I took Mia’s hand, and she stopped short and stared down at where I touched her. I lightly rotated her arm and brought the opening to the bandage to the front, wincing at Mia’s sharp intake of breath as I opened the bandage. The wound didn’t look as angry as it had before Jace messed with it, and I was thankful for that.
“Do you have anything to take for the pain?” I asked, without looking up from the bandage.
Mia nodded and said, “My mom has some ibuprofen that I can use.”
Her voice was small and weak, and when I finally looked up at her, I could see that Kale’s plan for me to stay away wasn’t going to happen. She and I needed each other right now. We were confused, and she was scared, and there was no reason to leave her alone that way. I replaced the bandage and followed Mia once again to a room on the third floor.
I lingered in the doorway to her bedroom. Would her parents care about me being in their bombshell daughter’s bedroom?
“Come in,” she insisted.
I hesitantly entered. Mia made it seem like it was no big deal, but she also didn’t seem like the type to follow rules they’d set for her.
I looked around, taking in the dark purple wall behind her bed. At the risk of sounding like an idiot, I asked, “Are your parents going to care that I am in here?”
Mia laughed and plopped down on the bed. “No. Trust me, they won’t care. They weren’t even home when I got here this morning. All that was there was a note saying that they went out of town and would be back soon.”
She scooted further back on the bed, crossing her legs to sit cross-legged. I found a chair in front of the French doors leading to a small Jack and Jill balcony. I sat down, leaned back, and closed my eyes.
“Sorry that I didn’t call you sooner. I was stupid to listen to Kale. I called him and told him that if he left us out of the equation of finding Ella, he was going to regret it,” I said, my voice growing louder as I remembered the conversation Kale and I had.
Mia let out a breath of air; it sounded as though she’d been holding it since forever. “Wow. What’d he say?” Her eyes were wide.
“He said we could meet. I’m thinking you should come with me. With your parents being gone and all, I don’t want you sitting here alone. Not after what we saw last night.” I opened my eyes to see Mia’s eyes on me.
She nodded in agreement.
“What’s up with Brett? Have you heard from him lately?” I knew that Mia’s friend Brett and his mother had left for the winter holiday, and since Brett was suspended from school, they’d left early. He would be coming home in January, and he and I were to look for apartments in Telvs after we’d enrolled in school.
Mia shrugged and shifted a pillow to her chest. She seemed different than the bombshell role she’d played before all of this had broken loose. Now, she seemed innocent and alone, and I hated to know that she was here in this big home alone while I at least had family.
“I haven’t talked to him yet.” She hugged the pillow more tightly. “I’m sure his dad will tell him about what happened. He hasn’t called me yet. Do you think we should call him and tell him?” Uncertainty laced her voice.
Brett’s dad was the sheriff in Elmwood City. Sheriff Making, my dad, Brett’s dad, and a bunch of deputies were in the Elmwood searching for Ella. I didn’t know what we needed to do, but I knew that I didn’t want to risk bringing Brett into the fray, just yet. He was Mia’s friend, but he was also the son of the sheriff in Elmwood City.
I sat up in the chair and swiveled it around to face her. “As of right now, it’s just you, me, Kale, and Jace that know what happened.”
“And Ella,” she added, her words slicing my gut.
“And Ella. It’s just us right now, and let’s keep it that way, at least until we figure out what’s what.” I didn’t want to have to lie to anyone else, but I also didn’t want to tell the truth just yet.
I needed to get Jace and Kale together so Mia and I could learn about this Laurent character and what he really wanted with Ella. If he hurt her, I would vow to end his sorry existence, myself. Kale and Jace made it seem like Laurent was invincible or immortal or something, but everyone had a weakness. We would just have to figure out his.
Mia ran her hands through her hair and then through her ponytail before she asked, “How are your parents taking this?” She dropped the pillow, and my eyes followed it to the floor.
It sucked, thinking about what this was doing to my parents and how I was hurting them. What if Ella never came back? Would I have to lie to them for the rest of my life?
Could I even handle that?
“They aren’t doing so well, but I’m hoping that we get Ella back soon.” I pulled the chair closer to her before I spoke again, as if the words I would say next were a secret between only the two of us. “I can’t keep this from them forever. My dad is in the freaking woods right now looking for her, and I know that it’s a waste of time, but I can’t say a word. I can’t—I can’t keep…”
Mia ran her hand over my shoulders and whispered, “It will be okay. You are doing the right thing, and besides, as soon as we feel like things are even close to getting out of control, we can tell your parents everything. I will be there with you if it comes to that, but for now, let’s figure out what Jace and Kale have planned, and then we can add to it.” She gave my shoulder a light squeeze and smiled.
Things were already out of control, but her words made me feel a little better. The fact that every deputy in Elmwood and Cedar was out looking for Ella’s body in the woods still stressed me out. I could see in Mia’s eyes that the same guilt plagued her, but her smile hid the majority of it.
She was right. At the moment, we needed to focus on what Jace and Kale had planned. Hopefully, they had an ace up their sleeves, because I had nothing.
“You hungry?” Mia asked, interrupting the flow of thoughts in my head.
“What?” I asked.
