I munched on my eggs, not tasting anything but the desire to bust out of here and run to Von. “Please call Lang,” I requested. “If I’m wrong, I’ll own it. He’s out searching already. What’s it going to hurt if I give him a more specific place to look?” I asked as Mason joined us, thankfully dressed in a long-sleeved green thermal shirt and jeans.
Mason sat next to me, raising his eyebrow at my glare. “I trust you’ve become more rational?”
“Keep your pants on and we’re good.”
Mason chuckled at my chagrin. He leaned into my body space and took a mouthful of the toast I held in my hand. “It was either that or bite you.”
“I think you chose wrong,” I groused. “If I can’t leave the house, then I need you to send Lang’s minions to the areas Von told me he’s being held.”
“How is Von reaching you in your sleep?” Mason asked, taking a heaping helping of eggs from Lynna after thanking her.
“I don’t know how it’s happened, I just know that it has happened, and we have to deal with it.” When the men hesitated, I clutched my fork as if preparing to use it as a weapon. “Look, either you do me this favor, or I spend my morning trying to tear your house apart.” When Mason cast me a disapproving look, I glared at him. “Do you think I’d let you rot somewhere without doing everything I could to save you? Know me a little bit, Mason. Jeez!”
Mason’s shoulders loosened as he rubbed my back in a circular motion, leaning in to kiss my temple. “We can call Lang. But if that doesn’t work, you have to write this off as a dream. The charm’s meant to keep you inside, but it doesn’t help anyone if you break windows because you’re angry.”
“I’ll break as many windows as it takes to get him back,” I promised myself and everyone at the table. “Von’s scared, guys. I won’t sleep until he’s home.”
Six.
Keeping it on the Inside
I’d never been a fan of waiting. It went against everything I was raised with. If something broke, Ollie never hesitated to fix it. If we needed money, we all went out that day and did what we could to earn it. I couldn’t get Bev and Danny back, but I could sure as Sunday do what I could to help find Von.
Ezra summoned Lang and let me send his minions out to the more specific ring around where I thought he might be after a quick jump on the internet to locate all the Blimpos Burgers I could find half an hour from my home.
When Lang and Ezra shared sympathetic “well, she’s a little unbalanced. What did we expect?” looks, I fumed on the inside. Mason was my constant shadow, no doubt expecting I might try to bust out more windows if provoked. He was not wrong.
“They’re looking,” Ollie assured me, fresh from his shower and shave. “If Von’s there, Lang will find him. Come on, kid. Let’s play cards or something to pass the time. It’s not going to do you any good to stand here and stare at the door like that.”
“No, thanks.”
Ollie squinted at me. “You never pass up an opportunity to play poker. We hardly ever let you play, and you’re passing on this?”
“Looks like it.” I’d been standing in the foyer for too long, waiting for something to happen and thinking through the limited knowledge I had on charms and Terraway spell work. I wished I could somehow bust down Ezra’s enforcements. The only thing I could think to do other than that was to try and fall back asleep to communicate with Von again, but I knew I was too keyed up for that.
So I did what I do best. I started cleaning.
Lynna kept a tidy house, but there was always something to do. I started in the basement, sweeping the poured concrete floor and using the broom to reach the cobwebs that had just started to gain traction in the ceiling’s corners. I swept out the square-shaped jail cell, shuddering at the memory of Von locked inside, jaws snapping to get at me for all the wrong reasons. He’d been a day without food or blood, which he’d done before. But I knew the days and the hunger would start stacking up if they didn’t find him soon.
The bars on the cage were dusty, needing a good polish. If Von was brought in rabid, I didn’t want him to have a disgusting cage to wait it out in. I couldn’t imagine a clean cage would make him feel any better, but it was all I could think to do to take care of him.
I couldn’t help Bev. I’d never been able to help her, really. As I stood with the dust rag and polish, I realized I hadn’t been able to help myself, either. The stone was in Terraway and I was on my medication, but the dirt still called out to me. I wondered when I wouldn’t feel the strain of chaos anymore.
