“Those are Elizabeth’s favorite. She’s going to be pissed at you.”
“Where’s my brother?”
“I don’t know.”
Her hand was around my neck in an instant. She pushed me back and slammed me into the wall, my glass falling to the floor and shattering too. “Wyatt, I’m in no mood for this.”
She squeezed my throat tightly. My hand went to hers to get her to loosen her grip. It didn’t do much. Francesca was A LOT older than me. Not to mention the combat training. She was a walking assassin.
“See, this is why we didn’t work out. You were always so violent.”
She pulled me forward and slammed my head back onto the wall. “I swear to whatever God you believe in, I will kill you if you don’t tell me where my brother is. I know when you’re lying.”
“I don’t know where Kane is.”
Her grasp tightened and she came into my face. “Better yet. I’ll just kill Hope. Maybe that will motivate you to tell me where my brother is.”
I grabbed hold of her hands and pulled them off of my neck. I pushed her back onto the table and held her down. I slammed her head back onto the table. “You won’t touch her!”
She laughed. “You are hysterical Wyatt. I don’t remember you being this funny.”
“And I don’t remember you being such a psychopath.”
That seemed to strike a nerve. Her smile faded into a sinister look of rage. She flipped our positions and held me by my neck onto the table. “You really like this girl don’t you? I can tell just how much it pains you to hear me talk of hurting her. If you want to see her continue to breathe, you’ll tell me where Kane is.”
Based on the look on her face, she was serious. She would hurt Hope to get to her brother. I wasn’t about to let that happen. Not for Kane.
“Fine.”
She let my neck go and stood back. I rubbed my neck, trying to get the feeling of her fingers in my throat to go away.
“Speak.”
“Give me a second here while I try to breathe again.”
“Wyatt, if you’ve harmed my brother in some way I will make you spend the rest of your eternity at the bottom of the ocean.”
“The ocean huh. Which one?”
She slammed her hand down on the table. “Wyatt! My brother isn’t my favorite person, but I will be the only one to bring him harm. I will do anything to protect him. Including torture you.”
“Look, I get it. Christian’s an annoying twit that I hate most of the time. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t kill anyone who tried to hurt him.” I sighed and put my hands down on the table. I moved closer to her. “But I didn’t hurt your brother.”
“Then where is he?”
“Honestly, don’t really know. All I know is he asked me to look after Hope while he went back to visit with his father, who I’m now assuming is your father too.”
Confusion washed over her face. She was struggling with trying to figure out the situation. “No. Why would he do that?”
The fear on her face told me that this ancient vampire wasn’t one I wanted to cross paths with. His own children feared him.
“He had a theory he needed to prove.” I thought it was best not to divulge everything to the vampire. She was a bit of a lunatic. Best not to trust her with too much information.
Her eyebrows arched and she came towards me. I backed away. “Why would you allow him to do that?”
“Hey! I told you what you wanted to know. I’m not a damn babysitter. I’m already babysitting Hope as it is because your father is a freak that wants her dead.”
“He doesn’t want her dead. He wants her by his side.”
Now it was my turn to look confused. “Come again?”
She grabbed another glass and went to fill it up with gin. “It’s some prophecy that one of his witches foresaw. He’s changed his mind. He wants her alive.” She turned back to me and leaned onto the table. “And now she’s my leverage.”
I glared at her. “Leverage for what?”
“Getting my brother back. And someone else.”
“I see you haven’t changed a bit. You’re still the selfish bitch you’ve always been.”
“And I see you’re still trying to pretend you’re a villain. Here I thought you would have grown up by now.”
“But I have changed. You have no idea how much I’ve changed.” I ran forward and grabbed her by the hair. I slammed her against the wall and pulled her head back by her hair. “You do anything to hurt Hope, I will set you on fire Francesca.”
She snarled. “You’re so adorable when you’re being stupid.”
“Francesca, I mean it. Stay away from Jade, and stay away from Hope.”
She pushed me back and walked past me. “Thanks for the drinks. I’ll see you around Wyatt.”
I turned around and watched her walk out. “I mean it Francesca!”
There was no way in hell I was going to allow Francesca to hurt Hope. I was going to keep her safe. Whatever it took.
Chapter 11: Hope
I went straight home after the trip to the diner. I had to talk to Gemma right away. This wasn’t going to be like last time. I was done trying to fix my problems on my own. I didn’t do a very good job at that, especially when vampires were involved. Gemma could have been killed because I didn’t tell her there were vampires coming after me, and her by association.
Now it was happening to Jade and I needed Gemma’s help to make sure nothing happened to her. Nothing worse anyway. She was already being compelled by a vampire. A vampire that apparently Wyatt had history with.
I shook my head. Dammit Hope. Now is not the time for jealousy. There’s more important people at stake. Jade.
When I got home, Gemma was in the kitchen. “Aunt Gemma, we have a huge problem.”
“Oh, no. Did Wyatt tell you? I told him I would tell you.”
I paused. Great, more that I didn’t know. “Tell me what?”
She sighed and instantly regretted her words. “I wanted to break it to you after dinner.”
