Emma
Jeffrey immediately agreed, saying that he’d take us to Bryan immediately, all the while nodding and bowing. It seemed he was like every other bully, a confident jerk, until he faced a bigger, stronger opponent. And, apparently, our group was bigger and stronger in his eyes because the big bad vampire was now like a little boy, nervous about being in trouble.
Daniel made a noise. If rolling his eyes had a vocal sound to accompany, that would’ve been the sound he made. He turned back toward the building before shifting back into himself. Beth rushed forward with his pants, while Carol brought his shirt and shoes. I tried very hard to focus on the fact that Bryan was safe, and we were all going to go get him, and not the fact that Daniel's butt was amazing, and that all my friends were getting a front row seat at seeing him naked.
It wasn't exactly my favorite thing, but if he could handle me going on a non-date with a vampire, I needed to handle this. No doubt they’d give me crap later about how hot he was.
“I’ll drive,” Daniel growled as soon as he had clothes on.
Carol, Beth, Deva and I crammed into the back seat while Jeffrey sat with his back pressed against the passenger door, his gaze glued on Daniel. It would've been funny if I wasn't so dang worn out from vampire drama.
“You know,” Carol said, leaning forward from her spot between me and Beth. “Of all the people in this car, I’d hazard to say Daniel is one of the least dangerous.”
When Jeffrey jerked his gaze to the back seat, Carol sat back with a smug expression on her face. Each of us was incredibly dangerous in our own ways. Daniel was physically intimidating and terrifying, especially to the vampires with their delicate skins and heads just begging to be separated from their necks. But my friends and I had all sorts of magic among us, significant amounts of magic. There was no telling what we could do if we put our minds to it and worked together. What we could accomplish. We’d only just begun to tap into what we were capable of together as a team.
"Noted," Jeffrey finally managed.
But Carol wasn't done. "And if you've hurt him in any way, I swear you'll regret it for the rest of your immortal life."
Our sweet Carol... I was a little afraid of her at that moment. And fully believed she was capable of carrying out the threat she had given.
"I didn't hurt him," the vampire squeaked out, apparently, just as sure Carol meant what she said as I was.
Jeffrey gave Daniel directions to a warehouse almost out of the county. Further than I'd traveled since returning from turning my ex back into a human. I wouldn't have expected them to keep Bryan there. I’d sort of figured he was holed up in some mansion’s secret dungeon or something. But I guess if this was something arranged by a bunch of idiots, and not an actual coven, it made sense.
And so, our group traveled, mostly in silence, to the location given. Carol's energy beside me was almost palpable. Deva handed her a candy that she could use to calm herself a little, but Carol refused it. Just sat there, practically out of her seat, eyes glued to the road.
"He'll be okay," Beth whispered.
Carol's eyes never left the road. "Yes, he will be."
Deva and I exchanged a glance. It was strange to see Carol like this. We knew she'd carried a torch for Bryan all these years, but her deep sense that he was the one, that she loved him enough for all of this, it was a bit unnerving. In any other situation I might be tempted to ask her if she was sure about all of it, but I knew that this was not the time.
It might never be.
Being friends with our passionate, creative Carol might just mean suspending some disbelief. Understanding that logic and her love for Bryan might not go together, but it didn't make her feelings any less real.
It took over an hour to get to the spot Jeremy had told us about, to a warehouse in the middle of nowhere. A place I was pretty sure was a drop off place, just off the highway, probably for some not-so-legal items. Not that that was our focus right now.
Carol had me shoved out of the back seat before Daniel put the car in park. We ran full tilt for the door to the warehouse, and Jeffrey moved in his lightning-fast vampire way and had the door unlocked before we got there. This boy, it seemed, believed us about what we'd do to him if he was lying to us.
He sure as heck better not be lying to us. If this was a trap, he'd see why our little group was so feared.
I went into the building a split second after Carol, and even as fast as I was, she’d already used her magic to unravel the rope around Bryan. He sat in a chair, wordlessly pulling her into his lap, as her arms went around him. It only took seconds, but she was already sobbing. And as tired and as sore as he looked, his focus was entirely on her. Running his hands through her hair, whispering reassurances to her that I couldn't quite make out.
“It’s okay,” he whispered, burying his face in her hair. “I’m here. Everything is okay.”
We all stared in silence for a long moment, and I felt emotion choke my throat. Swallowing around the lump that had formed, I couldn't pretend any longer. Even though none of this logically made sense to me, it was what it was. These two... they were meant for each other.
And I was happy for them.
