“What happened after you got away from the witch?” Roland asked.
I told them how Peter fought Tarek and then the man had pulled a knife on him and slashed him. “I kinda lost it when I saw him cut Peter. I just jumped him and squeezed his throat until he went down. Then we took off.”
Roland pointed at Scott who still sat quietly in the car. “Where does he come into this?”
“He was there at the rest stop when those guys showed up. He got blasted by the witch when he tried to stop Tarak from taking me.”
Nikolas’s anger was still evident when he spoke again. “What were you thinking going off to meet a total stranger in the first place with everything else that is going on?”
“I had to go,” I said defensively. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to find answers about my dad. I’ve been trying to meet with David for weeks.”
“How do you know he didn’t lead those men right to you?” he demanded.
I remembered the anguish and the real pain in David’s eyes and I knew his story was real and his motives had been good. “He’s an Emote and I believe he was telling the truth. He knew things… things about Madeline.” I felt Nikolas stiffen beside me. “Ten years ago Madeline went to see David’s father to tell him she was in trouble. They were friends or something and David’s father gave her a lot of money to leave the country. She said vampires were after her and before she left she had to warn –” My voice broke and it was a moment before I could continue. “She had to warn my dad. A few days later my dad was killed.”
“Jesus, Sara,” Roland breathed.
“David wanted to meet with me because he lost someone too. The vampires killed his father the same day they killed mine. David’s afraid the vampires will come after him because of what he knows. He was hiding upstairs while Madeline was there and he heard something he wasn’t supposed to. He thinks it’s why his father was killed.”
“Did he tell you what it was?” Nikolas asked tightly.
“Madeline told David’s father that she knew the identity of a Master.”
Before I could blink, I found myself beside the Ducati with a helmet shoved down over my head. “Stop,” I sputtered, pushing the helmet away. “What are you doing?”
“I’m getting you out of here,” Nikolas ground out. “I can’t protect you from a Master by myself. The only place you’ll be safe now is at a Mohiri stronghold.”
“That happened ten years ago. There is no Master after me.”
He barked a laugh and tightened his hold on my arm. “To you ten years is a long time but to a vampire who has lived hundreds of years it is nothing. And what of this witch and the man who grabbed you? Either way someone is looking for you and we need to get you out of this town.”
I shoved against him but he was like a marble pillar. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“I’m not asking.”
“So, that’s it? You’re going to force me to go against my will?” I cried in helpless anger. “You’re no different than them.”
“Sara, maybe he’s right,” Roland cut in. “I don’t want you to go but I don’t want you to get hurt either.” He spoke to Nikolas. “But maybe we should talk to Uncle Max first to see what he thinks.”
I blasted them both with an icy stare. “I see. So everyone gets a say about my life but me?”
Nikolas grabbed my shoulders and forced me to face him. “If you stay here, you or someone you care about is going to end up hurt or killed,” he said mercilessly. “Someone is trying very hard to get to you and they obviously won’t think twice about going through your friends to do it.” I thought about Peter’s stab wound and winced. “Next time it could be worse. They could go after your uncle. Is that what you want?”
“Of course not!” I would not let anyone hurt Nate. If I had to leave New Hastings to draw the people pursuing me away from him, I would, but it would be on my own terms. My mind immediately began to formulate a plan. Remy would hide me somewhere in troll territory where no one, especially vampires, would dare to look for me. I just needed to find a way to get to him.
Nate would be home tomorrow. I had to talk to him, try to explain things to him before I up and disappeared. He was not going to understand and he would struggle with the things I was going to tell him, but he deserved to know the truth. After everything he’d done for me, I owed him that much at least. I felt a pang of regret that we had never been as close as my dad would have wanted. I always thought there would be time to fix it somehow.
“Talk to Maxwell all you want,” I conceded. “But I am not going
anywhere
until Nate gets home tomorrow. And if you make me go, I’ll run away the first chance I get.”
“Fine. You will stay with me and Chris until then,” Nikolas stated firmly.
“I don’t think so.” There was no way I’d be able to contact Remy from some Mohiri safe house or wherever they were holding up. “I’m going home and you are free to follow me if you want.”
Nikolas shook his head. “That location is not secure.”
It was my turn to laugh. “Trust me. The devil himself couldn’t get into that building.”
“Um, guys, can we just figure out where we are going?” Peter called from the car. “Bleeding here.”
Nikolas raised an eyebrow at me as he pulled out his phone and called Chris to tell him to meet us at my apartment. I turned toward Judith’s car and saw the Mustang. “What are we going to do about Scott? We can’t leave him here like this.”
“Don’t worry about him,” Nikolas said, following close behind me. “Once we get you safely to your fortress of an apartment, we will take care of your friend.”
“Those guys are looking for a red Mustang. We can’t take a chance of them finding Scott before you come back. Besides I think he needs a doctor.”
