Unforgiven (The Forbidden Bond 2) (15 page)

It had gone a long way to calming him when Tessa made the decision to pull back from her make out session with Doc. She seemed to have been sleeping        when suddenly it seemed as if she were frightened. Maybe even terrified. It was probably just a bad dream but until either the feeling subsided, or he spoke to Tessa or Doc, he wasn’t going to be able to relax. He felt as if his heart was pounding in his chest but it wasn’t. Physically he was calm and steady, but mentally he felt on edge. Understanding that the emotions were Tessa’s and not his own helped him to deal with the onslaught.

An odd noise, like a whimper, distracted him from his search. The house was quiet. It was the middle of the night and everyone had gone to bed hours ago. Griffin paused to listen more closely. Something hit the floor in the room above his study. JR had been having bad dreams since the night of his sister’s abduction. Unfortunately, the boy had been standing in the entryway when Greyson had carried Brandi’s lifeless body in the house. The dreams were coming less frequently with the passage of time, but it hurt Griffin’s heart that his boy had witnessed something that had affected him so deeply. He left his study and swiftly climbed the stairs to comfort his son.

JR’s bedroom door was slightly ajar and it was unusually dark when Griffin peekedinto the room. Normally JR slept with his bathroom light on and the door cracked. Griffin pushed the door open and crossed the room to flip on the bathroom light. He nearly tripped over a miniature race track in his path. Before was able to straighten from his stumble Griffin was tackled to the ground. Griffin struggled against several pairs of restraining arms. All Griffin could think of was his son. They were here for his son and he couldn’t let them harm another one of his babies. JR was literally just a child at eleven years old. He wasn’t old enough to show any signs of extra-sensory power.

He had just enough time pull on his telekinetic strength for a single volley of objects in the room to pummel him and his attackers before one of them jabbed him in the side with a syringe. The world spun away from him and Griffin knew he had lost. He was powerless to lift his head within five seconds. His power was completely out of his reach. He now understood the feeling of helplessness two of his daughters had felt when they had come for them. Now they would take his little boy. JR hadn’t stirred or made a noise during the fight, so Griffin knew he had already been drugged before he entered the room.

“Two for one deal tonight, boys. Looks like there will be more money to slip than we originally estimated. Congrats,” a gravelly voice whispered.

“Now let’s get out of here before anyone comes to check on the kid. Dad here made quite a bit of noise.”

“I think we should leave Mr. Vaughn. We weren’t told to bring him.” This voice was vaguely familiar to Griffin even through the fog of his retreating consciousness.

“Shut up and do as you’re told. Do you want to spend the rest of your life sitting in a gatehouse? Do you enjoy being on rotation at the homes of our esteemed Council members? Because that’s all you’re ever going to do in this backward society. Now grab his feet and get moving. The Master is going to pay us well for the extra work.”

****

The guard house was empty. Just as she knew it would be. Tessa drove straight through the gates that had been left open. She had never been to the Vaughn estate before but her dream had told her right where to go. The premonition had been heart wrenching. She had to get to JR as fast as her human legs would carry her. The cost to her for this mission of mercy would be huge, but she couldn’t let the boy die.

Thinking of her brave daughter and all of the lives Danielle had saved with her selfless acts helped to steel Tessa’s spine. Tessa jumped the curb and drove across the manicured lawn that was surrounded by a circular driveway. The element of surprise would be her only ally tonight. Tessa drove her car to the left of the large stairway that led to huge red double doors she knew would put her right where she needed to be. Tessa grabbed the gun Mason had given her all those years ago and the lifesaving items she had stolen from Reilly’s clinic on the way out the door. With any luck the alarms she triggered when she exited the clinic had Reilly right on her heels. His skills would be sorely needed.

