Page 15 of Feeding Frenzy (Crimson Coven #3)

FIFTEEN

tobias

Asher had not returned for us in the car. It was supposed to be a minute long wait, but time stretched more than it should have.

“Something is wrong.”

Ren grunted, standing at the threshold of the duplex.

“Darius, give me your car keys.”

“Yes, Sire.” Darius hurried away, and was back within seconds. He tossed Ren the keys.

“Let’s go.”

I followed Ren to the truck, and he revved it on. The tires bumped and bounced across the asphalt.

“Did you bring your phone?”

“No,” Ren answered. And I’d left mine in the basement room. I ran my hand through my hair. Asher wouldn’t disappear like this without reason. Ren cruised beside Saphire Lounge and our vehicle was gone.

“He would not have left us unless Catalina called,” I said.

Ren grunted in agreement, and he sped onto the main road.

With the way he drove, he had us at back at the manor in record time.

“Fuck,” he muttered.

The vehicle we’d taken to Saphire Lounge was half on the embankment.

“What has Asher done?” He pulled up behind the mess Asher made. A few bricks had chipped off the wall and lay scattered across the asphalt.

Ren was already out of the vehicle, and I was only a step behind him. Upon entering through the wide-open door, there was silence. Ren slowed, and then climbed up the stairs to where we’d cuffed Catalina.

“That’s right, you are going to be just fine, ?lskade ,” Asher’s cooed words echoed from his open door.

I entered the room a few steps behind Ren. He seemed to be speaking to a sleeping Catalina.

“She doesn’t have a pulse,” Ren sounded confused—lost.

She wasn’t dead. Impossible. Ren’s thoughts slammed into me, mixing with my own horror and disbelief. Fire played along his fingertips. Jaxon hadn’t moved an inch. Like a statue, he stared at the wall, catatonic. No thoughts came from him.

The scent of her blood lingered in the air. A pile of rolled up sheets sat on the floor at the end of the bed. Even though they were bunched up, her blood stained the material.

I returned my attention to Catalina. My shoes felt glued to the ground. I took a step, and then another until I stood beside the bed. Asher sprawled against her, on the side Jaxon sat frozen, he caressed her damp hair. She wore a silk red slip that matched his pants. He picked up her palm and pressed it to his cheek.

“Once you wake, I’ll get you the best blood I can find,” he cooed at her. Her face didn’t twitch. I reached out and glided my finger across the bridge of her nose. No breaths left her lips or nose. Her chest did not move in the way I’d become used to. Bruises bloomed on her face as if they’d been painted on.

Asher moved and the mattress bounced. Her head flopped to the side and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. I staggered back, as if a physical blow had landed on me.

I did not understand.

Think .

I doubled over. I must think . God. I hissed out a breath.

“You’ll be a sexy little vampire won’t you.” I focused on Asher’s voice. “Maybe blood-mad, but we can find a cure.”

She would turn?

“You gave her blood?”

“I found her with Jax. She was already out, but there was blood on her lips.” Asher touched said lips with the tip of his fingers. He turned to look at me, and his eyes were slightly glazed, as if he’d lost grip of his mind.

I turned to Jax.

“Did you feed her blood before she died?” My voice sounded breathless even to my ears. “Answer me,” I bellowed, but Jax did not even twitch. I gritted my teeth.

“ She did this,” Ren’s voice ripped through the room. “Where is that slag,” Ren snarled. “You can fucking read minds, why did this happen?” He almost burned a hole in the ground with all the pacing. Fire lined his hands.

“She fooled me.” My lips felt numb. “She fooled us.”

“Not me,” Asher snapped. “I let you convince me to talk Cat down. To harbor that bitch.”

“Why are you so calm?” Ren was suddenly in my face. He shoved me and I staggered a few steps back. My lips thinned. It was my fault. I’d caused this. I gritted my teeth. “Tobias, she will not get away with this. You understand?”

I side stepped him to get Catalina back within view.

Imogen had done this. I’d fooled myself. Made myself believe she was hurt and had truly been distraught.

Imogen had tricked me. She, more than anyone in this world, understood how to shield her thoughts from me, but I had not expected such a vile, repulsive trick.

I sneered.

But she would not fool me again. Imogen was done.

She must have had Wrenhaven torture her for the believability. She’d accused him, but the attack on Saphire Lounge—all of this was connected.

I had been blinded.

“Where are you going?” Asher shouted at Ren, but he was already gone.

Ren left the room. He would hunt her down.

I slowly made my way back to the end of her bed and dropped on the mattress, every bone in my legs giving out on me.

“Isn’t it interesting how this little thing ripped our hearts out?”

I studied Asher as he caressed her, talking and cooing at her like she would understand. “Somehow, we love her.”

Awe filled his voice. We weren’t meant to love, so when we cared for something, the devotion that came from that could not be matched.

This clenching in my chest whenever I saw her, or how I wanted to hold her at all times. This was not normal. I had been with my Coven mates long enough to see their hunger for her was just as strong as mine.

Obsession bloomed to more, until she had her little fingers deep inside us and around our cocks.

I studied her slack features. The little half-moon eyes smiling up at me. I did not want to live in a world she did not exist. I would not.

“We have to prepare?—"

“For what exactly?” Asher whirled on me. I thinned my lips. “We are not staking her,” Asher snapped. Jax still did not react.

“We are not,” I said in agreement. We would keep her with us even if she was blood-mad.

She had to make it. She would beat the odds and turn into a vampire, even if bruises littered her body and her bones looked out of place.

I settled in to pray for the first time in a long time.