We backed away, Deva, Carol, Beth, and me, until I bumped into Daniel. “Where’s Jeffrey?” I whispered, frowning as I looked behind us and saw no one else.
“As soon as he got the door open, he bailed. He did that fast vamp run thing, and I elected to wait here instead of giving chase.” Daniel didn't look the least bit happy until his gaze fell on Carol and Bryan, and then his eyes softened.
"He's okay?"
"He seems to be," I told him.
He gave me a little smile and ran a hand down my arm as if to remind me that Carol wasn't the only person who had someone who cared about her. I smiled right back. How the heck had I been scared of him as a bear, even for a second? My sweet Daniel was my everything.
"Should we--?" I turned to look at Carol and Bryan, then froze.
They were kissing. Nope, not just kissing, full-on making out. Beth and Deva looked at me, mouths hanging open in shock, and I shook my head, not knowing what to say or do. Carol had spent so many years pretending love and desire didn't exist. Apparently, it did with her, it'd just been waiting for Bryan to come back to be unleashed.
We all faced each other and tried our best to ignore Carol and Bryan necking like a couple of teenagers in the middle of the room. It felt like we should just go, but we were in the middle of nowhere, and they would need a ride. Besides, we had no clue what condition Bryan would be in when he finally stood up. I risked another glance but jerked my gaze back to Daniel when I saw that Carol was now straddling Bryan as they made out.
The door of the warehouse slamming grabbed all of our attention, even the lovey-dovey couple. Daniel rushed over and tried the knob, but it didn’t budge. He frowned, tried again with more force, but nothing happened.
What the heck? When I got my hands on that idiot, I was going to shrink his dick to the size of a pinky, I swore it!
“Uh,” Daniel looked around, his nose twitching. “Do you smell smoke?”
Smoke? Uh oh. He had the best nose out of all of us, even Bryan, so if he was smelling smoke, there was smoke somewhere. We could hope it had nothing to do with us, but I doubted we were that lucky.
The vampire leapt to his feet and turned in a circle. “I smell it now too.” His nose was way better than us girls too.
Daniel turned back to the door and started slamming his body against it. Over and over again. Shaking the whole dang place, but it didn't break.
Deva rushed to it, touched the door, and shook her head. "Someone magicked the darn thing!"
It took me another thirty seconds or so before I smelled the smoke too. About the time Deva yelled that she smelled it, too. And as much as I'd hoped it had nothing to do with us, I was pretty sure someone had lit the building on fire.
"How do we get out?" Beth asked, her voice small and frightened.
Suddenly, we heard some squeaking. Beth's gaze shot up, and she stared at something on a box. "There's a mouse. He said he has plenty of ways out, but as big as we are, there's only one way we’ll fit." She pointed across the room. "Somewhere over there."
"There's a room!" Daniel said, gesturing toward the other end of the warehouse.
"Thank you!" Beth said with a wave. "Now, get out of here, before the fire!"
A few squeaks, and the mouse was gone.
The room proved to lead to big bay doors that, I guessed, led to the outside. Bryan ran for the bay doors, but even with his added strength, they didn’t budge. At the same time, Daniel alternated with him, slamming into the door with his massive frame, then trying the handle. But no matter how hard he tried to, it wouldn't come open.
And now, smoke was beginning to fill the warehouse.
"It's okay," I said, almost to myself, but then spoke more loudly as my gaze ran over the building. "This place is made of metal. We'll be okay. The fire will burn out, and then we'll find a way out."
And that was the sum total of my abilities to calm everyone down. Beth shook her head, her eyes wide. “The problem won’t be the fire, Emma. It’ll be the smoke.”
The room, as high as the ceilings were, really was starting to reek. And the ceiling was almost completely obscured by the smoke now. “Yeah,” I said lamely. “That may be true.”
“Come over here,” Bryan yelled, pointing to the bay doors. “We might not be able to break through, but I think we can bend this metal if we work together, especially if there's a spell on the doors that prevents us from breaking them.”
"Genius!" Carol exclaimed, clapping her hands together.
We all hurried back to the bay doors, and between Daniel and Bryan, the two of them they managed to fold up a corner of the door metal door fairly easily. They were supernaturally strong, after all. A corner just big enough to squeeze us all through.
I hoped.
Bryan went through the gap we had created first, to make sure the coast was clear, we crawled out one by one, with Daniel clambering out last. As he got back to his feet, he grabbed my hand and squeezed. “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting too old for this.”
I laughed, staring around for any potential dangers. We didn’t want to be ambushed now. I was pretty sure everyone was too old for this.