CHAPTER THREE
"Want some company?"
Willow looked up to find a dark haired vampire that she'd never seen before, staring down at her. She'd been laying with her eyes closed, enjoying the sun in the park. It was cool, but the warmest day they'd had in a while and she wanted to enjoy it.
"Not really."
He sat down next to her anyway. Willow pushed her sunglasses down her nose and peered over at the stranger.
"Do you need a lesson in what no means?"
"No. But then, you didn't say no. You said not really. That's not a total turn down. It implies you aren't one hundred percent sure, or you would have just said no." He smiled at her, a dazzling, I'm trouble kind of smile and she pushed her glasses back onto her eyes. "I'm Cole, by the way." He held a hand out to shake, but she ignored him.
"Willow." She mumbled the word and folded her fingers together over her stomach.
"I've heard. You're new to our region. How are you liking it so far?"
She thought about not answering, seeing how long it took him to give up and leave her there alone, but she wasn't sure she actually wanted to be alone anymore.
"It's acceptable, I suppose."
"There are worse places." Cole laughed. "Hey you want some lunch?" Before she could answer, Cole started unpacking a basket of food she hadn't noticed he had with him. He spread out a blanket and set some sandwiches and containers of food out.
Willow's stomach rumbled and although she wanted to tell him to get lost, her hunger got the better of her and she sat up to see what he had.
"You just always walk around the park with a picnic basket and offer food to complete strangers?" Willow asked, picking up a small sandwich and taking a nibble off one corner.
"Actually, I sort of do. I mean, not always, but sometimes I like to be spontaneous, just do something unexpected with someone I might not normally do it with. Today, it was you. Feel honored."
"Honored." Willow snorted and took another bite. "Yes, you should feel honored to spend some time in my company."
"I do." Cole winked and she couldn't tell if it was sexy or creepy. Maybe a little of both. "So why are you out here all alone in the cold?"
"It's not that cold. I'm only part vampire, so I run hotter than you. Anyway, in the sun, it's gorgeous."
"Okay, that explains that part. Clearly, you didn't just want to be alone, or you would have told me to get lost."
"I still might."
"After you eat all my food?"
Willow peered at him over her sunglasses. He wasn't bad looking. With black hair, chocolate brown eyes, a strong, angular chin, and full, kissable lips, Cole was one of the better looking vampire specimens she'd seen in this region. Okay, maybe he was better than not bad looking. He was damn hot. But there was something about him that made her take caution.
"Would you like your food back?" She held a finger up to her open mouth, offering to give back what she'd eaten.
"Uh, no thanks. You keep it." He popped a strawberry into his mouth and laid back onto the blanket. "You were right. It is a nice day today."
"I usually am." Willow finished off another small sandwich and leaned back on her elbows. She made sure to keep a bit of distance between her and Cole, not ready to trust the stranger.
"Well then, that makes two of us." Cole peered over and winked at her.
"What's your deal?"
"What do you mean?"
Willow wasn't buying his innocent act. Something was up with this guy. Maybe he was just interested in a good time, but she didn't get the feeling that he was someone to trust, and Willow learned a long time ago to trust her gut.
"Who's your friend, sister?"
Willow snapped her head up to find Michael standing over her, eyeing Cole with a curious expression. Cole jumped to his feet and held a hand out with a smile.
"Cole Porter. You're Willow's brother, right?"
"Michael." He took Cole's outstretched hand and gave it a firm shake. Willow knew that look on her brother's face. He didn't like Cole. He would smile and be friendly, but she could always tell when he didn't like someone. Maybe he'd picked up on the same thing she had. Or maybe he was just being Michael.
"Of course. Great to meet you. Would you like to join us? There is plenty of food." Cole sat back down on the blanket and motioned for Michael to join them. There was no way he'd agree. Picnic's weren't Michael's sort of thing.
"No thank you. I actually came to collect my sister. I have business with her. Sorry to cut your date short."
"It wasn't a date, Michael." Willow pushed to her feet and raised a brow at her brother. "Just two people eating some food in the park. You should try it sometime."
"Mmhmm." Michael grabbed his sister's hand and pulled her in the direction of home without a second look at Cole.
"Was that necessary?" Willow asked when they'd gotten halfway down the street. "We were in the middle of the park, in daylight."
"I heard about your little breakfast date this morning. Are you interested in young boys now too?"
"Michael, you need to stop. I'm a grown woman. I can do as I please, with whomever I please. Even if that includes twenty year old vampires, or dark mysterious older men in the park. It's not your business." Willow yanked her hand away from Michael and stomped up the stairs to their house like a bratty five year old.
"It's my job to keep you safe and I intend on doing it, no matter how much you fight me. Now stop sulking. I don't like it when you frown."
Inside the house, Willow flopped down on one of the pristine sofas. Michael picked out all the furniture, of course. He needed to be the one in charge of everything in their lives. Furniture, what they ate, who she spent her time with, Michael was always over-involved.
