Blood Obsession (A Vampire Paranormal Romance) (Deathless Night Series Book 3)

by L. E. Wilson

  Again, there was no sign of Grace, or the box she'd taken with her.

  Back outside, they'd circled the building, and found her scent again (clean this time) in the alley alongside the building. There was another female with her, and the strange wolf was there too.

  Aiden had struggled to remain calm when they'd lost her scent again a few blocks away at the stoplight. The other trails disappeared also, which meant they all must've gotten into another vehicle, and he had no more ideas as to where they'd taken her.

  His Grace was gone.

  At an utter loss, they'd stood around like a bunch of tourists until Aiden happened to overhear a human male across the street ringing someone up on his phone just as a couple of policemen walked away. He couldn't understand much, as the bloke was speaking Chinese, but he did pick out a few words including "giant", "taxi", and "airport".

  A giant stole his taxi and it was found at the airport?

  Sounded about right. And in any case, it was the only clue he had at the moment, so he was willing to check it out.

  Now here they were at the closest international airport. His hope was that Grace and the others had come here, although he didn't know how she would manage to get on a plane with no money and no ID.

  Or did she actually have those things? All part of her evil plan?

  Since they'd arrived, he'd used his vampire influence to read the minds of over ten people so far, too impatient to try to charm them, and no one remembered seeing his Grace.

  Again, he didn't know what else to do, where else to look.

  Why the bloody hell had he not fed from her when he'd had the chance? But he knew why. It was because he'd been afraid of finding out the truth. Of finding out that he was going to be a one female kind of vampire from now on.

  What's so bloody wrong with that? he asked himself. Other than the fact that his fated mate to be was a lying, scheming minx?

  "We could stay with ye here, help ye look for yer lassie," Cedric offered. "But my opinion, 'n' ye can take it or leave it, is for ye to get back home 'n' tell Nikulas whit's going on whit ye. Maybe his Emma 'n' her sister will know how tae get out th' demon."

  "And what about Grace?" Aiden asked. "I can't leave here without her."

  Cedric looked down at him and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "She seems tae be a fiesty lass, I'm willin' to bet she's on a plane 'erself, 'n' we missed her somehow."

  Just then, Lucian walked briskly towards them.

  "I found her," he announced to the group.

  Aiden's heart resumed beating for the first time since they'd lost her trail. "Where?"

  Lucian pointed back the way he had come, where a sign notified travelers as to the location of the restrooms. "Over there. She's 'ere...somewhere."

  Aiden grabbed him by the face and planted a solid kiss right on his lips. "You've always been my favorite bloke, Lucian," he grinned happily at the grumpy werewolf, and kissed him again.

  "Och, stop it, ye crazy creature." Lucian shoved him away, then turned and stalked away again.

  "We still dinna know where she went," Cedric pointed out.

  "But at least she's safe," Aiden finished. "Alright, then. Let's go home. Once I get to my computer, there's nowhere in the world she can hide. I will find her."

  Bypassing security thanks to a subtle suggestion given to the security guards, Aiden and the wolves received more than a few interested looks from the female travelers especially, but he ignored them all. There was only one female he was eager to get his hands on, and when he did, he wasn't wasting any more time. She may be a lying, scheming minx, but she was his lying, scheming minx.

  And at least he'd never be bored.

  Duncan, on the other hand, was having a hard time keeping up with the group while flirting with every cute skirt that walked by.

  Cedric rolled his eyes and finally told him, "Just catch up w' us at gate fourteen at nine-thirty, ye horny jimmy."

  "Aye!" Duncan agreed, and pulled an about-face to catch up to one of the girls.

  "You shouldn't encourage him like that," Aiden told Cedric with a grin.

  But Cedric just shrugged. "He gets right grouchy if I dinna let him go once in a while, in case ye haven't noticed."

  Aiden hadn't noticed any such thing. Duncan was, as always, a ray of bloody sunshine. No matter what was going on or what they were doing, he always had that rakish smile on his face and his eyes practically glittered with good cheer.

  They arrived at their gate and found seats as far away from the windows as they could get.

