Bless The Beauty

chapter Thirteen




The car sped down the road at rapid speed, weaving in out of cars with sirens blaring. “I hope you’re right about this.” Mike’s hands gripped the steering wheel as he manoeuvred his way through Milwaukee.

“He said it, you just didn’t hear it.” I held onto the holy shit handle above the window in the backseat. The borrowed police cruiser continued to weave through the traffic, tossing all of us around in the car as Mike drove with speed only achieved through years of police training. The sirens continued to scream through the air as Mike honked the horn loudly.

“Would you sit still,” Kellen chastised me as I rested upon his lap.

We were in such a hurry to get out of there, Nick, Kellen, Chase and I piled into the back with Mike in the front. Regardless of the fact there was an empty seat beside him.

There wasn’t time to think things out. Now, I wish someone had gotten into the front. It was damn uncomfortable. “Just because you are always cool and collect, doesn’t mean we all are.”

Kellen groaned and shifted me onto his other thigh. “Your ass is bony.”

“We’re not far now.” Mike ignored the banter and took a quick turn that sent us all to demolish Chase.

“Muscle strength, please,” Chase groaned.

Kellen forced himself straighter to offset the weight. “How far away?”

“A couple minutes.” Mike punched harder on the gas and the engine roared in response.

I could hardly contain myself. We needed to get there. Find this girl and see her well.

It was far past a need and now more of an obsession. I craved to see her healthy and returned to her family.

“Hadley.” Kellen’s tone was curt. Then in a quick move, he shoved me off and pushed me across to rest on Chase’s lap. “I can’t take any more of that bony ass.”

“You seemed to like that bony ass not long ago,” I retorted.

Low chuckles rumbled through the car.

Kellen raised a sultry brow. “Indeed I did. But you’re not riding my cock, are you?”

My jaw dropped. He didn’t just say that…

Those low rumbles turned to outright laughter. I glanced around at the men and even Mike was laughing. “Oh, just shut up, all of you.” I adjusted myself onto Chase’s lap.

Glancing down at him, I knew I needed to appear that this was awkward for me to be here.

“Sorry I was shoved here.”

Chase winked. “It’s not a problem.” His tone was proper enough, but I could feel his erection under my ass cheek. He wasn’t at all displeased with my being here and seemed to enjoy my ass.

“It’s coming up,” Mike suddenly barked out, drawing me away from the treasure in Chase’s pants.

Chase lifted me quickly and moved me up onto his thighs. I didn’t have to be intelligent to know why, he needed to focus. And his attention couldn’t be on the hardness in his pants. I leaned forward and grabbed onto the seat in front of me to look out the window.

Mike drove through the old metal gates and the wooden sign came and went that read, Forest Home Cemetery. My head smacked off the ceiling as he hit a speed bump, but I didn’t care, we needed to get there. “Faster.” I bounced up and down with a need to get there already.

“Stop moving, Hadley,” Chase groaned deeply.

I ignored Chase’s request and kept squirming. “Go faster, Mike.”

“I’m going as fast as I can,” Mike growled as we passed a chapel with ivy stretching up the sides of it that had to date back to the eighteen hundreds.

Within a few seconds, Mike hit the brakes and we all jumped out of the cruiser. As we ran, Mike yelled out, “Look for freshly buried graves.”

“The doctor said he gave his mother an air supply,” I followed up as I ran forward scanning the graveyard. “Something must be sticking out of the ground.”

My path led me between two lines of graves. There was just so many. I circled around, scanned the area, but nothing—no undisturbed graves in sight. I began to run again, continued down the paths between the rows.

Suddenly, Nick shouted. “Found one.”

I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to face his direction. He was kneeling, running his hands along the fresh grave. “Not it,” he shouted, before he stood and ran again.

Without pause, I charged through the cemetery once more. “Chase, anything?” I called out, not looking toward him, but knowing he was on the left side of me.

“Nothing.” His breath sounded laboured and harsh.

“Nor I,” Kellen said from a distance away.

I kept on, running at full speed, searching, looking for any hints of a grave where McKinney could have buried Sabrina. Where are you?

When I reached the end of the graves, I turned. Kellen sprinted toward me as did Chase. I glanced around quickly. Mike and Nick were running and searching, their faces intent on finding her.

I took a deep breath to settle myself. I was letting the urgency of this situation gain control of my mind. I closed my eyes for a moment just to reign my thoughts back in.

When I felt calm, I opened my eyes.

“What are you doing?” Chase panted out of breath.

I shook my head at him, raised my hand up for him to shut up. “Shhh…quiet.”

