5 Darkness Falls (25 page)

Kai obligingly took pic
ture
s of me and Mel
;
some goofy, some sweet.

“Come on over, Drex. I want one of us,” I said. He meant a lot to me. I wanted to have at least one photo of us, even if I
’d be
bloated in it.

I squealed as he lifted me into his arms. I
hugged
his neck, turning to Kai and Mel
;
they
each snapped a photo. I leaned in and kissed his cheek.

“That one was golden,” Mel said. “Now Lexi and Kai. Give me your phone, Kai.”

Drex set me down and moved to take my phone from Mel
so he could capture this too.

As Kai moved towards me, I suddenly grew shy. Out of all the times for me to abruptly become unnerved by him, this was the strangest.

He gave me a
warm
smile, but hesitated near me.

“Come on you two. You’ve
kissed
for crying out loud. Kai, put your arm around her and smile
, both of you
.”

Leave it to Mel to break the ice.

Kai slipped his arm around me. My heart seemed to grow heavier beside him. This almost too close
ly
resembled
a family photo. I
never
realized until now how easily it could have been
;
Kai and me with a baby on the way.

I gazed up at him. He had a beautiful profile. His hair was pulled back in a low ponytail, displaying good bone structure.

“Look forward, Lex.”

I
had a warm feeling
as Kai’s eyes sought mine. Without speaking, I already knew he was asking what I was looking at
.
I chuckled as if it was an inside joke and faced Drex and Mel.

“Got it!” Mel passed me my phone.

I’d have to print the pics later and frame them for the house. I needed one of Kellan and me too.

“It came out good,” Drex said as he handed Kai his phone.

“Thanks.” Kai gazed at the photo for a minute before shoving his phone in his pocket.

Right then, my
tummy growl
ed
.

“Aw. Baby’s hungry.” Mel rubbed my belly. “Let’s order pizza.”

Chapter 22

“Um, Lex. I guess I feel like I should tell you about Kellan.” Mel fidgeted as she plopped back down on the sofa beside me. She’d just put her plate in the sink as Drex retreated to his room.

For the moment, I’d forgotten about
Kella
n’s secretive trip, but instantly, all
the anguish returned with a vengeance, suffocating me. I sucked in a breath, facing her. “That’d be nice.” I set my plate aside. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to want anymore pizza after I heard what she said.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Kai stated.

“That doesn’t seem fair,” I protested.

“I’m not doing it to spite you. I just don’t want to see you upset.” He walked towards the windows looking out, distracting himself. He clearly didn’t want any part of this.

I faced my best friend. “Please, tell me.”

She gazed back at Kai, nibbling her bottom lip. “Maybe he’s right. Maybe it is best that you don’t know.”

“Oh, no. Not you too. How would you feel if this was Craig and you were in the dark while everyone around you knew?”

“Damn. You really are good with words.” She
deliberated a little
longer before finally meeting my gaze. “He’s been communicating with some guy for months now. No one knows who he is.”

“Communicating how?”

“Texts, Face
Time chats, e-mails.”

I
sucked my lips in, rolling them
between my teeth. This didn’t sound good…or safe. That guy could be anyone.

“One other thing. Even though he’s cammed with him, he doesn’t know what he looks like. The guy knows what Kellan looks like, but he was always just a shadow.” Mel’s brows drew together. “Crap. That doesn’t even sound smart to me, the ditz of the group.”

My eyes darted in her direction.
“You’re not a ditz.”

She shrugged
, pursing
her lips
and
considering me. “Sorry, Lex. He’s gone to meet with this stranger and
to
go find Cecilia.”

“What?” I shouted. Yup. I was definitely done eating. “Of all the stupid, ignorant moves to make. How does he know this isn’t a trap? How
…
err! Oh my gosh.
Idiota!
”

***

Kellan

I yanked the dart from my father’s chest
and
lifted him
against my
left side
. My
elbow
wrapped around
the side of his waist as my arm splayed up
,
over his chest.

I quickly ran to Derek. Ordinarily
,
I would have been a selfish prick, and left him, but he had helped me finally
find
her. I tossed the dart aside and awkwardly gripped him with my other arm.

Thank God for my supernatural strength.

I took off for the forest. It was much harder to maneuver through the trees with them at my side
s
. It slowed me down
,
just enough that I knew I’d be cutting it close.

Damn. If I got caught; if we got captured…I couldn’t even think
about
it. I’d made a big mistake in coming here. This was not how things were supposed to go. Derek had assured me that she was accessible. He didn’t lie there. What he neglected to mention was that while she was accessible, she was still impenetrable.

I knew I was going to have to stop soon and make the call, to warn them…

In the distance
,
I heard rustling through the woods.
Shit
!

***

Lexi

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. I couldn’t light up. Dr. H had read me the riot act for my previous slips. The baby moved within my belly. I smiled, despite the circumstances. In a few short weeks, we’d know whether we were having a boy or a girl. Dr. H said we had to wait until my skin was stretched a bit further for their super
-
sono machine to get a visual on the baby.

