Death's Daughter (19 page)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Less than ten minutes later, an army of law enforcement invaded the property. Thomas, James and Michael were the first ones in the building. Thomas stopped for a moment when he saw her and then made his way to her, stepping past Taft’s remains and Raoul without seeing them. He pulled a knife from his pocket and cut her down. He grasped her hands, rubbing her wrists where the ties had dug into the tender flesh. Then he turned her head and examined her face where Taft had struck her. He ran a thumb over the sensitive flesh.

She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck, letting him hold her.

“Michael needs to get out of here with him, or you’re going to lose your chance,” she said against his skin. He turned them both and went still when he saw Raoul.

He moved her away from him and turned to Michael. “You know where to take him. Call for a portal. If the Council wants to argue about me taking him, I’ll deal with it.”

Michael nodded once and pulled out his phone. A moment later a portal opened and he grabbed Raoul and dragged him through. It closed behind them, erasing all evidence they were ever there.

“What, by all the gods, did you do to him?” James asked.

Thomas grasped her hand in his as she stepped around him to look at the mess that used to be Taft. He was just a bloody pile of flesh on the floor. His blood staining the wood like his victims’ had. By that time, Jeremiah and Clayton had joined them. Whether they had seen Michael leave with Raoul, she didn’t know, but neither of them said a word about it if they had. James held Rachel wrapped in his arms, keeping her face tucked against his chest. Juliana squeezed Thomas’s hand and stared down at the remains. She was still shocked that she’d accomplished it. “I topsy-turvied him.”

James’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline.

“What does that mean exactly?” Clayton asked.

“That means, that in all likelihood, you’ll find his internal organs resting outside his skin,” James answered. He looked at her. “It also means you and I will be spending a lot of time together.”

She nodded once. She’d killed someone with magic. Justified or not, the training was mandatory now. Thomas rested a heavy hand on her back.

“You do magic?” Clayton asked.

“Parlor tricks. Just parlor tricks,” she answered.

“That’s a hell of a parlor trick.”

She ignored him and looked at Jeremiah. “I heard sounds coming from under the floor. I’m guessing that’s where the other children are.”

He pressed on his earpiece and the barn flooded with people who all began looking for a way under the floor. A shout from one corner indicated the discovery of a trap door. Agents and officers flooded into the area below.

“There’s an ambulance outside. Let’s get them checked out,” Thomas said and steered her toward the door with the hand on her back.

There were actually several ambulances. James took Rachel to one and Thomas directed her to another. She sat in the opening and let the medic examine her. “How did you find me?” she asked.

“We were following you through the bond for some time. Then it was as if I knew you were still there, but I could no longer tell where or even in what direction. Since you’d told me it was Taft, they went through the records and found this land his mom owned. She left it to him when she died. Only thing on it is a trailer and that barn. He also owns an apartment in the city. It seemed like a safe bet he was taking you here.”

“And if you were wrong?”

He blinked at her. “That wasn’t an option.”

The corner of her mouth curled into a smile. He probably did expect reality to bend to his will just because he said so. She grew tired of the medic poking around at her and got up to go check on Rachel. James sat in the back of the ambulance with her on his lap. She was sucking on her thumb. It was a habit she’d outgrown a couple of years ago.

“How is she?” Juliana asked.

James gave her a sad smile. “She’ll be all right. Thanks to you.”

That reminded her of Taft’s earlier words. She shook her head. “He came after them because he couldn’t get to me.” Her voice broke. “What happened is my fault.”

Thomas’s hand fell on her hip and he gave her a gentle squeeze.
No
, Joya.

“Don’t you dare,” James said. “This isn’t your fault. This is his fault. He did this. Not you. You got me?”

She nodded because he would keep persisting until she did, not because she believed it.

A wave of noise rose behind them and she turned to see several officers emerge from the building with children in their arms, or walking beside them holding their hands. Jeremiah led the group and made his way to them.

