Chapter Seventeen

After discovering the diner wasn’t the saloon from 130 years ago, Jon and Richie had been walking down the sidewalk, while Jon talked to Mac. Jon hadn’t been paying much attention to where he was going, and more than once, Richie had had to steer him around passing pedestrians. Jon suddenly stopped, having gotten the warning of a vampire in the immediate vicinity.

"Caleb’s in there," he told Richie, pointing at the warehouse in question.

The two of them quickly found a way inside.

"Rich," Jon said, laying a hand on his friend’s shoulder when Richie started in the door, "wait out here."

"I will not let you go in there to fight him alone," Richie argued.

"I can’t fight him and worry about you and Mac," Jon explained. "Wait here. I’ll send Mac out to you. Get her to safety, please. I’ll deal with Caleb."

"Okay," Richie answered, resigned. Every fiber in his being objected to allowing his friend to walk into danger alone and unaided, but he knew in his head that Jon was right.

"Just stay out of sight until you see Mac," Jon cautioned, as he entered the darkness of the warehouse.

At first, silence was all that greeted him, but then he heard Caleb and Mac arguing. He hurried toward the sound with every ounce of speed his powers gave him. He wasn’t sure why Caleb hadn’t felt the same warning he had felt, when the other vamp turned toward him with a comical look of surprise on his face, but at this moment he couldn’t bring himself to care.

"You bitch," Caleb turned to scream at Mac, "you distracted me and I didn’t even feel the warning that he was close."

"That’s witch, not bitch," Mac corrected snidely.

Caleb drew back his arm to strike her, but before he could land the blow, Jon flew across the room and punched the other vamp. Caleb fell backwards onto cardboard boxes that collapsed under his weight.

Without turning his back on his adversary, Jon used his mind to untie Mac. As soon as she was free, she flung herself into his arms. Keeping one eye on Caleb, Jon looked down at Mac’s face. His thumb brushed her bottom lip, wiping away the small trickle of blood from the cut.

"I’m glad you’re here," Mac told him softly, her gaze never leaving his face as he slipped his thumb into his mouth to taste her blood.

He pulled her tightly to him. Sighing softly in pleasure as her soft curves molded themselves to the hard planes of his body. Jon kissed her lightly on her forehead, before saying softly, "Go outside, Mac. Richie’s waiting to take you away from here." Gently, he pushed her behind him and toward the door, immediately regretting the action that took her from his arms.

"I won’t leave you," she told him, her chin tilting in defiance, even though he was no longer able to see her. His gaze was still firmly resting on the vampire that was even now rising from the floor.

"Please go, Mac," he said over his shoulder. "I need to know that you’re safe."

Mac hurried away from the coming storm. Her intention was to get Richie and return to help Jon any way she could. She knew she could stay out of the way and at least attempt to weave spells that would help Jon.

"She’s gone," Caleb said unnecessarily as he stood facing Jon. "I wasn’t going to hurt her, ya know."

"So you say now," Jon told him angrily.

"I’m not a heartless bastard, Giovanni," Caleb defended, "I know she’s innocent in this. But you, that’s entirely different. How could you do it? How could you stake Toby? We trusted you; he trusted you. You were our only true friend. The only one that accepted how we felt about each other."

"But you weren’t his life-mate Caleb," Jon said softly, as the two began to circle each other. "You weren’t the other half of his soul, the light to his darkness." Jon sidestepped the chair Mac had been tied to. "And that’s what he needed. He’d gone rogue, Caleb. The bloodlust had taken over. Toby was killing innocents. He sacrificed his soul for the power of taking lives."

"No," Caleb screamed in denial. "I would’ve known if...", he paused and Jon could see the doubt that clouded his face, before he lunged toward Jon. Caleb’s fingers curled into claws as he dove for Jon’s throat.

Jon waited until Caleb was almost on him, his weight balanced on the balls of his feet. Just as the other vampire’s fingers reached his neck, he grabbed Caleb’s wrists and shifted his weight, tossing the other vamp over his shoulder to land with a dull thud. Jon used the time it took Caleb to recover from the fall to pull a long, wicked looking knife from the scabbard attached to his ankle.

When Caleb finally regained his feet, Jon lunged for him. Caleb threw himself backward to avoid the sharp blade, but gained a deep slash across his abdomen for his efforts.

"I don’t want to have to kill you, Caleb," Jon said softly. He kept his eyes on the other vamp warily, even as he circled for another attack. "I understand why you took Mac, I can forgive that since no real harm was done. Her wounds are probably already healed, that’s one of her powers."

Caleb had circled around to the chair. Quickly, he picked it up and swung it furiously at Jon’s head. At the last second, Jon ducked, but the legs of the chair struck his shoulder hard enough to send the pieces of the chair scattering across the floor and knocking the knife from his hand. He heard it skitter across the room, as he fell against the only remaining piece of furniture in the room, a battered old desk.

Angrily, Jon shoved himself away from the desk, lightening seeming to flash in his eyes. His roar, the accompanying clap of thunder, as he flung the desk across the room with the force of his mind. It slammed into Caleb, throwing the vampire into the wall behind him. The force with which he hit the wall breaking ribs and forcing the breath from his lungs.


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It had taken Mac longer than she wanted to find the way out of the warehouse, but once she ran out the door, Richie stepped out of the shadows across the street and called out to her. Thinking only of getting Richie to go back into the warehouse, she started across the street. Richie’s scream of warning was drowned out by the screeching of tires.

Richie watched in horror as Mac struck the hood of the car, rolling up over the windshield before hitting the pavement with a sickening thud as the car sped off into the night. Mac landed partially on the curb at Richie’s feet; her mangled legs still laying in the street.

Kneeling beside her, Richie pulled her into his lap. "Mac," he said worriedly, "Mac, can you hear me?"

Mac heard him through a cloud of pain, but his voice wasn’t the one she wanted to hear. Knowing she couldn’t hold on much longer, she reached out to the one person she needed. Jon?

Jon froze when Mac’s voice rang in his head. She was weak and in a lot of pain; he knew something was terribly wrong. Moglie mia, what’s happened?

I couldn’t leave without saying goodbye, she whispered weakly, before the link between them was broken.

This time, Jon roared in pain. Leaving Caleb behind, he ran out of the building to find Mac. He reached out to her as he ran, but all he could feel was her pain. Jon realized he was losing her; he could feel her energy drifting away. Hold on, tesoro mia, I’m coming, he told her, not even sure she heard him.