52: Old Friends

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And the Final Chapters of the book begin.

The song on the side would totally be a theme song for the book!! NOT GOING TO LIE.

________________


"What?"

John and Michael looked at each other, Michael's expression solemn. Why were they doing this? Why today? Why now?

It'd been two days since Christmas. I went home to say goodbye to aunt Lyn and for more clothes but that's it. Michael and I were going to stay together until New Years. We'd meet with my parents and celebrate the start of a New Year together. And that was the plan.

That was until Michael announced he was leaving until New Years. 

Katherine smiled sadly at me and patted my shoulder before walking out of the study.

I don't know what bought this on. Nothing has happened since before Christmas. No attack in Burnaby or Vancouver. We knew that that was odd, we all discussed that. But why now? Why so sudden?

"I don't..." I folded my hands in my lap. "I don't understand-"

"If we leave now we have the element of surprise. Katherine thinks she can see them. Plus we need to feed before we do anything." John interrupted glancing at Michael as he said this. 

I didn't like the look on his face. I didn't like the way Michael wasn't giving me the answers himself. Instead, I had to find out by opening the door and welcoming the stampede of vampires and witches while I was unaware Michael was getting dressed upstairs.

Pamela sent John a fierce look. "Can't you be sympathetic?"

He spun on her and Pam's partner, Nicholas, stepped forward. The man was wonderful and downright handsome but aren't they all? I had a chance to introduce myself and speak to him before I was told about them leaving as soon as the sun is almost down.. 

"I'm telling her the truth because it seems Michael isn't helping at all by standing there and staring at her, is he?"

"But you don't..." She sighed and walked to stand behind my chair. "Evie, why don't you come with me for a minute."

I nodded numbly and stood to follow Pamela through the house and out of the front door. We stopped at the drive, the sun was slowly going down but it was barely visible because of the blanket of fog covering the trees and the road. I ran a hand through my hair with a sigh.

"You understand why we're leaving?"

"Of course."

"Just the way Jonathan said it was-"

"It couldn't have been said any better." I shrugged. "I understand, Pam."

She sighed heavily and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "Michael's worried."

"I can tell."

Pam frowned at me. "Evie," 

"It seems I'm the only one who wasn't aware of this plan you all had." 

Of course, I was angry. I'd been kept out of the loop and I knew there was a reason for it. 

"It's to help us all. You'll see when we get back."

"I can't wait." I spun out of her hold and walked back inside. I went to walk into the living room but I got yanked to the side by Katherine.

"Stop it, Evie."

My eyes widened and I opened my mouth to yell but she covered my mouth with her hand. 

"Alright, fine. I get that you're angry. But the quicker they get this done the better and you know that."

I pulled her hand away. "Are you going?"

"No, but I'll be going with Nick after they finish feeding. Gran taught me a few new tricks." She winked to try and lighten the mood. It didn't.

"Is Sam going?"

"Yes."

"Ana?"

"She doesn't need to. Look, Evie. After these few days we don't need to worry about the vampires."

My jaw clenched. "What about Tate?"

Her lips pursed. "He's under orders-"

I didn't need to hear anymore. I stormed away from her in search of Michael and John. I found them still in the study talking in hushed tones next to the back door. "So you're going to kill him? Even though you know he doesn't mean any harm to us."

John looked down at his feet but Michael looked directly at me. "We don't know what he's-"

"I do." I protested. 

"John, can you give us a minute."

He left the room without a glance. What was wrong with everyone? Were they all deliberately being like this? 

"Your friend Tate is here to hurt us. Not here to help or befriend you, he wants to hurt us."

"I give up having this argument with you. I can't seem to get through to you no matter what I say."

Silence stretched between us. Have I slipped into some alternative reality? Am I even awake? 

"I'm sorry."

"You're not." I said as I shook my head and stepped toward him. "Why didn't you tell me?"

He sighed and lifted his hands to cup my cheeks. "I wasn't allowed."

"Who said so?"

"Who do you think?"

"Was it Ana? Because I can respect that, but if it was Kate I will surely murder her."

"It was Ana, luckily. And I am sorry."

