by Lisa Olsen
“How would he have known you compelled her to drop the idea?” Carter asked. “My money’s on Bakareh. That little bastard was one petty motherfucker, and we know he’s not your biggest fan.”
He was right about that, I had made an enemy of the Child King. But had I offended him enough to come after everyone I loved? “Do you really think it’s Bakareh? This kind of seems like overkill for my calling him out on his tantrum, doesn’t it?”
“You not only stood up to him, you booted him out of your House. That made him lose face in front of the other Houses,” Bishop replied. “I agree, it’s a bit extreme, but I think he’s capable of a move like this, and hiring out is definitely his style.”
“And now Lee and Gunnar are dead because I mouthed off at the guy.”
“You can’t look at it like that,” Bishop disagreed, trying to soothe me. “Whoever did this is to blame, not you.”
Easy for him to say, but I couldn’t help but feel responsible. If it wasn’t for that person’s vendetta against me, my friends would be alive. Maybe if I’d stayed out of politics when I had the chance, none of it would’ve happened? I couldn’t think about it for the moment though, I had to try and stay focused or I’d drive myself crazy with what ifs.
“Okay, so what do we do with this guy?” I kicked his bare foot with my shoe. “Turn him over to the police? We can’t just compel him and let him go. He has to pay for what he did.”
“I’ll make him pay,” Carter growled.
I was surprised to hear his venom directed at a human for once, but he was right, the guy deserved it. “Alright, I’ll trust you to take care of it.”
“Nothing that leaves a trace or the Order will have to be involved,” Bishop warned, and Carter fixed him with a withering stare.
“Duh.”
“Come on, let’s get you inside. We don’t know where that other guy slipped off to yet,” Bishop suggested, wrapping an arm around me to guide me into the house.
Inside, Kane stood by the couch, giving instructions to Maggie, who scribbled them down in a notebook. Tucker lay on his side with a Captain America throw blanket barely covering him, but he didn’t look cold at all. In fact, he was burning up, his skin beaded with sweat and his eyes unfocused.
“Is he going to be okay?” I asked softly, not wanting to disturb him.
“Yeah, he’ll be fine,” Kane replied, his face no longer pinched with worry.
“But he looks so miserable and sweaty.” I laid a hand to his brow, and found him burning to the touch.
“That’s normal, it’s how we heal.”
“Can my blood help him?” I’d have to have some bagged blood from the fridge first, but I felt confident I could share my blood if it would help speed along his recovery.
Kane’s face twisted as if he’d tasted something foul. “We don’t need your blood. It’s unnatural.”
“But will it save him pain and misery?”
“Keep your blood, he’ll be fine,” he insisted, his lips pressing together into a grim line.
Maggie looked like she might argue, but we were all distracted by the step of boots on the front porch. “It’s the police,” she reported, darting a look through the window.
“I’ll take care of it,” Bishop offered, striding to the front door, but I called to him before he opened it.
“Lee’s out front…”
“I’ll take care of it.”
I nodded, closing my eyes as a wave of weariness rolled over me. I knew I should have a mug of blood to replace what Bishop had taken, but the idea of eating and going about my business seemed wrong. There were too many things to do before sunrise, which was right around the corner. Step one should be taking care of our loved ones, not myself.
“Kane, would you please bring Lee inside for me?” I asked.
“With the cops out there?” he balked, darting a nervous glance to the window. “I don’t want to get caught up in your mess.”
“Bishop will square it with them.” Hopefully whatever story he concocted would keep them from coming back. “I don’t want him sitting out there any more.” I couldn’t explain why, exactly. I just didn’t like him being out there all alone.
“Yes, ma’am,” he agreed without further argument. Kane brought Lee in and laid him out on the dining room table, where we all stared down at him. He looked so pale, his lips tinged blue and limbs stiffening already. “Do you want me to take him?” he offered, and I felt a flare of panic.
“No, we’ll see to his burial.”