  Marc and Lucian sat to either side of Cedric and Aiden. They didn't speak, but would occasionally glare at each other around the heads of the others.

  "Are ye going tae call Nikulas? Let him know yer comin'?" Marc asked Aiden.

  He grinned at him. "What would be the fun in that?"

  "So, yer just going tae surprise him?"

  "Absolutely. I can't wait to see the look on his face."

  "He's goin' tae be surprised all right." Lucian's tone was downright surly. "When he finds out it's no' only ye coming home to him."

  "You mean Grace? Why would Nik have a problem with Grace?"

  "No' Grace, ye eejit. Ye and yer demon."

  Ah, yes. He'd nearly forgotten about that unfortunate bit. Nikulas, especially, was going to be gutted when he found out.

  Maybe the witches would be able to help him? There had to be something they could do. Some hoax. Some spell...

  A spell.

  Pulling the rucksack between his legs, Aiden searched for that ancient piece of paper Grace had shown him. He found it at the bottom of the bag under Mojo's cat food.

  He tossed a few pieces into his hood for Prickles, then carefully opened the paper, keeping it partially hidden from prying eyes within the bag.

  He jabbed Cedric with an elbow. "Have you ever seen anything like this, mate?"

  Cedric glanced over and surveyed the paper. His eyes were nearly completely white with excitement when he looked up. "Where did ye get that?"

  "It belonged to Grace's family. Her parents made sure she knew where it was when they died. She showed it to me at the shelter."

  "That has tae be ancient," Cedric's voice was filled with awe. He reached out a hand to touch it, but then pulled it back again. "I'm feart tae touch it."

  "Can you read what it says?" Aiden asked hopefully.

  "No. I cannae. But it looks like a spell o' some kind."

  "Grace said the demon came out when she showed it to me the first time."

  "No shite?" Cedric's eyes were wide under his heavy brows. "Well, whit did it say?"

  "I don't know. Nothing of importance at any rate. At least nothing she told me."

  Rubbing his chin, Cedric voiced what Aiden had been wondering. "Do ye think, if it appeared when she showed it to him, that maybe the spell can affect him some way? Maybe even send him back?"

  "There's only one way to find out," Aiden said. "I happen to have two witches at my disposal. Three if I can find that flighty female of mine. We'll have the spell interpreted, and, well, have them do their witchy thing."

  "What if it's no' the right spell?"

  Aiden glanced over at his friend, then back at the spell. He listened for the demon inside of him to see if he had any ideas, but all was quiet. Hopefully he wouldn't choose to make an appearance stuck on an airplane halfway to Seattle.

  Maybe he should've called Nik for that private jet.

  "Well, mate," he finally said. "I don't really see that I have a lot of options here. I'll just have to 'put all of my chickens in one basket', as they say."

  Cedric took a deep breath and patted Aiden on the knee. "Aye," he agreed solemnly.

  The announcement that it was time to begin boarding came through the speakers just as Duncan came jogging up to the gate.

  "I dae love traveling," he told the guys breathlessly. "The lasses cannae resist a man wi' an accent."

  Aiden pointed at his own jaw just below the corner of h
is mouth. "You've got a bit of lipstick there...no, over a little...yes, right there."

  Wiping at his mouth with his sleeve, Duncan grinned.

  Aiden put the spell away and stood up, reaching back to check on Mojo. "Stay very still, Prickles, and I'll give you some more of that nasty cat food once we're on the plane. Ow! Stay still, I said." Scowling, he rubbed his hand on his jeans and tossed his rucksack over his shoulder.

  "So, whose ready to go home and exercise my demon?" he asked.

  Lucian shot him a look, and then got in line to board the plane. The others followed, leaving Aiden standing by himself.

  "You know, you guys need to lighten up a bit. See the bright side of things," he told them as he caught up.

  "There is no' a bright side to your situation," Lucian insisted.

  "Sure there is!" Aiden told him. "Imagine the look on Nik's face when I let the demon loose for the first time around him." He turned to Cedric. "You must promise that you will take a video so I can watch it later. Please. Please? Promise me," he pleaded.

