Unbound (17 page)

* * *

At the home of Melinda Prince, the girl that’d been recovered earlier that day, Griffin and his father were attempting to gather as much information as possible, now that she was conscious and Doc Stevens had pronounced her to be on the mend. The girl couldn’t remember anything. The last thing she remembered was feeding and then everything was blank until she woke up at home surrounded by her parents and the doctor. His phone rang and he wasn’t surprised to be getting a call from Doc. He was surprised to hear what Doc had to tell him. It was the biggest lead so far, and his father was going to have to accept that the past was indeed repeating itself. A lot of old wounds would be reopened by this news. The Prince girl had been drugged by whoever she’d fed from after leaving the nightclub.  Doc treated another girl who was found in the club’s basement, beaten and unconscious. The two girls had the very same drug in their systems. The newest victim also ingested it during a feeding. Fortunately, for the patient he treated today, she was a very talented child with telekinetic and telepathic abilities. According to the boy that found her, she was able to call him telepathically for help.

“That’s incredible, but how did she get away? Did her rescuer see the assailant?” Griffin questioned. “We are going to need to visit this girl. If she was aware enough to call for help, she may have some useful information.”

“That is going to prove difficult. I went back to check on the girl and she was gone. Chase was caring for her and he did have some information he acquired from her, but not much. When she woke in a strange place, confused and frightened, she bolted. All Chase could tell me is her first name.”

“Do you mean Chase Deidrick?”

“Yes, sir. He found her in the basement of the club his father owns. He took her to his condo downtown. He had Cayden Paris call me while he was still in route. I arrived shortly after him. It was really very fast thinking of him to get her out of there quickly before anyone noticed a problem. I’m thankful he immediately called for help because all we have to connect these kidnappings is the drug I found in their blood. If I hadn’t seen the girl before she took off, we wouldn’t have a clear link. I have samples of the Davis boy’s tissues being analyzed, but that’ll take a little longer to process. There was no blood left and tissue analysis is more time consuming.” Doc explained.

“That doesn’t explain how she got away from her attacker. Did she tell Chase how she escaped?”

“He said she
showed
him how she got away,” Doc explained.

“I don’t understand.”

“I think you should speak to Chase about that. I’m sure I couldn’t explain it correctly. The girl is telekinetic so she slammed the attacker repeatedly against a metal door until he understood she wasn’t going to allow him to take her.” Doc relayed this information with a skeptical tone. He had never heard of another vampire with telepathic and telekinetic abilities and, judging by the silence on the other end of the phone, neither had Griffin.

“I believe you are correct. I’m going to visit the young Mr. Deidrick. Thank you for the information. I want you to call me as soon as you get results back on the Davis boy.” Griffin hung up and began to rub his temples. This would all need to be explained to his parents, and sooner
rather
than later. Playing watch-and-see was not going to fly this time around. He wasn’t able to do anything about it the last time this happened, but now he was a
Council
member. Now he would do anything to stop any other families from experiencing the pain his family had gone through when he was a kid. He followed his father home and took his parents into the study to present his case for aggressive action. Then he called Chase. Griffin needed to sit down with Chase and Cayden in order to glean every bit of information he could from the boy.

EIGHT~

Everyone was pretty pissed at Danielle for her disappearance from school, especially after her mom called and they realized she was completely off the grid. No one had a clue where she was, and she was sure they wouldn’t really want to know what she’d been doing if she decided to tell them. Olivia tackled her when she entered the dorm on Monday afternoon. She was just about to start making “have you seen this girl?” posters and stapling them all over town. After her jubilant reception, Olivia wanted answers that Dani wasn’t about to give. So Olivia was mad for a couple days, but she was coming around now. She only missed one day of school, so catching up wasn’t too difficult. Dealing with the injuries still plaguing her body was another thing entirely. It had been tricky hiding the bruises from Olivia. Learning to move around slowly to avoid wincing in pain from her cracked ribs had Olivia watching her like a hawk.

She spoke to her mother without giving much detail and promised to drive back home on Friday. She would be interested to hear what happened the other day, not that Dani thought she would be surprised. Dani went all black-eyed freak and her mom didn’t react at all. She couldn’t wait for the reaction to the news that she is also a blood-sucking freak. That’s right, a black eyed, red and white striped, bloodsucking freak. Isn’t that what all parents dream their children will grow up to be? Tessa had someone coming to help explain her heritage to her. Dani thought
heritage
was a ridiculous understatement. She had learned the hard way that she was half a damn vampire. What other explanation could there be? Her mom also mentioned having spoken to Lucas a couple of times since he woke up on the kitchen floor. He told Tessa he was going to wait to hear from her because he knew he made mistakes, and if she needed time to get over it, he was willing to wait. Tessa made sure not to mention Dani was coming home this weekend.

So much had happened since her first taste that, to be honest, Lucas was the least of her worries. The first, and most obvious, thing she noticed was her hair. Several of the white steaks in the front of her head now had thin red highlights running through them and she actually liked it. It had also been a source of constant jabs from her friends in the past few days. Charlie had chosen to believe her absence was due to her attending a Goth spa to get her hair tricked out. Of course, Charlie knew she left because of boy drama, but he was too much of a gentleman to tell.

Dani had all these new nifty abilities, like being able to turn the lights on and off without getting out of bed, and picking things up from the other side of the room and floating them around. The first time it happened had scared the shit out of her. She was thinking to herself that it sure would be nice if her laptop would come to her since she was so comfy in bed. Imagine her surprise when it lifted from the desk, drifted across the room and landed on her lap. Neat trick when you leave your cell at your desk and you’re too lazy to get up when it rings. Yesterday she was studying on her bed when Charlie knocked on the door. She knew who it was by his distinct smell. Charlie smelled like mint and rain, not something intangible, like happiness, as if happiness had a smell. She willed the door to open and the look on his face when he entered and found no one behind the door was hysterical, but he didn’t ask who had opened it. Her sense of smell and sight were off the charts. She could tell you what the specials of the day at the cafeteria were from a block away, or who had illicit drugs in their room when she walked down the hall.