Nikolas went to the Mustang and looked at Scott, peering into his eyes and checking his vitals. He pulled out some of the same nasty green stuff Chris had given me after the crocotta attack and forced Scott to eat some.
“I think he’ll be okay in a few hours,” he told us. “If he’d been permanently damaged, he’d be catatonic. I gave him something to speed healing. By tomorrow he won’t remember any of it and he’ll feel like he has a bad hangover.”
And banged up his car,
I thought guiltily looking at the dented right fender and smashed headlight.
“How will he get home?” I had to make sure Scott was okay before I left. I was leaving no casualties from this mess.
Nikolas called Chris again then held out the phone. “Chris is on his way here. If one of you can tell him where your friend lives, Chris will drive him home.”
Roland took the phone and gave the other Mohiri directions. I walked to the Honda to wait for him without a backward glance at Nikolas. I didn’t need to look behind us to know he was right on our tail for the short drive to my place.
Roland parked in Nate’s spot and the two of us helped Peter up the stairs and into the apartment. I refused Nikolas’s offer of help and he followed us with a stony expression, bolting the door behind us. Instead of putting Peter on the couch, we carried him up to my room where he would have enough space and privacy to shift and heal. I wanted to stay with him until Roland reminded me that Peter would have to disrobe to change. That sent me down the stairs pretty fast.
I found Nikolas going around the apartment checking the windows and doors as if a vampire was going to burst through them any minute.
“I told you, this place is safe. I warded it myself.” I grabbed the orange juice from the fridge. “Anyone thirsty?”
Nikolas stood by Nate’s office doorway. “
You
warded it?”
“Don’t look so shocked.” I poured juice into a tall glass and took a long gulp. “I told you before, I’m not helpless. And I got away from those guys, didn’t I?”
Roland came into the kitchen and I handed him the juice carton. “I’d believe her if I was you,” he said to Nikolas. “Sara knows things and if she says we’re safe here then we –”
“Argh!” he yelped a second before the carton hit the kitchen floor and orange juice sprayed up my legs. He jumped in front of me and pushed me back against the refrigerator. I heard Nikolas shout something and fear rose in my throat.
“Sara, stay behind me,” Roland shouted as I struggled to push his weight away so I could see what was happening. Had something gotten past the ward? No. It was just not possible.
“Keep her there,” Nikolas barked. “I’ll take care of it. Damn it I knew this place wasn’t safe.”
“Take care of what?” I cried, afraid for my friends. With a mighty shove I squeezed out from behind Roland to face the new threat.
It stood in the hallway outside the kitchen, teeth bared menacingly and glaring between Nikolas and Roland, ready to pounce at the slightest provocation. A more frightening snarl I had never seen.
Nikolas reached inside his jacket and pulled out a long gleaming blade.
“No!” I screamed and ran to throw myself in front of the creature that could rip everyone in the room to shreds.
“Sara, are you
insane? Do you know what that is?” Roland yelled, running toward me.
“He’s my friend!” I shouted at them. I threw up my hands to let Roland and Nikolas know I was okay. “His name is Remy.”
Roland skidded to a stop and stared at me in stunned silence. His eyes moved warily from me to Remy and back again as if he could not believe his eyes. “
That
is Remy?”
“Yes, now back off, both of you.” I turned to Remy and took his hand in mine. “Are you okay?” Something really bad must have happened to make him come here and reveal himself to other people. I’d never seen him look this distraught.
“Is
he
okay?” Roland asked in disbelief. “I nearly had a heart attack and she’s worried about a troll. A goddamn troll!”
“Roland, shut up,” I said more harshly than I’d ever spoken to him. “Remy, what’s wrong? Please tell me.”
Remy’s large eyes finally met mine and I saw something I’d never expected to see in a troll’s eyes: fear.
“Minka gone. Creah and Sinah too.”
“Gone? What do you mean gone?”
He gripped my hand painfully but I didn’t cry out. “Humans take them,” he said, bringing one of my worst fears to life. Ever since we’d sold that troll bile I’d worried that someone might track it back to my friends. The thought sweet of little Minka in the hands of someone like that made my blood run cold.
“We’ll find them,” I promised him fiercely. “We’ll get them back.”
Nikolas spoke for the first time. “Does your uncle have any alcohol here?”
I shot him a puzzled look. “How will that help us?”
“It won’t. I need a drink.”
“I’ll help you look,” Roland added weakly.
“You guys are not helping the situation,” I told them irritably. “Remy’s little cousins are in a lot of danger and we have to find them.”
Nikolas leaned against a wall, looking at a loss for the first time since I met him. “We have enough problems to deal with without going out looking for missing trolls. Have you forgotten your own considerable troubles?”
“But this is my fault,” I said. “I have to help them.”
