Thanks to Rose Thorn for the banner.
Maximilian’s POV
“Maxi!” Kevin is yelling and I open my eyes.
I sit up and find myself in his bedroom on the bed. I look around and groan as my hand flies to my chest. It’s so fucking sore and I have a horrible headache. Oh my god! Justin! Where is Justin? I get up quickly and out to the hall.
“No!” Susan yells pushing me back inside.
“What’s going on?” I ask her.
“Hide!” she yells at me and closes the door.
I take two steps back from it. The door rattles and I hear her screaming.
“Susan?” I ask not sure what just happened.
I back away when I see the knob starting to turn. My back hits the wall and I’m frozen in place looking as the door opens.
“I found another one!” he yells and comes at me.
He raises his sword and swings at me but I jump to the side. He tries again and cuts me open on my left shoulder. Then he pushes me hard with his foot and I fall on my back.
“Got you now,” he hisses.
I kick one of his legs and hear the bone snapping. He falls to the side and I jump and start running out of there. I know this house so well but right now I’m scared and it all looks so different. Images of Justin crying in a room are pounding in my brain. I saw Justin in a pool of blood and his lifeless body was floating away. It was so horrible. Then Justin laughing and laughing and laughing as he killed everyone around him.
“Boy,” someone grabs me from behind.
“No!” I yell.
“Shhh,” he whispers. “It’s me Ewan.”
I don’t fucking know him. He turns me around and I do know him. I just didn’t know what his name was.
“Come with me,” he says pulling my hand as he walks towards the wrong way.
“We have to get Kevin,” I tell them.
“Not now,” he tells me.
I frown when he knocks on the wall. Okay, he’s lost it.
“It’s Ewan,” he says.
I’m amazed when part of the wall opens and Peter looks at us.
“Get him in there,” Ewan says. “You come with me. We need help now. Sebastian’s people aren’t here yet.”
Peter nods and steps out. The first thing he does is pull his sword out.
“They’re too many,” Ewan whispers. “And they’re not human. Vampire and they are strong; stronger than most of us. You’re no that old Peter. If I tell you to run you will.”
Peter nods at him.
“I don’t want Derek on my ass because of your death,” Ewan says and then turns to look at me.
I swallow not sure what’s going to happen. I need master and I want Kevin to be here. I’m so scared.
“Don’t open this door for anyone,” Ewan tells me. “Unless is me or Peter or Master.”
“Or Kevin,” I tell him. “Or someone for the family.”
“Fine,” he tells me. “If they don’t speak you keep it locked. Try to keep quiet.”
I nod and get inside and lock it. When I turn around there are five others inside. I know them. Rich who is Peter’s new childe and then Jonathan who belong to Susan, he’s her youngest one. Then there is Lara and Jamie the two girls belong to Stephanie, she’s one of father’s first kid. At the far corner is Quinn, he’s Derek’s fourth childe. Everyone knows that he is being molded to be his mate. So he’s always left alone. I walk over to him and sit next to him.
“Are you okay?” I ask him.
Quinn only shrugs.
“This place is horrible,” Quinn says.
“Shut up, princess,” Rich tells him.
“You’re so annoying, you shut up,” Jamie tells him.
“I don’t need your help,” Quinn spats out at her.
“She was only trying to help, you moron,” Lara says putting her arm around her sister.
“Could you all just shut up?” Jonathan asks.
“He’s right,” I tell them. “Ewan said they weren’t human. They can hear us. We have to stay quiet.”
“We have to take care of each other,” Quinn says.
They all look at him and then away. They know he’s right. Apparently all hell broke lose out there and we don’t know what might happen. God, Kevin. Please, be okay. Please be okay.
“Are you okay?” I ask Quinn when I see that he’s crying.
“Leave me alone,” he tells me.
“Don’t talk to me like that,” I hiss.
Quinn looks up and smirks. “You must be in cloud nine, huh? Since Kevin took you as his mate you know you can do whatever you want.”
I frown not sure what he’s talking about. “What?”
