Thorne Ch. 05

"Stop bickering!" Mary shouted. "It isn't helping. I'm with your father; we aren't going back for her. We don't even know where she is. Now, let's decide on where we're going. We know that we can't take any of the human methods of transportation. They're also going to be looking for a group of four which means that we can't travel together."

"Wherever it is we're going, we need to go soon." Nell said. "If Rufus doesn't know what happened, he will soon."

"What about the safe house up in Palm Springs?" Albert asked. "It's close, but it will give us some time to revamp the plan."

Albert knew what they were thinking. He had been working on a plan, but the girl's death at the club had moved up his time table. Olivia had been a part of that plan, but now they didn't have her. He had lied when he said that he knew that Thorne Blackwell owned the club. He had no idea of who owned it. He just looked at the description and it suited their needs.

"William you go first and the rest of us will follow. Make sure that you stay out of sight." Albert said his tone telling everyone that he wasn't going to be argued with. "Harry, you bring up the rear."

One by one they vanished to the house on the outskirts of Palm Springs with the last of them arriving just before dawn.

****

Louise and Nathan looked at each other. The feeling of dread was still there, but it had changed.

"What do you think is happening?" Louise asked.

"I don't know." Nathan replied. "But we still need to go. It could be that we're sensing Rufus Saunders. But I also have the feeling that we're not done with the others."

Louise didn't argue.

"Lou what are you thinking about?" Nathan asked already knowing that he wasn't going to like the answer.

"We could see if we could reach out to them." She replied.

"Absolutely not." Nathan said firmly. "We have no idea of whether they can sense us..."

"I don't think that they can." Louise replied. "We would have felt them searching for us which means that they weren't here specifically looking for us. I can't explain the feeling of dread, only that it's connected to them somehow. If we reach out to them..."

"Louise no." Nathan said. "At least not now. Let's wait and see what happens. I don't want to put you and the baby at risk if we don't have to. And if we do this, we need to be prepared."

"So it's not an absolute no?" Louise asked.

Nathan hesitated. He didn't like the idea of her being in danger any more now than he did when they went after Veronica's kidnapper. He remembered how proud he was of her and remembered the little stubborn streak that she had showed when he tried to hold her back. But she hadn't been pregnant then either.

"It isn't a written in stone no." He conceded. "But I want your word that you won't do anything without me."

"I agree." Louise said softly.

****

Thorne's household was the first to arrive at the new house. He was surprised when Barb was ready to go without an argument. He figured that she was still in shock over finding out about the rapes. Soon after they arrived, he left to go talk to Olivia. He had left Olivia in the capable hands of one of his female guards leaving instructions that she was not to be guarded by males.

The female guard, Benita was one of his best and would follow his orders to the letter. He hoped that she was able to extract some useful information from Olivia as well. Benita was sitting outside of the small room when he got there.

"What do we know?" Thorne asked without greeting her.

"Not much." Olivia replied. "Her worst fear is being turned. Next to that- her father. I get the feeling that she royally fucked up somehow."

"Did she say anything about her crew?" Thorne asked.

"No." Bettina replied.

"Where's her cell phone?" Thorne asked.

"It's in her purse over there." Bettina replied as she went to get the purse.

Thorne dug through the purse and found the phone. The battery was almost gone, but he could see that there were several missed calls all from the same number.

"She missed her check in time." He murmured as he listened to the first message.

"Olivia! Where are you damn it! Call me!

Thorne listened to the next few messages noting that the voice leaving them was sounding angrier but not worried or concerned. He was beginning to get a sense as to why Olivia was concerned about her father. He didn't have to listen to the rest of the messages in order to know that the alarm had been raised and that Rufus was on his way. Every hunter within a hundred mile radius had been alerted.

Thorne went into the room fangs bared. He needed to take full advantage of her fear. His green eyes flashed as he sat down across from Olivia and looked at her. Even as he asked her the questions, he was already reading her. The talking just kept her distracted so that she wouldn't fight him.

"Your father is very angry." Thorne said his tone casual. "You've missed your check in time."

"Then I would suggest that you let me go." Olivia countered. "You must know that every hunter that can be here in an hour is on their way here."