The most difficult part so far was trying to learn to control her telepathic senses. She didn’t like unintentionally eavesdropping on the thoughts of others. It’s just rude. Plus, the fact that she didn’t normally hear words but actually caught pictures made it even more intimate and embarrassing. When you’re trying to concentrate on your professor and the professor is imagining the things she’d like to do to the cute guy in the front row, it could really put a nasty spin on your day. Twice while drifting off to sleep she’d been thinking about Chase, and somehow she breached the distance between them and he heard her there. He tried to talk to her and apologize both times, but Dani quickly retreated. The belief in her ability to do all of these things was enough to get a girl committed. Maybe she should be committed. Surely, this wasn’t normal, but as she had seen at Chase’s place, she wasn’t the only black-eyed freak in town.

Charlie and Dani were getting very close. They studied, ate dinner, and hung out together every day. Not that Dani was ready for a relationship but if she were, Charlie would be the kind of guy she wanted. He was good looking, smart, and was not engaged or dating anyone. She knew Charlie was aware that there was something strange about her but he didn’t seem to care. He pretended as if he didn’t notice when she accidentally commented on his thoughts or opened the door without getting up. 

It was Thursday and the gang would be going to the club. Of course, they wanted her to go, but the club didn’t really bring back happy memories for her anymore. Charlie agreed to stay behind with her, but she knew he really wanted to go. After giving it some thought, she decided that she wasn’t going to let her fear or the possible presence of Chase stop her from living. She had four long years to live in this town, and she wouldn’t spend it cowering in her room. So when Charlie showed up to study and she answered the door in a shimmering black mini dress she’d borrowed from Lindsay, a black belt that accentuated her small waist and a pair of black strappy heels, Charlie was surprised to say the least. He took a long slow stroll around her, checking out everything from the loose up-do of her hair to the red polish on her toenails. She meant to be sexy tonight and it seemed to have worked. She didn’t at all mind standing there while Charlie looked her over and gathered his thoughts.

“Is this the new study hall dress code? If so I’m going to need a change.” His smile was blinding.

“I had a different subject in mind tonight. I thought maybe you’d want to study chemistry.” She tilted her head, clearly flirting. “Do you like my chemistry experiment?”

Charlie reached out and ran his fingers down her arm, “I’m definitely experiencing a chemical reaction. I think your experiment is a success.”

“Would you like to take me out tonight? We could continue the experiment if you don’t mind being my test subject.” Dani offered him a sly smile. Charlie took her hand and began to drag her out the door. “Where are we going?” she laughed.

“I need to change and I’m not letting you out of my sight. You’ll disappear in a hurry looking like that,” he chuckled. With a huge grin, he led her across the courtyard to his dorm. Neither of them missed the stares and comments of every guy they passed.

“See what I mean? I’m going to have to stay very close to you all night… for your safety of course.”

“Well, thank you for agreeing to be my bodyguard on such short notice.” Dani’s eyes were full of fake innocence. She sat on his bed while his roommate, Steve, eyed her. Charlie went to take a quick shower and change in the bathroom. Before he walked away, he shot Steve a look that clearly said, “Don’t even think about it.”

Just out of curiosity and for practice, Dani decided to see if she could catch what was running through Steve’s mind. He sat with his back to her at the computer. She focused on words only, not wanting to see anything graphic and she was shocked at what she heard. It was something along the lines of, “Don’t even look at her. Charlie has been in love with her since that first night at the club. He will kill you, so don’t look at her no matter how badly you want to.”

No way, Charlie didn’t love her. But, she had known something was there if she were to be absolutely honest with herself. Maybe this was what she needed. Someone normal to date that was close. Maybe it was a bad idea given the fact that she and Lucas had just broken up. And, she couldn’t stop thinking about Chase, who by the way was also a vampire along with his best friend and his fiancée. The funny thing was they knew she was one of them all along and she’d had no idea. Now that they were on a level playing field, everything would be much less confusing. Dani was sure she would have a huge reality check during her upcoming visit with her mom, but for tonight, she just wanted to have a good time and relax.

Charlie stepped out of the bathroom looking every bit the honey. His shaggy blond hair now neatly slicked back. He was wearing black slacks and a dark gray button down. When the bathroom door opened his wonderful mint aroma poured out with the steam. This was exactly what she needed. This kind of distraction would do nicely.

“Well, shit! Now I am going to have to guard my bodyguard. I must remember to send a thank you letter to my high school chemistry teacher.” Steve had spun around in his chair just in time to see Dani walk over to Charlie, who was sitting to put his shoes on. She lifted his chin gently with two fingers and placed a sweet little kiss on his lower lip. The moment was shattered when Steve fell off his chair and papers went flying.

“I’m gonna wait for you in the lobby. I have to make a call before we head out,” she told Charlie with her lips still very close to his.

His only response was, “Uh-huh.”

She giggled and left the room. She had gone about ten feet down the hall when Charlie and Steve erupted into a chorus of hoots that startled people walking by their room.

In the car on the way to the club, Charlie put his hand on Dani’s leg and then looked at her to see if it was ok. She smiled and placed her hand over his in a gesture of acceptance. Olivia and Lindsay looked at each other in the back seat, each trying to see if the other had any idea what was going on. At the club, Dani decided to use her vampire all access pass. She led her group to the front of the line where Vince snapped to attention at first sight of her.