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WE DROVE TO THE SITE in silence—me contemplating what I was going to do with my growing obsession with Viktor, and he thinking about who knows what.
“There it is,” Viktor finally spoke as we turned into a dark parking lot. Most of the lamps were broken and the concrete had been cracked long enough that the weeds had outgrown them. The city lights across the river sparkled in comparison to shadows creeping over the ground in this pit of abandonment.
When we pulled in next to the only other car in the parking lot, I immediately jumped out. The tension between me and Viktor ignited my bite and I felt like the best way to clear my head was to get some fresh air. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the time I needed.
“Where were you?” Silas snapped at me. He’d been waiting in the darkness and grabbed my arm to pull me away from everyone else. “What have you done?”
I let him take a few steps before yanking my arm back. “You need to stop this.”
“Stop what?” He glared at me for a moment before diverting his eyes.
“You know what, Silas.” I glanced back toward Viktor who was speaking with Brandt. “I’m sorry that things have turned out this way for us, but I didn’t ask to be marked.”
“You didn’t?”
“No!” I wanted to scream at him for insinuating that I’d asked to be in this situation. “And you know that!”
Silas ground his jaw and kicked at the broken concrete. He started to speak several times but stopped himself and seemed to rethink his words. I reminded myself that I needed to do the same.
I reached forward and grabbed his hand. He didn’t pull away. “I’m trying to control it,” I said.
“With him?” He glared at Viktor over his shoulder. “Why him, Sophia? I can help you. We can all help you. Just don’t give it all up to be with a vampire.”
“I’m not with Viktor,” I said, uncomfortable with how much those words felt like a lie.
Silas pulled his hand away from mine. The loss of heat from his touch made me wish we could go back in time and start all over.
“But I can’t go back to the way things were,” I continued. Not only could I not be a hunter anymore, but I also couldn’t be with Silas in the same way.
He understood what I meant. I knew he did by the way he looked up at the sky and tried to hide his emotions. Running a hand through his light hair, he blew out a breath and opened his mouth to say something. But in that exact moment, Ashby appeared beside him out of thin air.
“Jesus Christ,” I said in surprise, trying to calm my racing heart.
“I’ve been looking for you,” she cooed next to Silas. He seemed to be handling her sudden appearance better. “And I’m not Christ,” she replied to me before turning her demon eyes back up to Silas. “Come on. We need you over here.”
“Why?” I asked.
Ashby glared at me, her eyes blinking yellow for a minute. “None of your business.” She wrapped her arm through Silas’ and pulled him back toward the cars. Silas said nothing as he let her drag him away.
I watched them retreat, saddened by the visual. Silas deserved someone better than me right now. I certainly didn’t think that person, or creature, was Ashby, but Silas would figure that out soon enough.
“Sophia?” Viktor called out and waved me over to where he was standing with Brandt.
I shuffled my feet along the cracked ground, trying to focus on the present and not think about all that I’d lost from my past. Viktor kept his eyes on me, and without looking, I knew Brandt was watching me closely too.
“Hi,” I said to the giant man, staring up at him and marveling at his size. He still wore a suit, although the jacket now rested on top of Viktor’s car. I wondered what he did for a living and pondered whether or not it involved athletics.
“Hello again,” he replied with a small grin.
“Brandt was just telling me about the warehouse and what they found inside,” Viktor said.
My stomach plummeted at the thought of what, or who, might be in there. “Ezra?” The trembling in my voice gave away my anxiety.
“His blood trail only,” Brandt clarified and then immediately shook his head. “Not enough blood loss to kill him. But enough for us to scent that he’s been here recently.”
“Is he still in there?” I asked.
“We don’t think so, but that’s why we’ve gathered everyone. We’ll do a sweep all at once in case there is someone inside.”
I finally noticed that three more cars had arrived, with all of the shifters and the rest of the hunters looming around the parking lot and waiting for orders. A small piece of comfort settled down back inside of me. We would certainly find Ezra if he was here.
“Okay,” I said. “We should start.”
Brandt smiled down at me and Viktor wrapped his fingers loosely around my arm. We walked around the cars and started toward the warehouse. Animals scurried away from us in the darkness, hidden by the weeds and following their instincts. As we arrived at one of the garage-door sized openings, Viktor stopped and turned to speak to everyone.
“We’ll split into groups. One floor each. See if you can pick up the scent and keep looking for signs that anyone is still here.”
