Tangi ran into the house in human form about five minutes after I called him. He braced both hands against the doorframe and leaned through the entrance, his chest heaving on each breath. “What’s wrong?”
“A hunter has Anna Grace,” I said. “He’s headed straight for Oriana.”
Tangi’s knees buckled. He collapsed onto the floor, head bowed, arms loose, acrid fear spiking out of him. “Oh, God.”
“Yeah, that was pretty much our reaction.” I smacked Di’s arm, none too gently. “This one here turned her own sister over to him.”
“I knew it. I knew she was bad. Wrong.” Tangi’s voice dipped into a lower register and his back arched and stiffened. “Let me kill her.”
Charity swiveled toward him, nearly prying her arm out of Eric’s grasp as she did. “If anybody’s gonna kill her, it’ll be me.”
“Charity!” Di said.
I smacked her again. “Hushit. You don’t get a say here.”
“Yeah? What about when Ma and Pop get in here?”
“They’ll agree. For God’s sake, Di—”
Eric dropped Charity’s arm. “Stop it. We can’t afford to waste time arguing. Tangi, where are Jason’s parents?”
“Calling the cops.”
“Good. We need eyes on the road. Call your uncle and tell him what’s going on.” Eric patted Charity’s knee with his uninjured hand. “Go with him, Char.”
Tangi crept forward on all fours, rounded the bed, and curled his upper lip in a snarl aimed directly at Di. “What kind of car was the hunter driving?”
Her eyes widened and she shrank away from the threat the young werewolf posed. “A dark blue Chevy Malibu, maybe five years old. What are you?”
He snapped his teeth at her and grinned. “A fairy tale. Plates?”
“No idea.” I drew my fist back, and she turned a scowl on me. “Like I look at that kind of thing. Geez, Jason.”
“The police will be able to track him,” Eric said. “Go on, Tangi. Every second counts.”
Tangi twisted around and cleared the length of the room in one bounding leap, a fluid union of athleticism and animalistic grace.
Charity pushed herself off the floor into a wobbly stand, braced against the bed. “I’ll update Ma and Pop on the whole Carl Landis thing.”
Eric snagged her hand, squeezing it gently. “Orange juice.”
I inspected Eric as he released Charity’s hand and she jogged after our resident werewolf. His ear was whole again, most of his skin was intact and almost a normal color under sloughed off layers of burnt tissue, but he was a long way from being one hundred percent.
“You need more blood,” I said bluntly.
“Later. Let’s secure her in a safe spot, and then we need to get the word out to…” His brown-gold eyes shifted toward Di. “Those who can help.”
“I’ve got the crazies.”
“I’ll get the sane ones.”
Di glanced between us. “That is so wrong.”
Eric pounced and landed with one hand in an iron grip around her jaw and his face three inches from hers. “When we get Anna Grace back, I will deal with you, betrayer.”
She blanched and jerked her head, and he eventually let her face go. Not before she got his point. Di had brought a heap full of trouble down on her head, and now, she could by God pay the price for it.
I levered myself off of Di’s legs, wrapped one hand around her upper arm, and yanked her to her feet. The towel Ma had draped over me fell off in the process, not that I cared. Hey, Di started the fucking fire. She could deal with the consequences, including seeing her brother walk around naked as a jaybird. “Let’s go, princess. Looks like you’ve earned some time in the dungeon.”
“Screw you, Jason,” she said. “I did what I had to.”
“You keep telling yourself that. Maybe someday you’ll even believe it.” I jerked my chin at Eric. “Get dressed. I’m calling you know who to come over and feed you.”
The glow in Eric’s hazel eyes deepened. “In that case, I’m making those calls from in here. Send him back when he arrives, unless your parents object.”
“What they don’t know,” I said.
Eric huffed out a tired laugh. “Make sure Di doesn’t see him.”
“Oh, that will be my pleasure.”
