Page 34 of Blood Claims (Garnet Dagger Mafia #2)

THE COST OF LIES

T he second I read these words, I dropped the picture, backing away from the sinks, shaking my head, telling myself,

“No… no, this can’t be happening.” But then my gaze lowered to the proof of it right there on the floor.

My eyes quickly closed tight, as if this would have the power to eradicate the sight of my friend hurt and held captive.

But then a phone started ringing from somewhere in the room, making me shriek.

I turned, trying to find where it was coming from, checking the stalls until I saw it there on the back of one of the toilets.

I picked it up, seeing the ‘caller unknown’ written there. So, I answered it and put it to my ear like it was weapon. As if someone could reach through the screen any minute and grab me.

“Hello?”

“Oh good, you’re not a dumb bitch,” a male voice said, making me grit my teeth and force myself to say the obvious,

“You have my friend.”

“Bingo. And I have to say, she is looking mighty tasty, so if you ever want to see the goth bitch again, then I suggest you do everything I tell you.”

My heart plummeted as terrified panic consumed me.

“What do you want?!” I forced myself to say.

“You,” was their chilling answer, and I nearly asked if it was the Shadow Master from my dreams, but thankfully stopped myself. For starters, his voice was completely different. Unless this person was working for him?

“Me?” I asked.

“Yes, a simple exchange, you for your friend.”

I closed my eyes tighter and agreed.

“Alright, what do you want me to do?” I asked, knowing this next part of their plan was so I could get past the brother’s seeing me, because I wasn’t a fool.

They would never let me do this. But then, they had lied to me.

Had made me believe Stacey was fine and at some safe house somewhere.

When in reality, they most likely just wanted to get me back to the fortress in the sky so I couldn’t run.

“There is a package taped to the back of the toilet, inside it you will find a black pendent,” he told me, and it quickly took me back to the witch and what she had used to escape.

“A portal key… to where?”

“Clever girl. Yes, it is a portal key, but it will only take you to the street outside of the hotel. You need to activate it by crushing it under your foot,” he instructed, and clearly this had been a well thought out plan.

Them going so far as to kidnap my friend just to get me to cooperate and away from the brothers.

What was going to happen after that, I had no clue. But either way, I couldn’t risk Stacey… I would do anything to save my friend. Which was why I didn’t hesitate to say,

“I will do it.”

“Yes, yes you will, and I don’t need to tell you that if you try and warn anyone, I will enjoy draining the bitch dry… so, see you soon, Vanessa Cadell.”

Then he hung up, making me throw the phone to the floor in my anger, the screen cracking as it bounced on the tiled floor.

I then reached behind the toilet, and, like he said, I found a package taped there.

After ripping it off, I walked out of the cubical as I tore open the package, letting the pendant roll into my palm.

I couldn’t help but look to the door, knowing that I should try and warn them somehow. However, I looked down at the picture of my best friend and the pendant instantly dropped from my hand. Then with my eyes closed, I said,

“I’m coming, Stacey, just hold on.”

My foot rose before I stomped it down, crushing the jewel under my shoe.

The rising smoke was a sensation that was choking, making me gasp as my whole body was consumed with darkness.

I swear I felt as if my body was not my own, as if some drug had been injected and that numbing feeling had travelled up my legs to the rest of my body.

To the point that I barely had time to lift my head and cry out before I was then being dropped.

I landed on the floor, the unyielding sidewalk meeting my knees as I collapsed. My hands barely had a chance to save me from face-planting before I was then grabbed roughly from behind.

“Ah!” I shouted in shock before I was manhandled to my feet.

“Easy, for fuck sake! I can walk myself!” I shouted, making whoever it was behind me just push me toward a blacked-out van as the side door slide open and I was practically tossed inside, making me go sprawling on the hard floor.

Then before I could say a single word of protest, a flash of movement was all I saw.

In fact, it was the last thing I saw before I was punched across the face, making me fall hard enough that I was suddenly…

Knocked out cold.

The next time I came to, I instantly knew I was in trouble. Especially seeing as my arms were raised up above my head and my feet were minus any shoes with my toes barely just touching the ground. My face hurt like a mother fucker and the second I tried to move, my whole body ached.