I gazed into his green eyes for approximately six seconds before saying, "You're sorry about not telling me but you're not sorry about Tate."

He dropped his hands, his eyes hardening. "No, I'm not."

"You're going to kill him aren't you?"

He brushed by me without an answer. 

So, that's that. They were going to kill him and the rest. Tate didn't freaking deserve it. 

From what I could see through the fog, the sun was slowly setting. Katherine smiled sadly at me before leaving through the front door with Nicholas. Pam gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek and John also hugged me. Michael was last.

Everyone had left the house, all waiting outside. Although the look in his eyes was still hard and emotionless, something was buried behind it. 

"Stay safe and inside."

I couldn't promise anything. Not a thing. But I nodded anyway. 

He curled his hand around the back of my neck and pressed a long, lingering kiss to my forehead. I clenched my jaw and shut my eyes as he landed another kiss to my cheek. 

"Don't do this to him." I couldn't help but say. "He doesn't deserve to die."

Michael sighed but still didn't speak and it was beginning to grate my nerves.

"He's my friend." I pleaded. "Give him a chance-"

"You knew this would happen," He stepped back, his eyes burning with anger now. "Your 'friend' has been watching you since you've been coming here. Your 'friend'," He lifted his hands in quotations. "Threatened to hurt your brother and, oh, look what happened. He ended up in hospital."

"You knew, and you said yourself that he had nothing to do with it. What in Gods name happened to that understanding Michael instead of this condescending asshole I used to be familiar with before we were together."

His nose flared and I noticed just how angry he was because his pupils were starting to pulse. 

A knock from the open door surprised both of us. John walked in with crossed arms and stepped toward us. "Evie, we have to go. You can fight when Michael gets back."

"But when he gets back, there won't be anything to fight about because he'd of done it."

John glanced between us obviously at a loss for words which was a huge surprise. He left the house without so much as a mutter. I turned my gaze to Michael, suddenly seeing the side that he'd been hiding. 

He was sad. I wasn't sure why because he left before I could ask. And I couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong. 

***

Six o'clock. They'd been gone for half hour. And my decision whether to go outside and check whether Tate could be wondering around out back was slowly going toward the 'do it' area. 

I stood up from couch in the study and stared out the window absentmindedly touching the necklace Michael had given to me.

My nerves were shot. My bottom lip was swollen from how much I'd been biting it. 

I groaned and roughly ran my hands through my hair. I couldn't let them kill him. They couldn't. They can't. 

Then do something about it.

But if I do, I'd be betraying the man I love and my friends. 

But if you don't, your friend dies...

"Shit." I ran upstairs to throw on my grey hoodie and my converse. I tied my hair up in a loose pony tail and ran back down and out the sliding back doors. I started walking further into the trees cursing the damned fog. It was gloomy, not completely dark but almost. I could still see everything ahead and behind me but the house had disappeared. "Tate?" I yelled. "Tate, are you here?" 

I still hadn't seen him since he'd left that nice note on the porch. Meaning I hadn't had time to scold him about it. 

"Tate!"

"What?" 

I spun around with a sigh of relief. Pure luck.

He was grinning as he slowly strolled toward me. "Is there a reason why you were yelling my name to the high heavens?"

"I wanted to thank you for that note but then again scold you for being out so early."

He chuckled. "I knew you'd be upset about that." 

"Yes well..." How do you tell someone that they were going to die? How do you tell a friend that they were going to die?

"Something's wrong." Tate zipped up his dark blue sweatshirt and pulled the hood over his head. "Evie, what's wrong?"

"Tate..."

"What's going on?" He stepped toward me. "Is it your vampire? Has something happened?"

"No... Yes, it's hard to explain. They've all gone to feed because they're getting ready to... To find you."

He raised a brow. "Okay."

"A-aren't you-"

"Walk with me." I walked along side him as we moved deeper into the trees. I didn't know how far this forest went because I'd never been this far. "You're worried about me."

"You don't deserve this."

"I do."

"It's not your fault."

"But the things I've done to people. If Michael wants to be the one to kill me then I'd let him."

I grabbed his forearm to stop him. "You used his name."

