Chapter Nine
Summer
We board a small private plane. I’m led to a seat at the back of the aisle with three of the four. The dark-skinned one, who I’m starting to think of as their leader, speaks to the pilot, no doubt confirming our flight plans. Once he joins us, I cross my arms over my chest and glare, waiting for him to explain exactly where we are going and what the plan is.
“You’re full of spirit. I’ll give you that,” he tells me finally, reaching his hand out to rest on my knee. I jerk away from him “Don’t touch me,” I snarl.
“Oh, but not so long ago, you wrapped yourself in my arms, do you not recall? It felt nice having you there. You’ll change your tune soon, my love.”
My eyes widen at his words, but I don’t give him the satisfaction of a response.
“Ah, how quickly you dismiss the moment we had together. I see, strictly business then. I'm Balint, these are my brothers.” Balint motions to the three other men surrounding me.
“Jakub.” He nods toward the blond with the same accent as him. “Tommie,” Balint informs me as he points at the American. “And Aaran.” He finishes with the Scot.
Raising my eyebrow at his use of the word brothers, I look them over. “The four of you are brothers? You’re kidding me, right?”
“In the sense of the word that we all have the same father, yes, lassie, we’re brothers,” Aaran tells me.
“Vampire brothers got it. So what’s the plan here, fellas?” I clap my hands together in front of me. “Where exactly are we going so you can enact the rest of your evil plan to take over the world?” I’m exhausted. My patience left me hours ago. I’m still covered in debris from the warehouse and dressed in the slip of a white dress Leo had me put on. I feel like I’m on the edge of a breakdown, but I know as long as I can keep my attitude directed at these four, I can keep it together for at least a little longer.
“Summer? That’s your name, right?” Balint asks me, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, getting into my space. He reaches out with one hand and takes hold of mine. “We’re not planning to hurt you—”
“I think we have two very different meanings of what that word means. You’ve kidnapped me. We are on a plane to an unknown location. I imagine that the four of you plan to wait until my baby is born then breed me.” I throw air quotes around the words and put as much disdain in my voice as I can. “So you can raise the ultimate race of day walker vampires. Who may or may not have stronger magic than you. Do I have that right? Because, in my mind, that is hurting me!” I yell the last part at him and jerk my hand from his.
“Poland,” Jakub says from his seat next to me. “We’re going to Poland.”
“And is that bit of information supposed to make me feel better?” I shift in my seat, looking out the window for a moment. “Look, guys, you didn’t really expect me to just go along with your little plan, did you? And what exactly do you plan to do when Donnie shows up?” I keep looking between them, waiting for one of them to realize that I’m not some willing participant in this, not grateful to them for rescuing me from Leo and his mad plan.
“Do you all expect me to thank you? For saving me from Leo and his band of crazed old vamps? Ever heard the phrase out of the frying pan and into the fire? Fire,” I spit at them, pointing directly at Balint.
Tommie speaks up then for the first time since we were in the SUV. “Summer.” He sighs out my name. I can tell he is looking for the right words. “Honestly, yes, we thought you would be a little grateful to not have been auctioned off to one of those men who, to be clear, probably wouldn’t be able to resist feeding on and killing you as soon as they got their hands on you.” He lets out a long slow breath and rubs his forehead. Repeating the same thoughts I had about those men back to me.
“We’re not asking you to be happy about what is going on here, but if you had to go with the lesser of two evils, we’re it, hun. Truly, you may not agree with what we think and are trying to do for our people. But you have to understand you are a means to an end for us—”
“Am I? Why the fuck can’t you all just be happy with having a charm, like the rest of your kind, so you can go out in the daylight and live normal lives. Why does it have to be about power and control and ruling the world? Donnie is happy with just living a normal human life. You couldn’t be, and leave me the fuck out of it?” I finish and look down at my hands in my lap, my anger is fading, and I feel the tears coming closer to the surface of my fragile facade.
“All right, I have got to know,” Jakub asks, “Who the hell is this Donnie guy you keep talking about?”
