Bloodlust

Where It All Began

— LIAM —

"There are lots of grasshoppers. Like, lots. I found a pile of dead ones under my bed."

I chuckled as I walked from the bathroom to the bed, scrubbing my wet hair with a towel. Angela called me right when I stepped out of the shower and I wasn't one to miss her calls.

Every evening before bed, she asked to borrow Millie's phone to call or FaceTime with me. It was a tradition we'd started the first night we arrived in the States.

Tonight, she was telling me about their new home in the ranger cabin, which evidently made creepy noises at night and had a grasshopper problem.

Sitting down on the bed, I put the phone on speaker and placed it on my chest.

"Oh, you're not scared of a little grasshopper, are you?"

"I'm not!" Angela protested. "But Mum screams every time they get near her."

I laughed. A vampire scared of insects? Absurd.

"Only the big ones!" Millie protested in the background. "They jump and are unpredictable!"

"How are you going to be a park ranger if you're scared of bugs?" I teased.

Millie completed the hiring process yesterday as a park ranger in the national forest where Macay's pack is located. Today was her first day of training and, consequently, the first step of our plan to get Venice back.

Once we completed the first phase of infiltrating the park, Millie would locate Venice, attempt to communicate with her, and determine a safe way to get her out without getting us killed.

While she tried to establish contact with Venice, I was set on finding a new home for us somewhere nobody would find us.

"I have a lot to offer as a ranger," she muttered, her voice clearer and louder as she came closer to the phone. "I can protect visitors from dangerous wildlife and use my strength to help out around the park. I can help find injured animals and take them to the rehab center."

"Sounds like you're enjoying your job so far?"

"So far, yeah. I can imagine us spending a few years here," she admitted. "We'd have to move when Angela looks too young to pull off her age, but some stability would be good for us. I want to get my independence back."

"Do you feel safe there?"

She sighed. "Yes. More than I have in a long, long time."

I was relieved. She should feel safe living out in secluded parklands.

Blaine would never find her in Utah, but I wouldn't have been surprised if she still felt tense or paranoid. We nearly hadn't escaped him.

—(—)—

two weeks ago

The front door squeaked open and Millie's voice stretched to the kitchen. "Liam?"

"In here," I said.

She padded into the living room where I was disengaging the last surveillance camera.