Blood on the Sun-ch 5
Song of the Sangamar book 2
Leon's brain quickly dialed in to crisis mode. He texted his brothers while he was on the move, hurrying to the front entrance to greet him. The others knew from his urgency that this wasn't the time to play games. Normally, he expected and anticipated a certain amount of resistance from his brothers. But with what was at stake, and who had just pulled up the drive of their estate, the rest of the Winterbournes knew better than to argue.
The seven of them stood together expectantly, minds and hearts racing since they’d had to sprint from every corner of the compound to arrive in time. Luckily, the true heat of a New York summer had yet to arrive, or they’d all have been the type of disheveled that was worthy of the typical reprimand they received.
The sleek black limousine came to a halt by the curb. The man who emerged from its luxurious confines looked like a slightly older clone of Aubrey, but with none of his warmth. Richard Winterbourne was the walking epitome of his namesake: cold, intimidating, and deadly. Icy blue eyes took in the assembly of his offspring with a touch of indifference and disapproval.
“Welcome home, Fath—!” Leon began, his words discarded and kicked aside as his body was shoved askew by an unexpected blur of shimmering movement.
Richard’s expression went from sneering to soft and simpering as Daniel barreled into him, the nearly seven-foot-tall physician clinging to the other man like a koala. Legs wrapped around his waist, and Richard held the taller man’s weight easily. Daniel buried his fingers in Richard’s lengthy blond tresses, peppering his face with kisses that made the stoic vampire patriarch laugh.
“You’re ruining my bad ass entrance here, Danny.” Richard’s voice was low, husky with simmering desire.
Daniel chuckled, his brogue thick as he murmured against Richard’s lips: “Oh, I’ll be happy to ruin your entrance later. It’s deserved, after how long you’ve been gone.”
“Gross!” The twins chimed together.
“Fuck’s sake… Can we talk business before you two run off and entertain each other for the evening?” Leon pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut, wishing that pouring a bottle of bleach into his sockets would erase the things he was being forced to witness.
Daniel kissed Richard deeply, slowly, savoring the moment before moving to stand on his own two feet. His fingertips slowly trailed down Richard’s jaw before sliding off his chin from the lingering caress. Chartreuse green eyes with wide vertical pupils were for nobody other than him, in that moment. “Later, you’re all mine. For now… tend to your boys, Richard.”
The doctor turned away from Richard and mouthed to Aubrey ‘You’re welcome!’ as he sauntered off. Aubrey rolled his eyes, but there was no denying that the physician’s embrace had forced their father’s bad temper to mellow out.
Richard brought a fist to his mouth, coughing into it and clearing his throat as the flush in his cheeks faded. “Sorry you boys had to see that.”
“Not like we don’t know how things work, Dad.” Draven said with a sigh, his eyes still a bit bloodshot and puffy from his crying jag earlier.
“Regardless, I haven’t been home to see you all for more than a year. Didn’t even get to meet the girl I’ve been hearing so much about.” He paused, sighing heavily. “Speaking of that…” Richard took two steps towards his eldest son, and slapped Aubrey across the face with the force of an oncoming freight train.
The impact shattered bones in Aubrey’s face and Richard’s hand, the fractures mending and healing almost as quickly as they had occurred, the unexpected force of it momentarily causing Aubrey to go as limp as a sack of potatoes. He slumped to the side, and it was Maverick who caught his weight and prevented him from crashing into the pavement.
All niceties aside, wrath and the scent of blood thickened the air. Between the three of them bristling, fangs bared like dogs, it was impossible to tell who was the angriest. “How could you let this happen?!” Richard’s accusation stung the both of them, but his disapproval hit Aubrey harder than his fist ever could.
“And where the fuck were you when it happened?” Maverick challenged him. “Where were you when Aubrey, Leon, and Jax were talking with the president and prime minister about political rights for vampires?”
Richard’s eyes widened as he looked at his youngest biological son, surprised at both the vitriol and clarity of his words. He opened his mouth to speak, and Maverick quickly cut him off. “Let me stop you right there, before you waste the lingering, precious breath that your boyfriend didn’t manage to suck out of your face.”
