4-Ever Hidden: Vampire Hunter (4-Ever Hunted Book 3), page 25
One thing was for sure, he wasn’t going to risk saving anyone else. He’d had big plans for that dollhouse. An hour ago he had believed he could save his father, his brother Billy, and maybe even his biological mother. Now he realized it was too dangerous. The so-called Butterfly Effect was real. People who tampered with the past ultimately destroyed the future. For all he knew if he went back to get Ian Carver, he’d push the world into an early extinction event.
What should he do with the dollhouse?
Should he risk using it again?
Or should he destroy it?
♪
The stake sank into his chest.
He turned to dust.
Oberon stood over him laughing.
Panic grabbed him by the throat, and a hand smoothed over the side of his face as reality and dream collided. He bolted upright, startling Scarlet. She was sitting next to him on the bed, stroking his hair. She snatched her hand back as if burned. Before she could leap away from him, he caught her by the wrist and forced a smile for her benefit.
“You were having a nightmare,” she said.
“I’m still dreaming about Oberon killing me. At least it’s only a few times a week now.”
“Something like that is hard to get over. You aren’t a wimp, you know. Just human.”
“Glad to hear you think so.” He took a deep breath and made a second confession. “Baxter thought I should seek therapy. She called it PTSD.”
“Like soldiers get?”
“I guess.”
She nodded. “Makes sense. You were in a war with Oberon, and he did kill you. I still can’t believe how close we came to never seeing you again.”
“You wouldn’t have had to miss me for long. Oberon would have killed you next.”
“You really know how to make a girl feel special.”
Dani was two doors down from them, hopefully sleeping with Carter next to her. He mentally struggled over what to do about the dog. In the past, Oberon had used animals to spy on them. They had one thing in their favor. Jersey still had Oberon’s scepter in his possession, so the faerie king wasn’t at full power. That could mean he wasn’t able to use animals anymore. Trick just wished he knew for sure.
“You do understand why I brought Dani here, don’t you? Oberon already killed Baxter. I didn’t want him to return for her.”
Scarlet frowned. “But he killed Baxter more than a week ago. I don’t get why you waited this long to bring Dani here if she’s in danger.” Her forehead scrunched, and her brows drew together. “Where has she been anyway? I don’t remember seeing her at school.”
Trick thought the rules to time travel were interesting. It was too bad he had to learn them the hard way. Saving Dani gave him far more information than his experiments. Now he knew supernatural creatures remembered both timelines, and he knew that mortals didn’t remember things that never happened. Dani went missing over a week ago, but the magical dollhouse didn’t fill that space of memory with anything. It was just blank.
He opened his mouth, no idea what to say.
Matt entered without knocking, and Trick smiled at his brother.
“Can you give us a minute?” Trick asked Scarlet. “I need to talk to Matt. Alone. It’s important.”
She reluctantly stood and exited the room, moving as slow as a person could without stopping completely. Her eyes locked onto Matt as if he would give her a clue as to why they needed to be alone. Waste of time. Matt didn’t know anything.
As soon as the door clicked softly behind her, Matt let him have it. “Summer told me what you did. What is wrong with you? No one should mess with time travel. You could have gotten stuck in the past or died or destroyed the planet or—”
Trick held a hand up to stop the rant. “I had to save Dani.”
“How many dominoes did you knock over?” Matt jabbed a finger at him. “And don’t lie and tell me everything is fine. You can’t save someone who was supposed to die without messing up something.”
“She wasn’t supposed to die. She died because of something I did, so I just undid it.”
Matt’s jaw tightened. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Trick stood. He didn’t like other people hovering over him during a confrontation, and being on his feet gave him extra confidence. “Baxter fixed things between me and our parents. Sean came around to our way of thinking. She convinced him I’m still me and not a monster bent on world destruction.”
“I don’t remember that.”
“Only supernatural creatures remember the timeline that got erased. Trust me. Sean accepted me, and things were good. But since Baxter died before having the talk with him it never happened.”
Matt took a moment to digest that bit of information. Then he asked, “Is that it? Is that the only domino that got knocked over?”
“Yes.”
After reassuring his brother everything in the world was back to normal, he returned to bed. He needed sleep more than he needed to talk. Hopefully, Scarlet wouldn’t put it together. She’d hate him if she found out what he had done. When it came to Dani, his girlfriend was over the top jealous. Although she was compassionate in other situations, she wouldn’t want to hear he’d gone back in time to save the other girl.
Part of him wished he hadn’t done it. He was glad Dani was alive, but Baxter was dead because of him. He hated having that hanging over his head, especially if karma was a real thing. He closed his eyes and sought sleep.
♪
He crumpled another sheet of paper on the desk and shot it into the wastebasket from across the den. Two points. Weary, his cheeks puffed up with air, and he blew it out in an audible breath. Sleep had eluded him so he finally gave up. Three of Star Banner’s books, several loose sheets of notebook paper, and two pens waited near his hands for inspiration to strike. He still had a book report to write for Jersey Clifford. Time was running out. If he didn’t do it soon, he wouldn’t graduate with the rest of his class. Logic told him he didn’t need a diploma. Sean wasn’t talking to him, and Laura wouldn’t risk their tenuous relationship by criticizing his choices.
