"Ethan!" Isabelle yelped.
Aiden pushed a groggy Mandy toward where Stefan had Isabelle pinned in the corner. Stefan's eyes were a fiery red color as he kept his body firmly in front of Isabelle's, but he made no move to come after Ethan. Ian and Brian burst into the room, both sweating and breathing heavily as they scanned the room.
"Holy shit!" Ian blurted when his eyes landed on Ethan.
Brian grabbed Ian's arm and shoved him toward where the others gathered. "Ethan you have to calm down," Stefan said quietly.
"You were supposed to be watching her!" he snarled as he took a step toward him.
"What is wrong with you?" Isabelle gasped as her eyes raked Ethan from head to toe.
Ian tried to get past Brian to get at him, but Brian shoved him back again. "You don't want to tangle with him right now," Brian said in a whisper that drew Ethan's gaze to him. Brian held his hands up and stepped back. "Easy."
The blood roared in Ethan's ears; the madness was taking over as he moved closer to them. The red in his veins seeped out into his skin, turning him the shade of dark molten lava. He'd never seen anything like it, but it meant nothing to him as his thoughts remained centered on Emma.
"What happened here?" he demanded. Mandy's eyes were wide on him, her mouth hanging open as she gaped at him. She grabbed Aiden's arm as she took an unsteady step back. "What happened here?"
She began to shake her head, but then her hand flew to her forehead as she winced. "I don't know. I was sitting on the bed, and the next thing I knew you were all here. Where is Jill?" she asked and lifted her head to look around the room with squinted eyes.
"Not here," Ethan grated.
"You can find Emma," Stefan said in a reasonable tone that only irritated him more. "If you just calm down and think, you can find her, Ethan."
The scent of her blood filled his nose, causing his rage to escalate even higher. The veins in his arms stood out even more; the red suffusing his body deepened as the entire room began to look like blood covered it. Blood. He wanted it so badly right now he could taste it. He could feel it sliding down his throat, and he would have it. He would rip off Tristan's head and gorge himself on his blood.
The people standing across from him all shrank away.
"Ethan," Isabelle breathed.
He turned away from them and raced over to throw open the doors to the balcony; he didn't look back as he grabbed the railing and leapt into the night. Though it was a good fifty-foot drop, he landed silently on his feet.
"What was that?" Aiden whispered.
"That was one very pissed off purebred," Brian said as he stepped away from the others.
"That was like the fucking Hulk," Ian said.
"We have to go after him. In the mood he's in, he'll kill anything in his way." Brian strode away from them to look out over the balcony.
"Are we even going to be able to stop him?" Ian inquired.
"Probably not, but we have to try." Brian jumped off the balcony and followed the blur of Ethan he saw far ahead of him.
The scent of her blood drew Ethan onward, pushing him faster and faster as he ran up the hillside and past the homes lining it. He didn't know if the others were following him, and he didn't care as he weaved his way through the neighborhoods until he came to a large home nestled in the hillside. His heart raced, anger and frustration warred through him as he stood outside the two-story, robin's egg blue home with three balconies on the front.
Emma was in there, and she was suffering, he was certain of it as the scent of her blood was even more potent here. He circled the home, but he had no idea how he was going to get to her. The front door was wide open when he completed his circle of the house. He could feel his family and Brian coming, but he wasn't going to wait for them as he approached the door.
He spotted Emma immediately, sitting in a chair in the middle of the room. His gaze searched the house. He saw no vampires amid the shadows descending and spreading over the home as night fell. His attention turned back to Emma, her hands were tied behind her back, and her ankles were bound to the front legs of the chair. Her head bent forward, so her thick hair fell forward to shield her face.
The sight of the blood trickling from her nose rapidly drove him forward. He leapt forward only to be knocked back by an invisible wall blocking him from entering the house. Frustration swirled through him, he lifted his hands to press them against the transparent wall, but it was impenetrable. The color permeating his body became such a dark red it was nearly black as the power swirled and pulsed through his body.
On the couch to the right of Emma's chair, Jill sat as rigidly as a board. Her hands were folded in her lap as she stared at the wall across from her. Ethan had seen that dazed look on the faces of anyone who didn't have control over their minds and were now under the command of a vampire.
They'd gotten to her on the bus ride, he realized. She was the reason the others hadn't sensed a different presence in the house. No one else entered the home
