Ethan was shocked, who would destroy the girl's lab and why? And what did they want him to see? Then there was the issue of sensing someone even though the security team didn't see or sense them. Ethan began to get a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"What's going on?" Katrina asked.
"I wish I knew." Ethan replied absently. "I'm going over to the lab you stay here with Victoria and don't let her out of your sight."
"They wanted me to come too." Katrina replied.
"I know but something's wrong and I need to know that you and Victoria are safe." Ethan replied. "Stay in the house and I'll be back soon."
Ethan was gone a few minutes later after kissing her and then Victoria goodbye.
"Make sure that you stay with your mom and that you listen to her." Ethan admonished.
"What's wrong papa?" Victoria asked worriedly.
"Probably nothing but be a good girl and listen to your mom." Ethan replied.
Victoria gave him a nervous smile and then nodded her head. Ethan took Katrina by the hand and led her to the door.
"I sensed someone outside but the guards didn't." he told her. He had learned long ago not to try to keep things from her, it always came back to bite him in the ass.
"Alright and that means what?" Katrina asked.
"I don't know but I have a really bad feeling in the pit of my stomach especially since the girl's lab has been broken into." Ethan replied. "I don't want to scare you but please stay indoors until I come back."
Ethan stepped outside and looked around trying to sense something about whoever had been there. Not once did he doubt what he sensed, someone had been on their property.
*******
Vanessa looked around her room stunned; the amount of rage directed at her was staggering. She wracked her brain trying to think who would be this angry at her and could think of no one. Tears ran down her face as she looked around her room trying to understand why someone would leave a corpse on her bed and her walls coated with animal blood. It wasn't a fresh body but one that had been exhumed.
The body was dressed in one of Vanessa's outfits holding dead flowers in its bony hands. Who ever had brought the body in had gone so far as to apply some of Vanessa's make up to the corpse. Vanessa began to shake but not with fear but pure anger. She felt Anger that someone would remove a body from its resting place, anger that they had entered into her private place and desecrated it with the blood of what they knew to be a large animal of some kind.
Luc tightened his arms around Vanessa as her trembling increased. It took him several minutes to realize that she was trembling in anger.
"Who would do this?" She asked Veronica.
Veronica was at a loss for words. Of the two of them she was the one that trampled on people's toes and Vanessa was the one who soothed the hurts away, it just didn't make sense unless...
"Nessa, what if who did this chose you because he thinks that you would be an easier mark?" She asked. Vanessa, Luc and Rik looked at her.
"Vanessa? An easy mark?" Luc asked remembering the brief show of her temper.
"Yes, just hear me out." Veronica said, "Anyone who knows us knows that I'm the one or I was the one with the temper. Even when we were kids I was the one who got into fights while Vanessa was the peacemaker, I mean until that night the restaurant I didn't even know that she had a temper like that."
"What you are saying," Luc said, "is that if you didn't know then neither would anyone else."
"Exactly, we....."
"Shit!" they heard come from the front of the lab, "what in the hell..."
********
Ethan walked into the lab and stopped in his tracks, the first thing that hit him was the stench of spoiled blood. The second thing that hit him was the amount of damage that was done to the lab; he could almost feel the hatred as he looked around the room. He began to run through his list of enemies and the list was quite long but none of them were stupid enough to piss in his back yard but someone had.
Suddenly Ethan knew that whoever had done this was the same person that he sensed in his yard. He knew something else, whoever it was wasn't really after the girls at least not in the traditional sense, and they were after him and using the girls to do it.
The question was how he and Ethan was convinced it was a male had managed to get by his security and how he had gotten into the lab. He didn't even know the access code to get in and as far as he knew only the girls, Patrick and now their mates knew the code.
The amount of damage told Ethan that the male was completely out of control and that both girls were in danger, they had to find a new lab and there was going to be security whether they wanted it or not.
"Dad!" Vanessa cried out as she broke free from Luc and threw herself into Ethan's arms.
"Are you alright?" he asked kissing Vanessa's head.
"I'm fine just mad as hell!" she exclaimed her temper showing, "Just look at this mess!" she added looking around the lab.
"My only concern is you and everyone else." Ethan replied, "You mom said that you wanted us to see something?"
"Yes, where is mom?" Veronica asked.
"I had her stay home with Victoria." Ethan replied.
"All is well?" Luc asked.
