CHAPTER TEN
"How the hell did another kid go missing?" Dex asked through clenched teeth and glared at Finn and Michael. They'd been on duty together when Robert went missing. There was no mysterious trip to the bathroom, no distraction by a hot female. They both swore that they hadn't taken their eyes off the kids the whole shift.
Chase paced the room around the security team and thought about the last time one of the kids went missing. He'd been pissed that he wasn't there and thought he could have prevented it somehow. Finn had been there then, too. Chase narrowed his eyes at Finn. Either he was incompetent, or he had something to do with their disappearance. There was no other explanation.
"I was watching them. I swear it." Finn held his wrist out to Gabe. "Check. You'll see I'm telling the truth." Finn was desperate, not guilty, and Chase relaxed, pulling his attention from Finn.
So he was just incompetent then.
Samuel stepped between them and looked down at Finn, who was a good eight inches shorter. Not that Finn was short, Samuel was just that big. "This is the second time you were confirmed around when kids have gone missing. And there is no way to rule out you being around when the first two disappeared. How do we know you aren't involved?"
"Gabe can check for deception. Alexander or Micah can check my head. Hell, you can have one of the witches do some spell if you want. I'm not involved."
"Do you think we'd trust your boyfriend or his sister not to lie for you?" Samuel raised an eyebrow and looked from Finn to Michael and back again. "He was here. Maybe he's in on it."
Finn swallowed hard and looked down at his feet. "I wasn't involved. I swear it." His voice trailed off to a whisper by the end of the sentence.
"Either way, you are relieved of watch duty until we clear this up. I don't think you're involved, but I don't trust you either." Samuel directed his command at Finn, then turned to Michael. "And if I find out you are involved in any way, you and your sister will both pay dearly for it."
Michael ignored the comment and folded his arms across his chest. He was about the only one, other than Dex and Gabe, that wasn't intimidated by Samuel.
"I met with a few vampires that requested jobs on guard duty. I'm considering giving them a chance." Samuel turned to the senior vampires and continued. "Yesterday I met with Tristan, and this morning, Cole, both of which would like a chance."
Gabe nodded, only partly involved with the conversation.
Dex was another story.
"Are you sure that's wise?" Dex glanced at the kids before making eye contact with Samuel. "Tristan is brand new to our region and we don't know him that well."
"Tristan is an asshole, but he wouldn't hurt children. He actually likes kids." Michael would know, since Tristan was his cousin, but Dex didn't look convinced.
"And Cole?" Samuel asked no one in particular.
"He's also an asshole and I don't think we should trust him." Chase tensed and did his best to reign in his feelings about the bastard. This wasn't about him. It was about the kids, but there was nothing about Cole that said trustworthy. In fact, he gave off a distinct creep vibe in Chase's opinion.
Samuel and Dex both raise their brow.
"You know him?" Dex asked.
"We've met."
"As have we," Michael said. "And I agree with Chase. The guy is hiding something. I don't trust him."
"Well someone needs to watch these kids, actually watch them, and we are running out of qualified individuals."
"What about Ember? The dragon shifter. She is trustworthy and seems competent enough to keep watch over a group of kids, with assistance." Gabe had gotten to know her because she was friends with Jewel, his new mate. Chase only knew what Ari had told him about the female, but she seemed okay.
"I'll meet with her to see if she is suitable, but that is only one person. I'm going to speak with Alexander and see if we can't make Tristan or Cole work out. As long as one of us are here as well, they will only serve as a second set of eyes. It needs to be considered, whether or not, one or both are assholes." Samuel waved a hand over the group as if to dismiss them, and headed toward the door.
"You still smell of my sister." Michael came up behind Chase and raised an eyebrow. "What exactly are your intentions with her?"
It probably would be a bad idea to tell him that plenty more wild sex was about as far in advance as Chase thought about intentions, so he shrugged.
"What do you want me to say to that?"
If it were his sister, Chase would have knocked the guy flat, not worried about intentions. In fact, when she'd been fooling around with Alexander at first, Chase wanted to do just that, but he was only human then, and Lex would have killed him.
"I want you to tell me if you are just using her and are going to break her heart, or if you have genuine feelings for her."
