Chapter 25
The wait overnight and then the whole next day at Sebastian’s was agonizing.
My grandfather insisted that going to Robert’s after sundown would be our safest bet.
His rationale was that anyone looking to attack would have a harder time seeing us coming in the dark.
I agreed, albeit begrudgingly, knowing deep down that he was right.
We were pressing our luck as it was by going back to the very spot I’d been kidnapped.
The Nolans may not personally come for me, but they certainly had the means to hire a large crew of thugs to watch Robert’s place twenty-four-seven.
As dangerous as it was, I needed my cell phone.
It killed me, thinking that I might have missed a call from Joseph about Robert’s whereabouts—or maybe even a call from Robert himself.
My plan was to also inform Joseph about the Nolans nefarious plot to commit vampire genocide.
The VGO would probably kill them. Unfortunate, but what could I do?
It wasn’t as if they weren’t asking for it.
When Sebastian and I pulled onto Robert’s street, we could see all the way from the end of the block that his home was lit up like a Christmas tree. Whomever was in the house was making absolutely no attempt to hide that they were there.
Sebastian slowed to a crawl to do a drive-by. I leapt from the car once I recognized the vehicles parked in the driveway. Liz and Joseph were there.
Sebastian slammed on the breaks. “Olivia! Wait for me!”
Breathlessly, I hollered, “It’s okay! I know who—”
“It could be a trap,” he cautioned.
He’d raised a valid point. My trustworthiness was what had gotten me kidnapped in the first place.
“Wait for me to park the car, at least, okay? Thirty more seconds of waiting won’t kill you, Granddaughter.”
No, but it felt like it would. I nearly ripped Sebastian’s arm off trying to hurry him along the driveway after he’d parked.
“Let’s not go bursting in there like two bank robbers,” he whispered hotly. “We have no idea what’s waiting for us. They could have your friends held hostage, for all we know.”
“They’re vampires,” I whispered back, dubious. No way decrepit old Richard and Maxine, or even a platoon of humans they might have hired, could overpower the likes of Joseph and Liz.
“Still.”
I nodded to show that I would follow Sebastian’s lead.
We crept up the sidewalk, then gingerly tiptoed through the front door.
The voices I heard inside sounded like angelic singing to my ears.
They were debating where to look for me.
A third voice spoke up, and I nearly ran Sebastian over as I bolted past him. Robert.
The room fell silent. The three vampires gaped at me as if I were a ghost that had appeared out of ether. A split-second later, Robert charged forward, scooping me up in his arms.
“My love, my love, my love,” he muttered against my hair, hugging me so tightly that I struggled to breathe. “When I came home and realized you’d been taken, I feared I’d never see you again.”
“Me?” I said in astonishment. “What about you? I thought you’d left me for Serena!”
“Never!” he said with more anger than I’d ever heard in his voice.
Hearing a loud commotion from behind, I pulled away from Robert.
“Olivia! Help!”
Fangs bared and hissing, Joseph and Liz had Sebastian pinned to the floor.
They’d been so stealthy in their attack that I hadn’t felt them fly past. Liz’s mouth was at Sebastian’s throat, her fangs just breaking the surface of his skin.
Joseph had his mouth open and was drooling, his fingers hooked into claws.
These friends of mine were positively terrifying.
“No! Don’t!” I shrieked. I couldn’t get the words out fast enough. “He’s with me!”
“Who are you, kid?” Liz hissed. She held Sebastian’s head in her hands and was gearing to rip it from his body. She was so wound up in attack mode that it seemed she hadn’t heard me.
I had to diffuse the situation fast. Poor Sebastian’s good deeds were moments away from being punished by my vengeful vampire associates. I ran to where they had Sebastian pinned and attempted to pull Joseph away. It was like trying to move a brick wall.
“He’s my grandfather!”
I almost had to laugh because of the way Liz and Joseph gaped at me. Eh?
Quickly, I added, “So, if you murder him, you’ll be killing what little family I have left.”
Looking sheepish, the two vamps released Sebastian and got to their feet. My poor grandfather was still too stunned to move.
“Sorry,” Liz apologized, her fangs retracting. “We thought he was the one who took you.”
I shook my head. “Nope. He’s the one who saved me. From my great-grandparents, who, as it turns out, are huge assholes. They kidnapped me, took me to Napa, and held me captive in a shed. They starved me and then tried to kill me with an injection.”
“When I find them . . .” Robert hissed with narrowing eyes.
I added, “They also hate vampires so much that they want you all dead.”
“Can I get up now?” Sebastian asked with irritation.
“Sorry mate.” Joseph extended a hand to Sebastian and pulled him to his feet as if he were made of dandelion fluff. “I suppose we were a wee bit hasty.”
“You think?” Sebastian scowled.
Joseph snapped his fingers. “Hold on. I recognize you. You were at the wedding, watching Olivia.”
“To keep her safe,” my grandfather said indignantly.
“Will somebody tell me what’s happening?” Robert interrupted. I still couldn’t believe he was back. He hadn’t been gone long, but it felt as if it had been years. I’d been through so much emotionally since his departure. “Olivia, how is this kid your grandfather?”
“I’ll explain everything. And I need to tell you about what the Nolans—my great-grandparents—are planning,” I said to Joseph. “But first, I want to know where you were, Robert. And I want to know if you and Serena . . .”
