"I trust you found him and that is what has brought you back?" Victor asked as he and Frances yet again sat across from each other in his office.

"Yes I found him." Frances replied.

"Good. Where, may I ask, has my son been staying? Where can I send my men to get him?"

'First give me my daughter back." Frances replied coldly and Victor shook his head.

"No. She will remain my prisoner until I have my son. Where is my son?"

"Do you know Charles and Jake Collins?" Francis asked. His loyalty to them was gone after Kayleb's attack on him and even if he had still felt loyalty he would betray them anyway to save his daughter.

"Yes I know those dogs. They've been wiping out immortals for years simply because the two of them are soft and weak and have a fondness for mortals."

"I do not think Jake Collins is what I would call weak but Damien is staying with them. From what I could hear of Damien's conversation with his mother he is mated to Jake's niece, Kaylee." Victor smiled and ran his long nails over the wooden arm of his chair.

"Tell me everything you know of this family." he said. He would make his son pay and he would use the family his son was so fond of to do it.

888

"I'm going to go check on my mother. After the rough day she had yesterday I want to make sure she's okay." Damien said the next morning as he and Kaylee lay wrapped in each others arms. It was Sunday and Kaylee had allowed herself to stay in the bed past her usual seven a.m. wake up time.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Kaylee asked as she traced the muscles of his arm with her fingertips.

"No." Damien said and he grabbed her hand and kissed her palm. "You spend time with your family. I will not be gone long."

"I love you." Kaylee said as Damien got out of the bed and pulled on a clean outfit that he had gotten from his beach house in the middle of the night.

"I love you too." Damien replied as he did up the buttons on his shirt. He bent and kissed her nose before pulling away and vanishing.

Kaylee stretched out her deliciously sore muscles and rose from the bed. She pulled on a pair of gray pajama pants and a black tank top and then walked downstairs to the kitchen.

She smiled when she walked in and saw her mom helping Gwen eat her eggs and toast. Hunter immediately stood and pulled a chair out for her. He was always the perfect gentleman and did this for any woman who came into the kitchen while he was there, if she didn't have her mate with her to do it for her.

"Thank you, Hunter." Kaylee said as she sat down.

"You're welcome, ma'am." Hunter replied with a wink as he sat back down. He knew what Raquel's reaction would be to hearing him say ma'am.

"Oh, Hunter, I love you. Let's say we forget about Evan and Laney and we run away together." Raquel said breathlessly.

"I would, Raquel, but the truth is I'm scared of your niece." Hunter replied with false sadness. Laney came bouncing into the kitchen and threw her arms around his neck from behind.

"You better be scared of me you evil, cowboy, vampire. My daddy would whoop you." she said just before pressing a kiss to his ear.

"Yes ma'am." Hunter replied with a smile as he reached his arm back and pulled her around him so she could sit in his lap. Laney looked over at Raquel.

"Quit trying to steal my man." she said and then she looked over at Rebecca who was busy at the stove.

"Grandma, please tell me those are cinnamon rolls I smell baking." she said and Hunter pretended to wipe drool from her lip, earning his hand a slap. Rebecca laughed as she nodded.

"Yes my dear, they are cinnamon rolls." Kaylee and Laney shared a look of excitement as both of them laughed. Cinnamon rolls were their favorite.

Kaylee was just finishing off her third cinnamon roll when Angela and Jake came into the kitchen. Jake grabbed a steaming cinnamon roll from the stove and stuck the whole thing in his mouth before letting little Brent, who was on his hip, lick the frosting from his finger.

"Wolves and their damn super epic metabolisms." Angela grumbled. Jake handed Brent to Rebecca and then grabbed another Cinnamon roll. He carried it over to Angela and pressed it against her lips. She grinned and took a small bite.

"You know I am extremely jealous of every one of you guys' abs." she said and Jake growled before pressing a kiss against her lips that was full of a sweet cinnamon and sugar taste.