“Need some help?” Ezra asked.
“From my warden? No thanks.”
Ezra didn’t jump back from my bite, but picked up the broom and started sweeping under the steps. “I guess I deserved that.”
“Any word from Lang?”
“None yet, but it takes time to infiltrate every home inside the radius you gave us. I do hope your information proves helpful.”
I looked up at him, lost. “You don’t think I’m crazy?”
Ezra tilted his head at me. “Why on earth would I think you’re crazy?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. He looked on me with such innocent sincerity, I didn’t have it in me to tell him that I probably was three marbles shy of a set. “Well, when I explain the whole thing even to myself, it sounds insane.”
“Now, now.” Ezra’s eyes shined for me, and a small smirk played on his lips. “Don’t go second-guessing yourself after almost destroying my front window. I much prefer my daughter has courage in her convictions, even if it costs me a service call from a repairman.” He cleared his throat. “I clean when I’m anxious, too. Lynna hates it, so I stick to the basement mostly.”
“You must get nervous a lot. It’s not too bad down here.”
Ezra watched me polish the bars of the cell while he swept the same spot six times without realizing it. “They’ll find Von. And Danny will bring your mother back, yeah? I’ve never known a more stubborn man. Not one to tolerate defeat, that boy.”
“I don’t really know what to make of the whole Bev situation. Of all the unbelievable things I’ve had to get used to, that one tips it. I keep waiting for a piano to fall on my head when she says anything nice to me.”
“That must be confusing. I’ve only ever known the more pleasant side of your mother. It’s been an eye-opener for me to hear her confess all the ways she neglected being the mother you three deserved. I’d thought her an angel before the stone’s effect was known to me. Now? Now she’s lost, waking up from a nightmare she has to take full responsibility for. I suppose I don’t know either version of her well enough for marriage.”
A rock sunk through my lungs and landed in my gut. I’d come so close to having a dad. The kind who loved you when you threatened to bust out his window and somehow talked you down from all the cliffs you wanted to jump from for the greater good. “For what it’s worth, either version of her wouldn’t have done any better than you. I’m pretty sure that goes for most women out there.”
“That’s very kind of you.” His eyes fell to his broom. “Is Von deserving of someone like you?”
My nose scrunched. “Someone like me?”
“A wonderful, fiery, hardworking young woman.”
“Oh. Thank you.” I cleared my throat. “I don’t think you have to worry about Von and I getting together. He said he’s not ready for any sort of commitment. He needs time.”
Ezra knuckles stiffened on the broom handle. “I’m very sorry to hear that.”
I tried to wave it all off like I wasn’t devastated. “It’s fine. It barely happened. I mean, we kissed and he’s abducted. Not enough time for a full litmus test. I get it. He wants to live before he dies and all that. Doesn’t want to be tied down to me, so I’m not a widow when he transitions into a rabid vamp someday.”
“I think that’s rubbish.”
“Yeah. Me, too.” I exhaled that someone thought the same thing I’d landed on. “What do you think of Von? Am I being stupid, consid
ering waiting for him to get it together?”
“I think Von’s kind when he remembers not to be selfish. I’ve watched him rise to the occasion when he stole the job of being your Reaper. I knew him before he was a vampire – I’ve known his mother for decades – and I’ve not met many hardworking, smart and caring men such as him. Would I want him dating my daughter?” He shrugged, keeping his eyes on the broom. “I love Von like a son, and you love your son at his best and at his worst. I’ve seen Von at his worst a few more times than I’d care to mention. But I’ve only seen him at his best with you.”
I didn’t miss that he equated me with being his daughter. Maybe I could keep Ezra. Pretending he was my dad wasn’t a crime. Even if he never married Bev, I hoped he wouldn’t throw me away.
I don’t know why I did it, but somehow I managed to put the polish and rag on the floor, parting with them so I could fold myself into Ezra’s surprised arms. “I can be a better daughter for you. I’m sorry I threatened to break your window. And you’re freaking out about Bev being gone, too. All I’m thinking about is my fear. I’m sorry.”
