Free Vengeance of the Demons by Rebekah R. Ganiere

trying to clear his throat. “I’ll find the enclave and talk to them. I promise.”
    “I trust you, but things have changed. Now we need any and all nuclear weapons they might have. We need an advantage in this damn war. We can’t lose any more family. I can’t lose any more.”
    He nodded at the words she didn’t say. “I understand. I’ll call you later.”
    “Six hours. You call me in exactly six hours.”
    “Six hours.” He hung up the phone and leaned his head back against the wall. His stomach flopped at Danika’s words. Their family was dying. It was all on his shoulders to keep the demons from destroying everything he cared about.
    How in the world was he going to get Evan to tell him anything?
     
     

Chapter 8
     
    Evan spent the next twenty-four hours trying to figure out a way to get to California without William. He’d been unusually sullen since his conversation on the phone. She hadn’t wanted to pry, but her curiosity had gotten the better of her. An attack in Chicago had killed a vampyr and human William knew. The news made Evan more anxious than ever to get back to her enclave and away from the Vampire infighting for dominance.
    The next night when William got up, her skin prickled and she couldn’t seem to get comfortable.
    “You don’t look so good,” he said.
    “I don’t feel so good.”
    He stepped toward her but she jerked away.
    “I just want to feel your head. To see if you have a fever.”
    “Trust me, I have a fever.”
    “What about your leg? You said it was healing.”
    “It’s healed.”
    He looked at her. “You should check.”
    “I said—”
    “I know what you said, but you should check it anyway. I’ll even leave so you can do it without me.” He walked into the bathroom.
    She moved her leg and pain shot up through her hip and down to her knee like a lightning bolt. She stood on her good leg and slid down the sweats. Her entire thigh was bright red. She removed the bandage and discovered the wound had re-opened. It was crimson and oozy.
    “Crap. William!”
    He was out of the bathroom in a flash. He knelt by her leg and inspected it. Fear trickled through her like a ghost.
    “I thought you said it was healed.” His face held concern.
    “It was. Now it’s not.”
    He shook his head and sat on his mattress still looking at her leg. “You have an infection. Maybe something lodged inside the wound, or it could have gotten dirty… There’s any number of things that could have happened. We need to get you to a doctor.”
    She broke out in a sweat and her head grew dizzy. She sat shakily on her bed. “I told you, no doctors.”
    “I get where you’re coming from, but you have three choices right now. We go back to Chicago and I take you to Doc to fix you up. If we do that though, you’re right back where you started. I can find a hospital and take you there or… I take you where you want to go.”
    Evan closed her eyes and swore. None of those three things were what she wanted. But dying from sepsis wasn’t what she wanted either.
    “All right. You can take me to my enclave. And in return I’ll get you a meeting with our head guy. But you have to let me do it my own way.” If Norman, the leader of their enclave, was the same guy that he’d been before, he wasn’t going to be easy to convince.
    “Fine but you have to take one of my phones. Keep it on you the whole time and call me when I can come in. I won’t leave until I’ve spoken to him.”
    The whole thing was a gamble. She was putting the enclave in jeopardy. William would know where they were. But a piece of her trusted him. “You promise not to call in backup and try to overrun the place?”
    “Even if I did call for backup, there is none. They need every body they can get where they are.”
    “So you came all the way out here, alone, in the hopes of finding this enclave, knowing that you wouldn’t get help if there was trouble?”
    His face grew serious. “When we left they said