Chapter Six
Chase’s truck is from the eighties and smells musky, earthy, and gamey, like deer. I shouldn’t be surprised that the Huntsmen hunt things other than Kaiju, but I still wrinkle my nose in distaste.
Chase is driving with James in the passenger seat in front of me while Seth sits holding the family’s dearly beloved shotgun rammed against my side.
My hands are cuffed behind my back, but at least they didn’t try to do anything like muzzle me, though there was talk of it. I had to point out that I wouldn’t be able to give directions with my mouth wired shut.
On the other side of Seth sits a stout girl around sixteen with freckles and her flaming red hair pulled back in a ponytail. She’s got on a pair of worn pink cowgirl boots studded with scuffed rhinestones and ripped, faded blue jeans. I think she and Madelyn would get along well. Her jaw works relentlessly on the strip she just popped in her mouth. She leans casually against the back seat, arms folded across her chest as she stares at the highway whizzing past us out the window.
“Ah, yes, pink camo,” I murmur, gesturing my chin at her tank top and hoodie. “Because you never know when you’ll have to hide in a bubblegum factory.”
The girl glances at me, giving me the same look of distrust and hostility I’ve been getting from the rest of her family. As if to spite me, she blows a large pink bubble with the gum in her mouth. There’s a faint pop as the bubble bursts and the girl goes back to chawing her gum. There’s a neat little .38 riding on her bling-encrusted, personalized belt, a reminder that she’s a Huntswoman, too.
“Ignore her, sis,” Chase says.
“So she’s your sister. Okay. And then you,” I look at Seth, “you must be another brother?”
“Cousin,” Seth automatically corrects.
“Hmm.”
“Stop talking,” James orders.
To punctuate his uncle’s statement, Seth presses the shotgun barrel harder against my ribs.
“Easy, tiger,” I purr.
“I said—”
“Turn right.” I interrupt James to give directions to Chase.
Chase guides his truck into the right lane and stops at the intersection. There’s a Jack-In-The-Box in front of us and a Shell station with cracking pavement and pigeons nested on the convenience store roof to our right. Several cars turn into the gas station. The place looks so grimy, for a moment I passionately miss home.
Chase switches on the truck’s blinker and waits for the light to change color.
I heave a sigh. Even with handcuffs, if I could get rid of Seth’s shotgun, I could snap a few necks or escape out the door and run into the underbrush surrounding the highway before they could stop me. I’m wondering if I should. At the moment, I’m leaning toward running away. I have never killed a human, or anyone for that matter, and I’m not sure I want that to change.
I wonder if they’ll try and kill Damian. If they do that, then their lives are forfeit. I’ll end every one of them before I let them touch him, never mind I haven’t taken life before. But if they’ll help us protect Madelyn, we just might be able to keep her alive and away from Uncle Devin. We might just succeed.
I worry Uncle Devin might’ve found Damian and Madelyn while I was gone last night. Damian is strong. He is a Chadwick, after all. But I know that Uncle Devin is so, so much stronger.
Shifting in my seat, I gauge that we’ve got about fifteen more minutes before we reach the motel where I left them. Chase is being careful to stay under the speed limits. I imagine he doesn’t want to get pulled over. Having a cop see your cousin hold a handcuffed girl at gunpoint could get awkward.
My one and only cousin, Jared, is the son of my father’s sister and lives in Montana. I haven’t see him in years, but I hear he’s shown promise as an enforcer. Though, from what I remember, his happy, jovial personality is totally wrong for it. Then again, people change. I know I have.
With some hesitation, I direct Chase to the cracked asphalt parking lot of the cheap motel where I left Damian and Madelyn at Room 26. It appears to be mostly empty. I can see the fat, repulsive man at the counter is still in his place. I notice that the blinds of Room 26 are down.
Damn it, Damian! I silently swear. You should be keeping look out!
Chase pulls the truck to a halt and surveys his surroundings through the windshield. The Huntsmen peer out the windows as if searching for signs of an ambush. All of them look, except Seth. Seth keeps his eyes on me and the shotgun against my side. I know that he’ll pull that trigger at the first hint of aggression on my part.
Finally, Chase steps out. I notice him adjusting his worn leather hiking jacket. There’s a .50 caliber pistol buckled at his side. These people really, really love their guns.
James does the same, and it doesn’t escape me that he’s got a sidearm, too.
Good grief. They’re like the freaking poster family for the NRA.
James comes around and opens my door before stepping a good ways back. I realize it’s not me he’s afraid of, it’s stray BB’s in the event Seth fires the shotgun.
