Chapter Sixty-nine

"I have a very important meeting to get to. You're holding me up, Slayer." Caleb looked at Rafe with obvious distain.

"My apologies. Sorry, but The Supreme Order of Bloodsucking Bats will have to do without you for a bit." He replied.

"You'd let your sweet little niece sit out in these woods all alone? I thought it was your job to protect everyone." Caleb countered.

"Lynnie." Rafe whispered, suddenly feeling a bit less confident.

Caleb could still feel himself penned in, but he could see Rafe weakening. He'd wear him down, he knew he could. All he had to do is say the magic words. "Yeah - you know what? I think I might have snatched the wrong twin. This one can't see the future to save her life. And you know, to tell you the truth I was really looking for a glimpse into the past. I have a slight problem. One of your little tribe snuffed out a friend of mine. I need to know which one of your rugrats to punish. I was hoping she'd give me a clue."

"Don't even think about it." Rafe's voice shook with rage.

"Why not? They struck first. You know what the good book says, 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.' There's one less set of fangs in this world at the moment. The way I look at it? I'm due for another. You know, just to keep it even. As a matter of fact, it's 2 against 5. I've got some work to do don't I? As a start, I have the perfect candidate in mind. Now, if I could just get to my meeting..."

Rafe fought to focus. Rafe words made him furious, distracting him. "If only I was talking to your alter-ego the bible quotes wouldn't be so much to swallow. I'm warning you, you touch her and it's over Caleb."

Caleb began to laugh wickedly. "Oh no. Here it is again. Let me guess what will happen if I touch her." Caleb paced a bit and scratched his head with one hand, keeping the other on his hip. "Ummmm. You'll leave and take me with you?" He paused a moment and looked at Rafe. "Or wait, no. You'll leave me to my own devices with the exception that I can't touch a hair on the head of anyone who ever met you?" Rafe was chomping at the bit and Caleb was beginning to enjoy himself. "No. Wait. That's not it. Let me see. I got it!!! If I just stay back in Romania then it all will be OK." Caleb broke free of the hold he was under and got right into Rafe's face. "Newsflash, Slayer. YOU DON'T GET TO MAKE THE RULES. You just get to follow them."

Rafe couldn't believe he even tried to reason with him. He shoved Caleb back and sighed. He looked at Caleb with saddness in his eyes. "You won't let this go. You'll never let this go will you?"

Caleb shook his head and gave him a grin. "Not for an eternity."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He watched her from a few feet away. She looked so scared and lost. She kept fidgeting with her glasses and fussing with her skirt. She looked years younger than she was.

He knew what she was trying to do and part of him was furious. Part of him wanted to strangle her for being so fearless, for coming out here all alone. The other part of him was proud and slightly jealous. She loved her family so much that she was willing to take a chance with her own life to save them all.

Danny took a deep breath and walked over to her.

"Lynnie." He said softly, the name sounding strange on his tongue.

What the hell was he doing there, was all she could think. Instead she pushed her glasses up her nose and said. "Hi Danny."

"Hi. What's going on?" He sat down beside her.

How could she get him to go away? She couldn't meet his eyes. "I'm meeting someone."

"A date?" He asked then, sounding a little annoyed.

Keep your cool, Lia. Taking a deep breath she replied. "Is that so impossible to believe?"

"No. It's not hard to believe. Not at all. I mean, you look just like your sister and I think she's beautiful." He admitted. A weight lifted off his chest as he said the words.

Lia's heart caught in her throat as she turned to face him. "You do?"

He stared into her blue eyes. "Yeah. I do. You look alike but you two are very different, it's easy to tell you apart. Lia's eyes are this crazy shade of brown. They're flecked with gold and it just gets more pronounced when she's mad at me. Which is all the time."

Lia suddenly forgot what she was there for. Right now, the only thing she could see was Danny's face. It was great being able to get some insight on how he felt about her. She'd obviously fooled him.

As she looked over at him, the only sound she could hear was his voice. "Really?" She whispered.

"Yeah. Lia's absolutely beautiful. You both are. But it looks to me like she doesn't care what I think." He took his hand and moved to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear. "You and your sister both are so loyal to your family and your friends. You're always looking out for the people you love. But the big difference is that you don't have a clue as to how to ask for help. You just go off and do whatever you want. Never mind that someone might want to help you."

