Page 104 of The Silver Fox Vampire

“Fuck off Emmaline,” he shouted. Then, with his free hand, Matteus pressed the ring to his lips and chanted an incantation in a strange, guttural language.

The room started to spin, faster and faster.

Clare’s stomach bottomed out, everything blurred, and she must have passed out, because as her senses climbed out of the abyss, and her gaze focused, she found herself staring up into the visage of the most truly vile creature she had ever set eyes on.

Oliver could hear his breath rasping as he burst through the lift doors, gun raised. Grayson and Saul were hot on his heels, along with two more gargoyles, all armed.

All around the dining room, monsters screamed.

“Get down and you won’t be hurt!” Grayson shouted. As monsters hid under tables, the group raced to the thick carved doors and burst through them.

Apart from Emmaline Shaw, sobbing on the ground, the room was empty.

“He didn’t take me! He promised to fucking take me!” she cried.

Oliver grabbed her, hauled her up, and eyeballed her. “Where is she?”

“H—he took her.”

“Where?”

“The fucking Dark Dimension place. He promised he’d take me there and m—marry me. I was going to be his beloved, he was going to turn me, so I’d live for eternity. But h—he used me. He was never going to do it, the smooth-talking piece of shit.”

“You were an accomplice in all of this. You helped to abduct innocent young humans. Handcuff her,” Oliver ground out, as he pivoted on his heels and made for the door.

“Where are you going?” Grayson shouted.

“To rescue Clare.”

He skimmed out of the club, past the open-mouthed monsters peeping out from under tables. When he stepped out of the building, his wings were already erupting through his shirt. Spreading them wide, Oliver took off, heading for Waldo’s apothecary.

As he flew over the streetscape, he cursed himself. Clare was young and inexperienced, he should never have let her take the lead. His critical thinking had been overtaken by his dick.

And it had all gone horribly wrong.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. That they weren’t prepared, they hadn’t done enough groundwork. Now he had to find Clare, bring her and the other humans back home and somehow dismantle the whole of the Dark Dimension.

Ready or not, it was showtime.

Landing with a hard bump, he skidded along the street, braking with his heels, and dashed inside the apothecary.

“I need Clare’s blood,” he panted as Waldo walked out of his consulting room. “She’s been taken.”

Waldo ushered him in and closed the door.

“Calm down, Oliver. Panic will inhibit your powers.” Waldo went to the refrigerated unit and brought out a tall vial of blood. “Now drink.”

Oliver’s fingers shook as he took the vial. “I need to—to get there, fast,” he said after gulping it down.

“Seat yourself in the lotus pose,” Waldo said calmly. With a grimace, Oliver did as he bid, and Waldo sat cross-legged on the floor, facing him. “You need to be calm to teleport.”

Oliver scrubbed shaking hands over his face. “I—I fucking can’t be calm. If I lose her… I don’t know how…”

“You are scared because she is your beloved,” Waldo said. “Love and fear go hand in hand, but you have to transform the fear into action now.”

Oliver gulped and nodded. “I’ve let her walk into danger. Just like I let Effie…” A great wracking cry was ripped from him. All the pain, all the hurt of his past felt like it was being re-enacted. He was going to lose Clare, just as he’d dared open up to love. It would never end. He was cursed.

Waldo’s voice, firm and authoritative, cut through his anguish. “Center your energy in your heart. There are no accidents in this. It was no accident that my father found you, took you in off the streets, no accident that you became a police officer, and then a great detective, a truly good being through and through. No accident that you met Clare. No accident that she loves you and believes in you. Now you must believe it too.”