Chapter 55

CHAPTER 55

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

“ W here are we going?” Caleb mumbled nervously as Shane tightened his hold around his little brother’s hand while he stood there, trying to figure out where they were.

“Away from here,” Shane said as he took in all the people rushing past them, the cars weaving in and out of traffic, the sounds of horns honking, the people screaming at each other and-

“I’m scared,” Caleb mumbled sadly as Shane pulled Emily closer to move her out of the way of a man screaming into his phone.

“Everything’s going to be fine,” Shane absently said as he looked over his shoulder to make sure that no one was following them before shifting his attention back to the building that he was pretty sure they’d already walked past and added, “We need to keep moving.”

He moved to take a step towards the crosswalk only to sigh heavily and lead the twins off to the side so that he could figure out where they were. “Don’t move,” he said, giving Caleb a look that he prayed that his brother didn’t ignore and pulled his iPad out of the bag he stole from Jill.

“I don’t like it here,” Caleb said as he reached over and grabbed Emma’s hand.

“We’re not staying here,” Shane promised as he pulled up the map that he found a few days ago only to curse when he realized that they were back where they’d started.

Slowly exhaling, Shane looked for the train station that would take them far away from here and give him a chance to figure out what he was going to do until he reached his immortality and could protect them. This had to work because if it didn’t…

He didn’t know what he was going to do.

For the past few months, he’d been biding his time, knowing that he only had a few months before he reached his immortality and they stopped pretending. He knew that there was no way that he would be able to get Caleb and Emma out of the penthouse on his own, not with the shifters and demons guarding the building. He’d been hoping that Jill would figure out a way, but now he knew that she’d been part of this from the beginning. She was in love with the leech and had just been pretending that she was here against her will so that they would trust her.

After he realized that she’d lied to them, Shane started making plans and waited until the perfect moment to make his move. After everyone fell asleep in the closet, he’d waited until Tomas left to do whatever it was that he did for Logan every morning before he put his plan into action. He’d grabbed the backpack that Jill hid beneath the mattress before he made his way to the nightstand and swiped Logan’s cellphone.

Once he managed to wake the twins up and told them that it was time to go, Shane used Logan’s phone to open all the blinds in the house and smashed the control for the closet door shutter before tossing the phone aside and headed downstairs to find the car he’d ordered online for them waiting. Ten minutes later, they were on the first bus heading out of town.

Now, he just needed to figure out where the train station was and everything would be fine. With that, Shane shoved the iPad back in the bag and glanced around them, making sure that they hadn’t been followed before he reached back down and took the twins’ hands in his. “Let’s go,” Shane said, knowing that they needed to keep moving before someone found them.

“We’re lost,” Caleb said, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth as he moved closer to his side.

“We’re not lost,” Shane lied, looking for anything that looked promising.

“Then, where are we?” Caleb asked as he reached over and grabbed hold of his sweatshirt.

“We’re waiting,” Shane said, following that up by muttering, “Come on,” to himself as he searched for help.

“For what?”

“Something,” Shane murmured absently only to swallow hard when the only thing he found was a hot dog vendor glaring at everyone.

In the movies, there were subway and train stations on every street corner, but there was nothing here but cars, huge buildings, and a lot of angry people rushing past them. They’d been walking around for hours looking for the train station, but the only thing they’d managed to do was get lost. He had no idea where they were, but he knew that they needed to keep moving and get out of there before the sun went down.

When he felt Emma’s hand tremble in his, he gave it a reassuring squeeze. Telling himself that everything was going to be fine, Shane found himself watching the hot dog vendor again and-

“Come on,” Shane said, tightening his hold around their hands and quickly made his way over to the hot dog cart only to jump out of the way to avoid the angry humans rushing past them.

“I’m hungry,” Caleb grumbled when they finally reached the cart.

They didn’t have time to eat, but he knew that if he didn’t feed Caleb soon that they’d have problems. “Fine,” Shane said, sighing heavily as he reluctantly released their hands with a mumbled, “Don’t move,” as he pulled the bag off his shoulders so that he could grab their money and-

“Hey!” Shane snapped when the bag was suddenly ripped out of his hands.