“They’re all here. Two more are dead, but the rest are fine. He appears to have taken decent care of them. We’re setting up a staging area to process the children, then we’ll start calling the parents. The ghoul was down there, too. Well part of him was. We haven’t found his head yet.”

“Only two?” There had been four in the alley that had been crossed out whose bodies hadn’t been found.

“Yes, apparently Taft was getting ahead of himself with the posters.”

She closed her eyes and said a quick prayer of thanks. For once, something had gone their way.

“I’ll be back,” Jeremiah said and went to see to the children.

Thomas looped his hand with hers, fiddled with her engagement ring. “
Will you be moving in with me since your home is gone or looking for your own?
”

She frowned at him. “
I
hadn’t thought about it
,
to be honest.
”

“
And will you be staying in my bed?
”

“
If I move in with you
,
yes
,
but this really isn’t the time to be having this discussion.
”

He turned them to face James. “You’re welcome to stay with us. We can have a roll away put in the guest room for Rachel. It’s not much, but it’s yours if you want it.”

Her cheeks heated. He’d been making sure he had a room to offer. Stupid Walker.

Tears shone in James’s eyes. “Thank you, brother. I don’t think I can go back to that house. Not right now, anyway. I’d rather be with you two than alone in a hotel somewhere.”

She chose not to mention that he was probably wasn’t allowed back in the house yet. It would be several days before he would be, even if they had caught the killer. “Well, the hotel part we can’t help with. We’re living at the Roma right now,” she said instead.

“We still won’t be alone though. She’s going to need you,” he said looking at Rachel.

Jeremiah came back over, leading one of the children. She had blond hair and was missing her two front teeth. Cassie Richards. He handed Juliana his cell phone. “I thought you might want to make this call yourself.”

Juliana dialed the number Jeremiah gave her and waited for someone to answer.

“Hello, Mrs. Richards? This is Walker Norris. I have someone here who would like to speak with you.”

* * *

Thomas stood beside Juliana while she gave her statement. He waited in the shadows while parent after parent thanked her for saving their children. His eyes never left her as the medics at the Agency examined her again at her boss’s insistence, as they gave her a sedative to calm her racing mind and pulse. Then he took her home and put her to bed, sitting beside her until she slipped into a deep slumber. Stepping into the living room, he instructed James, who’d spelled all remnants of Thomas’s rage away, to keep an eye on his bride. Then he went to his former home.

Michael sat in chair at the desk in the library waiting for him. His hands trembled.

Rarely had Thomas seen his second so shaken. “What is it?” he asked.

“I almost broke my vow. The only thing that stopped me was the knowledge you would never forgive me if I started without you.” Michael had long ago sworn to never torture another being for any reason.

Thomas could tell there was more for his friend to say, so he remained silent.

“You didn’t see her after. Thank the gods you didn’t see her. She was a pale shadow of what she is now. Of what she used to be. He did that to her.”

“I know what he did to her. I’ve thought about it every moment of every day since I discovered the truth.”

Michael shook his head. “You may think you know, but you didn’t see.” He looked up with pained eyes.

A muscle ticked in Thomas’s jaw as he clenched his teeth. “Well, let’s go see our guest.”

Raoul lay in the dark corner of a cell off the long hallway that connected to the dungeon. He was still hog-tied. Thomas studied him for a long moment before stepping into the room and brandishing the thin blade he’d picked up on his way through the outer room. Raoul watched him with dark eyes, flinching when he drew near. Thomas leaned down and cut through the rope binding his arms and legs.

The vampire leaned against the wall, rubbing at the spots where the rope had rubbed against his skin. Thomas crouched in front of him. “It’s time you and I had a talk.”

* * *

Thomas woke to an empty bed. He rolled over and looked at the clock—3:00 a.m. It was the third night in a row he’d woken up and she’d been gone. Running a hand down his face to wake himself up, he got out of bed and pulled on a pair of pajama pants. She’d undoubtedly be in the living room curled up in the chair, watching the TV with no sound. That’s how he’d found her the last two nights.

