Mateless and Home Bound

Chapter 52: Just Like Old Times

"It seems like we can trust him," Ed said. "I mean, I didn't exactly want to, but he did wind up helping us a lot. Especially with those shots for Eric and Jane."

He knew that. He was glad that those shots worked. Because, if they didn't, he was going to skin the man alive, vampire or not. There was something about those cold eyes that showed him warmth for once. It reminded him of whenever he looked at Sage. The man would immediately change from cold and snarky to warm and soft when Sage started talking to him. He didn't know how a human befriended a vampire, but it made him see a different side to the bat.

"I don't know," Sam said, leaning back on one of the sofas. "I don't like this one bit. It screams a trap."

"He didn't say that I had to come alone," Max told him. They were discussing whether or not to take the bat up on his offer to swap notes. It would be useful, especially since they were both trying to get rid of these hunters. But it was difficult to trust a vampire, especially one that had popped up out of nowhere.

"I'm surprised you actually trust him, Ed," Tyler said. They were all on the third floor, in one of the sitting areas. Since he stopped allowing people to come up there for no reason at all, the floor was back to being peaceful and quiet.

"I mean, look at it this way," the man leaned in to all of them. "He saved Charlie first, then talks to Eric, trying to give him as much information as he could because we wouldn't talk to him. Then he saves Sage, a human that he's supposed to love the blood of. Then he helps us save Eric and Jane, who was the one who actually got him in a choke hold according to Eric."

"I still can't believe that," Sam shook his head. "That takes a lot of skill to be able to catch one of them off guard enough to trap it like that. And he's one of the oldest ones."

"That's what he meant when he said that she was our best warrior," Max said. Even though this was about something serious, he was rather enjoying talking to his friends again. It was always so difficult getting them all to hang out with their families to take care of. Ed was still the only one that managed to take care of his family and have time for everyone else. How he did it amazed Max. Raising the guard wasn't exactly helping their schedules either. So, he was going to take this moment and enjoy it the best he could.

"Where did he want to meet?" Tyler asked.

"The Orion Meeting House," he told him.

"The middle of nowhere?" Sam gave a tense breath. "Where the mess with Eric almost dying first started?"

"According to Eric, that's what he was looking for," Max said. He had gotten word from Charlie just before hearing Eric's howl that there was something up with his office. When he saw the thumbtacks and the drawings, it wasn't hard to put two and two together.

"If that's the start of the secret passageway," Ed's golden eyes got brighter as he spoke. "Then that would explain why there was a camp of hunters over there. There could be more secrets there than we know."

"You forget that we built that house," Max told him. "We checked everywhere around there."

"We scanned through the whole territory," Tyler argued. "Yet this vampire still showed us more mysteries that we didn't know about."

Max sighed. It was frustrating just how much was unknown. He had made sure that the territory they gained was searched through with a fine-tooth comb. He didn't want even a single rock unturned. It had been inhabited for so long before they grabbed it that he wanted to be sure they knew about everything there. It took years to map out and make sure that everything was safe for the pack to run through if they so wanted.

And now, after fourteen years, he still managed to find something new about the land.

"I'm going to talk to him," Max said, standing up. "He hasn't shown any signs of violence towards us, and we need answers."