Passion For Hire (Passion #5) (23 page)

“It is not your concern darling. Don’t treat me like an imbecile. I know you do not want me. You could not even make love to me.” Her voice broke on a sob. “You were horrified when I revealed that I have feelings for you, and the final insult was trying to make me think you had already made love to me. Then you try to wipe my mind of all memories of you and leave, like I was nothing to you? I’ve known you for two years. I’ve paid for your services, I know this, but I thought we were friends. You came to me to escape your family, and you treated me the way you did?” She faced him, tears in her eyes. “Do you have any idea how much you hurt me?” She spat. “Then I follow your whore and have to listen to her drivel on about you all while she smells of you. You could make love to her but you couldn’t make love to me?” She turned away from him. “You treat me like that and think you will get away with it Adrian? She had to pay, you had to pay. Now she is gone, you can be with me. I know if she’s not around anymore you will eventually come to love me.”

With every word uttered by Nadine, Adrian felt his stomach tighten and fear began to claw at him. Faith couldn’t be dead surely. Nadine couldn’t have killed her, could she?

As his mind turned over with Nadine’s words, the horror of the situation began to sink in. He suddenly realised that the sickening tightening in his chest was fear, and a growing dread that he might never see Faith again.

“Where is she? What the fuck have you done with her?” He lunged, his hands closing around her arms. As soon as he touched her, an overwhelming sense of anger and hatred unlike anything he’d ever felt surged through him. The strength of her emotions, the intensity of her fury passed from her body to his at the contact of his hand on her.

“Fuck!” He swore loudly. “You are nothing but pure evil.” He dropped his hands from her. “How can you hate her so much? She’s done nothing, fucking nothing to you. Where is she? I swear if you’ve killed her, I’ll fucking kill you.”

Nadine simply chuckled. “How will you do that darling? I’m a seer. Ironic isn’t it? I’m not unlike your whore. She gets her visions in dreams or when touching someone. I just get flashes of images come to me at unexpected times. You try anything and I will see it coming.” She mocked.

“Oh, so will you see this?” Sirene snapped, and before anyone could react including Nadine, ropes appeared snaking around the older woman, binding her arms to her sides, and tightening around her, effectively making movement impossible.

She screeched, her face contorting with anger. “Let me go.”

“Silence!” Sirene responded, clicking her fingers and a gag appeared, sliding into Nadine’s mouth, reducing her to nothing more than muffled protests.

Adrian watched his mother walk up to Nadine and even though the older woman was taller, somehow Sirene still seemed more imposing and far more threatening. She raised her hand and slapped her hard across the cheek.

“Didn’t see that coming now did you? So, since you are determined to be uncooperative, you leave us with little choice but to bring you with us.” She leaned in closer to Nadine, her eyes bright with her fury. “For your sake, you’d better hope she’s alive too.”

“How will we find her mother? Nadine’s not going to help us at all.”

Sirene simply smiled and touched her fingers to his cheek. “Do not worry my son. This…woman has done us a favour.” She turned to Nadine. “Do you know what I’m going to do now? You call yourself a seer so tell me what we’re going to do next?” She clapped a hand to her mouth in an exaggerated display. “Oops, I forgot, you can’t speak with that thing in your mouth can you? Oh well, I personally don’t give a shit if you can see what we are going to do next or not. You’re one crazy bitch aren’t you? Again I say you’d better hope we find Faith and that she’s alive, because if you think we’re dangerous, you should see her sister. She can move things with her mind you know, and she was a bit upset with my son a few nights ago and nearly took his head off with a sword. She never laid a finger on the thing either.” Sirene shot her an almost serene smile and Fabian chuckled, his eyes alight as he stared at her.

