They made their way slowly back through the woods – Damian slow only so he wouldn't lose Jenny. She could barely see in the darkness. The moon had offered a little light in the field, but once back in the woods, the dense foliage blocked out most of it. They walked in silence, raindrops dripping from the leaves above them. Jenny's mind danced in circles as she picked her way carefully through the logs and sticks scattered across the forest floor.
She kept thinking about the connection she had just experienced with the vampire in front of her. She never would have thought things would turn out this way. She was a vampire hunter, not a vampire lover. This wasn't supposed to happen. She was an Executioner, for God's sake! Sure, Damian was handsome, in a cold-blooded, venomous snake kind of way. But that didn't change the fact that he was supposed to be her mortal enemy. And if he was her soulmate, and it seemed quite obvious that he was, then why did she still have this hunger for Michael? Wasn't that against the rules? She had thought she would have no choice in the matter.
Apparently a lot of things were not as she had thought, and that meant she had no control over them – and Jenny hated losing control.
She sighed and stared at the dark form of Damian's shoulders ahead of her. What in the world was she supposed to do when the rules kept changing?
They reached the edge of the forest and stepped out onto the grass just in time to see a pair of headlights disappearing down the driveway.
Damian immediately stopped. "What the hell?" he breathed.
"It looked like a van or a truck," Jenny said, feeling the blood drain from her face. She grabbed Damian's arm. "Was Ashton home tonight?"
Without a word, Damian took off at a sprint toward the house. Jenny followed, trying to keep up with him. She could see a light burning in an upstairs window. Damian burst through the front door of the house and took the steps three at a time.
"Ashton!" he yelled.
He was already upstairs by the time Jenny entered the house. She could hear him yelling for Ashton as she ran up the steps. She stopped when she reached Ashton's room, out of breath. Damian stood in the middle of the room, his fists clenched at his sides.
Jenny gasped. The room was a mess. Clothing and blankets lay strewn all over the room. Damian bent over and picked up a jewelry box lying on its side in the middle of the room.
Looking down at it, he growled, "They're going to pay." His lips curled back as his teeth elongated. He turned to Jenny and she instinctively took a step back when her eyes met his. They were glowing with that unearthly silver light, only Jenny had never seen them this bright before – he was really angry now. He had been playing all the other times, but now playtime was over.
"We'll get her back, Damian," Jenny said. "We'll get them all back."
He set the jewelry box on a shelf and pushed past her out the door. "Come on."
She followed him down the hallway to his room. It looked exactly the same as it had the last time she'd been in here, when Damian had first found her in the house. Lit by only two tall, black candles, shadows leapt back and forth across the black painted walls. Damian tore off the black leather jacket he was wearing and knelt in front of the wooden chest, fumbling in his pocket for something. He wore a white shirt, contrasting with the darkness of the room and the darkness of him.
Jenny stood in the doorway and stared for a moment. With the white shirt, he looked even more gorgeous than usual. Especially since his hair was wet from the rain. It was easy to forget what he was.
He pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and unlocked the padlock on the chest. Then he turned to Jenny. "You can come in, you know."
Jenny nodded, feeling her cheeks flush. She knelt beside Damian as he lifted the lid of the trunk and began rummaging through it. Jenny reached in and pulled out a silky red scarf. She held it up and looked at Damian with a half-grin on her face. He looked at it, then grabbed it, grimacing.
"Don't ask," he muttered.
After a minute, he found what he was looking for and pulled out a blue steno pad. He stood up and crossed over to the bed, sitting on it in front of the candle so he could see.
"Well?" He looked at Jenny. "You gonna look at it from over there?"
Jenny sighed and sat beside him. Business, she told herself. This is business.
Damian opened the notepad. "This was my father's. He wrote down his notes in it. Whatever assignment he was working on. He was investigating the Council when someone got wind of it and killed him and my mother. I'm sure whatever he found out, he has written in here. Luckily, he didn't have it on him when they got him."
The notebook was filled with a slanting, somewhat messy handwriting. Jenny saw the words "soulmate" and "Daybreak" often as Damian flipped through the pages.
