Note: Please see Prologue for warning, copyright and disclaimer information.
The Cave
Glenn led us through the streets of Nashville to a park near the river. He drove slowly toward the back of the park and stopped near a set of railroad tracks that ran through it. Mac pulled up beside him and turned his bike off. The sound of his cell phone ringing cut through the sudden silence like a knife.
I got off the bike and stepped away, watching Mac take off his helmet and answer the phone. It was that girl again, Christina. I really had to ask him what exactly their relationship was, it seemed like she was calling him every time I turned around.
"You're probably going to be mad at me," she told him, worry and guilt coloring her voice.
"Oh?" Mac asked, his voice hard.
"I can't find her," she said in a rush.
"Who?"
"The girl," she replied a little impatiently. "She like, disappeared this morning."
Corrine, she was talking about Corrine.
"Yes," Mac murmured, apparently having realized that too. He got off the bike and moved a few feet away from it.
"I can't find her," Christina repeated. She almost sounded frantic, making me wonder again how close she was to my lover. "Any ideas?"
"She has been taken to a safe house," Mac assured her calmly.
"When?"
"This morning."
There was silence on the line for a long moment. "Nice of you to let me know," she drawled finally.
"I asked my contact to let Brenda know," Mac told her awkwardly, "before I remembered Brenda would be here and…." He stopped and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Christina."
"As long as she's safe and you know where she is, I guess it's not a problem," she murmured softly. "I was just a little worried."
"I apologize for that, Christina," he said sincerely. "Things have been a little hectic the last few days."
"Yeah? How's everything going?"
"Good, now," he told her. "More normal, for us."
"The girl hasn't staked you yet?"
Why did everyone think I was going to stake him? I wasn't that aggressive, was I? I leaned against the bike and waited to see what he would say.
"No," he replied softly, turning to smile at me.
"You don't sound like you're worried she will," the girl said slowly.
"Not unless I do something to provoke it," he murmured. When I smiled at him, he said, "Say 'hi' to the girl, Christina."
"What?"
He shook his head. "Never mind."
"You're in Nashville?" she asked. "Have you seen Brenda?"
"Yes, several times."
"She's okay?" Christina sounded worried about the other vamp. "She hasn't called home tonight."
"Well, we were dealing with the Brujah this evening, then visiting with the prince."
"The Brujah?" she asked slowly. "You weren't at that cemetery down on Oak and Fourth, were you?"
How did she know that? I thought Mac didn't know that many people who'd been to Nashville.
"Yes."
"Really?" She didn't sound surprised. "God I hate that place."
"What went down there?" Mac asked slowly. "I got the feeling that Brenda knew it as well."
"Well, Brenda, me, Lena," she paused for a moment, and when she continued I could almost feel the sorrow in her voice, "and Luke all got shot there as well as shooting numerous bad guys."
I wondered who Luke was to upset the girl like that, usually when she talked to Mac she was bright and happy.
"Tonight we did the shooting," he told her.
"Good, I had a feeling we missed a few when we were there before."
"About ten," Mac murmured. "We didn't miss any. Now we're down at one of the parks following more of them."
"Which park is that?"
"Shelby Park."
She chuckled. "What are you doing, following our footsteps? Well I guess backward cause we were at the park first, then at the cemetery."
"Searching for Earl Hardy," he told her, looking off into the woods.
"You think he's at the park?" By the tone of her voice, Mac had explained that Earl had killed their sire.
"Someone does," he replied, glancing at Glenn who was talking quietly with Bobby a few yards away.
"Who?"
"An old friend," he told her with a smile, "from before my accident."
"Yeah, well, just don't slip on any fangs tonight," she warned him.
"Only one other of us in the group has fangs," he said, "and he has claws too."
"So I'm assuming you don't need any help."
"Not at the moment," he assured her. "Is Simon still under wraps?"
"Yeah," she told him. "He's not talking too much, but he's under wraps. I'm surprised, you'd think Dominate would work a little better than that." She seemed to realize she was in danger of rambling and stopped herself. "Well I don't want to keep you, I was just concerned that I couldn't find the girl, thought I'd call. I've been looking for her since sundown."
"Yes, she's with another old friend," he informed her.
