The Last of the Twenty: Broken Pawns

Chapter 41

Nadia pulled into Raymond's driveway to find Ethan waving her car into the garage. She could see the three wolves moving about around the house, constantly putting their noses to the air to test the wind. She pulled in and shit the car down, jumping with surprise when Ethan slammed the door down the moment she had parked. Delilah glanced over and patted Nadia's leg. "Don't worry, honey, we'll get through this."

Nadia nodded and smiled in return. "I really need to call my mother though, I'm sure she's worried sick. I haven't talked to her since yesterday, she's probably called the police by now."

Delilah felt like she had been stabbed again. "She's not worried about you, I promise. Let's just worry about keeping you safe for now, ok?"

"How do you know she's not worried?" Nadia asked, suspicious.

Delilah's jaw clenched. She was going to kill Ethan for this. "Ethan sent her away, honey. Just until this is over."

Nadia looked crestfallen. "Did he, you know, like me?" she asked. Her few memories of that experience had not been pleasant ones. She hated to think of Margret locked away somewhere in a daze.

Guilt swelled up in Delilah's chest. If this is how his life was working for Gabriel she wasn't sure she'd want to be part of his order. Too many lies, too much deception. How Ethan lived with it all was beyond her understanding. Delilah could feel the truth on the tip of her tongue, trying to push itself free, but Ethan opened Nadia's door before she could speak, cutting off her confession.

"We need to get inside." He said.

She followed Ethan into the kitchen to find Gabriel speaking in whispers to a small grey-haired man. A younger couple could be seen sitting together in the next room watching the conversation. The man talking to Gabriel looked up as they entered the kitchen. He seemed to blatantly ignore Ethan, focusing only on Nadia and greeting her with a nervous smile. "This must be her." He said.

Nadia crossed the room and held out her hand. "I'm Nadia Roberts, thank you for letting me hide here."

Raymond too her hand in both his own His smile was a mixture of relief and pity. "Raymond Stewart, it's a pleasure to have another human in the house."

"Yea, it's a little strange for me too, all this." Nadia said. The couple she had noticed earlier walked in, the man held his hand out first.

"Keith, nice to meet you." He said grinning, "It's strange for us too, but I guess it's something we have to get used to."

The girl standing beside Keith looked somewhat familiar. Nadia was sure she'd seen her before, she just couldn't think of where. "Have we met before?" she asked.

The girl looked up at Keith and laughed, "Seems like you did a good job." She said, holding her own hand out. "I'm Kelly Johnson. We've never met but I recognize you from school."

Nadia shook her hand, surprised at how cold Kelly's skin was to the touch. "Are you a vampire too?" she asked.

Kelly nodded with a mixture of sadness and acceptance. "Yea, but I'm only a couple days old, as that one over there would say." She said, nodding to Gabriel. "I was attacked in the woods last week."

"I'm so sorry." Nadia said, squeezing her hand.

Kelly's lip quivered, "Nothing I can do now but adapt. At least I have support with it." She leaned her head against Keith, who threw his arm around her shoulders.

"Good luck with that one, honey." Delilah said as she walked into the room. She motioned at Keith, "If you're serious about him you may want to turn him before he gets too old to be interesting." She told Kelly with a wink.

Kelly looked up at Keith, his jaw had dropped when she walked in. Kelly hit him gently on the shoulder, shooting him a look. He grinned sheepishly, "Sorry, babe." He said, winking down at her.

Kelly rolled her eyes. "So what's the plan?" she asked no one in particular, pulling Keith away from Delilah.

Gabriel stood from the table. "You three are going to stay here and keep an eye on Nadia. Kelly, the vampires hunting her down don't have your scent, so I want to stick around in case one or two don't follow the rest of us. You two keep your guns on you as well," he said, glancing between Keith and Raymond, "shoot them straight under the chin if they're facing you or at the base of the skull if not. You'll sever their spines. It won't kill a vampire, but it'll knock them down and give you about ten minutes to get away."

Raymond nodded, "Good to know. You been getting your practice in, boy?" he asked Keith.

Keith grinned and lifted his shirt to reveal his gun. "More than you have, old man, I can guarantee that."

"I hope so, you may need it." Ethan said.

"I have no doubt a couple of the vampires from the inn will have followed the pack here. Once they get scent of one they'll start howling. That's our signal to head out. Ethan, Delilah and I will head out in different directions, but we'll each have a wolf following. We'll take them out one by one. They'll be weaker than us since I don't think their master cares enough to let them hunt. Once they're all dead we'll follow their scent back to their master. We won't be able to kill him, but if we can manage to surprise him and tear him apart it'll take him decades to find another body. By then we should be able to get Nadia someplace safe where they won't find her in this lifetime." Gabriel said.

"You think it'll work?" Ethan asked.

Gabriel nodded, "It's the best chance we got. From what Raymond told me, I don't think more than half a dozen or so vampires have been made. I hope he's right, but I'm not going to assume we're that lucky. Either way, they have the numbers. But we took the advantage back, making them come to us. They won't be able to fight both a vampire and werewolf at once if we force them to separate, otherwise they could overwhelm us."

"Wait a minute," Nadia interrupted, "what do you mean by send me away? If you're going to take this thing out why should I have to leave? I love it here."

"I'm sorry, Nadia, but he's right." Ethan said. "This angel's been killing off girls in your family for a long time, and now he's possessing vampires to go after you. Even if we manage to win, there's no guarantee he won't be back sooner than later."

"We also don't know if he's acting alone." Gabriel said. "To stay in town would be a mistake. They seem to be attracted to this town, and to you."

"I still can't wrap my head around all this," Raymond said, "accepting that angels are walking around town, and after seeing everything else I'm inclined to believe it, why would they be trying to harm this little girl?"

"That's the million dollar question, one I can't answer." Gabriel said.

A chorus of howling erupted in the distance, three distinct sounds coming from three different directions. The vampires were coming, and they were surrounding the house, cutting off escape. Delilah slipped her hand into Ethan's, holding on tightly for comfort. "They're here." She whispered.

"Nadia," Gabriel said, "I don't mean to embarrass you, but I need your shirt."

Nadia's face turned red. "Why?" she said suspiciously.

"For your scent. We'll each take a piece so the vampires follow us away from the house." He snapped his fingers, "Come on, we don't have time."

"Hold on," Raymond said, quickly ducking into the hallway. He came back in with a windbreaker in hand and tossed it to Nadia. "Go around the corner, we'll wait here."

"Thank you." She said, slipping out of the room. She returned a moment later and threw the shirt at Gabriel, who quickly tore it into three pieces. They tied the torn fabric around their writs, each letting a strip hang down like a ribbon.

"Remember what I told you, sever the spine." He said to Raymond.

"Just keep those things away from my house." Raymond responded.

Moments later Gabriel, Ethan, and Delilah haddisappeared from the kitchen. The howling of the three wolves was close enoughto shake the walls of the house. The fight had begun.