Page 38 of Blood Ties (City of Blood #1)

Bash

Sitting straight up in bed—like rising from the dead, as Elina likes to tell me—I look around and notice my sun is missing.

“Tesoro?” I call out, but I can feel that she isn’t here. Where is she?

Climbing out of bed, I wander around the apartment, looking for a note or a clue. Tonight is Friday, we have to appear at the court tonight. Panic fills my chest.

Did you leave me?

Are you done with us?

Have you decided I’m not worth it? I feel my heart cracking.

Throwing on whatever I find nearby, a pair of shorts and a black t-shirt, I head to my bike. The first place I decide to check is the Velvet Tomb. She shouldn’t be there, we have an appointment. Maybe she needed a little longer. Maybe she needed a little air, a little space.

Walking in, I find Sarah behind the bar.

She looks at me in surprise. “Bash, what are you doing here? Where’s Elina? I thought you guys had some princely things to do tonight?”

“Have you seen Elina today?” Panic bleeds into every word.

Sarah adopts a very serious look. “What do you mean? I haven’t heard from her since yesterday, she took the day off.”

“When you saw her, did she say anything?” My voice shakes with the effort to keep calm. “About us?”

“What? No. Yesterday, she made a decision, the decision.” She looks stricken. “She planned to tell you tonight, with Marcus.” She pales. “Do you think she is…leaving you?”

“I don’t know, Sarah. I can’t think. I can’t find her. She wasn’t there when I arose. There was no note. She isn’t here. Where else could she be?”

“Maybe she went to Little Woods? To Celeste’s?”

“Ok, I gotta go. If you see her…send her home and tell her to wait for me. Ask her to give me a chance to talk to her before she makes a choice,” I beg Sarah. I have never begged anyone for anything in my entire life.

“Of course, Bash. She probably just got held up somewhere.”

I run out of the bar into the night.

I almost leave my bike behind, running there would be faster. I’ll need the bike to bring her home when I find her though. Climbing on, I shoot into the night like a bullet.

Jogging up the steps of Celeste’s house, I can smell Elina. She was here today. I feel my panic start to subside. Ok, she’s here. I have her. Ok.

I knock lightly on the door, hoping I’m not interrupting a moment between them. Celeste swings the door open, looking surprised by my appearance.

“Good evening, Mrs. Girard. Can I speak to Elina, please?”

She shakes her head slightly. “Elina isn’t here. I haven’t seen her today.”

The rush of dread that immediately floods my system must show on my face.

“Where is my granddaughter, Sebastien?” Her voice trembles.

“I don’t know,” I whisper. Turning around and walking heavily down the stairs, I do not turn back even though I can hear Celeste’s heart rate pick up and the gasp she lets out.

Walking slowly down the street trying to feel her, smell her, I catch a very faint bit of her essence on the wind.

I follow my senses to a park down the street.

She is more concentrated here. She was here for a while.

I reach down and run my fingers across the grass.

I follow her scent in the air until it ends.

On the sidewalk, her scent so strong before is now intermingled with other humans, maybe 3 or 4. Strangers. I look around me.

I turn and shoot toward the cattedrale. I need help.

“Mother.” I storm into her office and she looks up, startled at my sudden appearance.

“Bash, what are you doing here? You and Elina are supposed to be presented to Marcus in—” she looks at the wall clock “—15 minutes. Where’s Elina?”

“That's why I’m here.” I can hear the terror in my own voice. My mother’s eyes immediately narrow and she waits for what I am about to say. “She’s gone.” My voice breaks and my breath heaves like I am having a panic attack. Vampires don’t have panic attacks. What the hell is happening to me?

Maybe I am dying.

Standing up, she looks at me. “What do you mean ‘gone’? She can’t go anywhere. The city is closed. She is here.”

“‘Gone’ like someone took her.” Collapsing to my knees on her carpet, I cover my face with my hands. Mother kneels in front of me, removes my hands from my face, and slaps me—hard—across the cheek.

“For God’s sake, Sebastien. Get up!” Her eyes are cold, calculating. “I need you to tell me what happened. Stop falling apart.”

“She wasn’t home when I arose and I knew we had the thing with Marcus.

” I wave my hand in the direction of the church.

“I went to the Velvet Tomb and she wasn’t there.

I went to her house and she had been there but she wasn’t there anymore.

” I suck in a ragged breath. “I followed her scent to the park and I found strangers wrapped around her essence, 3 or 4 of them. And it didn’t go anywhere else.

So I came here.” I choke back a sob. “Someone took her.”

“Sebastien, you are nearly 500 years old. Act like it. I know you’re upset, but you need to get it together so we can figure out what is happening. Do you think you can help Elina like this? Do you?”

She’s right.

I stand up, pulling my shoulders back, and take a few breaths to compose myself. I close my eyes and Elina’s blue eyes are there.

I’m trying.

“Now, let’s go talk to Marcus,” she says before sweeping from the room.

“What do you mean missing?” Marcus questions my mother as we stand in front of him, sitting comfortably in his golden chair. She recounts what I told her in her office as I look around the vestibule. I take stock of who is and is not in attendance.