“Master loves Kevin to death,” he whispers. “Aside from Justin, of course.”
“Master loved me before Kevin made me his,” I spat out at him.
“I know that,” he tells me. “He loves us all but…you would have left eventually. Now you won’t.”
I shrug at that.
“Now you’re one of his boys,” he whispers. “One of his special boys.”
“Whatever dude,” I hiss at him. “Are you jealous or something?”
Quinn laughs and shakes his head. “I’ll get to be one of the boys too.”
I nod at that because it’s true. We become like royalty once we get attached to one of our own and they stay with Brian. They like it better than attaching themselves to someone from another family but it does happen. Derek is important to father because he’s the one protecting him like Peter and Ewan and Susan. Just like Kevin is important because he’s the one that tells father what’s going to happen.
“I don’t think that I’m better than anyone,” I tell him.
Quinn shrugs. “I don’t really care what you think. You’re a snob anyway.”
“Fuck you,” I hiss at him. “What’s your problem?”
Quinn smiles at me. “I’m seeing how easy it is to get you angry.”
What a fucking asshole? The more I look at him the more he smiles.
“You like me,” he tells me.
I smirk at him and relax. I caress his face and bent down to kiss him. I pull back and stare at him. He’s really pretty. He has brown eyes and black short hair. He has freckles in his face and ruby red lips that call to you. I caress his face and pull him close. I kiss him hard and bury my fangs on his tongue. The blood flows freely into my mouth. He does the same to me and it’s so good.
He pulls back startled. “You’re going to die,” he whispers to me.
It’s so low that I barely heard it.
“What?” I ask taken aback.
“But then…you still come back,” he tells me.
“What are you talking about?” I ask him getting angry.
“Zeke is going to kill you to stop you from helping Justin,” he tells me like is the most normal thing in the world. “You could have made things different.”
I pay attention to what he has to say.
“No wait,” he says. “That already happened.”
I frown.
“It’s complicated,” he tells me. “Something is different this time around.”
I sigh not sure what he’s babbling about. I look around and see that they are not paying attention to us.
“But it doesn’t really matter,” he whispers. “It might not work anyways.”
It takes me a few seconds to figure out what he’s saying. He really doesn’t want them to hear.
“Tell me more. Do you know who I’m supposed to…never mind.”
“Ben,” Quinn whispers. “He becomes…that by your hand.”
I thought Ben was dead. This is so complicated. So I’m supposed to turn Ben into a God. Then what? Damn it!
“Master doesn’t want to separate from Justin,” he informs me.
Please, like I don’t fucking know that.
“You can see things,” I say. “Are you like Kevin or something?”
“It’s not like that,” he tells me. “I touch things and I see thing that have happened or will happen. Sometimes they can happen the next day and sometimes it takes years.”
“Did you know you were going to become a vampire?” I ask him.
“When I was six years old,” he says. “My mom used to take me to church every Sunday. I liked going there.”
I frown not sure why he’s telling me this.
“She used to work really late…and I would try to wait for her to come home,” Quinn relates. “But I could never do it. So in the mornings I would jump out of my bed and run to her room. And she would wake up and she made breakfast and got me ready for school.”
I can tell something happened.
“One morning she wasn’t there,” he mutters and comes closer to me. “When we were at the funeral I touched her.”
“What did you see?” I ask curious to know.
“I saw Derek,” he tells me and pulls away.
I stare at him waiting.
“He killed her,” he mutters.
Oh my god! And now Derek is his sire! This is so fucked up. Wow! Oh my god, what if he tries something against Derek. I won’t let him!
“It’s okay,” Quinn whispers not even looking at me. “I don’t hate him.”
I don’t know if I can trust him.
“You know what I saw?” He asks and before I can answer he tells me. “He was going to be the one that was going to save me. But for a long time I didn’t know what it meant. I was six years old dreaming of a man that was going to rescue me from danger and kill me later. The same monster that had killed her and I couldn’t help but be terrified.”
“So, you’re saying that ten or fifteen years from now what you saw about me, will come true?” I ask.