"Would that be the Jared that Brenda knows?" she asked slowly.
"Brenda knows him?" Mac asked in a hard voice.
"You didn't know Brenda knew him?" Christina seemed surprised. "He's with that whole coven thing."
"Oh," he said, obviously offended by the mention of Brenda. "The Mother thing."
"Yeah, that whole thing," she said. "Would that be him? Cause he was seen going into her apartment building and no one came out."
Mac chuckled softly. "That would be Jared."
"Like I said, I don't mean to keep you," she repeated.
"Well, thank you for your concern," he told her. "Once again I apologize."
"No problem, as long as she's safe."
"If I see Brenda I'll tell her to call you. Good evening."
"Okay," she replied. "Good night, Cormac."
As he hung up the phone, Mac looked at me. "I said good bye."
"She's the only one you say goodbye to," I said with a smile. From the corner of my eye I saw Glenn and Bobby walking toward us.
"She's my sister," he reminded me. "What do you want? I say goodbye to you, not that I call you much anymore."
I shook my head. "Okay, the last two times I talked to you on the phone you hung up on me."
"And Corrine," he added thoughtfully.
"Okay, you say goodbye to Corrine," I admitted.
"Can we get on with this?" Glenn asked impatiently. "Stop with the bickering, let's go. You guys haven't changed."
"Good to hear you say that," Mac murmured.
Glenn shook his head. "Well, besides the teeth and the body temperature," he corrected himself, his voice sober.
"I always had teeth," Mac replied.
"They just weren't that sharp."
Glenn started off across the railroad tracks and into the woods. We followed him, Bobby falling behind us to watch the rear. Mac reached inside his jacket with both hands and readied his guns for a quicker draw. If he'd asked, I would have told him there weren't any vamps close enough for him to be concerned about, but he didn't ask. And it wasn't like there couldn't have been something else lurking in the darkness that I couldn't feel.
We walked for several hundred feet through the trees until we got to a grouping of boulders that stood over my head. Glenn walked between two of them and into the mouth of a natural underground tunnel. He held up his hand and a small ball of light appeared in front of him, moving with him to light our way.
"Do you… sense anybody?" Mac asked softly as we followed Glenn deeper into the earth. "Besides me?"
I thought for a moment and realized that I did. They were probably on the edge of my sensory range, but then being underground could be messing with me. "Yeah, I do," I whispered. "A couple, but I don't know how close."
"Very well," he murmured.
The tunnel angled downward, and the more we walked, the more water I could hear dripping. There must have been a hot spring somewhere down there because it kept getting warmer the longer we walked. Soon I was sweating, but I didn't want to take my jacket off. I couldn't afford to replace it and I didn't want to lose it fighting the bad guys, so I just dealt with the heat.
I noticed that Glenn took his coat off, and in the dim light I saw the Superman tattoo high on his right arm. Looking at it made me sad remembering how the four of us, Mac, Glenn, Jane and I, had gone into the tattoo parlor together after a particularly successful hunt. Glenn had chosen the Superman, Mac had gotten something Celtic and Jane had gone for a rose. I'd picked a simple design that nowadays people call 'tribal'. I pushed the memories away and concentrated on the task at hand.
Eventually we could hear people talking somewhere ahead of us and Mac pulled his guns. Glenn had been letting the light dim as we got closer to the voices, and soon he let it fade altogether. We stopped in the tunnel and listened.
At first we just heard two distinct voices, but then more spoke up. They were talking about taking a job and how much money they'd make killing someone. It sounded like they were hit men, but I could feel that only two of them were Kindred.
During their conversation they called each other by name, and when one said the name 'Earl', Mac growled low in his throat. I heard two very quiet clicks and knew that he'd taken the safeties off his pistols. I pulled the gun he'd given me, although I wasn't sure how well I could use it. I knew the Kindred were still about a hundred feet away from us or I would have pulled my stakes.
Suddenly we heard a man call Earl's name from what sounded like the other end of the cave the hit men were in. Mac stepped into the cave and I followed without hesitation. Maybe I should have hesitated.
The moment I stepped into the room and was overcome with emotions that came out of nowhere. It seemed like all the hopelessness and despair I'd ever felt when Mac died shot through me in that one instant. I fell to my knees and emptied my stomach onto the dirt floor of the cavern.
