Thorne Ch. 07

"What do you need?" Adrianna asked from the sitting room doorway.

"Nothing from you," Barb said petulantly.

"Will you grow the fuck up?" Adrianna asked exasperated. "That little girl that was here is more of an adult than you are!"

"You could have helped me!" Barb said angrily.

"Helped you do what exactly?" Adrianna asked. "You treat people like shit and then you expect loyalty. You aren't the fucking queen of anything and you'd better get that through your thick skull! Now what in the hell do you need?"

Maybe it was because of the emotional upheaval of the past hours, but Adrianna's tone of voice hurt. Suddenly Barb was no longer hungry.

"You haven't eaten in hours," Adrianna said, "I'll go get you something. Do you need help to the bathroom?"

"No... I can make it on my own," Barb replied.

Adrianna hesitated and then vanished. When she was gone, Barb made her way to the bathroom. After washing her hands, she examined her reflection in the mirror. She stood sideways and took in the soft swell of her belly. Something Thorne said went through her mind.

"Hate is too strong of a word, I don't like her."

"Is that how you feel about me or do you hate me?" Barb asked the baby in her belly. "I don't hate you- I just don't want you, but then; I never wanted a baby with anyone. I'm sorry that you're scared of me, but you have to understand that I don't want any of this-well, not the baby and vampire part of it anyway. They keep telling me that I have to accept this, but do I? I mean there's nothing that I can do about you- you're already on the way; but what about the rest of it? Look, let's make a deal- I'll try to do everything that I'm supposed to do to make sure that you arrive safe and sound and you stop blabbing to Celeste. Do we have a deal?"

A few seconds later, Barb felt a sharp pain telling her that the baby wasn't accepting her terms. He knew that she had to take care of herself no matter what. It was also his way of telling her that he didn't like her.

"Damn," Barb sighed feeling even more alone than before. "Am I really that horrible?" she asked her reflection.

The word "YES!" resounded through her head so loudly that she thought someone had spoken it. She turned around didn't see anyone. She felt the need to connect with someone who understood her. The only person that came to mind was Gene, but then he had changed too. She realized that not only did she have to think about Thorne's proposals; she had to think about what she wanted to do about her family.

Part of her comfort zone was knowing that they would just accept her as she was no matter what she did. That apparently, was coming to an end. She had to decide how much, she was willing to give to keep them around. She had to admit that when she acted civilly, they actually had a good time together. Juliette's observations came to mind as did Louise's.

The fact was she didn't know why she fought to keep the nicer side of her hidden away. She also didn't know why she thought that money equaled love. Living with Thorne had proven that that wasn't the case, but yet she still believed it or told herself that she did.

When she left the bathroom, she found a sandwich and beverages sitting on a tray on the bed. She could hear Adrianna typing on her laptop in the next room. She sat on the bed, looked at the sandwich and forced herself to pick it up. After staring at it for a few more seconds, she took a bite and then moaned with pleasure. The bread was one of Louise's recipes. She closed her eyes and savored the taste of the bread. Suddenly she started to laugh. She was remembering some of the recipes that Louise concocted when she was old enough to cook. Just as suddenly as the laughter started, it stopped. She finished the sandwich, drank the glass of water and went to bed.

****

"How are things?" Thorne asked Benita as he settled at his desk.

"Fine, she hasn't tried to escape-Thorne- she's very conflicted."

"Explain."

"She doesn't want to be the head of the hunters, but she feels that she has no choice. She loves but fears her father and she hates him. She has ambivalent feelings for us even though one of us killed her mother and brother. I think that deep down she knew that her father has been lying to her and that he set her up to fail."

"I assume that you told her about her brother and mother?" Thorne asked.

"I did and her reaction was surprise that didn't last long and she made a feeble attempt to defend them. When I told her that I was the one that killed her brother there was an initial flash of anger and then acceptance."

"Does she hate her father enough to go against him?" Thorne asked.

"That I don't know about. But if I had to guess; I would have to say that the answer would be no."

"Alright, keep talking to her and broach the subject in a roundabout way. Ethan and I will be over later to talk to her."

