Page 44 of Those That Are Lost (Hidden Vampires #2)

‘I’m sure Henry and I can take care of these ones, Red, but you’ll no doubt witness it and you’ll have to help hide the bodies.’

‘Fine with me. Let’s get on with it.’ Her posture visibly straightens as she struts to the door, surprising me with the no nonsense approach to this.

She’s been so against harming anyone, but I guess after what she’s been through, a little revenge is more than justified.

I knock on the door.

Henry opens it and lets us into the suite. It's similar to the one we’ve just left, although smaller, and with two double beds instead of the king Bree has to herself. There are two male vampires currently knocked out and tied up on each one.

“I thought rope would be too easy for them to snap?” Red asks, surveying the two unconscious figures.

“It won’t hold them for long when they come round but it’ll make them pause.” Antares sits on the dresser surface, legs kicking, a strangely gleeful looking smile on his face.

“This one said his name was Mitch.” Henry moves to the one furthest from the doorway and taps his leg.

I stalk over for a better look and take in the short, milk chocolate hair, lighter at the ends, and the full stubble on his chin. He’s sporting a black eye, one that’s several days old, but there’s no mistaking my old roommate.

“Yes, it's him,” I confirm before looking over at the second male. The anger in my veins threatens to go from simmering to raging in a heartbeat. “This one is Demetri.”

“He was in the alley when they captured us,” Red says, a little nervousness in her voice but I hear her anger too.

“Yes, he aided Ronan. He needs to die.” My fangs extend as the need to end him clouds my mind.

“Wait! It’s been months, what if he’s changed? What if he has realised his mistakes?” Red cuts across my bloodlust before I can cross the space and snap his neck.

“He hurt you,” I growl.

“She’s right, Ty,” Henry jumps in. “We should at least wait until he wakes and see what he has to say for himself. Antares rendered them unconscious as soon as we got into the room.”

“Fine,” I say through gritted teeth, not retracting my fangs.

“How did you figure out which room they’re in?” Red asks.

“Waiting in the lobby was so boring,” Antares answers.

“I got Henry to look out for me whilst I snuck into the staff area. Did you know they leave some computers unlocked behind there? Anyway, I got into the system and found the room with the two guest names that matched ones Ty told us. It would be too much of a coincidence to have another pair of males with those names. We came, knocked, and as soon as we got through the door, I cut off their oxygen until they passed out. Easy.”

“Your power really is scary sometimes,” Henry admits.

“It’s badass is what it is,” Antares argues.

We spend several more minutes with Antares boasting about his gift, until Mitch lets out a low groan.

We all fall silent as his eyes flick open. He struggles for a few seconds against the bonds but as soon as he spots me, he freezes, understanding washing over him.

“Holy gods,” he grumbles. “Ty, I should’ve known you were going to turn up sooner or later. I’m guessing the female is Aurora from the scent of her.”

So much for Red’s glamour giving her any protection.

“Hello, roomie,” I coo back at him, not confirming or denying.

“Are we going to play the whole good cop, bad cop interrogation thing or can we cut to the chase?” Mitch eyes each of us as he tries to sit up a little against the headboard.

“Oooo, can I be the bad cop?” Antares pipes up.

“Start talking,” I answer.

Mitch wriggles some more and I pull on the shadows to reinforce the rope, although I don’t think he’s trying to break free.

I nod to Henry and we move to opposite sides of the bed, take a hold of Mitch by his biceps and haul him upright. We don’t release any of his bonds, however, his arms are tied behind his back and strapped to his torso, and his ankles are tied together.

“You want to know what Adicious is up to?” Mitch asks, looking my way. I nod in answer as I step back. “Well, he’s ordered us to kill you on sight. There’s no more messing, no returning with you alive. He wants your head as proof.”

“That’s not news,” I say. A soft growl from behind me has me swinging my gaze to my mate. I reach out to her in reassurance and step to her side.

“I mean no harm.” Mitch has the decency to look worried as Red’s fists curl at her side. “He’s been worse since you escaped. You can cut tension at the ranch with a knife, half the pack have withdrawn into themselves. The others, well, they’re relishing the drama.”

“Ronan,” I state, a frown cresting my face.