“Break what to me?”
“There’s been a vampire attack. We found a dead body that was obviously a victim of a vampire.”
“And I think I know which one.”
She furrowed her eyebrows. “You do?”
“Yes. Kane’s sister is in town. She’s compelling Jade to be her friend and who knows what else.”
“I don’t like this. He’s sending more vampires after you Hope. I’m sorry, but I think we might have to think about leaving town.”
My stomach dropped. No.
I finally had a home. Friends, family. I wasn’t going to let vampires ruin that for me. “No. We can’t just run.”
“I don’t think we have much of a choice. This is getting worse.”
“Your life is here. My life is here. And Jade is in danger.”
“If we leave, the vampires will stop coming to town. Jade wouldn’t be in danger anymore.”
“But we don’t know that. They can use her to get to me, which is exactly what Francesca is planning.”
“Francesca is this vampire?”
“Yes, and she knows Wyatt.” I couldn’t help the pout that appeared on my face. “They used to ‘date’.”
She narrowed her eyes at me and shook her head. “Really?”
“What? I don’t like her. Wyatt’s my friend. She was mean to him.”
“I think Wyatt can handle himself. I don’t know Hope. I think we have to think about leaving to keep you safe.”
“This isn’t just about me anymore Gemma. There are people protecting me that are targets now. And Jade. I can’t just abandon them.”
She sighed and closed her eyes. “Why do you have to be such a good person?”
I smiled. “Because of Mom.”
She smiled at me. “We’ll need to increase your training. And I think we need to have a discussion with Jade and get her on hawthorne. Vampires won’t be able to compel her if she has that in her system.”
<
br /> I really didn’t want to involve Jade in all of this. I was afraid that she was going to think I was a freak and I was going to lose her as a friend. But what choice did we have? “Can we try to get rid of Francesca first?”
“We can try, but we don’t even know for sure that she’s the vampire that killed that man. It’s a little sloppy for an ancient vampire.”
“Great. So there can be more vampires in town. This is never ending.”
“It will, Hope. I told you. I’m going to protect you. And you’ve got a bunch of vampires and a werewolf watching out for you. For whatever that’s worth.” She rolled her eyes. Aunt Gemma wasn’t happy about putting so much faith into vampires. She didn’t have anything against them because she thought her family was wrong about all of them being evil. But she knew that some of them were evil and she didn’t trust them completely.
“Too bad Kane’s not here. Maybe he could handle his sister. I’m actually worried about him. She doesn’t even know where he is.”
She went to the fridge and opened it. “I’m sure the ancient born vampire can take care of himself. It’d be pretty hard for anyone to get the better of Kane Cassius.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. Francesca seemed really worried about Kane. What if there was someone out there strong enough to hurt him? Someone like his father. What if he sent someone after him? I couldn’t stand the idea of him being hurt or worse, dead.
When I first found out that he was responsible for me being moved around so much in foster care I was pissed. But after I had some time to think about it, he was the reason I ended up where I did. If he hadn’t intervened, I could have never found Gemma and all of the friends I had now. There was a time when Kane was one of my closest friends. I wanted us to be there again. But that couldn’t happen until he got back from wherever he was.
“You’re probably right,” I said.
“Always.”
I smiled and shook my head. “What’s for dinner?”
“I’m making an attempt at stir fry again.”
I made a face. “Okay. Just, go easy on the ginger this time.”
“Excuse me, I still think that dish tasted fine.”
I grabbed my bag and headed out of the kitchen. “Yeah, sure. It was great.”
It was awful. Asian food wasn’t Gemma’s forte.
“Drake is coming over for dinner, just so you know,” Gemma called out of the kitchen.
“When does he not?”
Drake practically lived here now. They might as well make it official and just move the rest of his things in here. I liked him, so it’s not like I’d have a problem with it. He treated Gemma wonderfully and he was always nice to me. A bit too talky for my liking, but he was a psychologist so it was in his job description. It was nice that he cared so much.
I went up to my room and closed the door behind me.
I lit the candles that were in the middle of my room. This was a daily thing now. Meditation. Ugh, it was the worst. Sitting in the middle of a circle of candles, trying to focus on not focusing on anything. How does someone not think for an hour?
An hour was nothing. Gemma said she once meditated for ten hours. I guess deep meditation took away your need to pee.
I sat down and closed my eyes. I tried to listen to the sound of the wind outside. I focused on my breathing, inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly.
There were so many worries flowing through my mind. I tried to bottle them up and shove them away.
I had to protect Jade. The only way to do that was to get rid of Francesca. And I had no idea where to even start with her.
Maybe meditation would bring me the answers to my problems.
Or at least make me a better witch so I could kick some vampire ass whenever I needed to.
Chapter 12: Christian
I spent the night out in the woods. It was a good place to think. I liked the quiet and the darkness. Cities and towns were so lit up all the time. So chaotic. Even in a small town like Salem Point.
Sometimes I just needed to get away from it all. It was the closest I could get to how things were in my time. My time when I was a human. Things were so much simpler back then. Less people. Less light. More peace.
I missed the good old days.