"Thorne- may I make a suggestion?" Benita asked.

"I'm listening."

"She's scared of you even though she doesn't show it. If both of you showed up... my suggestion is this, send someone else- a female. She talks to me because although she knows what I am, I'm less threatening because I'm a female. On the flip side, I'm her guard so she's only going to tell me so much."

"I take that under advisement, but in the meantime keep talking with her. I'll call you later."

Thorne hung up thinking about Benita's suggestion. It had merit, but then most of her thoughts did. He picked up his cell phone and called Ethan.

"Are you busy?"

"No, what's going on?" Ethan asked.

"Can you be in my office in ten minutes?

Ten minutes later, Ethan was sitting in Thorne's office.

"Thank you for coming," he said. "I know that I'm interfering with your time with your mate, but this is important."

"This is war," Ethan replied. "Katrina understands, so what's happening?"

Thorne told him about the conversation with Benita and her suggestion.

"I think that she's right," Ethan said when Thorne finished talking. "I also know just the person that would be perfect for the job."

"Louise," Thorne said.

"Yes. I suggest we call and ask her and Nathan to come down here."

"Do you think she'll go for it?" Thorne asked.

"She isn't going to be the issue," Ethan said. "Nathan is extremely protective of her which is understandable. It's him that we're going to have to convince."

"Let's give them a call, but first- Ethan, that little girl Celeste is a powerhouse- did you know that?"

"I'm not surprised given her lineage, but why do you ask?"

"Without going into details of how this request came about, she asked me to talk to you about what happened between our families."

"How does she know about that?" Ethan asked.

"I don't think that she really does, at least not all of the details," Thorne replied. "At any rate, I promised her that I would talk to you. To be honest, I've been thinking that there's something about that whole thing that I don't know about or understand. After this is over, I would like to sit down and talk to you about it- if you're agreeable that is."

"I am more than agreeable, but as you said, let's get this over with first."

Fifteen minutes later, Nathan and Louise were sitting in Thorne's office. Thorne watched and listened as Ethan explained what they wanted. He could see that Louise was on board, but Nathan was another matter.

"Yes," Louise said at the same time Nathan was saying "no".

"I won't allow you to be in a room with a hunter-"

"Excuse me, but you won't allow me?" Louise asked quietly.

"It isn't safe-"

"I won't be alone and I have to do this. If it will keep people on both sides from being killed and that includes you; then I'm doing it. And from what I'm hearing, she's scared and needs a friend-"

"Friend?" Nathan asked. "Sweetheart, scared or not she's a hunter who would kill you if she had the chance! Her kind doesn't befriend our kind."

"Has anyone ever tried?" Louise countered. "What if our reaching out to her changes things? I'm sorry, I know that you don't want me to do this; but I'm going to. Will you come with me?"

Ethan and Thorne watched the interaction between Nathan and Louise with interest. It reminded Ethan to call the genealogist to see if he found out anything more about the Yancy line and it made Thorne realize just what a powerful family he was allied with.

"When do we leave?" Louise asked.

"As soon as we can get you there safely," Thorne replied.

"I can vanish," Louise said proudly, "so we can leave at any time."

Thorne was shocked although he didn't know why. He found that he was becoming more intrigued by the Yancy line. He looked at Louise and recognition set in. The eyes in Noel's portrait belonged to someone in the Yancy line- but who? It was none of the adult females present, they were all spoken for and the girls were too young. The eyes in the portrait belonged to an adult woman. The other thing that he wondered was if Barb had gifts other than her strong intuition that she never listened to.

"Give me an hour and we'll go," Thorne said. "Louise, thank you for doing this and Nathan, I swear to you nothing will happen to her."

"Damn right it isn't because I'm going with her," Nathan said. His tone conveyed his displeasure that Louise was placing herself and their child in danger. He was going to take the hour to try to get her to change her mind although he knew that it would be useless.

****

One of Thorne's homes had been found only because the address was a matter of public record. Even though the hunters knew that no one would be there, they broke in; ransacked the houses and stole anything that they deemed of value.

