"He"d come back for me!" I protested stubbornly.
"I don"t doubt that for a second. But he"s also immortal; we all are. We won"t be able to do what we need to do to get him out if we have to worry about keeping you alive, blueberry."
I stayed quiet. There wasn"t much I could say to that because it was true.
"We will bring him home. I promise."
"You better! Because if you don"t, I"ll have your b.a.l.l.s mounted to the living room wall, and if they grow back I will repeat the process every day until he"s back home where he belongs! Do you understand?"
All the brothers shifted their hands to cover their crotch and nodded their heads.
"Yeah blueberry, we understand."
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
TOBIAS.
I haven"t seen Willow in days, or Alexander for that matter. He came in once a few nights ago completely p.i.s.sed off and took it out on me. I don"t know what got his panties in such a twist, but whoever it was that p.i.s.sed him off was most likely dead by now; I just hoped it wasn"t Willow.
My body was taking longer to heal than it usually would because I still haven"t fed on anyone. It was hard to hold my head up or even function at all and the burn marks left across my body from a branding iron still felt fresh.
I know for a fact I have a few broken ribs from the other night because I can see them poking right out of my skin and it hurts to breathe. I"m almost certain a lung has been punctured as well. It wouldn"t kill me but it sure as h.e.l.l hurt like a b.i.t.c.h!
I still haven"t slept yet; even though Alexander"s not around they still try to drown me whenever I pa.s.s out. I heard a scrubbing noise coming from the corner of the room. I lifted my head a bit to try and see what was going on and I couldn"t believe my eyes. Micky was on his hands and knees scrubbing the floor.
"Micky? Hey, is that you?"
My voice sounded like I had swallowed sandpaper, and my throat felt like it too. There was something odd about Micky, but I couldn"t quite place it.
"What are you doing here?"
"I don"t know how many times I have to tell you Tobias. If you"re going to fight in my bar please take it outside!"
"Your bar? We aren"t at your bar."
"You know how hard it is to scrub blood out of the wood! Keep this up and you will be buying me new floors."
What the h.e.l.l was he talking about? The floors are made of cement and this place is nothing like the bar.
"Hey! Danny boy, take your brother and the ball outside before you two end up breaking something!"
I looked over to the direction Micky was yelling in, but I didn"t see anyone there. What the f.u.c.k was going on; Danny boy? That"s impossible. Daniel and Jonathan both died over seas.
"This isn"t real." I whispered to myself.
It couldn"t be real; I was seeing ghosts of the past. Images and memories had to be coming back to haunt me. Micky looked at least twenty years younger than he did the last time I saw him.
I squeezed my eyes shut to try and make it go away; when I opened them Micky was gone and the room was empty again. I was seriously losing it.
"Don"t fall asleep Uncle T! We"ve been given strict orders to make sure you stay awake and Jonny and I would really hate to have to hurt you."
I know that voice, but it wasn"t possible. This had to be another hallucination. I closed my eyes again and took a slow painful breath, trying to make it stop. As soon as my eyes closed though, I felt the towel put over my face and the jugs of ice water started flowing.
I coughed and gasped for air between jugs, but it was practically impossible. My lungs burned with each breath and my entire body was racked with pain. When the towel was removed, I looked up into the face of a ghost.
"I told you we didn"t want to do that."
"You"re dead!"
"Minor technicality."
I studied his face for a minute then shook my head. It wasn"t possible; if they were alive they would have come home to see their dad.
"I"m going crazy."
"I used to think the same thing when I realized that you didn"t age. At first I thought that maybe you just aged really well, but then I saw a picture of you and my dad when he was my age. No one ages that well!" Jonathan said, as he came and stood next to his brother with his arms across his chest.
"You"re dead." I repeated.
"We were. Or at least we were going to be, until Alexander and his sister found us."
"They didn"t just save our lives; they changed us, made us greater than we ever were." Jonathan added.
"I don"t understand."
"It"s simple, really. We were going to die and they found us, and then brought us to a place a lot like this one. At first, we were terrified and wished we had died instead." Daniel explained.
"Yeah, the injections hurt like a son of a b.i.t.c.h!"
"But, they made us stronger, faster, and immortal."
I watched them closely. Something wasn"t quite right with them. I could usually tell when someone was a vampire, or a werewolf, but I couldn"t quite place what they were. It was weird.
"You don"t know them." I said.
"We know them better than we ever knew you. They haven"t lied to us about who or what they are. They don"t walk around pretending to be normal."
Daniel nodded his head in agreement with his brother before checking a text that came through on his phone and leaving the room. Jonathan didn"t seem too worried about it.
"They destroyed you two."
"No, they freed us, made us better."
"You don"t believe that, Jonathan. If you did you wouldn"t have let your father believe you were dead all this time. They changed you so much that you"re so ashamed of what you"ve become that you would rather let your father suffer alone than let him see you like this."