“Is our fault,” Remy corrected me. “Sara warn me it dangerous but I not believe it. I need medicine for boggie.”
“What on earth is he talking about?” Roland asked me.
I bit my lip as I gathered my courage. “Remy has this boggie friend who was sick and they needed a special medicine that you can’t get here. It only comes from Africa and it’s very hard to find – and really expensive. I found someone to get it for us but we needed it as soon as possible so Remy gave me something to trade for it… something very hard to find.”
Nikolas straightened and his eyes widened in disbelief. “Please tell me you are joking.”
I shook my head slowly and he let out a string of Russian curses that made my ears burn even though I could not understand them.
“What? What am I missing?” Roland asked, looking between us.
“Iisus Khristos!”
Nikolas began pacing in the hallway. “You used troll bile to buy the medicine? What the hell were you thinking?”
Roland shot me a horrified look. “Oh, Sara, you didn’t?”
“I was careful,” I protested. “I went through a guy I used a few times before for other things and he’s always careful. He said he went through a middle man with an overseas buyer and there was no way to trace it back to me. He is really careful about this stuff. But a few weeks later I found out that someone was posting on some of the message boards, asking about troll bile, and I got worried.” I rubbed my eyes miserably. “I never believed they would find us, let alone be brave enough to do something like this.”
“Not brave, incredibly stupid,” Nikolas said wearily. He looked at Remy. “How long do we have?”
“Elders meet now. I come find Sara to see if we find little ones before.”
“Before what?” Roland asked just as it dawned on me what Nikolas and Remy were talking about. I gasped as the full seriousness of the situation hit me.
“A rampage,” I whispered. “The elders are going to rampage.”
“That does not sound good,” Roland said weakly.
There was no humor in Nikolas’s laugh. “There is a reason why no one – not even vampires – tangles with trolls. If you mess with one troll, you get the whole clan and if you harm one of their young, you die. And if a young troll goes missing, the clan rises up to find them – or who took them. Trolls are even better trackers than crocotta and once they are worked up into a rage, they will kill anyone who has come into contact with their missing children. And during a rampage trolls do not distinguish between the innocent and the guilty.”
Roland blanched.
The doorbell rang making me and Roland jump. Nikolas opened the door to admit Chris whose good-natured smile did not falter even when he saw our grim faces. Then he saw Remy. I don’t think I had ever seen someone’s eyes go that round before. Roland shoved a glass of Nate’s whiskey into Chris’s hand while Nikolas brought him up to speed on all he had missed.
The kitchen was getting crowded so we moved into the living room. I took the chair by the fireplace and Remy sat on the ottoman beside me. Roland and Chris sat on either end of the sofa. Nikolas stood by the window looking like a sentry.
“Your little orphan is just full of surprises,” Chris quipped to Nikolas. “Never a dull moment.”
I bristled at Chris’s words. “I’m nobody’s little orphan.”
Chris ignored my denial. “So, what’s the plan?”
There was no question in my mind about what had to be done. “We’ve got to find them.” No one said anything so I said, “They’re only babies. God knows what those people will do to them.”
Roland pointed at Remy. “Can’t he track them?”
Remy shook his head unhappily. “Only elders know tracking. If I close I find them.”
I pulled out my phone. “I’m calling Malloy. If anyone has heard about this, it’s him.”
“Who is Malloy?” Nikolas asked suspiciously.
“Buyer,” Roland offered as I dialed the number. Nikolas shot him a questioning look and Roland grimaced, no doubt remembering his last encounter with Malloy. “Don’t ask.”
Malloy picked up right away and I cut right to the chase about the missing trolls. “If you’ve heard anything at all, tell me now. If we don’t find them, their parents are going to come looking and you really don’t want that, especially after what I sold you.”
“You got to be crazy to mess with them trolls,” he uttered in a frightened voice. “Don’t I always tell you that?” There was a short pause and then he said, “Give me half an hour and if there is anything to find out I’ll know it.”
I hung up. “He’s checking into it.”
I saw that Nikolas had pulled out his own phone and was speaking in a low voice to someone. He hung up and looked at Chris. “I called in Erik’s team. It has to be a big player to risk the trolls’ wrath. I guess we know who sent the witch too. It had to be someone with a lot of power and influence to get one of them.”
His words sank in and the pieces began to slam into place like bullets sliding into a gun chamber. A big player who was able to employ a desert witch who lived in a tribal region of Africa. The man on the yacht. Tarek with his a Middle Eastern accent. Malloy’s wealthy overseas buyer.
Oh God, what have I done?
The weight of my actions threatened to suffocate me. I’d been so caught up in all the drama in my life the last few weeks that I did not see this new threat until it was right on top of us. I’d thought I was helping Remy by getting the Baktu but all I’d done was put his family in danger. If the trolls went on a rampage, a lot of people were going to die and that would all be on my head. “This is all my fault. I’m so sorry, Remy.”
