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I eyeball Adrien privately, as he shakes the ice around in his whiskey. At least when Liz was here, it stopped me glaring. Sara comes to sit beside me, nudging her knee against mine. She’s flirting. She’s hoping that I go upstairs so she can follow. And I just might, in a minute, when Liz isn’t up there.
“Hmm, where’s Liz?” I ask.
“She’s watching Daniel,” Adrien says, heading into the kitchen.
As soon as the kitchen door swings shut on Adrien, a screeching sound comes from up the stairs. Adrien burst back in from the kitchen, just as shocked as I. It’s Daniel, and he never cries.
“Shit!” Adrien races upstairs and I follow, both presuming Liz is having another outburst, and her awakening is not yet over.
Adrien storms into Daniel’s room, pacing around frantically, ignoring Daniel screaming. I blink slowly, relieved. Liz would never hurt him, and I’m angry for thinking the worst of her.
Sara hurries in and lifts Daniel out from his cot, shushing, rocking, and trying to calm him down.
Adrien charges by me and out into the hall. “Elizabeth,” he calls out, checking each room. “Elizabeth!”
A dark gloom clouds my head suddenly. It’s like Daniel’s cries are making my goddamn brain bleed. I’ve never felt his energy before. I can feel the fear from him. His screams and his bright red face, tell me something has happened here tonight. He’s enraged and scared. He’s scared for his mum.
“Shit, what’s wrong with him?” The moment that last word left my mouth, I hear something only a vigore can pick up. I fucking hear Liz. She’s so faint, like she’s lost control of her shield for a second, and now I know she’s not in this house.
“She’s not here!” I yell, as Dom and Ben watch me.
“What do you mean?” Sara asks over Daniel’s howls.
“FUCK.” I have to get away from the kid, so charge out onto the landing. I shove Adrien in the chest. “She’s not here. She’s out there. God!” I slap the side of my head, hard, desperate to hear her again. “She’s... she’s in trouble, I think.”
Adrien grabs my arm and begins to pull me down the hall, away from Daniel. If I was in my right mind, I would knock him clean out for manhandling me like this. But I think I know what he’s trying to do.
“You lot stay here with Daniel. We need to get closer.” I jog down the stairs after Adrien, and we race outside toward the barn.
I skid to a stop in the dirt. At first I get nothing, but now I’m picking up several different scents.
“You getting that?” I ask, watching Adrien inhale.
“Yes,” he says. “Sang. Vigore. One vigore specifically. Gerrard. I’d know his reek anywhere. He’s in on this with her. Selene, she’s fucking been here!”
He spins to face me. “Did you know?”
Here we go again. I don’t believe he’s just asked me that.
“You serious?” I’m just waiting for him to blow. I can see that fake debonair exterior of his, cracking.
He grabs me, but I manage to push him away. Never thought I’d say this, but now is not the time to fight with him. I need my energy to find Liz.
“How the fuck did she find us?” He starts to stride toward the house, then back to me.
“Look, I’m going after him,” I state. “You stay here.” I point my finger at him and he doesn’t like it. Just as he looks as though he’s going to grab it and snap it off, Sara comes running toward us.
“Adrien, Daniel is making himself sick crying,” she says.
“What the fuck do you want me to do about it!” he shouts in her face.
“Right.” I step in-between him and Sara. “You go back to the house and look after your son. Me and Sara will go after Gerrard. The more time we spend out here deciding who’s going to be the hero, the bigger the distance we have to cover.”
He’s visibly screwed-up right now. And if I were him, I wouldn’t want to be babysitting a screaming kid. But I’m the only vigore on his side right now, and my skills will be more valuable than his fury.
“Leave him crying,” Adrien says, his heart is now stone.
“And in danger. If anyone attacks the house, I can’t keep him quiet. You want your own son to die!” Sara barks.
“No... No I do not.” He goes silent.
“Sara.” I gesture my head and begin to march toward the trees.
“We’ll find her,” Sara says to Adrien, jogging to my side.
***
AFTER TREKKING THROUGH the woods for thirty minutes, I step out on the tarmac of a road. The road looks familiar. It’s the same long road we travelled on to get here.
I stop and stoop over. I thought we had a shot of finding her, but I lost Gerrard’s scent just after we left Adrien, and I feel no specific energy in this area at all. If Liz was still human, I’d be able to hear her terror. I would literally be able to taste it. But I’m getting nothing from her at all.
“Fuck!” I growl up to the sky, kicking the tip of my boot against the road.
Maybe I should have let Adrien come. Sara has been no use at all. I watch as she strides ahead toward a gas station, around four hundred meters away from where we are.
“Sara, what the hell are you doing?” I yell after her, noticing her moody walk.
“They could have only gone down this road to get out of here. Selene might be all-powerful, but she’s not invisible. Especially with a group of sang and vigore. Someone from that gas station will have seen something.”
I jog after her. She’s right. Sara is like the brains of Adrien’s coven. I guess I should listen to her more.