“He should be buried in pack lands.”
“You weren’t his pack.”
“But he is still a shifter, not a vampire. There are traditions…”
“We’re his family, I’ll take care of it,” I cut him off, the subject not open for discussion. I couldn’t let him take Lee away, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet. Kane must’ve heard something in my voice, because he simply nodded and accepted it without arguing the point.
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thanks.”
“And don’t worry about the business, I’ll keep things going fine. When you’re ready, we can talk about any long term plans.”
I hadn’t even thought about that. I had no clue who’d inherited Lee’s share of the security business, but I was happy to let Kane run things for the time being. “Thank you, I’ll give you a call when I’m ready to talk about it.” It got me to thinking though, would Lee’s family want to come to his funeral?
Once Kane had gone, I turned to Maggie. “Maggie, can you try to find a way to reach Lee’s family tomorrow, after you’ve had a chance to rest?”
“I’ll look into it this morning,” she nodded. “He spoke with Tucker often about where he was from. Maybe it’ll help distract him from the pain to talk about it.”
“Thanks. Maybe ask him about some of those shifter traditions too. I’d like to honor his ways, but I couldn’t let him take Lee.”
“I understand. And Gunnar?”
A lump rose in my throat as Gunnar’s last moments swam to the forefront of my memory. “I’ll go out and gather his ashes when the cops are gone.”
“It’s too dangerous. You should let me…”
“No!” I said, harsher than I should have, from the startled look on her face. “I’m not the one in danger, all of you are. You’ll have to stay inside until we can figure something out.”
“Surely not during the day.”
“That guy who attacked us tonight was human, and he wasn’t after me. He was after you. All of you.”
“But why?”
I just shook my head. If only we knew, then I might begin to make some sense of the night’s events.
Bishop slipped in, with no trace of worry. “We’re all set. There’s going to be a record on file of a drive by shooting, with a bogus description of the car, but no real suspects.”
“Why have any record of it at all?”
“Because people reported the shots fired, and there are three bullet holes in the front of the house.”
That made sense, and I added that to the mental list I had going to take care of. “And Lee?”
“I persuaded them not to see him.”
“Thanks for taking care of that.”
“Of course,” he said with a somber nod, studying my face carefully. “Are you alright?”
“Just tired,” I nodded. “What about you? Are you sure you’re okay?” I wanted to tear open his shirt and check the wound again, but I took him at his word when he replied.
“I’m fine.”
“Then kiss me and tell me…”
His lips cut off the rest of my words, his kiss tender and sweet. “It’ll be alright,” he soothed, giving me what I needed. “Maybe not for a while, and it’ll suck before it gets better, but it’ll be okay. I promise you, Anja.”
And I believed him.
*
The rest of that night is sort of a blur to me now. You know that scene near the end of Ferris Bueller’s Day O
ff, when Cameron goes into a strange, coma-like state and then tips into the pool? That’s exactly what I felt like. Everything seemed as though it was under water. I felt isolated, as though there was a buffer between me and everyone else in the room. Voices sounded strange and distorted, everything was blurry, and I couldn’t figure out why. Gradually, I came to understand that I was weeping, though I didn’t have the sensation of crying at all. No ragged breaths or sobs, only the steady leaking of sorrow from every pore.
Bishop held me without words or judgment, offering his stoic brand of comfort, but I barely felt his arms around me in that state. My thought processes shut down, nothing made sense anymore. So much death – and for what? If only I knew why, then I might be able to process it all.
And then I realized it wasn’t over. His orders were to kill everyone I loved, and he had specific targets. Lee’s death and the dart fired at Bishop seemed to point in the direction that the other shooter had specific targets as well – all on the same night that my sister nearly died in a car accident. What if it was no accident at all? Would my parents be next?
Shaking myself out of the fog, I surged up, pushing my way out of Bishop’s arms. I’d already wasted so much time!