He laid his slender hand over mine on the arm of the chair. “It my fault too.”
I leaned toward him and gave him a quick hug. “I promise we’ll get them back.”
We pulled apart and I saw three pairs of eyes watching us with open curiosity. It occurred to me how strange it must look – a teenage girl with a troll friend – but I was in no mood to offer explanations. There would be time for that after Remy’s little cousins were safe.
“Am I delirious or do I really see a troll over there?” Peter stood in the doorway, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head. Except for the mussed hair and bloody t-shirt, I never would have said he’d been stabbed an hour ago.
Roland gave him the condensed version of the story. Peter listened open-mouthed, his eyes never leaving me and Remy and when Roland finished, Peter sat on the floor with his back against the archway, not saying a word.
Malloy called me back ten minutes later. “Now you did not hear this from me, understand?” he said as soon as I picked up. “I got nothing about those trolls specifically but supposedly there are some very rare goods being shipped out of Portland tomorrow morning on a private jet. More security than anyone’s seen around here. Word is that it’s living cargo.”
My pulse quickened. “That’s it. It has to be. Do you know where the shipment is now?”
The others watched me expectantly when I hung up. I related what Malloy had told me and jumped to my feet. “Come on, we have to go before it’s too late.”
“Chris and I will go,” Nikolas said. “I think we can handle whatever kind of security they have in place.”
“I’m coming too. I got them into this nightmare and I’ll get them out.”
Nikolas crossed his arms. “Forget it. It’s not going to happen.”
I matched his stance. “Stop telling me what to do. I’m going whether you like it or not.” The trolls were my friends and my responsibility. How dare he try to stop me from helping them?
A tic started at the corner of his jaw and he took a step toward me. “Like hell. I’ll tie your little ass to that chair over there if I have to.”
“You can kiss my –”
Chris jumped between us, facing Nikolas. “I don’t think this little debate is getting us anywhere.” He turned sideways and his eyebrow rose when he looked at me. “As entertaining as it promises to be.”
“There is no debate. She stays here,” Nikolas stated unwaveringly.
It was time for another tactic. “Alright Mr. I Know Better Than Everyone Else, what will you do when you find them? I bet they didn’t teach you in warrior school how to handle a bunch of frightened troll kids.”
“Your troll friend will come with us.”
“And who will stay here with me while you guys are on your rescue mission?”
“The werewolves should be able to keep you safe here for a few hours,” he replied as if that settled everything.
“Really? And what happens if that witch finds us again? Wouldn’t I be safer with a bunch of warriors, two werewolves
and
a troll?”
“Sara come. I keep her safe,” Remy vowed firmly and I saw Roland shiver at my troll friend’s fierce face. No one in the room could argue that there was a better bodyguard in the world.
Nikolas glowered at me for a good ten seconds. “You do not leave his side.” His tone brooked no argument and for once I conceded without a fight.
I grabbed my coat from the hall closet and felt the comforting shape of the Mohiri knife in the inside pocket. I really hoped I did not have to use the knife tonight, but lady luck appeared to have deserted me lately and I’d hate to be caught out without a weapon.
Peter called shotgun and I glared at him when I was forced to share the back seat with Nikolas. Remy refused to go anywhere near the car and said he would follow us on foot.
I looked around for Chris and Nikolas said, “Chris will follow us.”
A tense silence fell over the car as we headed for the interstate. I looked out my window, intending to ignore Nikolas the whole way to Portland. So much for the olive branch I’d offered him the night of the storm. The whole damn tree was going up in smoke now.
Peter lasted a whole ten minutes before he turned in his seat to fix me with a ‘don’t you think you have something to tell us’ look.
“What?”
He shook his head. “Really? That’s all you have to say about the
troll
who was just sitting in your living room?”
I felt Nikolas’s eyes on me and I saw Roland darting glances at me in the rearview mirror. “I met Remy not long after I moved here to live with Nate, before I met you guys. I used to go exploring down by the old lumber mill and one day he saw me and just decided to show himself to me. He was only a year older than me and pretty adventurous for a troll.” What I did not tell them was that Remy had spied on me healing a squirrel with a broken leg and he was so curious that he’d watched me for a few weeks before he finally decided to introduce himself.
“Weren’t you scared?” Roland asked. “I would have wet my pants if a troll walked up to me in the woods when I was that age.”
Peter snickered. “You still would.”
A smile broke over my face as I remembered that day. “I was scared at first. Even back then Remy looked pretty fierce. But he knew some broken English so we were able to talk and I found out he was as nervous as me. It was a… pretty hard time for me. I’d just lost my dad and moved to a strange place and I was lonely. Remy was my first friend here.” My chest tightened. It was the first time I’d ever talked to anyone about those dark days when I first came to New Hastings.