Ezra squeezed me tight, understanding just how rare an unsolicited hug from me was. “There, there. You’ve no business comforting me when you’re just as traumatized by the whole thing, if not more. We’re in a sorry state, the two of us.” He closed his eyes. “If anything happens to Von, his mother will never forgive me. He was supposed to come out to stay with me to shape up and get his head straight. I didn’t realize how much danger would always find its way to him.”
“Mariang mentioned you knew his mom from high school. That’s a long time to maintain a friendship.”
“Lavinia and I stayed close over the years. She was there for me when my wife passed, and I helped her start over when her husband left. When Von was spinning out of control after he was bitten, Lavinia sent him to live with me. Fat lot of good that did him. I adore Von, but I fear I’ve only managed to wreck his life more by being in it.”
I squeezed him through his confession. “You hush that kind of talk, now. It’s not true, any of it. Von’s still a person, and if not for your kindness and providing a safe place for him to figure things out, he might already be rabid.”
“That’s very generous of you.”
“No, it’s logical of me. Have you ever known anyone to resist the transition as long as he has?”
Ezra paused in thought. “Not even close. Von’s always been a hard worker. Always tenacious and stubborn. People write him off as a joker, but he’s always planning something, always moving chess pieces to take care of what’s his. He was the man of the house far too young, and now I fear his youth will be snatched away from him forever.”
I could hear the love Ezra had for Von, and adored my father figure even more than I had before. “I don’t know how you keep it together. I stop for a minute and I’m screaming on the inside.”
His faint smile looked tired, but he managed one for me. “That’s the thing about keeping it on the inside. You get to assume I’m holding myself together. I assure you, there’s been plenty of screaming and metaphorical breaking of windows in my mind, too.”
“Honest?”
He looked down at me when I pulled my head back to read his face. His smile was more genuine now, looking truly happy that I wasn’t being so hard to talk to. “I think the two of us are entirely too put together. We deserve a good tantrum or something. Mariang prefers ice cream when she’s feeling persecuted. Is that you, too? We might have some upstairs.”
“Nah. I’m more of a keep your head down and barrel through kind of girl. You?”
“I used to go running when things grew to be too much. Though my problems are starting to stack up the older I get. I doubt I’m fast enough to outrun them anymore.” Ezra’s eyes had a note of incurable sadness to them, and I wished there was something that could fix his hurt. He was the in-control one. He had the answers. To live in his world when he didn’t have those things to anchor me? Well, that was a scarier thought than Bev meandering through Terraway.
“Maybe I’ll tag along on your next run. If our problems start to take us over on the track, I’ll bring the stool along just in case something needs a good bashing in.”
His chuckle at my violent promise touched my heart. He was starting to get me, and I was beginning to appreciate what a true gift a good dad was.
Seven.
Scraps of Trust
Ezra and I left the basement cleaning unfinished as we went up the stairs, his arm around me to keep me from putting distance between us too soon. The desire to clean was strong, but my need for a good father was intrinsically more potent. He called Mariang on his phone, drawing her down from her bedroom to join us for tea.
I’d been a pretty boring tea drinker, using tea in a bag and microwaving water on the go. To have a proper tea with legit British people made me sit up straighter and try to recall all the manners Allie had fought to instill in me.
Ollie meandered in as Mason wandered down with Mariang. The five us sat down at the dining room table to assemble as much normalcy as we could, while the world threatened to go up in flames around us.
“I made a few calls yesterday when I learned of Von’s abduction.” Ezra checked a message on his phone and then set it down with some degree of finality. “Since we don’t know who we can trust in the Duwende community, I opted for an inside job, a select team to extract Von who would only operate in our best interest.”
Mason shook his head. “There’s no one we can trust except the people in this room. Even the ones on the council are suspect.”
