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CHAPTER ONE

ENDER

I hate this fucking city, but I can’t leave yet. Not when I still need answers. As soon as I get them, I’m going to scoop up Rylee and get out of here. I’m going to go somewhere no one knows me and start again…

Then I’ll give Rylee a chance at a normal life, although I suppose her only hope for that is with someone who isn’t me. Not that the child would allow me to step away… or that I willingly would.

Since we were run out of the house a family had kindly offered up to us during their vacation—not that they knew—we’re back to moving from place to place.

It’s not that I don’t have any money to set up a home of our own, it’s that there really isn’t anywhere safe to settle down just yet…

at least not with him still alive. So until then, I just wait and watch, and when a new place opens up and is vacant for a bit, I simply move us in.

There’s generally enough food for Rylee, and we can sit and wait for the next time we have to move on.

This time, we’re staying in an apartment on the second floor of a smaller building right off one of the busiest streets.

It’s no problem for me to get up to the second floor, which I do with ease when I’m positive no neighbors are looking.

Apartments generally aren’t my go-to, but with the vampire council on the lookout for me, I just picked a location that would allow me to hide among the humans.

I really don’t want to leave the city until I know what’s happening with the council.

“Rylee, I found some of that candy you like so much. The one that is surely eating through your teeth even though you claim it’s healthy?—”

I still when I realize that I don’t hear the seven-year-old child anywhere in the small apartment. I understand that she’s a true vampire, and if she wanted to make herself disappear, she could do so, but she’s not quiet enough to evade someone of my age.

“Rylee?” I call as I step farther into the room.

I don’t smell anyone else… it doesn’t seem like someone else was in the room, so why would she have left?

It doesn’t make sense for her to go anywhere.

She knows to keep her head down, to stay quiet, to never leave.

While she can certainly be stubborn at times, she’s never refused to listen, telling me that something must have happened for her to choose to leave.

Did they find her? Was there someone left from the council who figured out where we were?

Is she hiding somewhere in the hope of avoiding them?

Fuck.

I head into her room where I see that the window is open. Rylee could have easily jumped out of the window from this height, and the lack of a screen makes me believe she did. I check her room one last time before slipping through the window myself and dropping down into the alley below.

I breathe in the air around me, finally snagging her scent, but still…

I don’t smell any other scent as if someone was tracking her.

Moving quickly, I rush down the alley before coming to a busy road.

At this time of evening, people are still moving around, enjoying whatever this touristy location has to offer as they find different places to dine.

The smells mix and make me hesitate, but I can still catch her scent moving into the main street.

I walk swiftly, not wanting to draw attention to myself as I move. I’m well aware most of the council died mere weeks ago, but that doesn’t mean they’re all gone and that they’re not looking for me. The last thing I need is for any of them to sniff me out.

The moment I find Rylee, I’m going to make her well aware how angry I am. If she doesn’t have a valid reason for making me feel like this, she’s going to regret ever hopping out of that window.

Her scent veers off down another alley that I quickly take, but now that I’m away from the other smells, I realize that she was no longer alone. No… there was someone else here… was someone tracking her? At what point did they start?

I pick up my pace, rushing down the alley and across another street. What would they want with her? Do they know who she is? Do they know what she is? Is it someone planning to hand her over to the council? Or possibly the council itself?

Not paying attention to where I’m going, a car nearly hits me as I dash across the highway and reach the edge of a bridge.

I look left and right but her scent seems to go over.

Dropping from above, I land in the soft earth on the edge of the river.

What the hell was she doing going farther away from people who could help her?

Why wouldn’t she have sought some help? There’s no way a group of people, even if they were human, wouldn’t have protected a child if she’d told them someone was chasing her.

Did I cause this because I’ve always drawn her away from others instead of encouraging her to seek help from them?

I suppose before I had her, she never had the luxury of others helping her then either.

Who knows if she even trusts others after all she’s gone through.

I can smell Rylee under the bridge, but I can see that she’s no longer there. Was she trying to hide from them?

