Page 40 of Blood Claims (Garnet Dagger Mafia #2)

WHEN DARKNESS FINDS YOU

VICTOR

“ W hat is taking so long?” my brother asked, after minutes too long waiting outside of the bathroom.

I kept seeing her face in my mind, the anger, the hurt, the disappointment and distrust. At first, I had gotten angry, but in truth, it had been mainly at myself.

Because I knew we had fucked up. We shouldn’t have kept it from her, and what little trust we had built up was shattered in a single moment.

I hoped, at least, by taking her to see her friend, to gain some of it back. She would get her proof that Stacey was alright. That we were keeping her protected until the threat could be eliminated. Although, I wasn’t exactly holding my breath at this point.

“That’s it, I don’t care if she gets pissed, I am going in there,” Tal said and well, I didn’t stop him as he was right, it had been too long.

Especially seeing as I knew she was eager to leave to see Stacey.

So, I followed him inside and in the few moments Tal was in there, it was enough time for him to shout,

“She’s not fucking here!”

Those four words had my heart in my fucking throat!

“What do you mean she isn’t fucking here?!” I snapped as I started pushing open the cubical doors, no doubt something he had already done in his haste to find her. But it was by opening the third door that I noticed something on the floor that my brother had missed.

“What the fuck?” I said as I picked up the cracked phone, which then lead me to something else.

“It’s not like there is an exit out of here, so where the fuck… wait, what is that?” my brother asked, cutting himself off as I plucked a photo from the floor.

“That’s… that’s her friend.” He faltered.

“They must have taken it before Andras got to her,” I replied, but then as I turned it over, I began to piece together what could have happened, starting with two words written on the back. Two words that had me wanting to commit fucking murder!

“They lied,” I repeated before flipping it around in my fingers to show my brother.

“Fuck! Whoever took her must have made her believe her friend was still in trouble.” I looked around the floor, having my suspicions on how they got her out of here without us seeing.

“The entrance, quick!” I shouted, running out the door and not giving a damn at all the strange looks I received as I rushed to the front of the building.

At the very fucking least, we kept to our rules and maintained a mortal speed.

Although we must have looked like Olympic competitors, for how fast we did run.

We made it to the street only moments later, now frantically searching for her.

“What did you see?” Tal asked me as my eyes scanned the sidewalk for any clues as to who had taken her.

“Remnants of a portal key,” I told him.

“They aren’t easy to come by, so it must have been someone with connections,” Tal observed, but then shouted to something he spotted on the ground.

We both rushed to it, picking up a business card that made me grit my teeth.

My fear that it was somehow connected to her dreams of leaving me.

However, that still didn’t mean she wasn’t in danger, and I seethed out the name.

“Avellino… that fuck!” I snarled, crumpling the card in my hand before my darkness swirled around it, turning it to ash.

“Fuck! That fucker would be sooner out for revenge than ransom!” Tal growled, adding to the severity of our situation and giving me even more shit to panic over.

Hence why I pulled my phone from my pocket and started making demands of my men. Telling them that I wanted every fucking person in the city on this! I looked to my brother to see that he was doing the same.

“I want this city torn apart in search of her, nothing else matters, do you understand?! Find me every fucking building associated with Avellino!” Tal snapped before ending the call.

“Fuck, but where could they have taken her?”

I looked out to the streets of one of the busiest cites in the world and told him in a pained tone,

“I don’t fucking know.”

Thankfully, they hadn’t covered their tracks very well, but then again, Avellino was small fry and didn’t have the resources we did. We had our tech team hack into the security footage from all around the city, easily following the van they had kidnapped her in.

My brother and I were more than ready to burn his entire organization to the ground and tear every last fucker apart!

Of course, when it was discovered that his son had been one of those that Andras had killed, it made our worry increase tenfold.

As like my brother said, he was more likely out for revenge.

