by L. A. A. Law
As we strategize, the children talk excitedly about the prospect of seeing a new part of the world. I am surprised to learn that this will be Lucas’ first time back in England since fleeing from the family who transformed his life forever.
Chapter Two - England
Arriving at the hotel, my father is in his suite and visits with the children. Lucas and Catherine rent a car and head to meet Jamison.
The day goes by fairly pleasant and quick. My father explains to Stephan and Andrew his progress on the synthetic heart and the possibility of provisional approval to utilize it in test patients if the dignitary’s son’s transplant proves to be successful. Andrew provides my father with the name of a gentleman who can provide assistance in wading through all of the extensive paperwork in seeking approval.
As the evening draws near, we drive three hours to the hospital. Our rooms are ready and the children quickly enter dreamland after their long, exhausting day. Making a quick cup of coffee, we join Jamison, Catherine and Lucas and begin familiarizing ourselves with the seventy-four patients who were transferred right after construction due to closing hospitals in the area. As we go through the files, their non-conformity becomes glaringly obvious.
“It’s quite a mess my grandfather hoisted upon me. Do you think that you will be able to help me so that we can run as smoothly as Lucas tells me that you run this type of wing at Sanctuary?”
“It is just a question of getting everything organized.” Catherine remarks confidently. “Once you are set up, it will be much easier to arrange the patient’s schedule’s correctly and determine if any additional staff is needed or if you just need to reorganize the tasks of the present staff.”
Over the next few days, Catherine and I import the files into the system that we currently utilize at Sanctuary. Andrew, Lucas and Jamison assess the patients’ present prognosis and classify them according to their future needs. They also attend the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new wing and assist Jamison in handling all of the publicity. Not until I see pictures of Jamison, Lucas, and Andrew plastered on the front page of every local newspaper in the region do I realize what a huge deal this new hospital wing is. Clipping the articles, I place them in our luggage.
The morning of the ceremony, we rise early and leave so we can visit with my father. Lucas and Catherine will meet us after the ceremony to take the children back to my father’s hotel. Thereafter, we will return to the hospital for two more weeks to ensure that the staff is comfortable with the new system and techniques we have established.
We secure a suite so that we can all stay at the hotel that evening and then return to the hospital after taking my family to the airport.
The ceremony is very formal. I can tell from my father’s expression that he prefers his work to the recognition, but when the dignitary’s son makes a brief appearance to express his gratitude, my father beams with joy.
We head over to the reception. Marie is not feeling well and returns with Catherine and Lucas.
The dinner drags on and is exceptionally formal. My father is fidgeting and anxious to leave. In truth, so am I, but since he is the honored guest, we all put on our social smiles and mingle.
As dinner is being served, my father receives a call from a colleague. Before he even hangs up the telephone, Andrew whispers in my ear. “The testing schedule has been moved from the day after tomorrow to tomorrow at noon.” He excuses himself. My father’s face reflects his extreme anxiety. Hanging up, he excuses himself. Returning dismayed, he whispers that the reservation attendant could only get him on stand-bye.
“Dad, I can take you to the airport.” I murmur. “Maybe you will have better luck if you are there.”
Andrew returns sporting a don’t worry about getting your father back, everything will be fine expression. I cannot help but smile. “Dr. Angelis, you have a seat on the midnight flight to Boston.” My father’s whole body relaxes in relief. “We should get you to the airport.”
Rising, my father says his good-byes. The dignitary requests to be kept informed and offers his assistance. We drop Stephan off at the hotel and arrive at the airport just in time for final check in.
Strolling back to the car, Andrew inquires about one of patients whose record I reviewed. My head suddenly feels as if it is swimming in an endless sea. A strong scent of ether overwhelms my nostrils as I struggle to breathe the air around me.
Andrew’s anxious voice calls to me, trying to lead me back from my desolate chasm. “Mia, are you alright? Talk to me!” Cool hands grasp my arms. My mouth is sealed shut as my airway constricts closed, cutting off my oxygen supply! As my eyes roll into my head, I see Nicole and Jacob’s faces flash before me, followed by Nicholas and Kayla. From their quick, disjointed movements, it appears as if they are struggling trying to avoid the blue sacks being thrust over their heads, then everything is black.
Coming out of this episode, I am in the front seat of our car. Andrew is driving faster than he ever has, weaving in and out of cars. One hand is on the wheel while his other frantically hits two different speed dial numbers on the cell phone, over and over again. He is becoming extremely agitated.
His head whips toward me and his voice is strained. “Are you alright?”
From his driving and worrisome tone, I know he is aware that the children are in trouble. “How do you know what I saw?” I inquire, barely able to force the words past my breathless lips.
“As I carried you to the car, you kept screaming ‘take your hands off of the children.’” I called over to Catherine and then tried Lucas, but neither answers. “Did you see anyone?”
“I saw the children’s faces. They were in the hotel room. I think someone used ether to knock them out. I smelled it and saw a blue cloth being placed over their heads. I didn’t see the faces of the ones who grabbed them, they were grabbed from behind.”
