Narrative P.O.V.
Dirt fell from the rafters in the ceiling.
On the ground above their heads, a train rattled along its track.
Overhead lights were swinging from their cords, flickering as the room waited for the train to pass so they could continue their worried murmurs.
Jai checked his watch nervously before they all heard the cellar door open with squeaky hinges.
Heavy footfalls could be heard echoing down the hallway from the rotting wooden staircase and the entire room held their breath as the footsteps drew closer.
When Adam walked into the cellar to see nearly fifteen sets of worried eyes on him, he stopped.
"What's wrong?"
A collective sigh of relief could be heard around the room as Jace stood to his feet and walked over to his old friend.
"Where is Cain?" He asked.
Adam looked at Jace with narrowed eyes before turning to look around.
"Shit..." he mumbled, realizing who was missing from the group.
Adam ran a hand along his jaw as he turned back to Jace.
"He'll be here any second."
The door opened again and footsteps echoed along the hallway, everyone holding their breath once more.
Evelyn walked into the room, her expression immediately morphing into one of concern upon seeing the defeated expression everyone else wore.
"What happened?"
Adam turned and looked at her solemnly before Evelyn felt her heart drop into her stomach.
"She's with..."
She trailed off as Adam nodded slowly.
"We have to tell him," she said urgently, realizing the gravity of the situation they faced.
Adam said nothing as he lifted his gaze over her shoulder to the brooding figure that stood in the shadows listening.
No one had the courage to let their lungs breath, hearts beat or eyes blink as they all turned to see Cain standing in the hallway.
He had managed to come in behind Evelyn, unnoticed.
Cain stepped out into the room, shadows cast along his face from the dull overhead lights.
With dark eyes, he scanned the room and turned to face Jai.
"Get out," Cain commanded.
His eye contact with Jai was unflinching as the room around them shifted quickly, everyone dispersing out of the cellar.
"You two can stay," he said.
Although Cain's gaze hadn't lifted from Jai, Evelyn and Adam didn't need his focus to know that his words were directed at them.
Cain allowed the silence that fell over the room to linger for a few agonizingly slow moments.
Jai stood slowly from the barrel on which he sat, taking a shaky breath as he did so.
"I'm sorry, Cain..."
His voice, though low and breathy, was laced with genuine sincerity.
"Me too," Daniel agreed.
Lacking both fear of Cain's wrath and the strength to stand while recovering from the wolfsbane poisoning, Daniel had remained in the room when everyone else had been told to leave.
Cain drew in a deep breath before nodding slightly.
"I know the two of you well enough to know that it wasn't your fault and I know Ella enough to know that it was her choice. I can't, in good conscience, hold either of you accountable for her actions."
Jai felt a weight lift off of his shoulders. The sadness in his heart, however, lingered.
"So, what do we do?" he asked.
"Yeah," Daniel said, sitting upright, "what's the plan?"
Cain shook his head before sinking into an old wooden chair.
"I don't have one."
Jai and Daniel exchanged a quick, surprised look.
"What do you mean?" Jai asked.
"You need to have a plan. Jacob will kill her..." Daniel added quickly.
"No, he won't."
Although Adam's deep voice cut through the tension building in the room, his words added to the confusion.
"Why wouldn't he?" Jai asked. "Hasn't his objective been to get to Cain this whole time? What better way to do it than to go through her? He's done this before."
"He won't kill her," Cain agreed.
Jai tried to decipher what Cain meant but the hardened expression on Cain's face masked his thoughts.
"Cain, there's something we should tell you," Evelyn said.
"Don't waste your breath," he said, not bothering to even look at her as she spoke. "I know."
Evelyn started to walk towards him but her husband reached out and stopped her.
"So, you know what you have to do then?" Adam asked.
Cain nodded slowly, feeling his jaw clench.
Daniel looked at the broken family in front of him and wondered what on earth they were privy to that had finally brought them all together.
