Page 32 of Taste of Forever (Vampires of Sanguine #3)

Laith

I woke up with a start, shooting straight up in bed with ragged breaths and my heart racing. “What the hell?” I scrubbed my face, trying to remember if I’d had a dream that was slipping away or heard some noise that startled me.

But there was nothing. I had been dead asleep and my bedroom was silent.

Falling back on the pillow, I reached for my phone. And just as quickly, my heart started racing again. There was a missed call and voicemail from Heather.

I frowned at the time of the message. Nearly 6 a.m. this morning. Why would she call so early? She knew I couldn’t be out in the daytime, right?

In any case, it was just past dusk now. Well over twelve hours since she called.

I listened to her message, confusion knitting my brow. She wanted to meet? Did she have a change of heart so soon after walking out all pissed off? And what did she mean by some stuff happened ?

I called her back and immediately got her voicemail. Unsurprising, since her message had cut off just as she mentioned her battery dying. I let the phone drop to my chest, and noticed this sense of unease, of distress and alarm, hadn’t stopped coursing through my body since I woke up.

The last time I’d felt this had been the first night I’d showed up at Heather’s apartment, when I’d just missed whoever spooked the hell out of her.

I got out of bed and quickly dressed, then left my apartment to head up to the main floor of the Blood ‘til Dawn compound. A few clan members were already up and around the great room. Thorne and Rhain looked like two dark clouds, their heads bent together over the island counter.

“What’s going on?” I asked by way of greeting.

“Pyke most likely attacked someone,” Thorne grumbled. “A couple of brusang reported seeing him before sunset, clothes and skin drenched in blood. Looked like a butcher, they said. The blood bank hasn’t reported any stolen blood from their storage, so he’s probably hurt someone. Or worse.”

“Fuck.” My hand came to my chest. The sense of unease was getting worse, like a fist trying to squeeze the life out of my beating heart. “But that’s…he’s never harmed anyone before, has he?”

“No, which is the only reason we’ve let him be.

He just wanders around all day, high on drae and staring at the sun.

” Rhain closed and opened a fist on the marble counter.

“But who knows how long he’s gone without feeding?

He probably got desperate. And if he attacked someone during the day, it was probably a human. They’re gonna be freaked out.”

“Even though we’ve told them, time and time again, not to go out during daylight hours.” Thorne rolled his eyes before he stuck a darakt cigarette in his mouth and lit up.

The unease in my chest turned to straight-up dread. “Where is Pyke? Do we have him?”

“Not yet. We’re about to hit the streets now, to find him and his possible victim.” Thorne lifted a brow at me. “You coming?”

“Yeah, let’s go! What are we waiting for?”

Rhain gave me a curious look over his shoulder. “What’s got you so riled up?”

The words didn’t want to come out. To speak them would make the possibility even more real.

“I got this bad feeling, guys.” My hand returned to my chest, as if I could massage away the suffocating sensations of dread and panic. “I think he might’ve hurt Heather. My blood mate.”

Everyone rallied to help me find Heather, even those who were off their patrol shifts that night. My gratitude couldn’t be put into words, but the guys understood. Even Cyan, haunted and depressed from seeing Kalix, dragged himself out of bed and Tavia’s arms to join the search.

“You’d do it for me,” he said with a slap on my shoulder when I told him he didn’t have to come. “I need fresh air and something else on my mind, anyway.”

Dusk fell to night and Sanguine came to life as Blood ‘til Dawn spread out in search of one of our own. Heather didn’t know it yet, but she was part of us. The ruling clan of vampires would make sure she was safe and unharmed.

Best case scenario, she wasn’t in the territory at all. She was in the human world, still pissed off and avoiding me, and this feeling in my chest was just gas or something. And whoever Pyke had fed on was minimally injured.

The first place I went to was Pulse Point, since that was where she’d mentioned meeting in her message.

None of the staff had seen her, so it was a quick dead end.

Regardless, I checked every room, storage closet, and circled the perimeter of the building.

All the while, I kept calling her phone, even though I knew it was a long shot.

There was no sign of her, not even a trace of her scent. If she had been to the club, too much time had passed. Too many other bodies had occupied the same space and contaminated it with their own scents.

I left the club and started walking up the next block, senses alert like a bloodhound.

