“What? Go where?”
“Home, of course. Back to our coven. Our ride’s here. You didn’t think I was just letting you talk and waste time until you could be found and rescued? That’s not going to happen. No one is going to find you. No one is going to know anyone even took you, never mind who, or where you went.”
“They’ll smell my blood. They’ll know something happened. They’ll look for me. Ves will. Andre will. Perry will.”
“Good point. There was a lot of blood. That’s why we had to change cars and why we came here until you healed. The one we had was covered in it. The seats were soaked. That’s why we had to strip you off and clean you.” Raff shivered at the thought of being naked and at their mercy while unaware. His hair was still wet, and the clothes they’d dressed him in were rucked up uncomfortably around his body “Don’t worry, nothing was done to you while we showered that gorgeous body of yours. Jules might like them semi-comatose, but I don’t. I want you awake and able to enjoy every moment when we consummate things.” Maurice spoke as if he was talking about the weather. “You got blood-crazed, you lost so much of your own. We had to top you up. But they won’t know where to look after here, if they even find this place. No one is going to find you, Raphael. And without a mate-bond, your pet lordling won’t be able to track you.”
Raff and Ves hadn’t mated, true, but Ves had tasted his blood. Ves was strong, and he was a good deal older than Raff. There was a chance he would be able to track Raff through that small link alone. Not a big chance, but a chance nonetheless. He didn’t say a word to Maurice about it though, in case he did something to force Raff’s agreement quicker. He didn’t think he could watch more of what had been done to Kourey without giving in and letting Maurice have whatever he wanted. Raff had to go along with him for now and could only pray Ves could reach him in time.
“Come on, up you get. Now remember, I have your friend. Maybe more than one. I guess you’ll have to see. Don’t fight me on this. If anything happens to me, my men are under orders to kill him. Them, him, come with me to find out.”
Find me, Ves. Please.
Chapter Ten
Ves
Moments after Raff left, a thunderclap of pain sent Ves to his knees halfway up the stairs. He clutched his head in blind agony until it abated enough for him to see, to breathe. He panted, trying to get to his feet and then gave up.
“What the hell was that?” he slurred. He turned and sat on one of the steps. Phone. His phone was in his pocket. He got it out, hands shaking, and managed to dial someone on his recent calls list. His vision spangled with stars of blinding pain.
“Hey, boss man. How’d it go?”
“Something’s wrong. I…something happened.”
“Boss?” Eddie’s voice was panicked. “Boss, I can’t understand you. Hold on. I’ll get someone to you.”
“Something’s wrong,” Ves tried again, enunciating as clearly as he could, but Eddie wasn’t there. Ves tried to focus on his phone. The line was still connected. Eddie must have put him on hold. Then he was back. “Annie’s on her way, boss. I’m staying on the line. I’m here.”
Before the last word was out, Ves heard the door open. Annette was in front of him before he could blink. She lifted his head, peering into his eyes.
“Ves? What’s wrong? What happened? Where’s Raff? What did he do?”
“Do? What?” Words were coming out easier now. “He left. He was here for an hour and then went back to work. He’s not there?”
Ves’s phone was making noises. Annette took it. “Eddie, he’s okay. I’ll call you back.” She hung up and passed the phone back to him.
“Ves, what happened?”
“I dunno. Felt like a truck hit me in the head. Still does. Raff was gone already. Wasn’t him. Where is he?”
Annette stepped up and teetered on the stair next to him. She gently turned his head to look at it, before moving back to where she’d been before. “I can’t see anything. And I don’t smell any blood. I did on the way here, though, but I couldn’t take the time to investigate. I had to get to you. Come on, let’s get you downstairs, and then I’ll go have a look.” She pulled him to his feet and wedged herself under his shoulder the best she could despite there not being a lot of room on the stairs.
“Raff. The blood. It must be Raff’s. Something happened to him. And I felt it.” Ves tried to turn to face his sister, but staggered. If she hadn’t held onto his tightly, he would have wound up on the floor.
