Bound by Revenge (Guardian Series) (29 page)

He also didn’t look like he was seeking vengeance.

“I want to go with you. I need to make sure you’re going to be ok.”

Deanna’s words caught Leus off guard. Tears threatened to escape from his eyes to expose his sensitive side before he blinked them back.

“As much as I’d love to have you with me, I need you to go to Arratta and convince him to stop all of this. Let him think that I’m dead if you want, if that’s the easiest way. Just get him to realize how pointless this fight is. Morgan tricked us all. Our fight is with the demons, not humanity.”

Deanna couldn’t deny her father. He needed her and she would try her best to succeed for his sake. But her grandfather had never been easy to convince of anything he didn’t want to believe.

“If anyone can do it, it’ll be you.” Leus added when he saw the hesitation on his daughter’s face.

“I’ll see you again, right. I won’t do this if you’re leaving for good.” Deanna choked back the panic that was building deep in her throat.

Leus gave her a deep nod, a kiss on the cheek and then the whole group continued through the room, down to the back emergency exit and out onto the street.

“OK, fine. I’ll be the one to bring it up.” Alex blurted. “How the fuck do we know we can trust her?”

“Would I just walk out here with you if I thought she was going to screw us over?” This guy was really getting on Leus’ nerves. “She’s my daughter, you asshole, she’s not going to risk hurting me.”

“Good point. How do we know she’s not going to go to the others to plan a way to drag you out of here?” Alex was right in Leus’ face now.

“She’s not like the others. Trust me.” Leus pushed him aside and walked past him.

“Not so fast.” Alex pulled Leus back by the shirt collar. “Trust is something you earn. And all I know about you is that you spent quite a bit of time in there trying to kill my sister. Not really the kind of thing that gives me the warm fuzzies.”

“I appreciate your defense, Alex. But I’m not sure this is a good place to stop. It’s only a matter of time before someone notices us. I can’t imagine that everyone has already left. And I shouldn’t have to remind you about Vance here. He’s not really a little guy.” Abby’s rationale made sense and it got the group to continue moving towards the car.

Piling into the car proved an uncomfortable experience. The ample space they’d had on their way to the warehouse was now so crowded Abby thought they would have to take two trips. Alex jumped into the driver’s seat, knowing that would be the most spacious seat. And the girls placed Vance, as softly as they could, in the passenger’s seat.

Sam and Tom shuffled into the back first. Then Leus. Abby was the last to try to squeeze into the vehicle. Instead of pushing over, Leus reached his hands out to Abby’s waist and swept her in onto his lap before shutting the door quietly behind her.

“Let’s get out of here before we have to fight with somebody else.” Leus kicked the back of Alex’s seat almost as if he were coaxing a horse to move forward.

Alex peeled out, not responding to Leus.

Abby’s body flung forward at the zigzagging motion of the car and Leus wrapped his arms around her to steady it.

“Keep your hands to yourself.” All the muscles in her body tensed up at the unwanted contact. “I’m sitting here because I don’t want to be left behind, and that’s the only reason. If you take advantage of the situation, I’ll cut every appendage off your body.”

Now it was Leus’s turn to cringe. “You sure have a way with words don’t you.” He chuckled at Abby’s ire.

“Now that we’re sufficiently far away from there, we need to come up with what we’re going to do when she turns on us and we end up with the strength of all the demons and leanthans in the area focused directly on us.” Alex glanced in the rearview mirror at the backseat.

“Stop it, Alex.” Tom interrupted what was likely to be a very long rant from his brother about their downfall. “She won’t turn on us. I know that for a fact.”

“You’re too young to know anything, Tom. Just stay quiet and let the grownups figure this out.”

“I’m pretty sure what I’ve been through gives me more right to make this decision than anyone else here. She is the only reason that I made it this far. They would have killed me back at Morgan’s if she hadn’t stepped in and saved me. And if anyone even thinks about going after her to keep her from talking, I’m going to go back and give myself up to the demons to save her.”

“Fuck.” Alex breathed out. “What the fuck happened to you there? You have to make this more complicated than it needs to be, don’t you?”

“I’m afraid so, brother, so you might as well just roll with it.” Tom straightened up in his seat as he thought about Deanna. “All I know is that you can trust her. Just like if she was a part of the family.”

“Fine. Lucky break for you, leanthan. My little brother just saved your ass for a little while longer.” Alex grumbled. 

Chapter Twenty-one

The vision was just a flash. It wasn’t as detailed as the one’s she was used to getting, that she’d gotten in the past. But it made quite an impact. Enough so that she turned her attention away from Vance just long enough to ensure Leus’ safety. No more than that. She would explain it to everyone later.

Right now, she needed to tend to Vance. And make sure that he didn’t lose too much blood. The wound wasn’t in his heart, which meant it wasn’t a die on contact kind of a blow. But if he lost enough blood that would do the trick and he was getting frighteningly close to that point.

It made sense that a leanthan could become a guardian. She just hadn’t considered it before then. But they were demons after all, genetically, that’s all it took. They had immortal blood flowing through their veins.