I couldn’t say the words. I felt sick just thinking them. I didn’t know what I’d do if they’d had sex. I probably wouldn’t let Robert touch me ever again.
“Absolutely not. The next time I see Serena, I’m going to kill her,” Robert said with enough coldness to initiate a blizzard.
My knees nearly buckled with relief. “She’s still out there?” I’d assumed she was dead, with Robert being back.
“Aye,” Joseph confirmed. “Unfortunately, she got away.”
“Did she hurt you?” I asked, letting out a breath of relief when Robert shook his head.
Joseph said, “But she was planning on hurting the VGO.”
“And this relates to your kidnapping how? Start at the beginning. I want to know everything.”
“I owe my life to this vampire,” Robert declared, clapping a hand down on Joseph’s shoulder like he’d just scored himself a new best friend.
I immediately felt guilty, remembering the awkward kisses Joseph and I had shared. Joseph seemed to be thinking the same thing, because he quickly looked away as our eyes met.
I was still on the fence about whether I was going to tell Robert about what had happened.
What good would it do, disclosing the two silly little kisses Joseph and I shared on what wasn’t even a real date?
It would likely do more harm than good, since it would only make Robert jealous and create unnecessary tension between him and Joseph—a powerful VGO vampire whose enemies didn’t seem to live long.
It wasn’t like I’d kissed Joseph out of spite or in a deluded attempt to make Robert want me back.
At the time, he and I technically weren’t even a couple, and I didn’t think I’d ever see him again.
With Joseph and I being as turned off as we were during our attempted make-out session—if I recalled, he’d said he’d had more passionate kisses with goats—the likelihood of us ever hooking up again romantically was zilch.
Furthermore, I was pregnant with Robert’s child.
How would that make him feel, knowing that I’d kissed another man while his baby was growing inside me?
Really, the only reason I’d tell Robert about the kisses would be to make myself feel better and to alleviate my own guilt. Which didn’t seem fair.
No, I decided, I wasn’t going to say a thing. I hoped Joseph wouldn’t, either.
Joseph seemed embarrassed by Robert’s praise. Awkwardly, he said, “It’s Olivia you should credit for saving your life.”
I pointed at my chest. “Me? What did I do?”
“You alerted us to Serena’s diabolical plan,” Joseph said darkly, his eyes burning with fury.
Yikes. I’d sure hate to be in Serena’s place when the VGO hunted her down. And I had no doubt they would. They had members everywhere.
Robert explained, “Serena learned Nick had my fangs, but she couldn’t figure out exactly where he’d been keeping them. She wanted to get rid of you also, Olivia.”
“Get rid of me? Like, kill me?” The answer was obvious, yet it still blew my mind that someone who’d only met me once wanted me dead. What did I ever do to that bitch?
Robert nodded. “When she learned that you were meeting Nick alone to get my fangs—”
“She saw it as an ideal time to strike,” I concluded.
“Aye,” Joseph chimed in. “Her plan was to commandeer the fangs from Nick and then murder the both of you.”
I shivered. “Isn’t that just lovely. Why kill me, though?”
“Less loose ends,” Joseph said.
Robert took my hand and gave it a squeeze. “But you saved yourself, my darling, by showing up late.”
So, my suspicion had been right. Had I shown up on time, I’d be as dead as Nick. It was not a thought I wanted to dwell on too much.
“I promise you, my love, that I’ll never give you grief again for running late,” Robert told me.
“So, what happened at the fountain?”
Joseph said, “Serena waited by the fountain for you to show up, but then Nick spotted her. She was more concerned with her identity being revealed than killing you, so she decapitated Nick, took the fangs, and then ran.”
“How do you know all this?” Sebastian asked. “You speak as if you were there.”
Joseph said, “The whole attack was caught on the mall’s video surveillance. My associates obtained the footage.”
“Which has since gone missing from human authorities,” I deduced. That would be the last thing the VGO would want, a vampire attack caught on film. They must have paid someone off handsomely for the footage. Or killed for it. Either were as equally probable.
Joseph smiled impishly. “It’s like it never happened.”
Say that to Nick, I thought.
“Serena came here next,” Robert said. “She used my fangs to make me go with her. She took control over my will, but I didn’t go without a fight.”
“Which explains the mess in the living room,” I said.
“Yes. But that was all I could manage.”
“What was it like being controlled by her?”
“Awful,” Robert said grimly. “Like being awake and asleep simultaneously.”
“Why did she go to the trouble of calling to taunt me about stealing you away?”
Robert shrugged. “She had to improvise, since she knew you’d look for me. She probably knew you’d go to the VGO with your concerns about my vanishing, if you didn’t think I’d left you for another woman.”
“Son of a bitch,” I spat, shaking my head. “That’s exactly what happened. I played into her hand.”
“Serena used my fangs to make me say those things to you, so you’d think we were over and move on.”
Robert hugged me tight and kissed me, which embarrassed our company. I didn’t care. Being back in his arms felt incredible.
“I was heartbroken,” I whispered into his chest.
“I’m so sorry for that,” Robert whispered back. “I couldn’t control myself. She made me do it. I’ll make her pay for what she’s done.”
Joseph cleared his throat, keeping us on track.
I stepped back from Robert. “Where did Serena take you? I figured wherever you were, it was far away.”
“You’re never going to believe it.”
“Antarctica? Brazil? Madagascar?”
It was Joseph who answered. “Arizona.”