“Yes. He, Tripp, and Cairn are lording over the rest of us. Adicious put Ronan in charge of the search parties. It’s how I’ve been paired with him.” Mitch nods to Demetri.

I want to ask about Atlas but don’t dare give away my concern.

“How many of you want out?” Henry cuts straight to the chase.

“I’m not sure. Atlas and I have been trying to find a way out. A couple of others have hinted about attempting it but haven’t been brave enough to admit it outright.”

“You’ve been speaking to Atlas?”

Mitch tilts his head. “Who’d you think helped Atlas get you enough blood to escape?”

A warmth spreads through my body that leaves me momentarily speechless.

Mitch and I aren’t that close. Yes, we roomed together and talked about our days and whatever was in the news but it was surface level.

I’d hoped he was against Adicious enough to spill if we caught him but now I’m suddenly thinking he might stay with us if we pull this off.

The other vampire currently in ropes starts to moan, coming back to consciousness. We stay silent as Demetri’s eyes open and he takes a few seconds to absorb who stands at the foot of his bed.

“What in the hell?” he almost shouts as he starts thrashing against his ties. I reinforce them with more shadows before he can break free. “Let me out!” he demands.

“Welcome back, Demetri. You were slumbering for quite a while there,” I tell him in a level voice, with just a hint of sarcasm.

I note how Henry moves behind us until he’s on Red’s other side. And Antares finally stops swinging his legs on the damn dresser and jumps up to flank my left side. They’ve automatically moved to protect us should Demetri break free.

“I suggest you comply with their questions,” Mitch pipes up from the other bed. Demetri stops struggling momentarily to look at his comrade.

“What have you told them?” he spits.

“Not much,” Mitch responds. “Yet.”

“I knew it. I warned Ronan you were an unreliable prick. I didn’t want to be sent here with you. I told him we needed to put you down when he escaped.” He jerks his head towards us, towards me.

“Adicious isn’t going to end me. He made me. And I bring in one of the best salaries, you prick. I’ve been working my ass off.”

“Whilst no doubt feeding information to this traitor the whole time! How the fuck did they find us here?”

“I’d like to take credit for that one,” Antares beams, grabbing the attention of the two arguing males.

“Although, you did check in using your real names, to a hotel with quite frankly shocking security, so maybe it is on you. And your lot has been throwing weight around in this city for a while, hardly covert. It was so easy a child could’ve tracked you down. ”

“You checked us in under our names?” Demetri growls at Mitch.

“Was I not meant to?” Mitch replies, shrugging as much as he can manage with the ropes around him. Then he locks eyes with me.

He planned it. Gave me a way to find him easily. From that one look, I can tell.

Demetri manages to get himself sitting upright against his headboard, sheets tangling around him in his thrashing.

The shadows alert me to the fact he’s got his hands free.

They’re still behind his back but I guess he is waiting for the right moment, wanting to have the element of surprise.

I relay the information to Red so she is prepared too.

“So,” I say, bringing us back on track. “Adicious hasn’t given up searching for Aurora and wants me dead. Anything else to report?”

At the mention of her name, Demetri’s gaze swings to the Fae looking female on my right. He takes her in fully for the first time and I see when his comprehension catches up.

“You mated her?” he asks.

“I asked him, actually. Not that it’s any of your concern,” Red answers the question clearly aimed at me.

“You’re more powerful than we realised.” Demetri shoots a look at Mitch, then darts his gaze at each of the four of us. I think he’s finally realising how fucked he is. His voice is a lot less confident sounding as he asks, “What are you planning to do?”

“You can’t kill him,” Mitch snaps before I even form the thought. Although that is exactly what I was hoping to do when we captured any of Adicious’s pack. “He’ll feel it through the bond. You kill him and they’ll come for you in force.”

Dammit, he’s right.

Demetri takes this opportunity to lunge, thinking I’m distracted.

His free arms don’t take me by surprise at all, nor Red.

We’re the first to react and are on the male vampire before he can move from the bed.

Red darts across the mattress grabbing his left arm as I swing right and grab the other.

We meet at his back, wrenching his forearms higher than is comfortable.

Our prey hisses before swinging to my mate, trying to catch her with his teeth. I smack the back of his head for even trying, snapping it forward painfully, forcing him to lose balance and drop to his knees. His ankles are still tied with the rope.