  Cedric waved him ahead of him in line. "Och. Alright. I promise, fer th' gods sake. Now get yer arse on the plane."

  They handed their boarding passes to the attendant. "You're in seat 1A," she told Aiden with a fake smile.

  "Really? First class? Smashing. Thank you, mate," he told Cedric over his shoulder.

  "No need tae thank me," he said. "Ye try sitting in coach in that tin can when yer six foot seven. They dinnae have any legroom. I'm nae goin' tae fly all that way wit' my knees in my chest."

  "Still, thank you." Puckering up his lips, Aiden reached up for a kiss, but Cedric face palmed him, literally, and shoved him towards the air bridge.

  "Get on th' plane, ye loony Brit." His tone was harsh, but he smiled back when Aiden grinned at him.

  Chapter Thirty

  Grace shuffled off of the plane in Seattle with Heather and Brock. It was ten o'clock at night here. She was stiff from sitting for so long, and worried about Aiden.

  "I need to stop by the restroom," she told her traveling companions.

  "I'll come with you," Heather said. "Meet you back here," she told Brock with a smile.

  His face lit up as he smiled back. "I'll be waiting."

  Grace had tried, and finally given up, attempting to keep those two from getting too wrapped up in each other during the long flight. She should've insisted on sitting in the middle, but the plane was so crowded that she'd gone to the window seat and quickly sat down so everyone else could board. Heather sat next to her, leaving Brock the aisle seat so he could stretch his long legs.

  She tried to keep Heather engaged in conversation, but no matter what she'd talked about, they'd kept turning back to each other, like moths to a flame. And just like the stupid moth, they were going to get burned, she just knew it.

  It just made her even more determined to protect her friend.

  Letting Heather go into the restroom first, she watched until she was locked in a stall, then bee lined it back out to the waiting werewolf. Sticking a finger in his surprised face, she told him, "You stay the hell away from my friend. She deserves better than something like you."

  Recovering quickly, he narrowed his eyes at her. "You know nothing about me, Grace. Other than the fact that I just saved both your asses."

  "I'm warning you for the last time," she ground out. "Leave her alone." Turning on her heel, she stormed back into the restroom and into a stall before Heather noticed she wasn't in there.

  By the time they came back out, talking and laughing, Brock was leaning casually against the wall. Following Grace's lead, he greeted them both as if nothing at all had happened.

  Heather linked her arm back through his, and leaned her head on his large bicep as they headed towards the baggage claim area.

  Grace heaved a sigh. This was going to be much more difficult than she'd first thought.

  However, she decided to leave it alone for now. They were all exhausted, and she needed to find a phone so she could call Aiden's friend.

  Reaching into her pants pocket, she pulled out the piece of paper she'd stuck in there, glad she'd had the foresight to grab it out of her other pants before she'd thrown them down the trash chute. On it was Nikulas' number, Aiden's friend that he'd called when she'd first met him. She'd written it down before her cell had died at the shelter, just in case.

  She was looking around for a phone while Brock and Heather cuddled in a corner when a lovely girl with bright strawberry-blond hair walked right up to her. She was wearing yoga pants and a short-sleeved shirt.

  Grace noticed that she had scars on her arms, and a nasty looking one just under her collarbone.

  By her side was a girl with similar features, though darker-haired and curvier. She had the same large hazel eyes as the first girl.

  "Hi," the blond girl said. "Wow. You're even prettier in person!"

  Grace was at a loss. "I'm sorry?"

  "Oh! Sorry. Um, you don't know us, but we're friends of Aiden's."

  She narrowed her eyes at the two gorgeous women. Friends of Aiden's, huh? Why the hell would "friends" of his be waiting for her at the airport? Jealousy burned instant and white hot inside of her, only to fade away as quickly as it had come about at the girl's next words.

  "I'm Emma Moss. I belong to Nikulas. He's Aiden's best friend. And this is my sister, Keira. She's Luukas' mate. Luukas is Nik's brother."

  "Ohhh," Grace recognized the names immediately. Had Aiden gotten away? Maybe called them and told them she was coming? But how would he know? "Okay. Yeah, I've heard about you two. How did you know I was here?" she asked.

