Soulless at Sunset

by Deanna Chase

  “Just a feeling. I’m not sure we can trust her.”

  He glanced back at the clinic, his eyes hooded. Then he grimaced and opened my door. “Get in. We have a couple of fae to find.”

  “It’s about time,” I said, a tiny twinge of relief rushing through me.

  Dax ran around the Trooper and claimed the driver’s seat. He cranked the key and as the engine rumbled, he said, “But first you need a change of clothes.”

  I stared down at the dirty, stained tube dress and nodded. I could kick a vampire’s ass wearing nothing but a smile, but it would be a hell of a lot easier in my tracker uniform. Jeans, T-shirt, and boots. All of which held my arsenal of weapons that would make it easier to end whoever took Willow.

  5

  When I opened the door to the Greek revival home I shared with Tal and Willow, I half expected to hear the murmur of my friends’ voices upstairs. Instead, I walked through the door and was nearly knocked on my ass by a large gray wolf.

  Link, Willow’s wolf-shifting shih tzu, was in full-on agitated mode as he shoved his muzzle into my face and let out a low whine.

  “Christ, you’re a pathetic wolf,” I said, gently patting the top of his head. He followed me into my bedroom and sat patiently as I pulled out fresh clothes and headed into my adjoining bathroom. The wolf followed me, his whine turning to a low growl.

  “I know, Link. She’s missing. But we can’t do anything about it until I wash off this blood and climb into fresh clothes.”

  His amber eyes glowed with intelligence as he sat back down, waiting.

  Link was at least one good thing in my favor. He’d been with Willow since he was a puppy and no one, not even Talisen, was more devoted to Willow than Link. If anyone could scent her out, it’d be him.

  Ten minutes later, I was out of the shower, fully dressed, and armed. I had everything from my dagger to a couple of stakes to my magic-infused jewelry. I even had another blade tucked in my boot, though this one wasn’t cursed. I ran upstairs with Link on my heels and found Dax in the kitchen, rummaging through the fridge.

  Red marinara sauce had dried to the dirty dishes that were stacked beside the sink, an echo of the lasagna dinner the three of us had shared the previous night before we’d left for the gala.

  I could still see Willow laughing as she slathered butter on yet another slice of french bread, insisting that just one more wouldn’t hurt, and Tal rolling his eyes as the pair of us teased him about his pin-striped seersucker suit. He was a fae originally from northern California, not a Southern gentleman. Willow had flashed him one of her radiant smiles and assured him he’d be the most handsome man there. I, of course, had made a gagging sound because seriously, when you had to watch your two best friends fawn all over each other while you lusted after the shifter you couldn’t have, sometimes your immaturity got the better of you.

  My gaze shifted and landed on a brown paper bag. Some Like It Hot Chocolate was scrawled across the front in Willow’s handwriting. Her concoction to promote fertilization was inside that bag. The one she’d mentioned at the gala. A small, strangled gasp escaped from my lips before I could stop it.

  “Hey,” Dax said, stepping in front of me and placing his large hands on my shoulders. “You okay?”

  “They’re supposed to be trying for a baby.” My voice was low and shaky as I stared up at him, my vision suddenly blurred with emotion.

  He let out a small sigh and pulled me to him, his strong arms holding me tight. “We’re going to find them, Phoebs. I promise.”

  “I know,” I snapped and jerked out of his embrace. I wasn’t sure if I was more annoyed with him or myself. This weepy person, crying in the kitchen when I should’ve already been out the door tracking them both, wasn’t me at all. And Dax of all people should’ve known that. I gritted my teeth and stared him right in the eye. “Don’t comfort me.”

  “Why the hell not?” he shot back, annoyance flashing all over his handsome features. “Because I’m not your boyfriend? Not allowed to care about you? Well, I’ve got news for you, Kilsen. Just because you won’t let me back into your bed doesn’t mean I don’t give a shit about you. Got it?”

  I bit back a wince, knowing I deserved his ire. His only sin was that he’d cared too much. “That’s not…” I ran a frustrated hand through my hair. “I don’t fall apart. Ever.”