On the edge of my mind I heard gunfire echo through the cave, but I was caught in the desolation and torment that overwhelmed me. The only thing I could do was gasp for air and try not to choke on my own vomit.
It took me a few minutes, but I was finally able to shake the sensations running through my mind. I looked up and saw that one of the vampires had a gun aimed directly at Mac. I reached over and grabbed a handful of his coat and yanked just as the gun went off. I pulled him out of the way, but not all the way out. The bullet still hit him in the thigh and exploded fire.
Mac ignored the wound and shot at the Kindred, who fell burning to the floor. Glenn was still fighting with one of the humans when Mac fired at the only other bad guy that was standing.
I could see my gun lying on the floor next to me where I'd dropped it when I'd fallen to my knees. I picked it up and shot the guy too, and he also fell burning to the floor.
The fire on Mac's leg went out as he started limping across the cave. About that time, Bobby reached the Kindred Glenn was fighting with and helped him finish the fiend. I stumbled to my feet as Mac holstered one of his guns and followed him as quickly as I could.
The cave was a large one, at least a hundred feet long by fifty feet wide. There were pillars set in the dirt along the walls that from the soot stains on the ceiling had once held lanterns or torches. At the other end of the cave was a large throne and a cage, the door of which was ripped off and lying on the floor. Chains hung from the ceiling, some of them still holding bodies, or parts of bodies.
I could still feel the desolation inside of me, but now I realized that it was the cave that was making me feel that way. I wondered why no one else had been affected like I had been, but I suppose it didn't really matter. Maybe only women could feel it. I holstered my gun and hugged myself, fighting not to be sick again.
Glenn and Bobby stood near five bodies lying on the floor around a battery-powered lantern that threw shadows across the room. By the time we got near them, Bobby was making sure the last of them was dead and Glenn had put out the fire on the Kindred who'd shot my lover.
Mac viciously kicked the gun away from the vamp and I figured I could assume the guy was Earl. He holstered his other gun and bent to disarm him, then touched the blood on his coat for a moment before straightening and looking around.
Glenn glanced at the wound on Mac's leg. "Are you alright brother?"
Mac looked at him, past him really, and I could tell he'd spaced out again. I looked away, remembering that they'd often called each other brother when we lived in Baltimore. They'd even gone so far as performing ritual that bound them as blood brothers. Maybe that was the bond Glenn had been talking about at the Iron.
"I'm fine, brother," Mac said softly.
Glenn nodded and looked down at Earl.
"Why don't you get Eliza out of here?" Mac told him as he pulled out his cell phone. "Things are going to get… messy."
"What do you mean get me out of here?" I demanded, ignoring Bobby who had shifted back to human form and come up beside me. "I don't need to go anywhere."
Mac finished dialing and turned to look at me as he put the phone to his ear. "Go," he said sternly.
Fuck that. I didn't answer, just gave him a level look that told him I wasn't leaving.
"Fine," he bit out angrily. "I warned you."
Before I could say anything, Faith answered her phone. The connection wasn't the best, but they managed. Once Mac identified himself, she asked what he needed.
"I've caught Earl," he told her, his voice hard and cold. "As the prince gives a shit, I'm asking you. May I drain him?"
There was a long minute of static before she replied. "Do you know what that entails? The consequences?"
I didn't understand what she was talking about, unless she meant the blood bond. Why would Mac willingly bond himself to the black hat that had killed Dougal?
"I know of the veins in my aura, yes," he replied, his voice coldly calm.
"If you're willing to live with that, it would be justice," she told him.
"Then I have your permission?"
Faith said something unintelligible from the static and Mac had to ask her to repeat it. "You have it," she told him.
"Thank you," he said quickly. "Good evening." He didn't wait for her to reply before he hung the phone up and put it away. He glanced at me, then looked at Bobby. "Get her out of here," he told him firmly. "Take her back to the bikes."
I looked at him, surprised. "No," I told him bluntly, "I'm not leaving."
"Come on, Eliza," Bobby said kindly.