Tessa turned the knob the intruders had left unlocked for an easy escape and drifted into the shadows. The windows above the doors shone on a set of marble staircases. Damn, the place was beautiful. An enormous crystal chandelier hung above the entryway, casting little rainbows of light over the walls and the landing that branched off in two directions at the top of the stairs. An antique looking mirror that was as tall as Tessa took up residence on the wall between the twin stair cases and opposite the front doors. Tessa moved quickly to stand against the wall next to the mirror. They wouldn’t see her until it was too late. She removed a syringe from her pilfered black doctor’s bag and tucked into her shirt pocket. With a pistol in hand she waited for the players to move into position. Tessa’s heart pounded so loudly she was surprised it hadn’t given her away yet. When a group of men made their way down the stairs to her right, she held her breath. It was playing out just as she had expected. She said a silent prayer that the shooting lessons she had taking when Danielle was an infant would come back to her in a hurry.

The men reached the bottom of the stairs and Tessa took aim. Without warning she put a bullet through the thigh of the man that was carrying JR. The man fell to his knees while the cacophony of gunfire echoed off the walls and ceiling. She only wanted to disable the men, not kill them, but a leg shot was too dangerous to take on the man holding Griffin by the shoulders. With Griffin’s body hanging between the two men trying to balance the weight of his long body, she risked hitting him if the bullet when straight through the bad guy’s leg. So she raised her aim and hit the guy in the shoulder, causing him to drop Griffin to the floor. The guy at Griffin’s feet released him and ducked into the hall at the right of the entryway. Tessa knew he would get away so she didn’t give chase.

Right on cue the lights blinked on in the entryway and there she stood when Sarah came to the landing at the top of the stairs. Tessa had a gun in one hand and a syringe in the other. Two of the house guards were bleeding from wounds she had inflicted and Griffin and JR were both out cold. Shit. Tessa had to admit it had to look pretty bad from Sarah’s point of view.

“You bitch! What have you done?” Sarah screeched at her.

Three things happened simultaneously in the next few seconds. Tessa had to get to JR, so she ran for him. Guards began to pour in from a hallway that led back into the center of the house and Reilly busted through the front door. Right on time. Tessa was still running and Sarah was screaming that Tessa had killed Griffin and JR. Tessa leapt the distance between her and JR to jab the needle into his leg. He didn’t move but she could her him wheezing when the guards tackled her to the ground.

“She stabbed my baby! Oh God, save my baby! Did you see her stab my baby? There’s a needle hanging out of his leg! Oh God! There’s a needle hanging out of his leg! Doc, help my baby!” Sarah was wailing but she didn’t move to descend the stairs.

The men she had shot were members of the warrior class on duty at the Vaughn estate. So when they agreed with Sarah and stated they were shot in an effort to save the Vaughn men, they were believed.

Reilly was struggling against several warriors that had been restraining him until Sarah ordered him to help the boy. Tessa was being roughly held to the ground with her arms behind her back in an awkward position and what she believed to be a boot on the back of her neck when Reilly knelt in front of her to reach JR. He pulled the needle from the boy’sleg and rolled him over to get a look at his face. The boy’s eyes were swollen nearly shut and his lips were twice their normal size. A shuttering hissing sound came from his throat. Tessa tried to speak with what little air she had in her lungs due to the pressure being applied to her back. 

“Allergic. He’s allergic,” she whimpered. Reilly looked down at the needle.

“It’s an epi-pen. I think Tessa was trying to save your son’s life, Sarah. His airway is still closed. I need a knife. I’ll have to perform an emergency tracheotomy to reestablish an airway.” The guards all pulled their knives.

Sarah flew down the stairs, “Why? What’s wrong? Is he still breathing?”

“Reilly! Bag! Black bag!” Tessa got out just before he cut the boys throat open. Reilly scanned the hall and found the bag. When he came back the light in his eyes was breathtaking.

“Tessa, you are a genius and a savior,”Reilly praised.

Tessa had taken the time to grab an extra epi-pen and the smallest intubation kit she could find in the clinic supply closet. Reilly began the work of feeding the tube gently down JR’s throat after tilting his head all the way back to open the airway as much as possible. Reilly had the tubes inserted and the bag attached faster than Tessa would have thought possible. He squeezed the bag at regular intervals to provide the much needed oxygen to JR’s young body. Sarah knelt by his side weeping over her son. 