The more he spoke up, the more she understood. He wasn’t what they had expected. He wasn’t a blood thirsty villain killing for enjoyment or for some ego-maniacal cause. He didn’t want all humans dead. He didn’t even want most of them dead. He just wanted to live safely and to protect his family. It was a sentiment that Sam respected, more so now than ever as she looked at Vance. If he died, she’d do anything to get her revenge.

The leanthans dragged Morgan away before Sam could find out if she’d gotten the job done. If Morgan was really dead. The blow was solid. If she had been human it would have killed her on impact. But Sam could still hear Morgan’s heart beating faintly as she was taken away, which meant that she was in the same predicament as Vance, waiting for death to come, or to recover slowly and painfully.

If Morgan did recover, Sam would be waiting, ready and willing to go after her again. The second time, she’d be sure that she didn’t fail. She’d wait, hovering over her until her heart pumped for the last time and her final breath passed through her lips.

The girls brought Vance up to Sam’s room as soon as they got to the safety of Alex’s house. Abby left the two of them alone after bringing in a suitcase sized first aid kit that looked like it had been hanging around the house for years.

Vance slipped in and out of consciousness as Sam positioned him as carefully as she could on the center of the bed, with his head resting on top of the three pillows she’d stacked up. She didn’t want him to choke on his own blood if it started coming up. That was the safest position she could come up with for him that still allowed her to tend to his wound.

The first thing she grabbed from the first aid kit was a pair of shears. It would only hurt Vance more to try to pull the shirt off of him, over his head. Plus, there was no way they could save the shirt, even if he did like it.

She carefully cut the shirt from top to bottom, all the way along the side, just over the wound. The cloth stuck to the gaping hole and Sam cringed when she pulled it free, terrified she’d cause Vance any more pain.

He didn’t move, not even a flinch. The whole side of his body had to be numb. His body finally shocking the nerves into submission from the excruciating pain. He didn’t even seem to realize Sam was standing over him, cleaning the wound with cotton balls and alcohol until he opened his eyes and saw her concentrating hard on her task.

“I’m glad you’re here.” Vance’s voice was raspy, like he’d been asleep for a week.

“Of course I’m here. I love you.” Sam had never spoken those words. In all her years, she hadn’t even known what they truly meant. She hadn’t even known that she felt that way until the words fell heavy in the silent room. Looking at the tenderness in Vance’s eyes and acknowledging the severity of the situation, Sam finally allowed herself to break down and cry.

She was startled by Vance’s touch. He stroked her hair, comforting her.

“Don’t. You shouldn’t move.” She sobbed, and laughed at the irony of the situation. She sat, as caretaker, over her wounded love and he was trying to soothe her.

“You shouldn’t worry.” He said quietly, in the calmest tone she’d ever heard. “I’m going to be alright. I can feel it.”

“I just wish I could see that. To know for sure.” Times like this, Sam cursed her ability. What good was it to be psychic if she couldn’t control what she’d see? But she had faith. Faith that they wouldn’t be brought together after all this time just to be torn apart and faith that they could overrule the evil and save the world. But only together, as a team.

“I need to sew it shut.” She said, looking to Vance for approval.

“Do it.” He turned his head away. He laid his face against the soft pillow and inhaled deeply Sam’s scent. Sam pulled the wound together and sewed it closed with a surgeon’s precision.

Sam covered his skin with soft gauze and she taped it on tightly. Making sure nothing got in to prevent healing.

“I need you to fight through this. We’ve got a lot of living left to do.”

“I got this. Don’t you worry about me. I’ll be better after a little rest.” Vance closed his eyes, almost involuntarily.

She knew he was right. His best chance for survival, now that his wound was cleaned and closed, would be to sleep and let his body fight of any infection that tried to take hold. And, as much as it killed her, she knew she had to leave him alone to rest.

The others were in the living room when Sam went down to find them. Tom was sitting on the couch, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees.

“Are you kidding me?” He yelled, jumped off the couch and started pacing in front of his siblings. “This is real. My whole life I dreamt about this and now I find out that it’s real.”

His tirade continued, as he struggled with himself to connect his dreams with reality. No small feat for a man so young. How could he have possibly known about this before? All his life he’s had dreams about these creatures and their fights but he knew he’d never seen them before while awake.

“This is real and you didn’t tell me. You left me to get hunted, unprepared.” Tom’s temper was starting to get the best of him. His life had been put in serious danger because he was left out of the loop. And no one wanted to acknowledge that they’d done anything wrong.

“Dad told us not to say anything to you. He wanted you to finish school before you’d have the choice to join. We just found out ourselves, if it helps.” Abby stood up and tried to get Tom to sit back down and listen. “He just wanted to protect you.”

“A lot of good that did.” Tom grumbled, rubbing his hand roughly against his head.

“I know this is none of my business,” Leus interrupted. “But you shouldn’t be too hard on him. You have no idea the kind of pressure a father feels to shelter his youngest child.”

Everyone turned towards Leus. Somehow, with everything going on, they had all managed to forget that there was an enemy in their midst.

“Nice sentiment, but this is family business.” Alex still didn’t trust the man. Alex stared at Leus.

Leus shrugged it off and went back to thumbing through the brown leather bound book he’d pulled off the shelf next to him.