But his biological father had gone to college. Ian Carver had earned a degree in Education and used it to teach high school students. Knowing his father would be disappointed in him if he didn’t at least earn a high school diploma pushed him to try harder. Maybe there was an after-life. If so, he didn’t want to have to explain to Ian why he hadn’t done better in school.
He grabbed the book closest to his fingers and flipped through the pages. He hated to admit it, but he enjoyed reading about the Faerie Realm. Unfortunately, he hadn’t found any clues that would help him defeat Oberon. Although the faerie king was mentioned once in a while, the author hadn’t given many details. She seemed more interested in describing the world itself. Greenish air that was almost as thick as water with pieces of fluff floating. The description reminded him of the night Oberon killed him.
According to the books, trees and flowers created music that started off faint and grew louder as a person approached. That realm didn’t have rain, but the air was wet enough to satiate nature’s thirst. Most faeries didn’t work actual jobs. The ones that did worked for Oberon. Their job was to sneak into the Mortal Realm and steal things from humans. Oberon didn’t have servants. The faerie king used magic to take care of his needs. If he wanted food, he made it appear.
Trick grabbed his pen and tapped it against the top sheet of paper. Useless information tumbled around his brain. He had no idea what to write. Even though Jersey didn’t give him a word count for the book report, he felt pressured to make it good.
Scarlet barged into the den and slammed the door behind her.
“Can you help me with this stupid book report?” he asked.
Her eyes narrowed on him as if she’d found something disgusting on the bottom of her shoe. “I know what you did.”
He froze. “What did I do?”
Her mouth opened and closed several times. She was so angry she couldn’t speak and that worried Trick. He couldn’t remember seeing her speechless before. Her eyes looked as wild as her hair. What could he have possibly done to fill her with such rage?
He set the pen down and slowly stood. The desk separated them. At the moment, he thought it might be a good idea to keep it that way. If he was close enough to touch her, he would. He wouldn’t be able to help himself. The problem was Scarlet hated being touched when she was mad. It seemed to fuel the anger burning in her gut.
“How could you do it?” she asked.
He spread his hands. “What? What did I do?”
“You brought Dani Foster back to life.” Her eyes glistened as if she were on the verge of crying. “You risked everything to save her even though she was already dead.”
“Who told you? Was it Summer? Matt?”
“What difference does it make?”
“I want to know who to kill.”
She folded her arms. “Is violence your answer to everything?”
He shook his head at her, jaw tight. “Don’t pretend you don’t like it. Your eyes light up every time I kill a vamp. Wasn’t it you who compared me to Michael Jordan?”
Scarlet walked around the den with a sour look on her face. Her eyes avoided his. Maybe she was afraid he would smile and she’d forgive him. She stopped to trace a finger over a dusty bookshelf. “You keep telling me Dani isn’t important to you, that you don’t still want her, but your actions speak louder than your words. You asked her to be a vampire, but you don’t want to turn me. Then you travel back in time to save her life.” Scarlet laughed without humor. “Why do I get the feeling you wouldn’t do that for me?”
“That is not true.” How could he convince her that he loved her in a way he’d never loved Dani when she seemed determined to believe otherwise? “I would totally go back in time for you.”
“A relationship can’t work if only one person is in love.”
She walked to the door.
“I want to be with you, Scarlet!”
“I believe you believe that.” She pulled on the twisted red cords around her wrist. They snapped and dropped to the floor. “Goodbye, Patrick.”
She left, and he stared at the empty doorway in shock. His eyes went to the broken red leather on the floor. She must have cut them before entering the room. They were too tough to break by hand... unless her anger had given her added strength like the Hulk.
Were they finished?
Trick went to the window, looked down at the circular driveway, and watched Scarlet climb into her father’s car. She’d borrowed it again, probably so she could take her stuff with her. He hated it that she planned to move back home. That meant she was serious. He might have lost her forever.
Down below Scarlet sat in her car for several minutes without turning the engine on. Hope inflated his heart. She rested her forehead on the steering wheel. Maybe she was having second thoughts. He was sure she would exit the car and return to him any second.
The taillights burned red.
She drove off.
♪
It was Saturday, but Trick knew the werewolf-teacher was heading up detention again. Instead of getting himself into trouble so he could take part, Trick waited for Jersey in his classroom. He took a moment to go through the guy’s desk. Nothing. Jersey was too smart to leave anything important in the open for someone like him to find.
He had two reasons to visit Jersey today. First, he was curious to know if Jersey knew about the differing timelines. Second, he needed to hand in his book report and collect the half-credit so he could graduate with everyone else. That was if he stopped skipping classes. So far, the teachers had been cool about it as long as he kept up with the work. He’d told them about his parents throwing him out. That gained him some pity points.
Jersey frowned upon entering. “Do you have detention today?”
“I came to turn in my report.”
Jersey’s gaze narrowed on the single page. “Where’s the rest of it?”
“That’s it. But what I wrote says it all. Go ahead. Read it.”
