Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
Few runs in Roger’s life had been filled with the growing dread and guilt that currently filled his veins. The last few feet to the Gladwell Manor door. The night he’d fled Paris, constantly looking over his shoulder for the hunters on their tails. And this one. Anton had let them go, but his bargain was also fulfilled. Would he sweep in and demand another? Take Dmitri back?
Dmitri was practically a dead weight over Roger’s shoulder. After being lifted into place, he hadn’t moved. Hadn’t made a sound. Roger had never seen a vampire die without losing their heart or their head. Yet his stillness was troubling. Dmitri has to be alive. He just has to be.
They reached the parking lot where the Wrights’ truck waited. Roger was about to zip off into the night, but Thomas grabbed his arm and made him turn around.
“What happened in there?” Thomas demanded.
“Who gives a shit?” Cal snapped. And he aimed the shotgun at Roger’s head.
As Cal began to squeeze the trigger, Roger pivoted to the left. He used a burst of speed to move to the far side of the parking lot and deposit Dmitri. Then he rushed back toward Cal. The first blast had fired; Cal was sweeping around to aim at him a second time.
Roger pounced, knocking Cal to the ground. If Cal wanted a fight to the death, so be it. Roger needed the blood anyway. He lunged for Cal’s throat.
But Cal managed to get the shotgun barrel between them. He used it as a bar against Roger’s chest to keep him back.
Another denial. Another failure. Roger was so sick of failure. With a growl, he grabbed the shotgun and pressed it downward. A mortal’s strength was no match for his, and he didn’t have to have this fucker’s blood. It would’ve been a bonus. But all he truly wanted was this monster before him to stop moving. He forced the barrel under Cal’s chin and began to choke him with it.
“Roger, stop!”
Zack?
The thought, the blink, the moment was enough to snap him out of his survivalist anger. He eased his grip only a fraction.
Which was likely the only way he didn’t knock Cal’s head off when Thomas tackled him. Roger disentangled himself from the scramble and rose to his feet.
Thomas held out his hand in a stop gesture. Zack hadn’t spontaneously arrived; Thomas had called his name. His voice had sounded too much like Zack’s and unintentionally tricked Roger. He continued holding his right hand toward Roger while he made the same signal to Cal with his left. “We have enough going on without you two trying to kill each other!”
“He started it,” Roger snarled. “I am tired of his fucking bullshit!”
“And I’m tired of yours! I bet you handed Zack over to him, you freak!” Cal shouted, his words breaking from the effort on his damaged throat. He reached for his shotgun.
Amber slid it out of the way and pulled it into her hands. When Cal motioned for her to hand it over, she took three steps back and raised it to aim at him. Her hands trembled. The red mark around her throat had lessened to a fine line that was bound to become a bruise. She was hurt. Terrified. Her jittery finger was on the trigger.
She was a fatal accident waiting to happen.
As much as Roger longed for Callum Wright’s death, he couldn’t let Amber be at fault. Not when she was clearly trying to help by keeping the weapon away from her brother. He reached out with his power and fed her desire for calm, for peace.
She blinked, and the light shaking throughout her body began to steady.
“Amber,” Roger said softly. “Do everyone a favor and unload the weapon.”
“Got it.” Quickly, Amber emptied the shotgun shells to the pavement. There had been another three rounds.
“Did you see that ?” Cal demanded as he leapt to his feet. He gestured at Amber while addressing his father. “You’re not going to ignore that, are you? Stake the son of a bitch!”
“Shut up,” Thomas said with the tone of a man who’d been waiting too long to utter the words. “Just shut the fuck up, Cal.”
“Dad—”
Thomas whirled on his son. “Roger just saved your life.”
“After he?—”
“Enough, Cal!” Thomas snapped. “Roger could have convinced her to pull the trigger. Instead, he spared you. I don’t know that I’d have the strength in his place. So right now, I don’t want to hear another goddamn word out of you. I don’t want you to move a goddamn muscle. Because I just might let him snap your neck.”
