by Mandy Rosko
“I’m just going to see you home, and then I’m gone. You can get yourself back out of town on your own, right?”
Even Ben knew this was the last time they were going to see each other. “Yup.”
“If they haven’t already sniffed around the property, then there could be wolves still nearby. You won’t have a lot of time.”
“Yeah.”
“I won’t even get out of the Jeep.”
“You won’t need to.”
Ben clenched his jaw, but said nothing.
That had been the highlight of their conversation ten minutes outside their destination, Ben being naturally concerned that the werewolves would track Seth back to his or Cedric’s house.
It wasn’t like it was an invalid worry, either. Why wouldn’t the weres do that? Hell, if Seth were still on their team of guards, the house of the prisoner would’ve been the first place he’d have looked.
Ben turned off the highway and got onto the two-lane road.
Almost home. He was having the jitters, his knee, the good one, twitching up and down as he sat on the edge of his seat.
Sammy…
“Turn down this road,” Seth commanded, pointing his finger. If Ben was curious as to why they were suddenly driving off the lit, paved road and onto a dark, dirt road with not so much as a street lamp in sight, he didn’t comment.
The Jeep bumped and rattled as they drove over deep potholes made from years of rains, winters, and other cars. After about two minutes, Ben seemed to lose his patience with it. “How much farther?”
“Almost there.” Strangely, Seth himself nearly missed the next turn, but that was only because he was searching for lights where there weren’t any. “Stop.”
Ban slammed on the brakes so hard the Jeep skidded, and they both would’ve flown forward had it not been for the seatbelts.
“What? What is it?” Ben was searching around himself now, his human eyes attempting to see through the dark trees to find whatever it was that had Seth shout out the command. As it was, he could only see straight ahead where his high beams pointed the way.
“Back up a bit,” Seth said, twisting in his seat now to get a look at the road behind them. “We passed it.”
Ben grumbled but shifted the gears anyway. He put his arm across his seat and twisted so that he could see behind himself as he drove, slowly this time. It was hard to not notice the tiny, brown, square house on the second pass. Ben stopped and put the Jeep in park.
“This is where you live?” Seth couldn’t blame him with the are you fucking with me tone of his voice, not with the lawn, what little of it there was, having overgrown so much with weeds that it nearly reached the windows, the lack of lights on such an early night, and the wooden beams nailed over the door and windows. The place looked abandoned or condemned.
“What the fuck?” Seth scrambled out of his seatbelt and all but jumped out of the Jeep, running as best he could across the rocks of the road to the stone trail that led to the front door. He stuck his eyes close to the cracks between the beams, attempting to see anything inside through the dusty windows. There was nothing. The place was deserted.
No way. No goddamn way.
“Well?” Ben called, having rolled down his window.
Seth had entirely forgotten about him. He stepped away from the front door, hardly able to believe... “Wait one minute for me, I’m going around back,” Seth shouted back over the noise of the running engine.
Ben glared at him.
“One minute.” Seth lifted his index finger as if to show how little time one minute actually was. He ran around the side of the house, opened the wooden gate to the backyard, and stepped inside. He didn’t know what he’d expected to find, obviously Sammy and Maria wouldn’t still be here if the house was boarded up, but he thought he could find...well, anything.
No. Not really. Nothing had been moved. The lawn chairs and glass table were still there, the back windows and doors also boarded up. Seth limped his way to the shed. The padlock was still in place, and he ripped it off with a snap before opening that door and having a look in the tiny space.
It smelled of stale air, dust, and oil. There was the lawn mower he never got around to fixing, cracked garden gnomes, old tools, that kind of thing inside. Nothing was missing that he could see. Nothing except for the van. That definitely hadn’t been parked out front.
A hand on his shoulder had him spinning. Ben.
His heart hammered. “What the fuck? I thought you weren’t getting out of the Jeep?”
“Well, it’s getting pretty obvious that I’m not leaving you here, anyway,” he said, taking a look around the dark lawn. “Where are we?”
“This is where I live.”
Ben looked toward the dark house once more. “You’ve been gone a long time. Looks like the bank foreclosed, or it was labeled as abandoned after you—”
“No, you don’t get it. There should be other people here. Two more people.” Seth was near to shouting now. He needed to get a grip. “You got a phone on you?”
Ben waited less than a heartbeat before reaching into the pocket of his leather jacket and producing his iPhone. Seth could remember telling him and his hosts that there had been no one he needed calling, but that had been back when he still thought he needed to keep information about himself secret.
They’d long since gotten past that, especially when Seth’s house had apparently been condemned.
He snatched the phone and stepped around Ben to pace the small length of the yard as he dialed and waited.
Please, God, let this number still work. Did God answer vampires? Didn’t matter, because there was no need to panic, maybe Sammy had relapsed and he’d been taken to the hospital for better treatment, or Maria could’ve taken him into live with her after Seth disappeared.
Right. That was the likely scenario. Of course she would’ve done that, she loved Sammy. That was why no one was here.
The first number he tried, Sammy’s cell, came up with an automated message.
The number you have dialed, is no longer in—
Seth hung up. That was okay. Sammy could’ve changed his number, gotten a new phone, any number of things.