Even Adrian felt like smiling at his mother’s performance. She might be tiny and some probably thought she was fragile being so tiny but she was far from that. The way Sirene was looking at Nadine was intimidating and he could see the hint of fear showing in her eyes. He was curious though as to what his mother intended doing next. They were going to have to do something soon because the sun was rising fast, and he could already feel the first bites of it on his skin. Even with their tattoos it still bothered them and he didn’t want to test prolonged exposure to it either, by simply standing under the harsh rays.

“We need to get to shelter.” He pointed out and they all agreed.

“I need to go in the Trans Am my son.” Sirene said. “I want to try a spell. Nadine did us a favour by taking your car. I’m going to try a spell which I’m hoping will make the car take us to where she drove it from.”

“Do you think it will work?” He asked. “We need to do something. I am concerned for Faith’s safety now.”

His mother patted his arm. “We will do the best we can but we need to hurry. This sun is going to be punishing for us to work in.” She turned to Fabian. “You will have to follow in your car with Lucas and her.” She jerked her head towards Nadine.

“Very well my beauty. We should get going though. I fear the longer it takes us to locate Faith, could mean the difference between life and death for her.”

Adrian climbed behind the wheel of the Trans Am and watched his father push Nadine into his car with Lucas following her onto the back seat. His attention focused back on Sirene when she sat with her head bowed as if in prayer. He knew better than to speak to her. He needed to let her concentrate because she was the best chance they had of finding Faith at this point. It was obvious Nadine wouldn’t tell them.

Fuck, Nadine. If he hadn’t seen it and heard her for himself, he’d never have guessed that the woman he’d known for two years could turn the way she had. She’d lied to him all this time. He’d fucked her at her request and he’d fed from her countless times and she’d never let on that she knew what he was.

She’d been treated badly by her ex-husband for years, and now Adrian wondered if all she’d told him had been a lie too. The woman who had glared at him so angrily, and with eyes that were so cold and bitter, was nothing like the woman he’d thought he knew.

He was distracted from his thoughts by his mother placing her hands on the car’s steering wheel and caressing it under her hands for a moment. Finally she opened her eyes and spoke.

“Remember the journey that brought you to here, now take us back to where you’ve last been.” She turned to him. “Start the car Adrian. I need to see if that worked. Then put it in drive and release the handbrake. I’m not quite sure what will happen if anything but I’m hoping the car will do something.”

He turned the key and, put the transmission in drive and released the handbrake. Almost immediately the car surged forward and began to drive, all without anyone controlling it. He turned to his mother in amazement. She’d done it, well hopefully she had.

“Now we just sit and wait to see where it takes us son. Hopefully it takes us to where Faith is. I must confess I do not have a good feeling about this. That woman is completely crazy. How on earth you ended up involved with someone like her, I don’t know.”

“She was a client and she was never like that...that woman we all saw back there. I hurt her mother. She confessed that she loved me and I panicked and tried to erase all knowledge of her ever having known me. I just seem to cause more and more problems and now Faith may die because of me.”

“No Adrian, never think that. No one can ever predict what a person is capable of. You cannot help what is or is not in your heart. Not loving that woman does not make her behaviour your fault. You must stop always thinking the worst and blaming yourself for everything. You are not to blame and you are not a bad person my son. There is much your father and I wish to discuss with you, but later, once we find Faith. Just remember one very important thing, we love you. Your father and I love you. Your brothers and sister love you, even Faith. You might deny having feelings for her and you might not want her love, but she does love you. Let everyone in, stop hiding behind those walls you erect, please.” She leaned over and touched her lips to his cheek.

For some reason her words, and that gentle kiss made tears burn at the backs of his eyes, and he blinked rapidly to keep them from falling.

As the car drove them to wherever it was taking them, hopefully to where Faith was, his mother’s words played over in his mind. One thing kept leaping to the fore all the time, Faith. Finally he had to concede defeat. He could deny it and fight it as much as he wanted to, but somehow she had managed to worm her way in. He wasn’t prepared to think of it as love, but he would allow himself to accept that the pain he was feeling inside, was brought on by the possibility that he may never see her alive again.