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I hiss. They had to have grabbed her. They grabbed her, but then what?

I see blood splattered across some rocks but when I pick one up and sniff it, I realize it’s not hers. Did she scratch them or bite them? Clearly, it wasn’t enough to do much damage, but a fight did take place here.

Their tracks lead me to another road where her scent disappears, telling me she got into a vehicle and was taken away from me.

Enraged, I stand in the middle of the road and stare down it.

Who the hell has her? I will tear this fucking world apart to get her back.

I will rip it apart… I will find the monsters who dared lay a hand on her.

I hadn’t even left her alone for long. An hour, possibly.

Rylee was in her room playing on some handheld gaming thing the child who lived here owned.

She was obsessed with that thing, so why would she have gotten up?

Why would she have left the safety of the apartment when it seems like they didn’t even start following her until they saw her on the main road?

And now what the hell do I do to find her?

Anger and frustration are eating through me as a car comes toward me and begins blaring its horn at me.

“Get off the damn road!” the man yells.

I turn and look at him, and the moment I start toward him, he throws the car in reverse as if he could possibly get away. As if his car is possibly fast enough to evade me?—

Another horn honks and I look over at a police car pulling to a stop near me. The window goes down and a petite woman with a big smile looks out at me.

“Hey there, you alright, fella?” she asks.

I should ignore her or even tell her I’m just fine because it’s likely my fault Rylee is in this situation. Why should I be the one taking care of her? She unexpectedly ended up in my life, but now I’m not doing a damn thing I’m supposed to do, and instead, I’m putting her life at risk.

“You alright?” she asks again.

“No,” I say as I turn from her and disappear into the night.

When I step into the VRC, the entire room goes silent.

It’s not surprising when I’m currently one of the most wanted men after the whole council bullshit.

Like the council hadn’t unjustly arrested me and held me for information while they were over there slaughtering their own.

They shouldn’t be so killable if they didn’t want me to kill those who went after me.

“E-Ender!” the irritating human says in surprise when he sees me. “Hey, buddy! It’s okay, everyone. Ender and I are pals .”

There’s so much emphasis on that word, it’s like he thinks the harder he emphasizes it, the better chance everyone has of making it out of this alive.

Before Finn can even get close to me, his vampire partner slides in front of him. The man is taller than me and does a decent job of looking menacing, but I’ve bested him in every one-on-one fight we’ve ever been in. He doesn’t worry me, and he’s not the person I need or want.

I push him out of the way and go for Finn, but when I do, Marcus snatches my wrist and half of the damn vampires wrap around Finn like some protective bubble. It’s quite irritating when I just want to talk to him.

“What are you doing here?” Marcus asks. “Are you asking to get arrested?”

I turn to face him, eyes narrowed as I fixate on the man I’d love to smack down. But I’m also positive that if I begin smacking people down, no one will help me.

“Just calm down, everyone please calm down,” Marcus’s brother, Claude, says.

“Calm down? I’m not fucking calming down.

This asshole tried to kill you,” the man with a Russian accent snarls as he joins Marcus.

Rylee has informed me that this “second scary vampire” is called Alexei.

He has no intention of allowing me to get any closer to Finn than Marcus does, and is also trying to keep me far away from Claude.

Obviously, it was an absolutely foolish idea to even waste my time coming here.

“Fuck this,” I snap as I head toward the door. “I don’t have time for this.”

“Guys, please. Just one second,” Finn says to the others before he slides in front of me so I can’t leave. “Something had to have happened to Rylee since there’s absolutely no other reason you’d have come here. What happened to her?”

I stare at the human for a moment before deciding he really is the only help I’ll get. And when it comes to Rylee, I’m willing to do anything it takes to get her back to me safely.

“Rylee’s missing. She left the apartment while I was out. When I came back, she was gone. Some vampires seem to have chased her under a bridge before grabbing her and putting her in a vehicle, based on what I scented. It was likely that fucking council and if it was, I’m going to destroy them.”