Chapter 57: Part Fifty-Six

I woke up on the floor of my bedroom, alone. It was dark and quiet and I groaned as I rolled onto my back. Sierra’s scent was fading and the choking feeling of pain gripped me again. She had left me, she had really left me. How had I missed our wedding?

She would never forgive me or take me back now, all this for my revenge. It could’ve waited, I could’ve killed them later, after the wedding but like every other time in my life, that bloodlust took over and I just had to kill them.

“Kane,” I murmured.

“I’m here,” he said sounding dejected.

“She left,” I said.

We could both feel her pain, it would continue until I accepted her rejection. She was heartbroken and it was killing me slowly. Chester’s words were also still with me, Samantha’s abortion, locked in a cage for three years. She had wanted to tell me everything.

I had killed her out of rage when she was forced to betray me. I didn’t want to believe him but I did. She had betrayed me but not that first time, only after being subjected to years of torture from her father did she turn against me.

Guilt wracked through me once again. I should’ve gone for Phillip sooner, then I would have found her sooner, but then I wouldn’t have found Sierra. I had so many conflicting emotions going through me that I didn’t know which were mine and which were Sierra’s.

I felt like dying, in fact I wished for it as thoughts of how my life could’ve been like with Samantha inadvertently made their way into my mind. I didn’t want to think those things, I wanted Sierra. I loved her, more than I ever loved Samantha.

My bedroom door opened and I looked up from the couch where I had sat down. Jett stood there looking at me, pain and disappointment evident in his eyes. I felt like a failure, I had lost the one good thing in my life.

“I just wanted to check if you were awake,” Jett said and moved back out of the room.

“Jett, wait,” I said and he stepped inside and flicked the light on.

“What?” he asked me.

Gone was the Jett I knew. Gone was the brother I always relied on, the jokes, his easy way of filling the silence, even the irritating way he always inserted himself into my life. Instead I saw cold anger and maybe even hatred in his eyes.

“I don’t know how I fucked up so badly,” I said to him.

“Where were you Griffin?” he asked me.

“Greenville,” I said.

“What the fuck man,” he said.

“I got a text saying that Damon was murdered not executed,” I said.

“You got a text and you didn’t tell me!” he said angrily.

“I broke into Chester’s house and found the documents proving it all. I waited, I was so angry so I started watching them. I killed Grant McClaren and left his body in his office for the Council to find, I tortured him first and he told me everything.”

“So the meetings and shit were all lies,” he said. It was a statement, not a question so I just nodded.

“They called me, asked for protection, so I agreed and ported them to Greenville. They were under security protocol in the Council and I ported into the room and out again. Nobody knew I was there, I killed them all,” I said.

“Why Damon though?” he asked me.

“Chester said it was supposed to be me, but killing Damon gave him some sort of sick satisfaction, having him out of the way. You know exactly what Damon would’ve done if it was me that had ended up dead in that Council room,” I said.

“He would’ve torn that place apart,” Jett said.

“Rosco was there too, he killed Damon,” I said.

“Rosco?” he questioned.

“They made him a hunter, Sam’s dad,” I said.

“Fuck Griff,” he said.

“I didn’t realize that it was already Sunday,” I said to him.

“How many?” he asked me.

“Six of them,” I answered.

“Shit Griffin, what if you get caught somehow?” he asked me.

“There’s no proof I was there, I burned their bodies, there’s nothing left,” I said.

“You picked the worst time for your revenge,” he said.

“I thought I had time, you know I would never do something like this to hurt her,” I said.

“Why are you still here Griff?” he asked me.

“She hates me,” I whispered.

“She hates what you did, she doesn’t hate you, she loves you. Fuck man, I was so mad at you, I couldn’t take her crying, how hurt she was when we all realized that you weren’t here, that you never came back like you said you would. She was broken. We kept calling you but she finally broke down and told me to cancel everything, send everyone home,” he said.

“I broke her,” I said.

“Yeah you did brother, so now go be the glue and fix her, fix you, stop this bullshit with your revenge and killing all the hunters. You deserve happiness, shit Griff, so does she. She’s it for you, I know you, you’ll never love again if you let her go,” he said.

