Kidnapped by Vampires ✔ (The Broken Trilogy Book 1)

Chapter Twenty-Four

The car ride back to the Rutherford Mansion with Ethan was quiet. Vince tried to turn on the radio, but Ethan turned it off and said it was hard for him to focus. So he looked out the window and tried to count trees and search for shapes in clouds and find something to occupy his mind.

He found himself thinking of Mia. And wondering excatly what it was about her that he found so interesting. He couldn't put his finger on it, but the second he saw her back in that forest he felt some sort of weird sense of familiarity. Like he had met her before but had no memory of it.

He had no idea if that was why he was trying to help her, but he was nonetheless. Because he knew what it was like to have your choices made for you.

As they neared the entrance of the mansion, they saw a group of cars already parked outside. Police cars.

"Don't stop. Keep driving," Vince said. Ethan drove a little while further down the road then pulled over to the side.

"Why the hell are there cops there?" Ethan asked.

"You think I know? We were careful with the attack and no one got away. The cops shouldn't know about the mansion."

"Unless your little human friend told on us. I thought you said you talked to her and she wasn't going to say anything?"

"I did... or maybe I didn't but she seemed like she didn't want to talk about it to anyone."

"You are such an idiot." Ethan pulled the car back onto the road and turned around to drive into town.

"Where are we going now?"

"To pick her up and do some damage control?"

***

When they arrived at Mia's house, it was nighttime and all the lights in the house were off. Ethan and Vince made their way up to the porch and rang the doorbell. There was some scuffling behind the door and someone peeked through the window next to the door before opening it.

It was Mia, who looked very pissed off. She was in her pajamas and behind her, Vince could see her parents sitting on the couch illuminated by the glow of the tv.

"What the hell do you want?" She whispered.

"We need to talk about a few things," Ethan said.

"No."

"Yes."

The two of them stared at each other, waiting for the other to back down. After a minute or two, Mia rolled her eyes and looked back at her parents. "Just give me a minute." She grabbed a jacket off the hook next to the door and walked outside. Before saying anything, she walked over to the bench on the porch and sat down. The bench was right in front of the window her parents were looking out of.

She's nothing if not cautious.

"What?" She asked.

"We went by the mansion earlier," Ethan said," to get a look at some of Ellis's things. And it just so happened that the cops were already searching through the place. How did they know about it?"

"Because I told them." 

"How could you be so stupid?"

"Stupid?" She stood up but stayed in front of the window. "I was kidnapped and I was trying to make sure it didn't happen again. But don't worry, I didn't tell them anything about the vampires or whatever the hell you guys are. Now, are we good? Or are you going to make my parents watch this time while I get taken away?" Her face looked confident like she knew she placed a winning move, but her eyes couldn't lie. She was scared.

"Just promise you'll lay low from now on," Vince said, hoping to defuse the tension between the two.

"Trust me. The last thing I want to do is make a bunch of noise about this."

Vince nodded and started to head back to the car. He thought he was going to have to pull Ethan away, but after a second he followed. As they pulled out the driveway, Vince watched as Mia ran back inside her house and slammed the door.

That's when it clicked. It was her bravado in the face of a threat. She never tried to hide that she was scared, she just knew how to control it. That's was Vince found so interesting. It definitely wouldn't be anything else. Right?