The shifters all nodded and split up. One hunter went with each of them, Nadya snagging Bo before anyone else could. Silas and Ashby practically ran inside the dilapidated building, and I swear I heard her laugh at me as they disappeared into the darkness.
“We’ll stay together,” Viktor said once we were alone. Brandt spoke with one of his brothers and then ducked behind a shadow near the river.
“What’s he doing?” I asked Viktor.
He followed my gaze and then began ushering us inside. “Shifting.”
“Here?” I looked around the parking lot and then realized that we were pretty isolated. “I guess that makes sense,” I mumbled.
“It makes a lot of sense,” Viktor teased. “He’s going to keep watch outside. For all of us.”
I simply nodded my head and tried to steal one more glance toward the bushes where Brandt had disappeared. I’d never seen a bear up close before and a part of me was too curious to resist stealing a peek.
“We’ve got the top floor,” Viktor said as we reached the opening.
I could hear footsteps echoing through the concrete graveyard, most of them barely audible anymore. As we stepped inside the warehouse, the view around me darkened into patterns of light—the only light visible from the moon and the city across the river. In streaks, the faint beams highlighted only the bare minimum, keeping us in the dark and making me wonder if this was really a good idea at all.
“I need a flashlight,” I groaned.
“I can see well enough,” Viktor replied a little too quickly.
“Good for you,” I mumbled and smiled when I heard him chuckle beside me.
Viktor stepped ahead and made his way to the metal stairs that wrapped up the side of the building. At one point, they must have been enclosed. But the walls were long gone and old drywall pieces cluttered the area below the stairs. Dust filled my nose, and the faint scent of dampness reminded me of flooded basement.
I followed closely behind him as we climbed to the fourth floor. The metal stairs had holes in them, making my legs shake the higher we got. I hated being able to see just how far off the ground I was, but then I swallowed my fear and forced my brain to concentrate on finding Ezra.
I heard Bo and Nadya somewhere on the third floor. I could tell by the lilt in her voice, something I knew Graham would not be too happy about. As we passed the entryway, I also thought I caught a glimpse of something darting over the open space. So I stopped and listened, only to hear silence.
“What is it?” Viktor asked, peeking around my shoulder to look at the floor.
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
He stayed still for a moment longer, assessing the situation himself before moving ahead. It should have irritated me, but the more time I spent with Viktor, the more I felt like we were a good team. He didn’t question my instincts and I knew his would help keep us safe.
Thirteen stairs later, we’d reached the top floor of the warehouse. And unlike those we’d passed on the way up, this one hardly had any support left. The plywood pieces that once supported machinery had dry-rotted to the point where there would only be a few places left to support our weight. I began mentally marking out a pathway for us to travel safely when Viktor tapped me on the arm.
“Look,” he said, pointing to a dark spot a few feet from the top step.
“Blood?” I asked.
Viktor sucked in a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah.”
“Ezra’s?”
“Yeah.”
I pushed the bile back down my throat and tried not to react. It wasn’t a lot of blood...
“There’s more.” Viktor took a few steps onto the fourth floor, gracefully dodging the holes and putting most of his weight on the places where the support beams could still hold him. “It’s dripping, but not too quickly,” he commented to himself.
A slow, bloody drip. What was Sebastian doing to Ezra?
I followed closely behind Viktor, trying to retrace his steps. Spotting blood every few feet, we continued to weave around the holes in the floor while avoiding direct contact with the blood itself.
My eyes scanned the ground, searching for clues that could help fill in the missing blanks. Was Ezra alone? Had they left him here somewhere? Was this a trap? I looked for anything and everything – footprints, clothing, a hair. I wanted to find something that would alleviate this sense of helplessness racing through me.
“Viktor, look,” I said when I spotted it. The dust on the floor had been disturbed. An old work table was still present and along the short edge, several scuff marks dotted the ground. I took a step closer, testing the floor as I went.
“Be careful,” Viktor said, his voice calming me in a way I’d never noticed before.
“Always,” I replied with a smirk and I felt him smiling behind me.
I reached the table and stepped over the marks on the ground. Crouching, I used my finger to brush the dust away near one of the marks to see how new they might be. “Fresh,” I muttered to myself when I cleared a spot and it looked similar. “This is recent.”
Viktor sniffed the air again, his face wrinkling for just a moment. But I caught the movement and followed his gaze. Standing, I turned my attention to the wood table. I rested my left hand against it while balancing my weight and peering out over the top. It was a large table, big enough to seat twenty had it been designed for that purpose. Several metal clamps were screwed in along the edges, now rusting and peeling like the rest of the building around them.