“What’s wrong?” he frowned, immediately casting off the drain the rising sun brought with it.
“I have to get to my parents, I have to keep them safe. Whoever’s doing this might strike at them next.”
Bishop didn’t argue the point, but he did lay a hand on my shoulder when I would’ve thrown open the door to charge into the lightening sky. “Let me take care of it, I’ll make some calls.”
“How can you take care of it?” I blinked, shrugging off his grasp. “Putting a protection duty on them won’t help. I have to get my parents somewhere safe.”
“That’s what I meant, I can relocate them. Give them new identities, new lives. That way they won’t be able to give themselves away accidentally, and they won’t worry about you or Hanna.”
That was taking things quite a bit further than I had in mind, but I had to agree, Mom and Dad would be much safer if they themselves had no idea we were related. It just seemed like such a drastic step to take. Sure, they’d be alive, but for all intents and purposes, I’d be losing them too. I wasn’t sure I could take that on top of everything else. “But… then I’ll never see them again.”
“Sure you will, after this is over,” he replied with easy assurance. “But it might not be the worst thing in the world to do this for them anyway, Anja. You’re in a dangerous position, and that danger can easily spill over to them at any time.”
“No, you’re right. But where will you send them, what will they do?”
“I’ll take care of it.” He patted my shoulder, and I caught his hand.
“No, I need to be a part of this. I have enough money to set them up somewhere. Someplace good. Make them happy.”
“We’ll give them an early retirement,” he smiled. “They can travel, or sit around and relax for the rest of their lives.”
“My father will probably get another job anyway,” I mused aloud.
“Good, then he can try something he’s always wanted to do.”
It was a strange thought, deciding the course of their lives for them, even temporarily. “You won’t change them too much, will you?”
“No, I’ll just change their names, and they won’t have any memory of you or Hanna. Not until you want them to, then the compulsion can be undone. It’s the best way.”
“I know, you’re right.” I had to face the idea that I might’ve had to do the same thing eventually anyway. Either that or fake my own death when I didn’t age beyond my twenty-first year. There was one more horrible thing I had to do before I could even think of seeking my bed for the day. Tell Hanna.
Only I couldn’t. I wouldn’t let her first day as a vampire be marred by this. Her emotions were likely going to be all over the place without something like this to push her over the edge. I decided to let her have this one first night with Mason without telling her. The news about our parents would keep. But then I started to worry that she wouldn’t be safe at Mason’s place. After all, they’d somehow found her on the road, that meant they were probably following her.
“What about Hanna?” I exclaimed when he pulled out his phone to get busy with extracting my parents.
“I’ll call Mason next and give him a heads up.”
“You make him swear up and down that he won’t say anything to Hanna about what happened tonight.”
Bishop’s brows drew together. “She’ll have to be told.”
“Not yet, not like this.”
“Alright, I’ll make sure he knows that mum’s the word. Now try to relax, Anja. It’s late.”
It was late. Later than I’d stayed up in a while. The sun coming through the cracks in the curtains made my eyes sting, but I had one last thing to do.
No one tried to stop me when I went out to gather Gunnar’s ashes, Maggie busy taking care of Tucker, Carter out disposing of our shooter, and Bishop on the phone with someone, I had no idea who. Who did you even call to arrange to disappear a couple of suburban teachers?
I placed his ashes in a pretty vase, green with enameled pink flowers. It made me think of the garden, which made me think of Gunnar. It wouldn’t do for a permanent home, of course, but it was the best I could do for his temporary resting place. Setting them on the side table out of the way, I slumped at the table beside Lee’s body, studying the weathered lines of his face. I missed him so much already. Always there with a hug and a smile, and a colorful way of pointing out what I should’ve known all along. He’d lived a full life. Not long enough, but I hoped that some of his wisdom had rubbed off on me in the short time I’d known him.