They continued on in silence. Sirene was focused on their surroundings as the Trans Am drove them under her spell to wherever it was heading. Adrian’s head was filled with so many confusing and conflicting thoughts, but eventually he started paying more attention to the direction his car was headed. It looked like it was going to the beach.

Even as he thought it, he caught a glimpse of the ocean in the distance, the water sparkling under the bright sunlight. Damn he was tired. The sunlight although not shining on them too badly through the car’s tinted windows, was still sapping his energy. That combined with a lack of sleep, the stress of Nadine’s stunt, and the uncertainty over Faith’s safety, had him feeling exhausted.

As they weaved their way through the city of Hobart, it became more and more apparent once they cleared the city and the car continued on, that they were in fact heading for the beach. The Trans Am was following the coastline so the only question was where would it stop?

When it finally slowed, turning and pulling up in a car park that faced towards the beach Adrian realised that although it had brought them to where Faith had probably parked it, they still had no idea where she’d gone. She would probably have gone onto the beach, but there were shops behind them too that she may have gone to. This was not going to be easy.

“Where do we go now mother; do you have any ideas?” Adrian’s scanned the beach but although it was a more isolated one, there were still a handful of people getting around.

“I can try to use a location spell again I suppose but if it gives us the same answer as last time outside your home, it won’t help us much. Of course now we are parked at the beach, it is obvious that the ripples are representing the waves. The trouble we have is that it’s a big area. If she’s there, she could be anywhere along it. Oh to have the ability Faith has my son. If only touching Nadine would give us some answers. Come; let us join your father and your son.”

They climbed out of the Trans Am and hopped into Fabian’s car noticing in that short time how much sting there was to the sun. This was going to test their strength trying to find her, and Adrian couldn’t help but worry that they were already too late. If Faith was out in that sun somewhere, even with the tattoo, she would slowly wither under the intensity of its rays.

Once they were all seated in Fabian’s car, Adrian turned to study Nadine. “Tell me where she is please.” His tone was soft; using that voice on her he knew once had been enough to get her wet.

She shot him a venomous look and shook her head, not backing down when he then glared at her. How could she do this? Just a few days ago and she’d declared her love for him. He shifted over to her, pushing his face right up to hers.

“Do you know what will happen if Faith is dead?” She shook her head again, some of the anger leaving her expression. “You...will…die.” He raised his hands to her neck. “I…will…kill…you…myself.” He squeezed enough until her eyes widened and seemed to bulge in her head before releasing her again. “I will kill you if she dies.” He leaned back. “Now, you have one last chance to tell us where she is.” She shook her head and Adrian’s patience exploded. He grabbed her again, squeezing her neck harder until her skin turned a dark shade of red. She was making garbled noises behind the gag and still he wouldn’t let up.

“Adrian, my son, stop.” Sirene’s hand settled on his arm. “Don’t kill her, not here, not now.”

“Let her go son. She is not going to help us. You will have plenty of time to exact your revenge when we find Faith.” Fabian’s voice was low. “We need to start looking.”

Adrian turned ready to climb from the car when he noticed Lucas was watching Nadine. He was being extremely subtle about it though, as if not wishing to risk detection. Suddenly curious as to what his son found so fascinating in her, he too cast a glance at her from the corner of his eye and realised that Nadine was staring out the window. Her eyes were fixed on something down the beach and he could see the smallest twist of her lips. She was smiling. It wasn’t exactly the kind of smile he wanted to see though. There was something dark and almost sinister about it.

Attempting to keep his cool and not let her see he was suspicious of her in any way, he turned to glance out the car windows. He looked up as if scanning the cloudless sky before shifting his attention to the water which was almost hard to look at with the sun reflecting off it. Finally he turned his head in the direction Nadine had been looking. He could see some rocks in the distance and a long expanse of open sand. There were clumps of tough grass growing at various points along the beach and it was in their general direction that Adrian realised was her main focal point. Was it possible that Faith was amongst the grass? It was certainly high enough, and from his vantage point it looked like it was dense enough to easily conceal a body.

