Chapter 8: Chapter Seven

Juliet cleaned out her rental car and changed her clothes. After some more blood, she packed up and we hit the road. She said that we didn’t need to worry too much about her cravings, but she needed a little more than normal. And the vampire blood she drank didn’t do as much for her as human or demon would.

“You have fangs?” Pepper asked from the seat beside her.

“Yup.” Juliet nodded. “I can make them come out when I need them.”

“How much do you need to eat?”

“About a liter a week, if I eat regular food. A gallon if I wanna be stronger. I would need less if it was demon blood or—” she stopped herself. “Never mind.”

Juliet found another motel for us. We got two rooms and headed into one.

“How are we doing this?” I asked as I looked at the key cards.

“Juliet and I are sharing,” Phin said.

Juliet looked hopeful, but that soon went away.

“Because I want to keep an eye on her. I don’t trust her with you, Will.”

I handed them the keys. “Pepper and I can share.”

“Do we have a plan yet?” Phin asked.

Juliet answered. “Right now, there’s a mad scramble at the facility. They might act out and send a dozen soldiers out looking for people on the move in the middle of the night. We need to stay here tonight.”

“And what do we do tomorrow?” I asked.

She smiled. “It wouldn’t start a war, but I know what would throw them off. I say we take Fitz.”

I needed a few seconds to let that sink in. “Take him? How the hell do you think we can do that?”

“He works the candy shop in the daytime. He’ll be there. We get him out and we take him. Maybe we can get him to give up some info.”

“Or it’ll get us killed,” Phin interjected.

Her eyes went to him. “We’re dead either way. At least this will buy us some time. We’ll bring as many of them down as we can.”

“Sounds awesome,” Pepper decided. “But we don’t get to kill him.”

“Probably not. They won’t think he’s dead when we take him. Felix thinks the guy is unbreakable. We’re gonna test that.”

“What happens after?” Phin said.

“What?”

“After we get him. We’re in for a lifetime of running, and I don’t want to spend my life with you anymore. I don’t trust you. How am I supposed to trust that, once you leave, you won’t rat us out to get your safe haven back?”

“I’m not leaving, Phin. My life is about you guys now. Keeping you safe. I’m going to find a way to prove it to you.”

He ignored her. “I think we need food. We should stock up on stuff we can use to keep that guy tied up, too.”

Pepper smiled. “I think I can handle that. Keys?”

Juliet laughed. “I’m not letting a kid drive.”

“Why not? I drove your body all the way to Phin’s motel.”

“What?”

“Yup, hand over the keys and give me an hour.”

Juliet looked to me for permission. So, I gave it.

Phin shook his head. “We gave her a car with five million dollars in it. She’s never coming back.”

“She will,” I said confidently. “She doesn’t want to be alone, and we’re all she has.”

“Is that enough?”

“It has to be.”

***

Pepper came back. She had three pairs of handcuffs, one set of keys, three bags of candy, two bags of normal food, and the most amazing thing of all, blood. She had three bags.

“How did you get that?” Juliet asked, marveling.

“I broke into a hospital.” Pepper smiled. “I thought that you could use the human stuff. I sure as hell wasn’t gonna let you get any of my blood.”

“And the handcuffs?” Phin asked.

She looked up at him. “Lifted it from a couple of cops.”

“You. Are. Wonderful.” My brother grinned.

“Thank you.” She bowed, and Twix squeaked from her jacket. “I didn’t have time to get clothes, though. The sun went down and I thought it wouldn’t be smart to stay out.”

“Good idea.” Juliet patted her head and the girl glared. “I’ve got clothes you can use. They might be a little big on you.”

“I can work with that.”

We ate dinner and separated into our adjoining rooms. We changed into the jam mies that Juliet had. They ballooned on Pepper but felt right on me.

“Goodnight, sweetie,” Pepper said to Twix as she set him on her pillow. He sniffed around until he decided to settle into a little ball.

I fell asleep quickly, but I didn’t sleep well.

***

We all ate together in the morning.

“I think you’re gonna hate the plan I came up with last night,” Juliet said. She tossed a blood bag in the trash and buried it so the maid wouldn’t have a heart attack. “But I think it’s our best bet.”

“And that would be?”

She smirked. “I think you’d be excellent bait.”

“No!” Phin shot up from his seat. “Not gonna happen. Not now, not ever. No!”

Juliet crossed her legs and arms. “We don’t have many options. I could be the one to try to get him, but he’ll respond better to Willow. He won’t kill her, and I know he’ll kill me.”

“Fine by me,” Phin said without emotion.

Juliet ignored it. “I’m your only connection to that place. If I die, you’re in a lot of trouble. I die, you die.”

Pepper broke up the fight. “Listen up, you, just get the guy out of the shop and I’ll take care of the rest. Got it?” She looked at me.

Phin laughed at her. “Kiddo, you’re knee high to a grasshopper. What makes you think you can take down a giant?”

“David did it, so can I.” Her hands went to her hips. “Juliet is right, options are limited. If I need it, I can use my specialty. It’s quite handy.”

“It didn’t keep you from getting kidnapped the first time,” he shot at her.

She quirked a blond eyebrow. “I wasn’t ready then. I am now. Just trust me on this one. I know what I’m doing.” Twix poked his head out from the inside of her jacket. His little hands gripped the zipper.

“S’okay.” She looked down. “Mama’s got this under control.”

Phin reluctantly agreed, we all piled into the car, and Juliet started driving. The tinted windows kept Juliet safe from the sun.

“Juliet, do all demons know they’re demons? Like, if I hadn’t figured it out from you guys, would I have eventually figured it out?” Pepper asked.

