“I was weakened, but I managed to use my last bit of energy to overpower her and discover what had happened. After the chaos of New Year’s, Harrington had my and Cassandra’s bodies taken to a morgue to be incinerated. Penelope insisted on going with me. In fact, I likely would have already been incinerated before I woke up if not for Penelope’s presence. I should have killed her then. I had the advantage.” He shook his head. “But the damage had been severe—I don’t know anyone who would have been able to come back from it. Once I got the information I needed, I gathered what strength I could, knocked Penelope out, and fled the facility.”
“Did she tell you anything else?” Tye asked greedily, starved for more intel. “Any information about what Harrington is planning?”
Beckham turned his attention to Tye, who shrank back a littleat the full force of Beckham’s terrifying visage. “No. She’s not important enough to have that information. Just what happened after they believed I was dead.”
“Damn,” Tye grumbled.
“I managed to get to a safe house where I could get in contact with Gerard.” He gestured to the man Reyna had only ever known as Beckham’s driver. “We have known each other for a very long time. He helped me out of the vulnerable position I was in.”
Reyna cringed at that. She didn’t want to know what it must have been like for him to be so weakened. Or what he had to do to feel better.
“We stayed in a safe house until I was back to full strength.” Something in Beckham’s expression said that he still wasn’t at capacity. That he was pushing himself beyond his limitations a mere week after his “death.” But he would never acknowledge it here. “Then I came to help.”
At that moment the flaming-haired Katarina and Reyna’s former bodyguard, Philippé, entered the hall. Everyone’s eyes raked over the newcomers.
“This is my inner circle.” Beckham gestured to the menacing group.
The Black woman, Zoya, spoke up first, a wry expression on her face. “It was time to get the band back together.”
Katarina snorted and twirled one of her twin blades in her hand. “I’ll take the drums, please.”
“Is that because you like to wail on things?” Philippé asked with a straight face.
“She likes to use both hands, if you know what I mean,” Gerard added.
Beckham coughed and all four members of his inner circle straightened. They went from camaraderie to deadly calm in a split second.
“The band,” Beckham said, amused by his company. “Gerard is my second. Philippé is my muscle. Katarina is…”
She beamed before he even said her particular skill. Her flaming red hair stark against her alabaster skin. Her blades whirled in her hands.
“A show-off,” Beckham finished.
Katarina laughed unabashedly. “That I am. I’m also the best weapon’s master and trained assassin you’ll ever have.”
“Zoya,” Beckham continued as if Katarina hadn’t tooted her own horn, “is my strategist. They’ll be helpful moving forward.”
“Are you assembling your army again?” Washington asked quietly.
“I am doing what I must.”
“A-army?” Meghan asked. “What army?”
“Elle has failed,” Beckham said evenly. “It’s clear that a covert rebellion with minimal resources doesn’t have the capabilities to stop Visage. They are too strong. I know because I helped Harrington build the company. As much as I wanted to believe in Sydney’s vision, the vision is dead. I am a vampire lord. I once had an army so deadly that I conquered this city in five years. We will do it again, starting today.”
Reyna finally stood from her seat and with a brave, quiet voice said, “No.”
All eyes turned to her. Beckham faced her as well and she could see the questions whirling in his dark orbs. But his face showed none of it. He waited patiently for her to explain herself. He put the ball in her court. She intended to keep it there.
“What do you mean?” Tye finally asked. “We don’t have a plan. We don’t have an army. We have five humans and a single vampire scientist. We’re a ragtag team of survivors. We can’t even find the rest of Elle after the bombing. It makes perfect sense to use what we have. And if Beckham is willing to build an army of vampires for our cause, how the hell can we say no tothat?”
“I’m not saying no to an army. We desperately need more people,” Reyna agreed. “But Elle is not dead.”
“The bunker was destroyed. We’re scattered,” Meghan reminded her. “We’re not much of Elle.”
“Elle isn’t a place. It’s an idea. It’s the idea of equality between humans and vampires. That we can work and live and thrive better together than against each other. As long as that idea exists, then Elle isn’t dead. It is within me. It’s within all of you.”
Washington beamed at her. “I’m still Elle.”