“Ah, finally, the blood bitch is awake.”

I couldn’t help but flinch the second I heard the same voice from the phone call.

But if I had hoped that keeping my eyes closed and my head hanging down would save me from this new nightmare, I was wrong.

I ended up crying out the second my hair was gripped tight and my head was forced up, making me cry out at the pain.

“There you are… now it’s time to make the brothers pay and let them know my boss is the new player in this city,” the man said as I took in my first look of him.

He clearly made no attempts at hiding he was a Vampire.

His fangs were out and were so long that they were dimpling his lower lip.

His stark white hair was shaved short, with his eyes matching as they were currently glowing silver.

He was about six-feet tall with a muscular frame that stretched his tight black T-shirt.

He had tattoos that were deep red swirls up both arms, as if he had been injected with blood not ink.

He also had one ear missing, as if it had been cut off at some point.

I swallowed hard as I looked around the room, seeing I was in an office of some kind. The dirty windows showed the glimpse of a warehouse beyond, and there were crates all stacked up with the hint of a forklift in the corner.

I looked up to see my hands were tied with rope and looped over a hook, hanging from a chain, that was fixed around an iron girder. The industrial building showed the bare bones of its construction, with ducting and cables hanging down like dust-coated spider webs.

The single desk held stacks of paper, as well as guns, ammo, and what looked like lines of coke that had been cut on a broken glass panel.

The floor was cracked, dirty concrete that made my eyes widen when I noticed the stains of blood that no one had cared to clean.

As if cleaning up the evidence of a crime wasn’t on their important shit list of things to do.

But kidnapping the Vampire Mafia crime boss’s new girlfriend most certainly was.

The man in front of me clicked his fingers an inch from my face before he snapped,

“Time to make you look pretty for your pictures.”

Then before I could prepare for it, I was punched in the gut, making me cough through the jarring pain as I swung on the chain.

“That won’t help with evidence, dickhead,” a new voice said as another man entered the room.

“Sorry, boss,” the white-haired henchman said.

As for the newcomer, he was a much older man, with a gut that hung over the waistband of his gray slacks, with his black shirt rolled up at the arms and the knot of his gray tie pulled down from his neck.

His hair was peppered gray against the black, with the side parts losing its dark color first. But his eyes were the most startling part.

They were bloodshot red, like he had been sprayed in the face with something.

Even his skin was blotchy, with red patches that marred his face and neck.

“I must say, I was skeptical when I heard the news that the Erebus brothers had found their Fated. Their Moirai Theía ,” he said in a mocking way, using the same name I had heard Victor and Tal both call me.

“But then when I saw evidence of it myself, I knew I had just been handed the weakness I had been hoping for. The one I thought would never come. The untouchable, finally in my… grasp to break,” he said, his hand making its way around my throat and squeezing so hard, it made me choke for breath.

“And it was sooo easy. Just a few pictures of your little friend roughed up before their guard dog had come biting, ruining all the fun… and fucking everything up!” he taunted, but then his eyes narrowed as he said the last part in a furious tone.

As for me, I started to panic. But then just before I could pass out, he let me go, making everything burn in my throat as I coughed when dragging in precious air.

“Ah so you were right, she did believe it.”

“Just like I told you she would,” his goon said to the one who was clearly in charge and who, unfortunately, now held my life in his hands. The man who started laughing, the mockery in it was one that grated on every nerve, turning my fear into anger.

“Stacey, where is she!?” I shouted, making him stop, yet his sinister grin didn’t leave his face as he told me,

“She is precisely where your Vampires most likely said she would be. At some unknown location, taken there after their dog saved her and killed all my men. After he… killed my oldest son!” he snarled this last part, but my relief far outweighed my fear.

Because at the very least, I knew she was safe and that was all I had cared about when giving myself up.

Although, I also now knew that I had been fooled…

and that part unfortunately started to sink in.

Because I had believed the brothers had lied, when in actual fact they had only told me the truth. I had seen that picture and panicked, knowing that I would do anything to save Stacey.