“I know. That’s why I’m going to look.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“No, Ves. You aren’t in any shape to go hunting through the woods. You wait here. I’ll be right back.” She lowered him to a sofa as gently as she could and disappeared before he could argue.
Annette hadn’t found anything wrong externally, but he didn’t think the pain was physical anyway. He didn’t think it was coming from him. He was terrified the phantom agony was coming from his mate. What had happened to Raff?
“He’s not out there, Ves. I can’t find Raff. His scent’s all over the place, though, and there’s a lot of blood. It’s definitely his.”
The pain welled up, stronger again, and then faded back to the level it had been.
“Ves? Ves!” Annette crouched in front of him, holding his face up like she had when she’d first found him on the stairs.
“What?”
“You weren’t responding.”
“Pain got worse again. Head’s ringing.”
“I called Jake. He’s on his way. Him and a few of his men,” Annette said. “They’ll figure this out. They’ll find Raff.”
“I can’t lose him, Annie. I can’t.”
“I don’t understand, though. How can you be feeling his pain? That’s what’s happening, right?”
“Yeah. I think so.”
“You didn’t mate him, did you?”
“On his lunch break? Annette, when I claim him, I’m taking my time. I’m going to show him how I—”
“Okay, I get the point. Lunch break. Not enough time. Don’t want to hear the details and have the image of what my brother is like in bed, thanks. So how are you feeling what he is, then?”
“We kissed. I think he nicked his tongue on my fang or something.”
“So, you sampled his blood. I remember Mum once telling me she tasted Dad’s blood before they mated and it opened a connection between them. Maybe the same thing happened with you and Raff.”
“Fuck.” Ves grabbed at his head again as the pain surged.
“Ves? What’s wrong with him?” a male voice asked.
“He’s been like that about twenty minutes. It comes and goes,” Annette said.
“Jake? When did you…” Ves looked around blearily.
“I just got here. Cass, Ant, Butch, Davin, and Andre are out looking at the site where Raff was taken. Daniel’s on tech support. Everyone else is on standby.” Jake tapped his ear. He cocked his head, listening. “Okay, Cass, Andre, you follow as far as you can. The rest of you get to the lodge,” Jake said to his men on comms. Then he looked at Ves, tapping his ear again to indicate what he was talking about. “They’re designed so not even vampires can listen in. That’s why you can’t hear them. Noise-cancelling tech. Right. What can you tell me about what happened?”
“Nothing. I don’t have any idea what happened. Raff was here. He left. I was going upstairs and felt like someone hit me around the head with a tank. I don’t know. I managed to ring Eddie, he rang Annette, she came over, and she rang you. That’s it. I think. Gods, I’m still…”
“Hold on, back up. What happened with Raff here? You’re talking now?”
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Ves felt a vague urge to smash something. If he hadn’t been in so much pain, that something might have been Jake.
“Bear with me. This is what we do, remember? Why was he here?”
Ves huffed a breath. He remembered this was a person Raff had been working and living w
ith for the last three years and someone who had rescued Raff before. Jake cared about Raff. “Fine. He texted me earlier. He wanted to talk and suggested coming over. He came over. He told me about his past. Stuff I’m not sharing with you. I understand now why he was so hesitant to let us become…us. We kissed. We had lunch. Nothing else happened. Then he left.”
“Well…” Annette started and then trailed off.
“Yes?” Jake turned his head to look at her.
“As I just said to Ves before you got here, Mum’s bloodline was strong. She tasted Dad’s blood before they mated, and it connected them. I think the same thing is happening with Ves and Raff. I think that’s why he’s in pain. Ves is feeling Raff’s pain.”
Jake turned to Ves. “You tasted his blood?”
“Yes. Only a tiny amount, but yes.” Fear overwhelmed the pain for a moment. What had happened to his mate? What was he going through that still had him in such pain?
“Do you think you could track him?”
“Maybe if my head didn’t feel like it was gonna explode.”
Jake made a thoughtful noise. “What if we got you closer?”
Sound faded out as the pain dug vicious claws into Ves’s brain.
