“I'm sorry! But you need to leave that on there, Jack. I may not know anything about vampires or how you heal, but I know that you look really sick right now and you need to listen to me.”
He smiled and licked his lips. “Yes ma'am.”
“Are you thirsty?”
“Yes.”
I looked around the tent, but didn't see any water – or anything else he could drink. That meant I would have to face them again. Maybe I'd be lucky and they would all be gone when I came out.
“I'll be right back okay. I'm going to get you something.”
His eyes were closed and he was back to breathing heavy. He may have been asleep again, but I would need to have something ready for him when he woke. I went outside and found that my luck had still not changed, because they were still sitting at the table; all but Joaquin and Ava.
They seemed to be back into their own world minus the commotion that I seemed to have swarm around me. I decided to not interfere with that, and I wasn't ready to face them all just yet. I decided instead of asking them for help I’d search around the camp for water or anything Jack could drink. I slipped around the side of the tent and landed face to face, or my chin to her forehead, with Ava.
Her chocolate brown eyes softened for a second when she met my startled face, but instantly hardened into the usual glare again.
“I'm sorry, I didn't see you.”
She shrugged. “Forget about it. Where are you going?”
I glanced around at the other tents and tables to see if I could find anything. “I think Jack might need something to drink.”
“He'll survive. Come with me,” she said, hoofing toward the group. I followed her reluctantly; I wanted more time to pass before facing them.
We reached the table and I did my best to divert my eyes from crossing any of theirs. I didn't know what Ava wanted and I was pretty sure that I didn't want to know; whatever it was couldn't be good. She was probably ready to take me up on my own declaration that I didn't need their help. I hoped that she saw the absurdity in that because I wouldn't last an hour by myself out here without crawling into a hole.
Kazi cleared his throat expectantly. When I was able to bring myself to look up, he was looking at me with his thick eyebrows raised, clearly amused.
“I-”
“No apologies here, girl. You'll need to keep your fire, it'll only work in your favor out here,” he interrupted.
“No, really. I am sorry. You've all been so kind to me, my behavior was... unacceptable.” That would have been the word Dorothy would have chosen for my outburst. “I should not have raised my voice at your table, I'm sorry, Serena. It was very rude.”
She closed her eyes and nodded.
I sat next to Will again, feeling about an inch tall. Joaquin had been very cruel, but I should have remained quiet. But there was something about him; I could feel the venom flowing like lava through him when he spoke about vampires.
Serena reached across Emery's arms and placed her cool hand on top of mine. “He should have never spoken to you like that, he was completely out of line. Forgive him? He has a deep apprehension when vampires are involved...”
“Understandable.”
“...but he will come around.” She did not let Emery’s mumble stop her from trying to appease me. “And yes, while his disdain is understandable, it is inexcusable as a weapon against our guest.”
She looked at me apologetically. “Oh, I know. I was just saying he's not a bad guy, Cami. Please don't let this be your first impression of him.”
“Oh, yes he really is quite remarkable,” Ronan teased her.
Instantly her face flushed and she sank back into her chair.
“Can we please just get on with it?” Ava's jaw clenched in frustration.
Will's head tipped backward as he groaned, a groan that was mimicked by others at the table.
“With what?” I asked, scanning the group quickly before ending on Will for a clue. He chewed on his perfect bottom lip and thought for a second.
“Better to just rip the band-aid off quick, Will.” Sylas snorted into his fist.
Will rolled his eyes and then twisted so that he was directly facing me and cleared his throat. “Right. So you and your family aren't unique where you are from, Cami. That's what you told me.”
I nodded, not breaking my gaze from his.
“John’s back.” Joaquin shouted after coming through the veil “And he’s injured.”
Up until that point, I’d forgotten that Will’s uncle had left when he did.
Will jumped and rushed to where John had barely made it through behind Joaquin. He found a nearby stump and collapsed on top of it, clutching his ribs with one arm. The other held his forehead as he slumped forward. A tall, thin orange-haired boy knelt beside him.
“It’s time,” John said breathlessly. The slightest movement made him cringe. “They know we are here now. I’m afraid your little skirmish last night did not go unnoticed. They will be moving very soon.”
Will’s jaw clenched and he glared at Joaquin. “How soon?”
The boy helped John steady himself before standing. “Imma say tanight.”
John nodded in agreement, his lips pinching together in pain. Serena and Emery were at his side immediately, inspecting his ribs. He looked at me and then shifted to Will. “The Fishers are not with them.”
I felt the hesitation in Will as he reached for my hand.
“Not with them?”
The boy stepped forward and wadded up the bloodied shirt he was holding. “There was no sign of them. Only about a dozen terra-fide humans. An’ there was no way for us ta free em. A guard spotted us and nicked John as we tried ta run for it. He knew we weren’t local.”
“Damn.” Kazi grunted.
“It wasn’t an animal that set off the alarms, it was them. They know we’re here.” The slight tilt in Kazi’s head affirmed Sylas’ conclusion.
Ava swung into action. “Kazi, I’ll get everything together,” she said, and marched away.
“They know you’re here? How do they know you? I thought you said that you don’t get involved in vampire affairs.”
