Chapter Twelve (Adam)

We had gathered at a hotel on the other side of town to avoid getting caught by Orion and whoever else might be with him. We sat in the lobby of the suite we managed to buy with the money that Daimonas conjured for us. I was beginning to like his powers... Except when he conjured McDonalds meals because he still hadn't gotten the concept of health or cleanliness because he left the wrappers sticking everywhere.

"You know, you're going to end up with heart problems." Seth pointed out dryly as he sat on the bed on his stomach, screwing around with a laptop he'd stolen from Kyle's van. Daimonas gave Seth an odd look.

"What'sss that?" He asked, chewing a mouthful of fries before taking a sip of his chocolate shake. Seth gave him a droll stare, then shook his head and went back to typing. Daimonas whined.

"Why don't you anssswer me? I need to learn about your world, right? I only learn by getting my quessstionss anssswered." He complained, making Seth groan and cover his ears. Daimonas pouted and Julian sighed wearily, looking up from the files we'd copied from Orion's hotel room.

"Heart problems, Dai. It means that all that grease and fat is gonna clog up your arteries and make you fat and sick and you'll probably have a heart attack before you reach age thirty." Julian explained calmly before looking back down. Daimonas blinked.

"What did you call me?" He asked. Julian frowned and looked up.

"Huh? You mean Dai? It's a nickname. Your name is a mouthful."

"I like it." Daimonas declared with a happy smile, then he looked confused for a moment. I looked at him and waited for him to ask us another question, but for once, he didn't ask anything. He seemed to be thinking. I looked away to stare down at the Google maps I had brought up of Olivia's address. She lived in an apartment not far from where we were at.

And honestly? I hadn't liked the plan we'd come up with.

It was... dirty.

But Hunter had made it so and what he said goes, no matter how stupid and crazy it was. Speaking of Hunter, he'd promised to help us with research on the generals and their locations, but the fat ass had fallen asleep on the sofa with Peter on the floor scribbling things down in a notebook. We had kept Kyle tied up and shoved into the furthest corner of the room near Walter, who sat in a fluffy armchair with a few books on vampires. The guy was obsessed, and part of me wondered if there was something in him that still wanted to expose us to the human world.

Kipp was chewing on gummy worms as he hung upside down on the same bed as Seth, reading files on the generals and reading bits and pieces out loud.

"So," He said, gulping another worm and making a weird choking sound that Seth slapped him for before he recovered, "Agh, anyway. So, this Jack guy is apparently a real psycho. He doesn't just kill his victims, he tortures them and steals their body parts. That's wicked."

"No," Seth corrected sternly, "That's disgusting. Why does he do that?"

"Insurance," Kipp answered, making us frown at him, "At least, that's what he told the judge when they nabbed him and threw him to the court room. He claimed he was keeping their body parts for rituals in case something happened to him. The guy is a real big voodoo man. He was born in New Orleans around the time that voodoo was introduced to the natives there. He lived with his mother and their slave, Nana, for the first fifteen years of his life. Apparently the slave taught him all he needed to know about voodoo before she was killed for trying to escape. Jack didn't take that too well and killed his mother for it as well as the guys who did it."

"Sounds like he loved his slave more than his mother." Julian muttered, wrinkling his nose.

"Humansss have ssslavesss?" Daimonas asked, confused.

"They did a long time ago," I answered, giving Julian a break from being a parent for once, "Back when the country was first being created, humans went over to Africa and kidnapped people, sending them here to be slaves to work on farms or in houses."

"Why people from Africa?" Daimonas asked with a frown. I frowned too.

"I dunno. They were strangers to us. And because they had different colored skin." I added, looking back down and Daimonas made a rude noise that made me look up.

"Well, that'ssss ssstupid," Daimonas declared as he bit into his fish fillet, "I have black skin. That doesss not mean I will be enssslaved to anyone. If anything, everyone elssse will be ensslaved to me." I raised an eyebrow at that and Daimonas paused to stare straight ahead before looking down at his fish fillet sandwich.

"Or at leassst enssslave the McDonaldsss."

"Why would you enslave McDonalds when you can just conjure burgers?"