"I'm safe. Nothing is going to happen to me having lunch in the park. I'm not a helpless teenager anymore. You can let me protect myself."
"I can try." Michael reached out to tuck a wayward strand of hair behind her ear, but she shoved him away.
"What happened back then wasn't your fault. You have to get that into your head. We were kids. There was nothing you could have done to protect me, so stop thinking you need to make up for it now. You don't."
"You're my sister, the only thing in this world that means anything to me. Of course I need to protect you."
"Well, maybe you need to find something else to care about so you can stop suffocating me all the time. Like maybe that vampire you are always ogling."
"I don't ogle. And you don't know what you're talking about."
"Come on Michael. Climb out from under your thick blanket of denial. Why are you so afraid to admit you are into him? Are you embarrassed of people knowing you're gay?"
"Of course not. Stop trying to turn this whole thing around on me. You need to be more careful with who you spend your time with. And if you want to talk about blankets of denial, stop messing around with random strangers, or child vamps, and admit you like that blond more than you are letting on."
"Chase?"
"Obviously."
"I don't. He's annoying, and self-centered, and immature. He's pretty much intolerable."
"And what, Issac, that little boy, is mature and self-evolved? He's practically a child, Will."
"But he isn't. He's twenty, which by the way, is the exact age as Chase."
Michael opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, furrowed his brow, and narrowed his eyes. "Chase is only twenty?"
"Yes." She smirked at her brother, enjoying his moment of speechlessness. It didn't happen often. She had to soak it up while she could.
"Well regardless, Chase is more grown up. It's obvious by looking at the two, or talking to them, that there is a significant maturity imbalance."
"Chase isn't as grown up as you think. And anyway, it's none of your business who I screw."
"Stop acting so crass, Will. It doesn't suit you."
"I honestly don't give a shit what you think about it Mike. It's my life, so until you can come out of the closet and live your own, you don't get a say in mine."
"I'm not in the closet." Michael clenched his teeth together.
"No? Who knows you're gay? Anyone in this region, but me?"
"You know how I feel about labels. And, by the way, I don't have to go around telling everyone I meet what I desire in bed."
"No. You don't. But you don't need to hide it, either. No one is going to judge you." Willow placed her hand over Michael's and rubbed her thumb over his knuckles. "Just be yourself."
"You know what I've been through, Will. There is no reason to air my personal life all over. I'm not hiding, but it's my life, so let me make my own decisions."
"Okay, but you need to start taking that same advice. I can make my own decisions, too."
***
"How you feeling, sis?" Chase kissed the top of Ari's head before sitting down on the couch next to her.
"Tired. Like a giant oven."
"You are a giant oven."
Ari pulled off her slipper and whacked Chase in the head with it. "That's not very nice."
"Sorry." He chuckled, not really all that sorry. It was always too much fun to tease her.
"How's things down at the newbie camp?"
"It's going all right, I suppose. They are all just a bunch of kids, no fighting skills at all, but there are a few of them that show promise."
"Like Issac?"
Chase shifted and his eyes narrowed. "Why would you ask about him?"
"Because I saw what you were thinking about before you walked in here, when you were going over it in your mind out in the hall. Are you really jealous of that boy?"
"That boy is our age and I am not jealous. He needs to show respect. I am in charge of his group. Screwing around in the gym is unacceptable. And stay out of my head."
"You know I have no control right now. And yes, he is our age, but he was raised very different. Dad prepared us for the world, taught us to fight, to survive. Those kids lived in some weird, protected world, where they acted like this whole vampire apocalypse never happened."
"Yeah, well all the adults who made those decisions are dead now, and we have to deal with the kids."
"I miss dad." Ari sighed and rubbed her belly.
"So do I." He slid closer and draped his arm over his sister. "But we have each other and you have Alexander and the babies. We will be okay."
"I know, but there's so much he's going to miss out on."
"Like seeing his baby girl mate a vampire, who knocked her up, and refuses to marry her? Or like his only son, turned into the thing he hated most in the world?"
"Alexander doesn't refuse to marry me, Chase. Why do you always think the worst of him?"
"Out of what I just said, that is what you take away from the conversation? Dad wouldn't be happy with either of us if he were still alive, Ar. You know he wouldn't. He would never accept our lives now. It's better that he doesn't have to see this."
"Don't say that." Ari's eyes glowed a stormy blue and filled with tears. He was still getting used to the nephilim part of her with the glowing eyes, but he hated to see her cry.
"Look, I'm sorry, but it's true. Maybe if Dad had lived, things would be different. I don't know. We'll never know, but he didn't, and we have to do the best we can."
"Chase?" Jayce stuck his head into the room with a worried expression.
"Yeah, what's up?"
"You need to come down to the training center, right now."
Before Chase could ask any questions, Jayce was gone.
"What the hell was that about?" Chase turned back to his sister. "You get a read off him?"
Ari shook her head. "No, I wasn't paying attention and he disappeared too fast. Want me to call Alexander?"