“That vision took that long for it to play itself,” he says. “But others haven’t and yours…yours didn’t take that long to happen. You see the first time when this happen the people went into the basement and they freed Zeke. They thought that him being what he was they could use him, but he escaped. When he came back to try to kill Justin you got in the middle,” he mumbles.
What the fuck is he talking about?!
“It’s Déjà vu,” Quinn says.
I keep silent. I look at Lara and Jamie who are moving closer to Jonathan and Rich. I wrap my arm around Quinn and look at him. “You’re not making any sense,” I say and barely hear myself.
“I know,” Quinn tells me.
Well, at least he knows he’s totally nuts.
“Does Derek know about you?” I ask him.
“No,” Quinn tells him. “I don’t like it. I never have liked these…visions or whatever you call them.”
“Tell me more,” I whisper. “Why do some many people want Justin dead?”
Quinn smiles at that. “Because he’s master’s mate,” he replies. “It would make father weaker, easy to target…among other things.”
“What things?” I ask him.
Quinn shakes his head. “I don’t know. I know they are there but I can’t see them.”
I smile and kiss his temple. “It’s okay,” I whisper.
Quinn grunts and his fangs scrape my neck.
“Don’t you dare,” I warn him.
He giggles and shakes his head. “I wasn’t going to.”
I relax and he turns my head so I look at him.
“Did you know that the master’s blood is very sweet?” he asks me.
I chuckle and nod as I hold him tighter to me.
“I’ve tasted it. It’s a world of stories there,” Quinn tells me.
“Tell me one,” I mutter.
“Justin,” he whispers. “I saw Justin killing all of us…and there was no feeling inside. There was nothing in his eyes but a cold emptiness.”
I frown and push him back. I grip him by the neck tightly. “You won’t say shit to anyone. Do you hear me? You won’t tell anyone about this.”
“It ends,” he gasps out. “It does.”
I let him go and look around. They are staring at us but I don’t know if it is because they heard us or because I gripped his neck. “What do you mean?”
He massages his neck and straddles my lap.
“They got the right idea,” I hear Jonathan say and then laugh.
“I felt so much pain. So much…frustration. But…it’s not real,” Quinn relates over my ear.
“What do you mean is not real?” I ask him.
“Well, master was there,” Quinn says and as he does his voice starts lowering down even more. “Something was eating him inside and he couldn’t stop it. It was stronger than him.”
My mouth opens in somewhat of a shock.
“He was trying to push it away,” he says. “Then when Justin held him he was fine, but they couldn’t stay together. And the pain came back.”
“Tell me more,” I say to him.
“He killed it,” he tells me. “He killed the pain. Justin was the pain. And he took it away.”
That doesn’t make any kind of sense.
“And there was fire,” Quinn whispers. “And we were over. Lock and key.”
“My god!” I yell. “You’re as nuts as Kevin!”
I frown as I look at everyone else. Fucking hell! I ignore them and look at Quinn.
“You know why it wasn’t real?” Quinn asks with a raised brow.
“Why?” I ask pulling him as close as I can.
He stares at me and frowns.
“Why?” I ask again.
“There was a heartbeat between them. And after the fire we were all back. I was in an alley cornered by the same guys waiting for Derek to save me, just like before,” Quinn tells me. “Isn’t that weird?”
I lick my lips and nod. “Don’t tell anyone about this.”
“Why?” he asks me.
“This could hurt master or Justin or both of them,” I tell him. “It’s too confusing to make sense of it now. We have to take it slowly.”
Quinn pouts and nods. “Okay,” he tells me. “I won’t.”
I kiss him. “Thank you.”
“What did you see?” he asks arching a brow.
“What do you mean?” I ask him.
“I know Kevin showed you,” he whispers. “What did you see?”
“The council,” I tell him. “But I don’t know what it meant.”
“If we survive this master has to prepare for war. I saw it. They’re coming after Justin. They want him gone,” Quinn whispers. “You have to tell them but you can’t say I told you.”
