Diary of the Unbroken (BOOK #4)

The Dark Knight

William

Daniel's words echoed in my head for the remainder of the night, which I spent in the cell. The next morning, Gerard came once again to pull me from my cage and force me tripping up the stairs.

"What does he want from me now?" I grumbled. "I told him all I was willing to."

"You know," Gerard went on. "Daniel really should listen to me. A little torture might do you some good. And we could all stop running around in circles like a duck with its head cut off."

"It's chicken."

Gerard's head snapped to me. "Excuse me?"

"The phrase is 'like a chicken with its head cut off'," I explained to him.

"Americans," he only huffed.

We finally made out way upstairs and into the living room. This time though, it was broad daylight outside and the room was filled with vampires. Daniel stood in the middle of them, talking with his arms crossed over his stout chest. His daughter Jessamine stood beside him looking bored out of her mind.

"Ah," Daniel said, noticing my presence. "Thank you, Gerard."

Gerard bowed his head and fell into the crowd.

"I'm not telling you anything else," I told Daniel.

"I know, I know. I expect nothing less."

I clenched and unclenched my fists. My head spun with the lack of blood in my system, but my adrenaline managed to keep up with my anger. "Then why call me up here this time?"

"Because," he smiled cruelly. "I believe I finally have a plan. And it happens to involve you and your little coven."

I thought back to the words he left me with last night. The result of an Original could change the world. It would be one thing if he was talking about his own daughter or even me considering Derek and all. But it was Ava he was after. For some reason, she was his obsession.

The thought of Ava blinded me, but I couldn't let myself get distracted. Not now. She was the reason I was here, and she was everything I had to lose.

"Then use me as your pawn," I spat back at Daniel, though I felt a more begging tone seeping through my words.

He stood tall, his ominous demeanor holding strong. "I need no pawn in the game I play. You, son of an Original, are so much more. You are my knight, and I am your king."

†††

The house buzzed with activity throughout the morning. No one dared to answer my questions. Most of them ignore me. Others all but spat in my face. Daniel distracted himself with his minions, leaving me sitting on the couch surrounded by my own personal guards.

"So, he's got you trapped too?"

I turned around to the voice.

Daniel's daughter Jessamine stood behind the couch wearing a Nirvana T-shirt. She came over and plopped down beside me, propping her Converse-clad feet onto the coffee table and swinging her long hair out of her face.

"You think you're trapped?" I asked her.

"Duh, I'm thirteen and the man's daughter. This house is a prison."

"Thirteen? Do you not go to school?"

"Not right now." She clucked her tongue. "Homeschooled."

I couldn't imagine evil Original vampire lord Daniel teaching arithmetic to a middle schooler. Actually the fact that Daniel was a father baffled me itself, by more than the biology of it all.

But instead of pondering such, I asked, "You were in school before?"

"Yeah, but we move around a lot. Last time I was in public school was in Colorado back in December. Then we left. Dad got his little army together, and we've been on the road ever since."

I swallowed. "Since the beginning of the year?"

"Yeah, basically."

And that just happened to be around the time when Hanson came into town and Ava turned and this whole mess started. A few months ago, I couldn't imagine all of this correlating--an evil vampire over-lord somehow controlling all of this--but now I knew that most things happened for a reason.

Nothing was ever just a coincidence.

"So," Jessamine started, "why are you here?"

I sunk down into the couch. "Why don't you ask your dear father?"

"He doesn't ever tell me anything."

"So you thought you might as well go straight to the source."

She shot me a familiar smirk. "I'm a very proactive person."

My lips quirked up only slightly before I forced them back down. She reminded me so much of someone. Not in her looks but the way she talked and the little things she did.

She reminded me of Ava.

"There's this girl..."

She rolled her eyes. "Of course. There always is. My dad wants something with her, am I right?"

I nodded shortly. "Yeah, I don't know. He has some crazy obsession with her and the rest of my people. "

"What's her name?"

"Ava."

Her eyes widened. "Yeah, I've heard her name before. But not recently."

My whole body froze over. I stammered out, "When?"

"Back in December when my father told me we were moving."

Before I could ask any further, Daniel came swooping back into the room with his men. It was odd how they seemed to follow his every move. Every step he took, they took the same. He was the definition of a leader.

And the definition of a dictator.

"Jessamine, are your bags packed?"

She rolled her eyes and pulled herself off of the couch. "I'm working on it."

"Really? Because it looks like you're sitting here talking to this young man."

She huffed, stomping away and up the stairs.
I glanced around the room noticing everyone else with bags and their coats on, seeming ready to go on some sort of trip.

"What's going on? Where are you going?"

"We," Daniel corrected. " It should better be asked where are we going."

I shot up off the couch, my fists clenched once again. I didn't have time for his ambiguity. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, where else would be go." His lips curled up once again into that conniving smile of his. "Back to Newberry, of course."