“I’m looking for Julie Abbott,” Dante said.
Preston’s smug attitude vanished, and his head swiveled toward Dante. He jerked his hand from the blonde, stood away from the bar, and nudged the women aside as he stepped toward Dante. The women whined in response, but he didn’t acknowledge them.
“Have you talked to her?” he demanded.
Dante kept his confusion hidden as Preston looked at him like he was a puppy and Dante had the treat. “No. Have you?”
“No.”
“Do you know where she is?” Dante asked.
Preston’s shoulders hunched forward, and he ran a hand through his hair. “I haven’t seen her in two weeks,” he muttered.
He looked so upset by this that Dante didn’t know if he should comfort him or hand him an Oscar for putting on such an outstanding performance. Move aside, Tom Hanks and Jack Nicholson.
Then Preston’s face paled, and he stepped closer. “Why are you looking for her? Is she missing?”
“Her mother hasn’t seen her in two weeks either, and she’d like to find her.”
“Oh no,” Preston breathed. “That can’t be. I… I didn’t know. I would have…”
“Would have what?” Dante asked when Preston’s voice trailed away.
“I would have been looking for her. I have to find her.”
Dante was watching his number one suspect go down the drain; no one was this good of an actor. But if Preston didn’t have something to do with Julie’s disappearance, then who did? And where was she?
“Can we talk somewhere a little more private?” Dante asked.
“Yes, of course. Let’s get out of here.”
Dante stayed close to Preston’s side as he led the way back through the crowd and toward the door. He didn’t think Preston was acting, but he wasn’t taking any chances Preston might try to cut and run. Glancing over his shoulder, he made sure Cassidy and Kyle remained close to them.
Zan remained standing by the door. When he saw them, he quirked an eyebrow before opening the door. Preston didn’t say anything as he left, but Dante nodded to Zan.
“Thanks for the help,” he said.
“I hope you find her,” Zan said and closed the door behind them.
The dim light illuminated the small landing as the sounds of the party faded away again. As they circled Preston, fear flashed across his features and he glanced back at the door.
“We’re not going to hurt you,” Dante assured him as he edged a little in front of Cassidy. Her displeasure over this move radiated through their bond, but he ignored it. He didn’t know or trust Preston, and he would keep her safe.
Preston looked dubious, but he focused on Dante again. “You really don’t know where Julie is?”
“No,” Dante answered as he pulled out his pad and pen. “We were hoping you did. So, the last time you saw her was two weeks ago?”
“Yes.”
“Did anything different happen then?”
Preston ran his hand through his hair and tugged at the ends of it. “No. She came over to my place, and we hung out for a few hours.”
“Then what happened?”
“She said she was going home and left.”
“Did she go to your place often?”
“A couple of times a week. Sometimes, we’d go out, but we also liked to stay in and watch a movie or bullshit.”
“Does she know you’re a vampire?”
“Yes. I was turned after we started hanging out. Before I turned, we’d go to these parties and the human vamp clubs, but we mostly went to those for laughs. I’m the one who got her interested in vampires. It was a lot of fun and a distraction from things.”
“What things?” Dante asked.
“Just life. It was fun to lose ourselves in a land of what we believed was a fantasy. And then, one day, I met a vampire.”
“And who was that?”
“Jasmine.”
Dante showed no reaction to this familiar name. “And where did you meet her?”
“At one of these parties, and we hit it off. She’s gorgeous, a lot of fun, and we would spend hours talking. She was… she was amazing.”
Dante didn’t miss the wistful tone of his voice, but he would prod further into that in a minute. “Did you know Jasmine was a vampire when you met?”
Preston snorted and tugged at his hair again. “No, who would ever suspect that? I was engrossed in this lifestyle, and I never saw it coming. We dated for a few months, and I was beginning to think she was the one. Then I learned the truth about her, and she turned me.”
“What happened after?”
“She went crazy. It was like she assumed she owned me or something. I didn’t plan to break up with her, but she started getting so possessive and weird that I couldn’t go out without her following me. I never cheated on her, and I never gave her any reason to suspect I would.
“When I was with her, I never even looked at another girl, but there was no way I was spending an eternity dealing with her tracking my phone and interrogating me every time I went out. We continued to date for a couple of months after she turned me, but eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore.”
“How long ago did you break up?” Dante asked.
Preston rested his fingers against the wall as he pondered this. “It’s been almost two months. At first, she didn’t take it very well and continued to follow me everywhere. If I was in a place like this, she would show up. If I was sitting in a bar, she’d be there. If I went to buy jeans, she was there. It was fucking miserable.”
“Then what happened?” Dante asked.
“Nothing. She vanished three weeks ago, and it all stopped. I haven’t seen her since.”
“So, two women you were close to both vanished.”
Preston’s brow furrowed as this realization sank in. “I never thought about that.”
“Is there anyone out there who would have any reason to hurt someone close to you?”
“Jasmine’s the only one I know who was really angry with me.”
