Chapter 6

Loki.

I was about to leave the house for work when my phone went off. A quick glance at the screen told me it was Billy. I answered after a moment’s pause. “Hello? Billy?”

“Hi,” she said. Something was off. She was still bright and happy, but something about her voice was different.

“What’s up?” I asked. I had been walking toward the door, but stopped in front of it. If something was seriously wrong, she wouldn’t have hesitated to tell me. I took that to mean Regory wasn’t dying and the city wasn’t being invaded by Annihilists while we stood here chatting.

“Well… Um… Ya know what, can I come over?” she finally asked. This did nothing but make me more paranoid.

“I was just about to leave for work, but I guess,” I said, walking back into the living room. “Is this something serious?”

“Not… Well… I’m on my way.” And the phone went dead.

I looked at the screen and frowned. I didn’t like this. I’d been running a Family for long enough that any change in the status quo threw me off and worried me.

I put my phone back in my pocket and looked at myself in the hallway mirror. I looked ragged, and tired. There were dark circles under my light brown eyes. I had pulled my white hair back, at the nape of my neck. My outfit was perfectly pressed… And I still looked exhausted.

Before Billy got here, Monday came downstairs. She was still in her pajamas and she looked sleepy as she moved toward the kitchen. My sister’s white hair was frizzed out, and her honey colored eyes heavy lidded. She froze when she saw me and then checked her phone for the date and time.

“What are you still doing here?” she finally asked. “Did something happen?”

Should I be concerned that something has to be wrong for me to go into a work a little later than normal? Sure, the last four years that’s all I’ve been doing. Working and working. I actually couldn’t think of the last time I’d taken a day off, even a half day. What did I have to take time off for, after all?

“Billy’s coming over to talk about something,” I said.

“Something bad?”

“I don’t know.”

Monday’s brow furrowed, but she went into the kitchen and got herself some coffee. Then she went back upstairs, glancing over at me at the top, before disappearing. I should really consider taking some time off if this is what they think of me. But that would be days where I have nothing to do, but mope. I’m really tired of moping. I’m tired of a lot of things. Being awake. Getting out of bed. Facing every day, knowing that it would be another empty stretch of time without… I’m so tired. Of so much.

Billy, like the rest of the Family, didn’t bother knocking before coming in. They all had keys. It was easier than them waking me up at all hours of the day to go let them in. And they did come by at all hours of the day. I’ve woken up and found Jarret passed out on the couch and Elijah wolfed out halfway up the stairs. Running a Family can be a crazy business.

She and Regory walked into the living room. Their appearances convinced me that something was wrong. Billy was dressed for work, but her black braids were messy, like she had done them too fast and her brow was pinched. Today her eyes were medium blue. Regory was clearly agitated. His brown hair wasn’t brushed, and his green eyes were shifting all over the room.

My brows raised and I sat forward. “Okay. What’s up?”

Billy sat down on the edge of the coffee table, directly in front of me, and Regory stayed where he was. Shifting his feet around uncomfortably. That small movement told me a lot more than people would think. He was nervous, worried that things wouldn’t go his way, worried that they were making a mistake…

“Okay,” Billy said. “I got a call this morning. From Asire.”

“All right.” Billy’s cousin called often, so I didn’t see what the big deal was. I hadn’t ever met the girl before, or spoken directly to her. Billy had wanted her to join our Family, but not everyone had felt comfortable with Asire’s reputation. Before the issue could be resolved, Asire had been Orphaned.

The day it happened, I found Billy sobbing in the bathroom at work. She’d tried to stop when she saw me, but I’d asked her what was wrong. As she told me, something in her eyes broke. Something that lived with me to that day. She hid it well, but sometimes, I’d catch that broken thing in her eyes again. That dead dream, still living in her heart, years after it had been shot through the head.

“Seattle is apparently having some problems at the moment—” not a surprise, that city had reports and rumors coming out of it that could rival all the tabloids. “—And she asked me to come down and help.”