“Back with us?” a big, burly shifter asked, next to him.
“Who?” Ves glanced around. He was strapped into a seat in the back of a four-by-four. Jake was in the front, driving.
“Davin. We haven’t met yet. I’m one of Jake’s men over at AlphaSec. Hope it’s okay we moved you. We wanted to get on their trail as quickly as possible after we got a direction. Annie says she’ll look after things at the coven house.”
Annie? Eddie usually called her that to cajole her into behaving. He waved the question of getting him into the car while he was unawares away. “She might be a pain in the arse when she’s bored, but give her a challenge and she usually beats it hands down, no matter what it is. The coven’ll be fine.”
“Ves, how are you doing?” Jake asked from the front.
Unwilling to admit to weakness to anyone, Ves grimaced. These shifters were already seeing him whilst he was vulnerable, but then again, he was trusting them to find his mate. Ves barked out a laugh that wasn’t humour. “Oh, you know.” His head throbbed, and he bit back a pained groan. “Is there any news?”
“The others tracked whoever took Raff to a cheap-ass hotel on the edge of Leeds. Now, they’re not there anymore, but we’re hoping we can get some clues or something so that’s where we’re headed. Plus, now we have an idea of the route, Daniel is doing his thing with the traffic cameras to get a look at them if possible and/or track where they went from there,” Davin said. “He hasn’t activated his tracker, and it can’t be traced unless he does.”
“All right.” Ves let his head loll back against the headrest. While the sharp, clawing pain had mostly subsided, his head still ached like he hadn’t had blood for weeks.
The vehicle filled with a tense silence for the next few minutes until Jake pulled up next to another car outside a three-story, L-shaped building. The place had seen far better days but had probably been thrown up at minimal cost when it had first been built anyway. Ves opened his door and got out, staggering a little until he found his balance. The building was covered with crumbling pebble dash, and grass and scraggly weeds grew as enthusiastically as they were able through cracks in the tarmac of the car park. Ves tilted his head, scenting the air. The hairs on the back of his neck rose, and his skin tingled with warning.
“What is it? Ves?”
Ves wasn’t listening to Jake. He followed the barely detectable scent up the iron and concrete stairs and to a room on the first floor. He pushed the door open and paused as the scent flooded out stronger. A growl rumbled deep in his chest as dots connected in his brain. The air was heavy with his mate’s blood and two other men, both of which he was familiar with, despite having been a very long time since he had smelled either one. The wood of the doorframe splintered under his fingers, and he shook it off and whirled around, pulling out his phone.
“Freddie, I need you at the airport. Now,” he barked and hung up. He glanced around and, seeing no one, vaulted the rusting metal railing, landing lightly in a crouch beside the car.
“Ves, what the hell? Where are you going?” Jake shouted after him.
“Gotta go. Leeds airport. I’ll explain on the way. Everyone, now.” Dialling a different number and getting in the car, he raised the phone to his ear while he waited for Jake and the other shifters to get with the program. “Eddie, we have a bigger problem than just Raff. I need everyone of fighting strength you can spare. Day-walkers only. Get them to the hangar with Freddie. I’ve already called him. I also need the last known location of the Beaulieu coven. Text it and any other details you can find on them to me.” He hung up and made one more call before waving everyone in.
They all piled into the two cars and set off. Jake dialled one of the guys in the other car, and both phones were put on loudspeaker while Ves talked.
A couple of minutes into the drive, his phone screen flashed, indicating an incoming text. There were coordinates and a message.
Beaulieu coven not moved in years. Still at Cahors, France. Coven now Durand after leader Maurice Durand. Large coven. Coven count ten years ago was in the nineties before Durand took over.
Ves’s heart sank. How the hell was he going to extract his mate from a coven that size?
Chapter Eleven
Raff
Maurice didn’t bother speaking to Raff again for the whole journey back to the coven.
