Diary of the Unbroken (BOOK #4)

Bad Blood

Liv's POV

Breathe in. Breathe out.

My body already ached. The lack of the pills did that.

But I couldn't concentrate too hard on that right now. Today we were supposed to go into the Original quarters. Derek and William had come up with some elaborate plan I still didn't understand. All I knew was that Hanson and I were supposed to be the ones who got Ava and Val out.

The morning of our little mission, we loaded up in two separate cars. All of us. I road with Angelina, Victor, Bernard, Jacqueline, and a silent Hansen. He refused to talk to me after our fight. But I let him be. We'd both managed to piss each other off time and time again.

"I guess this is it then," Angelina said, pulling the car off the side of the two-lane county road, next to another road that must have led to the house.

We piled out of the cars next to a patch of woods. As I climbed out of the car, my head spun. My knees buckled underneath, almost sending me to the ground. Hanson grabbed onto my shoulders, keeping me steady.

"Are you okay?" he asked me.

I pulled away. "I'm fine."

"Here's the plan," Derek started, walking over with the others. "I'm going to go in there with Bernard and William as a distraction. Liv and Hanson will locate Ava and Val. Angelina, Victor, Jacqueline watching in the west wing. Jane, Chris, and Luke in the east. Stay together. If you run into one of Daniel's men, take them out. No mercy. Got it?"

Everyone nodded. When I glanced around at all their faces, I saw nothing but unfettered determination. Part of me felt guilty for not thinking the same. The point of this mission seemed skewered. It didn't seem like we were trying to solve any problems—just get Ava and Val. And from what I knew, that was the big no-no in the deal with Daniel.

Won't this just make matters worse?

But I also spotted the look shared between William and Derek. That look between father and son. Clearly, they had something else up their sleeve—something they wouldn't tell the rest of us.

I could only hope none of us got slaughtered because of it.

Though for me, I guess—with my death imminent in a slow decline--rather sooner than later.

Derek, William, and Bernard loaded back up in William's car leaving the rest of us at the end of the road.

"All right then," Jane said, going over to the trunk of the car we'd ridden in, and pulled out a black duffle back. Inside was an abundance of weapons. Stakes, crossbows—the works. "Take one. Their easy to use. Just point them in the right direction."

Hanson grabbed a pair of stakes. "Usually I'm running from these. Can't say I've ever held one myself."

Jane pursed her lips, expertly handling her own. "Well, hopefully you won't have to use it."

Instead of walking down the winding road, we took to the woods. Evidently, this was to ensure we came out on our designated sides of the house. The only thing was we didn't know where exactly Ava or Val would be once we got there.

"It's all right," Hanson had said when Derek first gave us our positions. "I have a habit of finding Madsen girls."

I could only hope that his habit circumvented any vampires that got in the way.