“Your stomach just growled at me.” She headed toward the door. “Come on. I can make us something to eat.”
I followed Mia out of her room and downstairs to the marble-floored kitchen and sat at the bar as she raided her cabinets.
Two hours, two ibuprofen, a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos and a few turkey and Swiss sandwiches later, Mia snuggled beside me, asleep, as I absently stared at the seventy-two-inch TV in her media room. The movie 50 First Dates played, and even though Adam Sandler was my favorite actor, he still couldn’t hold my attention.
Mia’s small, warm body trembled as she slept, and I put my arm around her and pulled her close. I was pissed at myself for letting Ella down and not trusting her when she needed me to, and I was pissed that Mia had been left here alone for so long, obviously not getting any sleep last night, and who could blame her? I pulled the cover from her feet and placed it over her, enjoying it as she scooted closer to me and murmured something in a sleepy voice that sounded like “Thank you.” I glanced at my phone just as it rang, alerting me of a text message.
Kale: Where are you?
Alex: Here with Mia.
Kale: Why is it so hard for you to follow simple directions?
Alex: Don’t start w/me. she was alone since last night! You and Jace just dumped her here.
Kale: We couldn’t risk anyone seeing her with us.
Alex: W/e. I’m not leaving her.
Alex: Her parents are gone.
Kale: Fine meet me in two days in Moose Nose. I will send you the address once you arrive.
Alex: That’s an hour and thirty minutes away!
Kale: So? Come or don’t. It’s up to you.
I threw the cell phone on the floor, accidently waking Mia from her nap.
“What happened?” She rubbed her eyes. She sat back and looked at me. “Sorry for falling asleep on you,” she apologized.
Her round face took all the anger out of me, and I explained the texts that I’d received from Kale as she slept.
“I’m going with you,” Mia said forcefully, as if she t
hought I planned to leave her there alone. I had already told her that she was going with me. “I want an explanation for this,” —she pointed at her arm— “and I want to know where Ella is.”
I agreed. I wanted answers, and I wanted them yesterday.
Mia sat up, pushed the cover off her legs, and stretched, taking care not to move her wounded arm. She turned to the TV and smiled. “I like this movie.”
I looked at the screen and laughed as Adam Sandler unsuccessfully tried to remind his love interest of the date they’d had in the beginning of the movie.
A scraping noise came from the balcony. The sound continued even as I got up and headed toward Mia’s room, where the French doors were. The media room was just a large room connected to Mia’s by a hallway and some steps. I looked back at Mia and pointed to the door. “Did you hear that?”
Mia shook her head no.
I continued toward the steps leading directly into her room. Maybe she had a cat that wanted to get back in. Max always scratched at my bedroom door like crazy when he wanted to go outside or come back in. “Do you have any pets?”
“No.” Mia glanced at the door and then back to me.
I shook my head and continued into Mia’s room and through the French doors. The ice-cold wind pierced my skin as I stood on the small balcony.
I felt rather than heard Mia come outside and stand beside me. I turned.
She wrapped her arms around herself. She kept coming outside without a coat, and it had to be at most twenty-eight degrees outside. Even I couldn’t suppress the shiver that wracked my frame, and I was wearing a long-sleeved black thermal with a T-shirt over it.
I motioned for Mia to go back inside, but she ignored me and moved beside me.
“What is it?” She looked around the enormous backyard and frowned.
I followed her gaze to the path that led to the Elmwoods, but I only saw snow-dusted acreage and the lake.
“Do you see it?” Mia pointed to the trail that led past the lake and into the Elmwood.
I squinted and still came up with nothing. “No, what is it?”
“The footprints right there, leading into the Elmwood.” She pointed again, her voice gaining a trace of panic. “Alex why is there a trail of footsteps over there?”
I finally saw what she was pointing at. How could she even see them that far? I could only see a few, and those few were closer to the house, which made me a bit nervous. Where did the trail begin, if it came from the woods? I blew out a breath and massaged my temples, fighting an impending headache.
Mia shivered, and I pulled her back into her room and told her to stay there as I headed back out onto the balcony, but not before she huffed in annoyance. I wasn’t sure who had left the footprints or if we should even worry about them or not.
Mia had said that the lake wasn’t a private one, but that didn’t explain the footprints in the backyard. I leaned over the balcony and strained my eyes. It wasn’t easy to see from three stories up, but the footprints ended at what seemed to be the back doors to Mia’s house.
Problem was that I could only see one pair—which meant that the footprints led to the house, without also heading away.
I turned to ask Mia if she had locked all of the doors, but she was gone.
I cursed under my breath and headed for the door. “Mia!”
She didn’t answer. I headed to the head of the stairs. The bathroom was empty.
I called Mia again, and the echo of her name bounced around me. She had to have heard me, but she didn’t answer.
I hopped down the stairs two at a time. She wasn’t in the kitchen, either. The bread and what was left of the Doritos still sat on the bar, and the doors that lead to the patio were closed—locked, I found, upon further inspection.
Since I hadn’t been in any other part of her home, I wasn’t sure where to check next, so I headed into the living area that also had a door leading to the patio in the back.