He turned away from the view of the beach and saw that Nadine was no longer looking outside, she was focused on him. He could see tension in her eyes and realised that she was possibly seeing into the future and may very well know what he was thinking.

“We need to start looking father.” He said quietly. “Come, please. You too mother. Lucas, you will stay here and keep an eye on her.” He looked to his son for his agreement and when he nodded, they all climbed from the car.

It was the dazzling sunlight to their eyes which struck first, almost blinding them in its intensity. Given they were normally out at night and not the day, the glare of the sun off the sand and water was painful. Of course, it had nothing on how it felt when the rays hit their skin, burning and stinging as it touched them despite their clothing.

“Fuck, if that bitch had been more helpful, we wouldn’t have to suffer like this.” Adrian snapped, showing uncharacteristic anger in front of his parents and his mother touched his arm, concern showing in her green eyes.

“Please son, calm down. We will not stop until we find her.” She hugged him to her briefly. “Wait!” She gave a sudden cry and he could see the excitement on her face. “I have an idea. It might not work, but anything is worth a shot at this point.” She opened the car again and pulled out the scrap of black lace that Adrian had torn from Faith several hours ago.

She held the panties in her hand and closed her eyes. “Let these panties take us to the one who owns them. Give a sign to those who seek her. Show us the way before it’s too late.” Sirene made no attempt to rhyme which was a surprise, but when Adrian looked closely into her face, he could see the lines of worry fanning out around her eyes. To see his mother obviously concerned was enough to send his heart plummeting into his stomach. If she was worried, did that mean she didn’t feel hopeful that they would find Faith alive?

“When we were in the car, I saw Nadine looking over that way.” He said, nodding his head briefly in the direction he’d caught her looking. He didn’t want his actions to be too obvious in case she was watching through the car’s window. “It might be nothing but it was the look in her eyes. It was a gleeful, mean look.” He flicked a glance over to where the heavy clumps of grass began. “I suggest we start our search there.”

“We will son, but let us see if the spell your mother is using is helpful to us.”

His father’s words brought his attention back to Sirene who was still standing, muttering something under her breath, her hands cupped around Faith’s panties.

He found himself cringing slightly seeing her with them in her hands, the material torn and ragged looking from when he’d ripped them off Faith. He was so used to keeping his life closed off to everyone, but those panties pretty well told a story on their own. Of course seeing them also made him hurt. It was a pain that pierced through him, the thought he might never see Faith again. Memories of their last time together filled his head. The way he’d treated her, spoken to her. He’d fucked her and basically dismissed her like she was nothing more than a cheap street corner hooker.

“Look.” His mother’s voice snapped him out of his mental turmoil and he turned his attention back on her, seeing the excitement on her face. There wasn’t just excitement though; she was looking flushed like someone who was suffering from mild sunburn. So was his father for that matter, so he could only assume he was the same. They needed to get looking quickly because the sun was starting to get to them, and it wasn’t going to get better until they were out from under its harsh rays. “Look.” She said again and both he and his father crowded closer.

At first Adrian wasn’t sure where or at what he was supposed to be looking, but then he noticed it. It was only faint and it wasn’t all that obvious what it was at first, but slowly it became clearer, more distinct. It was an arrow, a red arrow floating little more than a hair’s breadth off the fabric of the panties.

“What the hell does that mean?” He hissed, keeping his voice down so Nadine wouldn’t hear them.

“I’m not sure but I’m hoping that when we walk, it will work like a compass and the arrow will stay pointing in the direction where Faith is.” Sirene said absently, her gaze still fixed on the arrow.

“Well come on mother, let’s go.” He was impatient to get looking.