"I dunno... Ssso I can have a giant M in my housse." Daimonas decided brightly and went back to eating. I shook my head, repressing a smirk as I looked back down at the files in my hands when Kyle groaned past the tape on his mouth. He said something inaudible and Walter frowned at him before glancing at me. I nodded permission for him to remove the tape and Walter obeyed.

"I gotta piss, and I'm starving," Kyle complained, flicking his tongue over his fangs for emphasis, "You can't starve me to death. Come on, I didn't do anything really evil. I just... sorta... poked around."

"Poked around," Seth echoed dryly, "It looks like you were the dick who tagged Adam and Julian's phone back at their apartment." Kyle blushed as Julian and I glared at him.

"Y-Yeah, but not by choice. Come on, guys. Really. I'm starving over here." He whined. I frowned, then looked at Julian, who stared back at me. I could see him contemplating the idea when Hunter spoke in a groggy voice.

"Starve the little bastard. Stop going soft, brats." He grunted as he rolled over, and gave a pained groan that had Peter leaping to his feet to check on him. Kyle opened his mouth to complain, or maybe even yell, but Walter smacked the tape back over his mouth. Kyle just whimpered, curling his knees to his chest. Peter was fussing over Hunter, who was trying to smack him away.

"This is why I didn't want you with us," Hunter muttered to Peter, "You need to stop freaking out. I've been hurt worse than this."

"Worse?! What's worse than almost having your kidneys plop out?!"

"I had a finger severed once. And had my abdomen cut open. I cut out my own appendix once."

"Hunter!"

"Exactly why I didn't tell you when it happened," Hunter replied heatedly, forcing himself to sit up, "You need to quit hassling me. You're getting in the way." Ouch, I thought, eyes drifting to Peter, who stiffened and just stared at his brother for the longest time before he gave up and stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut. Hunter sighed, sounding more relieved than upset and fell back on the sofa, letting out a grunt of pain before he went back to sleep. I frowned.

"It's not safe for Peter to be out there alone. Walter." I turned to look at him. He frowned, then slowly got up as he put his book down before heading out the door after Peter.

"Why'd you send Walter?" Julian asked me curiously. I shrugged as a response, but said nothing. I wasn't ready to voice my opinion on those two. I knew very well that Walter wasn't gay, but for some reason, he stuck close to Peter, even though Peter didn't seem to notice. In fact, Walter didn't even complain when I sent him after Peter and Walter usually had something to say if I made him do something. After all, the guy never agreed with me being in charge.

Or rather, second in charge now that Hunter was here.

And now I was starting to regret putting Hunter in charge. Don't get me wrong, the guy was amazing, as much as I hated to admit it. He was capable. He focused on the logic of a situation and remained realistic and calm. But his plan on how to get the demons...

"Can't we do something else?" I asked at last, making everyone look up. Julian caught onto my meaning first, and I was annoyed to find that he disagreed.

"Adam, we don't have another choice. Orion cares more about his girlfriend than his own family. You saw his laptop. He didn't have a single photo of his dad or even Ollie. It was just Olivia everywhere. If we can use her to get the demons back, how is that a problem? It's not like we're gonna hurt her anyway." Julian explained. I frowned at him.

"Yeah, but we're using an innocent human girl. That's not our style, Julian. That's Zephyra style." I answered. Julian hesitated at that.

"Don't pull that card," Seth warned, sitting up and making me glance at him as he folded his arms over his chest, "And Julian's right. We won't hurt the girl. Zephyra would tear her apart and then ask for the demons in exchange. We won't lay a finger on her."

"Yeah, and what if Orion says no," I challenged, "What if he knows we won't hurt Olivia and just comes at us?"

"He won't," Seth insisted, "We'll just... I dunno, hold a knife to her neck or something."

"Seth." Julian protested, looking angry at the suggestion. Seth threw his hands up in the air and slumped back down on his knees.

"Seriously! You two are impossible! Stop thinking with your heart for once and think with your head," He snapped, tapping the side of his head for emphasis before he glared at us, "We don't have time to be sweet and caring. Are you forgetting that Orion's the one who killed your mom, Julian? Dude, Adam, Orion killed you, for cryin' out loud. Stop taking mercy on someone like that. If it were me... Well, call me heartless, but I'd cut the bitch up before handing her over to the prick." Julian and I stared at Seth in surprise. Even Kipp looked a little uneasy as he sat up to stare at Seth, who shot Kipp a dirty look before he lowered himself back down to the laptop.