I dragged her down the hallway through the living room into the kitchen and tossed her into a chair. “Stay.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, still as defiant as when she’d yanked the fucking curtains off the windows of mine and Eric’s bedroom. “I’m not a dog.”
“You’re a fucking turncoat, betraying your own family. That’s a helluva lot worse than being compared to a mutt.”
I rummaged in the catchall drawer and pulled out duct tape. Ma entered the kitchen from the backyard as I was wrapping good-sized chunks around Di’s wrists, securing her to the chair.
Ma went stock still. “Jason Elis Bellmont, what do you think you’re doing parading around the house in your birthday suit?”
“What I gotta.” I tossed her the roll of tape. “Do her legs and I’ll get dressed.”
“Is that really necessary?”
“Of course, it isn’t,” Di said.
I shot her a get real glare. “She’ll slip away if we don’t. Did you get in touch with the police?”
“We did. Henry’s still on the phone with them.”
“Good. Maybe they can get an APB out or something.” I waggled my thumb at the door. “We’re getting extra eyes on the roads. See if you can get Di to tell you what route Landis might’ve taken.”
I turned my back on the disappointment weighing Ma’s shoulders down and stalked into the bedroom. A strong odor of smoke hung in the air, in spite of the windows open under the blinds Pop had replaced in their brackets. The bathroom door was closed and the shower was running. Good. Eric was strong enough to move around on his own. He still needed more blood, though. Tangi could donate a little. Mike would help a lot. Surely we could round up enough other blood donors to make Eric whole again.
I scrounged for a pair of shorts and yanked them on one-handed as I thumbed through Eric’s contacts on his phone. His log showed one call to Remy, made while I was in the kitchen tying up my own sister, for God’s sake. I called Mike, gave him the four one one, then called Kyle and asked him to get the word out about Landis and Anna Grace.
When Kyle heard what had happened, he swore low and long. “We knew there was an active hunter in the area.”
“The fuck, Kyle,” I said.
“We had no way of knowing he’d go after a pet, Jason, not when there are bigger targets out there.”
“Like Trilly.”
“Her or any one of the half dozen vampires living within a fifty mile radius. I’ll spread the word. Let me know as soon as you hear anything.”
“Ditto.”
I thumbed out of the call and tossed Eric’s phone onto the bed. The shower was still running. Two guesses what Eric was doing in there, and I didn’t blame him. Anna Grace was missing, yeah, but if Eric’s beast got out of control because he was in the thrall of bloodlust, we’d never get her back.
And he would never forgive himself for letting another sister die.
I found a bandana and went back to the kitchen. Ma and Pop were sitting on either side of Diana, talking quietly to her. Charity and Tangi were at the opposite end of the table, shoulder to shoulder, wearing matching glares directed at Di.
I folded the bandana and secured it around Di’s eyes with way more satisfaction than the situation warranted. “Company’s coming. I’d appreciate it if no names were mentioned where the hunter wannabe can hear.”
“Of course,” Ma said. “She’s done enough damage for one day.”
Pop scrubbed a hand over his rumpled hair. “Police will be here soon. They want to set up a command center or some such, call in the FBI.”
“That might be a good idea.” I dropped into the chair next to him. “They can protect you guys whi
le we’re out searching for Anna Grace.”
“I’m coming with you,” Pop said, and I shook my head.
“No way, Pop. Landis is taking her straight toward the territory of a…” I cut my eyes at Di. Her head was turned toward me and her mouth was set in a stubborn line. Yeah, I wasn’t giving her any more ammunition, especially when it would get her killed. I was pissed at her, way beyond pissed, really, but she was still my sister. “A really bad person. It’s too dangerous.”
“But you’ll be ok?”
“I’m tough enough to deal with them,” I said gently. “It’s sort of part and parcel of what we are.”
Pop flattened both hands on the table’s top. “All right, then. Come upstairs with me. I don’t want to meet the police wearing my pajamas.”
Ma stood, shoving her chair back, and her hands knotted in the lapels of her robe. “I need to change, too. Charity, stay with your sister. If the phone rings, come get us.”