Freezers were emptied of bags of blood that were then ripped open and tossed to the floor. Thawed out units were opened and dumped on the floor or sprayed on the walls. Furniture was slashed and torn apart as the house was searched not only for Olivia, but any unsuspecting staff. The only reason that the house wasn't burned was because Rufus didn't want the police involved.

"She ain't here," a hunter from Bakersfield, California said as he pocketed a necklace that looked valuable from a Jewelry box. "Damn vamps live better than humans!" He added as he dumped the contents of the dresser on the floor.

None of the hunters noticed the wolves that sat across the street watching them. Grant and two of his wolves sat in the shadows watching. It was to their advantage that the crew in the house was made up entirely of humans who had become lax in watching out for any surprises.

"We'll grab the one who seems to be the leader," Grant growled. "He'll know who the other crews are."

"I think that we should just kill them all," one of the other wolves growled.

"Kill all but the leader," Grant said with a cold grin.

***

On the other side of town, William watched in disgust as Rufus's men ransacked Ethan's house. He knew that Olivia wasn't there, but didn't say anything. He could hear the whoops and hollers of the hunters as they destroyed anything that wasn't glued to the floor. He wondered how the hunters could say that vampires and other species were nothing but animals when they were acting like thugs. He looked to his right and saw Caleb staring at him with a predatory gleam in his eyes. He stared back and bared his fangs at the hunter and gave him the 'come hither' motion with a long dark finger.

"Come on mother fucker," William thought, "I dare you."

To William's surprise, Caleb paled and looked away.

"I'll be damned," William muttered. "The bastard is a coward."

As the carnage of the house continued, William walked around the house touching nothing. He saw Rufus sitting at Ethan's desk trying to get the desk top to boot up. He watched Rufus touch the power button and jumped when the desktop exploded.

"Damn it!" Rufus bellowed.

William shook his head in disgust and continued on his way. He made his way to the basement and was about to leave when he sensed someone. Huddled in the far corner of the finished basement was an elderly vampire. His eyes were wide and his heart pounded when he realized that he had been sensed. William looked back toward the stairs- it would only be a matter of time before the hunters came down the stairs. He looked around the basement for a place to hide elderly vampire.

"I am not going to hurt you," William said as he looked around. "I don't know why you are here, but I am going to hide you."

The vampire stared at William in disbelief, but said nothing. Finally, William looked up and saw a trap door. He hurried over to it and examined it. He realized that it was just a crawl space, but it would be big enough for the vampire.

"Come grandfather, let me hide you."

The vampire hesitated, but hurried when he heard the voice of a hunter nearing the top of the stairs. William gently picked the vampire up and lifted him toward the trap door.

"You must remain quiet. Do you understand? If they find you, I will not be able to save you."

"I understand- thank you," the vampire said as the door closed.

Moments later, the basement was swarming with hunters. When the basement was totally destroyed, they left. William looked back at the hiding place and nodded. He felt surprisingly good that he had managed to save a life. Now if he could only save Olivia.

****

Olivia paced the small room wondering what was happening. She was certain that her father had already arrived and was looking for her. The question was, did she want to be found? That had been the burning question ever since Benita revealed a few hard truths to her. She couldn't believe that she almost preferred to be kept by the vampires as opposed to going back to her father and whatever he had planned for her.

She sat on the small sofa wondering how many had died already and wondered if William was among them. She felt a pang of sadness that she didn't understand at the thought. He was one of them. He was the enemy, but yet he hadn't wanted to leave her. He had even warned her about Harry. She closed her eyes remembering how it felt to be held in his arms.

Her eyes snapped open.

"What am I thinking?" she murmured in shock.

A tap on the door made her jump.

"It's me-Benita- are you decent?"

Olivia looked at the folded sweat suit that lay on the end of the couch.

"Can you give me five minutes?" She called back as she jumped off the couch and began to change clothes.

Exactly five minutes later, Benita walked in followed by a woman that Olivia didn't recognize.

"I brought you a guest," Benita said. "Remember your manners."

Olivia looked at the woman and nodded at Benita. She took a step back when the woman took a step forward.

"Hello, my name is Louise Sinclaire and I promise that I'm not here to hurt you."