The Hidden - Jessica Verday [99]
“You can’t think that I’m—”
Cacey held up her hand and interrupted us. “Wait, wait, wait. There’s no need for any of this. It still doesn’t change the fact that we can’t do it. It’s Vincent and Monty’s job, remember?” she said.
“But Monty wants to try. Doesn’t that mean anything?” I asked.
Kame leaned over and said something to Sophie. She shook her head, then replied, “I don’t know. The chain has been interrupted. We can’t be sure—”
The sound of hoofbeats came thundering up from behind us, and we all turned to look. Nikolas was sitting on top of a dark gray horse, with Katy behind him.
“We have searched the other side,” he said, “and still no sign of—” As soon as they saw me, they came to a stop.
“Abbey!” Katy said, sliding down from the horse. “We were so worried! We have been looking everywhere for you.”
She came toward me, and I gave her a big hug. “I was with Vincent, but I’m okay.”
“What did he do to you?” She turned my face and looked at my jaw. “You poor thing.”
“I’m okay,” I whispered. “Everything’s going to be fine now.”
“Abbey?” Someone else called my name. From behind me. The voice was high pitched, but it sounded like …
“Cyn?”
She stepped forward hesitantly, and I could see that Vincent was holding her with one hand across her throat. Something glinted, and I knew it was a knife.
Immediately Caspian moved next to me and Nikolas edged his horse closer.
“Did you start without me?” Vincent called. “You know I couldn’t stay away. But I have my insurance policy here.” He pushed Cyn forward roughly, and she stumbled.
“What are you doing?” Cacey asked. “Are you crazy?”
Vincent glared at her.
“Okay, okay, don’t answer that,” she muttered.
“Let the girl come to us,” Kame instructed Vincent, his tone soothing. “We can discuss this.”
“There’s nothing to discuss.” He jerked her head back. The wicked edge of a blade shone against her pale throat. “I’m not being replaced.”
“Hey, schizo,” Cyn said to Vincent, “want to loosen up on the grip? I won’t struggle.”
Vincent ignored her.
“Why don’t you let Cyn go?” I said. “She doesn’t have anything to do with me and Caspian being completed.”
“Can’t,” he replied. “See, what I need is for you to make the decision not to complete him. And the only way I see that happening now is for me to hold on to her so you don’t do anything stupid.”
“Why didn’t you just stay away?” I said suddenly. “If you didn’t want to do the job, why not just head off to some tropical paradise and stay as far away from me and Sleepy Hollow as possible?”
He sighed heavily. “Radar thing. It’s like a time clock on steroids. A real bitch.”
“What’s the radar thing?”
“A program that’s hardwired inside our brains to guarantee we show up and do our job.” He shifted the knife away from Cyn and gestured to his head. “See, when a Shade’s time is up, we get this little blip that starts beeping in the back of our heads. The more we ignore it? The louder it becomes, until it’s this crazy full-on blaring signal that drives you mad and all you can think about is finding your Shade. You have to get within ten feet of your charge to shut it down.”
He grimaced, and I could tell that he’d obviously experienced that a time or two.
“Anything else you want to know?” he said. He glanced at his watch. “We have some time to kill.”
I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, and realized it was Uri and Caspian edging closer.
Vincent saw it too.
“I will gut her like a fish right here and now if you don’t back the fuck up,” Vincent threatened, moving the knife to Cyn’s stomach. “I won’t kill her, but I’ll make her bleed.”
They halted.
“This is getting old,” Cyn called out. “One of you want to tell me what his damage is?” She hissed in pain as Vincent dug the edge of the knife in deeper. “Okay, okay. Forget it.”
“No! Don’t!” I said. “You win, Vincent. End of story.”
“Actually …” He cocked his head. “That’s not the end of the story. Did they tell you the other part? The best part? Probably not. Because they’re cowards.”
“Like you’re anything