She relaxed against the floor and let the rest of the evening play itself out. Tessa had done what she had come to do. Even if the men had gotten away with the abduction, JR wouldn’t have made it past the gates. The boy was allergic to something in the drug he had been injected with. Anaphylactic shock had a tight grip on him by the time they made it the bottom of the stairs.

“She shot me when I caught her with the boy. She’s no savior. She’s a human piece of trash out to kidnap another one of our children,” the guy with the hole in his thigh shouted. The other guy had passed out without putting in his two cents.

“I want her arrested. Take her strait to the Council chamber. I want this bitch executed by sunrise. Call the available Council members now,” Sarah hissed at the warrior that seemed to be in charge.

Reilly’s back stiffened, “Sarah, you have no authority to make such demands and you know it.” He turned to the warrior who was in charge.

“How much sense does it make that she shot one man in the back of the leg and the other in the back of his shoulder if they were coming at her? Trying to capture her would be very difficult while running away.” This seemed to give the warrior just enough plausible doubt to make him pause.

“We will detain her at the Enclave until Mr. Vaughn is able to shed further light on this mess. I have a feeling his statement is going to make all the difference.” The warrior commanded that she be loaded in a van and cuffed to the floor. Reilly was still working on JR but shouted to her.

“You did good, honey.” That was all there was time for before she was hauled bodily out of the wide red double doors and stuffed into the back of a van. To her surprise, Brandi climbed in after her.

“What are you doing?” Tessa asked. “You should be with your family.”

“You are my family. You are my sister’s mother. I’m going to stay with you as long as I can. JR is in Doc’s capable hands and my dad will be fine when he wakes up. That could take anywhere from hours to days depending on the dose he received. You, on the other hand are in the custody of people who are unsure of your guilt and some who hold a grudge against your daughter. I’m just going to ride along and keep an eye on things.”

****

“No way, man. No way in hell are we getting in there,” Nate said from behind Derek.

He had been losing his mind since the news came into The Nest the night before. A three man team had been sent to apprehend the youngest of the House of Vaughn. The intention had been to trade the kid for Danielle. Somehow these idiots had bungled the job by trying to walk out with Griffin Vaughn as well. Only one of the warrior traitors had returned from the mission and he hadn’t lived long after he gave the Master his report of the events that had led to the capture of two other men. The Master had executed him painfully and publicly for deviating from the mission plan given to him.

Derek knew that Brandi had been home at the time of the debacle because he had followed her from a martial arts studio she had been attending regularly until she disappeared up the driveway to her family’s palatial home. According to the rogue warrior, several shots had been fired. Other sources at the Enclave reported that six people were transported to the Enclave. Two of the males were identified as Griffin and Griffin Vaughn Jr. aka JR. The two other males were the injured rogue warriors and two females were identified as Brandi Vaughn and another unknown human woman. Brandi had returned home but that didn’t mean shit. They had operated on her in the damn kitchen and toted her off to her bed once before. They could have simply taken her home to die. Derek needed to see with own eyes that she was in one piece.

“No way man,” Nate repeated. “They have this joint locked down. I’ve seen at least one man on the roof and several others circling the house.”

“You don’t have to go, Nate. I’m going in with or without you.”

Derek checked his weapon and tucked a shot of Hypno in his belt, just in case. He would always disable a man before he killed him if given the choice. As if on cue, the man on watch at the rear entrance, used for deliveries and as an employee entrance, left his post to take a little stroll. Derek left the tree line he and Nate had been hiding in without warning and strode across the lawn like he belonged there.  Nate was left to catch up.

“You could have told me one of our guys was letting us in,” Nate hissed when they made it inside undetected.

“It was too much fun watching you sweat,” Derek whispered back.

The two men moved quietly through the house, unhampered by anyone. The house was silent. Derek began to wonder if the reports from his contacts had been incorrect. Maybe Brandi was still at the Enclave. Maybe she had been injured. Getting into the Enclave to check on her would be much more difficult than a trip to the Vaughn Estate.

He reach for the door knob he was told led to Brandi’s bedroom and was surprised when Nate slammed into his back and the door opened, allowing him to fall face first on the floor with Nate on his back.