Blood, Fangs, and Psychopaths

Chapter 11

A couple days have passed since the incident with Ronan and I am still planning, not that I have told anyone my plans. Things with the witches hasn't gotten any better and I was on the verge of losing my mind right here, right now.

"Earth to Aj." Annabella's voice cuts into my musings and a minor pang of guilt shoots through me as I raise my eyes to hers. I cannot help but freeze at the look that shines from her bright blue eyes. "Ariska is gone Aj." The witch had been missing for the last two days, disappearing ominously after the man had infiltrated their safe house. Not so safe anymore eh Ophelia, something about that witch just set me on edge. The other witches had been doing their best to track Ariska's life force, but they could never pinpoint her location they just knew she was alive.

"I'm guessing the witches couldn't find her life force again?" Annabella only nods at my question, though neither of us liked the witches we were here now and we needed to help them. "You think he took her, don't you? Killing and not sending us a present isn't his style though." I sigh rolling my eyes heavenwards, when did my life start revolving around understanding the thoughts and actions of a psychopath?

"He's changing Adeline." I wince at the use of my full name and sigh softly, I knew she was right. "He is becoming more reckless, bold and powerful isn't a combination you look for when picking an enemy." The words were barely through her lips when Ronan stormed through the door into the study and we stare up at him. His eyes reminded me of the deer I had been trying to hunt the night before, frightened and filled with primal panic.

"He has Emmett." The words spill from his lips as he tosses a stack of photographs onto the coffee table in front of us. They scatter open in front of us and immediately I wish I hadn't looked down at them, I knew immediately that those images were going to haunt me until the day I died.

"No. No. No, it can't be." The words are no more than a whisper as I squeeze my eyes shut, wishing the words to be true as a deep ache builds within my chest. I stare at the photographs in utter horrified terror. They show Emmett chained to a steel chair, the type you see in interrogation rooms in those cop movies. Blood, both old and new, covers every imaginable inch of him, his head hanging limply to the one side. In one photograph his once arrogant and taunting eyes now barely have a glimmer of life in their depths. Cuts and bruises decorate his rugged face like morbid Halloween makeup. One of his arms are twisted cruelly by the chains that hold him, the other is bent at an odd angle from the elbow. The final photograph makes me want to double over and empty my stomach onto the witches' decorative carpets. William is standing beside Emmett, his fingers curled around his hair while pulling his head up so he can look into the camera. I cannot stop the whine that echoes through my chest as I look into those grey eyes, eyes that are begging for mercy. Emmett had said he didn't fear death, but I doubted he meant death by sadistic torture from a psychopath and his groupies. Held up like a prize by a sadistic trophy hunter.

"Did he say what he wanted? Or where they are? Or what he is planning?" Annabella's voice is hysteric, matching the rapid pace of my heart as it drums inside my chest. Ronan only shakes his head slowly, hands clenched into fists at his sides, eyes set in a stern look at the wall behind us. "No demands? Nothing?" She shakes her head in disbelief and Ronan shakes his head once again and I notice talons has formed at the tips of his fingers. Annabella walks to his side, touching his shoulder softly and steering him from the room. It was just me and the photographs now, the one of William daring me to go find him and do all the horrid things I had imagined. Deep inside me, something burned something that had been ignited by these photographs. I hadn't been planning on leaving just yet but this changes everything. I had to do something and sitting in this damned house making useless plans wasn't an option I was willing to settle for. Quietly and carefully I slip from the room, hoping the others were too busy to hear the stairs creak under my feet as I creep to the top. Once inside my room, I grab my backpack, shoving clothes and money into it hoping I have everything I could need to get myself back to Narrow Falls. I carefully open the window and swallow slowly as I estimate the height I am about to jump from. My room is on the second floor, rose bushes and some other thorny looking bush would break my fall but might leave me a little scratched up. If they caught me trying to leave they would lock me in the basement until I saw what they would call reason. I slide onto the window ledge and chew my lip nervously, my nails digging into the paint on the ledge. Taking a deep breath and holding it in as I push myself from the ledge and plummet to the ground. I hit the ground, rolling through the bushes and shooting to my feet, not paying attention to the thorns and scratches. I take off towards the trees, not risking even a glance back at the house to see if anyone has taken off after me. I keep running deeper and deeper into the woods, trees blurring as I move faster and faster, heart pounding in my ears. The more I run the easier it gets, after a few minutes it feels as if I was walking and not running through the woods at a breakneck speed. I have exactly no idea where I am going but I know one thing, I know I have to do anything I can to find Emmett. I keep running, something deep inside me telling me that I am heading in the right direction. It wasn't long before I reach the highway that Ronan had driven in on that morning. It is a lot busier now, way more cars and trucks than there had been at four in the morning. I couldn't risk running beside the highway, way too many questions would be asked, so I decided to slow to a walk. It feels as if I am crawling beside the highway, I want to run again. A sign beside the highway has the distances to a couple towns and cities on it and I groan inwardly at the impossible number listed beside Narrow Falls. If there was any place to start looking, there was no better than Narrow Falls, sadly it would take me an entire week to make it there on foot. The droning of a diesel engine cuts into my thoughts and I slowly lift my head to see a truck pull up beside me, many a paycheck had been pumped into the truck and I can't help but chuckle softly at the irony of it. The truck was covered in the scent of humans, it was unmistakably owned by a human man. The driver window slowly rolls down revealing, bingo, a man around my age with close-cropped black hair and soft brown eyes. He has a friendly smile on his lips as he leans out of his window, questions swimming through those utterly normal eyes.