I Am the Wild (The Night Firm #1)- Karpov Kinrade Page 0,74
back profoundly, as did the paternity test. We need a new plan. We need…” I swallow, this next part hard for me to say. "We need to discredit their expert witness. I have to take the stand, to testify to what Jerry did to me."
My words have the intended effect, and all their fury at each other seems forgotten.
"No!" Sebastian says roughly. "We aren't putting you through that.”
"We can find another way," Derek says.
Elijah shrugs. "If she's willing, I say we let her."
"You would say that," Liam spits. "All head and no heart."
I can see the wound his words create in Elijah, though I suspect no one else can. It's covered up so quickly.
"Then what do you suggest?" Elijah asks Liam, who has no response other than to glare and turn away.
"It's the only way," I say. "If you want to win. And…I can do this. I need to do this. And not just for the case."
One by one they seem to understand what I'm not saying. That this is my way of fighting what he did to me. This is my way of standing up for myself.
Each of them nods at me in turn.
Then Lily returns, breathless, her suit stained with sweat around the collar, pink hair disheveled. “The crystal wasn’t there,” she says between heavy gasps. “It’s gone.”
“Shit,” curses Sebastian. “How did they get past our security?”
“Perhaps they didn’t,” says Dracula, his voice defeated. “Perhaps the Van Helsings aren’t the only ones who wish to see me imprisoned.”
Liam’s eyes narrow at Elijah. “You,” says the fire Druid. “You gave them the crystal.” He sounds more shocked than angry.
“Why would I do such a thing?” Elijah asks, his voice cold and calculating. “What would be the reason?”
"Because you are no longer committed to our oath," Liam says. "You would rather see us lose, see us forever bound to Dracula, than find us released from our compulsion."
Elijah looks at me worriedly, then back at Liam. "It’s true that I have reservations about a plan we made so very long ago, under wildly different circumstances." He clenches his hands and frowns. "But I would never betray our firm. You must know that. It wasn't me."
Liam scoffs. “I’ve read your journals. Your misgivings.”
“Those were private—”
“You betray our oath.”
“Never.”
This isn't the first time I've heard them talk of oaths, and it makes my stomach cramp at what I suspect is their intention. But I need to know for sure. "What oath?" I ask through trembling lips.
Elijah looks to me, compassion in his eyes. "When we were cursed—"
"Shut the hell up, Elijah," Sebastian says, with a warning.
"She deserves to know. Isn't this why she was hired? To help with the last piece?" Elijah casts a challenging gaze at each of his brothers, and an understanding passes between them. The passion in their eyes drifts away, replaced by a quiet resignation.
He looks back at me, his voice thin and morose. "When we were cursed, the power consumed us. Made us crazy. We lost ourselves in the excess of our gifts, in the excess of each element. It turned us cruel. Monstrous.”
Elijah looks away, gazing at the fire, his words far away. "There are many sins laid at our feet from those days. We set fire to homes, villages, cities. I cannot even count the innocents we killed.
"We couldn't contain our power. Earthquakes erupted wherever we went, uprooting trees that had lived thousands of years. Ravaging towns and collapsing mountains.
"We were the apocalypse incarnate. Flooding followed us, drowning anyone and anything in our path. Destroying livestock and farms. Killing wildlife and humans without discrimination."
Elijah nods in remembrance, his words full of sorrow. "And we brought the winds. They howled and shook the earth, blowing away homes and destroying whatever might be left. We tried to separate, as our collective power was too great, but we just spread our destruction farther. We tried living alone, as far from anyone as we could, but it was no use. We were too strong. Too out of control.”
"And so we made an oath," Derek says, cutting in. "A suicide pact. If we could not control the powers we had been cursed with, we would end our lives and spare those around us. But we are not easy to kill. Only a great power can kill one such as us. We had to create a perfect storm, using all the elements, to end our lives."