“Okay, vamp,” Seth growls. “You try drawing those fangs, I pull the trigger. You make a move for me or anyone else, I pull the trigger. This turns out to be a trap, I pull the trigger. You try to give any kind of signal—”
“I know! You’ll pull the trigger,” I impatiently interrupt. “Point taken. Can we get on with this now? Like I said, there are enforcers after us.”
Seth jabs me with the shotgun barrel to remind me who’s in charge.
Rolling my eyes, I hop down from the truck. Keeping my balance is a little difficult with my hands cuffed, but I manage.
Seth climbs out behind me. The shotgun stays rammed against my torso and his finger still rests on the trigger.
“Now where are they?” James crosses his arms. In the morning light, with his plaid shirt, scruffy beard, and baseball cap, he looks like he belongs in a dictionary under the word hillbilly.
“I said I’d take you there. I meant all the way,” I coolly inform him.
James gives me a hard stare. Chase and the red-headed girl come around the front of the truck and take up positions behind him. They face different directions, scanning every trashcan and window for signs of an ambush. They have to be vigilant, I guess.
James doesn’t seem to be open to my terms.
“Look,” I snap, “if I try anything, your boy Seth’s going to blast away my internal organs. You still think you’ve got to worry?”
“Do I?” James counters.
“You’re in control here,” I say.
“I haven’t gotten here by trusting vamps, girl.”
“And I haven’t gotten here by doing what my father wants,” I retort.
James eyes me up and down. For a moment, I think he’s going to tell me to give away the room number again. Then he steps forward, unlocks my handcuffs, and snaps his chin toward the motel. “Lead the way.”
Seth removes the shotgun from my side, but he still holds it at the ready. I watch his hard, icy face as I rub my sore wrists.
After a moment, I cautiously step forward and Seth moves with me. He seems quite experienced at this. They all do. Comes with the Falkner name, I suppose. Does Seth plan to walk all the way three feet behind me? Apparently.
I make my way toward the rickety metal stairs while all four Huntsmen follow. Seth stays right on my tail and the other three follow almost like a fan formation behind us.
We arrive at the stairs. I move up them at a steady, even rate. The Huntsmen follow suit.
I wonder what’s going to happen once we arrive. Do the Huntsmen plan on killing me and Damian? If they wanted to do that, they could’ve just tried torturing me into revealing where he was. I’ve experienced enough that I would’ve been able to keep it from them, but I doubt they know that.
One thing I don’t doubt is that they want to protect Madelyn. It’s just a question of whether or not they’ll realize Damian and I aren’t the ones they need to worry about. <
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Before I can think things through or make up my mind about their intentions, we reach Room 26. I come to a slow stop.
“One thing you people should know,” I softly say, turning my head back to them. “I love my brother. Very, very much.”
I’ll attack them to protect Damian whether Seth can get a shot off or not. Odds are, I’d take at least one of them with me and wound another. That would leave Damian with only two and I know he could handle that.
Seth tightens his grip on the shotgun.
I rap my knuckles on the door.
“Who is it?” Damian’s cautious voice sounds from the other side.
“Hadassah,” I reply, giving him a warning. I can’t remember a single occasion when he called me by my proper name. But the Huntsmen don’t know that.
Damian’s handsome face appears as he deliberately opens the door. He’s barefoot, wearing a sweatshirt and jeans. His sharp eyes gulp in the four people standing behind me and the shotgun in Seth’s hands. I see fear and aggression rising in him at once. Then he sees my face. Following my lead, he assumes a calm air. “Hey, Haddie. Who are your friends?”
I glance over my shoulder. “Allow me to introduce the elusive Huntsmen—that’s Chase, James, this lovely dude with a shotgun is Seth, and that’s Shelby if the name written in rhinestones on her belt is accurate. Guys, this is Damian.”
“The other vampire?” James gruffly asks.
“Yes,” I confirm. No point in denying it.
“Good.”
At James’ word, Seth rams the stock of the shotgun into my back, driving me forward into Damian. Damian tries to catch me and we both tumble to the carpeted floor of the motel room.
I stifle a whimper of pain as Seth points the shotgun at both of us, lying in a tangle on the ground. “Where’s the girl?” he demands.
The door to the bathroom swings open and steam billows out. I glance up to see Madelyn. Her hair hangs in damp strings. She’s wearing a white tank top and gray shorts that come halfway to her knees.
“Damian?” Madelyn gasps.
“Stay back, Madelyn!” Damian snarls.
