W\\CKED

Devour and Destroy

[Sanny]

There were a dozen cars parked in front of the main house of the estate when we arrived, including an ambulance from Blythe's private hospital. (They provided private emergency medical services to all their clients, which helped to justify the cosmically high fees they charged.)

Abrams clearly jumped to the worst case scenario his imagination could conceive of when his daughter went missing. To be fair, she was attacked by an undead guy and almost became pavement pancake—but her dad didn't know that and I didn't intend to tell him. He was hardcore enough without knowing fanged devils were trying to rip his daughter's throat open.

My plan (which I explained to Juliet five minutes before we reached the estate) was to tell him we were hanging out backstage with the band and Kaydrien when someone accidentally set some curtains on fire, which led to the building exploding into a ball of fire and we were the only ones who had miraculously made it out in one piece. He'd buy that, right? Because as paranoid as he was, I didn't think he'd buy into the reality of eternal teenage vampires trying to rip our throats open.

The gate guard waved us in. By the time we reached the house, Juliet's father was running down the steps. He took one look at his daughter's blank expression and distressed state and started barking orders.

We were taken into his study, where a female physician looked us over. She asked me what happened while we were out, but didn't probe for details when I gave vague answers. Griffin came in with some clean clothing; he and the physician helped Juliet change, as she seemed too weak to do anything on her own, while they let me slip into the bathroom off the study to change into clothes from a stash of my own stuff that I kept in Juliet's room due to my sleeping over so often.

My best friend silently complied with every instruction given to her by the nurse and her dad. She hadn't spoken a single word since Dae attacked her.

Abrams was pacing near the fireplace. When I finished telling my fake story, he pressed a finger to the ear cuff he wore. "Dial Brandon." (pause) "Are you at the club? Kaydrien may still be inside. Can you get in—" He fell silent, staring at the flames dancing in the fireplace as he listened intently.

How did he know where we'd gone before I told him? What was Brandon doing there?

"In what condition..." Then Abrams exhaled sharply. "That black-blooded—" He then took in a long, deep breath and continued in a cool tone: "Proceed as you normally would under these circumstances." 

He turned my way. I cringed as he leveled a barely contained fury at me. "Sandra, did Dae bite my daughter?"

I stopped breathing.

He loomed in front of me, a hundred and seventy tightly-packed pounds of menace. "Did he bite her?"

I tried to breathe, really I did. But this was beyond the last reaches of my sanity and my whole body was wound up tight enough to explode into a thousand pieces if I said one word.

How come you know? How much do you know? How LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN? I wanted to scream.

The only response I could give was to shake my head.

He shut his eyes. His body eased. When he opened them again, he was the overprotective but self-restrained father figure I was used to.

"Now," he said calmly, "you're going to tell me every last detail about what actually happened tonight, no matter how impossible you think it is to believe."

Just like that? I was expected to shove aside how I was feeling and tell him what he wanted to know? "Like hell I will!"

His jaw clenched. He moved into my personal space again. "That wasn't a request."

"I've been kicked around like a chorro enough for one night. If you want answers from me, you gotta give answers first!"

He leaned even closer. "Because of you, my daughter spent the last two hours at the mercy of the same blood-sucking scum that killed her mother and brother twelve years ago."

I struggled to digest this vile revelation. "A vampire killed your family?" My stomach surged so hard I pressed both hands against my mouth. "Dae was that vampire?"

"He is the one," Abrams said, "who ripped their heads off."

He stepped aside as I lurched to my feet. I stumbled in J's direction. I dropped to my knees in front of her. She said nothing as I wrapped my fingers tightly around hers, but her eyes were wet with tears like she knew. Like she already fucking knew.

I laid my head on her lap and for a long time said nothing.

"Why did he do it?" I finally asked.

"That is what vampires do. They devour and destroy. That is all they do."

"He was the first guy who didn't reject her because of..." I trailed off. It was too horrible to comprehend.

"Because of the mark on her cheek? He put it there to claim her."

"No." I buried my face deeper in her lap. "No, no, no, no, no."

"I need you to tell me about every encounter you've had with Dae and his clan so that we can hunt the bastard down and mete out justice."

"You think your bodyguards can take him down?" I replied skeptically. "I saw him grow wings! He'll drop you from a hundred feet if you attack him!"

Abrams turned to Griffin. "Fire up the bulldozer. We're taking the girls on a field trip."

"Now?!" I exclaimed in disbelief. "What the hell for?"

"I'm going to show you just how capable we are of meting out justice."