The door was cracked when I entered the room. I dashed to it, yanked it open, and ran outside.
Mia—wearing a coat, thank goodness—headed toward the Elmwood where the footprints led. I growled to myself about how I was going to give her a piece of my mind, but by the time I reached her, my anger had changed into relief when I saw that there were three sets of footprints: one pair leading to the house, and two leading away.
“Mia!” I called, and she looked back to me. Her nose was already red, but at least she had put on a coat this time. I pushed my worry and anger to the side. “What are you doing out here, and why didn’t you wait for me?”
Mia inspected the area we were in before she looked up at me. “Well, while you were busy being some macho man and demanding that I go back inside, I realized that the footprints led to the back door.” She placed her hand on her hip and pointed to the trail that ran into the woods. “I wasn’t crazy enough to actually go in there and look for whoever made the trail by myself. So, you ready?”
“Excuse me?” There was no damn way I was going in those woods right now. “You want us to go in there?” I shoved my hands in my pockets, and they burned from the cold and the friction of the rough fabric of my jeans. It was freezing out, and snow was falling again.
I wasn’t scared to go in the woods; I just had better sense than to go tromping in them, right now. My father and the deputies were in the woods searching for Ella, and on top of that, I wasn’t sure who was still out there. I didn’t know what Mia was thinking, but I wasn’t searching through the woods. If my father found me out there, I would have some serious explaining to do, and I was worried about who had left the tracks, because Mia clearly didn’t know who’d left them. “Look, Mia, I—”
“No, you’re right. It’s a bad idea to go into them today. Plus, it was probably just some kids playing around.”
I could tell that she didn’t believe a word of it. She stared pensively into the woods, and I wondered what she was thinking. At least she wouldn’t go in there without me or someone with her.
“Hey, maybe we can get Jace or Kale to check it out in a few days when we go to Moose Nose,” I said, hoping to pull her attention from the trail. I knew that it wouldn’t matter in two days, but I just wanted Mia to not worry. The footprints led away from her house and into the woods. Maybe it was her father or mother, or even as she said, some kid.
“Sure,” Mia answered as she turned to me.
Her face was pale with cold, and I held out my hand to her. She took it, and we walked back to the house together. I didn’t want to leave her, but there was no way that I could stay—at least, not tonight. My dad would probably freak out if I didn’t come home.
Hoping it wasn’t a bad idea to leave her there alone, I made sure Mia locked her doors and set her alarm before I left. On my way back home, I texted Kale, asking him to check in on Mia that night, and he agreed. I felt a bit better, and so did Mia when I texted her that Kale would be by to check on her.
I drove home with Ella on my mind. In two days, Kale and Jace would have some sort of plan to get Ella back, and hopefully, this nightmare would be over.
In the back of my mind, I knew that that wouldn’t be the case, but I still had hope. I needed it if I was going to survive the rest of the day.
Chapter 4
Kale
It was getting harder and harder to control the situation surrounding Ella’s abduction. I remembered the time when all I had to do was look at a human and use my abilities as Chorý to get him or her to do as I commanded. Things had changed, and I wasn’t the person I was before. I wanted to believe that I was no longer driven by thirst or the need to control others.
It seemed that the hunger was still nestled deep in my bones. With each day that passed, the burning in my throat and belly increased.
At one point, the hunger had been very easy to control. Ella’s presence had helped. Now, with all that was going on, the simple act of feeding had become difficult.
Knowing when to stop wasn’t the problem. The problem
s were making myself stop, caring about the consequences of not stopping, and—most of all—desiring a human neck. It infuriated me that Jace was dead on in his assumption of la Luxure. I had spent more than a century fighting it, and of late, the battle no longer looked good for me. I needed the blood of my sire to help quench my thirst, and if I didn’t get it soon, I would become a full-blooded vampire—a mindless killing machine.
Ella’s friend Alex had disobeyed every order I had given him, and as maddening as it was, I was glad that Alex had ignored my demand that he stay away from Mia. She didn’t deserve to be alone and hurt. There was still so much more to do, to plan, and more needed to be figured out. I had a clue where Laurent might have taken Ella, but the problem was finding it. While I was his prisoner, I had heard him speak of Arc Island on several occasions, though his right-hand man had once called it Big Tusk Island.
The Council surely knew that Laurent had such an island, but I was almost sure that they had no clue where it was. I would have to call in a favor to find it, myself.
I called Jace. He answered on the first ring.
“Yes.” His voice was tight with what sounded like anger and annoyance.
“Two days, my place, with Alex and I can only assume he will bring Mia.” He’d understand what I meant. I could hear a familiar female voice in the background; I assumed she was from the Council.
“That may be problematic for me,” Jace said.
What was ‘problematic’ was the fact that I had to work with a Council member in the first place.
I took a deep breath to calm down before I lost it. I’d learned when to swallow my pride, but I’d never been good at asking for help. The ache of being unable to handle things on my own travelled from my stomach to my chest, nestled, and made itself at home. Going on my own and dealing with the consequences later wasn’t an option. Ella’s safety was at stake, and with how hardheaded she was, Laurent would soon feel the need to break her, as he had broken so many before.
Awakened Page 4
