Stefan shifted at his words, his eyes burned in the night. No matter what Ian decided, Stefan wouldn’t continue to stay away from Isabelle. “We can’t leave you here with her,” David protested.
“Yes, you can. No one knows we’re here. There’s no one around for miles and I can handle a human. We’ll be fine.”
Mike flicked his cigarette away into the night before lighting another one. He exhaled a puff of smoke before speaking, “I’ll stay with you.”
“No. Everyone has to go back home. Everyone there will need help if they decide to leave, and they’ll need even more help, if they decide to stay. All of you, go back.”
Stefan took a step toward him and handed out the phone. “It’s my satellite phone. I grabbed it from home when I knew we would be coming here. Your cell phone won’t work here, and there’s no landline.” Ian had assumed that already. “This phone is fully charged, the battery should last for at least a couple of weeks if you use it sparingly.”
Ian took the phone from him. He didn’t ask Stefan why he had a satellite phone; he imagined there were many things Stefan was prepared for that he never would have thought of. Hell, he was never prepared for anything, and that was the way he liked it, until now. Taking life as it came to him didn’t seem like as much fun anymore, not with Paige in the other room and her life on the line. All of their lives on the line, he reminded himself.
“I don’t like the idea of leaving you here, with her,” Ethan said.
“I don’t think she’s much of a threat.”
“And if other vampires or hunters arrive looking for her?”
“I’ll take care of them too.”
“Ian…”
“I can take care of this, Ethan. No one is going to find us up here; I’m not sure I can find us up here,” he added with a grin. Ethan remained straight faced before finally breaking into a small smile. “It won’t take long to get everyone situated or moved around, by then we should know more about what is going on with her from Brian and his friends.”
“We can make a couple of trips and leave you with the Jeep,” Emma said.
“I can move faster than a vehicle through these mountains if it becomes necessary. Take them both, it will be one less temptation for Paige,” Ian replied.
“You’ll need clothes and supplies before we go,” David said.
“We will,” Ian agreed. “I think you should take Mandy and Jill back tonight, and then head home. I’m sure Mandy has school tomorrow.”
“I can stay for another day,” Mandy offered.
Ian rested his hand on her arm and squeezed it reassuringly. Jill and Mandy may have started out as Emma’s friends, but he considered them more like family now, and he knew he wasn’t the only one. David, Mike, Jack, and Doug spent a lot of time with them too, as they all liked to go out together in San Francisco.
“I know, and I thank you,” he told her. “But you should get back. We don’t need you failing out because of this.”
“Like that would happen!” Jill snorted. She swung her arm around Mandy’s shoulders and pulled her close. “There’s far too much brain power in her little noggin for that.”
Mandy rolled her eyes, but she leaned against Jill’s side. “Ok, but if you need me for anything more, call.”
“I will,” Ian promised. He turned toward Ethan, Emma and Stefan. “If you wouldn’t mind sticking around to do some shopping for us tomorrow, before you leave?”
“Of course,” Emma replied.
Ian looked up at the stars beginning to pierce the shadowy veil of night. He had no idea what he was going to do with Paige while they were stuck up here. He knew what he’d like to do to her, but he probably had a better shot of walking on the moon than he did of getting into bed with her.
He turned back toward the cabin; he could hear her faint breaths and sometimes a small snore coming from the bedroom. “The couch is comfortable,” Stefan said.
Mike chuckled and flicked his cigarette away. “I was beginning to think you and Brian shared the bedroom.”
Stefan shot him a look as he folded his arms over his chest. “We didn’t build the place.”
“But you did buy it,” David replied.
“Actually we inherited it from a vampire we killed. It was secluded and peaceful, so we kept it.”
“Oh,” David said.
That about summed it up, Ian thought as he had nothing else to say to this revelation either. Sometimes he forgot how shady Stefan’s past had been.
“We should go,” Mike said and climbed to his feet. “Call us and we’ll be here as fast as we can.”
Mike slapped him on the back and climbed down the steps to David’s car. David shook his hand before jogging over to the driver’s side of the car. They each held their doors open for Jill and Mandy to climb into the back. They all gave a wave as they pulled out of the driveway and headed down the dirt road. Ian watched until the red taillights faded from view before turning back toward the cabin. It would be another night with little sleep, but he intended to stay by Paige’s side.
* * *
The cool air blew against Paige’s skin when she stepped out of the cabin and onto the porch. Her gaze traveled over the mountains towering behind the small cabin in the center of the clearing. Their peaks were still white with snow as they touched the clouds drifting through the sky. The trees lining the clearing were at least fifty feet tall, the tops of them blew in the breeze cutting through them. The soft clacking of their branches filled the air as they swayed. A couple of squirrels bounded through some tall pines before vanishing from view.
Inhaling deeply, she savored the crisp mountain air as she tried to place what mountain range they were in. Maybe the Cascade Mountains, she guessed, but she didn’t know much about any of the mountain ranges on the Pacific side of the country.
“Where are we?” she inquired.
