Brian dropped the sleeping bag on the counter and grabbed a magazine from the holder next to the register. He ignored the disapproving look the old man behind the counter gave him as he flipped through a few pages of the National Enquirer.
He scanned an article about a sixty-year-old woman in Michigan who had given birth to her daughter’s twins. Interesting, he thought, before skimming through an article on an alien sighting in Dubois. The Men in Black would be all over that one.
“Is this it?” the cashier asked and gave a pointed look at the magazine in his hand.
Brian flashed his teeth at him, causing the man to blanch and look hastily away. His fangs may not be bared, but he was aware of his effect on both humans and vamps. Most were unsure how to take him, and that was the way he liked it. It tended to make both species stay away from him, and there was nothing he liked more than being alone. He’d come to realize it was the simplest way to be.
“That’s all of it,” he replied, and slipped the magazine back into the rack.
The man maneuvered the sleeping bag around until he found the tag. The price gun in his hand beeped at the same time Brian’s phone rang. The man’s bushy gray eyebrows shot up at the Fire and Rain ringtone.
“Can’t go wrong with James Taylor,” Brian told him as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. He frowned at the unfamiliar number before silencing his phone and sliding it back into his jeans.
“Saw him in concert once,” the man said, and moved the sleeping bag aside. Apparently, a shared appreciation for Taylor was enough for the man to forgive him for not purchasing the magazine and engage him in conversation. “He puts on a good show.”
“He does,” Brian agreed as the man rang up the lantern he was also purchasing. “I’ve seen him a couple of times myself.”
His phone started to ring again. Pulling it out of his pocket, he glanced at the same unknown number before silencing it again and returning it to his pocket. If the person calling him wasn’t in his contacts, he didn’t want to talk to them, and if it was a telemarketer, he may hunt them down and kill them. Sometimes he much preferred the days before technology, no matter how convenient it was, it could also be a pain in the ass.
“Where are you planning to camp?” the old man asked.
Before Brian could answer, his phone rang again. He gritted his teeth when he saw the same number and sent it straight to voicemail. Hopefully, they’d finally get the point that he wasn’t going to answer. “Going to do some hiking,” he replied, “maybe climb Mount Washington.”
“Nice trip, you’ll need more supplies than this.”
A human would; he didn’t. “Got ‘em in the back of the truck,” he lied, and pointed at the pickup across the street.
The man hit the total button on the register as Brian’s phone went off yet again. He didn’t bother to look at it before hitting the silence button and handing the man some cash.
“Have a good trip,” the man said as Brian gathered his supplies.
“Thanks.”
He strode out the door and was halfway to his truck when his phone rang once more. He hit the straight to voicemail button as he tossed the sleeping bag into the back of the pickup next to his small bag of clothes. It had been years since he’d gotten a chance to do some camping. Not since his cabin in the Cascade Mountains had received an unplanned remodel five years ago, when he’d allowed his acquaintance, Ian Byrne, to use it as a hideout with his now wife, Paige.
He hadn’t bothered to return to the cabin afterward and he never would now that other vampires had discovered its location. The vamps who had attacked Ian and Paige may be dead, but he hadn’t survived nearly two hundred years by making stupid decisions. He was well aware there were many vampires out there who would prefer him dead and would love to feast on his power.
His cabin had been lost to him years ago, but that didn’t mean he didn’t miss the wilderness. Now, he planned to lose himself in the White Mountains of New Hampshire for a month or more. He glanced at his pocket in annoyance when his phone went off again. Pulling it out, he hit the green button as he flung the door of the black pickup open and slid inside.
“If someone’s not dying, you will be. Who is this?”
“As rude as ever, I see!” a woman snapped back at him.
Brian’s brows drew together as he tried to place the voice, but for the life of him he couldn’t put a name to it. “Honey, I don’t know who you are, so I don’t think you can judge me. Plus, you’re the one who has been calling me, nonstop. Now, since you don’t seem to like me, and I’m not in the mood for belligerent females, I really don’t see the point of this conversation.”
“Maybe you don’t remember me, but you know who I am, Brian Foley.”
He’d been about to hang up and toss his phone out the window, but those words and something about the woman’s voice intrigued him enough to stay his hand. Turning the key in the ignition, he started the truck. “I know I didn’t knock you up.”
“Gross. No, I have standards,” the woman grumbled.
“This has been a pleasant conversation, and as much as I’d like to continue being insulted, I think I’ve had enough fun. Don’t call me again.”
“Wait!” Abby cried, terrified he would hang up on her and she would lose her chance at getting him to help her.
The frantic tone of the woman’s voice halted him before he could toss the phone out his window. Something in his chest constricted as the frightened pitch of her voice called to him in an odd way.
With a sigh, he lifted the phone back to his ear. “Why?”
“I… I need your help,” she blurted.