“Depends. All demons have a specialty and it typically comes out pretty young. You would have known there was something different, like you already did. You might not have known the name for what you are, but there is no way a demon can go their whole life without knowing, since you’re immortal. At the very least, you would have noticed you weren’t aging.”

Pepper looked perplexed. “If one of my parents is a demon, why would they send me away? If they knew what was wrong?”

I cut in. “How were they when you were a kid?”

“Nice enough. They fought sometimes, but they were never mean to me. Not until things started happening. I’ve seen pictures of my parents from when they were young. They’ve aged. They don’t look like either of them stopped aging at maturity.”

“Um, Pepper, what kind of things did your parents fight about?” I asked.

“A lot of things. Sometimes me. When that was it, they would make me go to grandma’s house. She said that sometimes parents just fight. It wasn’t my fault— Oh shit. That makes a whole lot of sense…”

“Pep?” I said slowly. “You okay?” I think she figured it out.

“I don’t look like him,” she said to herself. “He said that once. Mom cheated on him with a demon, didn’t she?”

I rubbed her shoulder. “Sorry.”

She groaned. “I’ve got enough wrong with me. I don’t need to add to the pile.”

“We’re all messed up, kiddo,” Phin said. “Will’s a hybrid. Jules is a vampire, you’re a demon. I think I have it the worst.”

“How do you figure?” I said heatedly.

“I’m stuck being the boring human while everyone else gets to be something cool.”

“Trade ya,” I said as she turned a corner.

I lost all faith in myself as Juliet pulled over, down the street from the candy shop.

“Pet him,” Pepper said while holding Twix out. “You’ll feel better.”

He stood on her hand, watching me. I petted his little head. It didn’t do much for my nerves, but he seemed to enjoy it.

“You’re gonna do fine,” Pepper promised.

I wished I believed her.

“Go lure him out. We’ll be waiting,” Juliet said as she undid her seatbelt.

“Take this.” Pepper handed me a paddleball that she’d pulled from under the seat.

“Where did you get this?”

“Found it on a park bench.”

I took it.

My friends got into position behind me as I made my way toward the candy shop. Poison in more ways than one.

I could see Fitz through the stupid pictures.

I stepped into the empty parking lot and waited. I started playing with the stupid paddleball.

“What the hell are you doing?” Fitz said.

I looked up to find an amused Fitz standing with his arms crossed and his back against the door. “I am waiting for you.” I smiled.

“Ah, okay then. You have a death wish?”

“Well, I’m already a little dead, aren’t I?”

He smiled. “Such an attitude. You get it from your mom?”

I felt the blood drain from my face. “Yeah, I do. Come a little closer and find out what else I got from her.”

“Didn’t say it to hurt you, Sugar,” he tried convincing me. “More like an observation.”

Heat rushed through me. “You don’t know a thing about my mother.”

“Wrong,” he said.

I didn’t know why he liked screwing with me. “Stop talking.”

He took a step forward. “If you don’t want to talk, why are you here? Did you miss me?”

“I miss trying to hurt you,” I said sharply.

He smirked. “You’ll be happy to know you never did. As you can see, I remain undamaged.”

Without permission, my eyes started traveling. Slowly they moved down his body and back up again. And he noticed.

“Like what you see?”

“I hate what I see. I’d kill you if I could, but I was told that would cause more trouble than the satisfaction of your death would give me.”

His hand went to his heart and he offered a falsely wounded expression. “Your affection for me is overwhelming.”

I took in a breath. “I changed my mind. I don’t care what Daddy Dearest wants to do to me, I’m gonna kill you as soon as I can.”

His smile widened.

I walked over because, if I didn’t hit him soon, I might die. I stopped a foot short and looked up at his arrogant face. He looked down at me without the anger that I held for him. Nothing I did affected him. He didn’t even see me. And that pissed me off.

He laughed. “Well, are you planning on standing there all d—”

I punched him in the face. I had to stretch to do it, and it hurt like hell, but it was worth the effort. He flinched, and I cradled my hand to my chest.

When Fitz stabled himself, he touched his jaw. “Didn’t hurt nearly as much the last time you hit me in the face.”

“What? I’ve never hit you before.”

The corner of his mouth went up. “You wouldn’t remember, Sugar.”

I shoved him up against the glass so hard it cracked. “Stop calling me that. I’m not your ‘Sugar.’”

“So rough with me. I’m starting to think you don’t like me.”

“I hate you,” I said.

He put his hands on my hips and pushed me backward. “As much as I love all this foreplay, I think the game is over.”

He started to pick me up when I saw Pepper coming from behind him. She stuck him in the side with a syringe and pressed the plunger.

Fitz let go of me and whipped around. Anger burned in his eyes, but it didn’t last. His eyelids started drooping. He looked down at his side before Juliet and Phin ran out behind him. He fell into me, and I struggled to keep him up.

“Get him to the car,” Juliet ordered as she went to get his legs. The two of us shuffled him over to the parked car.

“He’s too big for the trunk,” Pepper said.

Juliet huffed. “Goodie for him. I guess he’s in the back.”

“We can’t all fit,” I said.

“Then he’ll have to lay on whoever’s back there with him.”

Pepper opened the back door.

“I’m not sitting in the back,” I decided.

Juliet started maneuvering him around. “You have to. Pepper would get crushed to death if she did, and you can’t drive. It’s you and me in the back.”

Of course.

Phin got the driver’s seat while Juliet got into the back and folded Fitz’s legs on her lap.

The car took off into the empty street as we escaped with our victim.