Page 55 of Love Lives
"He shouldn't have gone," Puck said. "Silly boy."
"Shut up," Elle snapped at him.
"There's going to be a ton of vampires in that basement," Silas said. "You can't just march in there and get the witch out."
Elle turned to him. "Then what do you think we should do?"
"Lure them out," I said, surprising myself. "We'll propose a hostage exchange. They give us Caspar and we..." I struggled to come up with a good idea. What could we give them if they already knew our hiding place?
"Don't suggest that we surrender peacefully," Elle very nearly snarled.
"Of course we're not going to do that, but we gotta dosomething," I insisted. "We have that new spell on our side, and Vlad is still carrying that stone in his pocket..." I didn't know how I knew that, except I did. After-effects of my use of the Seeker Stone? Maybe. For now, that wasn't important. "If we can just take it from him and bolt..."
"With Caspar," Elle added.
"Of course."
"And where are you going after?" Puck asked. "If Vlad already knows your location."
"Where they least expect," I suggested. "We'll just go back home. Throw up a couple of wards. They'll never look for us there."
"Back home?" That was Luke's voice, although I couldn't tell if he sounded more apprehensive or relieved.
I turned around to my little brother. "You still have Vlad's phone number?"
He hesitated before saying, "I think I do, but what are you going to tell him?"
"I'll come up with something," I promised. "Just give me the number, okay?"
He nodded and I forced a smile on my lips to reassure him even as I felt Aldrich glare at me from behind. Whatever plan I came up with, I already knew he wasn't going to like it. But that might be for the best anyway.
Chapter Twenty-One
I hadno idea if Vlad still had the phone number, of the same phone... or if he would even answer a call from an unknown number. But I figured I would give it my best shot. Sitting on my bed, I dialed the number. I was alone in the room. Aldrich had agreed to give me ten minutes, but only because he was standing right outside the door and could hear everything I was going to say anyway. He hadn't told me that was what he was going to do, but it was obvious. I didn't care if he listened, though. I knew what I had to do.
I was the one with the visions. That meant I was the one who had to take responsibility. The one who had to make sure that they wouldn't come true.
There was no reason for me to struggle with these damn premonitions otherwise.
The phone's dial tone beeped in my ear. Vlad wasn't going to pick up, was he? This was stupid, trying to call him on the phone like a regular person...
When the call actually connected, I was too stunned to say anything. Vlad's voice came through the speaker. "Who is this?"
"Remy," I said, only half-worried that he might possess some sort of technology that would allow him to trace the call. But then, he was about to find out where we lived anyway.
"I wasn't expecting a call."
"We know that you have Caspar."
"The witch? You can have him. I have no use for him anymore."
The vampire's words were so unexpected that I hesitated. I'd gone through this call in my head at least twice before dialing the number, but Vlad hadn't given in this easily in any of the scenarios I'd imagined. "We have use for him," I said eventually.
"I doubt that you do. You're not going to be alive much longer." He said this as if it were a simple fact. Nothing to be particularly shocked or happy about.
"We're not where he told you we are anymore," I lied.
"Oh? In that case where are you?"