“I don’t know who you are, and you clearly don’t think much of me, so why would I help you?” he demanded.
“We met once before, about six years ago. My name is Abigail Byrne. I go by Abby.”
Brian’s hand squeezed around the phone, another Byrne. The Byrnes seemed to be everywhere, but then they were the largest vampire family he knew of in existence. He tried to recall this Abby, but the memory of which one she was in that clan eluded him.
“It was a brief meeting,” she said, as if sensing his thoughts, “in a hotel room.”
Realization hit with the force of a hammer between his eyes. “You’re one of the twins.”
“I am.”
He dimly recalled seeing her in the hotel room where she’d nearly been slaughtered by vampires who had been hunting him. The twins had been merely children then. Children he’d barely paid attention to, but he did recall their pale hair and emerald green eyes. One of them had also possessed a brighter soul than the other, a soul that had shone through her fear while in that room. Listening to her now, he had a feeling Abby was the one who possessed that soul.
“Why are you calling me?” he asked.
He heard the rustling of her hair as she ran her fingers through it. The sound of her hair brushing against the phone caused his hand to tighten around it more. He didn’t know what it was about this girl, but he found himself hanging onto every move and sound she made.
Pacing back and forth, Abby pondered his question as she debated how much to reveal to him, but she doubted withholding information would persuade him to help her. “My sister, Vicky, is missing.”
That was the main reason she’d called him, but Abby couldn’t deny she’d always known that one day she would reach out to him. It had been inevitable. Still, if it hadn’t been for Vicky, that day would have been far in the future.
“And?” Brian prodded.
“And I need help finding her.” Desperately, but she didn’t say that.
“Your family could almost rival the Duggar’s. I’m sure one of them can help you find her.”
“They can’t know about this!” she gushed out. “My parents would freak out, and they have my younger siblings to take care of. Ethan and Emma are expecting their first child, Ian and Paige are busy chasing their two boys, and Stefan and Isabelle just had a son.”
He was aware of that. They may not send Christmas cards or talk on a monthly basis, but Stefan had started calling him every once in a while after he’d helped Ian and Paige find Paige’s father. The conversations were often stilted and short, but Brian couldn’t deny he liked seeing Stefan’s name show up on his phone.
The friendship they’d once had was no more, and never would be again, but Stefan was the one who had known him best over the many years of his life. Fate had caused them to make different choices over the years, and they had gone their separate ways. Stefan was now married with two children, and he was still a mercenary who made his way through the world bringing death to those vampires deserving it.
He was glad Stefan had found so much happiness. He could never have that kind of happiness in his life and wouldn’t waste his time looking for it. Any hope he’d had of a happy life had ended on the day his family was slaughtered and he’d been turned into one of the undead.
Every once in a while, Ian also picked up the phone to say hi to him, and he’d even spoken with Ethan once, but the one he spoke with the most out of the Byrne family was Aiden. The two of them had seen each other often over the past couple of months while Aiden was in training to work with Ronan’s men. He liked the kid and would have helped more with his training, but he’d decided it was time for a vacation where no one could bother him. He’d been feeling burnt-out lately.
He should have known a Byrne would try to screw up his escape from it all.
“What about Aiden? Why can’t he help you?” he inquired.
Abby emitted a disgruntled sound. “I tried calling him, but ever since he went to the training facility, he hasn’t had his cell phone.”
“They take it away,” Brian said. “No outside distractions once you’re in the training compound.”
“I’m aware of that!” she shot back. “But when I tried calling to speak with him there, I was told, and I quote, ‘Aiden doesn’t have time for any ho’s.’ I didn’t even get a chance to tell the guy I was Aiden’s sister before he hung up on me.”
“Sounds like Lucien,” Brian said.
“Sounds like an asshole,” she retorted, and he couldn’t help but smile. “So, as you can see, I can’t get in touch with him and all of my other siblings have yet to hit maturity and are only kids.”
“So are you.”
“I’m twenty-one, and I reached full maturity last year,” she told him.
Abby paced to the other side of her dorm room and peered down on the dimly lit street as she tried to keep control of her swaying emotions. Just talking to him was causing her body to tense and her heartbeat to escalate. This could be the biggest mistake she’d ever made, but she had no other choice, and there was no going back now.
Watching the other students laugh as they strolled along the sidewalk in front of her dorm, she envied their lives of simplicity. As a born vampire, her life had never been simple; she’d had to learn at a young age to control her hunger if she were to fit in with the human world. When she’d finally gotten control of her vampire urges, she’d been allowed to go out amongst people, like her older siblings. She’d been enjoying attending school, going on dates, and having boyfriends until he had walked into her life six years ago.
Now, she’d managed to find a little peace and happiness here at college, and hated to think that she might not be returning to it. None of it would matter if she couldn’t find Vicky. She tried to shake the possibility away, but it caused tears to swim in her eyes.