Cal hadn’t shown a second of remorse after accidentally staking Zack in the shoulder, and he showed no regret now. He looked at his father with the anger of the betrayed, but he shut his mouth.
Thomas stepped to the side rather than turn his back to his son. Speaking to Roger and Amber, he asked again, “What happened back there?”
“Anton,” Amber croaked. “Came out of nowhere.”
“He said that Dmitri had some sort of alarm spell on him,” Roger said.
“So we might have found Zack if we hadn’t stopped.” Thomas clenched his fist.
“I don’t think so,” Roger replied. “Anton offered a bargain for the information. I don’t think he would have done that if I was close. He would want their location to be a taunt. Three doors down isn’t as painful as being in the entirely wrong place to him.”
“But you don’t know for certain,” Thomas said.
“Dad, he was going to kill us,” Amber said. “And you saw how Dmitri was tied up. Zack wouldn’t have wanted us to leave him.”
“What if your brother’s in that condition? Or worse?” Thomas demanded. When Amber dipped her head, Thomas let out a frustrated groan and wiped a hand down his face. “I’m sorry. I’m not angry at you. You saw pain, and you wanted to help stop it. You’re right. Zack would want to do the same.”
“If he was really a Wright, he’d already be dead ,” Cal complained. When Thomas glared at him, Cal shrugged. “What? We’re not supposed to be taken alive. Who knows what kind of family secrets he’s already given up to his fang master over there.”
“God, why did I ever waste time thinking you were the cool brother?” Amber said.
“I am the cool brother,” Cal replied. “If you’re thinking otherwise, it’s because that bloodsucker is messing with your head. When we get home?—”
“I’m not going home,” Thomas said quietly. The words were so soft that Roger almost didn’t hear them in the commotion, but the look in his eyes as he met Roger’s gaze was one of conviction. “Not until my son is safe.”
Roger nodded.
“Same,” Amber said. “Though I mean brother, not son. Obviously.”
“Amber, you need to go—” Thomas started to say.
“Do you honestly believe she would be safer with them?” Roger asked softly.
The question startled Thomas. He first stared at Roger like he was an alien for the suggestion, but a moment passed, and a glimpse of understanding hardened his expression into one of deep regret. The Wrights and the Gladwells were toxic, and Thomas must have finally seen that in how they treated Zack. Hell, his other son is proving the point for me .
“You switched me to homeschooling. I can do my homework literally anywhere,” Amber said. Then she winced and rubbed at her throat.
Thomas wiped his hand down his face. The bags under his eyes were darker than they had been a minute ago. “All right.”
“You can’t go with him!” Cal thrust his hand out toward Roger.
Thomas slapped a set of keys into Cal’s hand. “Tell your mother that the passwords are taped to the underside of the drawer in Zack’s room. She probably won’t think to look for them there.”
“Dad, I heard what Mom said tonight. If you don’t come home?—”
“Your mother has to realize she doesn’t decide what’s right and wrong for everyone else,” Thomas said.
“She is going to flip if Amber doesn’t come back with me.”
Amber stepped closer to her father, and Thomas put an arm around her shoulders. “I guess we’ll have to see how that plays out. Go home, Cal.”
“But in a moment.” Roger rushed forward, grabbed the keys from Cal’s hand, and tossed them so they slid under the truck. Then he hurried to grab Dmitri again and rejoin Amber and Thomas. “We should get moving.”
“Goddamn son of a bitch.” Cal ran over to the truck, but he had to crawl under it for the keys.
“Why’d you do that?” Amber asked.
“Didn’t need him to attempt to run us over.” Roger nodded in the direction of Nathaniel’s car. “I’ll lead the way.”
With Amber and Thomas following and Dmitri over his shoulder, Roger crossed the parking lot and threaded his way through the trees of the park toward the car on the far side. Takashi. Zack. I’m so sorry. I will not give up on you .