139
“Felix!” Elio yelled as the front door slammed open.
We missed part of their reunion because Felix had zipped inside and they were hugging, laughing and crying by the time we joined them at the front door. Marlo stood to one side, looking like herself, a small bump on her stomach visible under her shirt.
“Ryder,” Elio said emotionally as he grabbed me in a hug as well.
“I know,” I said.
“Marlo,” Felix said as he gently hugged her.
“We missed you so much,” she cried.
“Trust me not as much as I missed you all,” Felix said.
“I think it’s time you two moved to Springfield,” Basil said to Elio.
“Why?” Felix asked.
“My coven’s there, we can all be together,” Basil said.
“I’m going home with Ryder,” Felix said.
“We still have work to do,” I said.
“And that’s why we make such a great team,” Felix said determinedly.
“We’ll come with you,” Basil said.
“No Basil, you’ve got a coven to care for. Elio needs to be with Marlo. This is something that Ryder and I have to do, this is much bigger than just the experiments. There are more people involved,” Felix said.
“We just got you back and now you want to run off and play hunter again,” Elio said angrily.
“This time we have the advantage, we know what they’re up to, they don’t know what we know,” Felix said.
“That bunker exploded, it’ll be classified as a gas leak gone bad,” I said.
“Ryder …”
“Sorry Elio, I’m with Felix. We need to see this through,” I said to him.
“You also have a pregnant wife at home,” Basil reminded me.
“She’s not my wife and she’s perfectly safe, I haven’t been targeted by anyone, just Felix and whoever runs this thing will think he’s dead,” I said.
“My coven will do fine without me,” Basil said.
“You don’t have the stomach to do what we do. You can help in another way though,” Felix said.
“How?”
“You can send enquiries to other covens, ask about missing vampires, the more we know the better we can plan,” Felix said.
“You call us every day, every single day!” Basil said as he looked at both of us.
“I will. I don’t plan on dying anytime soon,” Felix said.
I walked outside with my phone in my hand. I needed to make contact as well. Abeloth was fast asleep in my mind, taking his time to recover from healing me so quickly. I could faintly hear Elio still arguing with Felix as I called Link.
“Ryder!”
“Hey Link, I’m fine and I’ll be home by tonight,” I said.
“You’ve completely lost it! Going on a mission now?”
“I’ll explain when I get home, it was important,” I said to him.
“I’m so happy for you, how’s Ava Link?” he said angrily.
“Link, thank you,” I said as he sighed.
“Yeah, see you tonight,” he said.
“Love you too Link,” I said.
“You should probably call Lucas, he’s fuming,” Link said.
“I haven’t been gone that long and there are no missed calls from him,” I said.
“He’s here Ryder, they’re all here and he thinks you ran,” Link said.
“Aw shit, the Elders called him. Okay, look, I’m on my way back,” I said.
Shit. I hadn’t told Lucas anything. I wasn’t looking forward to his rant. I knew he’d be pissed but finding Felix alive was worth everything. Nobody’d understand why I had to do this. Felix was my brother as much as Chase was.
“The hunter will always remain within us,” Abeloth said and yawned.
“So let’s go hunt Abeloth,” I said.
“If Felix says, ‘giddy up Abe’ again, he can run back to Princeton,” Abeloth said as I laughed and walked back into the house. We would leave as soon as the sun set and for once in my life I was completely at peace.
I had kept my phone off because it would be better to talk to Lucas face to face and find out what the Elders had told him and who was the ‘they’ Link had referred to? The flight home went quicker than I would’ve liked. I was fully healed by the time Abeloth landed in front of the house and the door swung open to reveal Lucas’s frame.
“You better have a good fucking explanation for this stunt,” Lucas said angrily.
“Dad …”
“You go off galivanting with a friend and tell the Elders you won’t complete the bond!”
“Dad …”
“Rejecting Tia was one thing, but this …”
“Dad!”
“What!”
“This is Felix,” I said as the anger left his eyes.
“Felix? How?”
“He managed to send me a coded message and I went to extract him,” I said.
“Mr Grey, a pleasure to meet you,” Felix said extending his hand.
“You didn’t run?” Lucas asked me.
“No.”
“Don’t mind me,” Felix said.
“Yeah nice to meet you too,” Lucas said barely looking at Felix. “The Elders called her father too, she doesn’t know that you won’t go through with this yet.”
“I need to speak with Ava first,” I said.
“Haven’t you done enough?” Lucas asked me.
“I need to make sure of something first,” I said and walked into my house.
Anthony and the Elders were in the living room with Link. He was glaring at Anthony and I almost smiled. Anthony stood up when he saw me. “This is completely unacceptable.”
“Evening Elders, I was on a mission to extract a former hunter being held captive, who also happens to be my best friend. I wasn’t running away from anything. If you’ll excuse me I need to speak with Ava before I speak to all of you,” I said.
“Of course Sire Ryder,” Elder Michael said.
Ava was pacing up and down in our bedroom and she looked accusingly at me. “What’s going on? Why is everybody here? Where were you?”
“I want the truth Ava. I overheard you talking to your father about what I don’t know, his alliance with us and something about finances,” I said as I looked at her.
“It’s not what you think,” she said, her eyes wide.
“Then tell me,” I said.
“My father’s lair isn’t a strong one and they’re not very protected. An alliance with you and your father gives them protection and possibly a financial solution to upgrade some facilities for the lair members,” she said with her head lowered.
“What are you feeling bad about?” I asked her.
“That you’re trying to do the right thing, I was going to speak to you about my father’s situation later,” she said.
“I’m sorry, a lot has happened in the last two days,” I said to her.
“What did you think my conversation was about?” she asked me gently.
“I don’t know what I thought,” I said feeling like an idiot.
“Where were you?” she asked me.
“Guatemala. A friend needed an extraction,” I said.
“What?” she asked me looking confused.
“My friend was being held captive but he managed to send me a coded message and I went to get him,” I said.
“I woke up and you were just gone, your phone was off and I had no idea what was going on,” she said.
“I’m sorry but I couldn’t waste one minute. I had no way of knowing what condition he was in or what I would find once I got there,” I said.
“Were you hurt?” she asked me.
“Nothing major, Felix was in worse shape than me,” I said.
“Why are the Elders and our fathers here?”
“Don’t worry about that, we just need to have a small meeting,” I said to her. “Go to sleep, I need to speak with our fathers and the Elders.”
I left Ava in our room and headed back down to the living room. Lucas was talking to Felix in the foyer in hushed tones, Felix had a smile on his face and I saw them shaking hands. Lucas turned around when he heard my footfalls on the tiles and walked into the living room.
“What was that about?” I asked Felix.
“Oh nothing much, just your father telling me exactly how much he’ll hurt me if you decide to go back to that cursed unit because of me,” he said with a smile.
“At least you can run fast,” I said and he snorted.
“I have no intention of going back,” he said.
“Come on,” I said to Felix.
“Oh joy, family drama,” Felix said with a smile.
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