Ian shifted beside her. The motion caused his arm to brush against hers. The brief touch of his flesh again hers made heat seep through her body. Rubbing her arm, she hastily stepped away from him. He didn’t notice as his gaze never swung toward her. “Far from civilization,” he replied.
She glanced at the parked Jeep she assumed they’d arrived in, and then down the endless drive. Far from civilization was right, or at least that’s what they were trying to make her believe. For all she knew there could be a home only a couple of miles away or just at the end of that drive.
“Are you sure you’re going to be ok up here?” Stefan inquired as he walked across the clearing toward them.
“We’ll be fine. Get back to Issy before she kicks my ass, she needs you with her right now,” Ian replied.
“She’ll kick my ass if something happens to you.”
Paige glanced between the two of them as she followed the conversation. “I’ll make sure to stay perfectly healthy then.”
“Do so.” Stefan glanced pointedly at her before turning his attention to Ian again. “Your niece or nephew is going to want to meet you one day.”
Paige felt her eyebrows shoot up; she glanced at Ian as he smiled. “And I’m looking forward to meeting him or her. Go on, get out of here before Issy comes looking for you.”
Stefan nodded before walking over to the Jeep. Ethan stepped forward and embraced his brother, his unrelenting gaze held hers when he stepped away. “If something happens to him, I’m coming for you.”
Paige had to fight the urge to cross her legs to keep from peeing her pants from the abject fear his threat invoked. Stefan had the eyes of a shark, but Ethan might be the one who was as merciless as one. “Ethan,” Ian warned.
Ethan glanced at him, squeezed his shoulder and moved away. Emma stepped forward and threw her arms around Ian’s waist. Her head barely came to the middle of his stomach. “Be careful.” Turning away from Ian, she focused on Paige. “Their growl is the worst thing about the men in the Byrne family, including this guy.” Ethan grunted when Emma gave him a sharp elbow to his stomach. He scowled as he rubbed at
the offended area, but when Emma beamed up at him innocently, his stony expression melted into one of love. “See,” Emma said to her.
“Sure,” Paige muttered.
Emma laughed and rested her hand briefly on Paige’s arm. She didn’t jerk away from the diminutive woman this time because she was afraid of how Ethan would react, but also because she didn’t find Emma as repulsive as she had before. It was impossible not to like the vibrant woman, even if she was a bloodsucker, married to a guy who had looked at her like he was contemplating crushing her skull more than a few times.
Emma skipped down the steps and toward the Grand Cherokee. Ethan focused on them again. “We’ll be here if you need anything.”
“I know,” Ian said. “Let me know what the family decides, and keep me up to date on how everyone is.”
Paige glanced back and forth between them. She preferred to believe all vampires were heartless bastards, but she couldn’t deny the love and concern she felt between them. Ethan reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. Unable to stop herself, her mouth dropped at the sight of what had to be a couple thousand dollars.
“I got some money for you while we were shopping,” Ethan said.
Ian waved the money away when Ethan tried to give it to him, “I have money.”
Ethan grabbed hold of his hand and shoved the wad into it. “You could always use more. Take it, just in case.”
Ian stared down at Ethan, a muscle jumping in his cheek. He may be the larger of the two, but to Ethan he would always be the little brother. He didn’t feel like parting on an argument, so he slid the money into his pocket. “See you soon.”
Ethan nodded and jogged down the steps to the waiting vehicle. Paige watched as the Jeep turned around and drove down the road. Dust drifted up to fill the air long after the Jeep had disappeared from view. She kept hoping to see some sort of sign of where the driveway ended, but as the seconds turned into minutes, she knew she never would, not from here anyway.
“Let’s get inside,” Ian said and clasped hold of her elbow.
Despite the fact his touch sent a little thrill through her, she pulled her elbow away from him. To her relief, he didn’t try to reclaim it. “Who is Issy?” she inquired.
“My sister, Isabelle.”
“She’s pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“Vampires really can have babies?” she squeaked.
“I told you before my siblings and I were born this way.”
She almost tripped over her feet due to her focus on him and his repeated revelation. “I’d really believed you were lying.”
“There was no reason for me to lie to you, I’d thought you wouldn’t be keeping your memories of us, so why lie?”
“There are many reasons a vampire lies.” She ignored his irritated look as a new thought occurred to her. “So does that mean you’re going to start lying to me now?” she demanded.
“No.”
“Because if you can’t erase my memories, you’ll hold me prisoner for the rest of my life?”
“Because I’m not a liar.”
Pushing open the door, he gestured for her to go ahead of him. She stepped into the tiny cabin and glanced around at the sparse furnishings in the living room to her right. The brown leather couch faced the small stone fireplace across the way. A single wagon wheel coffee table was before the couch, with a wooden stand sitting off to the side. The fluffy white rug in the middle of the room reminded her of a giant marshmallow. She wanted nothing more than to take her sneakers off and sink her toes into the fluffy material.
“This definitely wasn’t what I was expecting from Brian or Stefan,” Ian muttered as he caught her staring at the cabin.
“Who is this Brian guy?”
“A family… acquaintance,” he replied. “He and Stefan used to be good friends. This was once their place, but Brian is the one who has been using it recently.”
