Page 7 of First Bite
Chapter Three
The fun and games between the three vamps ended as soon as I entered the clearing. Logan caught the football with one hand, tucked it under his arm, and nodded toward the other two.
“So now they can’t even have fun if I’m around?” I whispered to Braden.
“Heard that!” Zac called out playfully from over his shoulder. “We got some news you might wanna hear.”
“Logan, Zac, and I are going to meet with Lucas and a few vamps today. We think we may know where a group of Enzo’s army is,” Cole said. “Braden, you’re going to stay back with Elle. If anyone shows up, you’re the one to handle them.”
I stopped our walk to the front of the house. “What are you going to do if you find that group of Enzo’s vamps? Can you change them—bring them to your side or whatever?”
“No,” Logan answered. “This is a group we will have to wipe out. If they are where we think they are, the plan is to eradicate that nest. We’ll leave a trail since Enzo is likely to find out about this pretty quickly. It’s a good way to throw him off and keep his attention elsewhere.”
“We’re going to make him think we’ve relocated one of our homes in Montana. He’s never found that place,” Zac added.
I looked at the four vampires, all of their dull eyes staring back at me. “Not to insult any of you, but will you have the energy? You look like shit since you’ve been feeding on animals.”
“Don’t worry about that. We’ll get recharged when we meet up with Lucas’s coven,” Cole said in his shitty tone.
I planted both hands on my hips. “So you’re not going to let me help out again? Still don’t trust yourselves feeding on me?”
“Nope,” Cole shot back.
“This is ridiculous.” I pointed at Zac. “He handled it just fine. I’m so sick of you all being so damn untrusting of yourselves with me.”
“It’s not just that, Elle.” Logan’s lips twisted up, eyes darting to Cole and back to me. “You have to understand—”
“I don’t have to understand anything!” I snapped. “You all need to understand that this is the only way I can help. Did Zac and I take a chance? Yes, but it all worked out in the end.”
“Baby,” Zac walked toward me, “Things could have gotten pretty crazy if I wasn’t painfully aware of the fact that I needed to save you. It wasn’t exactly a typical circumstance.”
“Oh, whatever,” I answered.
Zac grinned, “We’ll drink from blood bags if that makes you feel better.”
“It actually does,” I said truthfully.
“Let’s get going,” Cole said to Zac and Logan. “Lucas and his coven are waiting on us.”
“Please be safe,” I said.
“We’ve got this, Ellie baby,” Zac winked, and all of them took off to the garage.
A thought hit me as Braden and I walked up the porch steps and into the house. “I never had a chance to apologize to Lucas for Val getting killed by those vamps in San Diego. I’m sure everyone in his coven is upset with me about that. I wish I could let them know how sorry I am for that.”
“Val made a grave mistake by taking you out of our protection. She was way too arrogant to take that risk, knowing the possible consequences.Wedidn’t even dare to do that, and she didn’t even have a fraction of our strength. Don’t worry about Lucas and the others, they agree. Val was an idiot to do what she did.”
“You can’t be so harsh about her dying, especially since I know you both had something together before I came along.”
Braden sighed as he opened the door for me, “Val and I never hadhistorylike you think. She was the only one I drank from, but there was zero attachment from my side. She was a means to an end for my consumption of blood. If she didn’t get killed by those collectors, I’d have killed her myself for putting you in harm’s way.”
“You can’t mean that,” I said as the front door opened and Cole, Logan, and Zac entered.
“What’s up?” Braden asked speculatively.
“Lucas just called with some history about Elle’s mom. Have a seat,” Zac nodded toward the sofa behind me.
“What’s going on? What did Lucas say?” I asked as I slowly sat down, terrified of what was going to come out of his mouth.
