Thorne Ch. 05

He shut down the laptop, went to his studio and uncovered the portrait. He sat on a stool in front of it and stared at it.

"Have we met already?" He asked. "If so, then where? And why don't I remember? I would have remembered eyes as beautiful as yours."

When he got no response, he uncovered a painting that he had started for the new club. Part of him wanted to try to remember what happened the night of the Sinclaires, but part of him was wondering if he really needed to."

****

Barb lay on the bed looking up at the ceiling. Olivia was in the sitting room working on her paper and there was an armed guard on the balcony. Her mind wasn't so much on the unknown threat as it was what Thorne was going to propose. Her heart hammered, not because she was afraid of losing him per se; but because she didn't want to lose what he could give her.

She didn't love him even though she was attracted to him and she liked the way that he made her body feel. But she hadn't loved her ex either. To her, what she and Thorne had was the perfect set up except for the baby. A friend with benefits kind of thing except they weren't friends, not even close. She didn't know what they were... he wasn't even acknowledging her as his mate. The question that she asked herself was why it mattered so much.

"Appearances." She muttered. The picture wasn't complete without it. She didn't care what happened behind closed doors as long as they looked the part to the outside world. For a brief second, she thought about Adrianna's story and told herself that she would never endanger anyone.

She laid back and looked down at her stomach trying to see if there was a tell-tale bump. She thought that she saw one, but she couldn't be sure. The fact remained that she had no desire to be a mother. She wasn't like Louise, Kevyn or Juliette. The three of them would have married their mates even if there had been no money and they had to work to help pay the bills.

"But I don't want that." Barb murmured. "Love doesn't put money in the bank."

For some inexplicable reason, she had a memory. The memory was as vivid as though it had just happened. She was about twelve and the newest JCPenny catalogue had just come in the mail. She closed her eyes and could smell the paper and feel the glossiness of it beneath her fingers. It was the spring issue, her favorite one because spring was her favorite time of the year.

She remembered sitting on the old ratty couch that was covered with a blanket to cover the holes and the bare springs and looking through the catalogue a page at a time. She smiled when she remembered touching the bright pictures and saying to herself "I want that and I want that..."

Most of the time, she looked through the catalogue alone, but that day; she had company. Louise came in and saw her sitting on the couch and looked at her.

"Can I look too?" she asked.

"Only if you just look and don't talk." Barb said.

Louise climbed up on the couch, sat next to her big sister and put her head on her shoulder. True to her word, she didn't say anything unless Barb asked a question. The other part of that memory was that Barb had been teased that day and for whatever reason, it had been worse than usual so the catalogue had been a welcome respite. A few minutes after Louise joined her, she began to feel better. Not happy, but better and Louise was crying.

She remembered feeling so relieved that she hadn't asked Louise what the matter was. She had ignored her and continued looking at the catalogue. Barb frowned confused as to why that particular memory popped up. She hadn't thought about it since the day it happened. She shrugged it off and turned on her laptop.

She was going to order a few things online but remembered that they were for all practical purposes on lock down. She looked toward the sitting room and could the rapid tapping on the laptop keyboard. Barb was beginning to wonder if Adrianna had made up her story to make her point. But the scars were real. Those couldn't be made up...

Something that both Grant and Adrianna said to her finally made sense.

"You are no longer in the human world."

That was the crux of her problem she realized. Even though she knew on one level that she had to change her approach, it hadn't sunk in yet. She was still treating Thorne as if he was a human male and he wasn't. He had been alive for centuries and as he said, he knew all of the tricks. She also realized that she had to stop being impulsive. Going into Noel's part of the house had been an impulsive act that could have gotten her killed.

The problem, she realized that she had always acted impulsively. Promising her ex that she would have a baby had been an impulsive act just as showing up in California had been. She was finally beginning to understand where she had been going wrong. The issue was how to fix it.

"Go on the offensive." She murmured. "But don't overdo it."

Somewhere in all her thinking came the realization that she and Thorne would never fall in love. She would never get the kiss on the temple, but maybe in time the kiss on the cheek. She decided that she could live with that and if they were going to live together, they had to take precautions. She didn't want any more accidents. She opened a new document on her laptop and began to write her proposal to Thorne.