He drums his fingers once, twice, on the arm of his chair.

Everyone knew that we were supposed to present her today.

All 12 members of the council are here. Amongst their faces I see concern, disbelief, uncertainty, empathy, apathy, and, on one face, disdain.

Talia. She watches me closely the way I watch everyone else.

I stand tall, not letting the tightness in my chest, the fury below the surface, the devastation, show on my face.

“What do you want us to do, Sebastien?” Marcus uses his Re voice.

I look at him and bow my head. “I want permission to use whatever resources are available and necessary to find her. She is the future principessa and she is important.”

“She is not principessa yet, she has not been presented. She is a human, Sebastien. One mortal woman. I can not risk soldiers for sentiment.” He answers me dismissively like my entire world is not on the brink of collapse.

“I will find her and I will take the sirelings with me. You don’t like it?

Stop me, Uncle.” I look at him challengingly.

Turning to the gathered council, “Any who have sirelings they would volunteer, let me know. I will find her and I won’t forget those who help me.

” I look directly at Talia. “And those who don’t. ”

“Marcus, please, this is going to divide the family. He’s your heir, your nipote.” My cousins file into the room, as my mother finishes her plea.

Alessandra, Filomena, Gianna, and Aurora line up behind me, clearly declaring their side.

My uncles, Darius and Victor—their fathers—look at them, slack-jawed.

Surprised by this show of solidarity, I believe.

They shouldn’t be. I have been close to them all since they were born. They are my blood, my family.

The mood in the hall subtly shifts, vampires move around each other in a slow, quiet dance, those who are clearly with Marcus moving his way. Those who are clearly with me, moving mine. Those who are torn, loiter in the middle.

The silence is deafening.

I sketch an almost mocking bow, and I turn on my heel to leave.

With my supporters in my wake, I see that we have split the court, almost evenly.

Entering an empty office, I lean against the desk while everyone files in. My mother comes in last.

“First steps,” I begin as soon as everyone is in and the door shut.

“Does everyone know what Elina looks and smells like?” I open my wallet and remove the photo from her visit to the archives all those months ago, before she changed my life.

I set it on the desk for reference, sadness permeating the air.

“We can smell her on you.” Michael says and I hiss at him. He puts his hands up in a placating gesture. “Sorry, but it’s true”.

“Bash, it’s too early to already be alienating your allies. You’ll need all the support you can get,” my mother scolds me.

She’s right of course. “No, I’m sorry, Michael.

That was incredibly rude. Now, back to what I was saying, since you’re all aware of who she is.

Anyone have any ideas of where we should start?

” I look around for a miracle. “The last place I could track her to was a park near the house where she grew up, in Ville de Sang East, before she was surrounded by 3 or 4 human strangers. That is where the trail dies. They should still be in the city.”

I stop and wait. Wanting to hear anything, something, to go on. My allies look around, realizing no one has anything to offer. I sigh wearily and sit down on the desk. Fuck.

Lessa looks up, her eyes bright like she has something. “We need to start with Elina’s enemies, then Bash’s. We can work through our enemies, see if there is anything that would make sense for this. We need a starting point. Our list of enemies is long, but I bet Elina’s isn’t.”

I take a sheet of paper from the desk drawer and we start brainstorming.

It's not an all inclusive list, but we can try and start narrowing it down based on what we have.

“It’s likely not any of the other bloodline families. They may want to take our territory, but one mortal girl won’t get them that,” Amelia says, looking over my shoulder.

“It's probably not a human either,” Lessa adds.

“Or the witches. They abhor the way humans are pawns in this war. Plus, they could have subdued you if they wanted a hostage,” Gianna contributes. One-by-one, I strike-through the names, pen scratching on paper, louder than it should be.

“Who are the most likely suspects for vampires who are mad about not being able to create sirelings?” I ask the group.

“I don’t think it’s them, either. No offense, Bash, but one mortal girl doesn’t really matter enough to Marcus for it to be a worthwhile hostage,” Filomena says, flinching like she believes I'll be mad at her statement. I know she is right though.

“Well, me and Lucian don’t exactly get along but I don’t think he would betray the family simply to annoy me. I don’t think he has a death wish.”

I update the list again.

There are only 2 suspects left on the list. Talia and the Devereaux family.

Both have very compelling reasons to do this.

“Talia has threatened Elina before. When I brought her here for the first time. She called it a promise. I thought Elina would be safe with me...” I trail off, lost in the knowledge that this might be my fault.

“She was uncharacteristically quiet today. We will keep her on the list,” my mother says, contemplatively.

“That just leaves the Devereaux,” Aurora says, stating the most obvious possibility. We haven’t been able to find anything about them at all. We know they are in the city, but we can’t find them.

“But again, why would they take Bash’s human girlfriend?” Samson asks. It’s a good question—we have eliminated other suspects on the grounds that they wouldn’t have any interest in a human girl.

“I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t,” I say. “I think the best option we have right now is Talia. Can we have her followed?”

“Yes,” mother says. “I will take care of that.”