He tried the next one he had memorized, doing his best to ignore his hammering heart in his throat and ears. Fucking answering machine picked up. Least the number still worked.
Seth was aware that Ben, while trying not to look at him or leave him alone while he was losing his mind, would still be able to hear everything Seth had to say. He couldn’t bring himself to care.
“Maria, if you’re home, I need you to pick up the phone. It’s Seth.
I know I’ve been gone a while, but I’m back home and everything’s—”
The phone picked up. “Sí, hello, Señor Sampson?”
Seth breathed a sigh and sat his ass on one of the lawn chairs before he fell over. A relieved smile touched his mouth. “Maria.”
“Señor, where have you been? We looked everywhere for you.”
“I know, I’m sorry, but I’m back home now. I can explain everything later, but I came back and the house is all boarded up. Where’s Sammy? Is he with you or at the hospital?”
There was a long pause that Seth didn’t like. “Maria? Hello?”
“Señor, you’ve been gone a long time. You stopped sending money.”
“Yeah I know, but you had access to my accounts. I made sure of that. There should’ve been enough to pay your fees.” Working with vampires had made Seth paranoid about his well-being, with good reason, as it happened. He’d seen to it that, should he be killed, vanish, or be claimed legally dead, for whatever reason, Maria would be given joint access along with Sammy to everything he had. She should’ve—no, she’d better have been using it on his brother.
“It was not my fees, Señor,” Maria said quickly. “I cared for Samuel long after the money ran out, I promise you I did, and then I sold what anyone would take from the house to continue to pay for his medication.”
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Seth’s blood chilled. “Can I speak with Sammy?”
There was a sniffle on the other end, and now Seth’s heart rate really started to spike. “What happened?”
There was soft crying now, and Seth was on his feet. He spared a quick glance to Ben, who’d taken the time to walk a little further away without outright leaving Seth alone, observing some overgrown weeds. “Did he relapse? Which hospital is he at? I can pay for whatever he needs now, so tell me where he is.” It was a total lie. He had zero cash, but a vampire cure was better than any medical payment. “Maria, tell me where he is, now.”
Maria took in a shaky breath, bringing herself under control.
“Señor, Samuel went with the angels three months ago. I’m so very sorry I—”
There was more she said, but Seth’s brain wouldn’t turn her words into a language he could understand over the ringing in his ears. He wasn’t entirely sure what happened after that. He must’ve hung up the phone because the next thing he knew, Ben was shaking his shoulder, pulling Seth out of his mindless staring at the overgrown grass on what used to be his backyard.
Seth jumped at the contact, and Ben pulled back.
“Everything all right?”
The man obviously knew it wasn’t, but it was the standard question for most things, wasn’t it?
Seth looked down at the phone still clutched in his fingers. The screen was back to its regular menu, he wasn’t sure how long ago he’d hung up on Maria. It wasn’t ringing again, so she couldn’t have been trying to call him back. Maybe she was going to leave him alone to mourn. Maybe she’d call the police and have him picked up. There were questions a supposedly dead man needed to answer after suddenly reappearing, after all.
They wouldn’t make it before Wiktor’s werewolves got here.
“Seth, you all right?” Ben asked again.
“Fine.” Seth handed him back the phone. “You can go now. Someone’s coming to pick me up.”
Ben took the phone, all the while staring at Seth with suspicious eyes. “You sure?”
Seth took in a long, painful breath. “Yeah. Like you said, I’ve been gone a while, and I guess everyone moved out.” He motioned toward the house. “Now that they know I’m back, I’ve got someone coming here for me.”
Ben didn’t move, but he did look at the house, and then back at Seth. “Is Sammy coming to get you?”
“Yep, that’s my brother. He’s coming here.”
“Will he be here before the wolves get your scent? We’ve been here a while already.”
“Jesus Christ. I’m fine, okay?” Seth parked his ass back in one of the lawn chairs, emphasizing how safe he was by not moving at all.
“Stop hovering around me like you actually care. It’s getting real fucking old.”
Ben jerked back then his face twisted in a rage Seth hadn’t seen before. “The fuck is your problem? You think I like driving your ass around to some shack in the middle of nowhere? You think I’d do that if I didn’t care?”
“Like you care for the sun sprite?”
Seth swore that Ben’s eyes rounded to the size of golf balls.
“I’m a vampire. I’d have to be an idiot to not notice the way your blood heats when you’re near him, or how pissed Silus gets over it. You’re only bringing me out here as a favor to him. Christ, the first time we fucked it was nearly his name you said.”
Ce dric. Not Se th. Easy for Seth to have heard the first syllable and think Ben would be calling out his name while Seth’s cock was in his ass. Sort of. He was never going to get used to the idea of two people screwing in their dreams.
“You brought me, and I’ll be safe until my ride comes. Your duty is done. Fuck off.”
The shock on the other man’s face lasted a hair of a second before Ben sneered at him. “Fuck you.”
Seth didn’t respond. Ben turned and marched away, disappearing around the side of the house. Seth waited until he heard the angry roar of the Jeep’s engine and the squeal of tires kicking up rocks as it sped away before he covered his eyes with his hand and crumbled.