“Did Jasmine know Julie?”
“Yes. We were dating for about a month before I reached out to Julie.”
“And why did you do that?”
Preston stared into the shadows of the stairwell before looking at Dante again. “After my dad died—and by dad, I mean my stepdad and not Dr. Abbott—my mom kinda lost her mind. I always knew Bill wasn’t my real dad, but it never mattered because he was my dad, you know?”
“Yes,” Dante said when Preston seemed to require an answer.
“I never considered looking for my real dad because I had Bill. And then, one day, I didn’t have him anymore, and it sucked.”
Dante completely understood.
“After his death, it got really bad. In one of my mom’s many drunken rants, she told me about my real dad and said he threw us aside to start a family with another woman. Until then, I never really considered the possibility I might have siblings, but I didn’t try to find them. If my bio dad didn’t want anything to do with me, then I didn’t want anything to do with him either, and that included his children.
“Then I turned on the news, and one of the stories was about a prominent heart surgeon who was killed in a car accident. They showed a photo of him with his family, and I saw Julie. She was so happy in the picture. I remembered being that happy in my pictures too, and I realized we had more in common than DNA. The death of your dad is a shitty thing to have in common, but I wanted to help her.”
This side of Preston was not what he expected to find when he approached the man at the bar and received his wise-ass replies. He’d been on the verge of slapping that punk upside his head. Now, he was considering taking him out and commiserating over a couple of beers. However, he still didn’t trust the man.
Chapter Thirty-Six
“How did you contact her?” Dante asked.
“Instagram. We bonded over the loss of our dads, and I don’t mean Dr. Abbott. The only reason I care about his death is
because it broke Julie’s heart. The more we talked, the more we realized we liked the same kind of music and movies. I introduced her to Jasmine, she came to some of the clubs with me, and we started having more in common as she got involved in the underground lifestyle. She’s my sister and my friend.”
“Did you talk often?” Dante asked.
“We talked every day through texts, and we saw each other a couple of times a week.”
“How did she handle it when you became a vampire?”
“She was super excited. I told her that when she was older, I would change her if she decided to do it. She didn’t want it to happen now.”
“Why not?”
“Who wants to be sixteen forever?”
Not me, Dante thought. “So, you haven’t had any contact with Julie in two weeks?”
“No, I’ve been texting her every day, but she hasn’t replied to any of my messages.”
“Weren’t you concerned when you didn’t hear from her?”
“Yeah, but I assumed her mom found out about me and put an end to her contacting me. I figured that, as soon as she could, she would get in touch with me again, but if you’re here, then something far worse happened.”
Preston bit his lip as he stared into the shadows again. “She’s all I have,” he whispered.
This guy was either better than Tom Hanks, or he really didn’t know anything. And Dante’s instincts were telling him that Preston didn’t know anything, which meant his leads were dwindling.
“Do you know where I can find Jasmine?” Dante asked.
“I know where she lived before we broke up; I’m not sure if she’s still there.”
“I’ll start there then.”
Preston gave him an address in Brighton, and Dante wrote it down.
“Are you going to talk to her now?” Preston asked.
A glance at his watch told Dante it was a little before ten. He didn’t want Jasmine to have any notice he was coming, and now was as good a time as any to visit her.
“Do you plan to warn her about me?” Dante asked.
“No,” Preston said. “I’d like to go with you.”
Dante glanced at Cassidy and Kyle. He wasn’t used to having anyone with him, and he did not want to drag three people with him, but when he turned back to Preston, the hopeful look in his eyes froze the no he was about to issue.
“Okay, but if we find her, you’re going to let me do all the talking,” he said.
“Absolutely,” Preston said and grinned at him.
Lying on his bed, Dante stared at the ceiling as he tried to reason out the pieces of the puzzle he had. When they went to Jasmine’s place last night, they discovered she wasn’t there. The furniture remained, but none of her things did, and the empty feel of the apartment suggested she hadn’t been there in a while.
Preston informed them the furniture wasn’t hers and came with the apartment, but that the closets and bureaus used to be full of her clothes and shoes. The superintendent lived on the first floor, and though it wasn’t the ideal time to get the man out of bed, Dante didn’t care. He went to the man’s apartment and banged on his door, but no one answered.
Dante planned to return today to talk to the man, but until then, he didn’t have any leads to follow.
After leaving the apartment, he got Preston’s phone number and address and watched as he pulled away in a taxi. He still wasn’t sure he’d done the right thing by letting Preston go, but he was trusting his instincts on this. And those instincts said Preston had nothing to do with Julie’s disappearance.
If they proved to be wrong, he would spend an eternity kicking himself in the ass, and he would hunt Preston down and kill him.
The three of them returned to his building afterward. Kyle walked home while Cassidy came upstairs with him. For a little while, he managed to shut off his mind and lose himself in her before falling asleep, but sleep didn’t last long.
