Chapter 9

"He's wrong, Josh. If he knows something about these guys that took Clara, then he needs to let us handle it," Sally chimed in. "He hunts supernatural things? We are supernatural things! Screw these guys!"

Josh closed the front door and lay on the couch.

Sally looked at him askew. "What is this?"

"I'm processing,"

She sat down in the armchair. When the silence became too much, she asked, "What should I do?"

"I don't know,"

"Should I find Aidan?"

"No, leave him be. He'll be home by four-thirty."

"Fine." Sally crossed her arms across her chest. "I'm gonna go out for a bit."

Josh shrugged. He didn't know what to do in the meantime any better than she did. He just kept asking himself the same question, Could they trust Sam?

Sally projected herself to the park where she knew she would find Nick. It didn't take long to spot him standing near the water. He was watching a child throw a stick for her dog in the midafternoon sun.

"Hey, Sally," he said with a smile as she came near.

She couldn't bring herself to smile in return.

"What's wrong?"

Sally sighed, sitting on the park bench. "It's a long story," she said.

Nick gave her a look that read, I've got time.

"Do you remember Clara?"

"Sure. Aidan dated her for, like, a year, didn't he?" he said, sitting next to her.

She nodded. "Clara's missing. She was taken by these guys who hunt witches. They murdered her parents, and now she's gone, too, but we don't know if she's…you know. And these other guys showed up claiming to be the FBI and they're looking for her, too, but Aidan thinks they're in on it. It's a complicated situation."

Nick thought about that for a minute. "Did you know her very well?"

Sally looked down at her hands. "It was our secret because Aidan didn't want her to know he was a vampire, and she didn't want him to know she was a witch, so when he was around, we pretended she couldn't see me. She's my friend, too."

"Then maybe you can go to her, like when you come here to see me,"

"How? When I want to come to the park, I picture the park. When I want to go home, I picture the living room. I don't know where she is. I can't project myself there!" she replied, exasperated. "I'm sorry. I'm just worried. And Aidan's a mess. I hate seeing him all torn up like this."

Nick raised an eyebrow, but had the sense not to say anything.

"In a totally platonic 'he's my brother' way," Sally retorted.

"Okay, okay," Nick chuckled. "Look, I think that if you can picture a room or a place that you want to be, you might be able to send yourself to a person's location, even if you don't know where she is, just by picturing her. It makes sense, if you think about it."

Sally frowned at first, but slowly the idea took hold. "It's worth a try. Or several, right?"

Nick nodded encouragingly.

"Have you done it to find Zoe?"

"Well, no…but…I mean, I've tried a couple of times, but I usually just go to her house anyway."

"Right. Okay." Sally closed her eyes. "Just picture Clara's face?"

"Sure," Nick replied, but he wasn't sure, either.

"Clara's face. Clara's face." Sally repeated a few more times.

She vanished from the park, and Nick let out a whoop of triumph. The little girl's dog was the only one who noticed.

Aidan finished his shift at the hospital feeling as angry as he when he had started. He changed out of his scrubs and put on his leather jacket. He had one stop to make before heading home: he was out of blood.

He quickly made his way from the locker room to the blood bank, wishing those coworkers of whom he ran into pleasantries. He saw Liza head into the room, and waited for her to come back out. She went around the corner. Aidan used his speed to get to the door before it closed behind her, barely making it. The door pinched his fingers and he winced, as he pulled the door open. He checked the hallway, saw no one, and then ducked inside.

The vampire quickly went to the fridge, and started shoving bags of blood into his backpack. He counted seven, before rearranging the fridge so that it looked less like it had been raided. As he closed the fridge door, he sensed someone watching him. He casually slung his backpack over one shoulder, and turned slightly.

There was no one standing beyond the door into the blood bank, but he trusted his instincts. Nonetheless, Aidan went out into the hallway, turned left, and headed for the side door that led out to the courtyard. His eyes shifted as he studied every face, but none of the people—two nurses, a doctor, and three patients-acted suspicious.

Aidan set out on his regular path home. He checked his phone for messages, and heard footsteps behind him. He rolled his eyes, as he put his phone in his pocket. He knew it was not the FBI agent this time; the gait wasn't right.

Aidan turned down an alley, then sped to the other side before his pursuer could catch up. He waited for the other man to near the mouth of the alley before he jumped him.

"Where is she?" Aidan demanded, letting his vampiric nature take hold. He wanted to terrify this man.

The man raised a stake to strike, but the vampire threw him aside like a ragdoll. The stake rolled out of his reach when he hit the ground. He scrambled to his feet, pulling another stake out of his bag, but Aidan was on him again. This time, he twisted the man's arm until the bone snapped. Aidan punched the man in the face until blood poured from his nose and split lip.

"Where is she?" the vampire roared again.

The man laughed and spit blood in the Aidan's face. Aidan smashed his head into the brick wall. The man got a knife out of the side pocket of his bag, and lunged, but the vampire caught his arm and twisted it so that he wound up stabbing himself in the stomach. He stumbled back, stunned. Aidan grabbed him by the throat. Clearly, he was one of Clara's captors, otherwise, he would not be fighting back so hard. He also showed a complete lack of fear of the vampire, which solidified in Aidan's mind the fact that the captors were working with the FBI agents for some reason. Maybe the FBI guys were witch hunters, too. This realization only fueled Aidan's rage.

"What's going on out here?" someone yelled from a window high above. "I'm calling the cops!"

The man had managed to get another stake out of his bag. With all his strength, he shoved Aidan until he was up against the wall, then drove the stake through his chest. He missed Aidan's heart, but it was enough to buy him enough time to flee.

Aidan screamed at him, but it was out of anger, not pain. The man shuffled away from him, and then broke into a run. Aidan pulled the stake from his chest, and let it clatter to the ground. He tried to stand so that he could chase after the man, but he collapsed in pain with a shout. Tears came to his eyes. Clara's captor was getting away, and he couldn't do anything about it.

He crawled to the backpack he'd set down, and called Josh to come pick him up. Then he sucked back two bags of blood.

The neighbour's threat about calling the cops came back to him, so Aidan forced himself to his feet and stumbled away from the scene, using the building for support.