"True, but they don't know where to look for you do they?" Thorne asked.

"Maybe not." Olivia said smugly, "But they'll kill every vampire they come across and one of them will be one that saw me at the club."

"That would be true." Thorne said with a grin that showed off his fangs. "Except that we've initiated a state of emergency. We raised the alarm the moment that we knew that something was coming. As I said, we've known that someone was coming for the past week. Of course there will be those who decide to take their chances and will get caught... anyway, I digress. You were going to give me the names of the five that came with you."

"I was going to do no such thing." Olivia replied.

Thorne's eyes flashed again as Olivia unconsciously thought of the names. Thorne frowned. She only named four. And then he realized that she had to have been the fifth shape that Louise saw.

Albert, Mary, William and Harry.

No last names he noted.

"Where are they?" Thorne asked and then waited.

"I don't know."

Seeing that she really didn't know, Thorne moved on.

"Who are the hunters in the area?"

By now, Olivia had figured out what Thorne was doing and began to fight him. Thorne pushed harder until finally; he has the names of all the hunters that she knew of.

"Please kill me." Olivia begged. "If you don't, he will."

"Sorry, I may a lot of things; but I'm not a murderer." Thorne replied.

"Then let one of your guards do it!"

Her pleas fell on deaf ears. He needed to call Ethan to make sure that everyone was safe.

****

Barb unpacked still in a daze. It was the first time in a long time that she wasn't focused on herself. The word 'rapist' swirled around her mind. She simply couldn't believe it. The perfect Sinclaires were less than perfect. They were criminals. Thorne may have been a bastard, but he was no rapist. What she couldn't fathom was how they could have willingly married into a family like that. But then she stopped. She couldn't have said that she wouldn't have done it. Hell, she had gone after a known drug dealer; but that wasn't rape. Clay had killed people, but still...

She hadn't decided on how she was going to broach the subject or if she was going to broach it at all. What was she going to say? Did she have the right to say anything since she had all but told them that she wanted nothing to do with them? It had taken awhile, but they had stopped calling. Even so, curiosity got the best of her. She wanted to know. She played in her mind how she was going to approach them.

The sound of children's voices distracted her. Juliette and Hans had arrived with Nadine and Leon. Several minutes later, Louise and Nathan arrived followed by Kevyn and Patrick. Noel was already downstairs talking to Leon.

Barb walked up to Kevyn and Patrick, looked at them for several seconds before she said anything.

"A rapist? Really?" she asked with disgust and disbelief in her voice.

****

Rufus angrily packed his bags throwing things into the suitcase not caring how they were arranged. He cursed at himself for allowing Olivia to go away with her crew, but she had to be tested and as he suspected she would do, she failed. He only knew what happened because a vampire who sometimes worked for him was at the club when the body was found.

He was glad that he had another successor picked out and ready to take over. After she was punished, Olivia would be forced to marry the hunter and in that way the line would continue. She wouldn't like it, but he didn't give a fuck. She was lucky that he wasn't going to kill her. He had given her a chance and she failed. Not only was she captured, the four that had gone with her had escaped.

"Damn it!" he swore as he threw the bag containing his toiletries. If only Adam hadn't died he thought to himself. He never would have messed up like this. Rufus failed to remember that Olivia didn't want to be head of the hunter organization or that he hadn't given her a choice in the matter. He slammed the suitcase closed. Caleb, his successor and Olivia's future husband was waiting for him.

Rufus didn't like the man, but his politics as far as vampires was an exact replica of his and he would make sure that any children that he and Olivia had would grow up to be strong hunters and without Olivia's soft live and let live approach.

"Let's go." Rufus snapped as he walked past Caleb.

As they walked to the car, Rufus tried Olivia's number one more time. When it went to voice mail, he snapped the phone shut cursing under his breath.

****

Olivia could hear her phone ringing and then go silent. She knew that one of two things had happened. Either the battery had died or her father was trying to reach her. If she had to guess, it was the latter. She found it sad that she would rather die at the hands of a vampire than face her father who would put her on his version of a trial before either punishing her or killing her.

When Benita came back in the room, Olivia had but one question for her.

"What can I do to convince you to kill me?"