"No, I better just go see what's up." Chase kissed the top of Ari's head and headed to the training center.
***
"What the hell do you mean, two of them are missing?" Gabe stood in the middle of the room looking exhausted and not quite as perfectly put together as usual.
Around him stood Dex, Finn, Jayce, and Alexander, arguing over something that apparently concerned Chase. He stepped into the circle and tried to catch up with the conversation. He knew better than to ask what was going on with the frustrated vampires standing around him.
"Two of the younger ones, a male and female, just gone," Jayce said." I dropped them off to the dorm after our last session, but when I went back to check on them before rounds, they were gone."
"Did anyone question the others? Maybe they ran away," Dex said, running his hand through his overgrown hair. Chase and Jayce were supposed to be taking over some of the responsibilities at the training facility to alleviate some of the stress off Dex, but he looked more exhausted than ever.
"Of course I questioned them," Jayce said. "They swear that there were no talks of running away that any of them knew of. That's why I figured Alexander should question them, or Gabe, so we can be sure they aren't covering up anything, or lying."
"Which two are missing?" Chase asked, finally caught up with what was going on.
"Hayley and Jack," Jayce said glancing back at the group of young vampires huddled together in the corner. "The youngest two."
Hayley was a quiet, dark-haired girl, who couldn't be more than twelve years old. She kept her head down, but did as she was told so Chase had no problem with her. Jack was another story. He was maybe a year or two older than the female, but instead of being compliant, Jack was defiant. He was always questioning rules and trying to do his own thing. He certainly wasn't Chase's favorite, but he didn't believe he'd want to run away.
Chase pulled Jayce aside as Alexander went to question the kids with Gabe in tow.
"You don't really think they'd just take off on their own, do you?"
"Not really." Jayce shifted on his feet and shoved his hands in his pockets. "But what else can explain where they went? I looked all over the city. I seriously doubt they found a place to hide that I didn't check."
"And if they didn't run away, then it means something bad happened to them." Chase didn't want to think about that, and it was clear, neither did Jayce. There had been enough going on with the original missing vampires and the strigoi. In fact, it had been a nonstop shit show since he'd been dragged into vampire city. Even before he'd been turned into a damn bloodsucker.
"Exactly."
"We will be doubling the security on the child vamps," Finn said. "At least until we find out what is going on. We don't know if this is an isolated incident, or if there will be more trouble. And, they won't be going back to the dorms. We can keep a better eye on them right here."
"Maybe we should have the witches use some magic, see if they can track down the two kids?" Jayce suggested and Finn's head snapped around at the mention.
Ari told Chase that because of one of her nephilim abilities, she could tell when two individuals were meant to be together. Something about matching auras, or some bullshit like that, and apparently, Finn and the witch Michael, were fated. Any time either of them were within a hundred yards of the other, awkwardness ensued. So clearly, neither of them received the memo.
And Chase wasn't about to get involved.
Finn cleared his throat. "We should probably use any and all tools at our disposal."
Alexander and Gabe walked back to the rest of the group, leaving the huddled mass of kids where they were.
"They don't seem to know anything," Gabe said. "One moment the two kids were there, and the next, they were gone."
"I've contacted Samuel and he will be heading up a team to look into this. Everyone is already spread thin as it is around here," Alexander said waving over the group of overworked vampires. "Finn, you will continue to head up security. Dex, you will oversee the security around the new vamplings, and you two," Alexander motioned to Jayce and Chase. " Will continue doing as you were, helping out where necessary. I'd also like to have one of our new residents, Tristan, start training for security. He will be taking turns shadowing each of you, so teach him well."
Alexander waited for each of them to acknowledge him or nod, then disappeared from the training facility. More at human speed, Gabe followed behind him with Dex, talking about the strigoi as they went.
"Do you think this has anything to do with that?" Jayce directed his question at Finn.
"The strigoi? Who knows. I hope not, but somehow I doubt we've heard the last from that thing."
"For the kids' sake," Chase said. "Let's hope not."
After mutilating and murdering dozens of vampires, the strigoi disappeared into thin air. Or so it seemed. They'd lost some good men fighting the creature, but it had gotten away, vowing to return.
Chase had been one of the lucky ones, barely a scratch on him. Gabe had nearly died. If it wasn't for his mate, Jewel, things would have turned out very differently.
The strigoi was some sort of zombie vampire that looked as horrifying as it behaved. Chase hoped he'd never see it again, but the pit in the bottom of his stomach told him otherwise. Especially now that more vampires had gone missing.
The kids were turned by the thing, or that's what was suspected, since they had little memory of what actually happened to them. He'd planned to use them somehow, but for some reason, they'd ended up alone in the woods, where their group had found them.
It was a hard adjustment for the kids, but they were coming along okay. The last thing they needed, was to be returned to the strigoi. Chase wasn't big on babysitting the vamplings, but he would be damned if they would go missing on his watch. He would do whatever it took to keep the rest of them safe.
Even if it meant watching over them twenty-four seven.