My jaw drops open when I turn to look at him, then realization dawns as I shift my gaze between the four men in front of me. “He is the father of my baby, the vampire who got me pregnant and started all of this. How did you all hear about me anyway, if you don’t know anything about me?” Raising my eyebrows as I speak I wring my hands together. Baffled by their ignorance.
“Ah, got it now,” Jakub says. “The American.”
“Leo contacted us and offered us a seat at the auction, but we turned him down. We figured out a way to eliminate the competition and leave us with all the spoils.” Aaran smiles. “We didn’t take into account that you were in some sort of relationship with the father. Leo made it out to be accidental. Claimed he had heard of it happening, but the vamp whose child that is didn’t really know or understand what he’d done. Is that not the case?”
“No! It’s not!” I break now. “Donnie loves me. He loves us.” I drop my hand to my belly, tears starting to run down my cheeks. “He is going to come for us,” I tell them, glaring Balint down. “He will.”
“He may, my dear. But he will have to find us first. Remember, we weren’t the ones who originally took you, the warehouse is half destroyed, and it’s not exactly like we are right in his backyard.” Balint shifts towards me in his seat again. “I feel like we will be fine. After all, the four of us can handle ourselves. Look at me, Summer. We don’t want to hurt you. The exact opposite, in fact, we want to give you the world, anything you could imagine in exchange for being ours. We hope that you’ll learn to love us and want the same things we do.”
“You’re delusional,” I spit at him, tears rolling down my face in earnest now, my entire body is starting to ache, and the exhaustion is taking me over. “I need to sleep. Is there anywhere I can get cleaned up and sleep on this fancy-ass plane? I can’t do this right now, please. I just need to be alone.”
They all nod, and Tommie stands, reaching out a hand to me. I hesitate for a moment but take it, nodding at him. I trust that they’re not going to hurt me. They need me, the last thing they’re going to do is kill me or hurt me in some way, and even though it’s crazy, they do seem reasonably rational and want me to agree to this plan willingly rather than be dragged into it kicking and screaming while they forcibly breed me.
“There is a bedroom and a powder room in the back. Let me show you,” Tommie says as he leads me down the narrow aisle of the plane. Once we reach the end of the aisle, he turns to me. “We don’t want to hurt you. This could be a good thing for all of us. Just think about it. Please? The bathroom is in there.” He points to a small compartment. “There is a bed and a fresh set of clothes for you through there.” He points to the door at the very end of the hall. I nod, too exhausted to give him any more of a response than that.
Entering the powder room, I turn on the light and then the sink, letting the water warm up for a moment before I splash it on my face and wash the grime from my neck and arms. Looking at myself in the mirror, I’m shocked by what I see. My eyes are bloodshot from the smoke back at the warehouse, and my tears now. The streaks of black on my cheek combined with the mess that my hair is in makes me look like I’ve been through hell. Slowly I clean the rest of my face with a washcloth, brush through my hair with my fingers and make an attempt to feel and look normal for a moment.
When I close the bathroom door behind me, entering back into the small hall, I can hear the voices of my four captors at the other end of the plane, but I can’t make out what they’re saying. Giving up, I turn to the bedroom door and find a folded pile of yoga pants and a t-shirt. I smile softly. Thank God. Normal clothes. The little things we grasp to ground us in times of chaos never fail to amaze me.
Once I’m changed, I throw the dress that Leo and Amy forced me into out in the hall. I have no desire to ever see the thing again, and I hope they burn it. I bury myself under the fluffy duvet and burrow my head into the oversized pillows, closing my eyes. I pretend I am at home. Hoping I will momentarily forget the situation I am in and go to sleep. The exhaustion wins out over my own thoughts, and I drift off listening to the soft hum of the plane’s engines.
***
Donnie
I’m sitting on the couch in the dark when I see the headlights pull into the driveway, and I jump up, running to the front door. Leo is getting out of the car, limping. I notice his cut-up face and the awkward angle his arm hangs at.
“Where the hell is Summer, Leo?” I’m shouting at him as I jog down the sidewalk towards my friend.