Chase's first thought was to respond that she has no heart, but that wouldn't go over well with her brother. And he knew it wasn't true. Willow liked to play at being detached and uninterested, but he was getting to see past those walls.
"I'm not using her." It wasn't a lie. If he just wanted sex, there were plenty of females who were more than willing since he'd become vampire. It was something about her specifically that he wanted. But did he want more than sex? Chase wasn't sure about that.
"So you care about her then?"
Did he?
Chase didn't answer. He wasn't sure what was going on inside his head and when he figured it out, he wasn't about to discuss it with Michael first.
"Look, I know my sister is a handful, but underneath it all, she's actually fragile. Don't hurt her." Michael leaned in and lowered his voice for the last part. He was deadly serious and it made Chase jump back without thinking.
Chase nodded and remained silent. He had no intentions of hurting Willow, but that didn't mean it wouldn't happen. He hadn't considered hurting her emotionally before then. She always seemed put together, untouchable, strong. But that last time together, he'd seen through some of that. There was so much more to her. The only problem now was, did he want to know more.
***
"How are you sister?" Michael sat down next to Willow in the grass, uncharacteristically unconcerned with his expensive suit.
Willow opened one eye and peered over at him. "I'm meditating."
"I can see that."
"So go away." She closed her eye again and took a deep cleansing breath. If Michael was willing to sit on the damp ground, he would want to have a deep conversation. That was never a good thing.
"I'm not leaving until we talk." Michael took up a cross-legged position to match Willow and closed his eyes, clearing his mind. It only made Willow more suspicious and anxious about his intentions. She thought about getting up and making a run for it, but they both knew he was faster.
"Fine. What do you want to talk about?" Willow dropped her shoulders and turned to face her brother. The sooner she got it over with, the sooner she could get back to anything else but feelings. Michael always wanted to talk about feelings. He was such a girl like that.
"I'm worried about you. I know something is going on. So tell me."
"I'm fine. Everything is great. Satisfied?" Willow stretched her legs out in front of her and flexed her toes. It was rare for her to be without boots or heels of some sort, so her feet were thanking her for the reprieve.
"I don't believe you." Michael kicked off his shoes and laid back in the grass. He hadn't done anything like that since he was a child, since before their mother died. Willow's eyes widened and she stared at her brother. Something was definitely up with him.
"What is up with you? You do realize you are laying in the wet grass, right? In your suit. In a park."
Michael shrugged and clasped his hands behind his head. "It's only damp."
Willow sat up onto her legs and peered over Michael. "Are you in love?"
"Love?" He laughed and tried to hide a smile. "Of course not. Why would you ask me that?"
"You're lying in the grass." She raised an eyebrow. "In your suit, in the park, and relaxing. So either you're in love, or you have some rare blood witch brain tumor and are going to die soon. There are no other explanations."
"Don't be ridiculous. And this is about you, not me."
"Of course it is. Because that way, you can hide behind everything else and pretend there is nothing you should be talking about. As usual."
"Will, the nightmares are back. I'm concerned." Michael grabbed his sister's wrist and ran his thumb over the back of her hand.
From the time they were born, Michael made it his responsibility to take care of his sister. She hadn't needed it until after their mother died, and back then, what she needed protection from, was nothing he could handle. Michael's failure to protect her, time and time again, only deepened his need to succeed.
Now that they were safe, grown and able to fight back, he was trying to make up for it. For a while, after they'd escaped Julian, he did protect her. She was in no shape to do it herself. She'd been broken down and lost. But time had passed and she'd grown stronger, gotten past what happened to her for so many years at the hands of that sick bastard.
Willow refused to be a victim ever again.
She wasn't weak, or small, or too young to help herself. She was strong, skilled, and could damn well take care of herself. She appreciated her brother having her back, but the constant worrying was grating on her nerves.
"I'm fine Michael."
"Then why are the nightmares back after all this time? Did something happen that you aren't telling me about? Or is it just this thing with the blond vampire?"
"His name is Chase, you know that right?"
"Yes. I know his name. I just thought we were still in denial about how close you two were getting, so I can be generic." Michael kept a straight face, but Willow knew he thought he was amusing. As usual, he wasn't.
"Nothing happened. I don't know why the nightmares are back, but you're making too much out of it. They'll pass. They always do."
"And Chase?"