I blinked. Sitting forward, I put my elbows on my knees and stared at Billy for several seconds. “Doesn’t it say in her Orphaning papers that the two of you aren’t allowed in the same city together?”

“Kinda.”

“Or she’ll die.”

“Kinda.”

This was going to be a long day. “Are you going to go?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer. Both girls had grown up not letting anyone tell them what to do. I was surprised they had followed the orders thus far. Especially with Regory, feeling all that guilt for leaving Asire behind to find a Family for Billy and himself.

“Yes,” Billy said, confirming my suspicion. “I’m gonna go. So is Regory.”

I rubbed my face.

“However,” she continued, “I was wondering if you could come too?”

“What?” I asked, dropping my hands. My day had started out so ordinary. Get up, eat breakfast, go to work, keep your mind off anything that might remind you of the way things used to be. Nowhere in my itinerary did it say, ‘Head to the City of Orphans to a help a girl you’ve never met.’

“The city is under attack from Annihilists,” Billy said. “Asire said the Orphans think they’re hiding outside the city, and they can’t get to them. If Regory and I go and confirm that they aren’t in the city, it would leave only the two of us to deal with all those Annihilists.”

I closed my eyes to compose myself.

“There’s one other thing,” she said.

“What?” My voice was flat.

“The enemy kidnapped one of the Orphans’ children,” she said, her voice completely flat.

Suddenly, the whole situation shifted. They could have convinced me to go before, but now they didn’t need to. A child in the hands of the enemy? They wouldn’t kill her, but by taking her they made one very obvious statement. ‘We’re going to take the city. And you can’t stop us’.

I had options. I could tell Billy and Regory not to go. As head of the Family, they should listen to me. But they wouldn’t. They’d agree and then I’d wake up tomorrow and they’d be gone. Or worse, Billy would leave the Family. The day that dream in her eyes died, I’d been waiting for her to leave. I’d been waiting for her to go somewhere that would help her find her cousin again. Somewhere that hadn’t hurt her before.

And then I’d have to live with the knowledge that not only had I lost Billy and Regory after hurting them so deeply, but that I would be walking away from a child that might need help. I’d never done that before, and I wouldn’t start now.

If I agreed to help, though… If I agreed to help, a lot more people could get hurt. If agreed to help, my family could be ripped apart.

I took another pass at my face and stood up. “All right. Let me call everyone here.”

Billy and Regory both relaxed.

It took an hour for the Family to get ready and get to the house. They all gathered in the living room and I let Billy explain the situation again. They listened calmly and had the same reaction that I did.

“How many attacks have there been?” Abyss asked.

“I didn’t ask,” Billy said. “Asire asked for a favor, then told me about the child and said they needed my help. That was the end of the conversation.”

Tense silence for a handful of minutes. I had already agreed to help and I wasn’t going to change my mind. Even if we were walking into an unknown situation. None of us have been to Seattle nor had we planned to. Some thought it was a cool vacation. Go to Seattle, survive it. Others enjoyed the danger and would stay for the weekend to prove they were tough. It was the same principle that made people skydive or bungee jump.

“How many of us are going?” Monday asked.

“I’m taking half,” I told her. “But you’re staying.”

Immediately, her eyes narrowed and her arms crossed over her chest. “Why? Cuz I’m your little sister?”

Here we go.

“No. Because I need someone to help Daniel with the business. That’d be you or Dovie and I decided it would be you,” I explained slowly.

She rolled her eyes. “You aren’t fooling me,” she said. “I know you just don’t want me in danger.”

“So does that mean I’m going?” Dovie asked.

“Yes.”

She grinned. “Sounds like fun. I haven’t gotten to travel in a while.”

I hope Seattle forgives me for unleashing her on their unsuspecting population. Nothing good could come of this.

“Who else?” Monday sniped.

