Malcolm dryly replied with, "Don't forget the freedom part." Rolling his eyes, he shook his head. "And don't give me that high and mighty crap. Humans stab each other in the back near daily, for far pettier reasons." Stepping towards us, he put both his hands on his narrow hips. "But my motives aren't really the point, are they? The point is, I need you to do something for me and you are going to do it."
Malcolm held his ground before us, and even though Teren was weak and exhausted, he lifted his chin, holding his ground as well. "What could you possibly want from me?"
A slow smile spread over Malcolm, his eyes brightening for the first time since we'd started talking to him. With a chilling coldness, the smile stretched across all of his haggard face before he spoke. When he did, I wished he hadn't.
"You are going to kill Gabriel for me."
Teren and I dropped our mouths open at the same time. Malcolm smiled even wider, seeing our reactions. Glancing over Teren's startled features, then mine, he shrugged casually. "You help me. I help you - tit for tat. See how it works? It's a win-win for both of us."
Too dazed to speak, I could only gape at the clearly mad person before us. Teren somehow found a way to still be articulate. "What? I knew you were off, but I didn't realize you were completely insane."
Malcolm narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. "Am I? You're in his inner circle now. He knows you. He trusts you. He would never see it coming from you. You can get close...and finish him."
His body quivering with fatigue and stress, Teren grit his jaw. "No, never."
Lifting one corner of his lip, Malcolm leaned towards us, whispering, "Really? Do I need to remind you that I have your son?" Shaking his head, he shrugged again. "And thanks to my own unique, and, quite brilliant, concoction, you can't track him."
Teren looked back at me, fear and dread in his eyes; I had to believe I looked the same. As we stared at each other, Malcolm chuckled coldly. "You will kill Gabriel for me...because you have no other choice."
Pulling my gaze from Teren, I stepped around him. "Please, let Julian go. He's a child, he's innocent." Teren tried to pull me behind him again, but I dropped his hands and grabbed Malcolm's dusty jacket. "Take me...let him go, take me."
He brushed me off as Teren said 'no' and grabbed my elbows. Twisting his lips at me, Malcolm took a step back. "I did consider that, I truly did. But you made it so easy for me to snatch the child, I couldn't resist." He locked eyes with Teren, Teren's arms now firmly around me. "Soundproofing your room? Brilliant, and kind of," he tilted his head, smiling languidly, "how would they say it now...hot."
Raising his eyebrows suggestively, he let that sink in a moment before adding, "But children are more manageable. Plop them in one place and they tend to stay there. That stupid woman was always trying to get away." Smiling coldly, he twisted his hand in the air. "But you should consider yourselves lucky. I did leave you the girl, after all." He leaned forward, an eyebrow raised. "Do you really need two?"
Teren lunged forward, dropping me and clutching Malcolm's clothes in his fists. I pulled at his arms, but he had him tight, the last of his strength in the effort. "You're dead!"
Malcolm laughed coldly, calmly placing his hands over Teren's. "Very true, and so are you..." he looked over at me, "and you." Unclenching Teren's hands, he calmly took a step away from us. "You have three days or I snap your son's neck." Cocking his lip, he shrugged. "Or maybe...I'll just leave him in his cubby hole and let him starve." Lifting his eyes to the pale sky that matched our son's eyes, he pondered aloud, "Or maybe, just for fun, I'll raise him as my own...and teach him to kill Gabriel." He looked back down at us, shrugging. "Since I can't successfully turn people and I can't have my own kids, maybe I'll just steal an army of them?"
Teren tried to grab him again, but he staggered and dropped to his knees, all of his energy gone. Malcolm chuckled and stepped in front of him, looking down on his exhausted body. Placing a hand on his head as Teren glared up at him, Malcolm warmly said, "Think about that. Think of how many lives you'll be sparing, how much needless suffering you'll be stopping, by taking one, little life." He patted Teren's head, like a dog. "Now, doesn't the good outweigh the bad?"
Chuckling as he backed up a step, he pointed to Teren on his knees. "Think about it, just not for too long." Drawing his brows together in concern, he looked over Teren's slumped form. "And she's right. You should rest, you look...exhausted." Malcolm's own exhausted hazel eyes flicked between the both of us. "Have a good day, you two." Then he streaked away, leaving only an imprint in our vision of where he'd been standing.
Chapter 19 Decisions
When Teren had the strength to raise himself to his feet, we searched for any trace of Malcolm's scent. For a second we had it, and thinking to follow him back to Julian, we blindly followed it. It was only when the scent ran through a sewage treatment plant that we realized Malcolm was messing with us; he hadn't been going to back to our son at all. Any trace of him was abolished in the overwhelming stench of the place, and with no scent to track and no idea of what direction to go, we tiredly headed back to our family.
Teren was quiet in the car, staring out the windows at the countryside blazing past us. Biting back the bile in my throat from the entire encounter, I watched him from the corner of my eye. His dark head resting against the seat, his eyes focused and unfocused, looking at everything while seeing none of it.