I don’t know why he keeps insisting on no one knowing. I don’t know if I can trust him.
Quinn runs his fingers through my hair. “It’s like before. Everything is the same. I don’t understand it.”
“You are not making sense,” I tell him. “Do you know that?”
“Want to know more about father?” he asks me.
I nod slowly not sure that I do.
“I saw angels circling him and giving him something to guard with his life,” he mutters and frowns. “There was a man…a powerful man there. But he was pushed back and he had one of the angels with him but no one knew about it.”
“I really have enough with Kevin talking in riddles to me,” I tell him.
Quinn shakes his head. “It’s so hard trying to understand everything.”
I bite my lower lip and nod. “I saw Justin in a pool blood and he was dead. You don’t have to tell me how hard it is seeing things you don’t understand.”
“I know about that,” he tells me. “He’s floating but he’s not dead…well, he is; part of him.”
I arch my brows.
“Is like…sometimes you get a message and it’s hidden and you have to play with it until you get it right,” Quinn says. “The message of all the blood is like a massacre and Justin’s death…that’s something he’s going to lose or someone is going to lose. I don’t get it right all the time.”
I’m about to tell him of something else I saw that it’s kind of similar to what he told me about the angels circling Brian. But before I can there is a knock on the hidden door.
“Who do you think that is?” Jamie asks as she gets up after the second knock on the door.
I push Quinn to the side and go to stand next to it.
“Why aren’t they identifying themselves?” Rich asks.
They knock again more forceful.
“Maxi!” Kevin yells.
I quickly unlock the door and Kevin pulls me to him and kisses me hard. Oh god! That’s so good.
“Is it safe to come out?” Jonathan asks.
Kevin pulls away and hisses at him then keeps on kissing me. I’m so happy to be in his arms right now.
“Stay,” Kevin says when he pulls away. “Daddy.”
I nod understanding that he is going to talk to father before we come out. I kiss him again and then lock ourselves back in the hidden room. I look at Quinn and go to him. One way or another I’m going to figure out what he has seen and what I’ve seen. I’m going to save my family no matter what I have to do.
When we’re let out of that damn room Kevin tries to pull me away so I tell him I have to do a few things and he asks me what. Stupid me I thought I could lie to him and get away with it. I told him that I was going to talk with Derek about learning how to fight.
“Lie!” Kevin hisses and slaps me so hard that I think he’s ripped my face off.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him. “I’m…I want to talk with Derek about the council.”
“Okay,” Kevin says kissing me and then going away.
If I knew it was going to be that easy. Jesus! I find Derek in the second floor throwing parts of bodies down.
“I need to talk to you,” I tell him.
“Not now,” he says.
“It’s important,” I say to him and hope he listens.
Derek stares at me and then nods. “You have five minutes.”
“Can the council declare war on Brian?” I ask him.
Derek arches a brow and then grabs me by the arm. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s a question,” I whisper. I’ve never seen him this angry.
“Did Kevin tell you something?” he asks.
I won’t betray Quinn and it’s more for my own benefit than his. I don’t want him getting angry and telling everyone the same things he told me like the fact that Justin might go postal on everyone. We have enough people trying to hurt Justin as it is. Having his own family turn on him isn’t going to help anyone. “Maybe,” I answer.
He lets me go and growls.
“How does it work?” I ask.
“There are five of them for each state,” Derek tells me. “If one of then decides that Brian is a danger to our race they will hold a meeting and they will decide what to do. If they all agree they talk with everyone else and they decide it together.”
I listen real carefully because he’s coming closer and his voice is dropping.
“Everyone has to agree even if a section of the council is at the end of the world,” Derek says. “No one can do anything until everyone has put in their vote.”
“I thought father was part of the council,” I tell him.
“He is,” Derek assures me. “But if they are discussing him he won’t be part of that meeting until the very end. He’s not a representative. He’s a judge and leader of this part of the land.”
“You mean this state,” I tell him.
“Whatever,” he hisses.
“This is huge,” I growl at him.
