Page 48 of High Stakes and Soulmates (Fanged Mistakes #3)

CYRUS

My head hurts as I stagger forward. “Are they all gone?”

“Yes. We disposed of everyone outside. I think this was the last of them,” Casimir says.

“Where’s Yorick and Julian?” I ask, concerned that something might have happened to them.

“They’re fine. They were struggling a bit, so I made them stay outside,” Casimir responds.

“It was probably because Borick’s pants were so tight,” Atticus announces.

“They’ll be fine, though,” Casimir assures me.

I nod, but it seems to be the only thing I know how to do. How the hell could my brother really be Louis? I guess… he really wasn’t my brother. And then for him to claim I’m Arturo? No… I’m…

My head hurts while I look around for Ezio. I need him, I need to hug him and for him to tell me that everything is okay because right now… I don’t feel like anything is okay.

But when I turn around, I don’t see Ezio anywhere. “Ezio?” I call.

Casimir’s head snaps around. “Ezio, where the fuck are you?”

“Where’s Ezio?” I ask, worry filling me. I saw Louis leave. I saw him break through the window and then the others came in and Ezio attacked the woman and then… Where the fuck did he go? “Ezio?”

Panic hits me as I rush forward, looking past the shelving units. He can’t be gone. He couldn’t have left me. “Ezio?” Did Louis take him? Did they drag him off? Is he hurt? Is he dead? “Ezio!”

I can’t find him anywhere. Screams surround me, and someone is begging for their life. All I can do is smell blood and death and the sea.

“Ezio, please…”

“He left you ,” Louis whispers in my ear. “He cared more about his life than yours, and he left you.”

He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t leave me.

Pain tears through me and I grab my chest. It hurts so badly, but I can still hear the words Ezio said.

He told me again and again how much he loved me.

What if he didn’t leave me at all but Louis killed him?

He’s dead… I know he’s dead. I know this monster killed him.

He slaughtered him, and all I ever wanted to do was love him.

I look down at the blood surrounding me. There’s so much blood as my world rocks around me while the storm shifts the ship I’m lying on. I reach out and all my fingers find is blood. It’s Ezio’s blood, I know it’s his.

Hands grab me and I scream, jerking back from them before I look up and realize that it’s Casimir.

“Hey, calm down. It’s okay. We’ll find him.”

“What?” I ask, his words confusing me. I was just… there was just… where the fuck was I?

Everything swirls around me, and I don’t even understand what’s happening.

“We’ll find Ezio.”

I look around as I discover that I’m kneeling on the floor of some warehouse, my life crashing down around me. Where the fuck did I think I was? “I can’t breathe.”

“You can breathe. It’s okay,” Casimir says. The grip he has on my arm is gentle and helps ground me. “We’ll find him. Ezio must have left for a reason, but we’ll find him.”

The man who’d attacked Louis tries to reach for me. His throat is torn open, but I think he’s trying to say something. I hurry over to him and grab for him before realizing that I don’t even know this man I went to… do I? Why did I rush to him like this when I don’t even know whose side he’s on?

“What?” I ask.

“H… ou…”

“What?”

“Se…” he struggles out.

“You know where he went?” I ask, but there’s so much blood and his throat isn’t healing.

“Get him some blood,” Casimir says.

“Take my blood,” I offer as I try to give it to him, but he tries to push my arm away.

Casimir shakes his head. “We have to find a human or blood from Donovan’s club.”

“I’ll get it,” Atticus says before rushing out.

“Cyrus, are you okay?” Casimir asks.

“I don’t know,” I realize. “I’m so confused.

He kept saying I was Arturo, but I think he was fucking with Ezio.

I think he was trying to get in his head.

But just… when I was having a panic attack…

I felt like… I was on this ship… and… Ezio was dying, or I thought he was dead. And I… I don’t remember.”

“It’s okay.”

“No… why would Ezio go alone? If we can’t defeat Louis as a team, why would he go alone?”

“If someone was threatening to kill the man I love, I would have done something just as foolish,” Casimir says.

“But why alone?” I ask. “We could have helped.”

“I think it could have been a number of reasons. The first is that he knew we wouldn’t let him go if he’d asked. But I also think he’s afraid of ever losing anyone again. To him, the idea of losing his life is so much better than ever losing anyone he loves.”

I just don’t understand how Ezio could possibly think that sounds better. “I can’t lose him.”

“We’ll find him,” Casimir promises.

I squeeze the hand of the man on the ground for some reason. I find that I want to comfort him. I want to make sure he knows that he’s not alone.