He moved to run after the guy who stole their bag only to feel his stomach drop when he felt Emma grab hold of his hand. Swallowing hard, Shane was forced to stand there and watch as the thief ran off with all their money.

“I wanna go home to Mommy,” Caleb mumbled sadly.

“She’s not your mother,” Shane said absently as he grabbed Caleb’s hand and quickly made his way to the hot dog cart.

“You gonna order something, kid?” the man demanded.

“Do you know where the train station is?” Shane asked, deciding that he would figure out how he was going to pay for their tickets later.

Sighing heavily, the man gestured towards the cart. “Either order something or get the hell out of line.”

“Look, we’re lost and-”

“She is, too, my mommy!” Caleb yelled, yanking his hand away.

“We don’t have time for this,” Shane said, sighing heavily as he reached for Caleb’s hand only to have his little brother stubbornly shake his head as he backed away.

“She’s my mommy!” Caleb yelled as he reached up and angrily wiped his eyes while his bottom lip trembled.

“Caleb, I- Caleb !” Shane shouted when Caleb suddenly took off, leaving him with no choice but to pick Emma up and run after him, watching in horror as his little brother ran down the sidewalk and-

“Caleb!” Shane screamed as he watched his little brother suddenly change direction and darted across the street, barely managing to get out of the way of a taxi and kept running.

He chased after Caleb, watching as his brother ducked into an alley. Tightening his hold around his sister, Shane ran into the alley and damn near sighed with relief when he realized that it was a dead-end.

“Thank God,” Shane said, kissing Emma’s forehead before placing her down on her feet and rushed over to his little brother.

“What the hell were you thinking running off like that?” Shane demanded as he grabbed his little brother and ran trembling hands over him, looking for any injuries.

Caleb pushed his hands away as he said, “I want to go home!”

Shaking his head, Shane reached for his little brother’s hand. “That’s not our home,” he said, only to sigh heavily when his brother stepped out of his reach.

“I wanna go home to Mommy and Daddy!” Caleb screamed, pissing him off.

“They’re not our parents!” Shane snapped.

“I want Mommy and Daddy!” Caleb screamed, making Emma cry.

“We don’t have time for this, Caleb,” Shane said, reaching for his brother only to have him frantically shake his head as he stumbled back.

“I want Mommy and Daddy!” Caleb screamed again.

“Stop it! They’re not our goddamn parents!” Shane snapped. “They’re just using us and as soon as they get what they want, they’re going to give us to someone else that’s going to hurt us. We need to keep moving!”

“No,” Caleb said, sniffling as he stubbornly shook his head. “They love us.”

“No, they don’t!” Shane snapped, reaching over and grabbed hold of his brother’s hand and this time when Caleb tried to pull his hand back, Shane tightened his hold and pulled him closer. “You know what’s going to happen to us if we go back, Caleb. They’re going to do the same thing that Julia did to us. We need to keep moving!” Shane shouted, watching as his brother flinched.

Swallowing hard, Caleb mumbled, “Okay,”

“We need to go,” Shane said, biting back a sigh as he turned around to grab Emma only to feel his stomach drop when he saw the large man holding Emma by the back of her neck. Shane swallowed hard when he saw the man’s eyes flash silver as more men joined them, trapping them as a large hand wrapped around the back of his neck. Seconds later, sharp claws sliced through his skin as he was forced to drop to his knees.

“Let them go!” Shane yelled, watching as his brother and sister were shoved to their knees.

“Where’s your Master, mutt?” the man holding him demanded, using his hold around his neck to tilt Shane’s head to the side, exposing his mark.

“I don’t have a Master,” Shane snapped, only to scream in pain when the claws at his neck cut in deeper in warning.

“Where’s your master?” he repeated as he grabbed a handful of Shane’s hair and yanked his head back so that he could watch as the man holding Caleb grabbed his arm and-

“NOOOOO!” Shane screamed as he watched him break Caleb’s tiny arm.

“Where’s your fucking Master?” the man holding him demanded while Shane was forced to kneel there, watching his little brother, who’d he promised to protect, cried when the man reached for his other arm and-

“Get your fucking hands off my children.”