Page 53 of Taste of Forever (Vampires of Sanguine #3)

Heather

T he van seemed to drive around randomly for hours. It felt ten times longer than the drive up to the cabin, although that could have been my desperation to get out and make a run for Sanguine.

My only cold comfort was that I was sitting in the passenger seat rather than the back of the van.

And the driver was the nicer of Soren’s two guys, not the one who had dragged me by my hair and slammed my head against the floor.

That guy had stayed on guard while Soren tortured Laith in the basement.

Soren might not have wanted to torture me, but he didn’t even see Laith as a person. What kind of horrible things would they do to him down there?

Would they even keep him in that basement? Or take him to some top-secret government lab where he’d be experimented on?

Don’t think about that. You’ve got to keep it together and get help as soon as you can.

My blindfold was soaked with tears and I sniffled for the thousandth time on that painfully long drive.

“How much longer ‘til you let me go?” I croaked. It was the first thing either of us had said anything since we got in the vehicle.

“You asking me that guarantees I’ll be driving around for another half hour,” the guy groused.

More tears spilled, soaking through my already-saturated blindfold.

At long last, the van stopped completely and was turned off. I let out a shuddering breath of relief. Finally.

The passenger door opened and I allowed the man to help me step down to the ground. He took the blindfold off and visibly winced at the sight of me. I could only imagine how big and colorful the bump on my head was.

Bright lights overwhelmed my vision and I blinked rapidly. We seemed to be at an empty gas station. Fuck, how late was it?

I almost said thank you to Soren’s guy, but caught myself. Fuck him for being complicit.

Without a word, I started toward the little convenience store attached to the gas station. I had nothing on me, no ID or wallet, but maybe the attendant would be sympathetic enough to call a cab for me. Depending on how far I was from home, maybe they’d even cover the fare.

“Wait,” Soren’s guy called after me.

I wanted to ignore him and keep going, but forced myself to stop and turn around.

He walked toward me, thumbing through bills in his wallet. “Here.” He held three twenties out to me. “Get yourself home and, you know, try to forget this ever happened.”

I almost laughed. I was supposed to forget that they held the man I loved captive? If I weren’t so numb, I would have told the henchman where to shove it. But my fingers closed around the cash instead, and then he was gone, heading back to the van.

Continuing on to the convenience store, the door made an electronic ding-dong sound as I stepped inside.

“Welcome in,” mumbled the bored gas station attendant, a Black woman with colorful braids in her hair. She barely took notice of me at first, and then did a double-take with a horrified expression, shooting straight up from her lean against the counter. “Holy shit! Honey, are you okay?”

I winced, both from embarrassment and the bright store lights making my head pound. There didn’t seem to be anyone else in the store, thank God.

“Hi, um.” I approached the counter, swallowing the lump in my throat. “Can I borrow a phone to call a cab?”

The woman blinked once. “Yeah, of course you can.” Her tone was considerably softer as she grabbed her own cell phone. “I’ll look up a cab company for you.” She began a search, then glanced up, her brow furrowing. “Do you need help, honey?”

I did my best to force a smile. “I’m okay. I’m getting help.”

The woman frowned but returned her focus to her phone. She held it out to me a moment later. “That’s the closest one. I’ll get you some stuff for that bump on your head.”

“Thank you.” I took the phone, noting the time of 12:37 a.m. and that we were still in Eureka, California. A shaky breath escaped me as I hit the call button for the cab company and brought the phone to my ear.

By the time I ordered the cab, the gas station attendant had brought me an ice pack, Tylenol, and a cold bottle of water. I started crying again, simply overwhelmed with the sheer kindness and concern from a total stranger. How could a woman like this exist in the same world as a guy like Soren?

“I can’t thank you enough,” I said after gulping down half the water bottle. “The cab’ll be thirty minutes, so I’ll be out of your hair soon.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re the most excitement I’ve had all night.” She leaned her forearms on the counter. “And I hope to God whoever did that to your face gets what he deserves.”

“He will,” I said with a nod. “I…I escaped. I got out. And I’m getting to safety and he will be dealt with.” It wasn’t the situation she believed it to be, but it wasn’t like I could tell her the truth. And anyway, violence was violence. She understood enough.

“Good.” She nodded approvingly. “You did the hard part already.”

