by L. E. Wilson
They hit the street and quickly lost themselves in the crowd, heading east towards Zhongshan Square.
"You're seriously just going to steal those clothes?" she asked as he took the black bag from her and tucked her hand inside his elbow, making it appear as though they were out for nothing more than a romantic evening stroll.
He looked down at her, aghast. "Borrow, luv. I would never steal."
"You just did! They have cameras, you know," she reminded him.
"Perhaps. But by the time they look up the footage, we'll be long gone."
He slowed down as they entered the Square. "Now, which way, poppet?"
She glanced around. The "Square" wasn't actually a square. It was more like the grassy center of a round wheel, with streets heading in every direction acting as the spokes. She guided him to one of those spokes coming up on their right and headed down Zhongshan Rd.
"I have a place that we can hide. It's not far."
"A secret rendezvous, you say? Why Grace, I didn't know you felt that way, luv. It's the pants, isn't..."
He stopped speaking halfway through his sentence, and Grace felt him stiffen under her hand. She glanced over at him curiously.
"Aiden?"
He was scanning the street, his expression intent. "Poppet. I need you to do exactly as I say, all right?"
"Why? What's going on?" She looked around, even checking behind them, but didn't see anything but the usual street traffic of cars and people.
"I just need you to trust me, my lovely. We're being followed."
"How do you know?"
He gave her a strange look, hesitating a moment before telling her, "I'm not certain, I just know."
"Human?"
Her question seemed to catch him off guard, but only for a moment. "No."
To anyone passing by, they would look like any couple strolling down the street, but Grace could feel the tension radiating from his body and into hers like sound waves.
She pressed closer to him, whispering, "The place we're going, it's secure. We can hide there. We just need to get to it." She pointed ahead of them with her bad hand. "See that street up there? Jiefang Rd? We need to take a left there, and head to Labor Park. There's a soccer ball sculpture there..."
"I'm familiar," he interrupted. "What's at the soccer ball?"
"My families' emergency shelter."
"Smashing." He casually scanned the area around them again as they approached the corner. "Hand me your rucksack."
She did. Tucking Mojo into the top pocket, he zipped it up, then put his arms through the straps. Taking Grace by the hand, he pulled her close to his side. "Stay close. And be ready."
"Ready for what?" But no sooner had the words left her mouth then he pulled her tightly against him and lifted her into his arms as if she weighed no more than Mojo. Tucking her against his chest just as turned the corner, he sped up to vamp speed, becoming nothing more than a passing blur to the people around them.
The speed made her dizzy, so Grace tucked her head into his neck and wrapped her arms around him.
In no time at all, he was setting her down amongst the trees surrounding the giant red and white soccer ball sculpture.
They waited until a small group of young tourists wandered away, but when Aiden made to leave the cover of the trees, she stopped him by stepping in front of him and placing her hands flat against his chest.
"Aiden," she said in a firm voice. "I need you to stay here for just a minute, and let me go over there alone."
"No," he immediately answered.
"Aiden, please!" she implored him. "I'll be fine. Just stay here for a few seconds, and please keep an eye on Mojo."
Reaching up, she unzipped the top pocket on her pack and let the little guy stick his head out. She looked directly at him. "Stay with Aiden. I'll be right back."
Aiden's displeasure was clearly written all over his face. He pushed his hood off of his head in exasperation. "Grace, I don't like this. Where are you going exactly?"
She held up her hand. "Just stay here and listen for me to call you. We don't have time to argue." Then, with a quick look around, she left the cover of the trees and jogged over to the sculpture.
She remembered halfway there that she was supposed to be limping, but there was nothing to do for it now. Maybe she could explain it away by the fact that her adrenaline was flowing and her ankle was wrapped, and therefore didn't hurt near as much.
Once she reached the ball, she cautiously circumvented it, keeping an eye out for witnesses. Crouching down, she checked the bottom white sections in front of her, brushing off the dirt here and there.
Finally, she found what she was looking for. A monogrammed "M" etched into the top of one of the sections. You wouldn't see it if you didn't know what to look for, but fortunately for them, she did.
Checking around one more time, and making sure she was out of view of Aiden, she closed her eyes, and began to chant quietly. A moment later, the section began to open, disconnecting from the rest of the ball and lowering like a ramp to the ground.
Once it was open, she called Aiden's name quietly, and jogged to the side until she could see the trees where he was hiding just in case he hadn't heard her, but he was already heading her way at an easy run.
Their pursuers must be close. Or he just wasn't good at following directions. Either way, it was time to go in. Throwing her legs over the edge of the opening, she flipped onto her belly and felt for the ladder.
Aiden arrived just as she found the top rungs, and she reached out for her backpack as he shucked it off his shoulders and handed it to her.
She threw it over her shoulder and headed down into the darkness.
Chapter Thirteen
Emma ran out into the hall outside of her and Nik's apartment, with Nikulas right on her heels.
"Em? Emma? Where the fuck are you going? What's wrong, sweetheart?"
She wrapped her arms protectively around her middle, looking frantically up and down the hall.
What the hell was that?