As soon as I walked in through the door, Wyatt was in my face. “Where the hell have you been?”
“I spent the night in the forest.”
He looked at me incredulously and then rolled his eyes. “My apologies. I forgot you were Tarzan.”
“What’s your problem?”
“My problem is that while you were out there being the king of the jungle, I was here in the real world where important things were happening.”
Hope. Something happened to Hope.
“What’s happened? Is something wrong with Hope?”
“She’s fine.” He glared at me. “No thanks to you.” He walked into the living room and poured himself a drink. Morning drinking. Wyatt was practically a lush, but he usually waited until at least the afternoon to pour his first glass. Whatever happened was big and it had him on edge.
“Don’t worry about him, Christian,” Elizabeth said. She was sitting on the couch reading a book of poems. “He’s just bent out of shape because his ex is in town and she’s fixated on his current obsession.”
“Only one of those statements is true,” Wyatt said, taking a sip of his drink.
“Which ex? He’s had many.”
Elizabeth smiled. “Francesca.”
Ah, Francesca. She left a huge hole in Wyatt’s heart. I think she’s the reason he stopped taking part in any kind of relationships.
“And she’s Kane’s sister,” Wyatt said.
“She’s a Cassius?”
“Not that she told me. That lying bitch. Of course she gave me a fake last name. And now she’s after Hope.”
“What does she want with Hope?”
“Right now she wants to use her as leverage to get her stupid brother back.”
“From who?”
He looked away and finished his drink. “Beats me.”
I knew Wyatt too well. More than I’d like sometimes. “Wyatt.”
He cleared his throat and shrugged. “I may have known where Kane has been this entire time. Actually, more of where he was headed. Now any detours he may have taken along the way are his business.”
“Where was he headed?”
“Back to his sociopath father. He asked me to keep an eye on Hope.”
That was a surprise. Why would he have asked Wyatt to look after Hope? He was the last person I would trust to keep her safe. I mean I could tell he liked her and wanted to protect her, but he didn’t always go about things in the right way. He had the tendency to act before he thought. And his actions weren’t always smart.
“Why would he tell you to look after Hope and not me?”
“Maybe because he thinks it’s gross that you eat bunnies and spend nights in the forest with them.”
I clenched my hands into fists. He was pissing me off. I wasn’t in the mood for the insults. Yes, I followed an animal diet. No, it didn’t make me lesser than him. Sure, I wasn’t as powerful as he was, but I was still strong and capable of keeping Hope safe.
I wasn’t the weakling he kept trying to make me out to be. I’d do anything to protect Hope. Anything.
“Where is she now?”
“How the hell should I know? But I want you to keep an eye on her. She’s pretending to be a student at the school. You two are on Francesca duty during school hours.”
“Wonderful,” Elizabeth said. “As if I didn’t already have enough to worry about with helping you two look after Hope. Why is it that everytime either of you fall for a girl, I end up feeling like I’m in a relationship too?”
“Because you’re such a lovely sister,” Wyatt said.
“Extremely, considering I get all of the bad parts of a relationship and none of the good things that are usually supposed to outweigh them.”
“
You’re friends with Hope,” I said. “You’re helping a friend.”
She rolled her eyes. “I have grown fond of the young witch-werewolf girl.”
“Listen, the sooner we drive Francesca out of town the better,” Wyatt said. “Not only do I despise her, but she’s a threat to Hope.”
Anyone that was a threat to Hope had to be eliminated. Even if there was a time when I called Francesca my friend.
If she wanted to bring harm to Hope, then she was no longer any friend of mine.
Chapter 13: Hope
I didn’t get any sleep last night. There was so much going on. Kane was MIA, which would be fine if it weren’t for the fact that I knew he was so adamant about keeping me safe. It wasn’t at all like Kane and I was starting to really worry about him.
Then there was his sister who was compelling one of my best friends. It was getting harder and harder to hide the truth from Jade. She was being put in danger regardless of having knowledge of the supernatural world. It was worse than not telling her. At least if I told her the truth she would know to be on the lookout for vampires like Francesca.
I still had yet to find out what the ancient vampire wanted. Knowing how my life was going, she was in town because of me. I highly doubt she was just in Salem Point to pay Kane a visit. Not to be conceded or anything, but she did target my best friend and I’m me. I was a magnet for vampires these days.
Speak of the devil. Jade was sitting outside of the school with Francesca. I thought it was best not to go over to them. I didn’t want to cause a scene in front of everyone.
I just wished she would leave Jade alone. She wasn’t part of this. Why drag her into something she knew nothing about? To torment me. That’s why!
“Who is that?” Lexie said as she walked up to me. She was looking at Francesca like she wanted to set the girl on fire.
“Francesca.”
“Who the hell is Francesca? And why is Jade hanging out with her?”
I refrained from rolling my eyes. Now wasn’t the time for Lexie’s jealousy. I really wished she would just ask Jade out already.
“Trust me you don’t have to worry about Francesca getting together with Jade. Biting her, that’s another story.”
Saving Hope: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Bloodmoon Series Book 2) Page 4