Ronan laughed, “Well, we don’t get involved, not on purpose anyway. But we might have been pulled into an altercation or two over the years.” He began reciting an incident that stood out in his memory that left him nearly armless but my attention was on Kazi.
He leaned close to Will. “Where do you suppose they are? The girl’s parents?” He asked in a whisper.
“They aren’t with them.”
“You don’t think –.”
“Shh.” He planted a palm into Kazi’s chest and pushed him backward and then walked away with Kazi close behind. His insistence on not letting me hear what Kazi was thinking was not comforting. But I already knew the possibilities, and what could possibly be worse than them being dead?
Serena stood wringing her hands. “Let’s move you to the tent, John. It’s only a rib fracture, but you don’t want to aggravate it anymore.”
“What about the bite?” he whispered.
“The blood is pure, only yours.”
Sylas swooped in to help the boy lift John off of the stump and walk him to Jack’s tent.
Will and Kazi continued their conversation away from where I could hear, but I couldn’t stand by any longer. I charged toward them fully intent on cutting off their tête-à-tête, but Kazi whipped through the veil first, rushing past me, following the tracks Ava had made toward another, larger tent that was separated from the others. Will grabbed my hand when he emerged and kept pace behind Kazi.
“You don’t have to whisper around me, Will. I’m not stupid and I can handle any scenarios that you and Kazi are working on. I know they could be dead!”
He marched toward the tent. “That’s very unlikely. The more probable situation is that they are with your grandmother and the others, somewhere not knowing that you are here, safe with us. And when if we encounter them, they will assume w
e are targeting them and defend themselves. It could get dangerous for all of us.”
“But couldn’t we just tell them?”
He stopped outside of the tent and looked over his shoulder. “It doesn’t work that way with us, well, with Ava anyway. They tend to take the kill first apologize for mistakes later approach. If they are confronted by anyone smelling of vampire, they will attack. There will be no time for friendly conversation.”
He turned and entered the tent. I shoved my way through behind him, although he seemed to make no effort to keep me out. Inside, the tent looked like a mobile command center with more electronics and beeping and blinking intermittently than I’d ever seen. Ava, Joaquin, and Ronan were hunched over a map that covered the entire table. Kie stood in the far corner looking at a monitor with an earpiece held tightly against her head. Kazi paced around the table as he listened intently to Ava’s strategizing.
Several large corkboards stretched across the entirety of one the tent’s walls, cluttered with newspaper clippings, photographs, and other maps that I didn’t recognize. But one of the photos I saw from a distance did look familiar. I rushed to the picture, ignoring everything else that surrounded it and gasped. It was the picture that had once been in a very ornate frame on my nightstand. Now it was the center of a collage of recent snapshots of my parents. I ripped it off the board and swung around.
“How did you get this?”
Ronan looked up from the map. “I took it,” he said nonchalantly, returning to studying the map.
“From my room?”
He shrugged.
“Was that you? That night in the park, stalking me and Will? It was wasn’t it, you and Joaquin.” They all peered at me from the table. “What was that all about? Why couldn’t you just introduce yourselves in a normal manner? I would have understood. Why do you all think I’m an idiot?”
“I told you Cami, they are in a constant state of hit first, question later.” Will reminded me.
“You were going to kill me?” My knees felt like they were about give out. Joaquin did very little to ease that sensation.
“Yes,” he said.
“Jeez, man,” Sylas croaked as he entered the tent. “Do you gotta be so mean?” He smiled at me. “You were never in any real danger, Cami. Will made it perfectly clear that you were to remain untouched.”
Ronan snorted and rubbed his jaw. “He certainly did.”
“But why were you there?”
“It was my fault,” Will interrupted. “They came to see me, but they were supposed to stay out of sight. They were supposed to stay at John’s house only. Obviously they don’t follow instructions very well,” he growled.
“So it was those two that told you about me?”
Will nodded.
Ronan’s mouth twisted. “Strange isn’t it? The only one of us that can differentiate between the black heart of a vampire and a normal beating heart was completely blinded by you.”
I held up the picture of my parents. “Why did you need this?”
“It gave us a new target,” Ronan replied.
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to find them. I just needed to get you out of town.” Will looked at me. “They would not have given up on you, Cami.”
“So you used my parents?”
Ava growled from behind us. “If this is all we are going to accomplish, Sylas and I will do the extraction on our own. I refuse to go in there with you if you cannot get your minds clear.”
“She’s right,” Kie said, pulling the earpiece away from her head and placing it on a hook. “We are going to need all the level heads we can get. John was right, they are moving tonight and the word is Avedis is going to oversee this one himself.”
Suddenly there was no sound in the tent, or even outside of the tent that I could hear. Everyone remained completely still except for their eyes, which darted from one person to the next.
Sylas’ eyes widened. “Why would he oversee something like this?”
“Good question,” Kazi grunted.
“You are going to need some extra help,” Jack’s weak voice carried through the tent, silencing it for a second time. He stood sheepishly in the entryway with his sweatshirt hood pulled as far over his face as it would go.