Chase gave me an odd look, before he placed his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

I scanned the area. “She has to be here,” I said more to myself than anyone around me. I looked across the graves, thousands of them. I doubted Chad would do it right out in the open. There had to be somewhere more hidden where he had placed her.

Kellen approached now. Not at all labored by the run, which wasn’t a shock.

Vampires don’t get winded. We could have run the cemetery in a second flat, but of course, I’d never allow that. We needed to restrain ourselves to appear as mortal as we could because who knew who was watching.

Kellen’s gaze drew dark as he came closer toward me. “What is it?”

I shook my hand at him too and waved it in his face. “Quiet.” I ran forward, needed to get out into the middle of the grounds. I could hear the others follow behind, but I was glad to note they were listening and staying quiet.

Once in the middle, I stopped, skidding against the grass. My gaze started at the left and ran across the length of the cemetery looking for anything—anything that would provide a sheltered area.

After many long moments, I felt defeated. “Nothing. F*ck, where is she?” I spun around and looked behind me, but still, there was nothing. No hidden area that would provide enough shelter that he would be able to hide the fact that he’d dug a grave. I circled around once more and just as I was on the verge of giving up, the chapel caught my eye.

“Of course.” I smacked myself in the head and ran off. He had told us the truth.

God’s house. That’s exactly where he put her.

“Hadley?” Mike called out.

I waved them along, not bothering to look back. “Come on, quick.”

Their response was instant. Loud bangs against the ground barrelled behind me as I ran quickly.

I reached the chapel moments later. When I got to the door, it was locked. I glanced over my shoulder.

“Kellen.”

He approached the door, raised his leg and kicked, which sent the door to crash back causing pigeons to fly away with fear.

“She’s here,” I said as I ran into the old rickety chapel. “I know it.”

Kellen stepped beside me and his gaze quickly searched the small space. “Yes, yes, you are right.”

“How can you be so sure of that?” Nick asked behind us, breathless.

I didn’t have time for his questions or an explanation of how I knew, but I just did.

Call it vampire instincts. “Just go search for her.”

The men all dispersed and ran through the chapel. Luckily, the moonlight provided just enough light to make seeing bearable. Although, like Kellen, I needed no real help in that regard.

I drew in a deep breath, concentrated and focused. Right now, I was kissing my vampire skills.

Everything was sharper and my hearing was as good as any bat. I closed my eyes and just listened.

Sharp sounds came around me. The pigeons in flight, mice scurrying through the old run down chapel. I searched out for any sound of the woman, a deep breath, a small movement, but after many minutes, I found none.

“What are you doing, Hadley?” Mike shot out. “Get moving.”

I snapped my eyes open to see Kellen was in the same position. His head was cocked to one side and the furrow of his brows told me he heard something that I didn’t.

Quickly I ran toward him, collided into his side and he grabbed me in his arms. “You hear her?”

Kellen opened his eyes, shook his head, and arched a brow. “I hear something, I cannot say if it is her or not.”

“Where?” I glanced around, feeling a moment of envy that Kellen could hear something I couldn’t. Dammit, did he have to be better at everything? I quickly chastised myself for having such an emotion at a time like this and focused back on the present.

This wasn’t about me.

Kellen shook his head again. His expression so focused and brows brought together tightly. “I cannot be sure.” Then, he looked down to his feet. “I think she might be beneath us.”

It only took a split second to process what he meant by that. “A basement!” Chase spun around as the others froze in their tracks.

“Look for a basement.” I started to run again as I stared down to the floor. There had to be a trap door here or something that would lead us down there.

We all quickly dropped to our knees and scrambled around the dark space searching for the entrance.

Suddenly, Nick shouted, “Here.”

I jumped to my feet, as did the others and ran toward him. Nick had already moved an old pew out of the way and opened a trap door. When no one moved I pushed on Nick’s back with a hard shove.

“What are you waiting for? Get down there.”

Since there weren’t any stairs, the men took the plunge and dropped down into the hole. I didn’t hesitate. When I met the opening, I fell into total darkness. I looked over at Kellen and he winked.

“F*ck. Got a flashlight?” Mike groaned, clearly unable to see anything in the dark space.

Suddenly a click sounded and Nick held the flashlight up to his face. “I come prepared.”

Mike patted him on the back with pride. “Good job, man.”

“Go, Nick.” I gave him a push forward.

Nick began to run as he kept down low to avoid bashing his head on the wood beams. “What kind of basement is this?” he muttered.

I wondered that myself. When we dropped down, it was to a hallway, not your typical basement. I took a quick look to the wall as I ran by and noticed names lining the wall—a clear indicator just what this place was. “It’s not a basement. It’s tombs.”

“This place was scary enough being a basement,” Nick called out ahead. “Now we’re f*cking in the land of dead.” Suddenly, he came to an abrupt halt, which caused us all to slam into the back of him.

