CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The gradual disappearance of the darkness lurking all around them was so surprising that Eva thought it was her imagination playing tricks on her at first. But reality set in when she saw the determined expression on Raz when he approached them.
Then reality came crashing down.
“You need to go.”
Eva blinked. Then she shot up from the bed to her feet, staring at him as she did so.
“You?” she echoed.
“You and Peter,” he clarified. He glanced at Peter, who was sleeping beside the packed bag in bed. The boy had been endlessly tired. Raz turned to look at her again, not quite meeting her eyes. “I’ll hold the fort for a while. I need to talk to Lucinda first. Then I’m going after you.”
There was something off with his words, and Eva waited for him to meet her gaze. When he finally did, it felt like he was looking into her soul, and the way he stared at her was uncanny. He seemed to be trying to find the right words to say to make her listen.
“Eva, I know you don’t agree.”
“You bet I don’t,” she cut in. It made a small smile appear on his lips. “Raz, what on earth are you planning?”
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
She said it with no hesitation, and she could see the way her confidence in him almost made him stagger. Realizing that their nature probably never allowed him to trust anyone a hundred percent, Eva took his hand. Then she leaned her head on his shoulder, inhaling the manly scent of the man that she’d come to love.
After a while, he squeezed her hand. “Then trust me on this one, Eva. Please. I’ll explain everything after.”
Reluctantly, she nodded.
*****
They left at night, with Raz giving them a map of how to get to some secret place he’d prepared years ago to hide out—except now he was giving it to her and Peter, so they could use it in his place. Ever since they stepped foot outside and never looked back, a niggling feeling had settled on Eva’s shoulders, one that persistently throbbed and bothered her.
Raz said that there were others more powerful than him, and she probably couldn’t detect their presence, either—but instinct told her that wasn’t it now. She and Peter trekked what they could, covering their tracks and stopping at intervals for only a few minutes so the boy could feed on animal blood. He was obviously still struggling, but it was impressive how much he made an effort to control the bloodlust and keep it in.
He was also obviously still grieving for his sister, which gave Eva the push to stop thinking about going back and to keep moving forward as fast as they could.
They finally reached a highway and managed to hitch on the back of a truck filled with hay, where they settled in and got comfortable enough to sleep during the journey. Eva woke Peter up at dawn, and it was back to walking as they finally got to New Jersey. There, they booked a flight, using an alias that Raz gave them to take them to a place Eva never thought she would end up in.
Hawaii.
Beaches, mountains, sun. Those were the top three things that dominated the state, and it obviously brightened Peter up a bit. They trekked some more, finally getting to a mountain area where she used her new family name to get past the spell hiding Raz’s place. Then they were in, and Eva could only stare in amazement at the setup Raz made—a simple but huge house made of wood and glass, some vegetation on one side, a forest on the other, a mini pond connecting to the ocean for fish to thrive, and the most breathtaking view of the sunset over the sea. She remembered Raz’s mansion and realized that was only one part of him, the other being this one that wanted to live peacefully.
They settled in, and Eva let Peter wander around and see the forest. She needed to show him she trusted him, and that was the first step. Now, it was up to her nephew, the ball in his court now. Eva explored, too, but mostly she waited for Raz, counting the days in her head and telling herself the next day, he would be here with them.
But he didn’t come, and she worried. Days turned into a week, and soon the week extended enough to have her worry. She didn’t like sitting back and worrying, but Eva also didn’t like making rash decisions and getting herself in trouble because of impatience. So she weighed the options.
In the end, it wasn’t the options that made her pack a bag again—a tinier one this time as Peter sat on the bed and stared at what she was doing.
“I want to come with you,” he declared. There was no petulance in his tone, and it made Eva realize how much he’d grown in just a couple of days. It was heartbreaking really, to have grief do that to a person.
Much like Raz tried to explain to her, she did the same to Peter. He listened intently as she said she needed to go get the man who was now a part of their family, and he needed to stay here because he was the one that they needed alive the most. Eva repeated over and over how much she loved Peter and would return to him, and in her mind, she knew it was true. Peter felt it, too, as he finally nodded. Then he cried and hugged her, telling her he was going to wait for her return and was going to be a good boy.
It was the best Eva could hope for, really.
She used the same route to go back to Manhattan, but she didn’t even have to go back to Raz’s mansion to be found. She felt the presence that she felt before as soon as she got to the forest beyond Raz’s backyard, and she stopped walking once she did.
Banking on civility, Eva took an inward breath. Then she spoke out.
“Vladimir, I know you’re here. Can you please take me to Raz?”
Silence followed her words. But a few seconds later, a blur appeared right in front of her and stopped, and she was treated to a sight of what had to be the most intimidating looking man she’d ever encountered. While Raz was pleasant looking and intense in his own right, this man…he was so much more, holding in such raw power that it almost had her cowering. But she straightened her shoulders and met his gaze.
“Where’s the boy?” he asked.
“Take me to Raz first,” she replied quietly.
He didn’t like that answer. But he didn’t hurt her, either. Vladimir finally accepted her bargain, and soon she was heading towards what they called vampire headquarters—a place that was so staggeringly large and teeming with vampires that made her hair stand on end. If she thought Vladimir was crazy dangerous, then this even larger mansion filled with deadly creatures like him was just a death sentence waiting to happen, and she couldn’t imagine how one leader could keep them all in line.
When she finally met Lucinda, she realized she thought too soon.
The woman was beautiful—staggeringly beautiful, really, with her golden hair and mesmerizing green eyes. But that wasn’t what kept Eva’s attention. It was the power she exuded, much subtler than Vladimir’s, but so much more seductive in how it was so easily contained. Eva had a feeling that in a fight between vampires, she would easily beat them all and not even mess up a single strand of her hair.
The woman looked at her straight on, almost placidly.
“I had a feeling you would come for him,” she said. Her voice was pleasant and lovely, hiding no threat at all.
Eva knew that was part of her glamour, so she steeled her spine and didn’t break the overwhelming gaze. “And here I am.” She had once said to herself she wouldn’t plead with anyone, not when they were enemies who were bound to kill her. But so much was at stake now, and Eva knew what she had to do.
She knelt down.
“Please. If Raz is still alive, don’t kill him. And if he’s dead…” She almost choked on the words but pushed on. “I hope to God his death was worth it for your so-called cause.”
“We don’t believe in your God,” Lucinda replied softly, tilting her head. “But we do believe in retribution.”
The words were a puzzle; one Eva couldn’t figure out. Before she could, the door opened behind her, and the sound of footsteps filled the meeting room. Eva turned her head when she realized she recognized his scent.
She froze when she also realized it was mixed with the scent of blood.
In a split second, Raz was thrown right in front of her, tied up in chains and bleeding all over. Horror filled her, followed by fear as the signs of torture showed on his body. Vladimir stood beside him, perfectly expressionless.
Eva looked back at Lucinda. The vampire didn’t look delighted at the sight as she expected.
But there was no mistaking the words that came out next.
“Eva, will you bargain for him?”