Keeping Secret (Secret McQueen) - By Sierra Dean Page 0,80
my hands down and gripping the armrests on my throne.
“You can’t.” Sig shook his head. He wasn’t saying it like he was shocked or upset. The words were a statement. I couldn’t offer myself. “As a Tribunal leader, you cannot enter into any bargain where your life is on the line.”
“Oh.”
But what then? I couldn’t just pick someone else’s life. Who would I choose? Holden? No… Though I was sure he’d volunteer if I asked, it didn’t seem right. Perhaps someone here would be a good choice, since they were all so damned old already. But…
“Maybe Brigit would like to volunteer,” Rebecca suggested. “As a first show of sacrifice for the council. Surely that isn’t too much to ask given what we are offering her.”
I was opening my mouth to say no, but Brigit spoke first. “Sure.” She was nodding as enthusiastically as I was shaking my head.
“You don’t have to do this,” I told her.
“It’s no big deal.” She shrugged and smiled warmly. “Besides, I’m a warden now. I have the protection of the council. With that and your training…I think I’ll be around for a while. Maybe longer than you.” She gave me a pointed look, and the gunshot scar on my shoulder throbbed in response.
She had a point, one she was trying to make without speaking. Everyone here knew I wasn’t all the way vampire, but none of us knew what that meant for my longevity. Brigit was a full vampire and she was part of the council now. All those things combined meant her life expectancy really was longer than mine.
“Well, I think that’s a brilliant idea,” Juan Carlos said, his new smile equal to Rebecca’s in creepy satisfaction.
I didn’t like it, and I didn’t want to agree. Rebecca had only one reason to suggest I pick Brigit, and it had nothing to do with logic. The council had made a choice that ended in one of her children being dead, and I’d been the one to kill him. Now she’d found a way to put my supposed child’s life in the hands of the council.
Eye for an eye.
Child for a child.
She couldn’t kill Brigit, but she could put her life in danger, and what better way than to attach it to Peyton’s. There was a certain poetry in Brigit tying her life to that of the vampire who had actually created her, but I was having trouble appreciating it. Her vampire death would mean his freedom, just as her human death had led to his imprisonment.
“Brigit, are you sure?”
“Yup.”
“You don’t have to do this. I could ask Holden.” When I said this, I made sure to look at Rebecca instead of Brigit. I wouldn’t put Holden at risk to prove a point to Rebecca, but I wanted to remind her she still had other children, and now the choice and the power were all in my hands. The elder’s face grew ashen, and she took her seat. Favorite or not, she didn’t want to see Holden take Brigit’s place. She wouldn’t push this further than she already had.
“I want to. To thank you for everything you’ve done for me.”
The whole room was tense and quiet. Sig and Juan Carlos continued to watch me—I didn’t need to look at them to know it. The weight of their scrutiny was heavy.
“Okay.” My teeth ground together after I said it. “I will choose the warden, Brigit Stewart, as the lifeline lock on Alexandre Peyton.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Sig, Brigit and I stood side by side in front of the small door that kept Peyton at a safe distance from the rest of the world. The hall was so cramped we barely had enough room for three of us to stand.
“So what now?” Brigit asked, rocking on her heels. She was making a valiant effort to appear nonchalant, but I knew her well enough by now to recognize the unease creeping into her voice.
“Now we must open the door.”
My eyes widened. “Why?” I was in no mood to chat with Peyton again, not after our last tête-à-tête. If I went the remainder of my years, however many they might be, without seeing Peyton’s gaunt, creepy face ever again, I’d be all too happy.
“We need his blood,” Sig said matter-of-factly, ignoring my dismay.
There was no way we were getting out of this without opening the door. Fine. But that didn’t mean I had to set foot anywhere near—