I considered snapping back, but I rejected the idea. Best to leave her to her bad mood. “Billy and Regory, of course. Shade and Sunbeam.” I gestured to them. “And Wynn.” I had decided on Wynn thinking we could use some of his magic. Shade, I was bringing because the population of Seattle was heavy on rogue vampires, and he could be a mediator. And Sunbeam because she couldn’t be without one of the vampires, or she could get sick and die. Shade could help her more than Abyss.

Monday, as I said, was being left behind to help Daniel with the business. Moth and Dria, the only other couple in the Family, were staying because I didn’t want to take our only Cleaner with me and Dria wouldn’t leave him. Abyss was staying because I wanted at least one vampire here, in case we got into it with the local clan. Jarret and Elijah just because they could do more here than there. One was too dangerous and the other too trusting.

Monday rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

“How long do we have?” Dovie asked.

“We leave in an hour,” I told her. “That should give you all enough time to pack and get back here.”

They all nodded and dispersed. Billy and Regory included. I couldn’t help but notice that some of that tightness that was always in Regory’s shoulders was gone now.

Wynn jogged up the stairs to get his things together, leaving me and Monday down here. Because, a small part of him obviously hated me and felt I deserved to be alone with her. She still had that haughty expression on her face and her arms crossed. Her waif like features pinched in anger.

“I’m more than capable of going with you and defending a city, Loki,” she barked the second we were alone.

“I never said you weren’t,” I countered.

“Then why am I staying behind!”

“I don’t want to leave the house undefended, for one thing,” I said. “For another, it isn’t fair to leave Daniel to run the business on his own—”

She cut me off before I could say anything else. “Why the hell not? He practically ran it on his own for years, while training you.”

Deep breath. Little sisters can be annoying, but her attitude will pass. “He hasn’t run it alone in nearly a decade, Monday.”

“So? That doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how.”

“Be that as it may, it is still rude to expect it of him.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’ll never let me grow up, will you?”

I glanced at the wall, wondering if it’d put an end to the conversation were I to bash my head through it. Probably, but then, when I awoke, Monday would be there to continue the fight. I did the only thing I could do. I held my hands up and said, “Monday. I have to go pack. I can’t do this right now.”

She huffed and stormed away while I went up the stairs. She’d calm down eventually, and we’d be able to talk like adults again. She had two modes. Calm, where she was docile, funny and sweet. And the mode I liked to call Teenager. Where she was angry and bitter about everything. Thankfully, the older she got, the less I had to deal with the Teenager mode.

It was easier with Eve. She could talk to Monday in a way that I’d never been able to. She could smooth things over… when she wanted to.

Up in my room, I packed and had a blissful realization. If I was out of town, I wouldn’t have to stare down the empty bed every night. On those rare occasions where I had a business trip, it was days where I knew she was gone, but it hurt a little less. I focused on other things. I didn’t see the bed I couldn’t share with her, but a hotel room. I could only imagine this trip would be similar.

After I finished packing, I called Daniel and told him I’d be out of town without giving him specifics. He’d know something was up, but the less I told him, the better it’d be. I didn’t think he’d tattle on Billy, because it could and would kill him, but if things got out of hand he wouldn’t help us.

Everyone was ready to go by that night, but we all agreed to leave in the morning, which meant another night where I had to stay in my bedroom…

I trudged upstairs and into the master bedroom. Technically, it was mine. But it only felt that way in the morning. When the sun was up. When night fell, it was a room that slowly tormented me. It was large enough that I’d never run out of space and had a bathroom attached. But it might as well have been a shoe box for how my lungs squeezed closed when I first walked in. Without fail.

I leaned against the doorframe, waiting for my lungs to start working again. Once they had, I finally looked at the bed. The empty bed. And waited for the agony to dissipate. The covers were completely flat. There was no tiny blonde girl under the heavy comforter, waiting for me. And there hadn’t been in four years.