****

"Are you sure?" Ethan asked his voice intense."

"I'm certain of it." Thorne replied. "I have Olivia Saunders in my custody and even though she hasn't confirmed it, she's traveling with vampires."

"Do you think that one of them killed the girl?" Ethan asked.

"I can't answer that." Thorne replied. "All that I can say for sure is that she was killed by a vampire. The thing is that she hadn't been fed from. That tells me that it was a crime of opportunity and that he or she had fed beforehand."

"What about the girl? Was she local?" Ethan asked.

"Yes, that's why we called the police." Thorne replied. "Here's my concern; we don't know where those vampires are. They could be long gone but maybe not. Rufus Saunders pays top dollar to his mercenaries which lead me to another issue... Rufus Saunders. Once he finds out that we have his baby girl..."

"He'll be here with weapons drawn." Ethan replied. "This must be why Louise saw five shapes. By the way, I was going to call you anyway. Louise and Nathan both felt something earlier this evening. That must have been it. We need to find out who those four are and if they're still around."

"I'm working on that, but in the mean time we need to know where everyone is. If they're out and about, we need to tell them to get home. For all we know, Rufus could be on his way here."

"I think that we need to stay together." Ethan said.

"I agree... I have a home that hasn't been used in years." Thorne said. "We'll have to take our supplies, but it's big enough for all of us."

"It's almost Three." Ethan said glancing at the time on his laptop. "That's cutting it close."

"Then we'll go this evening..."

Ethan memorized the address and began making calls. The big issue was going to be the mates and children who couldn't vanish from one place to another. Thorne's house was approximately fifty miles away.

In the end he decided that each male would be responsible for getting his mate and children to the new location. Joseph could either vanish to the house or go with someone. Ethan suspected that he would go with Martin and Rachel to help protect the baby.

He called Hans after he talked to Martin.

"Where are the children?" He asked.

"They're in their rooms. Why?"

Ethan gave Hans a quick rundown of events.

"Keep them home from school and don't let them go outside." Ethan said. "As soon as it's dark enough go to this address. Oh, it isn't stocked so take whatever food and blood you have. We may be there for a while."

It was almost four when he made the last phone call. He could hear Katrina and Louise talking in the kitchen as they packed up the food and took stock of how much blood they had.

"Maybe we should go home and get what we have." Louise said after Katrina finished the count.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Katrina replied. "Between all of us we should be alright for a while. It helps that the guys can eat human food too."

"Katrina, will the drama ever end?" Louise asked.

"I would love to say yes, but I can't." Katrina replied. "You know the history of this family... that alone makes us a target. Speaking of which... I have a question. Do you think that Barb knows?"

"I don't know." Louise said speaking honestly. "I hope so, but I haven't been able to get close enough to her to ask. One of the things that we were planning to do was to have a luncheon for the women. We were going to ask you and Rachel to sit down with us and educate us on the ins and outs of this world."

"I'm going to speak for Rachel when I say that we would love to meet with you all." Katrina said. "I'm sure that Maryann would love to come too. We'll just make it a party and invite all of the girls. The guys can watch movies or something. Do you think that Barb will come?"

"She seemed open to it." Louise replied. "Have you ever encountered a hunter before?" she asked changing the subject.

"No although I know about them." Katrina replied as she started making sandwiches.

"What happened between Ethan and Thorne?" Louise asked. "I could feel some tension there."

"The short version is that the two families used to be friends and allies. Somehow one of Thorne's brothers got caught by a hunter and was made to lead the hunters to the Blackwell home. From what I understand, the brother that was caught said that he had been set up by someone in the Sinclaire family; but he didn't say who. The end result was that there was a fight in which Thorne's father and two of his brothers died. Ethan tried to tell Thorne that no one from the Sinclaires would do such a thing, but Thorne didn't believe him."

"I don't get it." Louise said her mind working. "If they had been friends for that long, why was it so easy for Thorne to believe that the Sinclaires would set them up?"