I roll off my brother. As I do, I notice Madelyn’s white cotton bra lying halfway under the bed. Not something I wanted to see. I don’t want to think about my brother and his girlfriend…doing stuff. “Crap,” I mutter. “Crap, crap.”
Damian seems to know what I’m thinking. “Not everyone is as puritanical as you, Haddie.”
I never thought that it would bother me when my brother started dating—I could care less about everybody else—but it does. Why? Because he’s my baby brother.
Damian and I lie on the floor, side by side while Seth and Chase hold us in their sights.
“Is there anyone else here?” James demands.
“No,” Madelyn answers. “No, it’s just us.”
Shelby holsters her gun and moves toward Madelyn. “Put on some clothes and let’s go outside,” she suggests. Though her words are calm and friendly, I can tell they’re going to drag Madelyn outside if she doesn’t go willingly.
“Go on,” I say.
Damian goes rigid at my side.
“They won’t hurt her,” I whisper.
Damian gives me a hard stare. He hesitantly nods. “It’s okay, Lynn. Go.”
Madelyn swallows. She looks to Chase and Seth. Her words come out in a jumbled string. “Please, don’t hurt them, they’re trying to protect me, I love him, please…”
Shelby pushes her back toward the bathroom before she can finish.
“Damian!” Madelyn screams, struggling against Shelby. Madelyn hits and shoves the other girl, but Shelby’s a lot stronger than she looks. “Damian! No!”
I recognize the way Madelyn screams my brother’s name. It’s the same way I screamed Fletcher’s name a year ago. It sends a shudder of painful loss and acute fear through me at once. I will not let them kill my brother. This is my fault as surely as it was with Fletcher. If anyone’s about to die, it will be me. But I will take every one of the Huntsmen with me first.
Madelyn is going hysterical. Damian’s jaw tenses and I can see he’s fighting to keep from leaping up and rushing to her. I squeeze his hand and he squeezes back, nearly crushing my hand in his.
When Shelby can hardly hold Madelyn back, James steps forward and swings her over his shoulder. Without bothering to get her dressed, they haul her outside, probably to the truck. She goes kicking and screaming.
“It’ll be alright, baby,” Damian shouts.
Madelyn doesn’t seem to believe him. She’s started crying as she begs, curses, and orders the Huntsmen not to harm Damian. Never mind me.
I stare up at Chase and Seth. I breathe a sigh out my nose. “I’m sorry, Damian.”
Damian blinks as he surveys the Huntsmen. “Did you know they were going to be this friendly?”
I shrug. “I knew they didn’t trust us. I’m still hoping they might be reasoned with.”
Damian chuckles bitterly. “So we have the choice of the people who will kill us or the ones who will kill Madelyn.”
“Pretty much, yeah,” I agree.
“Quiet,” Chase snaps.
I blink up at him. “Did that girl seem like an unwilling hostage to you?”
“We’ll get this sorted out in a minute,” Chase growls.
“We don’t have a minute. My father’s enforcers are coming. And we need to get her and all of you out of here.”
“We can handle enforcers,” Chase snaps.
Not Uncle Devin, they can’t. But I doubt they would listen. “So. I take it you’ll be protecting Madelyn?”
Seth frowns. Chase shifts.
Suddenly, Damian’s face contorts into a snarl. “If anything happens to her—”
“Hey, buddy,” Seth interjects, waving the shotgun. “Don’t go threatening the grumpy guys with guns.”
“We’re not going to hurt her,” Chase says. “We’ll keep her safe. You have my word on that.”
I turn a surprised face to him. He won’t meet my gaze. I go back to staring at the barrel of Seth’s shotgun leveled at my head.
We stay like that for a very long time. Damian and I on the floor at gun point while Seth and Chase point the guns. I find myself coming to deeply despise firearms. Outside, Madelyn’s screams are growing fainter. They’re probably having to shackle her to the truck.
After about five minutes of awkward, agonizing silence, James comes back. He has the beginnings of a black eye and his shirt is torn at the collar. Madelyn put up a good fight. She suddenly rises a little in my esteem.
James takes a deep breath and fixes his John Deere cap. “Alright. So what the hell’s going on here?”
“I told you,” I interject.
“I want to hear your brother say it, missy.” James looks pointedly at my brother.
Damian heaves a sigh. “I met Madelyn at school. Her aunt’s paying for her to go there. She’s my girlfriend, she’s human, I love her, and my father wants to kill her.”
“How do you know he wants to kill her?” James probes.
Damian glances to me, a question on his face.
I look away, biting my lower lip.
Damian hesitates. “Because, the last time a vampire fell for a human, he killed the human and made the vampire serve his head enforcer for nine months.”
