Forever for Rose

Chapter Fourteen.

Dalton rushed us to Pedro, who was not happy with Lance for going behind everyone's back to take me down there and trigger a vision. Which was exactly why Lance didn't tell him. He'd known he'd be mad. I tried to come to his defense as much as possible, but Pedro wouldn't hear it.

He only slightly softened when I shakily rehashed the vision for him.

His face had gone long as he backed into his chair and plopped down, dropping his head into his hands. "What do we do?" He asked. It was a weird thing, seeing a king unsure of what to do.

We've all just been sitting in the living area, staring at the floor for an hour.

I finally look up, glancing at Dalton, then to Pedro. "You've been getting calls?" I ask.

Pedro slowly comes out of his stone stance and rubs his jaw in exasperation. "Yes." He sighs. "I got a call from Denmark, then another from Mexico. After they both reported talk of a couple disappearances, but no proof I started calling the other settlements." He explains, looking down as he speaks. "Each place I called it was the same thing. Ukraine, Australia, Africa, Russia-."

"Russia?" Fallon shot up in her seat, her eyes wide saucers.

Pedro quickly held up a hand. "I've spoken to Mathew." He tells her quickly and she sinks back down into her seat a little. "He's fine, but I've asked him to...well, he'll be coming in a matter of days."

Fallon visibly perked up.

"Who is Mathew?" I ask and she smiles.

"My brother." She tells me. "He's the one who got me this little job." She reaches over and pats my knee.

Pedro has a strange look on his face and for a short minute the troubles of the day slip away. "Pedro," I say, starting to grin. "How well do you know this Mathew fellow?"

Pedro rolls his eyes and waves his hand. "Mathew and I are purely friends." He says, but like Fallon likes to say, his mouth was saying on thing, but his eyes were telling something else.

Fallon nearly confirmed it with a wink.

Pedro didn't miss the action and he looks away, his eyes troubled. I easily sensed that it was more than just the new threat and the missing people who were making him uneasy, but I didn't want to press him on the matter in front of everyone.

"Can we get back to the matter at hand?" Dalton sighs exasperatedly, looking over at Pedro and Lance. "How do we up our protective measures without causing a panic? It isn't like we can announce to everyone that there is some kind of magical beings after us for our blood but we have no idea who they are or why they want it or what we're going to do about it."

Lance groans and rubs his eyes. "The people were already all over me when I had the guards set up in front of the city to keep the searchers out." He mumbles. "I was fielding questions all hours for days over it and there was a logical reason for it then, now I don't know what I could tell them."

I stand from my spot, the first movement of any of us in over twenty minutes as we all sat and stared and pondered with no luck. I paced the small space between the table and the TV stand, trying to think of something. I've felt so useless for so long in my family and I just want to actually be capable of doing something.

My eyes stray down onto the table where a stack of papers were strewn across the top.

I prayed for a sign within them, but all that was there were menus and event lists for the upcoming ball. I'd nearly forgotten all about the summer solstice. I chide myself for the little bubble of excitement that still manages to creep up within me at the thought of it. As long as I've been here I still haven't gotten to do anything my mom did, aside from seeing her's and dad's room, which was not all that exciting since Dalton had taken it over, and I've seen the garden...Other than that though, I've not gotten the luxury side of Castrum, only the high intensity everything is falling apart side.