  “That’s an understatement,” he said, not breaking eye contact.

  I gritted my teeth. “And I’m sure as hell not going to start now. Comfort is not what I need from you.”

  “So what the fuck am I supposed to do? Ignore the fact that you have tears in your eyes? Jesus, Phoebe. I’m not a fucking machine. I can’t just turn off everything I’m feeling like—” He clamped his mouth closed and stared at the ceiling. “I’m not a robot.”

  “Of course you aren’t,” I shot back. Then I lowered my voice and added, “I’m not either, you know.”

  His unreadable gaze met mine as he waited for me to continue.

  “I’m not,” I said again. “But what I need from you right now is for you to kick my ass into gear. Falling apart is not an option. I’m stronger than that. I have to be stronger than that because right now we need to be focusing on finding Willow and Talisen. And the best thing you can do is to remind me of that, not be my savior.”

  “Savior?” he scoffed. “Impossible. You’d never allow that.”

  I sucked in a deep breath, willing myself to not scream at him. Then I let it out, and in a controlled, emotionless tone, I said, “I’m not doing this right now. If you want a fight, it’ll have to wait.” Then I grabbed one of Willow’s energy bars off the counter, turned, and stalked out of the room, Link following at my heels.

  “Shit,” I heard Dax say. “Kilsen, wait.”

  I didn’t slow down as I passed Willow and Tal’s room. The door was open, revealing the enchanted tree that gave them strength in a city of concrete. My chest ached as I imagined them both locked away in some cell or building with no vegetation. Without nature, they’d both start to weaken, making them even more vulnerable. Damn.

  Link turned his head, his golden eyes scanning the room. Then he shot down the stairs and paced in front of the door while he waited for me to catch up. “Don’t worry. The two of us will find them, Link.”

  “The three of us will,” Dax said, reaching past me to open the door.

  I met his brilliant blue eyes and said, “Thank you.”

  “There’s nothing to thank me for, Kilsen,” he said. “Now get your ass out the door. We have a job to do.”

  My lips twitched in amusement. He’d heard me loud and clear and was giving me exactly what I needed. And damn if that wasn’t sexy as hell. I slipped past him and headed for the Trooper. “You drive.”

  He cast a glance at my gunmetal-gray Charger, his eyebrows raised.

  It was a good question. Given a choice, I’d usually take mine any day of the week. But today we had company. I waved a hand at Link. “He sheds.”

  Dax let out a deep laugh, shook his head, and climbed into the driver’s seat of the Trooper, not bothering to open my door.

  Finally, I thought. He was learning.

  “Something tells me Bell Fountain Hotels won’t be inviting the Cryrique back anytime soon,” I said as Link and I stood in the middle of the ballroom, eyeing the utter destruction. The glass on the french doors that led to the balcony had been smashed to pieces. One had been completely ripped off the hinges. Food was smeared on the walls, flower petals swam in puddles of champagne, and there was blood spatter on the floor and one of the walls. “Tell me exactly what happened.”

  A muscle in Dax’s jaw pulsed as I watched the anger boil inside him. He walked over to me and pointed to the balcony. “Remember when you left? I jumped into that altercation with Leo and those fucking vampires who were taunting him.”

  “Taunting?” I asked. “I thought it was just another vamp-shifter brawl. You know, when the two groups feed off the other’s hostility until one fi
nally snaps.”

  He gave me a derisive snort. “Yeah, I was expecting that too. But this was different, personal. The vampires, they knew stuff about Leo’s family, bad shit that would fuck with anyone. And they knew about his record and the fact that he took the fall for a girl of his, who ran off with his mortal enemy the moment he was locked up.”

  “Ouch. That’s fucked up.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “And the vampires brought that shit up at the gala? Why?” I asked.

  “I had no idea at the time.” His expression turned murderous. “Now it makes sense.”

  A lightbulb popped on over my head. “A distraction?”

  “Exactly. Right after you walked out of the gala, one of the vamps attacked Leo. You saw him. The kid was already on the verge of shifting.”

  “Let me guess. After that Leo couldn’t control himself. And once he shifted, so did half the shifters in the ballroom.”