“Did you see anything else?”
“No, everything went to black so quickly. Should we call Stephan and the police?”
“No, not until we know what we are dealing with. We don’t know if they are still there or what has them. We don’t want to put anyone else in danger. We will be back at the hotel in two minutes.”
My eyes move glance at the speedometer. Andrew is driving over one hundred miles per hour.
“Mia, close your eyes and concentrate on the kids. See if you see anything else or if you can feel if they are alright. I know this is difficult, but try to clear your anxiety, it will allow you to get a better read on them and their surroundings.”
I know he is right. We discovered that in addition to my being able to see things from the past and discern things in my dreams that my connection to our children allows me to sense when they are in danger or need me even without the use of the protectionist spell.
As the car speeds through the darkness, I offer up a prayer that this is a case where I have seen the event prior to its occurrence and that the children haven’t been grabbed yet, but from the lack of communication with Catherine and Lucas and the actual sensing of what they were experiencing instead of just seeing a flash, I fear that this dire event has already taken place.
Closing my eyes, all I can see is the endless blackness spanning before me. My anxiety turns to hysteria as I become aware of movement, beyond that of our car. I feel as if I’m being tossed around on a rickety rollercoaster and traveling even faster, if that is possible. Blinded, I force myself to concentrate on what my senses may reveal. My limbs are drawn tightly to my torso as if I’m crowded and cramped. Concentrating harder, I hear the rapid pounding of a heart besides my own and then finally register all four anxious hearts. “They’re alive!” I hear myself shout to Andrew and on some level hear his sigh of relief, but force myself to concentrate so as not to break my connection. “They are in transit, but they are either blindfolded or unconscious because I can’t see anything.”
He responds quietly knowing that any start could break my connection to them. “If you can’t see anything, list
en for a clue as to where they are going or what they are passing.”
Concentrating harder, I hear the continuous revving of the car’s motor. They must be pushing the car at top speed. A gruff man’s voice rings out. “How long do you think we have before someone finds them?”
An angry woman quips. “We would have had more time if you were smart enough to bring help. We could have disposed of their bodies or taken them with us.”
“You know that was impossible. No one else was close enough and we can only trust family.”
“William said he would be in town today. Why didn’t you contact him?”
“By the time we got our instructions, he was upon the family he was to retrieve from the outskirts. We should arrive shortly after he does. He would have never met up with us in time and if he tried, we would have lost a perfectly good meal. Besides, my instructions were stake and leave, so that is what I did.”
Andrew’s cool touch pulls me from my connection. As my eyes flutter open, I see him bolt from the vehicle. I quickly run toward the room, knowing I cannot catch him. Entering, Andrew is exiting the children’s bedroom. His deadpan features confirm the children are gone! Hearing struggling from behind the couch, he moves quickly to the blanket lying on the floor. Removing it, Catherine and Lucas lay staked and paralyzed.
I pull at Lucas’ stake while Andrew removes Catherine’s.
Before they even regain their ability to speak, Andrew is combing the room for clues and scents. Other than a tipped desk chair, nothing appears out of place, leading me to believe that everyone was caught by surprise and did not have time to struggle. The overwhelming scent of ether resonates throughout the room. My head is swimming once more, despite my only seeing two small blue cloths that were probably used to inebriate the children.
I am about to ask Andrew if he detects anything, when Catherine and Lucas sit up. Andrew turns to them. “What happened?”
Catherine response is almost too quick for me to process the words. “We arrived at the hotel and put the children to bed. Coming out of the room, I heard a noise behind me but before I could turn around, I was staked and on the floor. I could only see the ceiling and then they covered my eyes with the blanket, probably so I couldn’t see anything if one of them ran past me. There were definitely two of them because I heard their footsteps heading into the children’s room. They moved swiftly and without a word. I ...” She glances toward Andrew and hesitates.
“Catherine, please just tell us what you know, my children’s lives are at stake!” I almost explode in my desperate plea to have her hold nothing back from either of us.
“It’s just that I believe that they knocked out Nicholas and Kayla first and quickly because I heard a very brief struggle which I would assume was Jacob and Nicole because it would be harder to knock them out.”
I knew exactly what she was saying because I thought I caught a brief glance of Jacob and Nicole seeing the blue cloths coming toward them and feeling their momentary fear before they too succumbed to the darkness.
Through the veil of tears which I refuse to let escape, I notice Andrew turning to Lucas. “Did you see anything?”
“Only a hand coming around me and then I was on the floor. Catherine is right. There were two of them because she and I went down simultaneously.”
“Did either of you smell or detect anything? Obviously it had to be another vampire or someone that knows about us and how to take us out!”
“There was no trace of anyone in the room when we arrived. If we even had a hint that something was off, we would have gotten the children out before anything could have happened. They had to come in while we were talking to them before bed. They had to do something though besides just pouring the ether around here to mask their scent.”