It was late, I could feel the sun rising higher, despite the drawn curtains. Bishop’s soft baritone reached me from the other room as he made the arrangements. Tucker had drifted off to sleep with Maggie beside him, her head pillowed against the sofa’s armrest. Carter was still out there, but I trusted him to cover up or go to ground if he couldn’t make it home in time.
I knew I could slip downstairs if I wanted to, there was nothing left for me to do. Still, I fought against falling asleep, not ready to let it claim me until I knew what was left of my family had survived.
“Your parents got out safely,” Bishop reported as he tucked his phone away. “A friend of mine is taking care of it.”
“What friend? Somebody from the Order?” The only person I completely trusted besides him, was Mason.
“No, I thought it best to keep them out of this. We’ll want someone discreet, so they can’t be traced back to you.”
That made sense. “And Hanna?”
“Hanna’s fine. She’s already passed out, but Mason will make sure she’s safe.”
“We can’t know that for sure. Anyone can get to them while they sleep during the day.”
“He’s taking them out of there.”
“Can he do that? It’s already past dawn.”
“He’ll manage, he’s got protection and stims. You know he won’t rest until they’re safe. Anja, it’ll be okay.”
“That’s what you said before.”
“Come here.” Bishop gathered me close. “You’re right, it won’t be okay, but eventually it won’t hurt this much. That I know.”
So many people dead and gone. But I had Bishop there beside me, and for the moment, it was enough to chase the blackness away from my heart as I let it envelop me.
Chapter Thirty-One
I didn’t want to get up the next night, but I didn’t want to lie alone in my bedroom either. I heard Bishop up and around upstairs, talking to Maggie, and I forced myself to get up and take a shower as hot as I could stand it, Buffy’s Going Through the Motions running through my mind. As I got to the top of the stairs, I ran into Tucker coming out of the hall bathroom.
“Hey, how are you feeling?”
“F-fine as a frog’s hair split f-four ways
,” he said with a sad smile, using one of Lee’s favorite old sayings. Though I did notice that he walked with a hint of a limp.
“Good. I’m glad you’re on the mend, but boy howdy does that stuff stink!”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” he grimaced, shuffling his way back to the couch.
“You’re up early,” Maggie smiled, greeting me in the living room.
Was I? I had no idea what time it was, only that the sun was already down. “There’s just so much to do,” I shrugged, stopping stock still when I spotted the empty dining room table. “Where’s Lee?”
“We had him collected and taken to the funeral parlor. Was that wrong?”
It wasn’t wrong in the technical sense, it was Maggie being efficient as always, but it still bothered me. “I didn’t get to say goodbye,” I murmured, sinking into the nearest available chair. I wasn’t ready to, not yet.
“You’ll have time for that,” she said, laying a hand on my shoulder with a comforting squeeze. “I made all the arrangements after discussing it with Tucker. There will be a graveside service where we can all say goodbye, but we couldn’t leave him here on the table all day.”
“I know, I get it,” I smiled up at her, patting her hand. “I’m sorry I freaked out. Did you have any luck tracking down his family?”
“Not yet, but there are still some ends I haven’t reached yet.”
“I should probably try to contact Nell. I’m sure she’ll want to know about the memorial service.” Other than that, I wasn’t sure who else to call, except maybe Kane. “I feel like we should tell someone about Gunnar too. I don’t know who his Sire was though.”
Maggie cleared her throat delicately. “I took the liberty of calling Rob, since he engaged Gunnar and Isak. I figured he’d know the best way to reach his people.”
“Oh,” I nodded. “That was smart thinking. And did he know?”
“He said he’d send the word on.”
“Is that all he said?”
“He said to pass along his condolences.”
It was weird to think that Rob wasn’t comfortable enough with me to call me himself, but I supposed that was what our relationship had become. “I think I’ll try and reach Jakob, unless you have a number for Nelleke?” Maggie shook her head, and I dug out my cell, waving to Bishop, who paced in the kitchen, looking none too pleased about the phone call he was on.