"They believed the brother... I don't remember his name." Katrina said with a shrug.

"I can understand that." Louise mused, "But something isn't making sense to me."

Nathan came into the kitchen to check on things.

"Are you doing alright?" he asked Louise as he kissed her.

"We're fine." She replied. "Katrina was just telling me about what happened between the Sinclaires and the Blackwell's."

"Oh yes,'' Nathan said as he reached for a sandwich. "More family history."

****

Nadine and Leon looked around the house one more time before they left to go to Hans' and Juliette's house.

"Are you sure that we have everything?" Leon asked. "Because we aren't coming back until we know that it's safe."

"Laptops." Nadine said.

"Check."

"Textbooks."

"Check."

"Phones and chargers."

"Check."

"Blood."

"Check"

"Food."

"Check." Leon said as he walked around and turned off the lights.

If weren't taking so much with them, they would have vanished from one place to the other. The sun hadn't quite touched the sky, but they had to hurry. They would pull into the garage right at dawn. Nadine wanted to wait until evening, but Leon wouldn't hear of it.

"We're not taking any chances." He said. "Now let's get moving."

As they drove away, Nadine looked back at their little house and missed it. Like Katrina, she had never seen a hunter or she didn't think she had. The last time that she had felt so threatened was when Nell and her family had killed her family and kidnapped her. It was also the one and only time that she killed in her entire life.

She reached over, took Leon's hand and gave it a squeeze.

"I know." She replied softly. "Now step on it or else we'll get caught out in the sun."

***

Kevyn and Patrick were doing what everyone else was doing; packing. Patrick was loading the van as Kevyn packed up the food and then the blood in coolers containing dry ice. Their plan was to leave the house and spend the day at the condo until it was time to go to the safe house. They would just make it if they hurried.

As soon as they got the news they started packing.

"Sweetheart make sure that you get your books and the laptops." Patrick said as he carried out the last cooler to the door.

"They're already in the van." Kevyn replied. "I put the flash drives in there too." She added.

"What?" Patrick asked when she stopped moving.

"I was just thinking that I would love to have just one drama and danger free month." She replied with a wistful sound to her voice. "I mean it's always something."

Patrick put the cooler down, walked over to her and hugged her.

"I know." He said with his lips pressed against her head. "I'll tell you what. After this is over we'll go on a long vacation, anywhere you want to go."

"Anywhere?" Kevyn asked hugging him back.

"Anywhere." Patrick replied. "But right now we need to get moving."

*****

Barb was almost asleep when Thorne came in. She quickly shut off her laptop not wanting him to see what she was working on.

"We need to talk." He said.

"I know..."

"We're leaving this house as soon as it's dark enough. We caught the hunter that Adrianna saw at the store." Thorne said. "Her crew consists of four vampires and we don't know who or where they are. It's only a matter of time before they come after her and her father comes looking for her. We're moving everyone to one of my homes that's about forty miles from here."

"When you say everyone..."

"I mean everyone including the Sinclaires and their mates and children. When you pack, pack only the necessities. Noel and Adrianna are already packing what food and blood that we have here."

In that moment, Barb realized that Adrianna hadn't been telling her a made up story and that everything that she had been told was true.

"I don't need to remind you that this isn't the time for you to act like an idiot. It's imperative that you do as you're told. Am I clear on this?" Thorne asked.

"I got it!" she snapped.

"Good." Thorne said. "We leave at dusk. There's something else that we need to talk about and I wish that I had more time to do it."

"If it's about your offer..."

"We'll talk about that later." Thorne said cutting her off. "It's something that I should have told you earlier, but ... at any rate. You need to know this before tonight. I'm going to tell you some things that aren't pleasant. After that I have to leave and talk to the woman. We have to find out who the vampires are. Wait here."

A moment later, Thorne was back with his laptop.

"The easiest way to do this is for you to watch and listen. It's all self-explanatory and any specific questions you'll have to ask your sisters or the Sinclaires."

