The Living Game

(20) Burning At The Stake

"Genesis!" Alek said, snapping his finger in front of my face. "Are you going to get that?"

I practically jumped out of my chair, picking up the cellphone. The police officers told me to put it on speaker phone and I did. I didn't want to, for fear that the person calling would say something about vampires, but I didn't want them to get suspicious.

"Hello?" I answered in a shaky voice.

"Hi, Genesis. This is Anna Faye. I'm assuming you know who I am." Alek and Kiera both shot me a look but I held a finger to my lips, telling them to be quiet.

"Yes, I know who you are, Anna." I replied coolly, waiting.

"Good. That makes this conversation easier, then." She paused, for dramatic effect I assumed. "I have Theo and Jace here with me. If you want them to return home, I'm going to need you to bring Alekzander Gray and Kiera Travis to me."

I looked up at them, they had both frozen with shock, confusion written on their faces. "Why do you want them?"

Instead of answering, she simply said, "I'm at the place where my life ended."

The line went dead. The police officers were immediately writing down something on paper. Alek turned to them. I watched as he went to each of them and muttered the same words. "Jace is at his grandmother's house. He was never really missing. You will forget the call you just heard. You're going to go home and call it a night."

In turn, each of their eyes became glassy before they said goodbye to Kiera and I and politely left. When they were all gone, Alek turned to me.

"The place where her life ended, the place where she was turned?" We looked to Kiera.

She nodded, standing up. "She's in her childhood home. The house burned a few years ago but the garage remains standing, even though there was some fire damage. I turned her in the house but maybe the garage is close enough?"

I nodded, swallowing back the lump that rose in my throat. What did I do?

"Why does she want you?" Kiera asked Alek. "I mean, I get me. I turned her. She must have been plotting her revenge this whole time. But I don't get what you or Jace have to do with it."

Alek shook his head. "I don't know."

~

I had tried very hard to get them to stay at my house, to let me at least scope the place out before we decided to go running in there. Of course, they didn't listen. We drove my car to a house down the street of the one we were looking for and then parked it on the curb and walked the rest of the distance on foot.

I could immediately tell where we were going. Kiera was right, the house had burned to the ground and the charred pieces were all still there. The garage had two doors and was painted blue. The paint was chipped and the garage was burned on the side that had been towards the house. It didn't look like there had been too much physical damage, other than scaring the side of the building.

 "Come on." Alek said, walking ahead of us. I reached out and grabbed his wrist, stopping him. He smiled and tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. "We'll be fine."

He and Kiera started walking towards the garage and it was only a second before I rushed after them.

When we opened the garage doors, I didn't see anything at first. The light illuminated most of the building, leaving the corners bathed in shadow. The floor was concrete and it was very dirty. Once I had stepped inside the garage, I was able to see in the farthest corner, two bodies were sitting, one significantly smaller than the other. Even in the dark lighting, Jace's blonde hair was easy to distinguish. Theo's hair was a little bit darker blonde and it looked very dirty at the moment. After we got closer to them, I realized it wasn't dirt that colored his hair, it was blood.