She glanced at him, but he was focused on the kitchen now and the small window over the basin sink. The window sagged in its wooden frame. The glass in it had blurred lines and odd colors dancing through the thick pane.
“That glass is old, original to the cabin.” Ian murmured more to himself than to her.
She tried to pretend she found no interest in anything he had to say about the cabin. Everything within this cabin, except for some of the furniture, appeared to be from when it was originally built. What year that was she had no idea, but if she had to guess she would say the late eighteen hundreds. The smell of the thick, wooden, beam walls permeated the air and tickled her nose. The morning sun rising higher in the sky did little to illuminate the dim interior. Shadows danced across the floor and walls as the breeze stirred the trees outside. The fire in the living room helped to ease some of the coolness of the air; the logs popped as sparks flew toward the chimney.
“What were you expecting their cabin to look like?” she inquired.
He shook his head. “I don’t know, not this.”
“At least it has indoor plumbing,” she said.
That had been her polite way of telling him she had to use the bathroom. She walked down the small hall, past the tiny, rustic bedroom she’d first woken up in. The log cabin walls of the room were completely bare; the thick gray curtains being the only decoration in the room.
She stepped into the small bathroom on the other side of the bedroom. It had a small standing-only shower stall, toilet and sink, but it was far better than an outhouse. Glancing back at him, she stepped into the room and closed the door. She did what she had to do quickly and opened the door once more.
Poking her head out, she was amazed to find he wasn’t standing guard outside the door. Walking back through the cabin, she didn’t see him anywhere. There were pieces of furniture she could break to use for a weapon, but after seeing the way he’d moved earlier, she didn’t think she’d have much of a chance to use a stake on him. Besides, he would notice broken furniture before she ever got the jump on him.
Turning into the kitchen, she opened the cabinets to find most of them bare, but one had some canned goods stashed inside. She opened the two drawers beside the sink; there wasn’t even a spoon in them, let alone a knife she might be able to use to whittle something down or stab someone. It may not kill him but it might slow him down, or it might just make him rip her head off. But then, she was really beginning to question if he really did have any intention of hurting her. He’d certainly had plenty of chances to do so already, and she was still healthy and standing.
She supposed it made sense for a vampire home not to have silverware or cooking utensils in it. They had no need for them after all, she decided as she closed the drawer. She walked back out of the kitchen and toward the main door.
She spotted him outside, standing in the shed when she stepped onto the porch. As she watched, he pulled fishing poles from inside and placed them against the building. The roof of the wooden shed sagged toward the middle; a few of the boards at the bottom of it had been broken off. She would bet money on a raccoon or some other animal having a comfy little home under that floor.
She glanced around the clearing; she could try and make a run for it. He wasn’t paying attention to her, and with enough of a head start she may be able to make it into the trees before he knew she was out of the bathroom. He pulled some oars from the shed too and turned them over in his hand to inspect them.
He’d done nothing to indicate he knew she was there, but she had a feeling if she ran he would be on her before she made it the hundred feet to the trees. Resting the oars against the side of the shed, he bent to pull a canoe out and placed it in front of the shed. Beneath his black wife beater, the etched muscles of his shoulders and back rippled with his movements. She was riveted by the play of his skin over his chiseled flesh. She hated his species, despised everything about them, but she found herself fascinated by the amount of power he exuded and thankful he seemed not to feel the cold as much as she did, otherwise he’d be wearing far more th
an that shirt.
Being held captive had fried her brain and short-circuited her common sense, she decided.
Thrusting her shoulders back, she firmly took control of her thoughts again. Stay focused on the mission, on regaining your freedom, she reminded herself. She may not like having to stay here, but maybe she could learn from it. She’d never interacted this closely, or for this much time with a vampire before, if she worked this right maybe she could learn more of their weaknesses and how to defeat them.
“You’re not going to run?” he inquired without looking at her.
His words proved he’d been aware of her the whole time. “You’d only kill me if I did.”
He still didn’t look at her as he pulled out a tent and then some lanterns from within the shed. “I can assure you no matter what happens, you will walk out of here alive.”
“With my memories intact?”
“That remains to be seen, but we may have no choice.”
“Then why am I here? Why not let me go?”
He finally turned toward her and placed a lantern on the ground. “Because I have to make sure my family is safe. You may not like this situation, I certainly don’t, but you can’t be free until then.”
“I don’t know where you live, where your family lives, or how to find you.”
“You know what I look like, and what some members of my family look like. I’m not willing to risk anyone’s life. You may think we’re all evil, bloodsucking fiends, but we’re not. There are far too many younger members of my family who are unable to protect themselves against uneducated people such as yourself.”
“I am not uneducated! I’ve seen firsthand the horrific, revolting things your kind can do!”
He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the shed as he studied her. “And I’ve seen firsthand the destruction, hatred and desecration the human race is completely capable of. I can assure you, we did not come up with the atomic bomb. We don’t break into museums and destroy everything inside. Some of us may be brutal killers, but so are some humans. Many of us live in, and only want, peace. Learning the difference may make you a happier person in the end.”
The Vampire Awakenings Bundle: Books 1-5 Page 91