Reyna tensed. Ready to sound the alarm if need be.
Then something distracted the vampire. She glanced down at her cellphone, frowned, and brought it to her ear. She took one last look at the SUV before turning away as it sped past her.
Reyna released her breath. They drove the rest of the way out of the neighborhood in silence. They weren’t in the clear yet. But at least they were away from the worst of it.
If only the same were true for their morale as they drove through the remains of their broken rebellion from the city.
Chapter 3
They weren’t pursued.
Reyna couldn’t believe it.
She was sure that someone would look at their vehicle and assume it was holding rebels. But no, they drove out of the neighborhood and onto the open roads without a hassle. Tye was listening to the police scanner and narrowly missed a roadblock or two, but once they were on the interstate, the coast was clear.
With tension hanging heavy in the SUV, it was a silent hour before Washington finally directed them off of the main roads and onto a long bumpy drive. Once they moved from under a copse of tress, they came upon a large iron gate.
Reyna’s eyebrows rose and she leaned forward to get a better look at it. The gate was straight out of some Victorian period piece. As if it should be a dark and stormy night with lightning announcing their entrance instead of a bitter cold but sunny New Year’s Day.
Tye punched in a passcode and the gates creaked apart slowly. Very slowly.
They inched forward onto the grounds. Everyone was rubbernecking, trying to figure out where the hell Washington had brought them.
After a couple more minutes, they got their answer. A circular drive ended right before a three-story stone mansion. They passed what must have once been lush gardens, but were now overgrown and ignored. Would they have running water? Electricity? The house had clearly been built long before those things existed.
“What is this place?” Reyna asked as they came to a halt.
“Yeah. I’ve never seen this in any records,” Meghan said.
“It’s not in any records,” Washington said. “It’s my home.”
“Does Harrington know about it?” Reyna asked, terror suddenly lancing through her.
“Yes, but he would never in a million years suspect that I would come back here. I haven’t stepped foot in it in fifteen years.”
“Why?”
He glanced back at her. “Because my wife was killed here.”
Then he opened the door and slid out of the SUV. They looked at one another in confusion and sorrow before following him. Reyna’s feet hit the gravel drive and she stared up at the imposing structure. Vines covered much of the entrance. The stonework, which must have once been beautiful, had deteriorated against the press of the elements. Reyna could see at least one window that was broken, and a tree had fallen into the roof on one corner of the building.
“We left for this,” Gabe voiced what everyone was thinking. They might have had no choice, but some run-down old mansion didn’t seem like the salvation they’d been looking for.
Tye stretched his lean muscles out. “Looks like a piece of shit.”
“I can hear you,” Washington said. He had ambled up to the entrance and was prying the the front door open.
“We know,” Gabe said with a grin. “Doesn’t change the appearance of this place.”
“I’ll have you know that I have had this home since just after the turn of the nineteenth century,” Washington said, turning his nose up at them. “It has come a long way since 1805.”
Reyna’s mouth fell open. She sometimes forgot how old vampires could be. Beckham was so young for a vampire and yet he still was sixty-seven. The thought hit her like a sucker punch to the stomach. Past tense. He’d been so young. He had been sixty-seven. He was no longer.
She squeezed her eyes shut and rode out the pain until it subsided. It was easier in the moments when she didn’t have to think about the immediate consequences of him being gone. It was hard to wrap her brain around the fact that he wasn’t about to walk up the drive with his usual stoic look and burning broody passion.
“Hey,” Meghan said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You okay?”
Reyna didn’t want to think or talk about her feelings. “Let’s just get inside.”
She followed Washington into the cavernous interior of his wicked turn-of-the-nineteenth-century mansion. The foyer had vaulted ceilings that reached up to an impossible height. It was dark inside and when Washington reached for the lights, only a few flickered on, casting the entire place with an eerie glow.
“Creepy,” Reyna whispered.
“You can say that again,” Gabe said behind her.
“I thought you were bringing us to a rebel operation,” Tye said. “If you haven’t been here in fifteen years, what are we going to do here?”
“I have not been here, but I have a colleague who has been maintaining the premises since I joined Elle. It will suffice for the time being. Now, follow me,” Washington said.
Gabe and Meghan exchanged a look before pulling out their cellphones to use as flashlights. With the entrance fully illuminated, they could see the layers of dirt that said no one had stepped foot in here for years. It certainly didn’t look maintained.
Washington pulled open an enormous wooden door that led from the historic foyer into a gorgeous and stately living area. The furniture was carefully preserved beneath sheets and the windows were covered to keep the light out, presumably to save the antique artwork lining the walls. Reyna felt as if she had stepped back in time.
They toured the mansion, finding thirteen bedrooms on the second floor. The third floor was one big suite. Though the tree falling in clearly disrupted that. When Washington showed them the basement, Reyna was expecting a dark dungeon or prison or something equally medieval. But no…the basement was a fully finished medical lab with all the equipment he’d had back at the bunker. Plus, a store of firearms, communication devices, and pretty much everything else they would need to pick up where they’d left off.
“I’ve never worried much about upkeep in the main parts of the house, but the basement was completely refitted in recent years.” Washington seemed more comfortable now that he was back in a lab, downstairs, and away from the memory of his dead wife, upstairs. “All of my research has been uploaded to the servers, and the lab was created as a just-in-case option.”
“Wow,” Gabe said, admiring the impressive gun collection, “appearances are deceiving.”
“I’m glad that I pass your muster,” Washington said dryly.