Warrior (Relentless #4)(146)

I looked from Sara to Tristan. She’d been ill? When? Why hadn’t Tristan told me?

Drex demon venom made people have hallucinations. It normally didn’t make them sick. But then most people weren’t half Fae… I swore silently. Demon blood and venom were poisonous to the Fae. It was no wonder Sara had gotten sick.

“You did that to me?” Sara asked in disbelief.

Celine spoke for the first time. “Where on Earth did you get drex venom?”

“They keep a lot of venoms in the medical ward for making antidotes,” Michael replied.

It was hard to stay calm when I thought about how many kinds of demon venom we had here. If he’d used too much drex venom, or if he’d used a different one Sara couldn’t fight off, she might have died. It didn’t matter that he had no idea she was half Fae. He could have killed her.

“What else did you do?” I bit out.

He flinched and looked down at his lap. A minute or two passed before he answered.

“I-I let the hellhounds out so they would scare her. I did it when there were lots of warriors around to keep her from getting hurt.”

Tristan sent me a warning look before he addressed Michael. “How did you do that without anyone seeing you?”

“They let me hang out in the control room sometimes,” he told us. “And I saw Ben entering in his security code when he was on duty. After that, it was easy to log on from my laptop.”

I thought back to all the times I’d been in the security center with Dax since I’d returned. I had seen Michael in there on at least one occasion. Dax hadn’t seemed to mind, so I hadn’t mentioned it.

“You set the karks on me, didn’t you?” Sara asked accusingly.

Michael bit his lip. “I sprayed some scarab demon pheromone on you. I used just a drop to get them worked up. I had no idea they’d go nuts like that.”

It was all I could do to keep my anger in check. For weeks, this boy had played dangerous games with Sara’s life. People were dead because of him, and Sara could have been one of them.

Sara threw up her arms. “I don’t get it! The vampires wanted me dead and you had so many chances to finish me off. Why didn’t you just kill me and be done with it?”

He gave her a horrified look. “I couldn’t do that. I never wanted to hurt you at all. I just wanted you to leave so they would see I did what they asked me and let Matthew go. And they said they wanted you alive.”

She stared at him as if she didn’t recognize him. “So after all that, they suddenly decided to come here to get me themselves. Why?”

He looked away from us at the far wall. “They asked about your uncle…and I told them he was human again. They wanted to know how, but I didn’t know how it happened. That’s when they told me I had to bring you to them or Matthew would die.”

A needle of ice stabled my chest. If they knew Sara could make vampires human, they’d do anything to get their hands on her. I had to take her away from here as soon as possible.

I’d take her to Miroslav. It was the most fortified stronghold in the world, and the Master would have no idea where we were. It was a bit early to introduce Sara to my parents, but –

“No!” Michael’s screams pulled me from my thoughts. “He’s alive and now he’s going to die because I couldn’t give them you. This is all your fault. Why couldn’t you just leave? You killed him, Sara! You killed my brother.”

Sara’s eyes filled with tears, and she backed away from the bed with her hand covering her mouth. Two healers ran past her and sedated the crazed boy.

I started toward her, but she shook her head.

“What will you do with him now?” she asked Tristan hoarsely.

“We have a facility in Mumbai where they’ve had some success rehabilitating some of the older orphans we’ve found. I’ll contact Janek and have him take Michael there.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Sara, what he said…”

“He’s delusional, I know.”

Celine stood. “Please tell me it’s not that easy to get to our children and turn them against us.”

Sara turned to glare at her. “He’s sick and they used that against him. How about a little compassion?”

Celine huffed. “You expect me to show compassion to the person who betrayed us?”

“The welfare of the boy was our responsibility, Celine, and we failed him,” Tristan said wearily. “I don’t believe our young people are at risk. This was a special case. And I think we should continue this conversation elsewhere.”

“I’m done here,” Celine said, striding from the room.

Sara followed her out. I stopped Tristan before he could do the same.

“Michael told the vampires what Sara did to Nate. This changes everything.”

He looked back regretfully at the unconscious boy. “I know.”

I lowered my voice as we left the room. “If they know what Sara did to Nate, they will stop at nothing to get to her.”

“I’ve already spoken to the rest of the Council. We are doubling our force here and bringing in five special teams to hunt this vampire.”

“It’s not enough,” I argued. “You saw the small army he was able to assemble and send against us. One child Hale witch brought down half our sentries without blinking. I’m shocked it hasn’t been tried before. You can be sure they will try to use them again now that they know how effective they are. And the only person who can go up against a Hale witch is the one we are trying to keep safe.”