Chapter Fifteen

Lucky Acres RV Park, Las Vegas, NV

Monday, 10:00 PM

Quinn knocked on the door and tried hard to radiate goodwill. But of course, it wasn't going to work. It really wasn't very likely that Georgie would see their faces and suddenly find his inner peace enough to sit down and have a chat.

"Since you already tried this once, have any suggestions?"

Her voice was a low whisper. "Don't get blasted again?" Bella stood slightly behind him. Clearly, she wasn't going to be the one to get blasted this time either.

"Nice."

She snorted. "If you want to play nice, you should have Maddie at your side. This isn't likely to be very nice at all."

He sighed. "I do and I wish I did." Right about now he was trying to avoid the nagging regret that he should have done better and kept his eyes on Georgie. Surely, there would have been a million ways he could have protected his friend before it ever got to this point.

"Quinn, focus on the now." Bella knew him too well. "If you're going to let your mind wonder… You should probably know… eh, maybe I'll let Maddie's nature be a surprise."

He knocked again. "Now you have me curious. What is it that should I know?"

She grinned at him. "She's a bit passionate."

He was sure he blushed just a little. "I noticed."

She smacked his arm. "I mean if you two end up the real deal, you'd better dedicate your life to making her happy. Because that ‘hell hath no fury' saying, I think it was penned after meeting her."

That had been his plan anyhow. It wasn't a concern. Once they got through this little chore, he'd dedicate his everything to making her happy.

The door latch clicked open.

"Georgie, you in there? It's me and Quinn. We just want to talk with you. Can we come inside?"

The door swung outward, and the shadowed interior came into sight. Bella had been accurate in her description. The furniture was damaged, and windows sloppily covered with black paint.

And directly in front of the entrance as if he were sitting on a throne, was Georgie. Or at least a version of him that he'd never seen before.

Dressed in all black. Black T-shirt in tatters, black jeans and bare feet. Long stringy hair and at least a dozen visible piercings. As if he was playing a vampire in some shoe-string budget camp film.

His gaze sharpened on them. "Go away."

Bella took her foot off the step.

He understood the urge to run. The outfit might be ridiculous, but the waves of power coming off him were no joke.

He forced his legs to take the steps until he stood right in front of the man he'd always thought of as his brother. "That was quite the welcome last night."

"I said, go away."

"Yeah, that was how I interpreted that little love tap. The problem is we are worried about you. We're not going away."

He felt Bella beside him, but he didn't dare take his eyes off Georgie.

He knelt down to look him in the eye. "I'm sorry I wasn't here for you when you were hurting. But we're here now. Let us help you."

"How the fuck can you help me? Are you going to bring her back? Are you strong enough to force her to never leave me again?"

Who was he talking about? Was this all about a lover leaving him?

Bella reached out as if to comfort him, but a lightning-fast slap knocked her hand away. "Ouch." She mumbled and pulled back her hand. "While you're here in your little pity party, I was talking to Wyllo. You need to quit being such a spoiled little prick."

Speaking of women scorned, Bella was no slouch in that department, and she wasn't going to take kindly to her brother striking out at her. "Wait, did you say Wyllo?" What did their maker have to do with this situation?

"Wyllo can't just be at your beck and call. She has responsibilities that she can't walk away from just to cater to your neediness."

"Is this about Wyllo? Have you both been in contact with her?" He felt a sting of jealousy. He hadn't been in contact with Wyllo in at least five hundred years. Yet they'd both been in touch with her recently? Why was that? Had he done something to displease her?

The RV started trembling. "What do you know about anything? You both are doing just fine. You don't need her. You can figure out your life all on your own. You don't know what it's like for me."

"And whose fault is that? We have both settled down in territories and homes that will always have open doors for you. And yet, you expect us to traipse around the world looking for you? Pick up a damn phone. Drop in and say hi. Take some damn responsibility for a change."

"Bella…" She'd gone too far. The RV was about to rip itself apart from his wild flailing power.

The curtain to the driver's seat shoved open. "What's happening?" A tall thin red headed man lurched down the aisle toward them.

This must be the man named Jimmy. He grabbed the man and shoved him out the door, hopefully to safety.

The second he turned back to Georgie, he was hit by his brother's full powerful weight. "Why can't you just leave me alone." One hand tangled in the front of his shirt and the other around his neck. Their faces were only inches apart.

"Because, my brother, that isn't what you need or want."

Georgie was pale. He'd obviously not been feeding. He was wiry and growling like an animal. And his eyes were sunken and angry. And filled with blood tears.

Instead of fighting him, he pulled him close and tightened his grip. It had been far too long since he'd hugged his brother. "I'm not going to let you go again."

Suddenly there was Madeline in the doorway. But she wasn't in wolf form, and she looked pissed. "We have got some shit to sort out. Let's start with this." She tossed a handful of tiny canisters at them and then slammed the door shut again.

That was the last chance he had to react to her, because from that point on he was too busy gagging on the intense smell and fighting to wipe off the tacky splatter that had exploded over all three of them.

"Damn… it, Maddie." Bella yelled between coughs and then dropped to her knees.

Georgie relaxed in his arms just moments before he lost consciousness too.

She really was… passionate.

Maddie flinched from the overwhelming stench that poured out from the cracks around the door of the RV.

"Well, that was easier than I expected." Maybe it was the level of overkill she'd used but the skunk bombs had dropped the three ancient vampires almost as easily as fledglings. She'd only ever used two of the canisters at one time before. This time… well, she'd tossed in eight of them before closing the door.

It had only been a matter of seconds before the rampant power had faded away and there was no sign of movement from within.

"Are they… dead?" This came from the skinny redhead sitting in the dirt a little away from the RV.