“No shit,” Derek says.
“What happens if they vote to kill him?” I ask. “Would they do it?”
Derek nods. “They have to but it also means that we could go to war.”
Could it be…duh?...the word I’m looking for? That’s what I’m telling him!
“You see if it was any other simple vampire they would kill him and be over with it,” he informs me. “But since is master there is going to be a lot of people that are going to oppose it.”
I really don’t know why but I can totally live with that. Whatever power father has over them is good.
“You see this is how it works,” Derek tells me. “If they agree that doesn’t mean that every section of the council voted yes, just the majority of them and even then you can break it down. Okay, there are five of them in each section each with a judge that can rule out their decision as a group.”
I nod slowly. That’s what father is! A judge!
“Let’s say a group voted four to one and the judge agrees,” Derek says. “That one person that didn’t go against Brian is going to help us if we go to war.”
I get it. Whoever votes no is our ally.
“How is it that father came to such power?” I ask. “Is it because he killed his sire?”
Derek shakes his head. “Cassandra was killed because the council got tired of her. After she went over the deep end they had to do something.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
Derek looks around and then at me. “She was always a rebel…or at least that’s what they tell me. She broke a few rules here and there and did things she wasn’t supposed to but she was a master vampire and they overlooked it.”
I nod at that.
“Until one day she went too far,” Derek says. “They say she was possessed because it didn’t matter how rebellious she was she wouldn’t have done it otherwise.”
I didn’t know vampires could get possessed by something else. Scary. “What did she do?”
“You see,” Derek tells me. “There are certain humans that we’re not allowed to touch. They are protected either by a demon or an angel or another powerful identity.”
I nod letting him know that I’m listening.
“Brian and Brent were protected,” Derek tells me. “No one was supposed to touch them, but she turned them. Everyone was appalled at the news and they didn’t know what to do about it.”
I think I’m starting to see why father has so much power.
“They were special or so they say,” Derek whispers. “I don’t know. They had something or were guarding something. Who the fucks knows? The thing is that when she turned them it didn’t go away. They still had it.”
“That’s why father is so powerful,” I mutter.
Derek nods. “That’s why many people won’t go against him,” he tells me.
Goddamn it! This is so much to take in. It’s this even going to help me with the things I’m trying to decipher? Well, it can’t hurt I guess. Shit! He said something about them guarding something. That’s what Quinn said. That Brian had been given something to guard. Oh fuck. Maybe all he said was true.
“Derek,” I whisper.
“What is it?” he asks.
“Did Zeke escaped?” I ask him.
Derek shakes his head. “No way. They got to them and were going to let them free but we got there just in time.”
I nod slowly. What if Quinn is right? What the fuck am I saying? It wouldn’t make sense! I mean…a time before this where Zeke killed me. It can’t be right, can it? God!
“Maximilian,” Derek hisses.
“What?” I ask.
“I’m asking you if Kevin saw this war,” he tells me.
I think about it. Should I say Kevin said it even if it’s not true? The last thing I remember was Kevin mumbling something about a war. Could it be this? Jesus Christ! “Yeah,” I answer. What’s the worst that can happen? At least we’ll be prepared for anything. “You have to tell father,” I say before I turn around and walk away.
When I get to Kevin’s room he looks like he’s sleeping. I come closer and smile as I watch him. I caress his face and he grips the sheets. His face turns into a frown and he whispers again and again the same thing.
“Lock and key,” Kevin whispers. “Lock and key.”
“Perfect,” I whisper.
I have to find out what that means. Fucking hell! I’m tired of all this bullshit. Can’t they send a whole fucking message instead of these fucking puzzles? I lay back and wrap myself around my mate. It’s going to have to wait. Because I feel like I’ve been away forever and I need time with him. It’s probably not so important. I mean there is a war coming, what could be more important than that?
I know its more secrets and you probably are getting frustrated with me. But I will give you answers soon. Thanks for everyone that’s helping me. You know who you are. I’m trying to keep as busy as possible. Hugs!