Aubrey stepped to the side at that, wondering if the younger vampire had finally, completely, utterly lost any remaining marbles he had. Despite worrying what his father’s reaction would be, Aubrey stood beside Maverick. He owed him that much. He had initially blamed Mav for Lily’s abduction, but once the shock of the event had worn off, he knew there was more to it than that.
It had been an unfortunate case of wrong place, wrong time. Maverick hadn’t stopped beating himself up about it, despite his brothers assuring him that there was nothing he could have done differently to save her.
“You were gone, dad. You’re always fucking gone. Whenever we need you, where are you? Not fucking here. Lily was taken a god damn month ago and you’re just now rolling up to the joint like you never left.” He raked his fingers through messy brunette hair, veins prominent in his forearms like he was trying to hold his skull together with the pressure from his hands.
With a heavy exhale, centering himself and trying to maintain at least some sense of decorum, Maverick’s eyes met Richard’s. One of them was Winterbourne blue, the other was a deep brown like his mother’s had been. “You’re entitled to be pissed about it happening, but you weren’t here. You were off on some grand fucking adventure, like you always are. So, you don’t get to be as pissed off as we are. As I am… She was ours to protect, and we fucking failed. More importantly, she was mine to protect when it happened, and—”
Jaxon was beside Maverick in an instant, settling a hand on his shoulder. “We talked about this, Maverick. Nobody blames you. They pumped you so full of vampire tranquilizers that I’m surprised you didn’t die.”
Maverick shook his head, bi-colored eyes full of fire. “You all might not blame me, but I do. And I won’t fucking forgive myself until she’s back here with us, safe and in one piece. Where she fucking belongs.” He spat the words like they were a poison that needed to be expelled from his belly for him to survive.
Richard Winterbourne was silent a moment. The longest of moments, as he stared at the congregation of vampires he had created. His sons exchanged worried glances, but none of them spoke another word. Maverick’s confession rang true to all of them. Shame had gotten them nowhere, thus far. Allowing Richard to turn them into punching bags would only further the division between them and their father. They didn’t need a wedge to drive them apart. What they needed was duct tape to bring them all together.
The Winterbourne patriarch was no fool. Richard’s voice was quiet, thin and reedy as he asked them all to come closer. They were hesitant, but finally complied, standing near to each other as a group. Aubrey and Maverick flinched as their father threw his arms around them, embracing them tightly in a physical show of affection none of them had received since they were small children. Even more unexpected were the words of apology that fell from his lips, shattering their perception of their father as a coldhearted bastard with a simple, warbling missile strike of: “I’m sorry.”
The eight of them stood together in the humidity of a late spring evening, silently feeling all the things that men should never admit to feeling. No one said a word about the tears that stained their cheeks. None of them mentioned the ugly sobs that made Aubrey’s shoulders quake with sorrow and a loss he hadn’t fully taken the time to process.
Richard’s voice was coarse and raw when he dared to speak again. “You’re right. I failed you. All of you, including the girl who should have been under my protection. Our protection.
“You’ve all changed. She helped you grow, helped you get closer to being the men you’re supposed to be. The last time I left, most of you were nothing more than boys in adult bodies. Masquerading as men without any true understanding of maturity.”
He stepped back to look at them all, pride obvious in his expression. “She even seemed to help Maverick become whole, again. I never thought I’d see the day. And just now, witnessing all of you standing together, standing up for each other, knowing that I could rip the seven of you apart with my bare hands and walk away with barely a scratch… Whether it’s pure hubris or you’ve become stronger through having her, there’s no denying that she has changed you.”
Leon spoke up, old patterns of behavior leaving him expecting to be denied. “You have a wider net to cast than we do. Will you help us find her, father?”
Richard Winterbourne clapped his second eldest son on the shoulder, giving him a solemn nod. “Daddy’s home, boys. Let’s go find our girl. I want to meet the woman who helped my sons become men. And thieves need to learn not to stick their fingers in other vampires’ cookie jars, lest they get bitten off.”