“Yes’m,” Charity said.
“If anybody comes in and asks for Eric,” I said, “send them back to our bedroom.”
Tangi nodded, though his ice green eyes remained fixed on Di.
I followed Ma and Pop to the second story without warning Tangi to leave Di alone. Maybe it was time she learned that she wasn’t a big fish in this pond. Hell, she wasn’t even the bitchiest one. A hard lesson, yeah, but one she needed pounded into her narrow-minded pea brain before she got herself killed playing with monsters.
Upstairs, Ma gathered clothes together and disappeared into the bathroom. The shower turned on, and her quiet sobs drifted to me over the falling water through the solid wooden door separating one room from the other.
Pop dropped down on the edge of his and Ma’s unmade bed. “Your ma’s in shock over Anna Grace.”
I leaned a shoulder against the doorframe. “It’s a shock to everybody, Pop. What in hell was Di thinking?”
“You can’t blame her for trying to protect your sister.”
“Is that what she told you,” I said flatly. “Don’t be naïve, Pop. Di had her own agenda here, and it didn’t have a goddamn thing to do with saving Anna Grace.”
“Maybe.” Pop scraped a shaky hand over his nape. His slow exhale held a world of sorrow and hurt. “It’s not easy being a parent. Sometimes no matter what you do, it feels wrong. I should’ve told her about you from the get-go.”
“Pop—”
“No, hear me out, son. There are things here you don’t know, things about the family, things…”
“What about the family?”
“Your great-grandfather, my father’s father.” Pop’s head bowed. He dug the heels of his hands into his closed eyes, and another sigh heaved out of him. “He died nearly fifty years ago. Until a couple of years ago, I believed it was an accident. That’s what my grandmother told us. Your grandfather died in a car accident, she’d say, followed by a long lecture on driving safely.”
Dread tightened the skin around my spine and my heart tripped and stuttered in my chest. “He didn’t die in a car accident?”
“Sure, he did, according to the newspaper, his death certificate, the police. Everything I’ve ever read agrees on the way he died.” Pop’s gaze lifted slowly to mine. His skin was pale, tense, and for once, he looked every one of his fifty-two years. “Everything except a letter I found after your grandmother died. It was from Pappy’s mistress, commending him on his loyalty to her during her time of need.”
“By mistress you don’t mean the woman he was keeping on the side, do you.”
“I mean the vampire he serviced every month. After I found that letter, I dug into his past. He was a blood slave, a beacon. None of the rest of us were, not my uncles or brothers, none of the women. I thought Pappy was the last one in our line, and then you walked in with Eric.”
I staggered across the room and sank down on the bed beside him, shocked to my core. We were descended from beacons? And Pop had known the whole time? “Christ, Pop.”
“Things add up, Jason, the allergy to sunlight, the way the two of you always seem to know what the other’s thinking. It eventually occurred to me that you were a beacon or a blood slave or whatever, and if you were, maybe my girls were, too.”
“Di’s not,” I said, and I had my own mini-epiphany. Charity and Anna Grace were beacons, or had the potential to be, but Di was flat, dim on the inside. A normal human. Maybe she’d resented the bonds that had developed between our other two sisters and Eric. Maybe she’d gotten tired of being on the outside of that friendship and hadn’t seen another way in other than breaking those bonds and reforging them elsewhere.
Not that it mattered. Whatever Di’s reasons were, she’d been a fool to follow them down the path she’d taken. It had been downright stupid to hand Anna Grace over to a stranger, regardless of what Di believed about any of us. You just didn’t do that to family, and especially not to your kid sister.
“What do you know about the history of the vampires in this region?” I asked.
“Not a thing except for Pappy, and only a little of that.”
“About fifty years ago, the vampire holding the Midwest walked into the sun. There was a huge war for dominance. A lot of people were wiped out.”
Pop eased upright and smacked his palms on his thighs. “Including Pappy.”
“Maybe. The timing’s right.”
“Son of a bitch.”