"I don't think so." Ethan replied and then told them about the intruder he sensed at the house.
"You're saying that this is connected?" Vanessa asked.
"I think so." Ethan replied but show me what you wanted me to see.
Ethan stared at the body in total shock. Whatever he had been expecting, it wasn't this. The smell of spoiled blood was almost overwhelming as he approached the body on Vanessa's bed. It was then that his suspicions were confirmed; this was very personal but why involve the girls?
When he got to the bed he looked at the body. He didn't recognize her but knew that somehow her identity was a part of whatever was going on. Ethan took out his phone and called Katrina.
"Is everything alright there?" he asked.
"So far." Katrina replied, "What's going on there?"
"I'll explain when I get back, where's Victoria?"
"Here with me.... Ethan what's going on?" Katrina asked now concerned, "is everyone alright?"
"They're fine." Ethan replied "But I want to bring them home with me."
"I'll get the rooms ready." Katrina replied.
"Fine but keep Victoria with you."
********
He chuckled softly as he thought about Ethan's reaction to his presence and wished that he could have seen Vanessa's reaction to her room. It really wasn't anything personal it was just that her room was so immaculate that it was worthy of leaving his beloved there. The other room was.... At any rate, Vanessa's room was worthy and that was all that mattered.
He was certain that Ethan would be called and he was certain that Ethan suspected that someone was after him and his precious family. He wished that he could take them all but one of them was all that he was permitted, a life for a life. He was also aware that they would all think that Vanessa was the target that had been unintentional but to his benefit.
He had thought to take one of them and do to them what had been done to his beloved but he didn't think that he could, doing so would have made him as bad as them. He would be satisfied with knowing that they would suffer as he had and was. That he would die was of no consequence as long as he took one of the females with him.
The chuckles turned into soft sobs as he remembered his beloved and the way that he found her. She was so beautiful with long red hair and green eyes. Her skin was almost flawless and her laugh... it reminded him of tinkling bells. She had brought out the very best in him; her death had brought out the worst. "I miss you Rosie." he murmured.
In some ways he blamed himself for her rape and subsequent death. If he would have just claimed her she would be with him now. But he hadn't, he wanted to take the time to really get to know her, he wanted to court her and present her with a diamond, all of it but it never happened.
He remembered it as if it had just happened instead of fifty years ago. That it wasn't Ethan that raped her was immaterial, it was fact that he admitted that he could have done something centuries before. He knew that what they were doing was wrong and he allowed it to continue stopping it too late to save Rosie.
He wasn't sure when he started thinking about revenge. Maybe it was when he decided to kill himself, it was then that he decided that it just wasn't fair so he watched and waited. When Ethan mated with the woman that he had raped and they had children the injustice of it all hit him. He would never have another mate and would never know the joys of holding a child and Ethan had all of those things and now his children would be having children two of them anyway.
*********
"Do you know her?" Veronica asked.
"No at least I don't think that I do." Ethan replied looking up from the corpse and at the blood splattered room. "Was anything left in Veronica's room? He asked.
"Not that we can tell." Vanessa said earning a glare from her sister. "What do you think is going on?" she asked.
"Something very personal." Ethan replied "I know that you're newly mated but I want you all at the house."
Luc bristled and caught Ethan's attention.
"This has nothing to do with whether I feel that you can keep Vanessa safe; it's about safety in numbers. Whoever did this was able to approach the house without the guards noticing. I have Katrina and Vanessa under guard and in the same room as we speak."
"Do you think that someone is after us?" Veronica asked.
"I don't know what to think but I believe that it's a possibility." Ethan replied, "It'll be easier to keep everyone safe if we're together."
Ethan waited for a few seconds; he was fully prepared to force the issue if he had to.
"We will meet you there." Rik said seeing and conceding Ethan's point.
"Fine and I'll send some people to clean up this mess." Ethan said looking around the room again.
"What about her?" Luc asked meaning the corpse.
"She goes with us." Ethan said, "I think that she's at the center of whatever is going on."
**********
Victoria was going stir crazy, she wasn't used to being confined to just one room and she was beside herself with boredom.
"Mom can I go outside?" Victoria asked.
"For the tenth time, no!" Katrina said a little sharper than she had intended. "I'm sorry baby, I didn't mean to be sharp with you but you can't go outside until we know that it's safe."
