Page 33 of Taste of Forever (Vampires of Sanguine #3)

“I didn’t know she was your blood mate,” he wheezed. “I was just so hungry. The blood bank blacklisted me so it’s been weeks since I fed.”

“That’s interesting. I don’t recall asking. Can you rub those last few brain cells together and tell me what I actually asked you?”

“I can’t…can’t breathe…”

“Laith,” Rhain said again.

I opened my hand and let the addict fall in a heap of dead weight. He lay on his side, coughing and wheezing while I paced the ground in front of him, eyes up. I’d be too tempted to kick him in the ribs if I looked down at him.

As soon as his breathing started to normalize, I paused to stare down at him. “Better tell me what I want to know or you’re going up in the air again.”

“No. No up in the air.” He pushed himself to sitting, his hands raised in surrender with his head lowered. “I—uh, my memory’s hazy but uh?—“

“Did I fucking ask you for excuses?”

“Sorry! I, um, I’m pretty sure I saw her in the square. The sun was shining on her hair, it was really bright. Like gold. Or honey.”

Rhain was already getting his phone out. “Check the square and all the surrounding alleyways,” he barked into it before ending the call. “You go ahead,” he said to me. “I’ll get him to the detox center.”

“Thanks, bro. Love you!” I took off running but didn’t miss his answering grunt.

The urgent feeling in my chest grew as I neared the square in the center of the Heart. The open, flat space was where we held many festivals and events, including Cyan and Tavia’s mating ceremony a few months ago.

I turned into an alley and spotted Des at the far end, closest to the square. “Hey, find anything?”

He shook his head as I approached. “Plenty of suspicious stains in this one, but if you didn’t pick up her scent in there, we’re crossing off.”

“No, I didn’t scent anything.” I rubbed my chest again, which Des noticed right away.

“You keep doing that. On the verge of a heart attack or what?”

“I dunno. I think it’s got to do with her, though. Almost feels like…like she’s dying or something. Like her life force is trying desperately to hold on but it’s losing grip. I just feel this…clawing, squeezing pain on my heart and lungs.”

“Well, tell her to hold the fuck on. We’re not stopping ‘til we find her. And if the sun comes up first, we’ll send humans out to search.”

Des strode confidently toward the center of the square, heading for the alley directly across from the one he just checked.

“What if we’re in the completely wrong area?” Panic started settling in as I followed him. “He’s so blitzed out of his mind, he could have thought someone’s courtyard was the square. She’s in bad shape, Des, and if we’re too late…”

I paused, all my nerves lighting up at the distinct floral scent in the air. My head whipped around, looking down one of the other nondescript alleyways. The fist around my heart made a crushing, desperate squeeze.

“Laith?”

I made a beeline for the alley without answering, trusting Des to connect the dots. Heather’s scent grew stronger and there was a dark, bitter undertone to it. It was her blood, lots of it, that had been dried for hours .

“Heather!” I called. “Heather, I’m here. Can you hear me?”

There was no movement or sound answering.

I moved aside debris, stacked crates, flattened cardboard, garbage bags, and found nothing.

The scent of her dried blood was so overpowering, I was nearly choking on it.

It surrounded me and I was panicking too fucking much to follow it like a trail. Where the fuck was she?

I got on my hands and knees, desperately looking under dumpsters and shallow porch stairs. The ground was fucking filthy, but her dried blood was under my palms. There was no surface I wouldn’t crawl on to reach her.

And then…there she was.

I saw her hair first. Honey-golden waves matted with filth and blood.

She was pale and unmoving, curled up in a fetal position against the wall and the dumpster. A flattened cardboard box covered her torso, like it was supposed to be a blanket or the only protection she could find against her attacker.

Protection that I should have provided.

“Heather! Oh fuck. Oh, sweet Temkra.”

I moved the box away gingerly, and a rage I’d never felt before filled my veins at the sight of her injuries. She hadn’t just been bitten. Her whole body had been mauled.

Ragged flesh wounds covered her neck and her arm, and that was just what I could see. My heart that had felt like it was going to stop at any moment, now beat at a furious pace.

“Heather?” I sounded like a child, small and afraid. “Time to wake up, Science Barbie. We’ve got to get you out of here.”

She was so still. I feared the worst but my brain refused to acknowledge the possibility. Her cheek was cold when I touched the backs of my fingers to it. I tried to move her hair away from her neck, but it stuck to the wound due to all the dried blood.

“Heather, please.”

I didn’t know what I was asking for. I was unraveling.

She couldn’t be gone. She just couldn’t.

And if she was…

There was only one way to bring her back.

I brought my own wrist to my fangs just as a hand clamped down on my shoulder.

“Hold on, Laith.” It was Cyan.

“Get off me.” I rolled my shoulder out of his grip. “I have to save her.”

“Her heart’s beating. Take a breath and listen. She’s still here.”

I listened intently, hoping against hope that he was right. My own heartbeat was so loud and erratic, her injuries so awful and gut-churning, that I couldn’t focus on anything else.

My ears strained, but I heard it. Fuck, her poor heart was sluggish, weak, and not moving enough blood.

“Let’s take her to the blood bank,” Cyan said. “She needs a transfusion and they have blood in storage.”

His words were reaching me. They made sense. Heather was alive and she could be saved if I hurried. I was terrified to move her and possibly injure her further, but there was no fucking way I was letting anyone else touch her.

I slid my arms under her legs and back as gently as I could. She weighed practically nothing and felt like a block of ice. Des, my best fucking friend, was ready, covering her with his jacket as soon as I secured her against my chest.

“Come on, Science Barbie.” I tried to walk smoothly so as to not jostle her.

“I know it’s gonna piss you off, but I’m not letting you out of my sight again.

Forget your boyfriend. I’m done sharing you with him.

” My mouth brushed her cool forehead. “If you want to fight me about it, fine. But you’ve got to get better and wake up first. That’s the deal. ”