She had no idea. Leaving Laith down there willingly was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do.

“Oh, so how much I do owe you for this stuff?” I waved a hand over the water and Tylenol.

“Nothing. It’s on me.”

“What? No.” I put one of the twenties on the counter. “Will that cover it?”

“Don’t worry about it. Use it to start your new life.” A smile broke out across her face. “Girls gotta look out for each other, right?”

Even if I never stepped foot in the human world again after we got Laith back, I’d remember this woman for the rest of my life.

When the cab pulled up outside, I thanked her again, shoved the twenty into the empty tip jar on the counter, and hurried out of the store.

“You sure this is where you want me to leave you?” The cab driver’s gray, bushy eyebrows furrowed with concern in the rearview mirror. He reminded me of my dad.

The trailhead parking lot had only one tall lamppost that was barely strong enough to illuminate the entire lot.

My car was parked directly under it, the hood and roof accumulating dust and pine needles.

A few sheets of paper notices had been shoved under the windshield wipers, and it felt like a small miracle that the car hadn’t been towed already.

“Yeah, this is great. Thank you.” I tried to inject cheer into my voice, although I didn’t know why I was trying to pretend everything was fine. The driver had seen the state my face was in, although he didn’t comment.

I paid the fare and got out, heading to my car like I was going to drive myself home. Please don’t wait for me to get inside the car. Just drive off.

Gravel crunched as he backed away and headed for the road. I took a steeling breath as I stared down the darkness of the forest. There would be no light to go on. I didn’t have a phone or a flashlight. It would just be me and my memory.

You’re a vampire’s blood mate. You’ve been a night owl your whole goddamn life. You can make it through a stretch of dark woods to save him. One foot in front of the other.

I might as well had been blindfolded again as I walked through thorny brush and nearly headfirst into trees several times.

But a deep part of me held this sense of knowing I was on the right track.

If I got off-trail, I knew how to course-correct.

If— when Laith made it out of this, Sanguine would become our home.

No, scratch that. It already was my home.

It was more of a home to me than that apartment with Justin ever was.

I moved with caution, taking care to avoid injuring myself further, while also going as fast as I could. Soren’s guy had wasted at least an hour driving me around aimlessly. Blood ‘til Dawn needed to find Laith and get him home before the sun came up.

Tears of relief sprang to my eyes as the first landmarks of Sanguine came into view, namely the blood bank. But I couldn’t stop to celebrate. As soon as I hit the paved ground of the city, I started running.

Vampires, brusang, and humans all gave me strange looks, dodging me as I sprinted straight for the Blood ‘til Dawn compound.

My lungs burned when I finally came upon the building, which looked like an ordinary warehouse from the outside.

One of the large garage doors was open, light spilling out and music blasting as a few vampires hung around.

A couple seemed to be working on their motorcycles.

Others smoked or just stood nearby talking.

I was a good dozen or so yards away when they turned around at the sound of my footsteps.

Immediately, everyone reacted. The music cut off.

Cigarettes and tools were dropped to the ground as everyone ran toward me.

There was something about that show of concern that just sapped the rest of my strength, and I crumpled.

“Heather!” Someone grabbed me before I hit the ground. I saw ruby-red eyes and tattoos covering an Adam’s apple and slender throat. “What the fuck happened? Where’s Laith?”

“They have him,” I gasped with labored lungs. “He gave himself up for me and we need to get him out!”

Thorne’s eyes narrowed in confusion. “Who has him? The same people who did this?” His fingers hovered over the bump on my head.

“Yes! Please, you have go now. We have to get him out! They hurt him with silver!”

“Thorne, what are you doing? Bring her inside!”

“Someone has Laith, but I don’t know who she’s talking about.”

Thorne’s face floated away, and I saw Tavia’s hovering nearby. Multiple voices overlapped, but I heard hers the strongest and clearest.

“Bring her inside, she’s hurt. The rest of you, quit fucking barking! She’s in shock. Give her some space.”

Someone lifted me off the ground and I felt dizzy from the motion.

My head pounded, my lungs burned, and everything in my body hurt.

All I could think about was Laith, how much time had already been wasted and there was nothing more important than going out to find him.

But every time I opened my mouth, my lungs seized up and I couldn’t breathe.