“What is it—” I asked, but found the object of Viktor’s stare before I even finished. “Oh my god.”
In the middle of the wood, a large, dark stain offered the only color in a sea of brown. The pattern resembled an ink blot—arms reaching out like claws, the blood looking for a place to go. A person that lost this much blood would have a hard time surviving.
“Is it his?” I asked Viktor, the words barely escaping my lips.
“Some of it is.”
“Some of it? Well, how much?” I didn’t mean to shout, but I couldn’t contain the dread.
“I can’t tell. It’s been here for several hours but not longer than a day.”
We heard some scuffling on the floor below us but I couldn’t see anyone down there. “Could this be from the severed hand?” I asked quietly.
Viktor shook his head. “I don’t think so. At least not all of this.”
A loud crash brought our attention to the stairway. “What was that?” I asked.
“I don’t—”
Viktor never got a chance to answer.
The building began to shake. Like the earth had opened up below us, pieces of metal and drywall crashed from the ceiling and through the floor. I fell forward, using the work table as a brace until I could get my bearings. I’d never experienced an earthquake before, but I had no doubt this had to be one. The noise alone frightened me to the core, the twisting and tearing of metal and wood unable to withstand the motion.
“What is this?” I shouted toward Viktor.
He’d stepped back to the one spot where a beam still supported his weight. But it shook back and forth like it was trying to get rid of him. “I don’t know,” he growled. “But we need to get out of here.”
Viktor reached out toward me and I took a few steps around the edge of the table. And then the floor collapsed in front of me. My foot fell through up to my shin, but the work table covered in blood saved me. I glanced up at Viktor who was trying to map out a route for me to take. The floor between us all but disappeared while the building continued to shake violently.
“I can’t go this way,” I said. So, without thinking about what I was stepping on, I climbed up onto the table and stood in the center of the blood stain. “I’m going to jump. Can you catch me?” My arms bobbled back and forth while I tried to keep my balance. My shoe slipped in the liquid.
“Jump!” Viktor yelled.
So I did.
I flew through the air like a track star, aiming for the sliver of plywood that still held Viktor. But I overshot and flailed my arms when I realized I was going to crash right into him and knock us both into the hole. Squeezing my eyes shut, I hoped for the best. I was agile, but I couldn’t control myself in the air.
However, Viktor was a vampire. And as a vampire he was quick and strong. My body slammed into his chest, his arms wrapping around my back at the same time I squeezed my legs around his waist. Not only did he catch me, he jumped across the hole in the floor and landed near the wall on the edge of a beam. Without even a hint of struggling, Viktor set me down and held me close.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered into my ear.
The building shook again, forcing me to grab onto a support post against the wall. “Thank you.”
“We need to get out of here. This place is crashing down around us.” Viktor moved his head quickly back and forth, looking for a way out. “Okay, stay right behind me.”
I nodded and he gave me a quick kiss on the forehead. I wanted to ask him why the building was caving in, but now really wasn’t the best time to ponder. We needed to survive first. Another crash took out the work table with the blood stain. I turned in time to see part of the roof smash into the table and both giant pieces fall through the floor.
Viktor leapt gracefully from one foothold to the next, I stumbled behind him. When another piece of the metal roof fell right in front of us, he stopped so quickly that I slammed into his back. “We need another way,” he yelled over all of the noise.
Down below us, I heard a scream. A gut-wrenching, ear-piercing scream that only occurs when one is faced with their immediate demise. I didn’t know who it belonged to but I could only hope it wasn’t someone from our group.
Viktor watched the ceiling as two more pieces the size of small cars plummeted through the floors. He grabbed my hand and squeezed. “We’re going to go quick, okay?”
I nodded, not really understanding what he was talking about. All I knew is that I would follow him because I trusted him. Completely.
Viktor jumped across an opening in the floor as easily as a cat. I, on the other hand, almost missed the edge and was thankful for all of my hunter training when I finally made it across. We only had twenty feet to go to get to the stairs that were still standing. Viktor ran. Not as fast as he normally could, but too fast for me to keep up.
And when a steel beam snapped above him, he held up his arms and pushed it away before it could crush us both. “Come on, Sophia,” he shouted at me as though he hadn’t just played superman.
I ran ahead, confident with my steps and letting the adrenaline propel me forward. One leap after another, I followed behind him. So close to the stairs. Just a few more steps.
But then the floor collapsed beneath me and I felt myself falling to my death.
*