Chapter 11
Allister
This was such bullshit. How could she do this to us? It wasn't like we didn't have enough to worry about with the hunters chasing us and Marcus’s capture. Why not go undercover into the only place more dangerous than being on the run? Yeah, that was a great idea. Good job, Piper.
"Man, can you like cool it for five minutes?" Rayne rubbed his temples, his elbows on his knees as he squeezed his eyes closed. "You are giving me a serious migraine."
"Then stop listening." I pushed off the windowsill of the hotel room Darren had rented for him and Piper. We'd arrived shortly after Gretchen told us where Piper had gone with Darren. The fact that it was in Atlanta had been dumb luck. Any farther, and we would have been in trouble.
Rayne opened his eyes and glared up at me. "I can't help it when you project so damn loudly."
"Well, I'm a little stressed. What do you expect?" My voice rose an octave, pulling the attention of my brother who was busy going over the map of the manor Piper had gone into. He arched his brow at me, but I ignored him, choosing to direct my anger and frustration at Rayne.
Rayne stood up and shoved a finger at my chest. "We're all stressed. It's not just you." He gestured wildly toward the butler. "Darren over there is this close to a heart attack because he's stressing so much about Piper—
who he let go on this asinine mission by herself." He gave the butler a pointed look before going to Wynn. "Wynn might look like he's all calm lounging on the bed like the world’s laziest ass vampire, but right now he's going over every single thing he’s said and heard from Piper during his visit, wondering if he missed something. Something that could have kept her from going."
Wynn shifted uncomfortably on the bed but didn't protest.
"And your brother..." Rayne swiveled his finger over to Drake and laughed mockingly. "Your brother is so freaked out, the only thing he can think about is pulling the heads off of every single vampire hunter who dared to look in Piper's direction. Like little flies." He made a deranged face as he pretended to pull the wings off of flies. When he was finished making fun of my brother, who looked two seconds away from pulling Rayne's head off, he turned to Antoine. However, before he could get a word out, Antoine must have thought something at Rayne because he snapped his mouth shut and twisted back around to me.
"You are not the only one worried about Piper. You're not the only one who loves her. So don't think that you can go off halfcocked on your own. This won't work unless we're all in it together."
I went to argue, but once again Antoine interrupted.
"Allister, Rayne's right." Our head of house stared down at the map of the manor on the tablet, not looking in my direction. "Piper went in there with a plan, and we need to make sure she can complete it without her getting killed in the process."
I swallowed my words and nodded stiffly.
Drake gave me a look, asking in his twin way if I was alright. I nodded again, less tight, and settled at the table they were at. The blueprints of the manor weren't easy to find. The vampire hunters really didn't want anyone to know where they lived or what was in it. We had to pull every connection we had to find these and then some. We were racking up debts with Morpheus, ones that none of us wanted to pay.
"So, have you heard from Piper at all?" Drake asked Darren, who shook his head sadly.
"No, but she's only been in for a couple of days. We didn't plan to meet up again until tomorrow," Darren answered in a monotone voice, as if he couldn't stand to put any emotion behind his tone without breaking. I'd never seen the serious butler so distraught before. It made this all the worse.
"That means nothing." I sighed, leaning forward on my hand, my elbow on the table. "She could be fine, or she could have already been killed."
"No." The confidence in Antoine's voice made me feel slightly better, but only slightly. "If she were, I'd know it." His pale eyes focused hard on the tablet before him, his jaw tightening, the only sign that he was feeling anything.
"Well, then that means something at least." Drake snorted and scrubbed a hand over his jaw. "She's not dead, but that doesn't mean they don't have her already. They could be waiting to use her to get the rest of us. They currently have Marcus, it's only a matter of time before they get the rest of us."
I clamped my hand down on Drake's shoulder. He snapped his mouth shut and glanced over at me, real fear in his eyes. "It's going to be okay. We'll get through this. We've been through worse."
Drake drew in a deep breath, more for the calming effects than the actual need to breathe, and set his hand on mine, giving it a tight squeeze. "You're right. You're right. We can do this. We just have to figure out a way to communicate with her. Then maybe we can work out a plan to get Marcus and her out of there."
"Does she even know Marcus is in there?" Rayne inquired behind me. "I mean, we can't plan anything until we know the whole situation. Suppose she doesn't know he's in there. She won't know to help him and then it could be too late. Or suppose she does know." He paced back and forth, running his fingers through the long strands on top of his head. "Would she come back here to consult with you before making a plan to break him out herself?" Rayne gave a hopeful look to Darren before scoffing a laugh. "What am I saying? Of course she wouldn't."
We all laughed slightly at that.
Smiling down at the table, I commented, "Piper does whatever the fuck she wants, without asking permission."
"A fault and a blessing it seems."
All of our heads jerked up to see Marcus in the doorway of the hotel room.
"Holy shit, man!" Drake jumped out of his seat and barreled up to Marcus, grabbing him in a tight embrace without asking before Marcus rolled his eyes and pushed him away.
I walked up to him and shook his hand, nodding in camaraderie. "You don't look bad for a dead guy."