She couldn't help staring at his profile, the candlelight dancing across his face. "Were you involved with Daybreak too?" she asked softly. She had to wonder. He didn't seem like the type, especially with his violent tendencies toward humans.
He stiffened, not looking at her. "No," he answered abruptly. "Never." But the pause before he spoke led Jenny to believe he wasn't telling the truth. She decided not to push it.
"But you knew your family was involved?" she asked.
He nodded.
"You were okay with that?"
He stopped flipping pages and turned to her. He grabbed her wrists and stared at her. The ring of violet around his eyes seemed to be alive, swimming with colors. Jenny felt captivated by them. "I didn't have much say in it," he said, rather roughly. "And I'd prefer not to talk about it." He dropped her hand and turned back to the notebook.
Jenny bit her lip and stared at her hand. Damian was hiding something, she was sure of it. Something that she hadn't sensed during their . . . connection . . . back in the woods. She was extremely curious what it could be, but there was no way she was going to interrogate him about it and make him mad. Somehow, though, knowing that Damian had a deep, dark secret made him seem more human. He wasn't just some mad, blood-sucking superbeing. Vampires could have personal secrets too, and that lent them a bit of humanity. That was easier for Jenny to deal with.
"Here," Damian said, pointing to the page. "I think this is it."
The page was dated six months earlier. At the top of the page, Damian's father had scrawled, "What are they up to?"
Jenny scanned the page. It didn't include much of anything that they didn't already know. Somebody in the Council was planning something on Halloween, and it included the theft of humans. Apparently, a number of Nightworld Daybreakers had also turned up missing. That would explain Ashton's disappearance. Then, at the bottom of the page, Jenny saw something new.
"Wait, what's this?" she asked, pointing.
Damian read it aloud. "I have it on the word of a reliable source that whatever is going to happen will take place at a location specially modified to Council member's liking. Don't know what this location is, but source believes it to be in or around Chicago – possibly for it's central location." He turned to Jenny. "He of course wouldn't name the source in here, in case it was ever confiscated. But, it gives an idea where to look."
Jenny nodded. "Chicago. How convenient. Only a two hour drive."
"Especially convenient because I spent some time in Chicago. I have my own sources." Damian turned to the next page in the book. It was blank. He shut the book. "Looks like we're going on a field trip. Let's go get the rest of your friends."
***********
As the pair climbed the stairs to Michael's apartment, Jenny noticed the apartment door hanging open. A sinking sensation immediately filled her stomach.
"Oh my God," she said, and ran up the rest of the stairs. "Michael? Gunther?"
The scene was similar to entering Ashton's room. The apartment was a wreck – quite obviously there had been a heck of a struggle. Jenny sank to her knees in the midst of the mess and covered her face. "Oh no," she breathed. "I can't believe they got them too."
"They must've planned a surprise attack on everyone tonight." Damian spoke from behind her. She'd forgotten he was with her. She hadn't even heard him come in.
Jenny nodded, still covering her face. Her heart pounded as a million thoughts raced through her mind at once. Michael. They'd gotten him. She might never see him again! How had this happened? She couldn't live if she never saw him again…
A hand fell on her shoulder. "Just because they're gone doesn't mean we won't get them back," Damian said, sounding almost . . . concerned?
Jenny sighed and uncovered her face. She looked up at Damian, who was somehow standing in front of her now. He stared down at her, his eyes still looking eerily alive. "I know. This just gives us even more incentive to find this location your father was talking about."
She stood up and looked around the room. A framed picture of Michael and his father lay on the shelf, the glass shattered. Her heart ached at the sight of his smile. Even with Damian standing next to her – Damian, her soulmate – the sight of Michael still tore at her. She didn't understand it a bit.
Concentrate, she scolded herself. To Damian, she said, "There must have been a lot of them. Gunther and Michael are both strong, and if you hadn't noticed the other night, Gunther is downright enormous."
Damian nodded. "Were they the last of your group?"
Jenny walked toward the door. "Yes." Then she froze, shaking her head. "Oh God no," she muttered. She turned around and faced Damian. "No, they weren't the last. There's still Raina."