  “Half? Ha! Try three-quarters. Most of the shifters who showed up were young. Old guys like me usually don’t want anything to do with Allcot or his lackeys.”

  Old guys. Dax was all of thirty years old. But I knew what he meant. The shifters at the gala had been young, early twenties like Leo and Dali, and most had been relatively new in town. “Okay, so I imagine all hell broke loose?”

  “You could say that. I was busy keeping Leo from being torn apart. Meanwhile, the other shifters started attacking the vampires.”

  “Why?” I asked, jerking my head back in surprise.

  “Instinct. Too young to control themselves. The next thing I knew, there was a full-on brawl. The minute I got Leo away from the vamps who’d been taunting him, I hauled him outside and sent him home. Then I ran back in to find Willow and Talisen. But…”

  “They were already gone?” I filled in, my heart sinking.

  He nodded then dropped his head, appearing defeated. When he glanced back up, sorrow and determination and guilt were shining back at me. “There is no doubt in my mind it was a setup. Everything from you being called away to the attack on Leo. The vampires did this. They took Willow and Talisen. I’m sure of it.”

  The night’s events replayed in my mind. The redheaded vamp had been embarrassingly easy to find considering he’d done nothing to alter his appearance even after an alert had been issued for his description. I hadn’t thought about it much at the time, but usually vampires weren’t that stupid, not if they were trying to stay below the radar. But he definitely hadn’t been. He’d waited for me to see him before he’d fled the strip club. He’d stayed nearby, making sure he’d be easy to track. Then he’d stalked right out into the street and all but challenged me to a duel.

  I cursed. I’d thought we’d been set up. Now I was sure of it. “We’ve definitely been played.”

  6

  “Have you tracked Allcot down yet?” I asked Dax.

  He shook his head. “While the healer was working on you, I got ahold of one of his vampires. He told me Talisen and Willow had been taken by one of the rival hives. He claimed he didn’t know where Allcot was. Said the entire inner circle at Cryrique is in a frenzy.”

  “Do you believe him?” It was hard to imagine the Cryrique vampires being anything but in control. Allcot ran a tight ship. If what the contact said was true, it was possible Allcot wasn’t responsible for Willow and Tal’s disappearance, and if he wasn’t, it sounded like they’d been just as surprised as we’d been.

  “He sounded shaken, that’s for sure. I don’t think we’ll know anything definite until we see Allcot.”

  I nodded. Allcot was a bastard. There was no doubt about that. But chances were high I’d know which way the wind was blowing after we spoke. Some people had a hard time seeing through his lies, but I didn’t. His cockiness was always a dead giveaway. “Do we know for sure vampires took them? Not shifters?”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and nodded. “I’d know it if the pack had their eye on Willow and Tal.”

  “Okay.” I rubbed at my forehead, trying to figure out who else would’ve even had access to Willow and Tal at the gala. “The more I think about this, the more I’m inclined to believe this was all a big ploy by Allcot to finally lock Willow in his dungeon.” At one point, Allcot had tried to force Willow to work for him, but over time they’d formed an uneasy truce. While she trusted him, I didn’t. A vampire doesn’t end up the head of one of the most powerful vampire organizations in the US without being a complete prick. And Eadric Allcot was definitely a prick. A self-serving, arrogant prick. And Willow had something extremely valuable to not only him but pretty much every other vampire in existence. If Allcot could control it, he’d be unstoppable.

  “Fuck, you’re right,” he said, grabbing the back of his neck. “We just can’t be sure of anything when the information comes from Allcot’s goons.”

  “No, we can’t. So that means we need to start from here.” I turned to Link, who’d just returned from a scenting excursion around the ballroom. “Did you pick up her trail?”

  Link lifted his head and ran toward the balcony. Dax and I followed him. The wolf stopped at the railing, turned around in a circle a few times, then sat down and sniffed at the bottom of one of the railing posts.

  “They took her over this railing,” I told Dax. “Come on. Let’s go find out if there’s a trail of her scent out on the street.”