Thorne sat the laptop down in front of Barb and pushed a button. Barb looked at him when the images of Ethan, Patrick and Martin Sinclaire filled the seventeen inch screen. She turned back to the screen when Ethan began to speak.

"My name is Ethan Sinclaire for those of you who don't know me. Standing beside me are my brothers Patrick and Martin. We called this conference today because... because we have a confession to make. Most of you who know my family already know what this is about, but we need to make this public. I... we stand before you in shame. We stand before you to confess that our family has been perpetrating and doing a horrific thing even though it isn't considered a crime in our society. For centuries long before any of us was born, the legacy of rape was born. ..."

Barb listened in shock and disbelief. The family that she wanted to be a part of was rapist? Her sisters were married to rapists? But why wasn't Nathan up there? She wondered. Katrina was raped? She watched the conference in shock and then watched it again and then once again.

"Why wasn't Nathan up there?" she asked.

"Nathan was a teenager at the time." Thorne replied. "He was a product of rape. Martin, his father raped his mother Rachel. Neither he nor Joseph have ever raped."

"They didn't go to prison?" Barb asked.

"Once again I remind you." Thorne said. "This is not the human world. We follow very few of the human laws ourselves although we abide by them. It helps us to blend in as it were. The only major law that we have in common with the humans is murder. In our world it is a punishable offense."

"But they raped people." Barb said.

"Yes." Thorne conceded. "They did."

"And Kevyn, Louise and Leon all know this?" Barb asked.

"They know." Thorne replied. "Each new mate is told. If you were not related to them, it wouldn't have mattered. But because we are now tied to them by marriage, it was something that you needed to know."

Barb was momentarily speechless. She hit the play button and watched the clip again.

"How... "

"As I said, any specifics will have to come from them." Thorne said anticipating her question.

"Oh my god." Barb said softly. "Have you ever raped anyone?"

"No." Thorne replied. "All of my sexual partners have been willing and no, I haven't compelled anyone into having sex with me; you included. Now I have other matters to attend to. Do you have any other questions?"

Barb numbly shook her head no and looked at the laptop screen still not quite believing her eyes.

Kevyn and Louise had married into a family of rapist.

*****

Olivia looked around the small room surprised at how clean and neat it was.

"What were you expecting?" The female guard asked. "To be thrown in a dungeon and tortured?"

When Olivia didn't answer, the guard continued.

"You're lucky. You're in Sinclaire/Blackwell territory. Now if you had been a city or two over... personally, I think that all hunters should be tortured and then turned; especially the ones who are next in line to succeed."

"Obviously you know who I am." Olivia said. "So you know that my father will come looking for me." She said knowing that the threat would get her nowhere.

"I'm sure he will." The guard replied. "The question is what's he going to find? You as you are and dead or one of us?"

Olivia's pulse quickened.

"What's the matter? Is the pretty hunter scared?" The guard taunted.

Olivia took a deep breath and slowed her pulse. She couldn't show fear and she had to be prepared to die. She couldn't and wouldn't allow herself to be turned.

****

"We have to go after her." William said for the third time. "If anything happens to her Saunders will come after us with everything that he has."

"The answer is no." Albert snapped. "And I've got news for you." He added. "Saunders was planning to kill us when he was done with us. But then you knew that. We all did."

William didn't reply. His father was right. Harry was right too. Olivia had probably already given their names and descriptions. They needed to leave while they could. They had more than enough money that they never had to work again, but they wouldn't be able to be seen in public for centuries. Even after Saunders was dead, they would still be hunted by other vampires. If found their deaths could be quick or slow depending on who found them.

He looked up to see Harry looking at him with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Don't you see what's going on?" He finally asked. "He wants the bitch."

"That...."

"I see how you look at her." Harry continued. "That's why you want to go back for her. Let me tell you something, I don't give a shit about what happens to her. You didn't care enough to help me look for that bitch that left me for dead did you?"

"That again?" William asked. "We went after her! Not only that, you turned her even though you knew that she wasn't yours! You were going to leave her for dead; in fact you had to have one last go at her didn't you? Isn't that when she stabbed you? Of course it doesn't matter that we barely escaped with our lives trying to get her back!"