by Raven Stone
So I drove around like a lost person, waiting for the lock to click. When it finally did, I slammed on the brakes and looked around. I was in some sort of industrial park. I took the very next left, into a parking lot, and shut off the car.
As soon as I did, I felt that lock click closed inside of me again.
Dammit.
The pulsing started up again. It was dramatically smaller – barely the size of a pea – compared to the gigantic thing it had been minutes ago.
Fuck.
Was Degarr leaving Houston?
I got out of the car, feeling sick to my stomach. Somehow, I knew it was true. I’d just missed him.
Fuuuuuccccck.
“You here for the cleanup?”
I brushed the hair back from my face, and turned towards the voice. It was just a man, a regular looking man with a tablet in his hand.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Okay, you’re a bit ahead of the others, but follow me. I’ll show you where to get started, and you can clue them in when they get here.”
“Great,” I replied, following him.
What the fuck was I doing? I should be getting out of here, not following this man. But the knot in my stomach eased as soon as I entered the building.
I followed him through a warehouse, and then into a very strange room with shackles and chains hanging from the walls. “What the fuck?”
“Yeah, can you believe it? The sick fuck had four vampires chained up in here. But here’s the room we need your group to get started on.” He pushed open a door, and I walked in behind him.
There were more shackles and chains, along with a table, a broken set of chains on the floor, and a pile of ash.
I swallowed thickly, staring at the pile while my heart pounded in my chest.
“What happened here?”
“There were four other vampires chained up in here. And that,” he pointed to the pile at my feet, “is the remains of the sick fuck responsible for all of this.”
“He’s dead?” I repeated stupidly. Of course he was dead. I’d seen Degarr reduce other vampires to piles of ash like this. “How?”
“Vampire who broke out of those chains did it.” He gestured to the broken chains on the floor, then turned his attention to his tablet.
I looked at the chains, then studied the remains of the wall they’d obviously been ripped from.
“Who did it?” I asked.
The man blinked at me.
“Who broke free of the chains? What’s the name of the vampire that killed the sick fuck?”
“John Degarr.”
Baby.
A smile broke over my face. Of course Degarr did this. It had him written all over it.
“How could you not know that?” the man asked with a frown. “I thought the Club sent you over.”
What the fuck was the Club?
“Right,” I said, stepping backwards. “I just forgot, after seeing all this. It’s really upsetting, you know? I just think I’m going to outside and catch some air before the group gets here.”
“Right,” he said slowly, eyeing me.
I turned on my heel and walked quickly out of the room.
As soon as he couldn’t see me anymore, I broke into a dead run, not stopping until I reached the car. Then I peeled out of there.
Degarr was the only vampire I wanted to tangle with.
Chapter 8
Nadia – U.S.A.
Four months later
Four months later, and I was near the end of my patience. Degarr was a fucking ghost. He would pop up for an agonizingly short time, enough to trigger my Pulse, and then disappear again. He’d popped up multiple times in the Dallas area, but never long enough for me to get the Pulse, get on a plane, and get there before he’d left.
I’d been considering temporarily moving there when the Pulses stopped entirely.
I knew in my heart, in my core, that he wasn’t dead.
But what the everlovin’ fuck? Once I started getting Pulses about someone, I never lost them. They never fucking disappeared.
But Degarr did.
It was frustrating. Nerve-wracking. It made me doubt myself, and my abilities.
But my Pulse still worked with everyone and everything else. I was still able to lock on and find people, things, marks. Everyone and everything except the one person I wanted the most. The one person who haunted my dreams and my waking hours.
And my work was suffering. I knew that. In the absence of my Pulse, I was taking time away from my work to try and find him using old fashioned methods that were achingly inadequate and frustrating. I was stressed out, and I was losing sleep. I also couldn’t fuck anyone without thinking of him, without wondering how his cock would feel inside of me. Wondering, aching, for that hard, muscled body moving on top of mine. Wishing for his fangs in me.
It was driving me crazy, and there was nothing I could do about it.
Something had to break soon. I had to find him soon.
I just had to.
Chapter 9
Degarr – Chicago
The Present
The flight to Chicago had actually been a good one since we’d been able to take King Gabriel’s plane. We easily found the address that my friend, Jake Dakota, had sent me, and parked. It was a tan, two-story home in a middle-class neighborhood.
“What a nice slice of suburban hell,” Jamie said, following me up the driveway.
“Be nice,” I said, then pressed the doorbell.
“I’m wearing clothes, aren’t I?” he replied.
I snorted.
He had a point. Jamie was incredibly comfortable with being nude. In some cases, too comfortable. I wasn’t sure if he’d always been this way, or if it was something that had happened after he’d become a werewolf. A lot of wolves were comfortable with nudity, and touching others, for that matter.
The door opened, revealing a pretty woman in her early thirties.
“I’m sorry to bother you. Are you Stacy? My friend Jake Dakota asked me to meet him here,” I said.
“Yes, that’s me. Come on in.” She backed up, and held the door open for us. “Excuse the mess. It’s my week off.”