"Stop looking at me like I'm a monster," Seth muttered under his breath as he began to type, adjusting his glasses on his nose, "I'm just giving you the cold hard truth that you three are too pussy to pay attention to."

"Yeah, but... She's really nice," Julian pointed out quietly, "She doesn't even know Orion's a vampire or a terrorist. Hell, she thinks Orion and Ollie are close. She's your stereotypical Sandy Olsen. I don't want to hurt her. We'll just bring her out and snag Orion's cell phone and threaten her to hurt her unless he hands over the jars."

"He won't believe us," Seth said dryly, "He knows you two. He knows you won't hurt her, so he'll come over there, scoop her up after beating the living shit out of you, and probably Kipp and I too. And I dunno about you, but I heard how Orion tore Adam a new one and the idea doesn't appeal to me."

"Me neither," Kipp replied honestly, "But that's not the point. The point is that that girl is human and not even involved in this. I kinda don't like the idea of cutting her throat."

"I never said I was gonna cut her throat," Seth drawled, "I said hold a knife to her throat to make it look realistic... and maybe get a little rough with her when we're moving her around so it looks like we're not kidding."

"Yeah, but she's a girl." Kipp pointed out. Seth took off his glasses and gave Kipp a droll stare.

"And who gives a shit? Girls, guys, trannies. Blacks, whites, Mexicans, Asians. They're all the same in my eyes." He said, then put his glasses back on to stare at the laptop monitor. Kipp frowned at that. I think he wanted to argue more, but Seth usually got  rough with Kipp whenever they disagreed, so he gave up and just went back to reading the files. Julian and I shared looks. I waited for him to say something, but he gave up and looked down at the files a bit sheepishly. I frowned, then looked at Daimonas, who was chewing on the burger while watching TV, kicking his legs back and forth off the edge of the bed.

"What about you, Daimonas? What would you do?" I asked. Everyone glanced up again, mostly curious. Daimonas frowned thoughtfully, eyes still on the television as he swallowed a mouthful of burger.

"I don't know," He admitted, "It'sss weird. I would normally agreed with Sseth. Orion knowsss you would never hurt sssomeone like Olivia. If you don't make it look like you're ssserious, he'll jussst mow you down without a sssecond thought... But, I have thisss weird ssenssation that ssayss to not ussse the girl."

"Weird sensation?" I asked for confirmation. Daimonas hesitated, staring down at his burger now before he shook his head, wrinkling his nose at whatever was going on in his head.

"No. I don't underssstand it. I agree with Ssseth." He decided, then went back to watching television, even though we kept trying to bug him. He was too far gone into watching Spongebob. I looked at Julian, who was staring at Daimonas curiously.

"Is it just me or is he acting weirder than usual?" I asked. Julian shook his head.

"I noticed too... Maybe he's just getting used to things?" He offered. I shrugged at that, then glanced at Daimonas out the corner of my eye. He had been acting weird for a while. I wondered if it was because of the demons in the jars.

His species didn't do well when they were together, so maybe he was just worried about having them around him because he didn't want to have to kill them. I couldn't be sure and Daimonas wasn't exactly an open book of information. He only spoke when he felt like speaking, he only helped when he felt like helping.

We went back to work, trying to gather more information. Seth managed to track down Orion's cell number, so we saved that and we set up a time and date for Julian to go meet up with Olivia before we took her to a more secluded area, which would probably be the abandoned park a couple blocks down. The park was abandoned after all the swing sets and children's play places were taken down because apparently the area was a target place for pedophiles.

We made plans for Seth, Kipp, Walter, Peter, and Hunter to be hiding out in the dark to hide as back up in case Orion decided to show up with some friends. Julian and I were going to be with Olivia waiting at the center of the park for Orion to show up.

We would switch Olivia for the four demons and take them to my truck where we would hide them behind the seats surrounded by clothes and papers. We'd take off to California after that, or so we hoped anyway.