When he opened the bedroom door, he found the TV flickering in the darkness but no sign of his mate. He reached out through their bond and felt her in the office. He walked toward the partially open door with bare feet. James’s magic had been quick and powerful and not one speck of glass remained for them to step on. Thomas was glad, not so much for himself, but for Rachel. She and James were staying with them indefinitely and Thomas was okay with that. As much as he wanted to be alone with his mate, they all needed each other in order to heal.

Tomorrow was the memorial service for Sara. Maybe once they got past that, it would be a little easier. He pushed the door open farther and found his bride sitting in his office chair looking at the gun that still lay on it next to the picture of them. Her eyes lifted to meet his when he stepped into the room. “What were you thinking?” she asked. She sounded disappointed.

“I wasn’t doing much thinking,” he answered honestly. “I just knew I didn’t want to be in a world without you in it.”

* * *

Juliana had been ready to yell and scream. To berate him for even thinking of taking his life over her. But his words stopped her. He’d meant them; she could feel that through the bond, and it humbled her. To most of the world, she was nobody, a Walker who was good at her job and usually got the bad guy. But she wasn’t someone they thought about beyond that.

But Thomas had just told her that she defined his world.

He shook his head. “No, I told you that you
are
my world.” He stepped further into the room, stopping just on the other side of the desk from her. “Never doubt that, Juliana. Should you cease to exist, so would I.”

“I’m not worth it,” she said before she could stop herself. He was so much more than her. Couldn’t he see that?

His brow furrowed as he looked down at her. “You’re worth everything. Can’t
you
see that?”

And at that, she was lost. The tears she’d been swallowing for days welled up in her eyes and spilled down her face. He moved around the desk and lifted her from the chair so he could take her spot. He pulled her down and settled her in his lap. She curled up and buried her face against his chest. “Shh,
Joya
. It’s all right.”

He ran his hand over her back in a comforting gesture as she cried. She wept for Sara’s death, for Rachel losing her mother and her innocence in one moment. She wept because she killed Taft. As much as the man deserved it, it had been a horrible way to go, and she’d done it. And she supposed a part of her cried in relief. Relief that it was over, that most of the children had made it home alive. That she’d made it back to Thomas before he’d used the gun.

A long time later, she sat up and wiped the tears from her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said.

He rubbed the back of her neck with one hand. The other lay curled around her waist. “Don’t be. I’ve been waiting for you to do this for days. I was growing concerned.”

She didn’t know what to say to that, so she changed the subject. “I talked to Ben today, while you guys had Rachel at the park.” She twitched at the reminder of her niece. James had suggested the outing to the park, and Rachel had been thrilled until she found out Juliana was going. Even if no one else blamed Juliana for Sara’s death, it was apparent the little girl did. Or at least connected her to the memory. Juliana had begged off with her heart breaking, claiming she had other work to do and the girl had perked right up.

Thomas squeezed her neck gently. “She’ll come around, honey. Just give her time. Tell me about Ben.”

“He said he can’t fire me because I’m a hero, but I’ve got a written reprimand in my file. It’s my second. One more and I’m gone. He really wasn’t happy that he couldn’t just get rid of me.” She leaned against Thomas’s chest. “He also let it slip that it wasn’t Jeremiah who turned me in. It was one of the other agents in the alley.”

He tightened his arms around her. “And how do you feel about all that?”

As if he didn’t know, couldn’t feel it through their bond. She was relieved she still had her job, and more so that her friend hadn’t betrayed her. “Actually, I’m kind of disappointed. I was kind of hoping to join the Wardens.”

Thomas growled and she laughed. He pushed a hand through her hair and tipped her head back. Then he proceeded to kiss the laughter right off her lips. He shifted her, sat her on the edge of the desk. “Stay,” he ordered. He went over, shut the door and locked it.

When he came back, he stepped between her legs and resumed the kissing. After they christened his desk, he carried her back to the bedroom.

She lay awake long after he drifted to sleep, his arms wrapped around her. Despite everything that had happened, she realized she was happy, being here with him. Maybe, just maybe he was her world, too.