If the slightest breeze carried that sweet, lily fragrance my way, I did not want to miss it.

I checked every dark corner, under every stoop, and even in dumpsters.

Finding nothing time and time again was both a relief and a disappointment.

A call came through as I was re-listening to Heather’s voice message for the tenth time, trying to figure out if she mentioned anything I had missed. I answered it, dread and desperation tightening my throat.

“Hey, Cy. Got anything?”

“Not yet,” he said. “Just updating you. We finished one sweep and are moving on to the next block.” He rattled off the streets he and the others already covered.

“Thanks. I’m a bit north of the Heart, heading toward Novak’s place.”

“Sounds good. Rhain’s headed that way, you two will probably overlap soon. We’ll keep you posted.”

I rubbed my chest after ending the call. It was getting harder to breathe and more painful by the minute. My heart and lungs felt like they were being squeezed in a vice.

“This better not be you, Heather,” I muttered, sweeping my gaze down all over the alley.

“You better be snuggled up in a blanket or something. Watching TV. Petting a dog. Whatever humans do when they’re cozy and safe.

Temkra, please keep her safe.” I didn’t know if our goddess could watch over blood mates in the human world, but it didn’t hurt to ask.

The minutes crawled by and the sensation in my chest became crushing.

I had to keep looking down to make sure my sternum wasn’t caving in.

My instinct was to move faster. There was a pressing sense of running out of time that scared the hell out of me.

But I focused on each breath and made sure to do thorough sweeps.

The last thing I wanted to do was hurry and miss something important in my rush.

My phone rang and I brought it up to my ear without checking who it was. “Yeah?” I rasped.

“Found him,” Rhain said over background noise that sounded like a struggle. “He’s covered in blood like they said. Want to come over here and take a whiff?”

“Where are you?”

He named a street that was two blocks over. I ran over there, the chest pain easing up slightly. Hopefully that was a good sign.

Rhain stood under a street lamp with his arms crossed. His stillness and the heavy shadows on his huge, hulking form made him look like a gargoyle. At his feet, Pyke sat on the ground. He was fidgeting and rocking slightly back and forth, muttering to himself.

I was across the street, heading their way when the scent of her blood hit me. Velvety petals, floral and sweet.

Fucking hell. My worst fear was true.

“Where is she?” I demanded, coming to a stop in front of the addict. “What the fuck did you do with her?”

Pyke took his sweet ass time looking up to meet my eyes. He had the yellow gaze and tear tracks of long-term draitrium use. Dried blood coated his mouth, chin, neck, and stained the front of his already-stained shirt. Heather’s blood.

“Huh?”

The pain in my chest spread to my limbs like kindling catching fire. All my restraint focused on not swinging at him. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to hurt him, I just didn’t trust myself to hold back. He couldn’t tell me where Heather was if I killed him.

“Your last meal,” I said through clenched teeth. “The source of all the blood covering you right now. Where is she?”

He brought a hand to his lips, rubbing off some of the dried blood flaking there, then touched his fingertip to his tongue.

That was when I fucking lost my shit.

I grabbed his shirt and hauled him upwards. He was thin and light, thanks to too many drugs and not enough actual sustenance. Using Rhain’s torso as a wall, I held up the junkie while unleashing all of my fury into his face.

“You had no fucking right to take from her!” I roared. “Her blood is all over you like yesterday’s vomit and you don’t have enough fucking brain cells left to tell me where you left her?”

Pyke struggled in my hold to the best of his ability, which was not much. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he whined, legs kicking in the air. “I was high, I don’t remember the last blood meal I had.”

I released one fist from his shirt and clamped it around his throat. His eyes bugged out in fear, and then the real struggle for his life began.

“Laith,” Rhain said with a note of warning. It was the don’t-kill-him-or-you’ll-be-in-deep-shit-with-Thorne warning.

Thorne hated the drae junkies probably more than anyone, but killing one without cause was still a serious offense.

“I’m good,” I assured Rhain. “I’m not going to kill him. Yet.” I cocked my head, my only movement except for the flailing vampire at the end of my arm. “But depending on what he tells me about my blood mate, he might enjoy a cold turkey detox for the rest of his pathetic life.”

That got Pyke to stop fighting me, the fear on his reddening face kicking up another notch. If there was one thing addicts feared more than death, it was going without drugs.