And I still got this bad feeling in the pit of my gut. A heavy sinking feeling that warned me something was going to go wrong, but no one else seemed to feel that way because they were talking confidently as if they knew for a fact that nothing could go wrong.

We eventually split up and decided to get to bed. Walter and Peter had come back after a while and Peter seemed to still be stewing, but he couldn't resist checking on Hunter and giving him a blanket before he went to sleep on the other sofa. Walter, of course, didn't go to bed because for some reason, he could easily run on two hours of sleep in an arm chair. Seth and Kipp took the other bed while Julian and I slept in the other.

We spooned together after a hot shower together and Julian sighed, pressing his back against my chest as I rested my arm over his side, letting him lace our fingers together at his stomach.

"Maybe next time." He whispered to me.

"Better be," I murmured back against his ear, making him shiver, "Because I'm getting incredibly impatient." And it was true. I hadn't had sex with Julian in a while and it was driving me nuts. Could I be considered an addict? Maybe. But only for Julian. I liked feeling his soft skin against mine, hear and feel him breathing softly as he slowly slipped back to sleep. Our fingers were still laced and unfortunately, every time he shifted, his perfect firm ass rubbed against my groin, so I had to scoot away to avoid pinning him down and taking him right there with everyone in the room.

It was hard to get to sleep that night because I kept running through all the possiblities of what could happen at the meeting with Orion.

Orion could bring in the big guns. Maybe Jack was already with him, and if he brought Jack, we'd be screwed. Two generals against us? There was a reason Zephyra chose them as generals. After all, it had been a bitch to kill Wulf. The bastard got us into a lot of trouble in the past.

One couldn't tell what two generals could do.

It kept me up most of the night, but by the time I fell asleep, Julian was shaking me to wake up and get ready. I tried to ignore him, which I did a lot of times when he tried to wake me up. I just wanted to sleep and once I was asleep, it was so hard to wake up. I slowly came out of my dreams like I was moving through syrup.

"Five more minutes." I grunted, keeping my eyes closed. I could still feel the heat of the sunlight on me, though, and while I used to enjoy waking up to its warmth, I no longer felt warm, but like I was blistering, so I rolled away from it and pulled the blankets over my head, only to have Julian pull them off and get on top of me, straddling me by the waist.

"Dude, don't do that while we're here." Kipp complained from somewhere in the room. Julian scoffed.

"Then shield your eyes." He responded heatedly. Kipp snorted and went about shuffling through papers while Seth seemed to be rustling around in bed, trying to get up as well. It was just like the sleep overs we had in middle school. Seth and I were always the last ones to wake up. Kipp and Julian were always tossing and turning by eight in the morning.

Seriously, who does that?

Kipp I understood. He ate enough sugar and caffeine to fuel a jet plane.

But Julian? Come on. Vampires. Sunlight. Ouch.

I felt Julian cup my face in his hands and I resisted the urge to smile at the feel of his palms against my cheeks. I felt him blow in my face, his hair falling around his face and tickling my cheeks as he laughed a little.

"Adam... It's time to wake up." Julian called to me. I responded with a moan that informed him I wasn't ready to wake up just yet. I could just imagine him pouting now before he pinched my cheeks and I made a sound of annoyance, even though I wasn't really that annoyed, and opened my eyes to stare up at Julian's smiling face.

Oh yeah, I really liked it when he woke me up like this.

His pretty blue eyes sparkling and the sunlight making his hair look like gold, his fangs gleaming teasingly as he leaned down and kissed me gently on the lips, then pecked me on the nose. I reached up, wrapping my arms around him and rolling over onto my side with him, making him yelp in the process before he started to squirm in my arms. I closed my eyes to go back to sleep when I heard Hunter clear his throat.

"Ugh." I grunted and was forced to release Julian, who ruffled my hair before he sat up to look at Hunter, who stood at the foot of our bed. For having his side ripped open, he still managed to look intimidating.

"Can I help you?" I asked sleepily, sitting up slowly. Julian elbowed me and held a finger to his lips for me to be quiet and I just shrugged it off. Hunter frowned.