The men Maurice brought with him didn’t pay much attention to Maurice’s desire to own Raff’s body and soul, not when they seemed to have plenty of desire for the exact same thing. Louis and the others who had been waiting at the airfield all watched him hungrily. Maurice’s presence held them back, but every time they glanced his way, he felt their gaze like slimy touches on his skin. As bad as Maurice was, if he hadn’t been there…
No. He was falling prey to exactly what Maurice wanted. He wanted Raff to turn to him. Maurice wasn’t going to provide any sort of protection. He needed Raff willing, and Raff had to resist falling for any of his or his men’s bullshit tactics to get him to cave.
So much had happened since he, Andre, and the others had run in the middle of the day from the coven, Raff could hardly believe how few years had passed. The medieval chateau, in Cahors, about an hour and a half north of Toulouse in southwestern France, probably hadn’t changed in hundreds of years, but Raff still felt it shouldn’t look the same.
Raff paused as he looked up at the old grey stone façade, and one of Maurice’s men yanked on his arm. Raff stumbled and managed to fall despite the man’s fingers digging into his upper arm. As he fell, Raff’s hands went to his neck. It wasn’t there. Where was it? He felt around his neckline in horror, but there was no bulge under his clothing, nor a cord around his neck. He hadn’t been alone for even a moment on the journey and hadn’t had the chance to do anything to set off the personal alarm Daniel had made and given to every member of the pack. Some had wristbands, some were in belt buckles, some were pretty necklaces, and some were braided leather with different pendants. No two looked the same. Raff hadn’t wanted to set his off before they reached their destination. If he set it off on their trip and it was spotted and it was taken from him, Daniel wouldn’t be able to track where he had gone after it was removed. But now he wouldn’t be able to set it off at all. Maurice was right. No one would find him. Ever.
“Looking for something?” Maurice stood over him, eyes narrowed.
“My necklace…” He lifted to an elbow, cuffed hands making it awkward.
“Did your pet lording give that to you? What a shame. We had to dispose of it along with your clothing when we changed you. It was as drenched in blood as the rest of your beautiful self. No point disposing of the rest of it and leaving the necklace giving off your scent so strongly. It had to go.” Maurice waved dismissively. “Get him up,”
he said to the man who had been dragging him along. “Bring him.” Raff was yanked to his feet again.
Familiar faces stared at him in silence from doorways as he was dragged down a staircase and along corridor after corridor, around three-quarters of the building that surrounded the open courtyard. Every last one of the people he knew shrank back from the men hustling Raff along. What had been done to them in his absence? Guilt curled in his gut.
The tiny windows set high up in the walls allowed a little of the fading daylight in. They stopped outside a heavy wooden door, reinforced with solid-looking iron bars. His cuffs were removed before they shoved him into the room. They hadn’t been needed once he’d believed Maurice had Kourey and whoever else, but they’d kept him trussed up anyway. It wasn’t as though he was going to run. Not without his friends.
The cellar room Raff was thrown into was cold, despite the outside temperature being higher than he was used to at this time of year in England. Not that the temperature mattered to most vampires. But it did to the naked figure curled, shivering, on the stone floor in the corner of the room.
Raff was up and over to the person before the door had closed behind him. His eyes burned as he turned the man’s head. Dull, unseeing eyes didn’t meet his own—they stared through him. “Kourey? Kourey, it’s me. It’s Raff. Are you okay? Christ. Of course, you aren’t.” Raff pulled off his shirt and manoeuvred his friend, so he could get the long shirt onto his slim body. Kourey didn’t make a sound or react when Raff brushed against the fresh welts across his back and the backs of his legs. He curled into a tighter ball when Raff pulled him as far onto his lap as he could and wrapped his arms around the man. “Come on, Kourey, come back to me.” Raff prayed harder than he ever had in his life. “Please be okay.” Tears dripped from his chin and into Kourey’s hair.
Raff sat there all night with Kourey in his arms. He could have sat on ice for hours without a problem, but something about the cold stone had his bones aching long before the sun started to rise. His throat and gut seared with the fiery need for blood. However much they’d given him before he’d woken, it hadn’t been enough. His fangs refused to retract, and he had to be careful so his claws didn’t cause his friend further injury.
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