“You said Michael hadbeen taken?” But then, being sensible wasn’t all it was cracked upto be.
“T’Carter. Aye.”
“He will killhim?”
“Is that a seriousquestion?”
Yes. Just possiblya very stupid one. “Which will also mean there is noLeader.”
“There are no Vampiresleft t’lead.” A hint of uncertainty rang in his tone.
He wasn’t a hundredpercent sure if they had gotten them all, and how could he be?
I met his gaze in themirror. “But there is now a defenceless territory for otherst’claim.”
“This territory is notdefenceless.”
At the flash in hiseyes and the growl that edged his voice, I decided it was time tostop pointing out how unbelievably stupid it had been for his Packto wipe out the Colony. Realistically, I should be happy. He wasright—this is what I was trained to do, slay Vampires. The Pack hadpossibly done me and my family a favour. I mean, all we did waskill the odd one when needed, but that was because we knew that theonly safe way to wipe out a species was to kill the source. Andthat was Marko. Were there other ancients out in the world? Maybe,but Marko was the only one we knew of for sure, and naturally, theonly one my family had an issue with.
Destroying Marko Pavelwas how we planned to rid the world of Leeches, and if there werestragglers, it would be easy to discard of them. What the Pack haddone was just create an opening for trouble, and although I wasn’tsure what form it would come in, I knew deep in my gut thatdestroying the UK Colony had been the mother of all bad moves.
***
Being autumn, the sunhad set shortly after six, which was around the time we had finallydecided to stop at a junction and stretch our legs. We still had acouple hours to go, and at the sound of the doc’s rumbling stomach,it was clear he wouldn’t make it without some food, plus, I had touse the little girl’s room.
Leaving the carunlocked, I told Nathan that we would be back shortly and that thesun had set if he wished to sit shotgun. Something Graham hadn’tbeen too pleased about, but seven hours was far too long to becooped up in such a small space.
Half an hour later, wewere back in the car. The doc remained in the centre of the backseat, McDonalds bags piled up on his left.
At the scent ofcheeseburgers and fries, my stomach rumbled, and the ham saladbaguette I had purchased no longer seemed appealing. To mysurprise, a brown bag appeared at the side of my face as Grahamoffered it me.
“You sure?”
“Aye.”
I wasn’t the type toargue when someone handed me free grub. So I accepted the bag anddived in. Food had never tasted so good.
The passenger dooropened, and Nathan climbed in.
“You okay?” I askedafter swallowing a mouthful of my burger.
“Fine. Just needt’stretch my legs.”
A snort sounded in theback.
“Something funny?”Nathan glanced through the overhead mirror.
“Leeches don’t getcramp.”
“Fine. I neededair.”
“Leeches don’tbreathe.”
A soft growl vibratedin Nathan’s chest as he turned his attention out the passengerwindow. “I wanted t’be outside before being stuck in here with youfor another few hours.”
His comment was thatof a child who didn’t want to be around his annoying siblings. Ihad to muffle a giggle.
“That makes moresense,” Graham remarked before taking a huge bite of his BigMac.
Well, the remainder ofthis trip was going to be interesting, to say the least.
“Do you needanything?” I asked as I scrunched up the burger wrapping anddropped it into the bag.
“No, I’m fine.”
He seemed tense. Maybeuncomfortable, but then, I couldn’t imagine he was looking forwardto our destination. Truth be told, I hadn’t thought much about thefact there would be more Werewolves waiting at the end of thistrip. Just that I would see Heather. See she was safe. Despite thefact I probably should really think this through, I didn’t have theenergy. I just needed to know what the hell was going on.
Placing the fries inthe cupholder, I scrunched the brown bag up and shoved it into theside of my door.
Fed, watered, and nolonger needing the toilet, I turned on the ignition, and we setback out on the road after I had checked the route that my GPS wasdictating. Graham confirmed and assured me he would point me in theright direction once we hit the long winding roads of the ScottishHighlands.
And Jesus, it waseerie. I knew Scotland was rural, and Graham had explained the PackKeep was at the top of the Highlands, but the higher we got, theroads seemed to get thinner and had more bends. Not to mentionthere were no streetlights. I was literally driving in the pitchblack with a Werewolf and a Vampire as passengers. It felt like thestart of a dark comedy film.
Three hours after ourpit stop, I manoeuvred the car into a crawl as Graham pointed outwe were there. My floodlights highlighted the dirt road before me.Large, open fields lined the roads, unfenced and flat. The lightweaved over the rough trunks of the line of trees to our left, butthere was no sign of a residence or of life anywhere around us.
“Usually, there wouldhave been lights filling the windows of the house and a spotlightat either side of the gate.” Graham’s voice held a hint of sadnessin his tone. “There. Can you see the wall?”
A yard or so ahead, ahigh wall seemed to spring from behind a line of trees. “Aye.”
“The gate will beopen.”
I watched carefullyfor the opening, turning left as soon as I caught sight of blackiron. My lights streamed through the opening, the pale glow washingover the large, gravel courtyard.
“Shit.” The gasp leftmy mouth as I came to an abrupt halt.
Blackened bricks andbroken tall windows filled my windshield. Nathan and I unbuckledour belts and lent forwards so we could glance up at the destroyedbuilding. The fire had consumed everything, and I could only guessthat the main reason would have been that considering how far theresidence was from the nearest town, it no doubt took the fireservice forever to get here.
I had seen fires onthe news and in films, but never up close. Even
