Waking up to find David missing from their bed was bad enough for Paul.
After that, he roused the others and together they searched for October in vain.
And that was when they discovered their prisoner was missing as well.
The night was undeniably bad, yes. But all Paul could think about was the worst day of his life when he was woken from a dead sleep as Marko was brutally murdered next to him. Deep down, he knew David wasn't dead and neither was October for that matter. He would have sensed the moment either of them were hurt.
So it was a mystery as to what happened. One that Paul was desperate to solve because the sooner he did, the sooner he could get his loved ones back safe and sound. If he found out Michael had anything to do with this, if he did plan to hurt his family, that piece of shit had another thing coming...
"We need to look for them," he insisted to a pacing Dwayne.
The dark haired vampire barely spared him a glance as he paced the length of what was supposed to be the room imprisoning their enemy.
"Where do you suggest we start?" Dwayne snapped at him. "We can't reach David or October's mind because something is blocking us. We have no way of knowing where they went or if they're in the same place."
Marko was uncharacteristically quiet standing in the doorway. Memories of the worst day of his life had him especially well tuned to where the curly blond stood.
"We can't just stay here and wait for them to come back!" Paul shouted.
Dwayne abruptly stopped his pacing and snarled at him, "You would have us repeat the same mistake of going after Emerson on his home turf? Look what happened last time! We all died."
Paul fumbled for a come back, anything to get across the sense of urgency he felt brimming underneath his skin. He glanced at Marko for help but the other vampire was staring unhelpfully off into space.
Paul frowned and looked back at Dwayne. "That's not what I'm saying we should do. There are other places to look."
A pensive aura fell over Dwayne. He crossed his arms and raised a brow. "Are you talking about the Frogs?"
At the mere mention of their name, Paul sensed a wave of anxiety from the doorway.
Maybe he should have said something. Maybe he should have asked if Marko was okay with anything involving the Frogs. But he didn't. Members of his family were missing. They could be in danger. Alright, so he didn't know for sure if they were in danger. Either way, he needed to know. To be sure.
When they ambushed the Frog brothers, Marko held himself together pretty well. If you didn't have a direct line to his brain you wouldn't even be able to tell how uneasy he really was. Hell, the guy actually teased the teen hunters.
Paul wasn't sure if he was surprised to see Michael's little brother with the Frog's. Did that mean he was working with them? Was he in on some kind of plan the Frogs had?
But that didn't make sense in the end because there was no way these teenagers who had worked so hard to keep Michael from becoming a monster would ever plan for him to actually turn. Something else had to be up. Someone else had to have sired Michael this time around. Dwayne came to the same conclusion before he ordered them to leave.
They knew exactly where to look next as there was only one other vampire in town that they knew of. So that was how they ended up in the Widow Johnson's backyard.
Paul couldn't really remember the last time he had been to the Widow's house, if ever. Any time Max had ever taken the time to meet with the Widow on her own turf he would go alone or bring David. As he surveyed the property he decided that the Widow and Max seemed to share similar tastes. The lawn was manicured, the garden was well tended to, and the house in one word was charming.
He hated literally everything about it.
Well, maybe not everything. The place did have one thing going for it and that was the fact that it was right by the ocean. Just beyond the little fence bordering the garden was a fucking private beach!
Not as distracted by the beach front view, Dwayne made a beeline for the boathouse built next to the garden. For once, Marko and Paul wordlessly followed behind him. The closer they got, the more he could pick up the day old scent of spilled human blood. His first thought was October?! before Dwayne reassured him the blood wasn't hers, but someone else's.
Dwayne applied a little pressure to the locked door and it swung open.
There in the gloomy light cast through the high set windows, a bloody massacre was revealed.
"Fucking Christ…" Paul muttered as he took in the carnage.
Marko crept slowly into the building to get a better look, his mouth agape. "Shit, is that…?"
"Star," Dwayne confirmed grimly.
Paul couldn't tear his eyes away from the sight of Star's dismembered body. He hadn't been all that close to Star to begin with, but still. What a way to go. The more selfish part of him had wanted to have the satisfaction of chowing down on the traiter.
"Michael did this?" Marko asked in amazement.
"So much for true love," Paul snorted, glancing at the others with a smirk.
Dwayne was studying the scene intensely. Whatever he was seeing caused his lips to dip into a frown. He shook his head slowly before meeting the others' eyes.
"Something's not right here."
Before Paul could ask what the dark haired vampire meant, a new voice spoke up behind them.
"Excellent observation, Dwayne!"
Paul immediately dropped his human visage and allowed his features to shift as he bared his fangs.
He and his brother's pivoted around to face the one who had spoken.
While they had gone to the Widow Johnson's house to accuse her of turning Michael, it wasn't a huge surprise to find Michael actually at the Widow Johnson's house. No sir, there was nothing surprising at all about seeing Michael standing smackdab in the middle of the Widow's garden path that lead straight to the boat house and Star's dead body.
What really came as a surprise was David standing behind him with a dour little girl at his side holding his hand.
I don't like the look of this, Marko whispered to their minds.