I didn't want kindness, I wanted to stay with Mac. "You're out of your mind," I told them all. I wasn't leaving my lover alone with Glenn, I still wasn't sure that the mage wouldn't destroy him at the first chance he got.
From the corner of my eye I saw Glenn nod and my eyes widened. I turned, but I wasn't quick enough. Bobby was back in big furry form and he grabbed both of my wrists, holding them in one of his own. He bent and lifted me across his shoulders before I could blink.
"I'm not a piece of meat!" I yelled loudly in his ear. "Put me down, you big son of a bitch!"
He ignored me and started walking toward the cave entrance.
I twisted my head to look back at the others. "Mac," I pleaded, "don't do this, make him put me down!" Didn't he trust me? What was the big deal about him drinking from another vampire? And why wasn't he worried about getting a blood bond from it?
Mac wasn't paying attention. He'd taken his jackets off and I saw him pull out his stake and hand it to Glenn. Damn, did he want to die in this horrible cave? I struggled against the hold Bobby had on me, but he was way too strong and I was still nauseous.
"Let me go, you werewolf bastard!" I shouted in his ear. "Put me down or I'll make you regret the day you were born." I concentrated on making myself stronger and pulled against his grip, but he was still unmovable. I didn't like the way it made me feel helpless and vulnerable. I hadn't felt that way in a long time.
"Chill out, Eliza," he growled back at me as we left the cave and entered the passageway.
When we got out of the cave, I felt the despair that had been hounding me fall away. I had to be insane for wanting to go back in there, but I knew I had to. The last thing I saw was Mac kneeling beside Earl's body and Glenn standing nearby with a stake in his hand.
"If Glenn hurts him, I'll kill you both," I swore, still trying to get away.
Bobby's grip tightened painfully on my wrists and legs. "You've had quite a bit of practice killing Garou in the last few years, haven't you?"
For the first time I was afraid for my own safety. How could I have forgotten how much had changed in the last twenty years? Would Bobby kill me to avenge the Garou I'd murdered?
"Just let me down, Bobby," I said, trying to keep my voice calm and reasonable. "Let me go so I can make sure nobody does anything stupid."
"That's why I'm taking you out of there," he told me firmly, no hint of menace in his voice. "You don't want to see what Mac's gonna do."
I didn't understand. "He's just drinking from him, I've seen that before, Bobby. He bit me, remember?"
"This is different."
"How is it different?" When he didn't answer, I started struggling again. Something was wrong, something none of them wanted me to know about. I couldn't just leave Mac there with Glenn, I couldn't. "It's dangerous, isn't it? Damn it, let me go!"
He won't be hurt, Eliza, I heard Glenn say in my head. He doesn't want to see you hurt if something goes wrong.
"It's my choice," I yelled, not caring who heard me. "You think I can't handle it? I'm not a fucking puppy, let me down!"
No matter what I said or how hard I fought, Bobby wouldn't let me go. We left the tunnel and he carried me through the woods back to the bikes.
"You can let me go now," I told him calmly when he still didn't put me down.
"I think I'll wait," he told me. "You'd probably go running after them."
"I wouldn't," I lied. "I'd stay right here until they came."
He laughed softly, his voice sounding like sandpaper on stone. "You're a bad liar, Eliza," he chuckled.
I started struggling again, but he was still too strong. I had to get to Mac; I had to make sure Glenn didn't hurt him. I made myself even stronger and felt his hold start to give. I twisted and for a moment he lost his grip. I slid to the ground, falling hard on my back.
I rolled away from his hands and darted to my feet, but that fast he was on me. I kicked backwards and my foot contacted powerfully against his ribs. I swear I heard at least one break from the impact, but he grabbed my leg and pulled me backwards. In a heartbeat he had my arms pinned to my side and my body held tightly against his.
Cursing loudly and twisting in his grip, I managed to jam my elbow against the broken ribs when we heard Mac call out that it was okay to let me go. Bobby quickly moved his hands and I was running through the trees toward his voice. He'd sounded okay, but what if he'd killed Glenn? What if it was a trick Glenn had used to make me think Mac was alive?
As I got closer, I realized that I could feel a vampire moving through the trees toward me. I slowed to a walk before Mac came into sight and once he did I stopped, glancing at Glenn only long enough to see that he was alive.