Andrew stares at him. “What do you mean?”
“Andrew, think about it, even if we were distracted with talking to the kids about the dinner, we would have detected another vampire coming into the vicinity. If they were just vampires their scent would have drifted into the children’s room long before we left it. Whatever they are, they knew how to elude our catching their scent prior to the children’s abduction and they are obviously aware that ether destroys our ability to detect remnants their scent may have left behind.”
Andrew rushes into our room and then into the children’s room. Turning to me, he grabs my wrists and I see his desperation. “Mia, see if you can get any information on who took them or where they are going. While you do that, we will follow the ether scent until it dissipates. I’ll call Gabriel and get the others to fly over here! It’s someone in our realm, so we are on our own. Catherine, you stay with Mia. Lucas and I will see how far we can go before the ether totally dissipates if it hasn’t already. I can smell the impending rain. Once it falls, all possibility of any type of trail will be lost.”
He is out the door, before I gather the children’s things to place around me hoping to get a quick connection and understanding as to what is happening, knowing that Andrew is following a fleeting lead at best. My little angel appears on my shoulder, repeating her quiet mantra. Stay calm, only then will your connection be clear. You know they are alive, hold on to that. You can help them, I know you can. She’s right. If I allow my panic to engulf me, I will never connect to them and any chance of getting even a glimpse of the precious information that we need to find them will be lost.
“Mia, I’m so sorry. I should have...”
Catherine incessant apologizing is only fueling my anxiety. Raising my hand up, she stops. If I allow myself to register that the children are gone, my panic will cripple me, keeping me from feeling anything. Shoving my phone in Catherine’s hands, “call Emma, and tell her what’s happening. Ask if she knows of anything that can help me get a better handle on them and their surroundings.” Sitting, I lay my hands on their belongings trying to force a quick connection. Blocking out Catherine’s voice, a sea of blackness stretches before me as a revving engine screams through the darkness. The children are still in the car. The overwhelming scent of ether alerts me to the children’s unconscious and semi-conscious states, but their heartbeats are still strong. Concentrating on how my body feels, they are still cramped, bound to their torsos. Someone is registering the man and woman bickering. Concentrating on their voices, the next sentence out of the man’s mouth turns my blood cold.
“Maybe we should stop and stake them. We have been on the road for a while. If they wake up, those wires may not hold them and if they escape David will be furious.”
“How have you made it this many centuries without thinking!” The woman retorts angrily. “Didn’t you hear their beating hearts? He may have fathered them, but they are not like us, if you stake them they will die! David gave specific orders to bring them back alive and then he will decide what to do with them.”
“Are you going to insult me for the next few hours? Maybe I’ll just run back and let you drive them yourself.”
My concentration waivers as I realize she recognizes that staking them would kill them. As this relief tries to pierce my anxiety ridden consciousness, another part of me realizes that she mentioned following someone else’s plan and that he will decide the fate of my helpless children.
My connection breaks as images of what happened in the cave when I thought Andrew was captured flash, bringing with them the horrific thought that Jonathan is back to finally take his revenge. His warning rings in my ears, my eyes flutter open, and my clenched fists pound the ground.
Springing up, talking to myself, I pace wildly. “How could you be so stupid as to get side tracked now you lost them!”
A set of cold hands grasping my shoulder stops me mid-step. I gasp as my eyes meet Andrew’s desolate features.
“What did you find out?” I can’t hide my anxious tone.
“Their trail ended at an exit on the north side of the building, they must have had a car out by the stairwell exit. We followed the main road from there for a while, but there were no s
igns of any trail we could follow.
Lucas is hypnotizing the security guard into showing him the tapes. Maybe we can get something from that. They have security cameras in the halls and out in the parking lot. We may get lucky as see their faces or what type of car they are driving. Come on, let’s get up there.”
He turns, but I grab his hand, halting him. “Andrew, the kidnappers know the kids are ours. They were arguing and the woman said that they could not stake the children because they were not full vampires like their father. What if Jonathan is back and the kids were taken because of us. What are we going to do? We can’t just sit here hoping that they took the kids to get to us and might contact us to work out a trade or something. We have to find them! They have plans for the kids and from the menacing sounds of their voices, they are not good!” My anxiety ridden voice reveals that I am on the verge on hysteria.
Putting his hand upon mine, he moves us forward. “Mia, we can’t jump to any conclusions yet.” Despite his words, I can tell that his mind is already considering this possibility and that he is straining to sound calm so that I will not panic more than I already am. “Let’s review the tapes and see if we can get any information from them. Gabriel and the others will be here in a few hours. We will find them, but you have to stay calm and keep trying to connect to them, the more we know the better our chances are of finding them sooner.”
I turn to Catherine. “What did Emma say?”
“She said to keep their personal belongings close when you are trying to get a connection to them. She also said not to forget to move beyond their sense of sight because if they are blindfolded, their other senses will be heightened and their ability to perceive things may allow them to take in more than they realize so to concentrate on what they are thinking.”