"What are you looking for me to say here? That I'm falling for the guy? That we are about to run off and get married and make beautiful babies together? It's nothing. Just sex. Do you want to hear about how great the sex is? Because last time when he was doing this one thing—"
"I do not need the details of your naked time." Michael swallowed hard and turned his head away from her.
"Look, I like sex, okay? I'm not going to curl up into a ball and hide away because of what happened to me. Julian won't ever take that from me. And that's all this is. Chase has enough baggage to fill a train car. There's no secret romance going on. So unless you want to hear about the sex, there is nothing to say."
Willow's phone buzzed and she slipped it out of her back pocket. "Sorry brother, we'll have to cut this short. I've got some female bonding time to attend to."
***
Willow never would have accepted the invitation to have lunch with Ember and Jewel if it hadn't been for the uncomfortable conversation with her brother. She just needed to get the hell out of there and be around someone who wasn't going to grill her on her personal life.
Ember and Jewel hardly knew her. Ember especially, and she was the one to actually invite her. They'd worked together to save Gabe, to stop that hideous strigoi creature, but that was it. It wasn't like they'd bonded and got together every Tuesday night to braid each other's hair. That had been the last she'd spoken to either of them.
Now here she was, headed to a cafe to have lunch with the two females, like any other group of friends. Maybe Michael was right, there was something wrong with her.
"Oh, you made it!" Jewel jumped up from her seat and pulled Willow into a hug. No sooner did she let go and Ember was following along. It was more like an assault and Willow tensed under the embraces.
She was definitely not a hugger.
They each took their seat and Ember passed a menu to Willow.
"This place has amazing lobster salad. Seasonal though, so you should give it a try before it's gone for the year." Jewel spoke without looking up from her menu, as if the three of them having lunch was such a normal occurrence that each should feel completely at ease.
Willow wanted to ask them what they wanted from her, why they'd even invited her at all, but she stayed quiet and scanned the options for lunch.
"What's good here?" Willow asked in an attempt at small talk, which she wasn't very good at.
Both girls looked at her with a blank expression for what felt like an eternity. Which was probably only about five seconds. Far too long.
"You've never been here?" Ember spoke up first. She'd been in Vampire City even less time than Willow, but apparently, she'd managed to find all the good eateries.
Maybe because she left the house and Willow rarely did, except for work or to sit in the park. Usually alone.
"No, but I'm guessing that I'm missing out."
"Absolutely!" Both girls said at once.
"I'm sorry we haven't invited you sooner. The last time we were here we were talking about having you join us." Jewel, looking much better than the last time Willow saw her, was scanning the menu as she spoke.
Willow had a hard time believing there could be any reason either of those two girls would think about her while having lunch. She still wasn't sure why they'd even called her at all. Clearly the two of them were friends already. Whatever reason they had for wanting to include her was a complete mystery.
"The desserts are the best. Every time I want to just skip the lunch and go straight to the good stuff." Ember flipped to the back of the menu and drooled over the dessert menu.
"Dessert sounds good." Willow shrugged. She wasn't one to turn down sweets.
"So Willow," Ember started. "How have you been enjoying living here?"
Ember was also new to the region, but she'd apparently acclimated quite well.
"It's okay, I suppose. Not much different than anyplace else, really." It was mostly true. Humans were treated much better in this region than most others, but basically one place was the same as everywhere else. The same people, the same others, the same everything.
"Oh, I don't know. I've been a lot of places and this one definitely seems different to me. The city is run by the King, not just a regent, who's married to quite an original other, and he's changing the whole system to be more fair to the humans. That seems very different to me."
"How do you know about the king's mate?" Willow knew that Jewel was aware of Ariana's status because she'd lived there for a bit, but there was no reason for Ember to know. The list of those aware of such a secret was growing by the day it seemed.
"I'm perceptive." Ember smiled.
Jewel cleared her throat and started going over her choices to herself out loud. They'd probably discussed the king's mate regardless of how secret it was supposed to be since they were best friends.
Willow always wondered about girls who wanted to tell other girls all their private thoughts. It was weird. Girls were often awful creatures.
"What's this really about?" Willow closed her menu and placed it on the table. Jewel and Ember both tried to feign innocence, but Willow wasn't having it. "You didn't invite me here for some female bonding time. What's up?"
