Diary of the Unbroken (BOOK #4)

Sister's Keeper

William

If I could count how many times I'd found myself in such a position...well, unfortunately, I couldn't count it on my fingers. But every other time, I had managed to find my way out. I'd fought with Hunters, other vampires, even humans who thought they could get the best of me, and used careful weapons to do so. I always got out.

Daniel and his cronies must have drugged me before setting off on out little excursion. I guess Gerard finally got tired off hauling my ass everywhere. Now I found chained up in the back of a van, bumping down the road.

I blinked through the current haze my vision had granted. In front of me, I made out the outline of a girl. Slowly, more of her features came to me. She wore all black. She was pretty. Blonde. And staring at me with an intense gaze.

"Ava?"

"Wrong sister," the girl replied.

Finally, I realized that eyes staring at me were a deep brown instead a tinted blue. No, not Ava. But Val. After all these weeks, searching for answers. Searching for her. But I guess the things you were looking for had a tendency to pop up when you least expected it.

I swallowed through my dry throat. "Val, what are you--"

"What am I doing here?" She raised an eyebrow. "Doing a hell of a lot better than you, I guess."

Her expression read something far past worried or scared. And she didn't seem to be injured or weakened in any way. I glanced down at her wrists, noting that they weren't bound like mine.

"Are you helping him?" I asked her, making a strong attempted to keep my voice steady. But I couldn't help the anger that bubbled up.

"Daniel?" She pressed her lips together. "Yes, something like that."

I glanced over at the guards sitting like soldiers guarding us in the van. One didn't seem too enthralled with my conscience and sneered back at us.

"This guy giving you problems, Miss Valerie?" he inquired, his voice gruff.

"No," she shook her head. "He's fine. Thank you, Clyde."

"So you're on a dignified first name basis with the enemy, too?" My chest grew heavy. "Val, what happened? What's going on here? Why are you helping them?"

The only shot me a cryptic look as if begging me to stop asking questions. "There's a lot you don't know, William."

"Obviously. " I rolled me eyes. "Daniel keeps telling me so, but he doesn't bother to elaborate. I only know one thing. He wants Ava, Val. He's been asking me questions about her. That's why he's keeping me captive"

"I know," she breathed.

Of course, she did.

"Why did he bother taking me if he already has you? You're her sister. You've known her a hell of a lot longer than I have."

Her gaze shot right past my shoulder. "There is a lot about my sister I don't know about. A lot she's kept bottled up inside. Even after all our years spent together growing up in the same house, I believe she has shared much more with you than she ever did with me."

Her answers only rattled my brain further. "Why did he take you then?"

She sighed. "Because he found me of use. I was a part of my mother's Hunter party for years. I knew how it worked. How the Hunters had succeeded for years. Enough about the cure. I had information he felt he needed."

"So he's holding you captive for information about the Hunters."

She shook her head. "Not anymore. Now it's my choice."

I didn't know Val all that well. I mostly knew what Ava had told me, how Val raised her for years. How she kept her secrets hidden behind the door of a confident young woman who didn't seem to have much of a life outside of work. She and Ava--they didn't seem much at all alike. Ava would never betray her sister like this.

"Are you telling me that you are willingly helping him?"

Her voice lowered. "You wouldn't understand, William. Trust me, I know he's done some terrible things, that he's gone about this in all the wrong ways, but he's not a terrible person."

"You are delusional!" I hissed at her." He killed your mother. Did you know that? He killed her right in front of your sister!"

She swallowed. "He had his reasons--"

"His reasons? It was murder! I know you and Ava had your troubles with Celia. I completely understand. She wasn't exactly mother of the year, but he killed her. And now you are the one here working with him."

"I'm trying to save you, " she insisted. "You, Ava, Chris, Derek--I'm trying to save all of you."

"How in the hell does this count in saving us? Daniel has had a plan in all of this. This is his game we're playing. We have no control over any of it. We are all merely pawns. Me, Ava, you."

"I'm not a pawn, William," she seethed through her teeth. "Daniel isn't making me do anything."

"You can't honestly tell me--"

"I am." Her eyes narrowed at me. "William, what Daniel is doing...I understand there should be a much simpler way. One that involves less murder and kidnapping. But he's a centuries old vampire. I'm trying, Will. I'm trying to help him change his ways. But I...I can't do this alone."

"Why you?" I asked her. "Why does of all people does it have to be you?"

"Because," she stated, "there is a man in there so broken, he doesn't know how to find his way out. He needs someone. Someone close to him. A few someones actually. Someone that...shares the same blood."

Out of all the bizarre statements Daniel had served, Val's seemed to correlate in the oddest sense.

"What--What are you talking about?"

She pressed her lips together, taking a second to glance at the guards who had been ignoring us during most of our conversation.

Then she turned back to me and said, "Isn't it obvious, William? Daniel--he's my father."