She's Mine

Chapter Ten

Hope POV-

I open my eyes to see Dorian and Alaric staring at me. "Arlington National cemetery, they are still in Virginia. There was a man who took them? He said he is planning on me coming to rescue the twins then he can kill me. He said my family hurt his or something; he wants revenge. And the girls are okay, they are bound in chairs but otherwise unharmed." A sigh of relief escapes Alaric but not for long. "Alright, Arlington is about four hours away. Let's prep."

I head to my room and put on music while packing a suitcase. "Someone You Loved," comes on and it reminds me so much of Josie. I still have her hoodie on, and I don't have the heart to take it off. I finish packing and meet Alaric downstairs. "Kaleb, MG, Raf?" What are you guys doing here? And with a suitcase?" They all three look towards Alaric but Kaleb responds, "Super squad is here to help." Dorian comes around the corner last and says, "Alright, let's go."

I hop into the front seat with Alaric driving, MG and Kaleb hop into the back row, and Dorian and Raf sit in the middle row. We want to leave now so we can do some recon before running in without preparation. Alaric looks over at me, "You should try to sleep, we won't have the chance for much more in the near future." I look to the back seats and see MG, Kaleb, and Raf all asleep. Dorian is reading a book about the Peryton on his phone. It is hard to argue with Alaric when I haven't slept in 48 hours, and I expended a ton of energy doing the pink crystal visual teleport. "Wake me if you need me," I lean my head against the window and watch as the woods pass us by. I pull out my headphones and start playing "HOLD YOU DOWN" by X Ambassadors. Finally, I succumb to sleep.

Alaric POV-

We've been driving about two hours now and it's 1 am. 2 more hours to go. I look over to see Hope finally asleep. She's been through so much lately; I know she needed this sleep. Dorian and the boys are also sound asleep in the back. I've got music playing quietly over the radio to help me stay awake. About ten minutes later, Hope starts to mumble under her breath. I look over to see if I can see what she is saying. "Josie," she trails off. There is definitely something going on between the two of them that is causing Hope to dream of Josie.

We finally arrive at a hotel that is within walking distance of the Arlington National Cemetery. "Hope," I lightly call her name out. She sits up quickly and opens her golden wolf eyes. She blinks a couple of times before they clear out. "How did you sleep?" I am genuinely asking but am also curious if she will mention her dream. "Fine," she leans her head back against the window as she rubs some sleep out of her eyes. I turn around to look towards the back of the car. "Alright, guys we are here, let's get inside then we can sleep for a little longer." I hop out of the car followed by Dorian who helps me check into the hotel. We get two adjourning rooms with two queen beds and a living space each.

I go back out to the car and see the boys and Hope grabbing suitcases. They follow us upstairs to the rooms. "Alright," I hand each of them a keycard, "These are for your rooms." I turn to look at the boys and Hope, there are four beds in these two rooms, so each of you grab one. Get some more sleep. We have a long day ahead of us." Each room also has a pullout couch so Dorian and I each set them up and fall asleep quickly.

Hope POV-

I wake up to see MG still fast asleep on the bed next to me and Alaric asleep on the pullout couch. I go into the bathroom and take a quick shower before returning to the room. I pull out my phone and see that it is about 8 am. I grab my key card for the room and carefully open it to step outside.

I can see the tombstones from here in the Arlington National Cemetery. The view I have right now doesn't equal the view I saw when I was with the twins. I try to gauge where the window would have been facing out from. I know we were probably in a second story house and that it faced Arlington but Arlington is something like 600 acres. We will have to set up a perimeter to look later for the potential window. I step back inside to see Alaric stirring awake.

Alaric POV-

Hope and I hop into the car while everyone else was still sleeping. "Alright, what are we looking for?" I look to Hope since she saw the view out of the window. "It is a second-story window overlooking the headstones. It looked like the house was across the street. If I am remembering correctly there is a huge tree in the front yard which blocked part of the view." Okay, so we are looking for a house with a tree in the yard and a window facing Arlington. This is going to take a while.

Hope and I are driving around when Hope tells me to slow down and pull over. She points up ahead at a yellow house. "There, I bet that is it," Hope sounds confident in her answer but we can't just barge into some random person's house. "Okay, well stake it out for the next hour and see if anyone comes in or out."

Hope POV-

Those crime shows make stakeouts look fun but we don't have soda and junk food to entertain us. I look down at my hand and see it is healed, finally. Alaric and I have been sitting here for about 45 minutes when a man exits the house. He fits Josie's generic description of the man who talked to them. "Alaric, that is the guy who threatened me." He looks up from his phone and sees him. "We found them." A sigh escapes my lips as we turn to head back to the hotel.