Having a bond with someone was one of the strongest connections we could have, except the one parents had for their children. The need to protect, to be with them, to know they were safe, it overwhelmed every other sense.

I used this bond to try and find her. If I had marked her then it would be easier, it would give me a sense of where she was, the bond could pull me in the right direction but it wasn’t a guarantee that I’d find her.

“What car did she take?” I asked Jett.

“She left?” he asked me.

“Shit Jett, she’s not here, I can feel it,” I said to him.

He logged into the house security cameras and we both watched as Sierra stood on the porch for a few minutes, wiping tears from her face. She looked back once and then she started running. Before Jett could say anything else I was already running down the stairs.

“Griff wait!” he yelled behind me.

I caught a faint whiff of her scent and I ran into the tree line. I had no idea where she was going, the route she had taken was at the back of the house, forests stretching for miles with nothing in between. If she kept in a straight line like I was now then she’d reach a road in less than a mile, it was mainly deserted.

I stopped running as Kane halted and sniffed the air, looking back towards the house. He seemed confused for a moment and he walked a few steps forward before growling and turning back, walking in a circle.

“She doubled back,” he said and I turned and started running back.

I had no idea how long I was out for or how long she had actually been gone. She could be very far away by now but something told me she hadn’t left my territory yet. She was here somewhere, hopefully not hurt, if she kept moving, she wouldn’t freeze.

“We have to find her,” Kane said.

Even I could feel the cold in the air and with her basically being human, if she stopped, she could become hypothermic and die. I felt new energy form inside me as we passed the house again and headed for the trees on the other side.

I lost her scent and after five minutes Kane stopped too and sniffed the air again. I turned around as I listened for any sounds but I could only hear my own beating heart and my ragged breath. Kane’s ear twitched and he sniffed again, moving back to the house and to the other side nearing the border.

“No,” I said as fear settled deep inside me, “she didn’t.”

“She did,” he said.

I moved toward the border, the border that ended my territory and started the territory of the Vance coven and also the border between the US and Canada. If she crossed it she was in their territory now and they would sniff her out soon.

“Griff, we should get some back up,” Kane said.

“No, we can’t endanger them like this,” I said and crossed that line.

Kane shook his head but followed me across as we entered their land and he caught Sierra’s scent again. She didn’t know what awaited her on the other side, but I did. I knew all too well. They were bound to our treaties and they had never attacked us before, but that didn’t mean that they would let her pass through peacefully.

They were very territorial and she would be seen as just another human blood bag. Vance especially was known for his brutal acts, and their laws were different from ours which was why we had never ventured onto their land before.

“The water,” Kane said as he stopped again and turned towards the lake. Lake Memphremagog was about two and a half miles across to the other side. Vampires didn’t go near water, if she went in the water she’d be safe from them, but not from the cold.

I smelled blood and the hairs on the back of my neck rose. She was in the lake as a group of four men stood watching her from the dock. She was peddling water while they sneered at her. She was so close to the border, about a hundred and twenty feet, at a hundred and thirty we’d be back in my territory.

I did the only rational thing that anyone in my position would do, I ran through and dove into the water from the dock as Kane tackled the first vampire into the water. Kane was an excellent swimmer and he loved water, he was biting and snarling as the vampire fought to escape him.

“Sierra!” I yelled as her head went underwater, blood trickling down her neck where a vampire had bitten her.

I reached the spot where I had last seen her and dove down, gripping her arm and kicking hard to get back up to the surface. Her lips were blue and her eyes were closed as I blew air into her mouth, willing her to spit out the water and open her eyes.

She coughed as water gushed from her mouth and I turned her around so her back was against my chest as I started back pedaling towards the border. Her body was cold and stiff by the time I reached the sandy bank and I could hear her heart slowing down.

She was dying in my arms and tears spilt from my eyes as I looked down at her. The cold was too much, the venom of the bite making its way through her veins. I screamed out loud as Sierra’s heart stopped beating. I shook her body as I pressed her against me, but she remained dead no matter how much I begged.

“Sierra,” I whispered as Kane let out a growl of grief.