  Dax and I started to move back into the ballroom, but Link stayed exactly where he was, staring forlornly at the ground.

  “Link, let’s go,” I ordered.

  He didn’t move and let out a sad whimper.

  “Oh for the love of…” I bit back a curse and walked back over to the wolf. Crouching down, I placed both hands on the sides of his head. “Listen, buddy. I know you’re missing her, but you need to pull it together.”

  He pawed at my foot.

  I glanced down, scanning the area. Link put his nose to the ground and nudged something out of the shadows. I knelt and ran my hand lightly over the ground. My fingers closed over the cool stone, and I knew instantly what he’d found. “Good boy, Link,” I said patting his head. “Very good boy.”

  “What is it?” Dax asked, squinting into the sunrise.

  I held my hand out to him, showing him the crystal Willow usually wore around her neck. It was a protection crystal that Talisen had given her when they were teenagers. “She’s going to be very pissed when she realizes this is missing.”

  Dax peered at my hand. “The clasp is broken on the chain. I think it’s clear this is where the altercation happened.” He glanced over the railing, down at the ground. “We’re five stories up, which means the vampire who snagged them has to be powerful enough to fly.”

  “Willow can fly,” I said.

  “Sure. But unless she was attempting to escape, she wouldn’t have gone over the side.”

  “No. But it is possible she fled over the railing. That doesn’t explain Tal though.” Male fae didn’t have wings. And Willow’s wouldn’t have been able to support both of them. I shook my head. “Even if they did try, there’s no doubt the vamps eventually got them. Otherwise we’d have heard from them by now.”

  “Sounds right.”

  “Ready to go, Link?” I asked the wolf.

  He moved to stand beside me.

  “Good. Let’s see if you can scent them.” I took off for the door. And this time both Dax and Link followed.

  Once we were out on the street, Link put his nose to the ground, furiously trying to sniff out his mistress, but it was no use. He circled the block twice, then sat at my feet and stared up at me, waiting for direction. I glanced at Dax. “Should we try the roof?”

  He gave me a half shrug. “What good would that do? Even if Link can scent them, there won’t be any kind of trail. Not if the vamp levitated right off the building.”

  I let out a frustrated sigh. He was right. It was impossible to track the ancient vampires the old-fashioned way. They just had too much power. It was time to try a trac
ing spell. I pulled out Willow’s crystal and held it in my hand. Closing my eyes, I pictured first Willow, then Talisen. Magic tingled and burned hot through my veins. When I opened my eyes, my hand glowed with magic.

  “Reveal,” I whispered. The ball of light floated up from my hand, swelled, and formed a window allowing me to peek through the veil of the universe. A Willow-shaped shadow appeared and, slowly but surely, morphed into a picture of my friend. She was in a nondescript room void of any furniture, pacing back and forth. My only consolation was that she didn’t appear to be hurt. Just a little rattled and clearly pissed off.

  “Willow,” I said, my voice loud and clear.

  She stopped abruptly and frantically glanced around. “Phoebe? Are you out there?”

  “I’m here, Wil. Where are you?”

  “Phoebe?” she asked again.

  “Come on, Wil, where are you,” I whispered again, knowing she could feel my presence but couldn’t see me or hear me.

  “Dammit,” she muttered and grabbed fistfuls of her hair in frustration. Growling, she straightened her shoulders, narrowed her eyes, and stared straight ahead, her gaze landing somewhere over my right shoulder. “Some rogue vampires got us, knocked us out, and hauled us away. Tal is here in another room. They let me see him a while ago. He’s hurt, but I think once he gets his strength back, he’ll survive. But here’s the important part—I don’t know where we are or who has us. So far they’ve only spoken to us over an intercom. It’s somewhere high-tech. I saw Tal through a two-way mirror, but then it frosted over.”

  “Do you think Allcot’s behind this?” I asked, even though I knew she couldn’t hear me.

  “I’d start at the Void building. Look in the records for something or someone called Asier. They specifically said they’re looking forward to Asier’s arrival.” Her attention snapped to something across the room, and her eyes widened just before she launched herself at something. And just like that, my magical light vanished.