Page 91

“What’s your name?” I can’t help but ask.

The man is quiet for a while, and I sit with him in silence once more. I get the impression he doesn’t talk much at all. Who knows how long he’s been down here looking at the state he’s in.

“Nobody has asked me that for quite a long time,” he replies with pain behind his words.

“You don’t have to tell me.”

“Valen,” he finally whispers after a moment.

“Hi, Valen. I’m Celine,” I reply and his intake of breath when I say his name tells me it’s been even longer since someone said his name.

“Celine,” Valen parrots. “I’m sorry for what’s about to happen to you.”

“What do you mean?” I’m once again reminded of the situation I’m in. Valen distracted me temporarily.

His curtain of dark hair shifting, I finally get a glimpse at Valen’s face. He keeps his eyes cast downward but candlelight dances across his features. In flickers I’m able to take in his heavily bearded jaw, aristocratic nose, and deep-set eyebrows. For someone so frail and sad looking he still gives off an air of power and maturity.

I’m also able to see the shiny, wrinkled skin of old scars littering his entire body. He’s absolutely beautiful in a way I’ve never seen before—downright ethereal—but this poor man has been reduced to a shell of who he must’ve been.

“I’ve tried everything that’s already run through your mind.” Valen stops to cough after grating out the words. “There’s no escaping them.”

“Who’s they and what are they going to do to me? Why are they targeting me?” I shiver at his words.

Valen looks up and I meet his eyes, so dark they almost look black. If the fire reflecting in them didn’t show the slightest hue of brown, I’d believe they were leeched of all color. The devastation and hopelessness staring back at me show a broken man.

Blowing out a long breath, he slumps down even further.

“I don’t know why they want you, specifically, but anyone else that’s been down here hasn’t lasted the night.”

CHAPTER 42

ZAVIER

“Fuck!” I shout and take ten years off the life of an old woman walking next to me.

I’ve searched the city endlessly for any clue as to where Celine’s been taken and have come up with nothing. It’s infuriating. I’m a vampire and yet none of my superhuman skills are helping me. Whoever took her, covered their tracks well and I haven’t caught so much as a whiff of Celine or the offending vampire’s scent save for the blood on the concrete where they nabbed her.

My contact and his crew have searched high and low to no avail. Luna hasn’t heard anything either.

I feel the edges of madness tainting my thoughts, and it’s getting harder and harder to keep my inner beast caged.

He wants his mate by his side and doesn’t care who he has to take down to make that happen. My fangs split the skin on my lip for the hundredth time since I can’t get them to stay up for long.

Fangboners should be reserved for Celine not for the absolute insanity I feel at her absence.

Pulling her sheathed knife out of my pocket I hold it against my mouth.

Where are you?I think as I stare at the deadly blade, willing it to give me some clue, any clue, to her location.

Tracing my steps one more time, I run through the path from the apartment to where she was taken. Her scent has long since blown away in the wind and the first time I realized it was gone I lost my shit. It was like nature erasing her presence. It’s enough to drive me mad, but I have to keep my head, or I’ll be useless in finding her.

I discover nothing new and hang my head in defeat. The longer she’s gone the easier it is for her to get hurt.

Sensing my hunger levels rising to a dangerous amount, I head back to the apartment to down some blood before I set back out once more.

The walk there is a blur. I trudge into Celine’s apartment because I can’t stand being alone in mine right now.

“Hi, Midnight,” I automatically greet my cat bestie, but freeze when he doesn’t respond. Normally he’d trot right over and meow after a rub against my legs.