"Emma! Talk to me!" Nik planted himself in front of her and gripped her upper arms in his strong hands.
Her eyes flew to his as another shock wave rolled through her. He was completely vamped out, and if she didn't know him as well as she did, she'd be terrified.
A low growl rose up in his throat as he frantically searched her face, then twisted around searching for someone, or something, to fight for her.
"I don't know," she told him, bending over as another wave hit her. "I don't know, Nik! I just have this strange...pull inside of me. Like something is calling me. Like I need to go somewhere."
"You're not going fucking anywhere!" he bellowed. "Until you tell me what the fuck this is!"
"I don't know!" she yelled back.
Just then, the door to the stairwell flew open. Emma found herself thrown back against the wall as her overprotective mate shoved her behind him and spun around, dropping into a fighting crouch directly in front of her to guard her from this new threat.
Keira ran down the hall towards them, Luukas less than a second behind her.
"Emma!" she cried. "Are you all right?"
Emma ducked under Nikulas' arm and flew to her sister. They clasped hands when they reached each other, and then both fell to their knees with a cry as their mates roared with alarm.
Fangs bared and eyes glowing with anger, they paced around the girls like wild animals, their frustration at being unable to fight this invisible thing obvious.
Unable to release her sister's hands even if she wanted to, Emma had no choice but to let the vision roll through her like a freight train.
A girl appeared, with mahogany hair and light green eyes, and she was in trouble. Emma could feel her fear and determination, but could do nothing but watch helplessly as the girl ran towards a giant soccer ball sculpture. An athletic-looking man was following her, and she barely caught a glimpse of his face before they both disappeared through a door and down a ladder the
led somewhere underneath the sculpture.
Aiden!
The vision faded away like fog, and Emma blinked her eyes to find her sister's face mere inches from her own. They were still on their knees, and their hands were still clasped.
"Do you know them?" her sister asked, ignoring the guys prowling around them, desperate by now to find something, anything, to kill.
Glancing up at them, Emma sincerely hoped no one wandered into this hallway until they could get the guys calmed down.
"Yes," Emma breathed. "The guy, it was Aiden. As we told you, he's been missing since we found you and Luukas. Leeha took him. He called Nik yesterday though, and told him he'd just...woken up in China, with no idea of how he'd gotten there. I don't know who the girl was though. Do you?"
Keira shook her head. "No. No idea."
Emma stared at her sister. "What the hell was that, Keira?"
"I'm not really sure."
Releasing her sister's hands, she reached back to touch Nik's leg as he passed behind her. Immediately, he dropped down and wrapped her into his arms as his brother pulled Keira up off of the floor to do the same.
"Are you ok?" he whispered in her ear.
She turned to look into his glowing blue eyes and gave him a small smile. "Yeah. I'm fine. It was some sort of vision, or something. I saw Aiden!"
He pulled back to search her face. "Aiden? Are you sure?"
She nodded.
"Where the fuck is he? What was he doing?"
"He was with a woman. A pretty woman."
Nik rolled his eyes, his fangs receding. "Of course."
"They were running towards a soccer ball," she continued.
Standing up, Nik planted his hands low on his hips and stared down at her in disbelief. "You mean to tell me that while we've been here losing our minds worrying about that damned Brit, he's been doing nothing but picking up chicks and playing games?" As an afterthought, he reached down and grabbed her under her arms and hoisted her easily to her feet. "Seriously?"
Keira and Luuk came over then. "Emma," her sister said. "That girl? I think she's in trouble."
"How do you know?" she asked.
Keira took Luukas' hand, as if preparing him. "I think that was a call for help. A magical call. I think she may be connected to us somehow. And I think we need to go find her..."
"NO," Luukas immediately intercepted.
"Luukas, please, hear me out," her sister pled softly.
He crossed his arms over his broad chest and clenched his jaw, but after a moment, gave her a nod to continue.
"What makes you think she's in trouble?" Nik asked before she could say anything more. "She's just playing soccer with Aiden."
"No, it was more than that," Emma said. "She was running towards a huge, soccer ball sculpture, in the middle of a park or something. Aiden was following her, and they both went through this secret hatch-like part of the ball and down into some kind of underground shelter or something."
Luukas and Nik exchanged looks.
"A soccer ball sculpture?" Luuk asked. When Keira nodded in confirmation, he added, "That's in China. In Dalian."
"Yes." Keira glanced up at him. "Aiden told Nik he was there when he called, but who is that he's with? And who are they hiding from? We need to help them!"
Emma watched as her sister and her mate locked eyes, both of their faces locked into a stubborn impasse, as they communicated silently with each other.
Luukas broke first, his face crumbling as his arms dropped to his sides and opened in supplication. "I can't go with you, Keira. I just...can't. And Nik needs to stay here to help me keep looking for the others. Please don't ask me to go by yourself. I don't..." He gritted his teeth and glanced at Emma and Nik, a look of embarrassment flashing across his face before he turned his back to them.
Knowing he didn't like to show his weaknesses in front of her, Emma grabbed Nik's arm and pulled him away a few paces.