But despite this, neither my brother nor I had dared to speak aloud what could be happening to our Fated right now. That we could be too late. Speaking it would make it too fucking real. Make it too great a possibility. Whereas we needed to just fucking get there and save her!

We had to fucking save her.

So, the second we got the address, we hadn’t even waited for back up to catch up, knowing they would get there soon enough.

We broke every fucking speed limit, ran every red light, broke practically every fucking traffic law there was so as to get there in time.

The fear built with every minute that passed by, and I tried not to think of what he was doing to her.

The pain, the suffering she might endure at his hands. It was unthinkable!

But what did help was thinking about all the fucking dark, sick, twisted things we would do to the bastard just for touching her!

And it wouldn’t be quick. Oh no, we would fucking take our time and make it last for days!

I would tear his fucking fangs from his gums and make him fucking swallow them!

The ultimate insult for a Vampire.

But even more so, if I crushed them under my boot before making him choke on the dust of them. There were too many ways we would make him suffer, and it was the only thing keeping us sane enough to fucking function enough to get there.

The only thing on our side, was that not much time had passed from her being taken.

For we doubted they would have believed us to figure out their whereabouts so quickly.

Because the warehouse was under a dummy corporation and not linked directly to him.

But after some digging, it was easy to find, even after the van had driven off the radar.

We sped toward the building, and thank fuck for our passion for supercars and the hyper performance that came with them. One that I brought to a stop with a squeal of the wheels right outside the docking bay, knowing this was the easiest place to get inside.

“What the fuck?” Tal said after spotting the first dead guy, with the spray of blood arching across the roller doors. The lock on the side door had been sliced clean through as it hung open.

“A rival gang?” Tal asked.

“I don’t know, but I would say we are about to find out,” I said, pulling my gun from my holster, whilst my brother did the same.

A useful weapon for anything too far away, as it meant that we could at least slow a Vampire down, even if it wouldn’t kill them.

But a bullet would wound us enough to weaken us, as we would need the time to heal.

Of course, the older the Vampire, the quicker this happened, which gave us the upper hand.

Now, fighting close enough to rip important shit out of the body, then yeah, that was the most effective way, meaning the guns were simply a way to slow down our prey.

Prey that looked to have already been slain.

“Everyone’s dead… what the…?” Tal said as we walked inside and found nothing but death.

It was as if a fucking army had swept through here and ripped every fucker apart, just like we would have. I looked to my brother, who held the same expression of dread as I did. This single look we shared before we went running in different directions, so as to cover more ground.

“Nessa! Nessa!” I shouted her name, praying to every fucking god out there that we weren’t too late!

“Here! Victor, over here!” Tal shouted, after checking out an office space tucked away and built under a metal staircase.

The window had been smashed in. The various body parts strewn all over the place, telling us this was where most of the fighting ensued.

Not that there had been much from the other side, as from all accounts, it looked like work of only one man.

But that was fucking impossible!

I watched as my brother holstered his gun, making me do the same as, clearly, there wasn’t a single one of Avellino’s men left. Not that I could understand it, as there wasn’t a being alive with that power… no one but us.

I walked into the office, and everything hit me at once.

The gruesome sight of a bloody corpse, and one who would have undoubtably suffered, as he looked to have been tortured first. After this my eyes swung around to the sight of a hook hanging from the iron beam used as part of the staircase.

The iron girder held a chain hanging down, as if someone had been strung up here.

My mind instantly went to visions of our girl being there, torturing me with the sight.

And I wasn’t wrong, not when that dreaded fucking feeling hit me tenfold the second I scented it.

Her blood.

My brother did the same, and our roars of anger cut through the silence as we saw the droplets on the floor. Droplets that didn’t hold a trail.

“She must have been carried out of here… there is no trace of more from this point,” Tal said, once he was calm enough to force words from his mouth.

I scanned the floor to see he was right and, thankfully, there wasn’t a lot of blood, so it gave us hope that she was at least still alive.

Just for how long, we didn’t know.