Page 30 of Even Vampires Bleed (Even Ever After #2)

Léandre

I ’m feeling awful.

I left Cassiopé there. I let her get caught while I ran for my life.

To be honest, I was more running for the safety of those wings Gabriel needs so much.

But now I feel like an ass because I saw everything like it was happening in slow motion.

And those assholes hit her on the head.

It might be awhile before she can actually get out if she’s passed out.

I get out from the tunnels in the Saint Michel quarter and cross over the river La Seine before rushing to the room we set this morning to operate on Gabriel.

Everyone is already here. The doctor with his gloves on and a sterilized blue outfit. Gabriel lies on his front on a mattress with a hole for his head.

I can see his nose poking from underneath, and from what I can hear, he’s peacefully sleeping.

Good.

I remove the wings from my shoulders and display them face up, the still bloody extremities poking up for easy access for the doctor.

“Do you need anything?” I ask him.

I don’t even know his name, but I’m not going to stay and chat with him to know it.

He’s got work to do, and I need to find Elhyor.

It doesn’t sit right with me that I left Cassiopé in Versailles.

As long as someone is taking care of my father’s wings, I can do all I want, and right now, all I want is to get that girl back from where she’s probably been taken prisoner.

“Do you have a blueprint of Versailles?” I ask Elhyor as I enter his office.

The question could have been for Angélique as well, but she’s surprisingly absent from her husband’s office.

I say surprisingly, because, for a couple that didn’t marry out of love, they seem pretty much attached to the hip.

I would never say that out loud to any of them—I don’t know which one of the two scares me the most—but they look cute together.

“We do. But didn’t you have everything at the Sacré Coeur ?” he asks.

“Cassiopé got captured,” I say.

I never knew that three little words could make that man jump, but they do.

And he’s out of his seat in a second.

“We’re getting a team ready,” is all he says before he dials Pierre on his holo, but I don’t wait for him. I go straight to Luc.

I know that if there is someone in this church that can get me the blueprints of Versailles on my holo, it’s him.

I find him in his room with half a dozen screens on his desk.

I honestly don’t know what he’s doing, but I’m not going to ask.

I don’t have time to spare.

“Luc, can you load Versailles’s blueprint to my holo?” I ask him .

He raises his head from his keyboard and looks at me like he’s seen a ghost.

Oh, did I forget to mention I barged in without even knocking or announcing myself?

Well, that’s what I did—which can easily explain Luc’s spooked expression.

“My door was closed,” he tells me instead.

Yeah, I don’t have time for apologies.

“I know, but it’s really urgent,” I say instead.

The man just nods and types on his keyboard. I see a circle appear on the screen and then disappear.

“All done,” Luc tells me and I’m out of his door before I say “thanks.”

He’s a bat, he’ll hear it, anyway.

Without waiting for Elhyor or the team he’s building to get Cassiopé out, I run back to the Saint Michel quarter and to the tunnels.

I don’t know how long it would take for them to be ready, but I’m not waiting for anyone.

I saw what she did.

She was ready to fight them just to give me extra time—even if it was just seconds.

And it worked.

But now I don’t have any wings that need protecting.

There is only her that needs my protection.

And that can’t wait.