He and Dwayne silently agreed.
David, what the hell is going on man? Dwayne attempted to ask their leader.
They received only silence. It was like something was blocking them from getting into his head. His eyes were vacant, simply staring into space as though he wasn't really there with them.
"What did you do to him?" Paul demanded of Michael.
"Don't mind them," Michael told them, waving a hand dismissively at David and the little girl behind him. "We'll get to that."
"Where is October, Michael!" Paul snapped.
The piece of shit smiled charmingly at him. "Manners, my boy. I thought I raised you better than that. I'm not the one trespassing right now. You best watch your tone."
What the fuck? Paul thought, scowling.
Something's wrong, Marko insisted, sizing up the little girl who had been silent so far, though the expression on her face spoke volumes about how apprehensive she was.
Caw!
Suddenly a big black bird swooped in from out of nowhere and landed on David's shoulder.
Everything, well, not "everything", one thing clicked as they stared at the bird on David's shoulder and then down at the little girl.
"Hopefully by now you've figured out my friend here is a witch. You probably know her sister. Both of her sister's actually," Michael chuckled and oh how Paul hated the sound. Only, it was nothing like the nervous little scoff from that first night they invited the teenager into their home. No, this chuckle reminded him of someone else entirely.
"I'll let you in on another thing," Michael whispered to them conspiratorially, leaning in as if revealing a secret, "I'm not really Michael."
No.
Just, fucking, no.
Paul was so fucking done with this shit. It was already turning out to be a really long night. He had officially reached his threshold for putting up with all this cryptic bullshit. He just wanted to get David and find October so they could finally go home. Maybe smoke a joint when they did.
"What did you do to David?" Marko asked, speaking up finally.
Michael, or whoever the fuck he was, cocked his head. "I made him into the obedient son he was always meant to be."
Wait.
Son?
Dwayne, of course it was Dwayne who figured it out first, growled lowly. "Max."
Max-not-Michael grinned savagely, showing off all his inhuman teeth.
OH.
FUCK.
Paul looked dubiously from Dwayne to Max-not-Michael, then back to Dwayne, and so on. It was deeply disturbing to see Max's smile on Michael's face, but not nearly as disturbing as the thought of someone who called himself their father was possessing the body of someone they knew.
He was so confused! What the fuck was even going on?
"Little Jessica," Max-not-Michael addressed the little girl holding David's hand, "remember what we discussed earlier?
She gave a curt nod.
"I think it's time your work your magic."
Dwayne unconsciously moved to take the lead so Paul and Marko stood behind him.
The little girl's, Jessica's, familiar cawed ominously at them.
"No need to be nervous," Max-not-Michael chuckled.
Easy for him to say, Paul thought, bracing himself when the small witch caught his gaze with a laser-like focus. He was frozen. He struggled to look away, but he couldn't. It was as though his eyeballs were hooked in place and then any surrounding noise faded into a cacophony of unintelligible whispers.
Right as he felt like his eyes were welling up with black ichor, the witch broke their connection, leaving him dazed and temporarily blinded.
He rubbed his eyes furiously until eventually lights and colors crept back into his vision. Except, when his vision fully returned, what he saw made no sense. A flash of images he didn't understand came rushing at him.
"They're memories. Memories that I took from you a long time ago," he heard Max-not-Michael explain with sympathy that was obviously fake.
The vision of stolen memories waned until they disappeared entirely. Paul looked to his brothers who appeared equally unsteady from the magical onslaught. He grit his teeth and flexed his claws.
"You made us kill Rose for no good reason," Marko snarled.
Max-not-Michael crossed his arms. "You gave two people, two strangers, my blood without my permission. That was against the rules. You had to be punished."
Paul was run through with sharp stab of despair as he processed Rose's cruel murder. Though it happened years ago, it felt as though no time had passed. His hatred for Max doubled.
"Then why didn't you kill me too?!"
Max-not-Michael hardly bat an eye at him. "I don't have to explain myself to you selfish brats. The reason I even returned your memories is to make this make this next part of the evening all the more satisfying."
"What's the next part? When we rip your fucking head off maybe?" Dwayne growled, looking ready to pounce.
Max-not-Michael didn't appear phased beyond the skeptical lift of an eye brow. "I think not. This is where I say goodbye. This family was never going to work out. I need a clean slate if I'm going to start over."
Paul's eyes bugged out of his head with disbelief. "Are you shitting me right now? Is this still about the Emersons? Fuck off already!"
Max-not-Michael inclined his head in David and the little witch's direction, his mouth turned down into a frown. "Miss. Sanford you can go back inside now. I believe your sister, Maude, needs you."
The girl let go of David's hand mutely and turned to the Widow's house. Her familiar gave one last threatening caw before taking flight.
Paul got the distinct impression that something really messed up was about to happen.
"David, go ahead and do what I told you to do earlier," Max-not-Michael instructed calmly. "Tell them what I told you."
David, come on. Fight it, Marko pleaded.
Their leader's face was unnaturally vacant. Paul knew there was no hope of reaching him.
David opened his mouth and told them mechanically, "...Kill each other."