"We don't have time to play around. You can do your cutsey-wootsy lovey-dovey crap after we get our hands on those demons," He stated, making Julian wrinkle his nose, "Anyway, get dressed. Get ready." Hunter left us to go to the continental breakfast downstairs with Peter, Seth, Kipp, and Daimonas. Walter was asleep in the arm chair and Hunter hadn't bothered to wake him up, probably because the guy had only just fallen asleep.

"You ready?" Julian asked me as he slid out of bed to grab his clothes. I grunted and fell back down on the bed. Julian sighed, but didn't try to make me get up, much to my relief. He got dressed first and grabbed one of the blood bags from the coolers he'd brought out from the truck. He bit into it and sucked it dry before wrapping it up in aluminum foil and tossing it out. He grabbed another one and came over to me, kneeling down by the beside to tilt his head and look into my face.

"Thirsty?" He asked.

Starving, I wanted to say. My stomach felt like an empty pit. A cold empty pit that longed to be filled with the warm red blood in the bag, and I hated myself for it. I would never get used to this, I thought miserably as I forced myself to sit up. Julian smiled, apparently not sensing my discomfort with drinking human blood. He handed me the blood bag and I took it, sinking my fangs into the bag and letting the blood spurt into my mouth.

Nothing about it was as satisfying as biting Julian, and that was something else I hated myself for. I was being a stubborn child, and I knew that, but I couldn't help the way I felt.

I didn't want to drink blood. I didn't want to like drinking blood.

Oh yeah, sure, the living forever as handsome as fuck was nice, and getting stabbed with a fork in the liver wouldn't kill me anymore, but it still didn't feel right. I just wouldn't tell anyone, though. Mr. Grey had crawled a few feet with his intestines hanging out just so he could keep me alive, just so he could count on me to save his son, and I did. And I could never thank the guy enough.

I finished the blood bag and got dressed in my jeans and t-shirt, throwing my leather jacket on before I went over to wake up Walter. He'd fallen asleep laying across the arm rests, head hanging back and it looked like someone had offered him their blanket because it rested across him and against the back of the chair. I guessed Peter. I touched Walter's arm to wake him up and his eyes instantly flashed open and he looked like he was going to kill me until he realized it was me. I stared at him.

"You okay?" I asked cautiously. Walter blinked a few times, looking around before frowning.

"Yeah." He answered briefly, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. He slowly got up, then paused to look quizzically at the blanket on him. I held my hands up when he looked at me.

"Don't look at me. I'm not interested in your hairy ass." I replied. Walter scowled and reluctantly got up to shower and get dressed. We left him to his business while Julian and I went downstairs to meet up with the gang in the lobby. We waited a few more minutes for Walter to join us until we were all together.

"Okay, so remember the plan," Hunter instructed us firmly, eyes jumping to each of us, "And don't you dare fuck up, because it's every man for himself out there. We grab the demons and leave. I'm going to have Seth and Walter grab Kyle from upstairs and stuff him in the van, which we'll have ready for a clean get away after the trade off. And keep the shrimp tied up, got it?" He turned to Seth and Walter, who both nodded. Daimonas scrunched up his nose, and I noticed he was wearing new clothes. Which could only mean he'd been watching more commercials last night.

He was wearing a black long sleeved shirt and baggy jeans. He was still wearing my other jacket, though. I had a feeling I might not be getting that one back.

"What do I do in all of thisss? You can't leave me out." He stated, putting his hands on his hips. Hunter gave him a droll stare.

"We can't drag you along with us. Zephyra is looking for you. If they get their hands on you, we're screwed. Or do you want to go back there?" He asked. A strange look flitted across Daimonas' face and he shook his head vigorously. Julian frowned.

"So Daimonas, stay in the truck while we're making the deal. Keep the doors locked. If someone comes near you, honk the horn and we'll come get you, okay?" He asked, then looked at Hunter for confirmation and Hunter nodded. Daimonas frowned and I could tell he didn't like sitting out on these jobs, but he had no choice.

Zephyra was hunting him down. They would get a hold of him and use him for something dangerous, hurt him. We couldn't risk them getting their hands on him, and he understood that, he just didn't like it.

"All right," Hunter muttered, reaching up to adjust the goggles on his head before he took a deep breath and scanned our faces, "Show time, boys."