Thorne Ch. 06

Instead of Louise leaving, Barb did.

Louise watched her leave and sighed. They had done what they could do. It was now up to Barb to decide what she wanted to do.

*****

By evening, William knew what he had to do. He left the house, went to San Diego and rented a car. Afterwards he went to a Wal-Mart and bought a pre-paid phone, loaded it with minutes and headed back to meet the enemy. He would go to the house first to see if Rufus was there. If not, he would make himself known to one of the hunters who would take him to where Rufus was staying. He had to make sure that it was a hunter who knew him or there would be a problem. He felt the beginning pangs of hunger and knew that he had to feed first. He would need to be totally focused when he went to meet Rufus. He was about to begin a very dangerous game.

He drove around until he found an area of the city that looked like the red light district. He usually had no preference as to who he fed from just so it wasn't a child. But tonight, he wanted a woman. It had been a long time and unlike some of Harry's women, she would live. The sex would be consensual but the memory of the bite would be erased. The woman would also be well compensated.

It took him almost thirty minutes to make his selection. She had to be clean and of legal age. She also had to be experienced. He had no desire to take away the innocence of one who had never been touched. He supposed hearing the screams of the girl that they took from her family had something to do with that. As a precaution, he always compelled the woman to tell the truth about her age and experience.

He saw the woman standing against a wall with her left hip jutted out and a hand on her hip. What drew him to her was that she wasn't dressed as provocatively as the other women walking the street. He pulled up and watched her for a few seconds. She was a pretty woman with short dark hair. She was a little on the thin side; but she had a nice ass. His hands itched to touch it and the rest of her.

The woman finally looked at him and shyly smiled. William realized that she was new to working the street and wondered what happened to make her choose this profession. He watched as she approached the car a little unsteady on her high heels.

"Hi honey" she said as she leaned into the window.

"Hello" William replied in a low hypnotic voice. "How long have you been on the street?"

"A... a week" The woman replied frowning. No one had ever asked her that. In fact, they did what they wanted and more often than not; they didn't pay.

"Get in" William said releasing the compulsion.

If she said no, then he would find someone else. The woman walked around the front of the car, stopped at the passenger door and hesitated before getting in. When she was seated in the car, William asked her to direct him to a hotel.

"I don't go to hotels" she said. "I get left paying the bill."

"Where do you go?" William asked.

"We do it in the car or my apartment..."

"You take strange men to your apartment?" William asked shocked. "That isn't safe... why do you do this? I can tell by looking at you that you're new."

"Why do you care?" the woman asked sharply.

William looked over at her and shrugged.

"I am curious, but it isn't my business. Take me to a hotel and I'll pay the bill before we check in. You have my word that I won't slip away without paying you."

Ten minutes later, they were checked into a dingy hotel room. The woman began to undress before William could say anything.

"What do you want?" She asked and then rattled off the charges for a blow job, intercourse and anal sex. "I'm not into pain so no hitting or anything like that."

"Neither am I," William assured her, but my time is short."

He crossed the small room, took the woman into his arms and sighed. He felt his cock swell and strain against the front of his pants as she pressed against him.

"What is your name?" he asked as he inhaled the scent of her hair. "And don't lie. I want to know your real name."

"Leslie."

"Leslie, I am called William. Even though money will exchange hands, I want this to be enjoyable for you. Relax and let me do the work."

He silenced Leslie with a kiss when she tried to object. He felt her tense in his arms, relax and then return the kiss as if she really enjoyed it. As much as he wanted to take his time with her, he had to move things along. He picked her up, carried her to the bed and laid her on it so that her legs hung over the side. He quickly undressed and dropped to his knees. Without hesitation he spread her thin legs as wide as they could go and began to lap at her with a pointed tongue.

Leslie gasped and then moaned as William licked and sucked her clit with varying degrees of pressure until her orgasm began. Her hips bucked when she felt two fingers enter here and a thumb massaging her clit.

"Oh god!" she screamed when she felt his lips graze her groin.

"Thank you for helping me tonight" William murmured just before he bit.

Leslie froze in shock and then screamed as the most intense orgasm of her life washed over her. William watched her carefully and made sure not to take too much. He licked the wound closed, moved between her legs and slowly slid into her. Leslie wrapped her legs around his back and crossed her legs trying to pull him further into her.

William came with a bellow as he emptied into her and as she came for a second time. Afterwards, he kissed her forehead and gave her a command.

"You will not remember seeing me" he said looking into her eyes. "You will leave this room, go home and not come out until morning. After tonight, you will no longer do this line of work. Use the money that I will leave you to pay your expenses while you find more suitable work."

As an afterthought, William decided to take Leslie home. For a reason that he didn't understand, he felt responsible for her. He knew that she wasn't his mate, but he still felt a sense of responsibility. When they got to her apartment, he reinforced his commands. He didn't pull away until she was safely indoors. It was time to go find Olivia.

*****

Rufus walked around the house where Olivia and the others had been staying looking for any clues as to their whereabouts. All of their belongings were still there telling him that they had planned to come back to the house.

"Anticipate!" he growled under his breath. "I told her to always anticipate!"

"The only thing that I found was the name of the club written on a piece of paper." Caleb said.

"Do we know who owns the club?" Rufus asked.

"No, but I can find out" Caleb replied.

A few minutes later, Caleb was back with news that he knew would set Rufus off again.

"Well?" Rufus demanded.

"The club belongs to Thorne Blackwell" Caleb said. "I made a few phone calls and made contact with one of our informants."