"Because at this point it doesn't matter." He sighed. "You knew this was going to happen."

"I thought I could..." I trailed off. I did know this was going to happen. But I thought I could change what would happen.

"You thought you could what?"

"Stop this. Make them see you're a good person. Because you are. This isn't your fault it's you maker's. Why she has anything against Michael and me is beyond reason."

Something in the way Tate was glaring at the ground had me stopping. "What's wrong?"

He turned to me. "There's something you have to know about her."

"What?" I blinked.

His jaw clenched as a breeze blew above the trees and moved the leaves on the bed of the forest. 

"Tate?"

He spun around again, his back facing me.

"Tate, what's-"

He pulled me against him, covering my mouth as he did so and pressed his back against a tree. I muffled a surprised cry but he hushed for me to be quiet. 

The silence stretched on for what seemed like forever. Tate didn't move a single muscle. He didn't even breathe. Not a muscle not a breath. After another minute he moved his hand off my mouth. 

"Don't speak." He whispered in my ear.

I nodded and continued to wait. His arm remained around my waist as the time moved on, my back pressed firmly against his chest. I glanced down at it only for a second before he let me go with a sigh. 

I turned to him and took a few steps back. "What was that-"

He pushed me. 

I lost my footing and fell onto my back with a groan. And when I sat back up to see why he'd done it, he was gone. I gaped at the tree we were just against. 

A chunk was missing. 

I glanced around as I scrambled to stand up. I could hear yelling but... Why couldn't I see it?

But then I heard, "Go!"

I didn't know who said it or where it came from but it didn't matter. I started running. I didn't have a clue where I was or where I was going, I just started running. The trees blurred past me as I panted and dodged in and out, making sure to avoid holes. 

I leaped over a huge one and grunted as I landed on all fours. 

"Evie!"

I quickly stood up and gasped at the scene in front of me. Tate's hood was still up, his face covered completely now, like he deliberately wanted to cover his face. And... And...

"Michael," I whispered. But then I shouted "Stop!"

From what I could catch, they were swinging for each other. But... It was all a blur. They were moving so fast.

He glanced at me for a split second but it was all it took for Tate to connect his fist with his stomach.

"No!" I started toward them my eyes glued to Michael's hunched over body.

Tate's head swung toward me. "G-"

Slap. Right to his nose. I flinched at the crack and shuddered. He stumbled over his feet and fell to his side. I reached out to grab him but Michael's hand on my forearm yanked me away from him.

I directed my angry gaze toward him. "Did you follow me?"

Michael touched his eyebrow and wiped his mouth as he let me go. "It was the only way to find him."

I went to reply but it hit me. This is what they weren't telling me. "This was the plan, huh? Shut me out? You knew I'd come out here to tell him."

"Katherine knew. She could see it. As soon as we left the house earlier Katherine said your future was foggy, meaning you'd gone to see him. So, I had no other choice but to follow you."

I glanced down as Tate started to sit up; his hood fell from his face.

The horror was evident. But I couldn't understand why. His face had paled completely as his eyes stuck to Michael.

Michael turned just as Tate started to stand up.

And he gasped. 

Tate's jaw clenched as he wiped the trickling blood from his nose. His smile was wicked; it didn't look like him at all.

I looked away from him to Michael and gaped at his facial expression. He was smiling as well. But it was also sickly. Both of them had me cringing backward away from the scene. Michael's eyes had turned completely black and the black veins on his neck were as prominent as when he'd fed from me.

Tate looked exactly the same except the veins on his face were varied from the sides of his neck and mainly circled around his eyebrows and eyes.

"Well, fuck." Michael made me jump by the sound of his deep, growling voice. Even his curse had caught me off guard. "I would have thought the man stealing Evie away from me would have been an unknown and an unworthy son of a bitch. Guess I got one part right."

Which part, I started to wonder. What...?

"That's a bit of a rude hello after eighty years." Tate stood up and brushed off his clothes. "I was expecting a party, my dear friend."

Eighty years?

Michael's lips curled back over his sharp teeth and growled in an animalistic way. I haven't seen Michael looking so... Threatening. It only had me backing away from the confusing scene even more. 