“You don’t touch my mate,” I growl ferociously, pulling the arm I have hold of higher until I hear the shoulder socket pop.

Red steps closer to me, pressing her side to mine as she looks up at me with a feral glint in her eyes. I think she might have enjoyed my little display. Feeling her heat reassures me she’s okay. We managed to coordinate that attack pretty fucking flawlessly.

‘ Well done, sweetheart,’ I say, laying a kiss to her temple.

‘I should tell you to fuck off with the praise but that did feel pretty badass.’ She flashes me a smile, confirming my thought that she likes me letting my possessiveness get a little violent.

“So, what are we doing with him if we can’t kill him?” Antares chimes in, watching on, licking his fangs.

“We drain him,” Henry says matter-of-factly.

Demetri stops struggling between us and starts begging. “What? No, you can’t do that!”

“It’s the safest thing. He’ll be incapacitated but alive,” Henry reasons as he sees me hesitating. It's the worst kind of torture for our kind. To be present but unable to move, completely at the mercy of others, unable to drink unless you’re fed.

I should know, it’s what the pack did to me.

“Let’s do it.”

It was a messy job and a challenge to fit all of us in the ensuite attached to the hotel room but we managed to get a struggling Demetri into the bathtub where I opened his neck with my fangs.

Needing to be as clean as possible, we drained his blood down the drain, careful to clean up the splatter and hide any evidence.

After several minutes and repeatedly opening his artery, Demetri had sunk into a comatose state.

He won’t recover until he’s given blood.

To her credit, Red took to the role of the villain like a natural.

I half expected her to baulk at this idea, to not be able to carry it out, but she was with me every step.

She held Demetri down over the lip of the bath as he struggled against our hold.

I’d felt the fury in her, the need for revenge and the bloodlust that took hold. Each of the males in the bathroom had lived through war, seen bloodshed in battle, become desensitised to this kind of thing. Not her. But after what she went through in that basement, I get it.

I pull her in close as we snuggle under the covers of the bed Demetri won’t be using. He’s still in the bathroom, ropes wrapping his limbs to his body, in the tub in case there are any drops of blood left in his body.

We’d spent another couple of hours grilling Mitch after Demetri had fallen unconscious, until I’d finally felt satisfied enough to untie him.

He listed all the places the pack had searched, that they were in the capital because Adicious had a reason to believe that Fillias’s pack was hiding me—which is obviously false.

He also told us about the phones currently laying on the dresser that are being tracked.

I checked them over to ensure nothing was recording or transmitting—like our voices—to a recipient in Froan.

Thankfully, the trackers seemed fairly basic, simply providing their location to Adicious and nothing more.

Mitch warned me that they’d need to move from this room each day to keep up a ruse if that was our plan.

We’d gone over several ideas but decided that indeed we needed to try and fool Adicious for as long as possible and pretend both his males were carrying out their mission without a hitch.

Mitch was going to do the check-ins and if Adicious got suspicious, we’d cross that bridge when we came to it.

Seeing as we’d gotten lucky with Mitch being the one here in the capital, we decided that reworking the plans would increase our odds of getting to Froan undetected.

It had seemed safer to remain in the room for the rest of the night, so I told everyone to get some rest. Mitch is asleep in the bed across from the one I’m currently laying in. Henry is on the floor between us, and Antares is over in the armchair in the corner.

Red is tucked into my chest. We’d talked silently for a while after we turned out the lights but eventually, she’d fallen asleep too.

Her breathing is now as deep and as even as the rest of them.

We’re fully clothed but she’s dropped her glamour.

Her fiery red curls lay beneath my chin as I spoon her body.

I dip my face to take in a full breath of her scent as I gently wrap the soft tendrils around my fingers and cherish the moment.

She’s mine, just as I am hers.

We’re about to embark on the most dangerous mission we could possibly face, other than the authorities. We’ve already set this crazy plan in motion. Fear creeps its way in, I hope this isn’t one of the last nights I get to do this. I want this to be the first of many .

I hope that in the not-too-distant future I can fall asleep with her and know that she’s safe. For now, I remain alert, brushing her hair and holding her tight.