“Believe me, you were not the one I would have picked to call for this,” she told him. “Ethan may not fully trust you, but some of my other siblings have started to, especially Aiden, and I’ve been told you can somehow find vampires and people who are missing or don’t wish to be found. I need you to find Vicky for me. Please.”
Her please caused his gut to clench. He rubbed at the bridge of his nose as he considered her words. “Why has she taken off?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t been able to find her or get in touch with her in five days, and I’ve looked everywhere and contacted everyone I can think of. We’ve never gone more than twelve hours without speaking to each other. She’d quit school and was seeing a new guy I hadn’t really met yet, but she’d never go somewhere without at least telling me where she was going. Something is not right. She’s my other half…” Her voice hitched. “I can’t lose her. I have to find her. I’ll do whatever it takes. I don’t have much money, but I will find a way to pay you whatever you ask.”
Brian glanced at the supplies in the back of his truck. He’d been really looking forward to one month alone in the mountains, hunting for his food.
On the other end, she sniffled. He was an asshole, he knew and freely admitted it, but that sniffle tugged at his heart.
“Oh hell,” he muttered. “Where are you?”
“You’ll help?”
The ecstatic sound of her voice had him kicking himself in the ass. At the same time, he couldn’t help but smile. This girl had no idea what she’d invited into her life by asking for his help, but for some reason, he simply couldn’t refuse her.
“If something goes wrong, it will be your fault when your brothers try to kill me,” he told her.
“They’ll never know you were involved, I promise,” she vowed.
“Tell me where you are.”
***
Brian drove down the dark streets of the campus toward the dorm building at the end of the road. The streetlights every hundred feet or so caused splashes of light to filter over the interior of the truck. It had only taken him two hours to arrive at Abby’s college in Boston, but since hanging up the phone with her, he’d felt a driving sense of urgency to get to her and make sure she was safe.
“You’re an idiot,” he muttered. “This may end up being the thing that finally gets you killed.”
Pulling over in front of the building Abby had told him she lived in, he put the truck in park and flung the door open. Lights blazed in most of the windows; he saw a few heads bent over desks as the students worked on whatever they were learning. Some girls were dancing and laughing together in one room, while in another, a couple was having sex against the glass pane.
The sight of the writhing bodies made the corner of his mouth quirk. It had been so long since he’d had sex, he barely recalled the feel of it, but he had to admit the couple made it look like fun. Maybe, when this was over, he’d find a woman before taking off into the mountains. He could endure the guilt for a little release; he had in the past.
As he continued to look around, the one thing he didn’t see was Abby. She’d told him she would be ready and waiting for him. Worry gnawed at his gut as he glanced over the building again. Striding up the walkway to the main door, he dialed Abby’s number.
“Where are you?” he demanded when she answered the phone.
Abby tried not to get irritated by his tone, he was helping her after all, but knowing he was so close had her completely on edge. “I’m finishing packing. My roommate… Never mind, I’ll be down in five.”
“What room are you in?”
“Men aren’t supposed to be in here,” she replied.
“That hasn’t stopped one of your neighbors.”
“Usually doesn’t,” she muttered.
“Besides, Ethan will try to break my neck for being here in the first place, so it doesn’t matter where I’m supposed to be. Room number?”
The sound of her teeth grating together came through the phone before she spat out, “Thirty-five.”
She hung up before he could reply. Opening the front door, he stepped into the well-lit hall and passingly took in the landscape paintings and old pictures of how the college had changed over the years.
It was all so foreign to him. Even when he’d been human, he’d been no scholar. Instead, he’d run through the streets of Boston, an urchin, trying to get by while his parents labored to make a living to support him and his four siblings.
There was an elevator to his right, but he opted for the stairs, taking them two at a time to the third floor. Laughter and music floated from the closed doors lining the hall as he walked toward Abby’s room. The persistent beat of the human’s hearts caused his fangs to tingle. He’d planned to feed on animals once he’d made it into the mountains, but those tempting pulses reminded him it had been two days since he’d last fed.
I could always have a little snack before going. He considered it as he eyed a long-legged brunette striding down the hall toward him. The smile she gave him, and the extra sway in her hips, told him he’d have no problem getting her to agree to let him in her room. He forced his gaze away from the vein pulsing in her neck and back to the room numbers.
Feeding could wait, first he had to locate Abby and get out of this place. He stopped outside door number thirty-five and knocked on it loudly. “Hold on,” a muffled voice replied from inside.
Brian folded his arms over his chest and tapped his foot as he impatiently waited for her to answer the door. Almost a minute later, the door opened. He somehow managed to keep his jaw from dropping as his heart gave an erratic kick in his chest at the sight of the woman standing before him. Her sweet face and brilliant aura were the only things he could see as he hungrily drank her in.
One thing was for sure, Abigail was no longer a child.