The words were hollow, less invective than realization. I shook off the regret engendered by his defeated posture and felt my way through an explanation of what little I knew. “Yeah. Thing is, nobody won. A lot of vamps managed to carve out territory in the larger cities, but most retreated into no man’s land, what they call the wilderness. The woman who kidnapped me and Eric when we landed in St. Paul? She’s one of the vamps who snagged a city, and she’s trying really hard to expand her territory.”
“I hope like hell you’re trying to stop her.”
“We are, but that’s not the important thing here.” I sucked in a breath and braced myself for his anger. “This vampire, Oriana? She’s been trying to get her hooks into this family for years. The man who took Anna Grace is heading right toward her. If we don’t stop him before he gets there, we might not be able to rescue her.”
Pop let loose with a long string of curses, muttered under his breath.
“Yeah, I know Pop. I know. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, son. Not a thing you can do about it.”
I braced my forearms on my thighs and locked my gaze on the carpeting under my bare feet. Yeah, there was something I could do about it. Maybe, with Eric and enough outside help. “We were about to try to take Oriana out, get rid of her for good. You gotta believe me, Pop. We were trying to protect you guys.”
“I believe you, son.” He smacked a hand to my back, cupped that hand over my shoulder. “Between your people and the police, surely to God we can get Anna Grace back.”
“We can try anyway. What are you gonna do to Di?”
“Haven’t thought ahead that far. She can’t stay here, not after what she did to Anna Grace.”
“Don’t kick her out, Pop.”
Pop inhaled a sharp breath through his nose. “I can’t have her burning down the house and handing your sisters over to strangers.”
And then there was that.
A light knock landed on the front door. I stood slowly, so weary over everything that had happened, my bones popped and creaked. “That’s probably Eric’s blood donor.”
Pop snorted out a laugh. “Is that what you call them now.”
I mustered a wavering grin for him. “When we’re tired of calling them pets. I’ll see you downstairs.”
I shambled out the door, putting one foot in front of the other out of habit more than thought. Pop’s voice halted me as I stepped into the hallway.
“Eric’s a good man, son. He didn’t deserve what Di did to him.”
“I know, Pop,” I said softly, and left before his disappointment in the p
ath my life had taken etched itself permanently into my memory.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
When I bounded down the stairs, Mike was halfway down the hallway trailing behind a frowning Charity. I balanced on the edge of the last step, my expression as neutral as I could make it, and nodded politely. “Mike.”
“Jason.” Mike glanced toward the closed bedroom door at the end of the hallway, then down at the scuffed wood floor. “You’re healing.”
“You, too,” I said, an easy assertion to make, knowing what I did about Eric’s blood and sheer determination. “How have you been?”
“Better since…” His gaze darted to Charity, to the white ceiling, back to the doorway, anywhere but on me. “The master is waiting for me.”
The oddest thought struck me then. Mike was a pawn here, helpless to do anything other than bounce between the whims of his masters. He’d done the best he could by me, was still trying to do the right thing, in spite of what it had cost him. So much, he’d lost. So much, he’d given.
Wasn’t it time I gave something back?
The answer exploded into my heart, fully formed. Fuck, yeah, it was. Eric could just be pissed. A man paid his debts, even ones he hadn’t known he was racking up.
I jerked my chin at Charity and, smart sister that she was, she rolled her eyes and flounced out of the hallway toward the kitchen. Mike stiffened, head down, as wary as a doe stranded in the middle of a busy interstate. He was right to be wary. At nearly full strength, he was still no match for me, even as weak as I was. I wouldn’t hurt him, couldn’t hurt the man who’d done his best to get me away from Oriana as quickly as he could.
I crossed the distance between us, only dimly aware of Eric opening the bedroom door, of his anger stretching between us, followed by weary resignation. It would’ve been easy to stop then, to make excuses, to reason and plead, but I’d never asked anybody for permission to live my life the way I needed to. As much as I loved Eric, I wasn’t going to start now.
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