Note: Thanks to everyone for reading my stories and to Donalde who looked for those pesky name changes and beta read for me.
*
William hung up with mixed feelings. On one hand, he had saved most of his family, but on the other hand, Harry was going to die. That he wasn't going to be the one to kill him brought little comfort. The next thing that he had to do before anything else was go to see his family. He warded his room and vanished to the cabin. He knew that something had happened as soon as he appeared in the living room. Everyone was there except for Harry.
"Where is he?" William asked looking around. "Where in the hell is he?" he demanded when no one spoke.
"I tried to get him to stay," Nell said, "but dad let him go."
"What were you thinking?" William asked not quite believing what he was hearing.
"We didn't know if you were coming back or not," Albert said. "For all we knew, you turned us over."
"Are you fucking serious?" William asked. "I'm trying to save your asses and you let him go? Did you forget that he's why we're in this mess to begin with? Did you forget that he's the reason for every mess that we've ever been in?"
"Now wait a minute..." Albert broke in.
"Shut up!" William roared.
Everyone stared at him. William rarely raised his voice and when he did, it meant that he was furious.
"First of all, I would not have turned you over! I have been working my ass off to save your lives! I was even trying to save the life of that psychopath!"
"William," Mary said, "what are you talking about?"
"I'm done with Rufus Saunders," William replied. "We should have never started with him. As insane as Harry is, he was right about one thing, Rufus is going to turn all of the species against each other. He's going to make him do our work for him. I talked to Ethan Sinclaire..."
"You did what?" Albert yelled. "I told you that he would turn us over!"
"Will you shut the fuck up and listen?" William said as he glared at his father.
His second use of profanity had the desired effect. He cursed as rarely as he raised his voice. Albert sat down, but still glared at William.
"As I was saying, I talked to Ethan Sinclaire and Thorne Blackwell. Everyone is looking for us and it's only a matter of time before we're found. Both Ethan Sinclaire and Thorne Blackwell have given you a free pass to leave the state. You have twenty-four hours to get out and if you are spotted in California, even if it's one hundred years from now; you will be killed."
"What about Harry?" Nell asked.
"There is nothing that I can do for him," William replied. "Nadine, the woman that he used, turned and then was going to leave for dead lives. She has a mate who wants vengeance. He will never stop looking for Harry."
"So we just leave him?" Mary asked.
"Mom," William said softly, "Harry is looking for Nadine and they are looking for him. I'll try to find him and convince him to leave, but in the meantime you all must leave."
"Traitor," Albert said under his breath. "Harry was right about something else. You're going to try to save that bitch."
William ignored him and continued to talk.
"I strongly suggest that you leave as soon as possible and that you don't come back. If you choose to stay I won't be able to protect you. I hope that you've all done what I suggested in the past and found a place that no one knows about including each other and saved plenty of money. You can regroup later, but for now you have to separate."
"What are you going to do?" Mary asked.
"What do you think he's going to do?" Albert sneered. "He's going to get himself killed over that hunter bitch and leave Harry to die."
"I will be fine," William said reassuringly.
"Maybe we should stay and help you find Harry," Nell said ignoring her father's glare.
"Thank you, but you all need to go while you can," William replied. "Get out of here as soon as the sun starts going down."
Albert sat in his chair fuming as William led the family in the way that he should have done. He realized that both Mary and Nell were right in saying that he was angry at William for taking over the family. They were also right in saying that his anger was the reason that he fought William even though he knew that he was right.
In fact, he had just begun thinking about getting his family out of the hunter business when Harry killed the girl behind Thorne's club. His mistake had been that he really had no plan in place even though he implied that he did. He was going to use the vacation to plan and possibly slip away with his family.
"Damn you Harry!" Albert thought to himself as he half listened to William talk.
By the time William was done, he had all of them convinced to leave.
"Just remember, you can never return to California. If you do, you will die. Keep your eyes and ears open no matter where you go. If you get even a whiff of a Sinclaire or Blackwell, leave or lay low. And whatever you do, don't get mixed up with the hunters again."
William vanished from the cabin in the mountains to the Palm Springs condo. He wasn't surprised to find it empty although there was evidence that Harry had been there. He was too late- not that it would have made a difference even if Harry had been there. He decided not to take the time to look for him; Harry's fate had been sealed. He left the condo and went back to his room. There was nothing to do but wait.
***
Olivia lay awake thinking about her decision. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that her father would never agree to any compromises no matter how reasonable they were. The idea that she was going to be a part of his death sickened her, but what was she to do? Her father would have her killed as soon as she was spotted.
The questions about her mother's death burned in her mind. She had to know one way or another if he had anything to do with it. She knew what her gut was saying, but she had to hear it from him. Her thoughts went back to her father's impending death. Would it be merciful or would he be tortured as he and others had tortured so many both vampire and human.
She sat up as a realization hit her and began to yell for help. Benita who was still on duty rushed in to see what the ruckus was about.
"Listen," Olivia said as soon as Benita came rushing in, "if you know of any humans that are helping you, they need to be warned! He'll kill anyone that he suspects of being a vampire or aiding them! You've got to..."
"Slow down," Benita said. "Start at the beginning and tell me what you're talking about."
Olivia took a deep breath and started over.
"My father will kill anyone who is suspected of being a vampire. If he suspects that they're helping you, he'll torture them for information and then kill them. You've got to warn anyone that's helping you! They need to leave their homes and go somewhere safe!"