Which was a stupid mistake. A very, very stupid mistake. 

Because something grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled me further back. I cried out in pain as their grip tightened and I truly believed half of my hair had probably fallen out. My eyes squeezed as the pinching pain started to give me an immediate headache. I lifted my hands to claw at their hand and shuddered at the rough and slender feel of it. 

The growling in front of me stopped and I opened an eye to look upon Tate and Michael's expression. A quiet ringing filled my ears. It was barely there, barely even noticeable. 

But the way both Michael and Tate had covered their ears and screwed up into a ball of flinching pain I had a feeling the ringing wasn't meant for me.

The hand on my head pulled me back and I yelped once again. My head rested on a shoulder. I turned my head toward who it was.

"Hello," The woman said.

And she was beautiful. So much so, it was sickly hypnotising. 

Unfortunately, I couldn't ponder on it any longer. Because her pupils expanded, she looked me directly in the eye and uttered the words in the most liquid soft voice:

"Sleep for me?"

***

It took a while to come through, I'll admit. 

At first I was disoriented. 

I didn't have a clue where I was. 

I felt like I'd just been swimming. My body was drained and my ears felt like they were filled with water. I exhaled sharply and blinked my eyes open. I glanced around the dark box room and at the wooden stairs leading to a door. A basement. There were no windows at all. 

"Evie?" A voice croaked.

I turned my head toward my name and literally felt my heart soar into a frightened rhythm. 

Michael's head was caked in blood but there was barely even a sign of a wound. He looked weak. His face was pale and he was shaking his leg; just like when we met. He was nervous or thirsty. We were both sat on the concrete floor. I could just about see him in the dark. 

He opened his eyes and turned his head to look at me. "Are you okay?"

I moved across the floor toward him. "I'm fine. But you're not."

The chuckle that escaped his lips was humourless. "I'm great actually."

"Where are we?"

"A cabin somewhere north." 

I stopped beside him and lay my head against the wall behind me. "Did she hurt you? That woman?"

No answer. His jaw clenched painfully and I noticed his knuckles curl into fists. 

"Michael, how do you know Tate?" I took his fist into my hand and flattened it against my palm. "Michael."

"Why don't you ask him?" He muttered. "I'm sure after the amount of time you've spent with him is enough for him to tell you his deepest darkest secret."

"I'm asking you." I frowned at his choice words.

"What's his name?" He asked me suddenly. 

"His name?"

"Yes. His name." He glared ahead of him instead of directing it toward me. "What is it?"

"Tate."

He started shaking his head. "That's only one of many abbreviations and I was a stupid to have bypassed that when you told me. Think carefully."

Before I could answer, the deadbolt on the door unlocked. The light overhead turned on and I looked in front of me to see Tate sitting against the far wall, but he was unconscious. Half of his face was covered in blood as well. At least I understood now why he was glaring ahead.

The steps creaked as someone walked down. A man. The brunette was in tattered clothes, his shoes old and muddy, his jeans ripped. He looked like Tate when I first met him. 

He looked to me and smiled. It was empty, almost as if the smile wasn't even there. His icy blue eyes stared directly at me as he walked forward. 

"Hello." He said sounding and looking excited. He looked no older than me probably the same age. His pupils suddenly started to dilate. "You smell good..."

"Stan," A female voice upstairs warned.

He shook his head briskly and offered his hand to me.

Michael's growl made me jump slightly. The boy, Stan, only chuckled and said, "I don't bite." 

"She's not going with you." Michael snarled.

"She has to. Or I take her up by force. Your call." Stan shrugged. 

"Michael," I stood up without so much as taking his hand. "It's fine. I'll be fine."

Michael went to stand up but the young vampire flattened his palm on his shoulder. "She wants to see her not you." He curled his hand around my forearm and led me upstairs. The cabin wasn't as bad as I imagined. I thought maybe they'd be living in some sort of ugly hole. But it was nice, hard to admit. 

Stan led me through a wide corridor that led right into a very large front room. It smelt like leather and fresh wood. There was a large window straight ahead of us. A fire crackling to the left of the window and the couches scattered accordingly around the fire.

Except they weren't empty.

Tate had

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