Her head was spinning. Her heart was melting when he said she was beautiful but then he had to go and add that she was clueless. Lia had enough. She couldn't take it anymore. He always did this. He knew the exact way to make her mad.

Her temper bubbled to the surface as she stood up and whirled on him. She didn't even realize she was blowing her cover she was so furious. "Listen up, Thornhart. I don't need your help. I'm tired of you giving me a hard time."

"And I'm tired of you running away from me, Donovan. If you don't want to spend time with me – tell me now and believe me I'll get lost."

"Good. Go." She yelled at him. "Get lost. I don't need you."

His face fell as he looked at her. "Lia…"

She saw the look in his eyes and lost steam. The words were out before she realized what she was admitting. She shook her head and sputtered the words out. "I can't need you. I can't…"

He could see she didn't really mean what she was saying and began to hope. "Why not?" He demanded.

"Because." She said softly, scared to admit the truth but too overwhelmed to keep from telling him. "If I let myself need you, I don't know what I'll do when you get tired of me."

He deserved that, he knew. He had broken up with Kate in one of the worst ways possible. But when he spoke to her he was telling the truth. The way he felt about her was so different from the way he'd felt about anyone before. She infuriated him and kept him guessing, but there was something so exciting about not knowing how she would react or what she'd do next.

"I'm not sure when or how it happened Lia. I can't stop thinking about you." Danny ran his hand across her cheek. "But, I'm positive that I won't ever get tired of you." He promised her.

He reached over and drew the glasses she was wearing off her face. She didn't need them to see, she already was wearing contacts and they just got in the way. "What are you doing out here, pretending to be your sister?" He asked with a grin.

"I'm trying to keep her safe." Lia replied. "When I left the diner the other night someone gave me a note. He thought I was Lynnie. Whoever Lynnie was with when she disappeared, I know he's supposed to meet her here."

Danny moved to take her hands in his. His voice shook a bit. " I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you because you were trying to save the world all by yourself. You can't take chances like this. "

His words startled her. "How did you know I wasn't Lynnie?" Lia asked, baffled. "I'm wearing her clothes, I have her eyes, I even bought the glasses and everything."

He didn't hesitate to tell her the reason. He started to laugh. "Julia." He whispered. "I'd know you anywhere. You can't fool me. Your sister is the sweetest, but the fact is I don't care about Lynnie the way I care you. "

"Me?" Lia asked, still not believing.

"Yeah, you." Danny ran his hands up her arms and pulled her close. "Come here. Please, Lia. Stop fighting for one second and just look at me."

"What?" She asked as she stared in his eyes. She was getting scared again. This whole thing was too scary – too real. "Danny, I don't know what you want from me." She tried to get away, she was desperate to.

He wouldn't let her. He held her still and made her face him. "I want you to kiss me, Lia." Danny replied. "Just once and if you hate it I promise I'll leave you alone."

"OK. Just once." Lia whispered as she moved into his arms, helpless to fight anymore.

He smiled as he leaned closer. Danny's lips touched hers and she knew she was in trouble. There was no way one kiss would ever be enough.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"That's it, then." Rafe said as he took a deep breath. "There's nothing I can do I guess. I'll just have to find a way to deal with it."

Caleb mouth turned into a pout. "Aw, c'mon Slayer. Where's that fighting spirit? Need your wife to get out her pom-poms and do cartwheels to cheer you on?"

Rafe wasn't in the mood to trade insults. He decided it was time to lay it all out on the table. "I'd give my life up again if I thought it'd make them safe. I'd turn my head and let you take over if I thought they could still live in peace. I'd do anything I had to to make that happen."

He stared at Caleb and continued. "But you won't let it go. You cling to this war like it's a lifeline. I don't know what it is with you. You had a chance to live a normal life, to have what I've been able to and you chose to throw it away. You brought a mortal child into the world and are beside yourself that he wants to stay that way. You can have both, Caleb. It's not all or nothing. All you need to do is love him enough to let him be. That's the way to get your son back. Anything else will push him away."

Caleb wouldn't dare let him see that his words had gotten to him. "Gee. Thanks Dr. Phil." He said with a smile.

"Joke all you want, Caleb." Rafe replied, his expression showing he had had more than enough. "If you would just open yourself up to the possibility you could have what you want. Until you do that, you'll be miserable and might even find yourself alone again."

Rafe left his words hanging in the air as he disappeared. It was time to go home.