It was the first thing Daniel had ever seen them agree on, and yet he had no clue what it was.
"What are you talking about?" Jai asked, garnering up the courage to ask the question that he knew both he and Daniel were thinking.
He instantly regretted asking as Cain looked up at him with such a mournful rage that Jai found himself leaning away.
Tears brimming in his eyes, Cain's hands were shaking as he spoke with a broken voice.
"I have to let her go."
Daniel leaned in, his face showing the empathy he felt.
"But why?"
- - -
Ella's P.O.V.
A jolt of pain shot up my arm as the needle pierced through the top layer of my skin and found the vein it sought.
I tried to ignore the pain as I concentrated on the sun that had begun to rise above the ocean's horizon off in the distance.
From the couch where I sat on the aft deck, I had a perfect view of the morning's waking breath and it's reflective glow against the calm waves of the ocean.
Just as I was admiring the farewell of the stars and moon above us, I felt another prick against my arm and flinched.
"Sorry," Jacob said, his voice low.
I could feel with an electric intensity every brush of his finger against my skin. His hands were gentle as he taped the intravenous line to the inside of my arm.
Looking away from the early morning view, I glanced cautiously at Jacob.
He paid my glance no mind as he ripped the tape with his teeth and pressed it against my inner elbow.
Apart from their similar bone structure and stature, Cain and Jacob looked next to nothing alike.
Jacob's dark hair stood out against his pale skin like ink on a blank sheet of paper. His eyebrows were arched slightly more than Cain's were, giving him a more stern and focused expression.
His face was slightly more narrow, but that could have been the illusion given by the five o'clock shadow he boasted; a noticeable difference from Cain who was always clean-shaven. He had thicker hair that was nearly curly, whereas Cain had chestnut colored hair that was neatly cut.
Their eyes were the most noticeable difference, though.
Jacob's eyes glowed red like hot embers.
I could almost feel heat radiating from him when I looked into his eyes. For a moment, I wondered if they burned just as brightly in the dark.
This flame that burned in Jacob's eyes was strikingly more aggressive when compared to the lilac fields that shown from Cain's eyes. The rich purple reflected in his pupils was deep and comforting, but I couldn't help but squirm at the thought of their intensity.
Tearing myself away from the gut-wrenching feeling that came with thoughts of Cain, I took a deep breath and diverted my attention elsewhere.
I looked up at the thin steel pole that sat next to me where a bag of clear liquid hung, dripping slowly into the line.
"What is that?"
"Synthetically modified antibodies," Jacob answered. "They'll kill off the virus and help jumpstart your immune system."
I eyed him suspiciously.
"It's that simple?"
He let out a breathy laugh as he sat down on the ottoman in front of me, looking me in the eye.
"Simple in theory, not in practice," he said. "It took me years to finally find the right chemical composition to combat the virus. I wouldn't call the process simple either. It will take a few hours at least."
Jacob gazed up at the drip himself as if he were recalling the process.
"Fortunately, your case is much simpler than mine was," he said, "the infection has yet to take over your body completely."
My eyebrows furrowed.
"How do you know?"
He reached forward slowly and touched the inside of my neck with his fingers, a move that made my stomach twist and breath catch in the back of my throat.
"You have a pulse," he said. "It's slow, but steady. Normally the heart stops beating for those who have been infected and truly turned. It's almost as if-"
Jacob stopped.
His eyebrows furrowed and eyes narrowed as a serious expression crossed his face.
I found myself leaning away from him, suddenly wary of whatever was running through his mind.
Jacob stood from his seat and leaned over my body to press his fingers more firmly into my neck. I felt my heart begin to race as he brushed my hair over my shoulder, the inquisitive look on his face hardened into one of anger as he saw the scar on my neck that his fingers found first.
"Cain did this?"
I nodded, unable to speak because of the lack of air in my lungs.
"He marked you."
Despite the rhetorical tone of his voice, I found myself nodding again.