Jersey read it out loud since they were alone. “If someone were clever enough to steal Oberon’s scepter and wipe out his faeries, they would become ruler of the Faerie Realm. But... they wouldn’t have anyone left to rule over.”
“You killed them,” Trick said. “Then you started turning people, men to werewolves and women to wraiths, and you put them in the Faerie Realm where no one could see what you’d done. I watch the news. Some people have developed weird fevers before disappearing completely.”
Slow clap, Jersey brought his hands together with a loud echoing sound. “Bravo. I hate to admit it, but I was clearly wrong about you. I didn’t think you had enough brain cells to figure it out.”
Trick’s anger simmered. “How do you like my book report? Do I get an A?”
Jersey’s mouth twisted and his expression turned into an amused scowl. He placed the book report on his desk, grabbed a red pen, and put a big A at the top. “Congratulations, Mr. Donovan. You will graduate with the rest of your class.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“As a matter of fact, there is one more thing.” Trick folded his arms. “Do you know about Dani Foster?”
“Are you talking about how she died and then came back? Do you know who did it? Was it Oberon?”
So Jersey was aware of the contradicting timelines, but he did not know Trick was behind her return. That was good news. Trick didn’t want his enemies to find out about the dollhouse. There was no telling what they would do.
The facts seemed simple enough to him. Oberon had to know about the differing timelines because he was a supernatural being. But he probably didn’t know Trick was behind it.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Piece by Piece
After giving Dani time to process, Trick was ready to take her to Arizona. She sat on the couch in the mansion’s living room, while he stood nearby. The vampires had gone to bed, foil over their bedroom windows to block out the sun. The house was abnormally quiet. Scarlet had left them alone so she could do her homework. Dani looked like she hadn’t slept since he’d retrieved her. Wearing the same clothes she’d had on yesterday, she played with the zipper on her blue sweatshirt. She slid the zipper up and down while staring into space.
“I think we should go,” he said. “You won’t be safe until you’re in another state.”
Her head turned slightly, and her bloodshot eyes focused on his face as if just noticing he was in the room. “I thought you were taking me home to get my clothes.”
“Too dangerous. I’ll give you money, as much as you want. You can get a new wardrobe in Arizona.”
“There are other things I want from the house, things money can’t buy like pictures.”
Trick sighed. “Give me a list, and I’ll get them for you.”
Fresh tears filled her brown eyes. “I can’t remember everything. When I see the stuff, I’ll know what I want. I have to go myself.”
He sat on the couch’s arm and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You can’t go back to the house.”
“I’m going, and you can’t stop me!”
Trick opened his mouth to argue, but she started sobbing so hard her entire body shook. In truth, he would rather face an army of shadow faeries than a crying girl. Fortunately, he’d seen Sean handle Laura when she was in a similar emotional state. He patted Dani on the back, but it felt awkward.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said with reluctance. “Let’s go get your stuff.”
He stood.
She jumped onto him, looping her arms around his neck, and squeezed him until he didn’t think he’d ever breathe normally again. His hands hesitantly went to her back. He held her for a fraction of a second before pushing her away. The last thing he needed was for Scarlet to double-back and catch them in an embrace. Because of his secret rescue mission, he was on the verge of losing Scarlet already. He needed to find her and make things right somehow.
He gave Dani a brief rundown of things. His flat matter-of-fact tone could be blamed on mental exhaustion, the shock of Baxter being dead, and Scarlet’s hurt feelings. Giving Dani the bare facts, he tried to distance himself from the sobbing girl. But she pulled him into another embrace. This time he didn’t fight it. Truthfully, it felt good to hold someone who needed to be held as much as he did.
He kissed the side of her head and whispered soothing words in her ear. “It’s going to be okay. I promise. Everything will be okay.”
Scarlet gasped behind him, and the sound was like a gunshot to his ears.
Startled, he jumped out of the embrace, knocking Dani down in the process. She landed on the couch. His biggest concern was Scarlet. He didn’t want anything to make it worse, but by the look on her face he knew it was already too late. Maybe karma was finally catching up with him after all the girls he had purposely let walk in on him with someone else just to keep them from getting fuzzy ideas about him.
“I’m taking Dani to Arizona,” he said.
Scarlet made a face. “Oh, so you have to hug now to teleport?”
“She’s upset over Baxter.”
Dani raised her hand as if she needed to let them know she was still in the room. “She is also upset that she has to leave everything and everyone she knows behind.” After glaring at them both, Dani walked to the terrace doors and stared outside. “Can’t believe I have to leave town right before graduation. I’m on the prom committee, and I had plans with my friends. We were supposed to have one last spa day together. Now everything is ruined.” She turned to scowl at Trick. “Because of you.”
“Hey,” Scarlet said, stepping all the way into the room. “This isn’t Trick’s fault. Your father was a hunter long before Trick was born.”
“Whatever,” Dani said in a dismissive tone. “All I know is my world got turned upside-down. My father was a hunter for years, yes, but I didn’t know that. He protected me from it, and he didn’t get killed until Trick started playing games with the king of faeries.”
