Leah didn't come back after that, not that I had expected her to. We had all gone back to Shadow's home after the window had been replaced, knowing that we had strength in numbers and that splitting up would do us no good now. Losing Leah to the dark side, as Rose liked to phrase it, had hit us all, so we'd come together more closely.
The lingering tension in the air between Shadow and ALec hadn't dissipated any; if anything, it only strengthened the more we tried to figure out what to do. This should all have been over with by now, we were supposed to have handed over the fake grimoire. Now, we knew we couldn't do that. Leah knew what we had done and she would have told them, so our plan had gone down the drain.
Vince had never wanted to torture somebody as badly as he wanted to hurt her, that I was sure of. We had all been working desperately to find Ric and get him back safely, but nobody knew where to start in searching for him. Not knowing where they could have taken him had only further angered Vince because he had never trusted Leah and now, we were finally seeing that he was right not to. It was no wonder he was so angry with her - we all were.
As Shadow, Vince and Marl were the only ones that actually knew Benjamin, they had been in charge of trying to find out where he lived, who his friends were and things like that. It was under the vain hope that we would find out something important that kept us all working diligently to find something that would lead us to our friends whereabouts.
Ric being missing for four days had even got Rose warming up to the vampires she now lived with, working with them to get Ric back. I knew that it was because of her growing feelings for the blonde, but I couldn't help smile. It took a crisis like this to bring her closer to my friends and I couldn't deny I was pleased she was actually making an effort. Even Alec had stopped snapping at her every few seconds, something that had come as a surprise to us all.
"I'm just worried about my girlfriend, okay?" Was all Alec had said when confronted about it, but we never responded. I knew that he was struggling to come to terms with the fact his girlfriend had turned against us all, him included.
It was now a Thursday, and we were still attempting to come up with a plan that Leah couldn't possibly ruin. We were still going to hand over the fake grimoire but that was a last resort now. Not knowing whether Leah had told Benjamin about it had us hoping it wouldn't come to that though.
I had been pacing the room with my phone clutched tightly in my grip, thinking of all the possible places where Ric could have been taken, when my phone suddenly started to ring.
One glance at the caller I.D. told me it wasn't anybody I knew, so I instantly answered it. I usually would never answer a call from an unknown number but I had the sinking feeling that the call would help us become one step closer in finding Ric.
"Hello?" I answered the call hesitantly, taking a deep breath despite not needing to. I knew I would have to go hunting soon though, because the second I breathed in I was hit by the scent of Rose's blood. She sat on the sofa a few steps away from me, completely oblivious to the blood lust that was slowly starting to take over. I hadn't been hunting at all in the past few days, ever since Ric had been taken, purely because I'd been too worried and too busy. Now, I was seriously regretting that.
"Hello, Violet." A voice spoke through the other end of the phone, chilling me to the bone. "Do you remember me?"
"How could I forget?" I asked sarcastically, images flashing through my mind instantly. Jane and William, two people who had turned out to be friends of my mother... dead because of him. How could I ever forget that?
"Do I detect a hint of hatred there?" He mused, more to himself than to me but I felt the need to answer him anyway.
"What do you think?" I snapped, gripping my hair in frustration. "Where have you taken Ric?"
The second I had finished speaking, Rose's eyes widened as she shot up off the sofa and rushed from the room, presumably to inform everybody else that Benjamin was on the phone. I knew I had only a few minutes - if that - before Shadow came rushing in and took the phone from me so I decided to use the time wisely. He was in the library upstairs with Vince and Marl, while Alec had gone hunting, so I knew I didn't have long to get answers.
Before I could ask him anything, however, he spoke first.
"Ric is safe, for now." Benjamin told me, and I wasn't sure what it was about the way he said, but I believed him. "He won't be harmed as long as you do something for me, Violet."
I could hear Ric in the background, sending a wave of relief coursing through me, knowing that he was alive. Though he was telling me not to do it, whatever that meant, I was just glad he was okay.
"What do you want?" I asked immediately, walking over to the window and staring out at it, hand dropping to my side.
"You." Benjamin answered immediately, his words not surprising me in the slightest. "I want you to take Ric's place."
"You want to kill me..." I trailed off. "How can I be so sure you won't kill us both?"
Benjamin laughed, a loud laugh that had me on edge because he seemed to find my words hysterical and there was nothing funny about him wanting to kill me. "Oh, Violet, you have much to learn. You killed my mate, I am not going to let that go so easily."
"So if I swap places with Ric, you'll let him go?" I changed the subject, not liking the dangerous undertone to his voice. "You won't hurt him, you'll let him leave. Just like that?"
"Yes."
"I don't believe you." It couldn't be that simple. It just couldn't.
"I don't care whether you believe me, flower, you are going to swap places with him or I will just kill him now, and then I'll go for your boyfriend."
I gasped, the thought of Shadow being hurt sending a wave of fear through me. I didn't stop to think about my next words, willing to do anything to stop that from happening. "I'll do it."
Ric started shouting then, I could hear him so clearly it was almost like he was standing in front of me. Repeating the same word, 'no', over and over again, I wondered what I'd just signed myself up for. Swapping places with him seemed like a good idea because it meant Ric would be safe, but what would that mean for me? Benjamin wanted to kill me for killing his mate, even though it was in self defence, but something told me Benjamin didn't care about the fact they'd been the ones to attack first.