"Thorne Blackwell?" Rufus asked. "He's in the area? Why didn't we know this before? Why in the hell do I pay people to keep track of these bastards if I don't have the information?"

"Rufus, you know as well as I do that they are adept at not being seen or noticed. But at any rate, it was Blackwell that took Olivia."

"Shit!" Rufus exclaimed. "Then she's turned and we have to kill her."

"You don't know that" Caleb said. "She could be dead."

"The Blackwell's aren't murderers and I'll tell you something else... call that idiot Masterson and see what other vampire families are out here."

"Are you thinking about someone in particular?" Caleb asked taking out his phone.

Rufus didn't answer, but walked away.

"I'm going to change clothes; I want an answer by the time I get back."

Rufus was back ten minutes later dressed in his hunting clothes. The black leather jumpsuit fit his tall lanky form like a glove. The matching leather gloves were tucked neatly into his belt and his weapons waited by the door.

"What did you find out?"

"The other major family in the area is the Sinclaires..."

"I knew it!! I fucking knew it! Where there's a Blackwell, a Sinclaire isn't far away."

"I don't understand" Caleb said.

"All you need to know is that the Blackwell/Sinclaire connection goes back centuries. It was a Blackwell who killed my ancestor. I don't have time to go into it, but suffice it to say that we're up against two of the most powerful vampire families around. I would say that the only family even more powerful is that of their bitch queen. I would really love to get my hands on her, but it's a suicide mission- at least for now. As of yet we haven't been able to get even remotely close to her."

"So if the Blackwell's and Sinclaires are together..."

"We're in for one hell of a fight" Rufus said. "I still have a question, why didn't we know that Ethan Sinclaire and Thorne Blackwell were here? Call Masterson back, I want to know why he didn't tell us."

Caleb called Masterson back and got his voice mail.

"He's not answering" Caleb said. "I just hung up from talking to him."

"Son of a bitch!" Rufus cursed as he realized what happened.

He thought that he had gotten rid of the traitors in his midst. Apparently, he was wrong. If there was one, then there were more. He couldn't worry about that now, it was time to find Olivia and hopefully eliminate one if not both of the families.

"Let's go" He said walking over to his weapons.

"I was hoping to find you here" A voice that Rufus recognized said from across the room.

****

Barb left the library and went to her room. She had no desire to see or talk to anyone else. After a few minutes, she decided that she needed to at least apologize to the children, Celeste in particular. She shook off her nervousness as she left her room and went to the room where the girls had chosen for their own.

She stood in front of the door for several minutes before she softly knocked. She almost walked away when the door opened and Victoria stood there staring up at her.

"Who is it?" Wanda asked as she came to the door. She stopped when she saw it was Barb. "Hi Aunt Barb."

"Hi... Wannie... I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for scaring you guys. Is Celeste alright?"

"She's sleeping" Wanda replied coolly.

"Will you tell her that I was here?" Barb asked.

Wanda looked at Barb undecided and then agreed.

"But Aunt Barb, she's just a baby and you really do scare her" Wanda said.

"Yes... I know" Barb said. "Wannie; if I asked you a question, would you tell me the truth?"

"Yes."

"Your mom says that you love me but that you don't like me; is that true?"

Wanda hesitated. As much as she disliked her aunt, she didn't want to hurt her feelings.

"It's ok, you can tell me" Barb said.

"I... yes, it's true" Wanda said softly and looked away.

Of everything that Barb had been told over the past several weeks, it was that simple admission that hit her hard.

"Can you tell me why you don't like me?" Barb asked.

"You aren't nice to people" Wanda replied. "You aren't nice to mom, Aunt Kevyn, Aunt Louise and Uncle Leon. And Celeste is right, you're always so mad at everything."

Barb swallowed hard and nodded.

"Thank you for being honest."

"Can I ask a question?" Wanda asked.

"Ummm sure" Barb replied.

"Why don't you like us? Did we do something wrong?"

Barb didn't know what to say. So she gave the only response she could think of.

"It's not that I don't like you... you'll understand when you're older."

She took off before Wanda could ask any more questions. This time when she went to her room, she stayed there for the rest of the night.

****

Ethan and Thorne were in Thorne's office when there was a tap on the door.

"Enter!" Thorne called out.

Leon stepped inside of the office and greeted them with a curt nod of his head.

"I want to go when you start looking for the bastards that came with that hunter."

Thorne and Ethan looked at each other and then back at Leon.

"Leon..." Ethan said.

"I already know what you're going to say" Leon interrupted. "I know I'm new to this whole vampire thing and I know that I have a lot to learn, but let me tell you why I want and need to go."

They listened in silence as he explained Nadine's connection to the vampires.

"So you tell me," he said when he was done, "are you telling me that you wouldn't want a piece of them? The only one that I really want is the one named Harry. He's the one who hurt, turned her and then was going to leave her for dead. Say no and I'll go anyway. Nathan and Hans both said that they'd go with me."

"Alright" Ethan said. "We'll put you, Hans and Nathan on a team together. I know that Nathan and Hans have been training with you so I'm confident in your ability to protect yourself and them if need be. Just make sure that Nadine is going to be alright with this."

"We've talked" Leon replied. "She understands that I need to do this. If I don't, she'll never be safe."

"We understand" Thorne said. "Could you do us a favor and spread the word that there's a meeting in two hours?"

"Did you know anything about that?" Thorne asked after Leon was gone.

"No" Ethan replied. "But I have something else to talk to you about before the meeting."

***************

Thank you all for your patience! I also want to thank Mostera1, Nyshia 1975 and Donalde for beta reading for me.