When the family woke, Declan pulled himself away from Willow to program them with new instructions for the day. She stirred when he did and once she realized the family was awake, she dressed before curling up on the floor again.
He retrieved a blanket and pillow from Cheryl and made her more comfortable before returning to the family and instructing them to remain at home for the day. It might seem odd to have them all staying inside, but he couldn’t take the chance of them going out and encountering a Savage.
If someone asked why they were inside, their cover story was a stomach bug and they weren’t feeling well. However, he did take the chance of trying to send Junior out of town with the instructions to find a phone and call Ronan if he made it.
Like Willow, he preferred not to put the family at further risk, but he would do anything to get her out of here. Knowing that Junior’s trip was most likely futile, Declan waited with Gus for the young man to return.
Junior returned fifteen minutes later with the news that a crowd was gathering at the town line, but the police weren’t letting anyone leave. When asked why they were keeping people here, Junior reported the police told him it was a national emergency, and that was all they would reveal.
Declan retreated to the kitchen with Gus and looked out the back window to discover people gathering near the woodline. They stood fifty feet apart from each other, and none of them spoke as they stared at the houses and waited for something to happen. Their eerie silence reminded him of the Stepford Wives, and he loathed every second of it.
He was sure there were people like them all over town. Declan didn’t know how the Savages chose the people they’d taken control of to be their eyes during the daytime. He was just grateful they hadn’t picked Gus and his family.
Each person also had a gun. If they were loaded with regular bullets, they wouldn’t kill him or Willow, but they would slow them down. However, they could have wooden bullets that would kill them.
Either way, they couldn’t take the chance of being shot and tracked by their blood. And if someone didn’t shoot them, each of the people also had a handheld radio to report their location if they saw something unusual. They were effectively trapped in this town.
Gus returned to the living room and turned on the TV. “I don’t see anything about a national emergency,” he muttered as he flipped through the channels.
And Declan knew he wouldn’t. Pulling a confused Gus away from the TV, Declan had the man show him around the house. He studied the basement and attic before deciding the attic would be a better place to hide if it became necessary.
After he finished going through the house, he emptied the trash in the bathroom, dumped the bag with Willow’s dirty clothes into the trashcan in the kitchen, and took it out to the containers in the garage. With the lid on the trashcan shut, he couldn’t detect the scent of her clothes beneath the aroma of the garbage.
When he returned to the room, he settled on the floor next to Willow and pulled her into his arms. Despite their dire situation, he smiled when she stirred and nestled closer to him before falling asleep again.
Declan hadn’t planned to fall asleep but he woke at the creak of the door and lifted his head when Gus stepped inside.
“You told me to wake you if something was happening,” Gus said.
“What is it?” he asked Gus as he reluctantly pulled away from Willow.
“The police are a few doors down,” Gus said. “It looks like they’re searching the houses.”
Those words were like a bucket of ice dumped over his head. Declan glanced around the small room with its sewing machines and stands with containers. Willow had remained the lookout in this room last night because it provided the best view of the street.
Shoving the blanket aside, he carefully extracted himself from her and stalked toward the window. He remained hidden from view as he gazed out at the police officer walking up the porch steps of a house five doors down. Another man was at his side.
“Fuck,” Declan muttered as he tugged at his hair. “Who is that with the officer?”
“Dwight. He owns the funeral home in town.”
Declan could only imagine what the Savage’s were planning for that funeral home, but he couldn’t dwell on it now. Striding away from the window, he retrieved his swords and the harness he’d placed beside the chair when he first settled into it last night.
He pulled them on and made sure they were secure before returning to Willow. Kneeling at her side, he rested a hand on her shoulder. When she stirred beneath his touch, her eyes fluttered open, and she blinked at him before a radiant smile lit her beautiful face.
That smile melted some of the ice encasing him, and he couldn’t stop himself from cupping her cheek as he bent to brush a kiss against her temple. Her surprise flowed over him a second before he felt her happiness.
Despite the threat breathing down their necks, the demon wasn’t tearing at his insides as it tried to tear free of the cage Declan constructed around it. For the first time in centuries, he could breathe normally, and a vise wasn’t trying to crush the life from him.
And it was all because of her. He’d found his mate, she’d brought him the peace he’d sought for centuries, and he would destroy anyone who tried to take her from him.
“They’re searching the homes,” he said.
The sleepy happiness faded from her eyes as she sat up so fast their heads nearly knocked together.
“Who?” she demanded.
“The police and some helpers. They’ll be here soon.”
“Is there somewhere we can hide?”
“Gus is going to take us to the attic. I found a spot for us to hide up there.”
Grasping Willow’s hand, he helped her to her feet and snatched up the blanket and pillow. He handed them to Gus. “Put these away.”
Gus nodded, and they followed him into the hallway, where he stopped outside a closet. He shoved the blanket and pillow inside before continuing down the hall to where a string hung from the ceiling. Grasping the string, Gus pulled down a set of stairs and unfolded them. The bottom of the stairs clicked against the wooden floor as Gus climbed into the shadows above.
Declan stepped back and gestured for Willow to follow before climbing up behind her. Though the attic was full of boxes marked fabrics, clothes, Christmas, and other assorted miscellaneous items, it was clean.
Only a little dust covered the containers and floor, and no cobwebs hung in the corners. They didn’t leave any sign of their passing as Declan led Willow past a neatly stacked row of children’s artwork containers and around to the back corner. Gus trailed them and didn’t say a word when Declan pushed aside boxes of baby clothes to remove the loose piece of plywood he discovered earlier.
“When were you up here?” Willow asked.
“While you were sleeping.”
A twinge of guilt tugged at her. She’d fallen asleep, and he was searching for a hiding spot to make sure they stayed safe. She should have stayed awake to help him, but she could barely move by the time Declan released her. For the first time in her life, she was sore after sex; it was a pleasant kind of sore, and she wouldn’t change anything, but she’d never encountered a man as insatiable as her mate.
She didn’t know what to make of that confirmation. Yes, she’d suspected it, but it was still a bit shocking. She was mated to Declan, a man she’d shared some of the most terrifying and intimate moments of her life with, and she barely knew anything about him.
Fortunately, if they made it out of this alive, she’d have an eternity to learn about him, and with as enigmatic as he was, it might take her that long. But that was something she’d worry about if they survived the next hour.
Declan pulled aside the plywood to reveal a hollow space between the beams. “Gus, go get the rest of your family. I have to speak to them.”