Seeing him standing in the door way instantly lifted my spirits. He still looked extremely unsteady, but he was walking and that was good enough for me. Before I could reach him, Joaquin had stepped between us and shoved him back outside the tent. “Didn’t you learn your lesson last night?”
I tried to see out the smudged plastic window if Jack was all right, but he was gone, and just as quickly, everyone else had exited the tent as well. They were outside before I could even look away from the window. I ran after them, tripping on a cable that ran across the floor on my way out. I lay half in and half out of the tent when I felt a hand grab me by the back of my pants and pull me up as if I were a feather.
Sylas grinned at me. “You’re gonna need some training if you’re going to hang with us. Falling is not an option.”
“Thanks,” I breathed, searching for Jack. Instead, I found the group in a semi circle around a tree. Will had Joaquin backed against the tree with his hand around his neck, his legs flailing wildly underneath him, trying to push off of the tree.
“Will, no! I will leave.” Jack shouted from a tree limb high above the pair.
Will ignored him and leaned his body further into the hold. Joaquin choked and sputtered under his grasp. “I suggest you think before you shoot your mouth off again. I let it go last night, but I will not do it again!”
Joaquin’s hands clawed at Will’s and he struggled to speak. “How can you defend that beast?”
Will’s free arm recoiled quickly, the muscles in his arm and fist as tight as they could be without tearing. My hands flew over my mouth. I could only watch in horror as he was about to punch a hole in the guy’s face. I closed my eyes and waited for the sickening noise that always accompanied a fist hitting flesh.
A gentle hand tugged mine away from my face. Serena peered at me, her deep purple eyes concerned. “Do not be afraid. Will is not going to hurt him.”
As she had predicted, Will loosened his grip, allowing Joaquin to fall to the ground. He stood rubbing his neck and apologized to Will, who deferred the apology to Jack as soon as he climbed down the tree. And with quiet grace, Jack accepted.
Ava grabbed a handful of Joaquin’s shirt and drug him toward me while I stood there, unsure of how I was supposed to feel. Relived that it was over and still confused as to why he had gone after Jack and a little impressed that my boyfriend could really kick ass if he needed too. They brushed by us and back into the tent, Ava’s jaw clenched tight. I could hear her hardened voice from where I was standing. She wasn’t shouting, but I gathered from the tone, she didn’t need to.
Jack wandered next to me with his head still hiding in his sweatshirt. “I am sorry you had to see that. Please do not be angry with Will, he was only defending me. Something that I should have been able to do myself.”
“I’m not angry,” I said. “You’re a fast climber.”
He smiled. “Yes, well, it’s a good thing.”
“So I’m guessing it’s not just me that Joaquin has issues with.”
“He’s got a problem with everyone.” Kie appeared next to us. “It’s his thing.”
I sat down at a table followed by the others. “I don’t understand why he has so much anger toward us.”
Jack pulled the hood backward and ran his fingers through his hair. “His problem is with me. The last time I saw him... I bit him.”
I choked. “What? You bit him?”
“Yes.”
Kie laid her hands on the table, her brightly painted fingernails only inches from his. “That wasn’t your fault. I really wish you would see that. He baited you, you were doing so well. If the three stooges hadn’t picked on you all the time, you would have been that much closer to controlling yourself,”
“I
do not want to interfere anymore with your plans. If I am here, I will only be a distraction for him.”
Will’s hands landed on each of their heads, shaking each of them slightly. “I don’t like all of this whispering, no one is leaving.” He plopped down next to me and continued to lecture Jack. “We haven’t even had a chance to talk. You’re a vampire and it’s kind of blowing my mind right now, sitting here looking at you. The sun’s shining and you haven’t gone up in a puff of smoke. You don’t look any different, still something of a pipsqueak.”
Jack’s lips curled into a thin smile, although he remained cautious as to not reveal his teeth. I really wished he would get over that habit; he had such a nice smile. No one would even think twice if they didn’t know. “Yeah,” he mumbled. “But I am a lot stronger now, you know.”
“Will, didn’t you think he was dead?” That word seemed so harsh after it came out of my mouth. “I don’t understand. What happened to make you think that?”
“That’s his story to tell, if he wants to.”
Jack shook his head and waved his hand for Will to continue. He then swiveled on the stool and leaned his back on the table, facing away from us.
“Okay. Well, those pictures I showed you remember, in Paris? A few nights after those were taken, we were heading back to Jack’s home from another day of messing around when we ran into a gang of what we at first thought was just a bunch of thugs looking for a fight, or maybe some quick money. But when they started to circle us and speak to each other, John and I knew what was about to happen. They taunted us as they began to enclose us in their trap, they knew who we were – at least John and me.
“One of the men stepped into the circle. The medallion he wore around his neck caught a moment in the moonlight and I recognized it immediately. He was a local warlord that John had met before when he tried to rob him, years ago. But he was changed, his left cheek and jaw had been mangled in our last meeting and even the transformation from human to vampire couldn’t heal it.
“And who might we have here?’ he’d said, tapping his fingers together. I instantly wanted to rip his throat out. They always are so irritating before they attack, playing with their prey like some kind of game. Disgusting.
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