Chapter Forty-Eight

Drake.

Roderick stood by the nearest tree, sulking.

Drake wasn’t really in the mood to console him for ignoring his fated mate. What kind of crap was that? Who questioned their mate? What authority did Roderick have to question it?

Drake leaned against a tree opposite of him, eyeing the area for any movement. Not that he thought a rogue or royal vampire would attack them in broad daylight, but at this point, nothing would surprise him.

It didn’t seem like a logical or rational plan, but maybe that’s the strategy they would use for attack.

“Are you going to sit over there and not talk to me about my problems?” Roderick asked.

Drake dragged his gaze from the space around him to his brother. “You do know we’re on duty? I was pissed off the other night when they let a vampire slip in, and what would it look like if I let one in now.”

Roderick sighed dramatically and turned his back to Drake. He could hear Roderick mumbling to himself from yards away. “You’re being ridiculous,” Drake said. “Would you rather go on with your life feeling every time she is interested in another man? Can you imagine the feeling of doom that would cause you?”

Roderick shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe I could make it work, ya know? She gets on my nerves enough that I don’t think it would matter after a while if she was dating someone else.”

Drake turned to face him and tossed a pinecone at his head. “Are you serious right now? You’re freaking delusional if you think that it won’t matter. Do you know how terrible it felt to have Waverly lusting after the guy down the hallway? She barely spoke two words to the guy and it felt like I was being ripped apart.”

Roderick grabbed a pinecone and tossed it back at Drake’s head. “Well, Waverly isn’t that hard to get along with either. She has common sense, and doesn’t jump to conclusions like Sarah. And her mouth ... that mouth on her."

Drake wiped his palm down his face, trying to contain his anger. Roderick had no idea what he was considering. Giving up his mate was a slap to God’s face. Their creator gave them a true mate.

"You’re being a big baby,” Drake said.

“Yeah?” Roderick asked, facing him. “Says the guy jealous of a fling from fifteen years ago.”

Drake narrowed his eyes to slits. “Wow, burn. I’m jealous and I care who my mate has feelings for? Sue me.”

Roderick chuckled and folded his arms over his chest. “You’re sensitive in your old age.”

Drake turned his attention back toward his area of surveillance. If Roderick wanted to give his mate away because he was stupid and naïve, who was Drake to stop him?

Drake watched for as far as he could see, waiting on someone to make a move or anything to drift through the woods with them.

Roderick sighed loudly after several minutes. Drake didn’t even budge to look over his shoulder. He didn’t feel like playing therapist for the day.

Drake caught sight of a small squirrel and followed it with his gaze.

Roderick sighed louder this time.

“What?” Drake asked, looking back over his shoulder. “What is it?”

“What do you think Mom is talking to the girls about right now?”

“I don’t know. We’re supposed to be watching the perimeter, Roderick. They’ll be fine with Mom. She wants us to be with our mates so we don’t have to worry about her embarrassing us too badly."

Roderick perched against the tree and folded his arms. “Mom likes to be honest, too, and I’m not sure I’m …”

Drake glanced over his shoulder when Roderick stopped talking. He followed his line of sight above his head.

The breath in Drake’s lungs halted. He blinked several times to try to understand what he was looking at. Most vampires turned to ash when they were staked, but this one still had the branch shoved into his chest.

Once they pulled it out he would evaporate into dust.

“Is that a vampire?” Roderick’s voice came from close behind him.

Drake swallowed the deep lump in his throat, grabbed the tall pine tree around it’s trunk and began to climb.

“Drake!” Roderick yelled.

He stopped midway, looking down at his brother, he yelled, “Go get help!”

Roderick disappeared in the blink of an eye as Drake scaled the length of the tree. He made it to the top branch and touched the lifeless body. His blood ran cold when he recognized him as one of the vampires from the cabin. A tree branch was shoved through his heart, and he was stuck.

Drake put aside his fear, snapped the branch from the tree and shoved him down, watching as he hit the pine straw beneath them. Drake jumped from the top of the tree, landing beside the vampire and checked him for any trauma.

Not that he would have serious wounds being a vampire, but maybe they didn’t have time to heal before his death. Drake examined his skin and didn’t notice anything other than the tree branch shoved through his heart. His skin was pale and veiny. His eyes open, so Drake bent down and shut them.

He couldn’t stand the lifeless look that stared back at him.

Drake glanced around at the endless amount of trees, and the silence that greeted him. There was no way of telling how long he’d been gone. He couldn’t judge by the color or heat in his body. It could have been a day or thirty minutes.

He couldn’t fathom who put him up there or why. To hide him? It wasn’t that good of a hiding spot. Or maybe it would have been if they weren’t standing guard there.

Hurried footsteps stopped around him. Several vampires formed a semi-circle around Drake. Beau stepped forward and looked down at the vampire. “He’s been missing since this morning. They couldn’t find him to switch shifts, but his shift was on the opposite side of the woods.”

Beau glanced up at the broken tree branch. “He was all the way up there?”

“Yeah,” Drake said, swallowing the lump forming in his throat. “I didn’t see any trauma other than the branch through his chest.”

Beau shoved his fingers into his hair. “Get him back to camp,” he said softly. “Do not take the branch out. His brother is here, and I want to let him say his goodbyes before we do that.”

Two of the vampires bent down and picked him up. One at his head and the other at his feet. Out of respect, they took him carefully back toward the camp, dodging trees and going slow to keep themselves from hurting his body.

Beau watched them until they were out of sight, and turned to look at Drake. “You didn’t see anything funny when you first got out here?”

Drake looked at Roderick but shook his head. “I didn’t see anything.”

“Neither did I,” Roderick said.

Beau nodded. “Your shift is about over. I’ll send your replacements when I get back. If you see anything in the meantime, let me know. I see your mother did some grocery shopping?”

Roderick snorted. “Apparently she thought sandwiches weren’t good for the girls.”

“Do you remember liking sandwiches for every meal?” Beau asked.

Roderick rolled his eyes.

“Don’t listen to him. He’s in a bad mood.”

Beau turned to face Drake. “Tell her to please be careful when she leaves the camp, and not to bring back any followers. I can’t imagine your father is glad she’s here, or if he even knows, he may come looking. From what you told me about him, I’m not sure having him snooping around is a good idea.”

Drake folded his arms. “It’s not trust me.”

“Tell her to please be careful. Or,” he said, glancing up at the tree. “We may already have someone lurking the woods. If it’s your dad be warned that I won’t stop my vampires from attacking him.

The stern look in his eyes told Drake that he meant it.

“Good,” Drake said.