“Of course,” I said.
Jamie and I walked inside, and she closed the door.
“Jake’s downstairs in the basement. The stairs are just off the kitchen, to your left.”
I found them, and went down the stairs with Jamie and Stacy close on my heels. I reached the bottom, and turned the corner.
I came to a dead stop.
“Are those sex toys?” I asked, cocking my head. “Are you holding a vampire prisoner using sex toys?”
The vampire on the far side of the room looked absolutely miserable. His t-shirt was grimy and covered with what looked like sparkly vomit, and his jeans were dirty and ripped. He was also secured to a workout bench with a pair of pink fluffy handcuffs, and there was a ball gag in his mouth.
Stacy flushed a bright red. “Yes, but we only used them a few times. It’s perfectly sanitary, I assure you.”
I studied the captured vampire. Most humans thought vampires didn’t exist, but anyone who looked at this man could see something was off about him. His skin was unnaturally pale, and the whites of his eyes were gone entirely, replaced completely by the blue of his iris. He was still young yet, since there were no stars, or lights, or circles, in his eyes to break up all of that blue.
It was immediately apparent to me what was wrong.
His shielding was gone.
I popped the ball gag out of his mouth.
“Oh my God you’ve got to get me outta here she’s fucking crazy,” he blurted out.
“What happened to your shielding?” I asked him.
“My shielding?” he repeated, his eyes gone wide.
“Degarr,” a voice interrupted us, “thank you for getting here so quickly.”
I turned away from the vampire, to find my friend standing there. Dakota was wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans.
His brown hair was still cropped short, and he still looked as leanly muscled as the last time I’d seen him. I’d bet he was still sparring, and still keeping up with his workouts, in spite of leaving the Brotherhood.
“Dakota, it’s good to see you,” I said.
“Good to see you too. In spite of the circumstances.” Dakota gestured to the man behind me.
“Right. What’s the story behind the sacrifice to the sex gods?” I asked.
He grinned. “Stacy found him passed out in her backyard with steam rising from him.”
“What time?”
“Around six am,” Stacy answered.
“And was he like this? With his fangs visible?”
“Yes.”
“Fuck.” I swore, and turned my attention back to the vampire. “What’s your name?”
“Leo. Will you take the handcuffs off, please?”
“I have some questions for you first, and then we’ll talk about the handcuffs,” I replied.
He sighed. “Can I at least know who I’m talking to?”
“This is Dakota. This is Jamie. The lady is Stacy, and I’m John.”
“John?” He repeated. “But that guy called you Degarr. Which would make you –”
“Take it slowly, Leo. Try it with me. Johhhhnnnnn Degarrrr,” Jamie said, drawing out the sounds of my name.
I held back a smile at my wolf’s teasing.
The vampire’s eyes widened. “No,” he shook his head, “I didn’t do anything to deserve that. You can’t be –”
“Can’t be what?” I asked.
He met my eyes and swallowed. “The Sword of Gabriel.”
“Boy sounds downright scared of you.” Dakota clapped my back.
“Who are you?” Stacy asked.
I shot her a glance, and realized that her question was directed at Dakota, not me.
“She doesn’t know?” I asked him, and he shook his head slowly.
“She’s my ex-sister-in-law. None of them believed me. It’s what led to the divorce,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Great. That’s very touching,” Leo interrupted. “Why don’t you let me go, and then all of you can talk about it?”
I turned my gaze on him, and he gulped.
“I mean, please, sir.”
Jamie laughed.
“No,” I replied. “When did you lose your ability to shield?”
“Last night, I guess. Sometime before I passed out.”
“What did you do last night? Where did you go?”
“I went to a party. I danced, then I felt sick, so I left.” He shrugged.
“Did you feed while you were there?” I asked.
“No.”
“Drink any beverages?”
He snorted. “Of course.”
“Drugs?” I asked.
The guy hesitated. “Molly.”
“And?”
He looked away.
“We can leave those pink handcuffs on forever,” I warned.
“They’re very becoming,” Jamie added.
Leo blew out a breath. “I don’t know what it was, okay?”
“You took drugs without knowing what they were?” Dakota asked.
“Who cares? I’m a vampire, I can handle it.”
I sighed. “That’s how vampires die, Leo.”
“Drugs can’t kill vampires,” he retorted.
“No, you dumb shit. Hunters kill vampires after giving them drugs,” Dakota replied.
“Hunters don’t exist.”
“Right. Just like vampires don’t exist.” Dakota gave him a pointed look.
Leo stared at him for a long moment, then his eyes widened. “Shit.”
“Shit is right,” I said. “Who gave you this drug?”
“A girl. Just a girl. A pretty blonde with big boobs who said she wanted to share something with me. I said yes, and then she was kissing me and I felt a pill in my mouth. I swallowed it.” He shrugged. “While we were kissing, she accidentally spilled her drink on me. She went to go get some napkins, and she never came back.”
“Christ,” Dakota said. “You might be too stupid to live.”
“What?” Leo asked.