I stared at Mac for a long moment, not sure if I wanted to hug him and make sure he was all right, or hurt him for making me leave him alone with a man who could easily have killed him. The smile he tried to hide both pissed me off and assured me he wasn't hurt, other than the wound on his leg.
And did Mac plan on making decisions for me like that all the time? If he did, we sure as hell didn't have much of a future. Not that we had one anyway, did we? Without a word I turned and walked back toward the bikes. I could hear them following me, talking.
"Oh, yeah," Glenn drawled, "she looked real happy."
"I think she's taking it rather well," Mac told him.
"She didn't throw anything, at us anyway."
"Yet."
"She's got a little bit better hold on her temper now than she used to."
At that I started walking faster; I really didn't want to hear their opinion of me. When I got to the road, I walked over to stand by Mac's bike and turned my back to Bobby who was once again in human form and had changed his bloody clothing. Without even thinking about it, I crossed my arms and started tapping my foot impatiently.
I could feel Mac coming closer so I wasn't surprised when he put his arm around my waist from behind. I didn't let myself relax, though; he had to know that I wouldn't tolerate him doing that to me again. I'm more than old enough to make my own decisions, I don't need anyone to make them for me.
"It was for the better, luv," he told me softly.
Was it? "That wasn't fair," I said angrily.
"Fair or not," he replied firmly, "it was for the best."
What was he, my daddy now? I'd never known my father and I sure as hell didn't need a stand-in for him now. "Mmm-hmm, in your opinion."
"Yes, in my opinion."
"You don't own me," I bit out harshly. "I can make my own decisions."
"So can I," he said as he dropped his hand from my waist and walked around to stand in front of me, "and I decided that I didn't want you to see that."
Whatever it was, it must have been horrible. Was I really ready to see exactly what Mac was capable of? Not knowing what he'd done to Earl had to be much worse than watching it, didn't it? I sighed and looked away, knowing that he was probably right, but not quite willing to admit it.
"Shall we get out of here?" he asked.
"And go where?" I was still mad, but I knew I'd get over it.
"Elsewhere."
I rolled my eyes and groaned. "Oh God, not another carnival."
"Ah, no," he assured me.
"Where have you been taking her?" Glenn asked slowly.
"Berlin, Paris," Mac replied.
"Carnivals?" Glenn sounded like he'd been to one.
Mac gave a rueful chuckle. "Not by choice, I assure you."
I looked over to see that Glenn had put his hand on Bobby's side where I'd kicked him. After a moment he moved away, and Bobby seemed to feel much better. I felt bad that I'd hurt him, but he shouldn't have treated me like that.
"So, where we going, Mac?" I asked, looking up at him.
"The night is young," he began.
"And none of us are," I reminded him.
"What is there to do in Nashville?" At that he looked at Glenn.
"Nashville," the mage drawled, "the music capital of America? There's lots of stuff to see and do. The Grand Old Opera…."
"At 11:00 at night?" Mac asked.
"Good point. Well, you've seen the cemetery," he murmured. "There's a few hotels with bars, and a lot of bars are open this late. The Iron."
"Lets go find something quiet and working class," Mac suggested. "Or noisy and working class, as I remember."
Glenn smiled. "Like the Memphis."
He nodded. "This would be the night for it."
"Well, all right," Glenn agreed. "Lets go find somewhere to be."
Mac took off his backpack and opened one of the saddlebags on the side of the bike. He opened it but instead of putting the pack inside, he pulled out a small bag and an envelope. I was shocked to recognize the bag, it was Mac's, a sort of medicine bag he'd always kept close to him. How the hell could Glenn have gotten it?
"This was all I could salvage from the apartment," Glenn said softly. I looked up to see that he'd moved closer and was now standing next to Mac. "When we got there, there was only one v-Kindred there and we killed it."
"That was the staked one," Mac murmured as he opened the bag and looked inside.
Glenn seemed a little surprised. "Yeah, there was a little bit of blood on its shirt. I took the stuff and your bike to your family." He studied his friend's face for a long moment, then smiled. "You didn't think I'd kept it all these years, did you?"
"The bike?" Mac asked, looking up at him.
"Yeah."
