Bedburg Hills

66

JUSTIN POV

"What's going on?" Kira ran down beside me, grabbing Esme to hold her steady, "what the hell happened?" 

"I- I don't know," I shook my head, "she just started seizing and shaking. I- I don't know what to do. What do I do?"

She gave me and Jessica a list of items to get from downstairs. The two of us ran down there and I started rummaging through. 

"It'll be okay," Jessica tried to reassure me, "Kira can help her." 

"Yeah I'll believe it when I see it," I grabbed the remaining herbs and ran back upstairs. Jessica followed and started mixing everything together. 

"Let me see it," Kira grabbed, "hurry hurry!" She pulled the cup from Jess' hands and opened Esme's mouth, dumping it in, "swallow it Esme!" she said loudly, "I know it tastes gross but it'll stop them." I watched as it slid down her throat and within a few seconds her body started to relax. She started nodding, "okay, you're good. Everything's okay. I'm going to set this here, Justin if she starts shaking again, she drinks this." I nodded my head and walked back over to Esme. Her eyes filled with water as I sat down beside her. 

She looked sickly, pale. 

"It's okay," I whispered, "everything's okay, just close your eyes. Rest. Okay?" I kissed the top of her head and felt her nod. I stood up and walked over to Kira, she stood in the kitchen with Jessica. 

"What happened out there?" she asked me, "what went down?" 

"Well it's a long story," I sighed while sitting down, "I left and after a while of traveling I encountered another pack of wolves. I asked if they had seen her and since she was a vampire and that's 'against the rules' they took me back and their leader started to beat on me. He asked who my parents were and when I finally told him, he let me go and started apologizing. He said that my parents were pups when they found him, my pack raised him and when he was old enough, he left to start his own pack. So they let me go and he told me he saw a group of men that had a woman hostage. I just knew it was her. So I started in the direction he gave me and I got to this other town, it was like a ghost town. No one was around, the buildings and houses were all worn down, even the food was still rotting in the refrigerators. I made my way into the woods, caught her scent and followed it to a house. I barged through and got her out, she was in real rough shape. It was really bad already. Then we started hiking back and it got really really bad." He sat back and took a drink, "all these vampires came out of no where Kira, I didn't even hear them or smell them. They just popped up and they attacked us. They took Esme and they just bombarded me. I didn't think I was going to make it out alive. I fought as hard as I could but there were plenty of times I was on the bottom. Esme, I don't know how she did it, I thought I heard a really loud roar but then I just saw her and she kicked all of their asses. She was bitten and it affected her almost immediately, she hit the ground and just started crying, telling me it was burning her and that it felt like she was on fire. I picked her up and started to move again, but another one came out of the shadows and that's when I was bitten. It hurt like hell but I knew I had to keep moving, I wasn't going to be able to stop, I had to get here. So that's what I did. When I got close enough I was praying you were home because I knew you'd hear me if you were home. You came, thank god you came because I wasn't going to make it." She stood up and wrapped her arms around me. "I'm sorry for what I said about Jace," I shook my head, "I was mad and stressing out, I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said it." 

"It's okay," she nodded, "it's alright, everyone was on edge. I'm happy you're okay, I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you."

"You didn't know," I shrugged my shoulders while pulling back, "I didn't know until I was already too far in it. I wasn't going to stop or turn around."

"I don't expect you to," she smiled, "I'm going to make some dinner for everyone."

"It's almost 3 in the morning," I laughed. 

"Well everyone is awake," she smiled, "so I'll just make food for everyone." She turned and started sorting through the cabinets. I turned and walked back over to Esme, kneeling beside her. She moved her head to face me, slowly opening her eyes. 

"I'm going to take this off of you okay?" I whispered, "you might feel a small pinch." She nodded slowly I quickly took the needle from her arm, pressing firmly against the small hole to prevent any blood from escaping. 

"Justin," she whispered, "it- everything hu- hurts."

"Okay," I nodded, "alright, hold on." I stood up, "Jess can you explain what's happening? Why isn't anything working?"

"I- I don't know," she shook her head, "Kira?" 

"Yes?" she questioned. 

"Can you help her?" I asked, "everything hurts her." She set down the items in her hands, cleaning them and walking back into the room with us. She waved her hand over her, saying something I couldn't pronounce. 

"Can you and Alex leave the room?" she asked. 

"What?" I stepped back, "why?"

"I need to talk to Jessica," she said, "alone. Please." I sighed and went upstairs. I stood by my door with Alex, we listened. 

"What's the plan?" Jessica asked. 

"Something isn't right," Kira sighed, "she isn't positively reacting to anything I'm doing I feel like. Justin said when they were attacked by the vampires, he thought he heard a roar. I need to dig into her memories, maybe they can tell me something they can't."