"Do you want them to be?" She hadn't meant to be flippant about it, but he might have been the hostage of an insane, wildly powerful vampire. The young guy might have had a very bad time of it.

He shook his head.

"Did he bite you? Turn you?"

"No, neither."

Really? That was interesting. She'd kind of figured Georgie had taken the guy along as a midnight snack. "They're not dead. I just knocked them all out so we can have a calm discussion."

Deven jogged into sight and ran directly to her side. "Hey, what happened?"

Oh, yeah, she'd forgotten about the pups. Having them around was going to make it unnecessarily more complicated. "I knocked them all out before their chat could get out of control."

"Oh…"

"Quinn's fine." Silently she added a for now to that. She wasn't feeling all that generous, with her own mind too tangled up to figure out how she should be feeling. "Bring your car over. We can use it to move them."

"Do we need to move them?"

"Yes, I want to be able to secure Georgie until we can figure out what to do with him."

He must have called to his girl telepathically. It was only a few minutes before the car pulled into sight.

She returned to the RV and opened up the door wide enough to blow a magical wind in and clear out the worst of the smell. There was still plenty stuck to the three vampires but that was the price of the effectiveness. She pulled Quinn's solid body up over her shoulder and carried him down toward the car. His weight was easy enough for her wolf strength to handle, but something about this felt more painful than before.

Maybe because it might signify the end of everything that she'd been hoping to build with him. Her wolf spirit gave an angry twist. She wasn't certain about the meaning behind the response. Usually, she and her wolf were perfectly aligned. This time it was different.

That would be another detail she'd have to work out later.

The first problem was figuring out where she'd take them. The pups knew about the nearest bunker. And that one didn't have any amenities anyhow. The talk she needed to have with these three might take a while. She settled Quinn into the back seat and then went back and carried out Bella. Deven carried the last one. She put Bella beside Quinn. "Let's secure that one in the trunk." She pulled out some of her blessed restraint cords and tied him up.

Now to get rid of the pups. Tessa was talking with the redhead. And thankfully she'd left the keys in the ignition.

"Hey Deven, can you give the trailer another look? Check for anything that might be relevant for that Father Time case of Quinn's. I'll keep an eye on these three while you do."

He nodded and jumped back inside.

What a good kid. Quinn really had raised him well. She slid into the driver's seat. She'd be sure to tell Quinn that when he woke up.

Tessa stood up with a jerk. "Hey!"

But it was too late. She had it floored and spun out in a cloud of dust. Hopefully they wouldn't find any decent cars to borrow. She was sure they would be on her tail eventually, but as long as she had a reasonable head start, they wouldn't catch her.

And she had a destination in mind. All that remained was a few hundred miles of desolate road.

* * *

Deven came out of the motorhome and into a cloud of dust kicked up from the quickly retreating car. Should he chase it? Could he catch up if he was in wolf form?

Probably not.

He joined Tessa where she was standing next to the human. "Did she say anything about where she was taking them?"

"You mean before she kidnapped Quinn… again?"

"Yeah." Without knowing what was happening, how could he decide on a proper response? Should he be trying to save Quinn or not? What if he stayed out of it and later regretted not trying to help?

"Not a word."

"Shit." Now what the hell should they do? "I don't understand what is happening between those two."

"Romance, I think. Although, I don't think I've ever seen that particular version."

He looked down at the guy who was just quietly listening to their banter. "What's your name?"

"Jimmy Andrews"

"Why does that sound familiar?"

Tessa answered, "He's Joseph's neighbor. He went missing the night that family was attacked." Silently she continued, "To think he was being dragged along all this time. It's no wonder he looks so roughed up."

She was right. The poor kid had likely been with Georgie for most of a year. "How did you get all mixed up in this?"

Jimmy stood up and dusted off his jeans. "I was hanging out with my neighbors when some psycho busted in and started hurting them. My buddy shoved me into a closet. Once it got all quiet, Geo pulled me out and took me with him."

"Geo? You mean Georgie. He took you hostage. Did he hurt you?"

"Nah, he was too messed up. It was weird but not that bad. He just needed me to look after him." He looked down the road that was visible again now that the dust was settling. "Do you think she's going to kill him?"

"Do you think she should?"

"Might be the kindest choice. I've never met such a heartbroken guy."

Deven was surprised by the guy's compassion. Maybe Georgie hadn't treated him badly but the whole situation had to have been traumatic. "You said you were close with the neighbors who were attacked. Did you know their son, Joseph very well?"

"He was my best friend."

He had a thought… What if the two could be reunited? "Maybe he still is."

"What do you mean? Is Joey still alive?" The hope in his voice was nice to hear. It was the first inflection of any kind.

But just being friends wasn't going to be enough of a reason to bring them together. "Did you understand what Geo was?"

"Yeah. I'd have to be a real moron to not pick up on those obvious clues."

"And you still chose to stay with him, knowing that?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Good…" The kid seemed to have a calm, accepting attitude about the existence of vampires. "I think you should come back to our headquarters to meet someone. I think he'd like to see you again, too."

Tess brushed her hand over his arm. "But first we need to figure out where she's taking them."

"Any suggestions on how we do that?"

"Who do you think I am?" Her eyes sparkled with excitement. She obviously already had a plan.

"The most amazing woman ever born?"

"Sweet talker." She smiled at him. "I put a tracker on Quinn. We can follow them anywhere. We'll just have to remember to knock before entering any bedrooms."

"Do you think we should call Zeven?"

"Maybe." He didn't really feel like they needed back up. He was pretty sure Maddie didn't intend to hurt anyone, even though he was certain she was strong enough to do so. "He can at least escort Jimmy back to the agency for a checkup and to meet with our other team member."