I rested my head against hers; she burned hot against my chilly skin. "I know you could handle yourself if you came with, Ashley." I pulled back to look into her deep brown eyes, eyes that reminded me of all of the moments that we'd shared together over our lifetime. "But I can't handle anything happening to you. I'm sorry, I know it's selfish, but I need you to stay away from this."
She twisted her scarred lips as she stared at me, but she didn't have an objection that would work against my need to keep her away from the darkness I sometimes found myself in. As she slowly nodded, I tilted my head back at the hospital. "Besides, I think you've done enough. Most people wouldn't willingly help their sister steal an organ."
I twisted my lips at the thought of what we'd just done and she grinned. Giving me a soft kiss on the cheek, she nodded again. "Go get Julian back...I'll keep your daughter safe."
Hot Ben tossed her the keys to his SUV then opened the rear door of Teren's Prius. Teren and I both twisted to stare at him and he defiantly met our eyes. "I'm not hiding away with the women." His eyes held Teren's. "I've got your back, Teren, always have...always will."
Teren smiled, nodding his head as he opened his door. Waving a goodbye to my sister, I watched her in the parking lot as we pulled away. Careful to not draw the attention of any cops, since we really couldn't explain away a butcher knife and a bloody heart, and we didn't have a mind wiping vampire along, although, she was closing fast, Teren drove as quickly as he could out of the city.
I examined the photos he'd taken as he sped us to the place where he'd died. Before heading out to the hospital, we'd talked with Imogen at length about the farmhouse, so she could tell us exactly where it was. She and Halina had been able to find the place that pernicious night, so many years ago, by tracking the scent of the man around where they'd last felt Teren's location, but we'd been sort of out of it that day and I couldn't remember where to go.
Imogen's description had brought back the memory of driving away from there though. Horridly enough, I was certain I could find it again if I needed to. And apparently, I needed to. Malcolm knew about Teren's transformation there. Or maybe he'd just pieced together the facts. If that was a stopping point for his "client" in this State, maybe Malcolm had delivered his supplies there. Since he knew that Teren had killed the man, maybe he'd pieced together that the death had happened there, at the man's favorite location. He was equally as ingenious as Gabriel after all.
I was stressed enough over our upcoming subterfuge that I wished my heart could thump again. At least the thudding beat would have been an outlet for my nerves. Squinting my eyes at the instant photo, I tried to see Gabriel's face in the gangster. I could see it...if I wasn't aware of the truth.
Sighing, I laid my head back on the seat. I just wanted all of this to be over with. I just wanted to live in peace with my family. I just wanted my son back. I wanted to go back to debating whether or not to move. That seemed an easy task now. Teren's hands gripped the wheel as he sped out of town. We had enough time to make it, but he was pushing himself, anxious as well.
As we neared the property, I felt something that concerned me. Except for my daughter, every blip on my vampire-radar was moving, following our location. Teren looked over at me, sensing it too. Hot Ben leaned forward in the back seat, looking between the two of us. "What is it?" he asked, his lips pressed together.
I tucked the photos back in Ben's backpack and grabbed Teren's phone from his side. Frowning, I answered Ben. "I'm not sure." The phone started ringing before I could dial. I startled at the unexpectedness, then answered it as the ranch's number popped up on the screen. "Hello?"
"Oh, hi, sweetie," my mom's voice answered me. I frowned that she was still awake, but didn't say anything; sleep wasn't really easy for anyone lately. Before I could ask anything, my mother started talking. "Alanna wanted me to call and explain?" She said it like she didn't quite understand. The bond we all felt was a little puzzling to her.
Teren's voice answered her, loud enough for her human ears to hear. "Why did my mother and grandmother leave the ranch? Why aren't they staying with you and Nika?"
My mom paused before whispering in my ear, "He can hear me? Through the phone?"
I smiled slightly but Teren frowned. "Yes, I can hear you, even whispering. What happened?"
My mom sighed. "Ashley called the house, let us know that you guys got what you needed." She paused again, then added, "Did you really...? No, never mind...I don't want to know."
Wanting to forget what we'd done, I tried prodding my mom along. "And...?"
She cleared her throat. "Right, well, Alanna and Imogen both decided that what you were doing was dangerous, and they couldn't just sit at home while you were out there...meeting with that man." In a slightly softer voice she added, "Are they right? Are you in danger, Emma?"
Wanting to reassure her, I quickly said, "No, of course not, Mom. He's not interested in hurting us, and we're not alone. Gabriel and Ben are with us. Alanna and Imogen really should have stayed with you. I don't want you left alone..."
Teren sighed irritably. "I wanted Mom and Gran away from this. I wanted to know that they at least were safe."
My mother heard him, and knowing that he could hear her, she answered with, "Teren, Emma, the threat is where you are, not here. Jack, Ash and I will be fine, and we'll keep Nika safe. But, as a parent, it is nearly impossible to stay away when a child is in peril. You, of all people, should understand that. If I were as indestructible as your mother, Teren, you couldn't keep me away either...and I know your father feels the same."
