I said. “Can you operate a motor vehicle?” He nodded and I pointed. “Run as fast as you can in that direction. There’s a town. Steal a container truck and bring it back here. We’re taking them with us, dead or alive.”
“For what purpose?” Lucian asked.
I ignored Lucian and addressed the wounded. “Who among you can walk?”
A lone soldier staggered to her feet, bleeding freely from an injury in her upper thigh. I must have stabbed her at some point.
“Administer that one first,” I told Lucian. “She’s the only one not coming with us.”
I strode over to where she leaned heavily to one side. As I approached, she stood straighter, though it took some effort. A soldier at attention
“Tell your master the bloodborn declare war on his Imperium. I know your safehouses, and I know your fortresses, and I will hunt down each and every one of you until Vincent is returned to me.”
To the rest, I roared, “Your master has left you here to die. He ordered your own transport vehicles destroyed. That’s how expendable you are to him. That’s your reward for your centuries of loyalty and service. I don’t take pleasure in harming you, my brothers and sisters, but your master has stolen something precious from me, and until he is returned, you are prisoners of the bloodborn.”
My anger blazed like a comet as I directed my rage at Lena.
“This is your fault.” I gestured all around us. If it hadn’t been for Vincent’s empathy towards her, we never would have found ourselves in this hopeless situation. I recited her own words back to her. “Anything can be used as a weapon, Andronicus. Even kindness, even compassion.”
And then, in a single flash of clarity, her plot and all of its intricacies revealed itself to me… from taming the tiger to the loving portrait of motherhood to the sad opera of her starvation. Only in her weakened state would she be able to manipulate and lie to us without you using your powers to uncover her true intent. Had she orchestrated this entire scheme?
No, she couldn’t have accomplished this deception alone. She must have had an accomplice, which was how Azrael had known we were here. Why he’d sent only a fraction of his soldiers to contain us, even though he knew my capabilities. He’d wanted to minimize the casualties. Did his soldiers know this was a suicide mission?
“You planned this, didn’t you?” I seethed at her. “You took a soul who was good and true and used him as a bargaining chip to regain your freedom. You knew this was a trade all along.”
“I thought we could defeat them,” she said, feigning weakness.
“Don’t lie to me,” I roared.
Lena lifted her gaze, her glacial eyes meeting mine with unabashed fury, as sharp and cunning as ever. Her meekness transformed into defiance before my very eyes.
“You needed a reason for war. And now you have one.”
“Azrael will break him,” I howled at her in anguish and fury.
“He has to understand what we’re up against. To know Azrael’s cruelty firsthand. The Parousia cannot be weak.”
You were never weak, only kind and good. She would let Azrael destroy you, so that she could rebuild you in her vision, as she’d done to me and Lucian both. She wanted us to be as ruthless as her, to win by any means necessary and commit unconscionable acts. And so, Azrael and Lena had conspired together, two game masters trading in fates and lives. And I’d delivered you right into their clutches.
“You sold your own son to a fiend,” I spat.
“I paid in blood, Andronicus. I spent twenty years in that mine because you were too spineless to disobey your master. I’m done suffering for your folly. Now, I must gather our allies. War is coming.”
“War is here already.” I swore at her through gritted teeth and raised my sword. She asked and I’d answer. With her head.
“Henri.” Lucian stepped between us, using his body to shield her and his mudra to prevent me from delivering the death blow she justly deserved.
Her expression remained stony as she dared look me in the eye with the command of a queen. “We all must make sacrifices, Andronicus.”
“Says the serpent to the mouse as she bares her cruel fangs.”
“We’ll get him back, I promise you.”
“Your promises mean nothing to me, you vile, selfish conniver. When Vincent found you in the mine, I should have kicked the skull off your corpse and kept walking.”
She stared at me, impassive.