“Safe.” My mother straightened her dress and ran her hands through her blonde hair. “I got them out last night before we found Aaron’s house in shambles.”
“Thank God. Where are they?”
“They’re safe, Dawn. You can call Adam tonight.”
I blinked. Didn’t she trust me to know the location of my best friend?
“It’s not them you should be worrying about.” She looked suddenly distressed.
“Who should I be worrying about?” I asked. There was nothing more important to me than knowing that Adam was okay.
“Aaron,” my mother replied, her eyes watering.
“What about Aaron?” A knot formed in my stomach. What had gone wrong?
“They moved him.”
“Moved him where?” My heart felt like it was about to jump out of my chest.
“His father...” Her voice faltered as I stared at her. “His father had him moved to an unknown location. I went by the hospital to check on him. They were told not to tell me, or you, where they had taken him.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. What was all going on?
“I tried to reach his father at his office, but the receptionist said that he had called in and canceled all appointments indefinitely.” She was distraught.
“I still don’t understand. They love me,” I said quietly.
“Their attackers must have filled their heads with misleading information about you and the others,” she explained. “I don’t know what they said. Edmund is going to try and track them down to find answers. But he can’t do anything until tonight.”
“How can Edmund find them? If we can’t, what makes him so much better?”
“He’s a vampire, Dawn. A strong one at that. He was the one who saved them. He’ll be able to find them again.”
“Does the man that I met today have anything to do with this?” I asked, trying to put the pieces together in my head, but failing.
“He very well could. He’s an Equalizer. He’s been on Helen’s tail for years now.” My mother sat back down on the couch and pulled her hair behind her shoulders.
“Is he good or bad?” I asked, afraid I had permanently blinded one of the good guys.
“Most definitely bad,” my mother reassured me. “It might be time to get you out of Midvale. I always told you that if they found you, we should run.”
“Where are we going to run to, Mom? Miranda has Wesley, and he can locate me with his eyes closed.” I couldn’t believe I was hearing this. She wanted me to give up.
“People are dying, Dawn. They are dying because of you. They are dying because of what they carry inside of them. How long will it take them to find you and kill you?” Her voice was getting louder and more desperate. “I couldn’t stand to lose you! I didn’t get banished to Earth to watch my only child torn apart.”
“I understand you’re scared, Mom. Wesley ran off with Miranda. Now they’re hiding Aaron from me, and you won’t tell me where Adam is. I have made a pact with Aaron to make sure that he is okay. If he dies, his soul becomes a part of me. I can’t lose them, none of them! You suggest leaving because you don’t want to lose me, but I can’t lose them.”
“We’ll go to Nick and Helen then,” my mother decided. “We get Adam and his father, and we go to them.”
“I thought you told me you couldn’t go back there because you’d be recognized?” I said, recalling our conversation several months previously.
“It’s a risk I have to take,” she said. “It’s the only way that we can fix this. We need Krista; you need her power.” My mother stood up again and crossed the living room. “Pack enough clothes to last you a few weeks. I’ll call the school to tell them we have a death in the family and that we’re heading out of state. Maybe with you out of Midvale the killing will stop.”
“You think this will work?” I asked as she headed for her room.
“I don’t know. Shawn can come back during the week and check on things. He can bring us anything that we need.” She touched my face. “We have to move fast. I’ll call your father and tell him to meet us there.”
I ran to my room and grabbed a suitcase and backpack from the back of my closet, absentmindedly throwing clothing into them and making sure that I had all my essentials.
Where had they taken Aaron? What had them so spooked?
I grabbed an old phone from a box on one of the shelves in the back of my dresser and threw it into one of the bags. I would have to set it up when we were on the road.
I dragged my suitcase and my backpack out of my room and waited by the door. My mother came out with her rolling bag and a large purse. She was talking on the phone.
“Thank you, Mr. Gibson. Yes, I will make sure that she answers all emails while we are away. Again, thank you for allowing her to do her work while we are gone.” She laughed into the phone. “Yes, I will make sure of that. Again, thank you. Goodbye.” She put the phone away and looked at me.
“You ready for this?” she asked.
I didn’t know if this were the last time we would see this house or not, but it felt bittersweet as we piled everything into the back of my mother’s Escalade and set off; leaving this part of Missouri behind.
****
We were about an hour outside Midvale when my mother took a right turn. She followed a long dirt road to an old farmhouse hidden in the trees. When she pulled up, she looked at me.
“The old crone who lived here was a friend of your father’s. She left the house to him in her will when she passed a hundred years ago. This is where we ran to after the incident with John. You were born in this house.” She looked at it