Terror ran through my veins like ice water as I turned my gaze away from Jacob, unable to stand the intensity of his stare.
After what felt like an eternity, Jacob finally released my neck from his grasp and stood up straight.
"That explains quite a few things then," he said.
I didn't have the time nor the courage to ask him what he meant as he turned and flipped a table that sat behind him.
The glass top shattered into thousands of tiny shards and I found myself flinching away, holding up an arm to protect my face from the splintered shrapnel.
After a few moments of deafening silence, I dropped my arm slowly to look towards the scene of Jacob's outburst.
He stood a few feet away, hands clenched by his side and chest rising and falling with a speed that increased with his anger.
"When did this happen?" He asked, his gaze on the glass at his feet.
I stumbled over my words, trying to gather composure and formulate a comprehensible thought.
"A few days ago," I finally answered.
"How long?"
I tried to think, but my mind couldn't keep up. I couldn't remember.
"Maybe three or four."
My answer must have been sufficient because Jacob didn't press for further detail.
"Cain did it when he turned me," I said, suddenly feeling the need to defend him.
Jacob looked at me solemnly, trying to mask the boiling rage he felt.
"Is that what he told you?"
My eyebrows furrowed.
"That's what happened," I said. "My brother poisoned me and Cain turned me to keep me from dying. He unintentionally marked me in the process."
Jacob scoffed.
"Unintentionally," he repeated under his breath, as though he didn't believe it.
"I'm not lying," I said defensively.
"I don't think you are," he said, turning to me. "Cain lied to you. He knew what he was doing when he turned you. He knew what was coming, that I was coming."
I found myself drowning in questions, my mind reeling along a narrative that didn't make any sense.
"If you didn't want Cain to turn me and mark me, why did you have my brother try to kill me?"
Jacob looked at me incredulously.
"Why would I do that? Zak wanted you dead because he thought you'd be better off. I would never have told him to kill you. He deviated from the plan: Zak and that stupid body double for Weber were supposed to bring you to me, not take you back to Cain."
"Body double? You mean that man wasn't Dr. Weber?"
"Hans Weber died thirty years ago," Jacob said dismissively. "My family's precious Dr. Zosak stole his identity and has been living a life of Jekyll and Hyde; using Weber's name to test his filthy experiments and keeping his own reputation spotless in the process."
I felt my mouth gape in shock and Jacob rolled his eyes.
I need to tell Cain, I thought.
"Don't worry, Cain knows," Jacob told me, as if he could read my mind. "Zosak called a few hours ago to tell me that he had been found out. I suppose that's where Cain went instead of chasing me around Europe."
"You knew he'd follow you when you left the meeting in Casablanca," I said presumptively.
"Of course, it's the only reason I went."
"How could you be so certain he wouldn't catch you?"
Jacobs raised an eyebrow as though I had offended him.
"Even as boys, Cain was never very good at hide and seek."
We were silent for a few moments before I garnered up the courage to ask the question that had been on the tip of my tongue since being on the boat.
"You said at the dock that I was what you were after this whole time," I said.
Jacob's eyes narrowed at me.
"This isn't about Cain," he said, speaking in a low voice. "It has never been about Cain—it's been about what he has that is rightfully mine."
"But I can't give you his title as Alpha," I said.
"No, you can't," he said. "That's why I have procedures in place to take that back from him as well."
"Then why am I here?" I asked.
Jacob paused for a moment and looked out over the ocean to watch the rising sun.
"When Cain turned me all those many years ago, he stole my entire genetic makeup which included my pure-blooded birthright to be an Alpha... and to have a mate."
I felt my jaw go slack as it finally dawned on me.
Jacob walked over to where I sat, broken glass crunching under his shoes as he did so.
He knelt down in front of me, pulling my hand up to touch his face.
Sparks danced under my fingers, along his jaw, and I felt a pit deepen in my stomach as I anticipated his next words.
"You weren't meant to be Cain's mate, Ella... You are meant to be mine."
- - -