I'll Justify My Reasons With Your Blood

As Syn and I entered the underground “bat cave,” as the Rev calls it, we heard something crash, so naturally, we ran inside to see what happened. “What was that noise?” I asked, closing the door behind me.

“The Rev took my beer and won’t give it back,” Johnny whined, sounding like a god damn two-year-old…well, a two-year-old alcoholic, anyway.

I rolled my eyes, “Rev, give the man his drink. We have more important things to discuss here.”

The Rev nodded in response, and with a large smirk on his face, he dumped the entire remainder of the bottle on Johnny’s head. Hell, even I had to admit…that was priceless.

“Anyway, guys, if I’m not mistaken we have some business to attend to,” Syn announced, bring everyone back to order. Upon hearing the sternness in his voice, the other immediately got in their chairs while Zacky stood at the head of the table, waiting to announce his plan.

“Alright, here’s what I’ve put together. Mommy and Daddy Leto are away in Romania for the annual Vampire Council meeting; their uncle, Jack, lives in Colorado and the Rev just so happened to nail a voice over of him. So, I was thinking we could use the fake voice to convince the brothers to go up and see the uncle, leaving the little sister home all by herself. Then…we take over from there,” he smirked.

“That’s perfect,” I said, smiling. If this all goes according to plan, then there would so many possibilities…the thought alone was already making my head spin.

“So how do we get it all started?” Syn asked.

“Ok, here’s the plan…Zacky, do some research on the girl. Find out where she works, where she lives, all that stuff. Rev, call up Jared and come up with a reason to get them out of the house and to Colorado. Syn grab some things we might need and put them in the trunk and Johnny you help him out. We’ll all meet back here around 8 PM and that’s when the fun will begin.”

*Jared’s POV*

I’ve been staring at this damn map of California for the past two hours, and still haven’t made much progress. Shannon came running in the room, with a cup of coffee, and tripped over himself…I mean, he seriously kicked himself sprawling forward. I watched, laughing my ass off, as everything moved in slow motion…until I saw the coffee heading in the direction of my map.

“Shannon, what the hell?!” I groaned, as soon as a small amount splashed onto the map. At first I could tell that he was getting ready to say he was sorry a million times, but he stopped himself short.

“Whoa, take a look at where it landed, though…Huntington Beach.”

I was confused, “So? What does that have to do with anything?”

“Are you kidding me? Huntington Beach is the place where the murder rate has been the highest over the past year. Now that I think about it, it’s almost like the capital of the major crime cities in the state.”

I paused to consider what I was just told. “Holy shit, you’re right, dude. How come we didn’t think of that before?”

Shannon shrugged, “I’m not sure…I guess we just needed a little um ‘splash’ of encouragement.”

“Oh you’re so funny,” I said, sarcastically.

All of the sudden, the phone started ringing, causing both of us to jump a little. “I’ll get it,” I said, beating Shannon to the phone. “Hello?”

“Jared! Hi, it’s Uncle Jack.”

“Oh hey…wow this is a little weird hearing from you so soon.”

“Why?”

“Well, you just emailed me the other day and said you’d be away from home for a while. I didn’t think that three days would really be a while…”

“I’m a vampire, which means I’m speedy,” he laughed.

“So true. Oh! Before I forget, I’ve got some good news. Shannon and I think that we’ve figured out the city where Shadows is hiding at – Huntington Beach.”

There was silence on the other line for a weird amount of time before he responded. “Oh, really? That’s interesting, good work Jared. I’ll look into that…well, actually there is a reason why I called too.”

“What’s up?” I asked…he sounded concerned.

“I’ve made an interesting discovery, myself. It’s too complicated and private to discuss over the phone, so do you think that you and Shannon could come up here for an overnight trip?”

“I can make it, but I think Shannon should stay home and watch out for Nikki. I mean, we all know that she needs the most protection right now…”

“As much as I agree with you, I really need both of you to be here. It’s partially regarding your parents and well, of course, the crown and everything.”

I was hesitant to respond. I really did not want both of us to go to this meeting with Uncle Jack. Nikki can’t fend against vampires, and I know that no one knows about her in the vampire realm, but anything could go wrong.

“Um, should I take your silence as a yes then?”

I sighed, “Alright, alright we’ll both be up there, but we can’t stay long.”

“Excellent. Ok, I’ll see you boys in a few hours.”

I filled Shannon in on the story, and then we packed a few things, left a note for Nikki, and got to the airport. It’s only 24 hours. Nothing that bad can happen then, right?

*Normal POV*

At the daycare center that I work at, they have a morning pre-school and an afternoon pre-school. It was about 12:20, so I got to be on break for another ten minutes before I had to return. There was this really good coffee shop that I just discovered today, and needless to say, I’m addicted. However, I was running behind schedule so I would have to take the short cut through the park.

As I was walking down the path, I saw a blonde girl leading a huge tattooed guy over behind some bushes…I’m guessing for some “fun time?” I almost had to laugh to myself though because they looked like the most mismatched couple ever, like total opposites. And the weirder part was that she looked excited, while he was smirking – but it almost looked like an evil smirk, like he was about to do something evil. But that’s just crazy; I’m just weird like that I guess. That could just be his “sex face,” and besides it doesn’t matter, it’s not like I’ll be seeing them again anyway.

“No, Jerry don’t eat the glitter! That’s supposed to go on the paper not on your tongue,” I shouted, running across the room to stop Jerry from eating anymore glitter. I swear, that kid must be addicted to it…he does this every class.

Across the room, two boys were fighting over a basketball, which I thought was silly because there were like 10 balls in the room somewhere. Some girls were playing house in the tent and a boy was stomping and running around the room claiming to be Godzilla.

Somehow the afternoon class is like a million times more hyper than the morning one. Basically, I spent from 12:30 till 6:30 chasing kids around the room, attempting to teach them the ABC’s, and dealing with all the screaming, while reminding them to use “inside voices.” Finally, at 7 PM the place was quiet.

I grabbed my stuff from the teachers’ lounge and was heading outside, when I stopped to hear an interesting news story that was blaring from the TV in the office. “Today, a young woman named Bridget Alexander was found mauled to death in the park. There was a gaping hole through her chest and her heart was missing. There were also two semi-large holes in her neck as well.”

I cringed after hearing that report, and felt sorry for that poor girl. They flashed a picture of her on the screen and I almost felt like throwing up. It was the girl that I saw in the park with that tattooed guy!

“Nikki, are you alright?” someone from the office asked.

“Um, yeah I guess I was just a little…grossed out from that story. I’m going to head home now. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I ran out of the building and got right into my car, pushing the lock down right after. I was so paranoid right now, and I didn’t really even know why….maybe it’s because I was the last person to see that girl alive.

I drove home as fast as I could because I knew that at home I would always be safe with my brothers there. Well, when I walked into the dark, silent house and read the note on the table, I knew I was no longer safe.