Keira wrapped her arms around his waist and Emma heard him say, "I don't think I could do it. I would truly go mad. You can't leave me, witch. Not yet. I can't do it."
"Shhh," Keira told him. "It's all right. We'll think of something."
Out of earshot, Emma didn't hear anything more, and she was glad. She'd never known Luukas as he was before he'd been captured, but from what Nikulas had told her, he'd been lethal, logical, and confident. A total bad ass. And yet fair when it came to his colony.
Nothing like the broken male he was now.
However, here and there they saw flashes of the male he once was, and remained hopeful that, with time, he would become something resembling the vampire he had been once again.
But it still broke her heart. She didn't know how Keira remained so strong and optimistic with him.
Pulling Nik into their apartment, but leaving the door open for her sister and brother-in-law, she went to the kitchen to get a drink while he sat at the counter.
"Do you think that girl is in trouble?" Nik asked.
Taking a sip of her orange juice, she shrugged. "She was running from something, and it wasn't Aiden. And I trust Keira."
She watched Nik's brain go into vamp hyper speed, and knew he was thinking of possible plans to help them and discarding them just as fast.
His blue eyes locked onto hers a moment later, and he smiled.
He'd thought of a solution. “What?" she asked.
"The wolves," he told her.
"What about them?"
He narrowed his eyes, running them from the top of her strawberry-blonde head to her feet and back up again. "They owe me a fucking favor."
Emma smiled back, a look of understanding dawning across her face. "Yes, yes they do."
Smacking his palms on the counter, Nik got up and strode over to the door. "Luuk! Get in here! I know what we're gonna do."
He returned to the kitchen, and they waited for Luuk and Keira to join them.
As he strolled into the kitchen, the master vampire was considerably calmer now, although he still kept a firm grip on Keira's hand, keeping her close to his side. He cocked his head and raised an eyebrow at Nik in silent question.
Nik smiled. "We'll send in the wolves to help them."
Luukas nodded in agreement. "But will they agree to help?"
"They will," Nik told him confidently. "They owe me one hell of a fucking favor." He raised his hand, palm facing out, to Emma as she opened her mouth to speak. "And NO. You are NOT going with them. No way in hell. Don't even fucking ask."
She snapped her mouth closed and rolled her eyes at her sister, who tried to repress her grin.
Overbearing males, you had to love them.
Chapter Fourteen
Aiden followed Grace through the hatch and down into the ground below the ball sculpture, careful not to step on her fingers as he descended the ladder behind her.
He had a few questions he'd like answered, but first, they needed to close that door. His old friends from the night before were approaching fast. He couldn't quite put his finger on exactly how he knew that. He just...felt it, in every single cell of his body. It was a rather strange thing actually, but he didn't have time to chew over the reasoning behind it at the moment.
Right now, he just needed to get Grace out of harm's reach.
He peeked underneath his arm to find her already off of the ladder and standing motionless with her back to him, whispering so quietly even he had a hard time hearing her.
The door above him began to close, and he jumped down the last few feet as she came to life again and reached into a nearby cubbyhole in the wall.
Striking a match, she lit the candle in her hand and set it on the counter. Walking over to a metal box on the wall, she began flicking switches, and lights came on around the room.
Aiden set the black bag in one of the other cubbies and looked around. The entire shelter was no bigger than a large bedroom in the average American household.
A row of vertical cubbies was cut into the wall right next to the ladder
. The top one contained matches and candles, a kerosene lamp, and boxes of extra ammo. The others contained towels, peroxide, alcohol, jugs of water, and a large first aid kit. The third had a food and water bowl, and some cat food.
Nowhere did he see a way to open or close the hatch door.
Interesting.
Hanging on the wall were the weapons for the ammo, including another 9mm and a shotgun, and right next to them, some wicked looking knives.
"Don't touch the knives." Grace's voice came from across the room. "The blades are silver."
He raised an eyebrow. "Silver?"
She made an affirmative noise. "Silver is bad for you, right?"
"It's not my metal of choice to be stabbed with, no." He wandered past some cabinets with doors, a steel counter with a propane camping-style cook stove on it, and over to the desk where Grace was now sitting at a state of the art computer.
Monitors came to life on the wall in front of her above the desk as he set her rucksack down next to her chair. Within a few seconds, they had views of the grounds in every direction around the sculpture above them.
Aiden leaned in closer. "Bloody hell," he growled.
The soccer ball sculpture above them was surrounded by demon hybrids, including the group that used to be his old friends.
Grace stopped breathing completely for a few seconds, and then she inhaled a shaky breath. "Jesus. They're everywhere."
"Can they get in?" he asked.
"No," she asserted confidently.
All right, then.
He kept a careful eye on the multiple screens, but it appeared as though she was correct. Their trail dead-ended at the sculpture, and they couldn't find their way in. Crawling the grounds above them like ants, they sometimes wandered off towards the streets, but would always come back to the soccer ball. Like hunting dogs on a scent.
How the hell did they know he and Grace were still there? There was no way they could smell them this far underground.
A sour feeling curled his insides. As much as he wanted to deny it, Aiden had a feeling he knew.