Chapter 8
Juliette had never seen her sister like this before. The usually calm and collected Elinor was an absolute wreck. She guessed that her sister truly loved Leighton, Juliette couldn’t imagine how she would be if Cal went missing. Cal had retuned from gathering Margot and Sebastian and her own family retuned fairly quickly, it might have taken a little (a lot) of convincing from Cal to get them there, but they showed up and for that, Elinor was grateful. The older vampire stood quietly in the corner as the adults tried to come up with a plan to retrieve Leighton.
“He’s unhinged. Who know where he took her.”
“Talia, please do not speak of my son that way. And yes, we do not know where they could be which is why we are doing this. Together.”
“Does he have a secret hiding spot or something? The crazy ones always do.”
“Apollo.”
“What?! He is”
This was all too much for Elinor. She just wanted to find Leighton and destroy her brother for taking her. She was going to go upstairs when Apollo made a statement that made her blood boil.
“We don’t even know how long she’s been missing. He could have eaten her by now.”
In the millisecond after the statement left his mouth, Elinor had the man pinned to the wall with her arm pressing against his neck and she was furious. The Burns’ were immediately ready to intervene if needed and the Fairmonts were ready to defend Elinor if needed.
“What the hell did you just say?” Elinor growled at the darker man.
“I just…your brother…he’s…well..unwell…he could have-“
An increase to the pressure around his neck cut off the rest of his statement and he gagged trying to get more oxygen into his body.
Elinor wanted to rip his throat out and let the rage she felt consume her. She wanted to scream and throw things and break things. She wanted Leighton. After a few deep breaths she locked eyes with Apollo and as her eyes glowed green she said, “you will not think something like that about my girlfriend ever again. She is alive. And we will find her. Got it?” Apollo nodded in his trance and then Elinor slowly released the man and ran out into the woods.
Talia glared at Margot. “What did your daughter just do to my son?”
Margot shrugged. “We aren’t fully sure how Elinor’s powers work. But that seemed like an innocent glamour. She’s just frustrated. She’ll be okay.” At the end of her sentence she looked at Juliette who immediately understood, gave Cal a quick kiss and then ran off to find her sister and make sure she didn’t do anything she regretted.
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Leighton woke up from her sleep and was slightly confused. Had Tatum taken her somewhere while she was asleep? It seemed like a cabin in the woods. Maybe she just wanted some alone time after the interaction she had with Carmen and Oliver. The blonde groaned, she was really almost vampire food. She stretched then got up to look for her girlfriend when she realized the door was locked from the outside. No matter how much she pulled she couldn’t get it open. Now she was panicking.
“Hello?” she yelled “Is anyone there? Tate? Babe this isn’t funny, can you open the door please? Hello?”
She jumped back when she heard the door unlock and was disappointed, surprised, and terrified when she saw Carmen on the other side of the door with a sickeningly sweet smile.
“Hi there, we haven’t formally been introduced, I’m Carmen.” The witch stuck out her hand for Leighton to shake but the girl was way too stunned to speak. If she was here with Carmen that meant…no that couldn’t be possible.
“How...how did I get here?” The blonde stuttered out as she tried to look for an exit.
Carmen chuckled and shook her head. “There’s no way out cutie. The whole place is enchanted. Mortals can’t get out, something I cooked up especially for you. And we brought you here of course. How else?”
Leighton was stunned. Carmen spoke as if she didn’t just kidnap her and bring her to who knows where in the woods.
“Tatum will come for me, you know that right?”
Carmen didn’t so much as spare the other woman a glance as she sat down to read her book.
“We know, he’s counting on it.”