“Donnie,” he says somberly. “I’m so sorry. They took her, I tried to stop them, but I was outnumbered. I followed them to the airport—”
“Who took her? What airport? We need to go.” I turn to my cruiser. “Get in, you can tell me what the fuck happened on the way.” I turn back to see him still standing in the driveway, shaking his head.
“Donnie, I’m sorry. I’m not willing to die for your mate.” He is cold. I’ve never seen him this disconnected before, and I slowly take a step towards him.
“I can’t do this alone, Leo. I need you.” I close the distance between us in the driveway. “I can’t lose her.”
“She’s gone. They’re probably already out of the country by now, my friend. It’s for the best. You can’t take them on.” His words hit me like a punch in the gut.
“Who? Who has her? Just fucking tell me who has her now!” I shout at him. I don’t care who hears us. The neighbors can stare all they want. I need answers, and I need them now. “Get in the fucking car, Leo. You’re going with me, and you can explain what the fuck happened on the way. Move! Now!”
His eyes glint at me as he stares me down, then slowly nods. “Let’s go.”
We get into my cruiser and I go lights and sirens in the direction of the highway, waiting for him to explain to me how we got here and what exactly happened to Summer.
“I was doing a patrol around the neighborhood, making sure I didn’t see any signs of someone following us home or staking out the place. I’m so sorry, Donnie. I was gone for less than five minutes.” Leo is looking out the windshield as he talks, explaining everything to me, his hand clasped over his obviously injured shoulder.
“When I got back to the house, they were here, the four of them. Summer was unconscious, one of them was loading her into the back of a black SUV. I did what I could, but there were just too many of them. I was outnumbered.” He is shaking his head now and turns to look at me. “I did what I could, but they got away. I followed them to Dulles, and they boarded a private jet. Donnie, I’m so sorry. She is gone.”
“So they could be anywhere?” I close my eyes and try to process this news.
“Poland,” he says softly next to me. “They’re taking her to Poland.”
I jerk the wheel and pull the car to a stop at the side of the highway. “How do you know? You need to tell me everything. I have to find her, Leo. You understand that, right? You know I’m not going to give up. You know who has her, don’t you?”
He nods once. “The Nowak brothers.”
“Who the hell are they?” I refuse to look away from him until he continues.
“They’re an ancient family from Poland. Rumors say that they were fathered by one of the originals of our kind in the fifteenth century. But these men, Donnie, are not like the other old timers.” I watch as he rubs his face, wincing as he brushes the cuts on his cheek. “They aren’t half-mad and stuck in their old ways. While they still feed on humans and stick to the night, they’re a fairly well-adjusted group, and they’re to be feared. They’re powerful, old, and have been the subjects of the legends of our kind for centuries.”
“You’re sure it was them? That they’re taking her to Poland?” I put the car back into drive and make my way back out onto the roadway, heading in the direction of the airport.
“Yes, it was them. They’re easily identifiable. I’ve dealt with the brothers once before in the seventeen hundreds. They will take her back to their home.” He seems to be coming out of his initial shock and willing to give me more information now.
“They’re from Poland? You’re positive?” I don’t let up on grilling him for the answers I need.
He just nods. “I told you, Donnie, I can’t go with you. I’m truly sorry, but I’m not willing to die for a human.”
His words make me wince, but I just nod at him, refusing to meet his eyes. “Fine, come with me to the airport, tell me what you know, and then we’re done. I understand that this isn’t your fight. I’ve already asked so much of you. I appreciate what you’ve done for us. But I get it, Leo, I do.” My knuckles are white on the steering wheel as we speed into the night.
When we arrive at the airport, Leo leads me to the terminal that he saw them head to earlier in the day, and we part ways. I doubt I will ever see him again. When I return, I don’t think I will be able to stomach the idea of being in a room with the man who left me in our time of need like this. Even if I genuinely understand. He has a mate and a life I know little of. If roles were reversed, I would not be willing to leave all of my life behind for him.
I immediately start working on utilizing my investigative skills and get to work on finding out where they took Summer, when they’ll be landing and when I can get on a plane out of the country.