The five of us piled out. Ryder was at my side in seconds. We moved from the car to the opposite side of the road, away from my house.
“I’m not sure what they’re using to bug us, but there’s every chance your mother’s place is compromised also. They can be very thorough, and they’ll be looking for your father, with the Original blood so strong in your system.”
The boys closed in tighter. “Every year there are a few cases of children being turned, far less than there used to be, say a hundred years ago. Vamps are policed pretty closely now. Still, there is always one screwed-up vampire who likes little kids and decides he wants one around forever.”
Okay, that was just freaking sick.
“So what happens to the kids who are turned?” The second Hummer was parking behind ours now. We’d draw attention if we stayed out here any longer.
“I don’t know of any vamp children in the Hives around us. They’re all transferred out to European Hives. Apparently they have the facilities to deal with them. The virus messes with children. They never age, and their brains don’t develop properly after the change. They’re too young to deal with the virus.”
Jared snorted, and I turned to him. “They’re transferred on the books, but I’ve visited hundreds of Hives over the years, plenty through Europe, and I’ve never seen a single child. So who knows what happens to them.”
Sam didn’t speak, but the way his muscles were trembling, rage was consuming the silent enforcer.
“Is that girl in danger?” My voice rose slightly, even though I was trying to keep it locked down. “You better not have stopped me from curing her, thereby giving the Quorum time to kill her.”
Because I was starting to see that was what the vampires did with the children. If they were difficult to control, if the virus messed with their minds, they would either have them locked away in some dungeon somewhere or they’d kill them. They wouldn’t risk the bad publicity and possible war with the humans.
“We have a few days,” Ryder said. “They never do anything until all of the media attention dies down. It’s all secret, hush-hush stuff, and right now there’s too much attention on our Hive. It gives us time to plan things out properly. If we’re going to cure her, we have to make sure there’s no chance of getting you or the rest of us killed.”
I calmed slightly, even though I was fuming inside at the extra few horrible points I could add to my “vampires are assholes” list. Could they actually stoop so low as to murder children who had done nothing wrong except be preyed on by evil itself?
Hell yeah they would.
I was beyond words as we made our way back across the street and up to the front porch of my mother’s house. The others were already waiting for us, Jayden pretty much bouncing on the spot as he tried to guess what we’d eat.
“Will there be green bean casserole? Mashed potatoes … oh man, I love mashed potatoes.”
Just the sound of his inane babble, and Oliver’s encouraging yet disinterested responses, was enough to lighten my mood. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, calming myself and sucking down as much of the negative energy as I could. Today was about family and enjoying stolen moments together. The vampires would not ruin it for me. Dealing with them could wait until tomorrow.
I rang the doorbell, which felt odd, but now that I carried around a bunch of large ash enforcers with me, I didn’t want to just barge in and give Mom and Tessa a heart attack. Standing there, I let my senses free, and found that if I really concentrated I could feel the warmth of humans inside my house. I never spent much time outside of the Hive, so it was odd to realize that the warmth, heartbeat, scent … everything really, was different to the ash. We had heartbeats—it wasn’t like we were dead—but it was different; ash heartbeats were slower. Humans were so much more … full of life. I was glad we had all chugged down blood before leaving this morning, enough to keep our hunger controlled for most of the day. We could act like humans again.
The lilac and spearmint scent hit me first, so familiar, so many memories associated with it. Then the door swung open and the still-youthful and beautiful Joanna Bennett stepped into view. My mom’s blonde hair was piled up on top of her head and her cheeks were flushed, which was how she looked when she was cooking. Yep, the frilly white apron topped off the outfit perfectly.
“Charlie Anne,” she practically shrieked as she pulled me into a hug. “I’ve missed you so much, baby. A few emails and one drunk Tessa pick-up is just not enough time.”
I sank into her, laughing, careful of my strength. It was easy to forget how breakable humans were. I could easily hurt her without realizing it. “I’ve missed you too, Mom. It’s so great to be back here.”