Mac glanced at Glenn's bike and smiled a little. "I wouldn't blame you if you did, it's a classic."
Glenn rolled his eyes. "You were always saying that about that bike. It's not the only classic in the world," he told Mac.
"It's an antique, like me," Mac replied dryly. He opened the envelope and looked at the pictures he found inside.
I'd seen almost all of them before, they were pictures of his family in Ireland. One was a little different though, newer. It was of his sister, but she looked a lot more mature than the pictures I remembered of her. And something about her face tickled the back of my mind, as if I'd seen her somewhere.
"Who let her wear that?" Mac asked wryly.
Glenn looked down at the picture. "She actually looked quite nice in that."
Mac glanced up at him. "That's my sister you're talking about," he reminded him.
"And your point is?" Glenn replied trying not to smile.
"Sharp," Mac told him.
Glenn shrugged. "Pretty much no one tells her what to wear and what not to wear," he said calmly, glancing at the picture again. "And I actually think she looked really good in that outfit."
"I guess I'd have to see the rest of it," Mac drawled.
"There's not a whole lot more."
Mac looked at his friend. "Glenn, are you and Sprite an… item?"
"An item?" He shook his head. "I wouldn't put it that way."
"Then how would you put it?"
"I wouldn't call it 'item'," he murmured, smiling. "Close."
"Fling?" Mac asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I wouldn't say that," Glenn said firmly. "Not where she could hear me."
"Wrong direction?"
"Completely." He crossed his arms and stood waiting patiently for Mac's next question, which wasn't long in coming.
"Couple?"
"You could say that," he murmured.
Mac looked pointedly at Glenn's left hand, which just happened to be in plain view. For the first time I noticed that he was wearing a simple gold wedding band.
"What?" Glenn asked, trying to hide a smile. He followed Mac's look and held up his hand. "Oh, did I mention…?"
"No, you didn't," Mac replied dryly.
"Oh, well, I must have missed that while you were killing the other vamp," he said in the same tone of voice.
Mac sighed and shook his head. "At least she's in good hands." With one last glance at a picture of him and Angus, Mac slid the pictures back in the envelope and everything into his backpack before storing it in the saddlebag.
"Or I am," Glenn said softly, "one of the two."
"And when did this occur?"
I was interested in knowing that too. I guess I hadn't really thought about Mac's family much after he died, I'd been too busy trying to survive to worry about people I'd never met.
"About eight years ago," Glenn told him, "although we were an 'item' before that."
"And you didn't invite me?" Mac asked, smiling.
"You were quite busy eight years ago," he said seriously.
"I was around."
"And you probably would have brought a guest that most likely would have been destroyed," Glenn added. He almost sounded like he'd known where Mac had been all those years. "I didn't think it was a good idea to invite y'all. How was Houston?"
"Hot and dry," Mac replied, putting on his helmet, "unless it rained. Then it was hot and wet."
Glenn nodded and pointedly ignored the questioning look I gave him. "So, you ready to ride?"
"Yes," Mac told him. As Glenn started to turn away, Mac added, "Any children?"
Glenn stopped and turned back. "No. I can't convince her to settle down that much."
"Working on it?"
He sighed. "I'm of two minds," he said quietly. He looked Mac straight in the eye and added, "It's kind of hard to raise a family when you're out killing Kindred."
"Then stop killing," Mac told him coolly.
Glenn didn't answer, just turned and went to his bike.
"It's just a suggestion," Mac murmured as he got on his own bike.
I put on my helmet and climbed on behind him only because I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing me ride with anyone else. I made sure to keep my distance from him though, and held on to the sides of his waist rather than putting my arms around him like I had before. When Glenn took off, Mac popped the clutch, probably trying to make me hold on better. I just tightened my grip and gritted my teeth.
After a few moments, he leaned back. "Did you know about that?" he asked over the wind whipping by.
I leaned closer to his ear. "About what?"
"Glenn and Soifra."
I'd had no idea. "It was news to me," I told him. "I've only talked to him—"
"A week after the night," he interrupted me. He and Glenn must have had a nice chat after Mac killed Earl.
"And in the last week," I added.
He leaned forward again and drove through the streets of Nashville, following Glenn to a small bar in the industrial section of town.