  Keira grabbed her hand and pulled her away from listening ears, Emma following right behind them. "We saw you in a vision," she told her quietly. "Emma and I, we're witches, and I believe you are too." She gave her an apologetic look. "Not sure if you were aware of that or not, but we don't have time to tiptoe around the subject."

  Grace laughed a little and shook her head. "No, it's ok. I know what I am."

  Keira gave her a dazzling smile. "Great! That saves us lots of trouble."

  "So, yeah," Emma continued. "The first time we had one of those weird visions, we saw you and Aiden running towards a giant soccer ball, and we could tell you were in trouble. We sent some friends of ours to help you guys. Did they get there in time?"

  "Uh...the wolves? Yeah, they did."

  "Great! So, we've been getting them sporadically ever since. The visions, that is." She indicated her sister and Grace with her hand. "We think maybe the three of us are connected somehow? The visions are always of you. Other people are only in them if they happen to be with you at the time. Like Aiden if he's with you, or whoever." She looked around. "But he's not with you now. Where is he?"

  Grace looked down. How to tell them what she'd done? "Um, I don't know. We were...separated when we left the shelter."

  Emma's face fell. "Dammit."

  "Who are the others that are with you?" Keira asked.

  Grace looked over to find Heather and Brock watching her with curiosity as she talked to the two girls. She waved them over.

  "Emma, Keira, this is my best friend, Heather," she introduced the girls and they smiled hello to each other. "We met in school, and we work together," she told them, hoping the girls would get the hint that Heather was clueless about all of this this stuff. "She was sort of pulled into all of this without any say so. I went to her for help after Aiden and I got split up, and then Brock here showed up," she touched his arm as he nodded at the witches. "And thank the gods he did. He got us out of there in the nick of time, and onto a plane." She shrugged. "It's a long story."

  Keira looked from Brock to Grace. "You do know he's a werewolf? Right?"

  Maybe she should've made that hint a bit more obvious. Avoiding Heather's eyes, she mumbled, "Um, yeah. I knew that."

  Heather laughed nervously. "You guys are messing with me, aren't you?" But as she looked from one straightforward expression to the other, her smil
e faded. She gazed up at Brock last, and he gave her a small apologetic smile and a little shrug, as if to say, "I would've told you, but it didn't really come up."

  She backed away from him so fast she almost knocked Emma over.

  Grace glanced back and forth between the two of them. Hmmm, this may work out the way she wanted after all. Heather wasn't very picky when it came to whom she dated, but it was looking like she drew the line at her potential lover being a supernatural creature, unlike herself.

  Grace blushed as she remembered how Aiden's fangs had turned her on. She was always getting on Heather about her choice in men, but it appeared her friend actually had higher standards than she did.

  "So, come on," Emma grabbed Heather's arm to steady her while Keira took Grace's. "The guys are waiting outside. I take it you don't have any luggage?" She laughed merrily at her own joke. Over her shoulder, she told Brock, "Don't worry. They know you're here, and what you are. You'll be safe with us."

  "Thank you," he told her earnestly. "I appreciate that."

  They walked out the automatic doors and up to a black as night SUV that was idling at the curb. A tall, lean, powerful-looking, gorgeous man with longish dirty-blonde hair was leaning against the side of it with his arms crossed over his muscular chest.

  Grace looked around for camera crews. There was no way this guy hadn't just walked straight off of a Hollywood screen. Not with those movie-star good looks and the sizzling charisma she could feel from twenty feet away.

  He pushed away from the car as they approached, his bright blue eyes going straight to Emma. They surveyed her from head to toe before his features relaxed and he turned to greet the rest of them with a roguish grin.

  The driver's side door opened and another man got out. The complete opposite of his companion, this guy was all dark and brooding...and just as riveting to look at.

  Keira let go of her arm and went to greet him. Obviously not caring who was watching, he wrapped her in his arms and kissed her reverently on the forehead, his eyes closing in relief as he breathed her in. When he looked up again, the stressful lines around his stormy grey eyes were gone.

  Wow.