Cassidy’s lashes fluttered against his shoulder as she stirred, and her eyes opened. Holding her closer, he cherished the feel of her lush body against his. She was a part of him, and with every beat of his heart, he felt her blood flowing through him.
He was in love with her, and that knowledge scared him as much as it thrilled him. Everyone he’d loved was dead, and he’d barely managed to pick himself up and continue after those deaths. If he lost her too, he would lose everything. He understood why vampires went crazy after losing their mates; just imagining it caused something sinister to slither through him.
“Good morning,” she murmured.
He nuzzled her hair before kissing her forehead. “Good morning.”
They lay nestled together for a bit, and he marveled over how their breathing and heartbeats fell into the same rhythm. Then he recalled the weird exchange with Kyle last night.
“So, what was going on with Kyle and that woman at the party?” Dante asked as he lifted a strand of Cassidy’s hair and let it slide through his fingers.
Cassidy hated recalling the look of self-loathing in her twin’s eyes before he turned away from her. “He’s getting close to maturity, and when a male purebred vampire stops aging, they struggle with certain things. Some of them experience an increased need for blood, others crave violence and death, some lose themselves in pain, and others, like Kyle, lose themselves in sex. If he can’t keep his impulses under control, he’ll…” She swallowed back the sudden lump choking her throat. “He’ll become a Savage.”
Dante’s fingers stilled in her hair as her anguish beat against him. “He’ll have to deal with this for the rest of his life?”
“Or until he finds his mate.”
“What about female purebred vampires? Do they go through the same thing?”
“No. Or at least they don’t experience it at the same intensity and level as the males. I never had any problems, and neither did my sisters.”
“How come the two of you didn’t stop aging at the same time? You’re twins.”
“I don’t know why it works the way it does, but purebreds stop aging at different times. For some reason, it happens at different ages for all of us. One day, he’ll wake up and know he’s reached maturity.”
He stopped playing with her hair as he tilted his head down to look at her. “You just know?”
She smiled at him. “Yeah. It’s this… this feeling you get, and there is no denying it.”
“Interesting,” he murmured.
“I guess it’s strange, but all humans would probably consider our lives strange.”
He chuckled as he rolled over and pinned her onto the mattress beneath him. “That’s because our lives are a little weird, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Neither would I.”
He claimed her mouth in a kiss, both possessive and loving. The heat of his kiss and his body against hers caused an ache deep inside her belly. It spread out through her limbs until she was trembling.
He’d barely touched her, yet it felt as if his hands were all over as her body became electrified. When he entered her, it didn’t douse the fire he built; instead, it inflamed it until desire engulfed her.
Then that fire turned into an inferno that melted her bones and left her begging for more. When he grasped her hips and rolled over, she froze for a second as she discovered herself looking down into eyes the color of molten lava.
Then he started guiding her hips back and forth, and she matched the pace he set. When his eyes latched onto her breasts, a thrill of power raced through her as her fingers skimmed them. When she ran her fingers over her nipples and gave them a little twist, he thrust harder into her.
Marveling over the effect she had on this man, she released one of her breasts then ran her hand down her body. His fiery eyes watched her every movement as she touched herself. When she trailed her fingers back up her belly to her chest, he tracked her like a hawk hunting a mouse.
When she clasped her breast again, the fire in his eyes deepened and he growled. That sound touched so
mething inside her, and unable to take anymore, she rested her palms on his chest as she rode him to completion.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“I’ll see you tonight,” Dante said as he kissed Cassidy.
She twisted her hands into his shirt and tugged him closer before releasing him. “Be careful.”
“I’m only going to talk to Jasmine’s superintendent.”
“Be. Careful,” she enunciated.
He grinned and kissed the tip of her nose before reluctantly pulling away and descending the steps of her building to the sidewalk. She almost shouted at him to come back as he walked away. She would have gone with him, but she had to be at work in an hour, and after leaving early last night, she couldn’t show up late tonight.
She reminded herself this wasn’t dangerous and he could take care of himself, but she still didn’t like it. Cassidy waved to him before opening the door and entering the building.
Dante flagged down a taxi and slid into the back seat. After giving the driver Jasmine’s address, he sat back to watch the city pass in a blur of buildings, sidewalks, and pedestrians strolling the streets.
When they pulled up outside the five-story brick building, Dante removed his wallet and paid the woman behind the wheel. “Thank you.”
She took his money and turned away. Dante climbed out of the vehicle and strode toward the building. Neatly trimmed shrubs and blooming plants lined the outside of the building; the neatly manicured lawn was freshly mowed. The few cars parked in the spots out front were all newer models.
He climbed the stairs to the glass door at the top and studied the keypad under the protective overhang. Last night, Preston gave him the code to enter, and he punched it in again now. When the buzzer sounded, he pulled the door open and entered the clean, brightly lit entry hall.
Like last night, Dante detected the aroma of lemons. Last night, he assumed it was someone cleaning or maybe baking, but it might be one of those diffusers, and someone was obsessed with lemons.
Relentless (Vampire Awakenings Book 11) Page 20