“Warning next time,” Mike chastised, pulling himself off Chase’s back.

“Look.” Nick’s tone was more serious than I’d ever heard. He swept the flashlight to roam across the room.

“Christ,” Mike exhaled.

My breath drew back in my body quickly, which echoed along the cold walls of this chamber.

“There has to be at least fifty of them.” I spun in a circle, following Nick’s flashlight.

I’d never seen anything like this. Obviously, the people buried here were of importance. The tombs were spread apart widely, each gold plated and marked with ancient writing and holy symbols.

The very worst part was Chad had used nine of these tombs for his personal use. All nine had a tube running through the tomb attached to an air tank resting beneath.

“She’s in one of these?” Nick said and the horror rolled off his tone.

It only took a second before I glanced at Nick and knew exactly what I had to do. I was about to break my rule—again. “Off to sleep, you.”

He immediately fell to the ground.

“What the f*ck?” Mike roared as he rushed toward Nick.

“You too,” I snapped out. A second later, he joined Nick on the ground. With Mike now sleeping as well, I glanced back at Kellen. “Focus, you need to find her.”

Kellen gave a firm nod. He knew this wasn’t a game. He may be against the idea of helping mortals, but he’d obviously grown attached to Sabrina since he’d been through the case with us because there was no hesitation when he closed his eyes.

I attempted to listen as well, but I suspected Sabrina was close to death. I couldn’t hear her breaths. The fact that Kellen could was the only thing that was going to save the woman now.

Kellen spun around with his head cocked as he listened intently.

Chase stayed silent, not moving an inch. Smart man. I gave him an approving smile and his worry-filled gaze met mine.

Only a few minutes later, Kellen’s eyes snapped open. “There,” he said as he rushed forward. He raised his hand and with pure vampire strength, punched the tomb and it crumbled to pieces.

Dust and stone crumbled around us and blurred my vision. Chase began to cough as he breathed in the debris. This was why there was dirt in Kelly’s nose and throat. It wasn’t because she was buried alive, but she was kept in this place—the tomb—for who knows how long.

The air cleared slightly, and then I saw…

“Sabrina.”

With lighting fast speed, I lunged into the tomb and pulled the young woman out, cradled her in my arms.

“Is she alive?” Chase asked, still coughing as he kneeled down next to me.

I flipped her over. Her coloring was off. She was so gray, her lips had a bluish tinge, but I could feel her lungs moving ever so slightly. More than that, I could feel the pull of her weakening pulse.

“Barely. Kellen, quickly.”

In a snap, Kellen knelt beside me, bit his arm and I held open Sabrina’s mouth wide as he applied pressure from his wrist to give her generous amounts of blood. I would have offered my own blood, but Kellen’s was stronger. It would revive her quicker and right now, we needed it.

When nothing happened and Sabrina’s breathing became even shallower, I shouted,

“More.”

Kellen brought his wrist back to his mouth and bit deeper sending blood to pour out of his arm.

“You owe me for this,” he growled as he fed more of his blood to Sabrina.

Slowly, Sabrina’s color returned. Her cheeks flushed with rosiness and her lips back to pink. I let out a long sigh when Sabrina’s throat began to accept the blood eagerly.

Then, after a deep gulp, Sabrina’s eyes shot open and she screamed bloody murder.

Her eyes were wide with fright and her entire body trembled in fear. It was the first time I ever encountered this…and it was horrible in every sense. Normally, we saw a dead body, never saw what a victim felt while they were being treated with cruelty. I doubted her scream would ever leave my mind.

But I didn’t waste a second. I grabbed her face, locked her into my gaze and forced her not to look away. “You were abducted, but that is all you remember. You were drugged and you will have no memory of anything else. You were not mistreated. You are going to go on and have a wonderful life filled with happiness.” I glanced to the men sleeping soundly on the floor. “Wake up.” When the men jumped to their feet, I continued, “Nick broke down the door, it’s old, so it crumbled to pieces. We have rescued Sabrina.”

The haze left their eyes instantly and Mike patted Nick on the back. “Good kick.”

Nick nodded the acknowledgment, thoroughly pleased with himself. “Strong legs come in handy.”

I glanced back to the now quiet Sabrina. She blinked a couple times then groaned.

“What happened to me? Where am I? Who are you?”

“We are from the FBI, Sabrina.” I smiled so elated at the outcome. “It’s over now.” I sighed deeply as I glanced around to see everyone smiling in relief, even Kellen.

My gaze fell back to Sabrina as she rested in my arms, a feeling of complete happiness coursed through my soul.

“It’s all over now. You’re safe.”