Chapter 1 #2
With a small jolt, I remembered hearing about the death of one of the Boucher brothers.
The youngest one. That’s why he hadn’t been in the garage with the others.
It had been pretty big news for a minute because the highly trained Vampire had been kidnapped and tortured.
I tried not to look at Charlie again. I’d never met a human who had lost their mate before, and I didn’t want to stare like some creep.
Forcing myself to look away from the cars we were passing, I pulled the magazine out of the pistol in my hand and checked the ammunition.
The weight of it assured me it was loaded, but I had a feeling that I’d need to know exactly what I had to work with.
Whatever situation we were walking into was bad.
The brother in the passenger seat—I couldn’t remember which Boucher he was—kept calling for a man named Sven through his comms.
Eventually, Sven stopped answering.
My stomach was in knots by the time we turned off a windy road onto a long private driveway lined with old growth. My skin was damp with clammy sweat even though the night around us was cool. I was pretty sure I had a fever, but I’d deal with it later.
Absolute carnage greeted us as we pulled up in front of a massive house.
“Oh my god,” I mumbled under my breath.
There were bodies everywhere. Lying in the yard. In heaps on the front porch.
“I’m coming with you,” Charlie announced. Bravely, I thought. His voice shook a little, but he’d still said it.
“No. Keep watch,” the brother ordered. He jumped out of the car while it was still moving.
“Fuck! Ambrose!” Daniel yelled in frustration.
Right. That was Ambrose Boucher. I should’ve known he was the oldest. Something about the way he carried himself indicated that he was used to being in charge of the others.
We slid to a stop in the gravel as I unbuckled my seat belt and clicked off the pistol’s safety.
I’d inadvertently stepped into a situation that was clearly fucked and none of my business, but I wasn’t about to cower like an infant. I refused to be caught unaware, and I sure as shit wasn’t going to sit in the car.
“Stay here,” Daniel said as he threw open his door, leaving the car running.
“Not a fucking chance,” I argued, following him.
Distant shots had us both snapping our heads toward the east side of the property.
“How good are you with that?” Daniel asked, nodding toward the pistol.
“Very good.” I’d been training since I was eight, but that wasn’t information that needed to be shared at present.
He watched me for a moment, tilted his head sharply from side to side, and finally nodded. “Stay close.”
We quietly jogged across the expanse of lawn and stepped into the trees.
I stayed near Daniel, but chose my own route as we picked our way through the foliage, our steps nearly silent.
The trees were so thick above us that what little moonlight we’d been using to see had all but disappeared.
My eyes adjusted slowly to the dark, but I’d been in worse places at night.
Using my other senses and pure instinct, I rounded bushes and picked my way through ferns as the sound of a struggle came from somewhere ahead of us.
When we finally found the three men, the differences between them were stark.
Two of them were wearing camouflage tactical gear, their faces painted so dark that only the whites of their eyes shone in the dark.
The other was in plain black, functional work pants and a long-sleeved shirt, and he was kicking their asses like it was nothing.
The fluidity and speed of his movements were instantly recognizable. Another Vampire.
“Did all of you make it back?” he asked casually as he snapped the neck of one of the men, letting him drop silently to the forest floor. The other man roared and dove for the guy in black.
“Even brought home an extra,” Daniel replied calmly.
“No shit?” He elbowed the camouflaged man in the throat and then turned to us as the man went down, clutching at his neck.
In the light, I knew his face would’ve been mottled with color as he struggled for air that never came, but in the dark, he just looked like a formless shape writhing on the ground.
“Rosie, this is Josiah,” Daniel said quietly as we walked further into the woods.
“Hey,” I whispered, scanning the darkness for anything out of place.
“Nice to meet you, Rosie,” Josiah greeted.
“It’s Rosemary, actually.”
“Rosemary, then.”
We quietly made our way around the property in a wide circle, and I’d begun to think that we wouldn’t find anyone as we crossed over the long driveway.
The night was silent, though, and that made the hair on the back of my neck prickle.
My stomach and chest were still aching, and my clothes stuck to me damply, but I tried my best to ignore it.
When I was home again, I could figure out what the hell was going on.
I wasn’t sure how I would’ve caught something from the men who’d held me in that garage, but I couldn’t rule out food poisoning from the cheap restaurants they’d frequented.
I needed to get home.
The Vampires on each side of me broke into a slow jog as we entered the trees again.
They could clearly see or hear something that I couldn’t.
Taking a deep breath, I followed them, trying my best to keep my footfalls silent.
It wasn’t easy as I tried to match their speed, and eventually I stopped trying for finesse and just focused on not tripping on anything.
I smelled the blood before I saw what they’d been racing toward. There was a body lying on the ground while three others kicked at it.
“Motherfuckers,” I breathed as I ran harder. My footsteps were clumsy and louder than they should’ve been, but my body didn’t seem to be cooperating like it usually did.
Without warning, one of the men who’d been kicking the body spun toward us, and a spray of bullets thunked against the trees and bushes around me.
Dropping into a crouch, I ignored the fear that coated my skin and aimed. I couldn’t see if I’d hit the man, but by the way he folded in half with an almost breathless wail, I was pretty sure I had.
In the time it had taken for me to shoot, the Vampires with me had closed in on the other men and made short work of taking them out. I rose and hurried toward them as they kneeled beside the body on the ground.
“Get up, you big baby,” Josiah chided, making the body chuckle.
“Fuck off.”
“Where are you hit?” Daniel asked as they helped him up.
“Shoulder and side.”
“Sloppy,” Josiah said, shaking his head.
“I thought there were two,” he groaned as they helped him to his feet. “There were three.”