"You're perfect, my dear." Rebecca said with a smile as Charles came into the kitchen and began brewing the tea that he brewed for her every morning. "I don't have abs either." she added and this time is was Charles's turn to growl as he reached out and swatted her backside, causing her to squeal and blush blood red.

"I'm going to town, Vanessa is at the hospital working so I'm taking Faith with me. Do any of you want to go?" Angela asked as she took the cinnamon roll from Jake's hand and ate a bite.

"Sure I'll go." Kaylee said standing up. "Just let me go change my clothes." Kaylee ran up to her room and changed into a pair of blue jean carpri pants and a formfitting blue t-shirt. She pulled her hair back in a scrunchie and ran back down to the kitchen.

"Mom, make sure you tell Damien that I'll be back soon. I don't want to bother him while he's with his mom."

"Sure, I'll tell him. I'm so happy you found your mate finally and the fact that he's handsome doesn't hurt anything." Kaylee smiled and kissed her moms cheek and Hunter shook his head.

"You better be glad I'm not a jealous man, Raquel, or else I might get upset hearing you say those kinds of things about a man other than me."

"And you better be glad I'm not a jealous man." Evan said, walking into the kitchen and tousling Gwen's blond hair. "Because if I was, you would be one dead vampire." Hunter chuckled and Faith ran into the kitchen.

"I'm ready!" she said. Kaylee bit back a laugh at the girls crooked pigtails and her bright pink skirt and green t-shirt with her white sneakers.

"Who picked out your outfit Faith?" she asked.

"My Kayleb." she replied.

"What's wrong with it?" Kayleb asked as he walked into the kitchen and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Nothing." Kaylee said quickly as she smiled down at Faith. "You look very beautiful."

"Well let's go then girls. The book store doesn't stay open long on Sunday." Angela said.

888

"Well I'll be going then, mom, I just wanted to check on you." Damien said as he stood from the loveseat and walked toward the door. Angelica stood and smoothed out her blue dress before walking on her thin legs to the door.

"Thank you for coming, Damien. You worry about me too much. I am okay."

"No you're not. I wish you would come with me. He won't get you, mom. Neither one of them can leave the castle." Damien assured her for what felt like the one millionth time. Fear flashed in Angelica's eyes.

"He has spies, Damien! Spies that watch every move I make just waiting to grab me and take me to him!"

"If that was true, he would have gotten you a long time ago mom. It's been five hundred years since I freed you. Five hundred years that you've been worrying he's going to get you. Even if he wanted to get you back, I would never let him." Damien promised as he thought about the years of torture he had endured just to keep his mother safe.

"You never believe me!" Angelica exclaimed as she crossed her thin arms over her frail body. Damien sighed and shook his head.

"I just worry about you mom. You shouldn't be out here by yourself, scared to death all the time."

"I'm not by myself. I have my friends." Angelica argued and Damien nodded and opened the door.

"Just call for me the next time you need me, okay?" he asked and then he walked out and shut the door behind him. He stood outside the bright red door for several long seconds, feeling the guilt he always felt whenever he saw his mother this way. She had given him life, he owed her life, and yet it had taken him five hundred years to care enough to free her from his father and now, five hundred years later she was still technically his father's prisoner. Victor and Rotan had destroyed her mind with years of torture.

He was about to dash back to Kaylee, needing to feel her arms around him, when a flash of color caught his eye. He looked toward the woods and waited for the wind to blow again and this time he realized it was a piece of fabric caught on the bow of a pine tree. His senses automatically went on high alert but if there was anyone around he could not feel them. He walked over to the piece of purple fabric and pulled it off the tree.

He used his supernatural demon senses to open his mind and find out where the fabric had come from and then he snarled. A vampire. A vampire had been here and it wasn't just any vampire. It was Frances. The vampire that Kayleb had nearly killed.

Why had Frances been here watching his mother? Dread washed over Damien. Had his mother been right? Did Victor know where she was and did he have people watching her? Instantly Damien knew he could not leave her here. It wasn't safe as long as Victor was alive.

He stuffed the fabric in the pocket of his jeans and walked back to the cabin. He knocked on the door but got no response.