“Okay. Let’s think this through. Kellan is already gone. We can’t bring him back
, but…”
I swallowed hard.

“What, Lex?” Mel sat on the edge of the couch.

“He hasn’t called.” I got up and grabbed my phone off the kitchen island. I had no missed messages except from Jarrod. He was letting me know that a few more props on the list were dead ends.

“Well, I mean, that doesn’t automatically
indicate
he’s in trouble. He…
he
could just be busy! Or strategizing…or…
crap!
He’s probably gotten himself in a pile of horse manure.” Her voice deflated the longer she spoke. She was grasping
,
trying to find the positives, but the
re
just weren’t
any.

“Maybe I can access the chat
history
on his computer,” Kai offered.

“Please.” I knew my eyes were wide, fully displaying the fear
that was threatening to consume me.
Thoughts had
gripped
my heart and weren’t releasing it. Something could have easily happened to him. I hated thinking about it. I was ready to vomit after the first idea
that
popped up.

Kai sat down at the computer and started browsing through programs.

I moved to stand behind him. I clutched my stomach, as if my baby’s life depended on this information being located, whatever this information happened to be.

Mel came up beside me
, grabbing
my right hand
.
“We’ll get through this. Together.”

I couldn’t help but feel betrayed by all those not in this apartment. Kai, Drex and Mel were the only ones who trusted me. That was a painful truth to have to face.

“I have something.” Kai pulled up a log on the computer. It was similar to video play software, but with notes already recorded and available to select from a list.

Kai clicked the first one and the Face
Time chat popped up on the screen. The black silhouette
took up most of the screen,
but it still showed Kellan’s upper body in a small square at the bottom right.

“We’ll work on my terms. I don’t work for free,”
the shadow stated.

“Why are you contacting me rather than her?”
Kellan crossed his arms over is chest. I could see the wheels turning as he faced the figure on the screen.

“It’s personal.”

“Fine. Why should I work with you?”

I heard the
silhouette
release a sinister
laugh.
“Because you’ll need me. No one’s gotten closer to her than
I have.”

Kellan’s lips
formed
a hard, wrinkled
line.
His usually bright green eyes were dark
and
dangerous in the image before me.
“Fine.”

“Fine. I’ll contact you later.”
The stranger immediately
signed
off, followed by Kellan a few seconds later.

“That must have been the first time they chatted,” I stated.

“We should run this guy through the voice recognition software. Maybe there’ll be a match.” Kai turned
his chair
around to face me.

“What if…” I
clenched
left hand, rubbing my fingers along my palm
.
I inhaled quick,
trying to calm
myself. “What if he’s one of them?”

“All the more reason to do it. If we don’t act now, we may not have a chance at pulling him out.” There was sadness in Kai’s eyes. I knew he didn’t care about Kellan. It must have been his feelings for me; knowing I would suffer if I ever lost Kellan
. He was showing
selfless
compassion
.

I nodded. “I can access the back office from my laptop at the vamp army headquarters.”

Drex came running out of his room.

We all turned towards him.

“Get her out now!” He pointed to Mel.

“What? Why?” Mel jumped away from me. “What’s wrong?” Her voice squeaked.

“You need to leave. You’re not safe here,” he pressed.

“If I’m not safe, then she’s not safe.” Mel
braced
herself against the burly vamp.

“Don’t fight me. You’re not trained. Get out now while you still can.”

There was something about him that spooked me
,
and obviously Mel too
,
because she immediately backed down. She turned to me. “Um, I don’t think I told you, but Craig wants to stay with me. He said he doesn’t care. I guess that’s a bit like a fairy tale in some ways.”

“It means he loves you.”

She smiled. “I know.” She hugged me. “Sorry for going off on you earlier.”

“Sorry for ignoring you. How about I call you every morning while I’m baking? I can put you on speaker and we can talk while I work. Maybe some days you can even come over and taste some stuff.”

“Sounds perfect.” She nodded.

“Thanks for tonight.” She’d been amazing, as usual. She never ceased to
surprise
me.

“You really need to get out of here. And take this.” Drex pushed a dart gun into her hands
,
and shoved her towards the door.

Mel swallowed hard as she looked back at me. She looked at Drex and then Kai. “Make sure I don’t have to bury my best friend.”

I watched helplessly as she rushed out the door. Alarm knotted in my chest,
squeezing
my lungs
and
banging on my heart.

“What’s going on?” I asked, looking directly at Drex. Kai was in motion,
racing
around the apartment
,
checking windows. Apparently
,
Drex had opened his mind and let Kai in.

“It’s better if you
don’t know. Leave it up to us, Baby C
akes.” His voice was lax,
completely
opposite of his body language.

The baby moved
inside
my belly, reminding me that it wasn’t only me. It was both of us. That
’s
the reason I plopped down on the sofa, curling on my side against the arm.