As we get closer to the gas station in New Westminster, both Sara and I stop, noticing a black stretched limo. And if I’m not hallucinating, Leanna is filling up the tank. I immediately assume she’s also in on this, as does Sara, and we both flit, arriving at the hood of the limo, ready to attack.
Sara grabs Leanna, fangs out and snarling, as I look down in the backseat. But Liz isn’t there. All I see is some blind woman, smoking what smells like a foreign camel cigarette.
“Hey, you must be Nathan,” she says, unbothered by me.
I frown at her. “Who the hell are you?”
“Sara,” the woman yells. “We have a visitor.”
Sara releases Leanna and jumps up to her feet. Like me, she’s confused.
“Gwen?” Sara flicks her curly waves back off her face, retracting her fangs as she walks over.
Leanna pulls herself up, huffing and puffing, brushing down her blue jacket. “Demetrius,” she says in a snarl. “Is looking for Selene.”
“Aren’t we fucking all,” I bark, watching Leanna scowling at Sara.
I turn my head toward the windows of the gas station. It looks like no one is working tonight, and now I know why. Demetrius Valt is strolling toward us in his three piece black suit, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth.
“Well-well-well. I see a gathering has arrived to greet me as I was enjoying dinner. He stops, his deep set dark eyes looking over Sara and I.
He’s wearing patent designer shoes that clip and clop like ladies heels. His blonde hair is scraped back, and his bony fierce face displays his sadistic arrogance. He really does look like he’s ready for his own funeral. As he gets closer, his face colours, and he seems to be getting more youthful. He’s fed off the poor bastard working here, and is now energised.
“You’ll have to forgive me. I wasn’t looking my best. That delicious young man has fixed the problem.” Again he fingers away a small speck of blood from his mouth. “So, now you’re here, we do not have to rely on this witch.” He gestures his hand at the limo door. “Where is Adrien?”
I’m not answering him. We’re supposed to be finding Liz. Not giving directions to a pure blood, who doesn’t give a shit about nothing but himself. Pure bloods are all the same. They think we are made just to provide for them. Like they are the royalty, and we gather their taxes. Though, you’re not really supposed to piss one off. They are the originals. Purer and more powerful than the average vamp.
I stare at Leanna. “Did you know, about Gerrard?”
“Not until I found Izack with his head missing.” She tries to stay calm in front of Demetrius. “I’m going to kill him!” She fails.
“Enough!” Demetrius roars, with a voice from the deepest part of hell.
That got our attention.
“We need to find Liz. We find Liz, we find Selene. That’s what you want, isn’t it?” I assert myself. Probably not a wise thing to do.
“I need to see with my own eyes first. The child.”
“No way!” I step forward, and so does Sara.
Within one beat of my heart, the fucker has hold of my throat, lifting me so my feet dangle near his thigh. I don’t know whether it’s a pure blood thing, but his arms are freakishly long. I’m trying to prize away his leathery fingers, but shit, it’s no use fighting.
“Demetrius, he can’t take you to Adrien with his throat missing now.” I watch as the witch steps out of the limo, trying to bargain for my release.
The thing is, even if he sets my boots back down onto the concrete and apologises, my answer would still be the same. No way is he getting anywhere near Daniel.
I look at Sara. She’s not too worried about me, but I kind of blink and nod to show her I can deal with this asshole anyway.
“What is it you take me for.” He shakes me, and I can feel his claws digging deeper into my skin. “You think I have babies and children on the menu?” I want to shrug my shoulders, because I wouldn’t put anything passed a pure blood’s greed. “A child will not fill me. And a dhampir child, will destroy me.” I suddenly find myself on the floor, watching Demetrius brushing his hands together. “I merely want to see.”
“And I really don’t trust a single word you pure bloods say.” I stand up, rubbing my neck, looking right into his eyes. “You know what Selene has done. Fucked your stupid order over, and every good vampire out there.” Never thought I’d say that. “And you, are you going to beg Selene to feed you in your castles and caves. No, I can’t see that. So whose side are you really on, hmm?”
His eyes are transfixed on me. “I don’t think I have ever in my existence met a more, over-opinionated, overbearing, disobedient fool. I would very much like to see you de-limbed right now.”
“I’ve been called worse.” I want to add to that, give it a try, but I won’t. He looks to be seriously thinking about killing me where I stand.
“Nathan,” the witch, Gwen I think she’s called, appeals to me. “Sometimes you got to just follow the path you’re put on. We were meant to meet here tonight.”
Fucking hell. Is this woman going to read my palm too? Things are complicated enough, without having a witch spouting off about fate and destiny.
“Sara, call Adrien,” I yell, knowing we won’t be able to shake these assholes off.
Sara pulls out her phone and marches to the side of the gas station. Why I don’t know, because we could all listen if we chose to.
I need to hear what he thinks about this. He is the Daddy after all. For me, it’s a definite no. We’re wasting too much time as it is.