"You don"t know what you"re talking about!" he snapped, but I could see the truth in his eyes.
"I know better than anyone, how do you think I got like this? They did this to me. For three hundred years I"ve suffered this curse. There is no freedom with this, and I think you know that."
I could see the emotions playing on Jonathan"s face, the uncertainty he had about their situation.
"No, Alexander said-"
"Alexander is a liar!"
Both Jonathan and I jumped. Tristan came into the room, followed by Colton, Jasper, Jeremy and Daniel.
"Let him go!" Jonathan snapped at the sight of Daniel being held by Jasper and Jeremy.
"Easy tiger, I"m a little trigger happy today." Colton said with a smirk and a fire ball in hand.
"Let him go!" I echoed.
All of them looked at me. If this was really happening, and not just a really f.u.c.ked up illusion, there was no way I could let my brothers kill Micky"s boys. He already lost them once and I wasn"t going to let it happen again.
"He"s one of them." Colton shot back.
"No, he"s one of us and we protect our own."
They all watched me carefully before Jeremy and Jasper let him go. Jonathan rushed over to catch Daniel before he fell to the ground. Someone kicked his a.s.s pretty good, and I"m sure he deserved it, but at least he was still alive.
"Don"t tell me you became b.u.m buddies with some of Alexander"s boys so you could try to escape." Tristan said while eyeing me curiously.
"They are Micky"s boys."
All my brothers looked at me like I was on drugs.
"Micky"s boys died overseas."
"No, we didn"t. Alexander and Calliope took us right as the explosion happened. If they weren"t there we would have died."
"And what are the chances of them just happening to be there, for these two none the less." Jasper asked.
"It wasn"t by chance." Colton whispered.
"You"re right. It wasn"t. They were targeted and I wouldn"t be surprised if Alexander was the one who caused the explosion in the first place."
Tristan was right. I wouldn"t be surprised if Alexander caused the explosion either. I wanted to give my two cents, but instead of words coming out it was garbled mess.
Everyone looked at me as I began coughing and choking on my own blood. The room was spinning and I wanted nothing more than to pa.s.s out.
"Let"s get him home." Tristan said, then started pulling on the chains that held me to the floor.
"He"s not going anywhere. Alexander gave us direct orders."
"f.u.c.k Alexander and his orders!" Jonathan said to his brother.
The two of them stared each other down, and then Daniel sighed and raked his hand through his hair.
"This is a really bad idea." He said, then came over with the keys and unlocked my restraints.
I was amazed at how good it felt to not be shackled down. Tristan and Jasper hauled me to my feet and followed Daniel out the door.
"You need to find Willow."
"You mean the hot blue haired girl that Alexander"s been obsessed with?" Jonathan asked.
"She"s been missing for days." Daniel added.
"Blueberry is at home; don"t worry she"s safe. We grabbed her a few days ago."
"And you left me behind? a.s.shole!"
"Don"t worry; we already had our a.s.ses reamed about that. You"re little spitfire told Tristan if he didn"t come back to get you he might as well not come home or his manhood would be nailed to the wall." Jasper said with a grin on his face.
It took a minute to register what they were saying. Willow was safe, and she was home, but most importantly she didn"t hate me. I should have been the one who saved her. I"ll never forgive myself for that, but I could never repay my brothers either.
"You"re getting fat brother." Tobias grunted as he dragged me down the hallway.
"f.u.c.k that, I"m s.e.xy. You"re just weak!"
Jasper laughed, which made me grin even though it hurt. Tristan just rolled his eyes and the two of them continued down the hall.
"I doubt they are just going to let us walk out of here. Easy part"s over, boys." Daniel said, then kicked open the doors.
He was right; the easy part was definitely over. As soon as the doors were open we were face to face with a few dozen men, but Alexander was still nowhere in sight. Something wasn"t right.
"Let"s get this party started." Colton said in a way too happy tone, as his eyes came to life and fireb.a.l.l.s appeared in his hands.
He has definitely come a long way since he left with Jeremy; maybe now he will stick around and try to get life back to normal. The men who were waiting for us aimed their guns as if that was going to stop a group of immortals.
Shots were fired and I was dropped to the ground. I gritted my teeth and groaned at the pain of my already broken ribs cracking again. My body was trying to heal itself, but I hadn"t fed in far too long.
I couldn"t see what was going on, but by the sound of screams in the air and rapid firing, it seemed there was a one sided war going on. Alexander didn"t even give his poor minions a fighting chance against us. I guess he was counting on Daniel and Jonathan to even the playing field.
"Where is Alexander!?" Jasper roared.
I looked up to see him holding one of the minions by the throat. As far as I could tell the other men were dead, but they put up a pretty good fight. All my brothers were bleeding and looked like they were used for target practice.
"Where is he!" Jasper demanded again.
"I don"t know." The minion cried.