“I can sense which room she’s in. I could easily break in and get her.”
“Yes, yes, go, please,” I urged.
He leaned in and kissed me quickly on the lips. “Just out of curiosity, what are we going to do with the girl when we have her?”
“I’m going to return her to her mother as I said.”
“Ah, okay. For a moment there I thought you wanted to keep her for yourself.” Now he grinned.
“No way!” I exclaimed. “I don’t have a clue how to raise a kid.” Although saying that, if her mother wasn’t fit to take her, I’d certainly give it a try. Rebecca was ten, so it wouldn’t be too hard to care for her, right? Not as scary as being handed a new-born baby, anyway.
Ethan swiftly got out of the car. I watched as he used his vampire speed and agility to climb up the side of the building, landing on the roof. From there, he dropped down onto a balcony and slipped inside a pair of French doors. Seconds later, he emerged with Rebecca struggling in his arms. I suddenly realised that she might’ve remembered Ethan from her first abduction by Whitfield. He didn’t have any contact with her during that time, but he was there during my standoff with Whitfield and Eliza. Another second passed, and he was climbing into the car with a crying Rebecca. As soon as she saw me, though, she quit struggling.
“Tegan?” she whispered in disbelief.
“Hey, honey, come sit on my lap,” I said, a feeling of relief washing over me.
“You came for me again,” she exclaimed as she crawled over to me, and I gave her a big, squeezy hug.
“I did.”
Her momentary happy expression faltered while Ethan put the car in gear and started driving away from the manor. “Miss Emilia said my daddy is dead. Is it true?”
God, what a bitch. I couldn’t believe she told Rebecca about Pamphrock’s death already.
“Yeah, honey, it’s true. I’m so sorry,” I said, gently stroking her hair.
Tears began to fill her eyes as she clutched onto me tightly. We’d just driven through the gates when I heard a sharp wail emanate from the manor.
“You better put your foot on it,” I said to Ethan. “It sounds like Emilia’s already discovered Rebecca’s gone.”
The little girl held my hand tight. “I don’t like her.”
I smiled. “Who would? She’s crazy.”
My gaze was drawn to the overhead mirror. A town car had suddenly sped up behind us. At the wheel was Emilia’s butler, and Emilia sat in the passenger seat, a wild expression on her face.
“Don’t let her take me again,” Rebecca pled, tears spilling from her eyes as her lower lip trembled. “She said I had to change my name to Darya. I don’t want to be called Darya. My name is Rebecca.”
Lord, Emilia was even crazier than I originally thought.
“I won’t let her,” I told her firmly, tightening my hold around her.
Ethan’s car swerved as a stream of Emilia’s sparks lashed against the side of the vehicle.
“I don’t think she’ll come across the river into vampire territory. How far are we from a bridge?” I asked.
“Two minutes,” Ethan answered before stomping his foot down on the gas pedal.
We were out of reach of Emilia’s sparks now, and I saw her in the distance behind us, half her body sticking out the top of her car through the sunroof. She threw her hands in front of her, streams of magic flowing from her palms. I almost regretted having taken Rebecca and making a true enemy of my grandmother when I saw the insane look in her eyes.
We got onto one of the busier shopping streets where lots of people were looting the abandoned stores. Emilia was so crazed that she didn’t even bother to disguise her magic with a glamour. Several people paused their looting to gape at her, slack-jawed.
She began weaving fire through her sparks, and as it descended on Ethan’s car, it burned through several men and women who had been unfortunate enough to be crossing the road. Their singed, blackened bodies left a trail behind us.
Fuck.
Panic erupted, and those left on the street started to flee.
I remembered Emilia describing the sparks as ‘electrical fire’, but I’d never been able to do anything like that with mine. I couldn’t believe she just killed a shitload of people simply because they were in her way.
“She’s F-U-C-K-ing nuts,” I shouted at Ethan, spelling out the word so as not to swear in front of Rebecca, despite this being such a swear-worthy occasion right now.
“Yep,” he agreed, swerving around a corner.
I spotted a bridge coming up ahead, looking like salvation in worn steel. My panicked heartrate slowed as we neared it just as something banged loudly against the side of the car. The next thing I knew, Ethan was curling his body around both mine and Rebecca’s to shield us from the impending impact. Emilia’s magic flipped the car completely over.
All I felt was his solid, impenetrable muscle protecting us as Rebecca started to cry again. Less than a second later it was over.
“Are you okay?” Ethan asked, staring down at me.
“I think so. We need to get out of here and over that bridge.”
“I know, hold still.”
He reached out and pushed at the door beside me. It groaned under his strength and, seconds later, fell off, meeting the ground with a loud clang. Whoa. I had a feeling that was something he couldn’t do before he drank my blood. Ethan took Rebecca from me, and I crawled out as he followed behind. A crowd had gathered to ogle the wreckage. I readied myself for Emilia’s next attack, but it never came.
I looked around in bewilderment. The car she and her butler had been in was nowhere to be seen. That was when my attention was drawn to the freakish giggling coming from overhead. My eyes travelled up the building in front of me until I saw two figures standing on the roof dressed in all black. No, that wasn’t right—there were three figures. One of them was Emilia, but she was unconscious as Theodore held her in his arms. Beside him was Rita, who gazed down at me without expression.
A swirl of purple smoke surrounded them, and when it dissolved, all three of them had disappeared.
“What the hell?” I whispered. What did Theodore want with Emilia?
Ethan stepped up beside me still carrying Rebecca. “Did you see what I just saw?” I asked him.
“Yes, it was Theodore,” he confirmed.
“He took Emilia.”
“He probably wants to use her for something. Perhaps he thinks she’ll join his side.”
“Wonderful,” I grunted.
He grabbed my hand. “Come. We must get into vampire territory before they come back.”
I nodded, though I didn’t think Theodore was coming back just yet.
When we reached Ethan’s house, I put Rebecca to sleep in one of the guest bedrooms. All the action had drained her energy. She only had a small bruise on her temple, though, which was lucky since Ethan’s car had been totalled. It was a good thing he was there to shield us from most of the impact.
Once I left her, I went and ran a bath, while Ethan was downstairs meeting with the last of the vampires from yesterday. I unplugged my phone from where it had been charging in Ethan’s room and brought it into the bath with me. Ethan mentioned something about being unable to make any calls, but it looked like I finally had a signal again. The moment I turned it on it started beeping with messages from Amanda that had been sent the other night.