Page 39 of Last Hope
“We’re here.” Anya broke Isis out of her reverie. She looked out the window and up at the blinking motel sign. She opened the door and hauled a stiff Othello out into the cold night. Anya and Lucinda got out of the cab as well and followed Isis to get a room.
Once they were safely inside, Anya told the kids to hop in the shower. When they did so, almost robotically, Anya turned to her Soul Mate. “What are we going to do?” There was worry along the edges of her voice, and fear, though Isis couldn’t blame her.
“We can’t stay here.”
“Well, where would we go?”
Isis thought for a moment. “What if we go back to Washington?”
Anya looked at her as if she were crazy. “That’s where Caesareon’s men are. We can’t go back there to be hunted all over again.”
“But that’s why it’s so perfect. They’ll be expecting us to be hiding out and running from them all over the globe. They won’t expect me to come back.” The excitement of the idea nearly knocked her off her feet.
Anya helped her stand upright and stared at her with concern. “Your arm.” She gasped.
Isis looked down at it. It was swollen to the point where it looked like an awkward balloon animal. Pus was oozing out of the bite marks and it was red and bloody. Isis felt herself pale and swoon. To top it off, she hadn’t yet fed.
“Let’s get this cleaned up.”
Anya went outside and was able to find herbs that would help disinfect the wound. Usually, the vampire virus would have healed her quickly but only if it had been a regular snake bite. Shapechangers were filled with extra toxins that made them ten times more dangerous than a regular animal. Plus the lack of blood in her system made her especially slow at healing.
“All done.” Anya had placed the last of her bindings into place. Isis flexed her arm, feeling lighter than it had been before. “Now,” Anya said, “what are we going to do about the children?”
Isis swallowed the rising lump in her throat. Her voice cracked with emotion when she responded. “We can’t take them back to the woods; their parents are dead and they have no way to take care of themselves.” She took a long shaky breath. “We have to take them with us, take care of them; at least I do. They’re my responsibility now since I’m the one that got their parents killed.”
Anya rested her warm palm against Isis’s shoulder. She relished in the quiet warmth of her Soul Mate for a moment before letting her tears fall and continuing. “I have to look after them and protect them with my life. Ami wouldn’t have wanted us to give them up to anybody, considering she didn’t even trust anybody.”
Anya nodded in agreement. “She probably would have entrusted me with her children. You’re not in this alone Isis, and you’re not to blame. The only ones to blame for their deaths are Caesareon’s deranged followers.”
The reality of her words sunk in. Isis thought long and hard before saying anything. She had three lives in her hands now, whether she wanted them to be there or not. They were her responsibility and she would do her damned best to keep them alive and safe.
She looked Anya in the eye. “Let’s go home,” she said.
* * *
Hypnotizingpeople on the plane to believe they all had tickets and passports had been surprisingly easy. They were on a plane that would take them back home. Isis was sitting three seats down from Anya and the children. They barely looked at Isis when she had told them they couldn’t go back home, that there was nothing to go back to and that she would take care of them now.
Although Isis had to wonder, cynically, how did she plan on keeping those children safe when she could barely keep herself so? There was danger waiting for her around every corner and she had just dragged the poor kids into a life of murder and running and hiding. She still couldn’t forget the look on Lucinda’s face when she had taken a knife to that shapechanger in order to save Isis. Or Othello’s tear stained cheeks when he sat clutching his mother right after killing those who had killed her.
Isis regretted ever letting Anya talk her into going to Romania; she regretted involving herself in the whacky family’s lives. Now, Riordan and Ami were dead and it was all because of her. The guilt of that knowledge weighed heavily on her conscious, despite Anya’s words.
Sure, it had been Caesareon’s men, but who had led them there? Isis was just as much to blame as the men were; she was just as guilty as them. And she would have to live with that fact for the rest of her pathetic life. It was as if she had taken a knife to their throats herself.
The only ones to blame are Caesareon’s deranged followers.
Anya’s words kept ringing in her mind. Yes, they were to blame, Isis thought with sudden rage. And they wouldn’t stop looking for her until they avenged their Master’s death. They wouldn’t stop coming for her, hunting her.
She looked over at Anya to find her resting her head and sleeping. Who else was in danger from the attacks? Who else had to die because they wanted to get to Isis? How many more members of her family would have to suffer because of her? Isis wondered violently.
They would never stop coming.
So she would have to stop them.
Isis took out paper and pen and began to write…
* * *
Azizi smiledwith malevolent satisfaction as he watched the machine take effect yet again. It worked! It finally worked! The machine he had been working on with Caesareon for years was finally fully functional.