“The pill she gave you is what made your shielding disappear,” I said.
“Why? I never hurt anyone,” he said.
“That really doesn’t matter, Leo.” I took my phone out of my pocket, and tapped a contact before holding it up to my ear. “Cerone?”
“Degarr, how’s the field trip going?” she asked, her tone amused.
“Not good,” I said, eyeing the captured vampire. “We might actually have a problem. I need you to get me in touch with Chicago’s Nightfall –”
Dakota waved his hand, and I held the phone to my chest. “What?”
“Don’t bring in those assholes yet.”
“The King’s assured me that Chicago’s Nightfall is better than Houston’s,” I replied.
“Maybe he’s right. But wouldn’t it be good to know what you’re dealing with first, before calling in the cavalry?” he asked.
I gave it some thought, then nodded. I held up the phone again.
“Okay, scratch that. But can you get me in touch with the doctor who treated me in Houston? Wasn’t she based out of Chicago?”
“Yes. I’ll text you her number. Who’s there with you?” Cerone asked.
“Dakota.”
“The Hunter?”
“He’s not a Hunter anymore,” I replied.
“Hmm,” she replied, and then she was gone.
Chapter 10
Nadia – Chicago
I landed in Chicago in the middle of the fucking night. I’d only moved here a couple of months ago, so I couldn’t quite call it home yet, but it was a hell of a lot better than where I’d been.
I was back from doing a job for Nash. He was an ungrateful fuck, and I wasn’t sure if I’d ever do any work for him again, even though his money was green and plentiful.
I flowed through the terminal with the rest of the poor bastards who’d been on my flight, and as soon as I reached the main terminal, something flowed up my spine and pulsed in my middle.
I stopped abruptly out of sheer surprise, and someone almost ran right into me. He was so tired, though, that he merely shot me a dirty look before moving on again.
The Pulse struck again. Strong, and large, right in my core.
Degarr was here.
Degarr was in Chicago.
Suddenly all of my exhaustion and frustration fled, replaced by a big smile on my face and a spring in my step.
Baby, I’m going to find you this time.
Chapter 11
Degarr – Chicago
Dr. Anna Miller was very much the professional I remembered. She kept her calm, even when faced with a vampire who’d been stripped of his shielding against his will. That fact could easily upset any vampire. Our shielding made it easier for us to move among the humans without drawing attention.
“A drug did this, you say?” Dr. Miller glanced over her shoulder at me.
“Yes. A blonde woman slipped him a pill at a party.”
She turned back to him, and I could feel the disapproval radiating off of her. The doorbell rang, and everyone looked up, as if we could all see through the ceiling.
“I’ll just get that,” Stacy said, and ran up the stairs.
Dr. Miller returned her attention to the captured vampire. “I’ll need to take him back to the lab. Is that alright?”
“How secure is it?” I asked.
“A lot more secure than here. It’s sunlight safe, constantly monitored by Nightfall, and it has some of the protections you have at Court,” she replied.
I blinked. The last part was unusual.
She gave me a soft smile. “The King insisted on those precautions when I said I wanted to remain in Chicago.”
“He values you,” I said.
“I find it a bit overwhelming at times, but yes, it seems he does,” she replied
.
We were interrupted by a pair of feet running down the stairs, followed quickly by another set. Stacy, and a human heartbeat that I didn’t recognize.
A young woman in her thirties rounded the stairs and stared at us.
Dakota flinched.
“Jennifer,” he said, rising slowly, his hands held out in front of him like she was a frightened animal.
The woman – Jennifer – shot looks between him and Stacy.
“What the fuck is this, Stacy? You call me in up in the middle of the night, demand that I come over to your place to see what? Some sort of demented sex scene with my ex-husband?” She gestured towards Dakota.
Stacy’s jaw tensed and she crossed her arms. “You need to see this, Jennifer. You need to know the truth.”
“What, that you’re cheating on Rick with Jake?”
“No. You need to see that vampires are real. That Jake was telling you – all of us – the truth the entire time.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Jennifer walked up to me and Leo without any fear in her eyes, stopping a foot shy of the workout bench. “Let me guess, you’re supposed to be vampires? I’m supposed to respect your life choices,” she waved her hands, “and ignore that you’ve had fake fangs implanted so you can play dress up and pretend to be vampires.”
She shot a look at Dakota. “I heard you were working on your PhD again. I thought,” her voice softened, “I thought you were finally getting better. That maybe –” she cut herself off, shaking her head before giving Stacy a dirty look. “But then my own sister plays right into your delusions. How could you, Stacy? Right when Jake was getting better? Don’t you want him to be happy? Don’t you want me to be happy?”
“I do want that. But you need to know the truth, Jen,” Stacy replied.
Jennifer gave a slow shake of her head. “Encouraging his delusions is just prolonging our misery, Stace. Why couldn’t you just let him be?”
Something wrenched in my chest, and a cloud formed there, making it difficult to breathe. Dakota had said his belief in vampires had caused the divorce, but he didn’t mention that his wife thought he was delusional.