly, half of them are moving out of the city,” I say. “No gifted.”

“No threat to Juliet,” Roman finishes as his eyes rise up to me. “Pablo tortured and then killed you, or nearly killed you, as far as Sebastian knows. Archer liquified you. Every time your life has been in danger, and every time you’ve died, it’s been at the hands of a vampire or a gifted. So, I guess he’s right.”

“Except he’s not!” I explode. “What the bastard is forgetting is that for eighteen years, I was abused byhumans.” I’ve lost control of my emotions and my senses. I pull my shirt off, looking down at the scars that line my body. “I’ve been beaten. I’ve been chased. I was left to burn alive. The vampires and the gifted who killed me had their reasons. But the humans? They were just assholes preying on an innocent little girl who couldn’t defend herself yet.”

And those hot tears escape as I look up at Roman. My chest is heaving, and I can’t get enough oxygen. His eyes trace down my body, taking in the scars. He’s seen them before. This isn’t the first time I’ve been in front of him in nothing but a bra. But it’s the first time I’ve ever hinted at where the scars on my body came from.

“No one is ever really safe from anyone,” I say as I reach the crest of my anger and grief. “And we can do our best to protect the people we love. But not like this.” I jab a finger into one of the files. “Never like this.”

Roman holds my gaze for two entire minutes in complete silence. And for once, it’s nice that someone doesn’t immediately try to comfort me or try to fix my problems. He doesn’t try to hug me, he doesn’t immediately swear vengeance for me.

He allows me to feel this grief. To experience the mental shift. To get this closure.

“We can’t wait anymore,” I say, my words coming out rough and quiet. “Sebastian has to be dealt with. Before anyone else gets hurt.”

“Agreed,” Roman says simply.

“So, how are we going to do it?” I ask.

Roman’s hands come to his hips, and his gaze shifts off to the side. “We should consult with the rest of the council.”

“Elena is the latest victim,” I say as my eyes slide closed in grief. “Mason is with her. They’re at Godfrey Tower.”

“And Sigrid is dealing with the loss of her gift, and the fallout from the other gifted,” Roman concludes.

“It’s just you, Roman,” I say as I look back at him.

“And you, Juliet,” he reminds me. “You’ve been involved in every important event since you arrived in this city. And I know the Godfreys and Sigrid would trust any decision you make.”

No one has ever put much confidence in me. I was the screw-up when I was a kid, a teenager. And then I lived in a city with millions of others, and no one cared about me at all, I was just another stem in the haystack.

But everything is different here.

“We need to get Sebastian to tell us if there’s an antidote,” I begin. “I pray to anyone who listens that what he’s done isn’t permanent. I hope he’s not gone that far. If we can get him to explain how he did it, he can tell us how to fix this.”

“So we need him alive,” Roman concludes, which affirms that death was an option until this point. “And detained. We have a cell in the basement of the church. It’s capable of containing a vampire.”

Roman never ceases to surprise me with his resources.

I nod. “I think our quickest and easiest way to get this over with is for me to be the bait. I’ll call him, tell him I want to meet. You have your soldiers ready, and we jump on him as soon as we can.”

Roman nods in agreement. “I can have a crew together in the morning. Think you’ll be ready by then?”

I nod. “Any great ideas where I should suggest we meet?”

“Not somewhere public, this could get messy,” Roman says, considering. “I’d suggest The Nocturne, but I don’t want him thinking the rest of the council is going to be waiting for him there. Let’s just do it here.”

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