"Great!" Benjamin seemed pleased. "You swap places with Ric and I will leave everyone alone. There is one other thing..."
"What?"
"I want the grimoire."
"No." I answered immediately. "If I'm swapping places with Ric, you don't get the grimoire too. You're not getting your hands on it. I'll burn it if I have to."
"I'd be very careful, flower. Telling me what to do will only result in your death."
"Yeah, well, you've probably already planned out my death anyway." I responded sarcastically, unable to help it. He didn't seem particularly threatening at the moment, though I knew that could change.
"I want you and the grimoire in two days time. I will text you the address, but if you tell anybody about this, I will kill Ric and then your friends too."
"And how exactly do you expect me to get away from them?" I shut my eyes, a heaviness settling over my heart that I couldn't seem to shake. I didn't particularly want to swap places with Ric when I knew Benjamin wanted to avenge his mate's death but I had no choice. Ric needed to be safe and as for me... well, I was used to being in danger. At least I was stronger than I used to be.
"I don't care how you do it, just know what will happen if you tell them. Two days, Violet. Two days and you're mine."
"NO!" Was the last thing I heard Ric say before the phone call cut off, indicating Benjamin had just hung up on me.
Pocketing my phone, I turned around, my back facing the window just as everybody piled into the living room. I knew that they probably heard the entirety of the phone call, so I wasn't exactly sure how Benjamin expected me to lie to them. It wasn't possible to do so when they had probably heard it all.
"What did he want?" Alec asked me straight away, eyeing me carefully. "Did he tell you where Ric is?"
I shook my head and said nothing. How was I supposed to do this? How was I supposed to swap places with Ric when nobody would let me out of their sight?
"Could you not hear the phone call with your vampire hearing and all?" Rose asked him, brows furrowed as she faced him.
Alec shrugges his shoulders. "Not since this prick-" He paused, pointing at Shadow, who hadn't taken his eyes off me for a second. "-had the fucking library sound proofed."
"Wait, what?" My voice rose slightly, shocked and a little pleased that meant they wouldn't have heard everything. Upon seeing Shadow's eyes narrowing, I wiped all emotion from my face, staring back at him blankly. If anyone was going to figure out I was hiding something, it would be him. "You had the room sound proofed?"
"Think about where the room leads." He replied. "But never mind that. What did Benjamin want?"
"He wants the grimoire," I told him. It was the truth, after all, so it wasn't like I was lying to him. I was just keeping the whole truth to myself. "We give him that and he'll let Ric go."
"When and where?" Marl asked, folding his arms across his chest as he leaned against the door.
"In two days. He said he'll give me the address."
It took a little more convincing before they all agreed that handing over the fake grimoire was the only chance we had to get Ric back, though I kept the other part to myself. Surprisingly, I didn't have to fight that hard to make sure that it was myself that would hand it over; I simply claimed Benjamin told me it had to be me or he would kill Ric. It was actually pretty easy to hide what else he wanted when he had been chasing the grimoire first.
With the plan in motion, we all felt a little more relaxed knowing that it would soon be over. They would be going with me when I handed over the fake grimoire, though they didn't know I would also be handing over myself too. No, that was something they would only find out on the day. The worrying part, however, was the fact I seemed unable to hide a damn thing from Shadow because just one look and he could tell if something was bothering me.
It was because of that that I ended up being taken into the library so he could speak to me privately.
"Why did you only sound proof this room and not the bedrooms?" I asked curiously.
"It wasn't important to sound proof them." He answered, shutting the door behind him and pulling me into his arms in a second. "Now, what's going on in that pretty little head of yours?"
"Nothing." I shook my head. "I'm just worried about Ric, you know? And I haven't been hunting since he was taken so it's hard being around Rose."
"There's blood bags in the fridge, you know?" He told me, eyebrows raised slightly. "We keep them for emergencies so just drink them."
I nodded, making a mental note to do that soon. I'd need my strength when I hand myself over to Benjamin.
"What else is bothering you? Ric will be back before you know it. You said all we had to do was hand over the grimoire, right?"
"Right." I agreed, feeling guilty to be hiding the truth from him, but there was no way I could tell him. He would never let it happen and to be honest, I didn't really want it to happen either. Yet, at the same time, I knew I had a choice. Ric's life for mine. Everybody else's safety over mine.
To be honest, it wasn't even a choice. I would risk my life if it meant they would all be safe. All of them had become family to me, and you protect your family. No matter what, it's just what you do.
"So don't worry about it, okay?" He reached up to cup my cheek, his thumb brushing over my bottom lip gently and my lips parted slightly.
Kissing the tip of his thumb, his eyes raised to meet mine, darkening slightly.
I smiled. "I love you."
A wide smile graced his features, and he leaned in to press his lips chastely against my own. "I love you." He murmured.
The hardest part about swapping places with Ric was definitely going to be leaving Shadow. He means so much to me that the thought of leaving him, even if it was the only way to save our friend, made my heart hurt.
Two days with him wasn't ever going to be enough, not when I didn't know what Benjamin had planned for me.