Chase’s cell phone rings. It’s an annoying, repetitive ringtone that could be used as a form of torture if played in a loop. Chase fidgets and glances to his father.
James rolls his eyes. “Go on.” He sweeps one arm toward the door.
Chase nods and steps outside, putting away his gun while fishing in his pockets for his cell phone.
“Well, was that vampire his son?” James queries.
Damian glances at me again. “No.”
“So how do you know?”
I hiss. I’m about to tell him just how sure I am that our father wants to kill her and just what I think of all this talking when Chase slips bac
k inside.
“Dad, you’ve got to see this,” Chase interrupts. He holds up his phone. There’s a video downloading. “Uncle Bobby found this at the mall over in Barton Creek. He managed to keep it quiet, but…well, I think you should see it.”
Chase hits the play button.
From my place on the floor, I can just see the screen. It’s black and white security footage showing the inside of a women’s bathroom. I instantly know exactly what it is.
The footage shows me burst into the bathroom with Madelyn, then drag her to the side. A few seconds later, Ayden and Jerome Thatcher come through the door. I watch myself throw Madelyn forward.
Damian glares at me when he sees how I endangered her.
James glances at me suspiciously. He turns his attention back to the screen just in time to watch me level the first brother.
We then see me take a hit from the second vampire, who generously flashed his fangs for the camera to see. The entire bathroom stall rattles as the vampire on tape hits the siding instead of me. A second later, I’m breaking his collarbone and whipping a kick across his face. The screen goes dark after I drag Madelyn back outside.
As the clip ends, James glances to me. Madelyn’s platinum blonde hair was easy enough to recognize on the footage. As was my jet-black ponytail and dark turtleneck.
“Like I said, I’m sure he wants to kill her. And we’re trying to protect her.” I stare straight up into James’ eyes. If he doesn’t believe me now, he’s just plain stubborn to the point of stupidity.
James seems about to say something.
Tires screech outside, cutting him off. James and Chase look to the window. Chase shoves the blinds aside.
“Shelby!” he shouts.
The sound of shots rings out from the parking lot. I glance to Damian. Horror even greater than mine is written across his face.
Chase and James make for the door. Seth glances after them, alarm screamed in his body language.
I see the chance and I whip to my feet, grabbing the shotgun from Seth and using it to smack him in the side of the head before rushing to the door with Damian.
My brother and I force our way past Chase and James and don’t bother running to the stairs. We leap over the edge of guardrail and spring to the ground some fifteen feet below. The sting from the impact rushes up my legs, but I bolt upright and dash forward undamaged.
We can see Chase’s truck, one door open, Shelby hunkered down on the side while sending bullets after the troll.
Icy claws of fear rake down my back as I see Madelyn in the iron grips of a Thatcher twin and the other vampire from the mall. She’s kicking and screaming, fighting with everything she’s got.
Madelyn sees us tearing across the parking lot toward them and I see fear, relief, happiness, and more fear in her face as she locks her eyes on Damian.
On the other side of the truck, I see a white van with no back windows and the side door swung open. Inside, I glimpse Uncle Devin’s clean blazer and dress shirt. The second Thatcher twin is next to him in the driver’s seat.
The two vampires holding Madelyn drag her toward the van. Damian and I pour on all the speed we can muster, but so do Madelyn’s captors. They hurl her inside and dash in after her, hauling in the troll last. They yank the door closed.
Damian reaches the van and his body slams into it, leaving a large dent in the side. I’m right behind him, and I crunch against the metal, making a slightly smaller dent beside his.
The van’s engine roars as the accelerator is floored and the van pitches forward. I can hear Madelyn screaming inside, screaming for Damian.
“Madelyn!” Damian shouts, clawing at the door’s handle. His fingers leave deep gashes in the van’s paint. “Madelyn! No!” Damian’s going frantic.
He grabs the door handle and tries to jerk the door open. I grab it, too and we both yank as hard as we can. They’ve locked it. The door handle flies off as the van gains speed. We race alongside it, keeping pace.
I try to gouge into the side, smashing my fists against the weaker siding where the windows should be. My fists leave baseball-sized dents, but I can’t break through. Damian rakes his hands over the van’s sides, trying to find purchase, but he can’t grab on.
“Madelyn!” Her name rips out of his throat in a desperate, panicked scream.
“Damian!” Madelyn’s voice is faint and muffled from inside.
The van keeps gaining speed. Damian and I won’t be able to keep up. It’s pointless. I grab Damian, pull him to the side, and let the van go.