"I'm sorry about Carrie," I whispered into the silence of the vehicle. His pale eyes shifted over to me, the normal gray flecks I saw in them doing nothing to brighten their dullness. "I'm sorry that she had to die like that, I'm sorry she had to get mixed up in this at all."
Teren nodded, his gaze trailing down to his torn, dirty clothes. Idly playing with a tear in his shirt, he muttered, "No one should have to go that way." He closed his eyes, his face aging before me. "I wish he hadn't told me." Lifting his eyes to me, his face looked near tears again. "Does that make me awful? That I'd rather I didn't know how she died?"
He looked down and I reached over to put my hand over his. "No, it doesn't make you awful. It makes you normal. We don't want to think about loved ones experiencing anything so...horrible." My voice cracked on the word, my thoughts on the dark-haired, blue-eyed little boy I hadn't seen in days.
Teren sniffled, clenching my hand tight. "He won't hurt him, Em. He won't."
I nodded, my vision of the bleak highway before me hazing. I knew that he really didn't know that for sure, anymore than I did, but he had to believe it to stay sane. I had to too.
Practicing the deep calming breaths I was taught in my yoga classes, I struggled to keep a hold of my senses. I couldn't afford to break down into a blubbery mess right now. I needed to hold it together, for Julian's sake. He needed me. He needed me focused.
More in control, I looked back over to Teren. "What are you going to do?"
He sighed, knowing what I meant. Looking back at me, he shrugged. "I don't know."
I bit my lip and forced my eyes back to the road. Malcolm wanted Gabriel's head. Too weak and chicken shit to do it himself, he'd maneuvered Teren into such a spot that even Teren didn't know if he should do it or not. I couldn't have been more torn on the matter. I wanted my son back, but I didn't want my husband to commit coldblooded murder. I wanted my son back, but I didn't want to remove the man that Halina had finally let herself fall in love with, even if she couldn't say it yet. I wanted my son back, but I didn't want to sacrifice the person who had saved my life, mine and the kids. But...I wanted my son back.
"I'll support...whatever you decide," I muttered, the speech barely passing over my lips.
Teren sighed again, leaning his head back on the seat and closing his eyes. He was silent for the remainder of the drive.
We were greeted to a bustle of activity when we arrived at the ranch. Winding my way up the outrageously long driveway, I felt my daughter's anxious energy, her presence darting back and forth. A small smile cracked on Teren's face as he lifted his head and opened his eyes. He'd missed her just as much as she'd missed him. I parked next to Jack's truck and Alanna's sedan and my daughter dashed out the front doors before I could even shut the car off. Tired but eager, Teren popped his door and shuffled over to her. I slowly stepped out, giving them a moment.
As she ran to him, Teren sank to his knees. Whether too exhausted to stand, too overwhelmed with emotion, or just sinking to her level, I didn't know. She flung herself into his arms, not caring at all that he was grimy and filthy. Peppering his face with kisses, she squeaked out, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"
His arms squeezed around her tight as he exhaled, the sound seeming as if it was the first exhale he'd taken in days.
I could hear the flurry of people inside the house as I watched my husband and daughter bond. My mother and sister were in a heated conversation about hunting, about hunting vampires. Hot Ben was here too, giving his opinion on the subject. He'd been sticking close to the ranch when he wasn't out searching for Julian. He'd become frustrated with the needlelike search early on, and was itching to start knocking on doors again. My mother was trying to talk him out of it. My sister was being swayed to his side.
As a heated frustration grew in me, I balled my hands and closed my eyes, counting to ten. I'd told Ben before, and I'd have to tell him again, that we couldn't risk it. Not to bring up the fact that Teren and Ben already had some major grudges out there in the vampire community already, they weren't searching for a mysterious, mythical group of people this time. They were searching for one person, one that had my son, one that may kill him if we started rattling cages that were too close to his. And now, after meeting the man in question, I knew without a doubt that he'd take Julian's life, if it meant sparing his own.
Teren wobbly stood, Nika buried in his arms. Looking over at me with a deep frown on his face, I knew he felt the same about hunting as I did...finally. We just had too much to lose to go stirring up nests again.
Alanna greeted us at the door as we stepped inside. The scent of homecoming hit me - freesia and fresh linens - and I smiled softly at her. She gasped at the sight of her child, then engulfed him and Nika in a hug. "Teren, what have you been doing?"
She tried to remove Nika from Teren, but she was attached tight. Like a barnacle on the underside of a ship, our daughter would have to be scraped away from her father. Teren sighed and kissed her head, brushing aside his mother's concerns. "I'm fine, Mom, just tired."
She nodded and nearly dragged him towards the kitchen.
Imogen rushed out to us, rubbing Teren's back as he was shuffled forward. Nika cracked her eyes open at me, her head resting on Teren's shoulder. "Hi, Mommy," she whispered.
I smiled, rubbing my thumb over her pale, worn cheek. She looked just as tired as Teren, only all of her exhaustion was mental. Feeling Julian's constant terror was sapping the strength right out of her. It broke my heart. I wanted to give her a break from the stress, but at the same time, I didn't want to lose the connection with my son. "Hi, baby."