Chapter Twelve
Ben was going way past the speed limit, letting the angry hum of his tires and the vroom of the engine calm him.
It didn’t help. Ten minutes after he’d jumped into his vehicle, he slowed the Jeep to a halt in the middle of the road then pounded his fist onto the steering wheel until his hand hurt almost as bad as when he’d punched the floor in that dream. He stopped only when the throb became nearly blinding and clutched his knuckles.
Prick. Arrogant little shit.
He couldn’t leave him there.
Ben sighed and leaned back in his seat. Something had obviously happened. Ben had heard every word Seth had spoken, and while he could only guess at what Maria was saying, whoever the hell she was, by Seth’s panicked voice and the constant mention of a hospital, it wasn’t good.
Something had happened. No one was coming for him, and Seth wanted Ben to leave him for the werewolves.
“Fuck.” Ben shifted gears and did a U-turn on the empty road. He didn’t drive back at breakneck speed like a complete maniac, no matter how much he wanted to, because there was always the chance the wolves would already be closing in, and a speeding Jeep heading for the same destination as they were would be a giant tip-off to an enemy.
Instead, Ben pulled over and parked the Jeep about a mile away from the dark house behind a bunch of shrubs next to the road. They weren’t exactly big enough to hide his vehicle, but he couldn’t waste any more time searching for the perfect parking spot.
He’d already acted like a little bitch by running away when Seth hurt his feelings, and now the other man was just sitting there, waiting for the weres to come and take him.
He was such an idiot.
The strange thing was how Ben couldn’t tell for sure whether he referred to himself or Seth with that one. He reached into the glove compartment and unlocked it, pulling out his gun, sliding the clip into the magazine, and grabbing several spares in case he needed them.
Ben worked for creatures who wanted protection from vampires and their werewolf servants, so all of Ben’s bullets would be loaded with traces of silver. He jumped out of the Jeep and began strapping on his holster as he sprinted back to the house through the trees.
Teleporting back was not an option when one wanted to hide in the forest, not unless Ben wanted to find himself stuck with a tree through his chest. Wouldn’t kill him, but it would be unpleasant and slow him down. A lot.
The werewolves would notice his scent from when he’d been there. There was nothing he could do about that. He had to hope that they also noted how he’d left the scene in his Jeep, and pray they wouldn’t expect him to surprise them through the trees like he planned.
He slowed his pace when he realized he was getting close, and then he practically tiptoed at the sound of voices. There they were.
Ben made it. He halted just before the clearing of Seth’s unfenced yard and made sure to stay hidden behind the shrubs and trees, crouched down and ready.
Seth was still sitting in his lawn chair as three huge, naked bodies appeared out of the shadows and surrounded him.
Ben gulped hard and used every trick he knew to keep his heart from speeding up, hitting the button on his panic horn, and giving him away to these creatures who could scent the fear of a squirrel from across a football field.
They’d just transformed, by the look of things. Werewolves couldn’t keep their clothes between transformations so they must’ve been tracking Seth in wolf form. Or maybe they’d already been waiting nearby, and had come when his scent made it into their giant noses.
No one attacked, and there was hardly a movement. The one in the middle, the largest—had to be the leading alpha—stepped forward.
Seth didn’t even bother looking up at the giant that stood before him, still caught up in feeling sorry for himself.
Ben swore he was going to punch the idiot’s face in for this when
it was all over, regardless of whether that vampire strength ended up busting his already hurting hand.
“You gonna come quietly?” the alpha asked.
Seth nodded. “Yeah. Is Wiktor pissed?”
A snort. “When’s he not?”
Seth looked up for the first time, his brows furrowed as his eyes scanned the faces of all three werewolves. “Where’s Jackson?”
Alpha folded his arms, his neck and jaw clenching at the question.
Seth paled, as much as any vampire could, that is. “Oh.”
Seth then stood up, clenching his fists and glaring in a way that actually made the three weres take a step back.
“When did you all find out about my brother?”
All three winced. Ben didn’t understand this exchange at all. What the hell?
The youngest-looking of the three, not a scrawny guy by any stretch of the imagination, but still noticeably smaller than his comrades, shifted his feet, avoided looking at Seth, and even scratched the back of his head in a decidedly un-alpha-like way.
The second one clenched his jaw, but it was the leading alpha who answered. “We haven’t been keeping tabs on your life since…We just haven’t been. We only know because we were ordered to pick you up.”
“You got some of your wolves waiting at the cemetery in case I showed up there?”
“Yes. There are even some waiting outside the housekeeper’s place. Don’t worry, they’re just observing, nothing more. She won’t ever know they’re there.”
“Better not,” Seth muttered.
Despite how much Ben wanted to yell at the man, he couldn’t help but notice how the werewolf and vampire spoke as though they were on equal footing. Not hunter and hunted, not by a long shot.
Then it slammed into him. Of course. Seth used to be part of Wiktor’s guard. He knew these men, would have worked with them, and judging by how the other two naked werewolves just stood back, waiting for something to happen, they didn’t want to bring Seth back any more than Ben wanted them to.