I blew on my tea. “Hey, Finn’s alright. I mean, he risked a lot to help get Silo their stone. If it wasn’t for him being Banak’s puppet, he’d be a solid option.”
Ezra held up his hand. “I agree with you both. When we don’t know who to trust, we should look inward. It dawned on me that I have four Duwendes I trust implicitly with Von’s life. They’re on their way here now. They just landed at the airport, actually.”
Ollie handed me the sugar, looking comical sipping from his dainty teacup. “Need me to pick anyone up?”
“No, no. I prefer the family stays in the house. Thank you, son.”
Ollie raised his eyebrow at me and inhaled at the familial branding that came easy to the royal family, but might always strike us as strange. Bev only ever called him by his given name, or when she was angry, called Ollie “boy”. I knew to either run or duck when that happened.
I shrugged in response, leaning into my brother’s side when he seemed perplexed by Ezra’s kindness. Ollie clinked his teacup to mine, neither of us needing to voice the irony of the Reese kids sipping tea out of fine China in a mansion. He smiled at Ezra and worked out a genuine, “Whatever you say, Dad.”
Ezra’s head snapped over to Ollie, who saluted him with his cup and a modest bow of his chin. Ezra leaned over in his seat on the other side of me and gripped Ollie’s hand that was draped around the back of my chair. “Thank you. That meant more than you can imagine.” He cleared his throat and straightened. “The team consists of four Duwendes with varying backgrounds, but each of them graduated the Academy and went on to become fine young men.” He looked to Mariang, who had a confused twist to her mouth. “Alton, Graham, Bishop and Boston Vandershot are on their way here now.” This was met by a gasp and a giddy squeal by Mariang. Even Mason visibly perked up. Ezra smiled at his daughter. “And since Captain Finn’s proved he can be trusted with care of the stone, though I don’t approve of the sneaking off, of course, Finn will be assisting us as well.”
Mariang put her teacup down and stood. “I’m going to get dressed, then.” The news sparked new life into her as she scampered up the stairs to her room.
“Uh, am I supposed to know who those four guys are?” Ollie asked.
“Alton, Graham, Bishop and Boston are Von and Danny’s younger brothers. I figured that if we could trust anyone to want Von safe and sound at any cost, it would be his family.”
“I have my moments, son. They’ll split into two teams. Alton and Graham will be ported down by Captain Finn, who will take them through Lumipad to try and locate Bev, Danny and King Kabayo, offering assistance if necessary. Bishop and Boston will go search for Von the moment Prince Langgam’s spies let us know where Von is being held.”
I leaned over and wrapped my arms around Ezra’s neck. “Thank you. You actually solved it!”
Mason drank his tea as he mulled over the new plan. “Are you sure you don’t want to reverse those two teams? Bishop and Boston are slightly more vicious than Alton and Graham.”
“Agreed. But I want the twins searching for Von. I want them to send a clear message to the rest of the Ekeks who consider abducting one of mine. They’re the right ones to send that sort of unfortunate message.”
“I guess that’s true. I can help them.” When Ezra’s hesitation was plain on his face, Mason let out a frustrated groan. “Come on, Ezra. I’m doing nothing here. October barely lets me near her to pull, and Mariang will be fine for a few hours.”
“I cherish your list of reasons, but still no. Your job is to protect the national treasures. Be grateful it’s an uneventful day inside.” Ezra’s stomach rumbled. “Excuse me. It seems I can’t eat enough today.”
“Let me get you something,” I offered, standing.
“No, no. I’ll not have you waiting on me. I daresay I rivaled Mason this morning for how many eggs I could consume. Must be the nerves. I’ll feel better when our boys are home safe.”
I went into the kitchen anyway, knowing when to ignore someone and when to listen. I fished through the fridge, offering a sympathetic smile to Lynna, who was crying into her handkerchief at the counter. I poured her a glass of orange juice and set about fixing Ezra a sandwich with probably too much ham, but whatever. Ollie never complained about my sandwich proportions.
Treat (Terraway Book 5) Page 4