“Can you walk?”
“I’m fine.” He took a few stumbling steps and stopped short when he saw me. “Congratulations, Danny.”
“Thanks,” Danny said, hooking his shoulder under the injured man’s armpit. “Rosie, this is my cousin Matthias. Josiah’s brother.”
I could’ve guessed that myself. When both Vampires were facing me in the dark, I could barely tell the difference between them. The shapes of their faces and the way they held their bodies—even with Matthias wounded—were nearly identical.
Josiah ran to make one more check on the perimeter of the property while we helped Matthias to the driveway.
Our shoes crunched on the gravel as we trudged toward the house, but since neither of the Vampires seemed concerned by the noise, I wasn’t either.
I still scanned our surroundings like a hawk, searching for anything out of place as we made our way toward the house.
It took so long that by the time we reached the cars, Josiah was already there and barely out of breath.
“All clear.”
Charlie climbed out of the car, his face practically gray.
“Shit,” Josiah said, moving toward him. “You been there this whole time?”
“Danny asked me to stay,” he said, glancing toward us. “I wanted to get out, but no one left me a weapon, so—”
“Dammit,” Daniel muttered. “My bad, Charles.”
“I didn’t want to get in anyone’s way,” Charlie replied, glancing toward the house. “But—”
“Go,” Matthias ordered tiredly, jerking his head toward the house.
Danny transferred Matthias over to his brother just as the scruffy Boucher rounded the house. Not Danny or Ambrose, so it must’ve been either Beau or Chance.
“Shit, Matthias,” the Boucher brother grimaced. “How bad?”
“Not bad,” Matthias answered as Josiah helped him up the steps. “The women?”
“Alive.”
“Good news,” Josiah said, stepping over a body.
My stomach cramped suddenly, and a fresh wave of sweat beaded on my forehead.
“I realize that you’re dealing with some shit,” I said on a wheeze, wiping my face with the sleeve of my shirt. “But if I could borrow a car? I need to get home.”
Danny’s gaze swept over me. “I’ll drive you.”
“You don’t have to—”
“What can you tell us about the men in the garage?” his brother interrupted.
“Chance, now’s not the time,” Danny chastised.
“No better time,” Chance countered. “Details while they’re fresh.”
“Well, the rat-faced one was partial to Thai food,” I replied tiredly. “And the one with the beard and the huge mole next to his nose liked gas station fried chicken.”
Chance just stared at me.
I had no idea how much they already knew, so I had no clue how much to tell them. If they were already dealing with the human militia, then they’d clearly stepped in shit already, but that didn’t mean that I was authorized to start blabbing. Loose lips sink ships and all that.
“I don’t know anything,” I lied. “When I got home from work on Thursday, some guys threw a bag over my head.” I gestured at myself. “It took three of them to get me into the van. There must’ve been something on the cloth because I passed out, and when I woke up, I was in that chair.”
“Did they say why they took you?” Daniel asked doubtfully.
“They didn’t really say anything. They fed me and took me to the bathroom three times a day. Like clockwork.” I huffed. “I’m pretty sure they set an alarm so they didn’t forget. It worked in my favor, though, because at least I knew what time of day it was.”
“And they didn’t fuck with you?” Chance asked.
“They pretty much ignored that I was there.”
“You seem very calm about all this,” he said slowly.
I forced my body not to tighten as Chance glanced at Daniel.
“I’m good in a crisis,” I replied flatly. “But I’d like to go home now.”
“I’ll take you,” Daniel said.
He and his brother had some kind of silent conversation. Eventually, Chance shrugged and turned back toward the house.
“Let’s go,” Daniel said, throwing open the passenger door for me. I brushed past him as I climbed inside, and everything inside me lit up like the fucking Fourth of July. Swallowing hard, I primly pulled on my seat belt as he shut me inside.
I hadn’t showered or brushed my teeth in a week. My hair was tangled. The thighs of my jeans were crusty from the food I’d spilled while trying to both eat and hold the paper plate steady a few days before. I stank. I stank so badly that even I could smell it, and I’d been sitting with it for days.
“Where am I going?” Daniel asked as he got into the driver’s seat.
“I-5 south,” I replied, pressing my arms against my sides.
The car was quiet as we turned in a circle and headed back down the tree-lined drive.
I’d moved past the point when my mind raced and slid deep into the territory where everything quieted.
As soon as I got home, I could decompress and figure out how in the world I’d crossed paths with the Bouchers.
First, a shower, then something to eat, and then I could process.
My hands began to tremble with the inevitable adrenaline crash.
We raced toward the freeway in silence, and I watched how the dashboard lights lit up Daniel’s face.
Things were clearly fucked, but he’d still agreed to immediately take me home.
He’d left everything behind in order to do what I’d asked, and I couldn’t figure out why it had been so easy. Was it because I was his mate?
No, I couldn’t think about that yet. I needed to bathe first. Then eat. Then, I’d go over everything that had happened.
Reaching forward, I opened the dash, made sure that I’d flicked on the safety, and set Daniel’s pistol inside. As I sat back, I flexed my fingers. They were stiff from how tightly I’d been holding it.
I wrapped my arms around my waist and tried to ignore the ache in my chest. I was twenty-three, and I had no history of heart problems in my family. I wasn’t having a heart attack. It was probably just a symptom of an adrenaline crash.
Why the hell was it so fucking hot in the car? The heater wasn’t even on beyond the window defroster. I grit my teeth, knowing that I must just be radiating BO from how badly I was sweating. I considered rolling down my window even though it had started to sprinkle rain.
“I know you’re lying,” Daniel said quietly, his voice breaking the silence like a slap.
Shit.