Jewel pushed her red hair off her shoulder and turned to Ember. "You want to talk to her about it?"
Willow had the feeling she was being cornered into something she wasn't going to enjoy. It was always the same with females. They always wanted something. Well, so did males, but at least with them, you knew what it was. And they didn't beat around the bush.
"You know how the security team has been struggling with the newbie vamplings, right?" Ember started, dragging out what she really wanted. Willow fought the urge to grab her by the neck and tell her to spit it out already.
"Yes."
"And you know how they've been looking to expand the team to have more eyes on the kids to keep them safe, right?"
Again, "yes."
"Well, I'm new here and no one really knows me."
"Except me," Jewel interrupted.
"Right, except Jewel. The thing is, I really need to pull my weight around here and I'd love to have a shot on the security team."
"What's that got to do with me?" Willow was losing patience. Not that she'd had any to begin with.
"Well, you're in with them and I'm sure they trust you. Since you're the only one around here besides Jewel who has fought with me, or seen me in action, I figured maybe you could put in a good word for me."
Willow wasn't interested in making new friends. Okay maybe the idea of some girlfriends wasn't so bad, but it had never worked out in the past, so why would this time be any different?
"Isn't your bestie hooking up with Gabriel? I'm sure his words carries way more weight than mine."
"Gabe felt it was inappropriate for him to get involved since he didn't really know Ember and that it was an abuse of his power." Jewel looked away when she spoke. Even she knew Gabe had a stick up his ass.
"He suggested that we speak to you," Ember said. "And that maybe you could use some friends around here anyway."
"Is that so? Gabe has decided that I need some companionship. So nice of him." He was becoming just like Michael and Willow didn't need two big brothers in her life. One was more than enough.
"Look, I know this is awkward since we really don't know each other."
"And yet you want me to stake my reputation on you?"
"You did see me fight. You know I can handle the job. All I want is for you to say that. And if you don't think I can. Then that's fine too, but I don't think you feel that way."
Willow had battled with Ember and Jewel to save Gabriel. You'd think that ungrateful bastard would remember that part and speak up on Ember's behalf. Without all three of them, he'd be toast.
But that was one day. One afternoon really. Willow didn't know either of the girls before that day and she certainly hadn't gotten to know much more since. That might have been because Willow hadn't cared enough to get to know them, but that was irrelevant.
So they'd only invited her out to get a recommendation. They weren't interested in her, just what they needed from her. Typical females. Not that Willow cared. She wasn't looking for a group of girlfriends.
It just pissed her off that everyone always wanted something from her. Ember wanted her to put in a good word. Jewel wanted her to help her best friend. Chase wanted sex. Well, she'd wanted that too, but still. She wasn't sure what Cole wanted yet, but she was sure it would come out.
The only person who ever cared enough to be in her life without anything in return was Michael. He wanted to protect her, to care for her, to love and be loved in return. There was no ulterior motive behind his actions.
Is that how life was? Only your own twin could care about you without wanting something in return? Everyone else was just out for what they could get off you? That was Willow's experience so far. Mostly she was fine with it. She told herself she was anyway. But every now and then, when she was faced with yet another person wanting something from her, she felt a little twinge in her gut that made her feel differently.
Maybe just one time, she wanted someone to just want to be in her company with nothing else at stake.
"So will you talk to Samuel for Ember?" Jewel looked at her with those wide green eyes, those same eyes that Willow had seen herself in not that long ago.
She wanted to tell them no. She wanted no part of it and couldn't care any less whether or not Ember got a job with security. But she couldn't. Somewhere deep inside her made her nod her head and speak words she never intended to say. "Yeah, sure. I don't know how much good it will do, but I'll say something."
Jewel slide her chair over and threw her arms around Willow for a crushing hug. "Thanks so much."
Willow wasn't sure what to do with the girl wrapped around her body. She certainly wasn't a hugger, but part of her didn't completely hate it either.
After an awkward minute, Jewel released her and picked her menu back up like the three of them were all good friends. "So what are you girls having? I think I'm going to have the lobster salad sandwich."
Willow wasn't sure what to make of either girl, but she picked her menu back up and went about picking some lunch. She might as well get some lunch out of the deal. Even if part of her wasn't completely against the company either.