The Living Game

(18) Kidnapped

I didn't think he had gone anywhere. He was six years old, where could he possibly go? Especially without Kiera or Theo hearing him.

Alek and Theo decided to go search around my house, in the woods and to ask some of the neighbors if they had seen him. I gave them a picture of Jace and I from my wallet.

Before they left, Alek walked over to me and put a finger under my chin, lifting my face up. "We will find him, don't worry." I smiled sadly. As if I could not worry. Alek leaned down and kissed me, right there in front of everyone.

I heard Theo make a gagging noise and Kiera giggled. When I pulled away I saw that Jamie had come back into the room and was staring at us oddly and Eliza was smiling like a proud mother. I blushed and looked after Alek and Theo as they left the room.

"The police will be here soon." Jamie said, his voice flat. "I've got somewhere to be, so I'll be back later."

Eliza gaped at him. "You can't just leave right now, there's a child missing!"

Jamie shook his head. "Sorry, mom, I have to go." And then he was gone.

~

Alek and Theo beat the police to the house. When they walked in the door, I jumped up off the couch and met them at the door. Alek just shook his head.

My knees felt weak. I felt like I might fall over and never get back up. This was my fault. If I hadn't been too busy making out Alek in the woods, I would have been with Jace and he never would have gotten kidnapped. If I hadn't needed to go hunting, I would have spent all day with him.

I was hardly ever even with him anymore. Between school, work and hunting, I hardly spent any time with him. He had spent more time with Kiera than anyone lately. He probably felt like I had abandoned him.

Alek reached over for me, pulling me closer to him. "Hey," he said, "Stop that. It's not your fault."

I tried to smile at him but it got all twisted on my face. He wrapped his arms around me, hugging me to him. It helped.

The police arrived a few minutes later. I gave them the wallet picture I had of Jace and told him what clothes he'd been wearing today. Kiera and Theo recounted what had happened. The police officer seemed a little suspicious that they hadn't heard or seen anything but he didn't comment. He took my address and then told me that they were gathering a search party to go out and look for him but that I should stay here and stay close to my cell phone in case someone called.

Everyone decided to stay at Alek's house with me. We all sat in the living room, the television quietly, not talking. Alek's thumb was rubbing soothing circles into the side of my hand.

When had he suddenly become so compassionate? He wasn't killing humans, he was comforting me, and acting like he honestly cared about Jace's well being.

I just couldn't figure out what had happened to Jace. He must not have left on his own. He would have had to walk through the kitchen, where Kiera and Theo were sitting, in order to leave the house. Unless he had crawled out a window, but all of the windows in the house had screens and none of them had even been open when we looked. Besides that he was six years old and completely dependent on me. He would never have even thought about running away.

Had someone taken him? Who would have done that? I didn't have any enemies. Even before becoming a vampire, I had always kept to myself. And after, I had made friends but I hadn't pissed anyone off. Jace himself obviously didn't have any enemies, unless you cound Michael, the kid in his class that he stole a crayon from once and got sent to the principle's office for.

Who would ever kidnap a six year old boy right out of their house when there were people sittin gin the room right next to him? No one would be that stupid, right? Kids got stolen from supermarkets and being left in a car outside. Not from their living rooms.

I started to panic more, thinking about who could have kidnapped him. Some creepy rapist. Or worse. A vampire. But that was ridiculous. What would be the coincidence that a vampire would still another vampire's son?

My thoughts flickered to the babysitter but I decided I hadn't pissed her off enough for her to do that. She just hadn't wanted to continue watching him. Besides, she was a nice lady. She would never kidnap a child.

I thought about my parents. They may very well try to kidnap him from me. But how would they possibly do it without Kiera and Theo knowing? They were vampires, they heard everything. And we had searched the whole house. There was no way my parents could have gotten inside the house and then taken him out without them knowing about it.

About fifteen minutes after the police left, Theo's phone rang. He pulled it out and stared at it, trying to figure out the number. After the third ring he picked it up.

All of us watched him as his face went from calm to surprised to shocked and then he dropped the phone, hanging it up as he did so.

"What's going on?" Kiera asked, her tone hesitant.

Theo looked up, his mouth hanging open a little. "That was Anna."