“Wait one moment. There is something I need to do first.” She walked back to the car and opened the door. “To the dungeon with this woman and lock her up tight.” She commanded and with a flash of white light, Nadine was gone.

“Where the hell is she? How do you know it worked? You sent her to the cells under the house didn’t you? Why mother? What if we needed to question her?”

Sirene touched his arm. “She has no intention of helping us, and I don’t need the distraction of knowing she is sitting in the car, possibly gloating that we might not find Faith, and if we do, that it might be too late. Plus, I thought Lucas might wish to come with us.” She peered into the car. “Is that right?” She asked him.

“Yes please, let me help you look for Faith. This sun is brutal and you are all looking like it is affecting you.” He climbed from the car, his concerned gaze moving around them all.

“Come, follow me.” Sirene said and they all headed down onto the sand. It was soft this high up the beach, and they sank down into it, making it harder to move quickly. It would have helped to use their vampire speed, but they didn’t want to do anything to draw obvious attention. There weren’t a lot of people on the beach, but enough to notice anything out of the ordinary.

Using Faith’s panties as a guide, or the arrow on them anyway, they headed in the direction it was pointing. It seemed that it was in fact acting like a compass because if they changed direction at all, the arrow turned to keep pointing in the general direction of a large sprawling clump of long reed like grass. It was growing over a long expanse of the sand, high up the beach and Adrian could see it would be a good area for someone trying to hide a body. Thinking of Faith as ‘a body’ caused a fresh wave of fear through him though and unconsciously, he found himself forging ahead, overtaking his parents and Lucas.

When they were finally upon the start of the tall, reedy kind of grass, he slowed down to see what the arrow was doing now. It had changed direction slightly and was indicating they still needed to go further down the beach. Again, he led the way trying to ignore the fact that he felt almost like he was on fire under the unrelenting glare of the sun. If they didn’t find Faith soon, they might not survive this prolonged exposure to the bright rays. Still he knew if they were struggling in it, then how the hell could Faith have had any chance of surviving it?

“Wait Adrian, the arrow is changing direction.” His mother’s voice brought him to a halt and he turned back.

“There.” She pointed to a larger clump of grass. “It’s pointing that way. Quickly, we must hurry. We can’t stay under this sun much longer.”

Adrian hurried towards the clumps of grass that were thicker over one area and once he reached it, he pushed his way in almost leaping to get through. He parted the grass so it wouldn’t hinder him too much, his eyes scanning ahead for any sign of Faith and nearly tripped over a large piece of driftwood he hadn’t seen. He stumbled on it slightly, regaining his balance but then something registered with him. It hadn’t made a wooden sound when he’d accidently kicked into it with his foot.

He glanced down at it and noticed it looked blackened like it had been through a fire. That was odd though as it raised the question as to how it got to be where it was, on the beach.

“The arrow is indicating this is the location Adrian. Everyone spread out and look around.” Sirene instructed.

He frowned, looking around and his eyes landed back on the blackened shape at his feet. It was hard to see properly due to the layer of sand over parts of it and he stared at it in confusion.

When finally his brain made the connection between what his eyes were seeing and what he’d thought he was looking at, he felt horror stab through him. That horror became gut wrenching pain. An agony unlike anything he’d ever experienced in his life. Unable to deal with the pain that was tearing through his body, whipping him emotionally, he cried out, the sound like that of a wounded, dying animal.

He fell to his knees, every movement of his body hurting him, leaving him feeling like he was nothing more than a mass of open wounds.

With hands shaking so hard and his whole body shuddering with sheer, blind terror, he reached for the blackened shape lying partially obscured by grass and soft sand.

He felt the movement next to him, and didn’t need to turn his head to know that his parents and his son had rushed to his side when he cried out. Slowly, almost fearful of what might happen, he touched the shape he’d first thought was a length of burnt driftwood. Gently, he lifted it and as the sand fell free, what he was staring at became more obvious, at least to the others standing around.