Teren looked down but didn't say anything. Hot Ben put a hand on his shoulder and Teren raised his eyes to look at him in the mirror. "It's like you said when Julian first disappeared, Teren, when you called me into this...we need everybody."
Teren smiled slightly at him and looked over at me. "Alright, then we'll use everybody."
I smiled that my husband was finally accepting the supernatural help around him instead of trying to do everything himself. Thanking my mother, I told her to give Nika a big hug and a kiss for me. Mom sighed in my ear. "I will. I'll probably be cuddled up next to her all night, worried about how you are."
Sighing softly myself, I looked out the window. "I'll be fine, Mom, and when I come home...I'll have my son with me."
Mom sniffled and wished me luck. Putting Teren's phone back, I grasped his thigh and hoped that what I'd just told my mom was what was really going to happen tonight. Teren glanced over at me, then pressed his foot down even farther, pushing his little car to its max.
What felt like hours later, we pulled onto a bumpy, dirt drive. Memories flooded me as each bounce jolted my body. Even though the car was deathly silent, Teren and I not even breathing, I heard the echo of Teren's pain filled cries in my head. I even saw his blood soaked jeans in my vision. Teren glanced over at me, his jaw tight and his eyes wide; he was remembering too.
"Wow," Ben muttered from the back, "creepy."
In front of us was a decrepit building. Planks missing, the windows boarded over, the front door half off its hinges, it looked like the home a chainsaw wielding serial killer would use. And in a way, I suppose it had been home to an equally deranged man. I glanced down at the dirt packed ground as we pulled up to the house. Somewhere in the basement levels of this place, that man had lost his life...at my hands. Mine and Teren's both.
Shoving the past aside, I tried to focus on the now. The soft glow of the dash showed that we'd made it a few minutes before midnight; we hadn't missed him. Two of the blips on my radar were already here, their sonic bursts of speed faster than Teren's drive. The third vampire approaching us was closing the distance at a strikingly fast speed. Maybe feeling all of us together and away from the ranch, Halina had realized that something was going down and ditched her slower moving car. I wasn't sure if Gabriel was here or not, but figured he was. He wanted this over as much as we did.
As we stepped out of the car, the dusty smell in the air instantly bringing the remembered pain and death with it, Alanna and Imogen walked out of the front door. Ben jumped a little at seeing them stride through the loosely hanging screen, but Teren and I had felt them, and only looked over, interested at what they'd found.
Carefully stepping around the missing floorboards, Alanna shrugged. "It's clean. No trace of, well, much of anything really."
Imogen shrugged her shoulders. "It looks the same as when mother and I sterilized it." The warm, grandmotherly woman had said that so matter-of-factly that a chill went down my dead spine. She and Halina had cleaned up the incident, erasing all signs of foul play for what the human world would have considered murder. Well, manslaughter at best.
Teren frowned and looked around the empty property. I held my arms to my chest, wondering if my son was close. Did Malcolm bring him here, or leave him where he'd tucked him? Teren stepped forward, sniffing the air. I did as well and I sensed it in the wind blowing our direction, that faintly familiar scent from the movie theaters and that abandoned building's parking lot. Malcolm was here.
A growl burrowing from his chest, Teren stepped forward. Walking behind him, feeling on edge, we stepped over to where a fluorescent lamp post was shining a pool of bluish light over the dark ground. It was attached to an equally decrepit barn, the light itself the only sturdy looking thing on the weathered behemoth.
Staring through the cracked opening of the doors, Teren's growl grew louder. My silent heart wanted to race as nerves flew through me. Was my child with him through those doors? The group of us fanned out in a wide semicircle around the doors, giving Malcolm enough space that he didn't feel cornered. Ben stayed close to Teren's side, his trusty stake in one hand, his heart-containing backpack in the other. Alanna and Imogen stood farther back, near the edges of the circle, closing off any real escape the man had...from their direction at least. Knowing Malcolm was good at evading traps, I figured he had about five other ways to leave this situation, if he needed to.
The look on Malcolm's face as he stepped out of the building clearly showed that he believed that too. There was no fear of us in the worn vampire's features. Just a tiredness that betrayed how much he wanted this to be over with too. I hoped that after tonight, it would be, for everyone.
His eyes slowly taking in all of us, he softly muttered, "I see you brought the Calvary." His eyes locked on Teren's as he stepped directly underneath the light streaming from above; the spotlight he'd always craved. "Do I frighten you that much?" His lips lifted in a cruel, satisfied smile.
Teren didn't react to his goading, only stepped forward, his entire face a stone mask. "Where's my son?"
Malcolm sighed, rolling his eyes. "That's all I ever hear from you. It's so...repetitive." Narrowing his eyes, he raised an eyebrow. "Where's my heart?"
Teren grabbed the bag from Ben and tossed it at Malcolm. He'd tossed it pretty hard and it smacked the vampire in the chest. Malcolm smirked as he clutched the bag to him. "That wasn't very friendly. Not exactly a nice way to treat your business partner, is it?"