"Mom, let me in." he said. He could hear the shuffling of her slippered feet as she walked to the door and opened it.

"What is it, Damien? My friends and I were about to eat an early lunch.'

"You're coming with me, mom." Damien said, deciding to let her mention of her imaginary friends slide for now.

"No I'm not." Angelica replied as she shook her head roughly.

"Yes you are. You can either pack your own bag and come willingly or I can pack it and take you unwillingly. You cannot stay here. You were right. He's had a vampire watching you and you're not safe here." Panic flashed in her eyes.

"I told you so!" she exclaimed. "All of these years I've been telling you and you haven't believed me!"

"Just pack a bag." Damien said calmly and as his mother ran back toward her room he thought about where he was going to take her. He didn't want to take her to his island. Call it selfishness, but he didn't want to risk his father finding out about the one place Damien had that was all his own.

(Jake.) Damien called to Jake alone.

(What?)

(I need help.) Damien replied and it bothered him to be saying those words. He had never asked anyone for help before.

(What do you need?) Jake asked.

(I think my mother is in trouble. I need a safe place for her to stay.)

(Bring her here.) Jake replied without hesitation.

(Are you sure? This may cause trouble for your family.)

(I am sure. You have helped us in the past and you are family now. We take care of each other here. Bring your mother here and we will keep her safe.)

(Thank you.) Damien said and he closed the link before going back to his mothers room to hurry her along.

888

"Mom, I promise that none of the people here are going to hurt you okay? They are Kaylee's family and they are going to help me keep you safe." Damien said as they stood outside the giant log house.

"Are you sure they aren't your father's men?" Angelica asked as she twisted her bony hands nervously. Damien nodded.

"I'm sure." he promised. Angelica clung to his arm as he led her up to the house and through the kitchen door. The kitchen was empty except for Rebecca, Charles and Raquel and all three of them rose from the table when Damien and Angelica entered the room.

"Did Jake tell you we were coming? Damien asked and Charles nodded as Rebecca stepped forward.

"Hi." she said gently to Angelica. "My name is Rebecca." Damien was surprised to see his normally cautious mother, step forward and hold out her thin, scarred hand.

"Hello." she said. "My name is Angelica... But my friends call me Angel."

"Well Angel, how about I show you to your room? Then we can come back down and get some lunch?" Angelica nodded and Rebecca took her suitcase from Damien and then led her out of the kitchen.

"What happened to her?" Raquel asked once they were gone.

"Demons happened to her." Charles replied with disgust.

"Dad..." Raquel scolded as she looked up at Damien but Damien shrugged.

"Demons did that to her. I got her free from them but not before the damage had already been done."

"How did you free her?" Charles asked coldly. "Mortal sacrifices?" The air was thick with tension between the two men and then Damien nodded.

"Yes." he replied and Raquel's eyes widened. "Ten of them, followed by ten years of my own torture." Damien walked out of the kitchen and onto the porch, leaving Charles sitting there feeling like a fool. Raquel stood up and followed him out on the porch.

"I was supposed to tell you that Kaylee went to town with Angela and Faith. They'll be back later." Damien nodded. "Also, don't worry about my dad. He's stuck in his ways and he's as stubborn as a mule."

"I'm sure you are regretting your daughters mate now that you know just one of the horrible things I have done." Damien said as he looked out at the forest. Raquel wrapped her arm around him comfortingly as she stood beside him.

"I am very happy for my daughter because she has a mate who will clearly do anything he has to do, no matter the consequences, in order to protect those he loves." Damien didn't respond and Raquel smiled sadly and then walked back into the house.

"Good job, dad. Way to be an ass." she snapped as she walked past him and toward the living room. Charles sighed and stood up. He walked out on the porch.

"Sorry, Damien." he said, finding that he nearly choked on the words as they tried to lodge in his throat.

"You do not owe me an apology. You were right about demons. We do horrible things."

"You had good reasons for doing what you did. I would do the same thing for any member of my own family." The two men simply nodded at one another and then walked back into the house.