Page 22 of Vicious and Volatile (Vengeance and Venom #2)

A res should have been home an hour ago.

My hands shake as I walk out of the bedroom to the living room. Something is wrong. Something is so fucking wrong, but I don’t know what it is.

By the day, Ares’ behavior has gotten worse. It’s gotten odder. A pit is growing in my stomach. I pull out my phone and open my contacts. I stare down at Sysco’s name for a long minute, debating hitting the call button. I swipe out of it, then stare down at Harry’s name. I close the phone app, and pull up the location app instead.

But before it can fully load, the screen changes and Ares’ name displays as he calls.

My heart leaps in my chest as I answer it, pressing it to my ear. “Ares, hi?—”

“I need you to come get me,” he cuts me off. His voice is breathy, almost panicked. “Can’t be Billings. I need you, Lana.”

“What the hell is going on?” I demand, even as I grab my bag and make sure I have my keys .

“You can ride the bike, right?” he asks. He sounds like he’s breathing hard, as if he’s running. Ares doesn’t breathe hard when he’s running. He’s a damn vampire.

“Are you serious?” I hesitate just before I head out the door.

“Please, Lana,” he says, his tone pleading. “I… I don’t know where the fuck I am.”

My entire body goes cold. Shit.

I spin around and grab the keys to Ares’ motorcycle from the drawer. I dart out the door, slamming it closed behind me. “Just stay put somewhere,” I say frantically. “I’ve got your location. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Ares curses and, on his end, I hear a door slam closed, and then the next moment, there’s the sound of running water. Then his phone must lose reception because the line beeps, and I lose him.

“Fuck,” I breathe as I dart to the elevator. Desperate, I pull up the location app. It takes forever to load, and when it finally gives me a location, it was from twenty-seven minutes ago, in Queens. Hopefully, he realizes he doesn’t have reception and leaves wherever he just went.

I dart through the lobby, barely waving to Laz as I aim for the door that leads to the parking garage. It’s dark down here, but I know exactly where the bike is. And it fully hits me when I stand right beside the monster of a motorcycle.

I do not know how to drive this thing. I barely know how to drive period.

But Ares needs me.

I’ve seen Ares drive this thing enough, been passenger enough, I will figure it out. I clip my phone into the holder on the handlebars. I yank the helmet down on my head, latching it beneath my chin. I straddle the bike and put the key in. Thankfully, it’s nothing too complicated to get the engine roaring to life.

Shit, this thing is heavy. It takes just about everything I have to lift it upright and off the kickstand. Cautiously, I walk it backward. And my heart just about hammers through its cage as I poise myself at the exit for the garage.

The engine growls as I give it just a little gas. It lurches forward, dragging me with it. I squeeze the break, and slam to a stop.

Okay. It’s touchy. I try again, softer this time, more prepared for it to move. And steadily, it crawls forward. I check the traffic and pull out onto the street, setting my feet on the pegs.

As I wait at the first stoplight just outside our building, Ares’ location finally locks in. He’s still in Queens.

The first few minutes are terrifying. Thankfully, the traffic is light. It’s four in the morning. Too early for the early birds, too late for the night owls. It probably saves my life as I wobble, stall, and turn the wrong way.

But after a few minutes, the movements of the bike start to feel a little more predictable. I get used to its weight, the way it shifts during a turn. I figure out the gears. And finally, it feels a little like a bicycle. By the time I’m halfway to Ares, I don’t feel like I’m two seconds from dying. Only ten.

I slow as I close in on Ares’ location. It’s a decent area. Rows of houses surround me before it gives way to a section of shopping locations. I creep farther along, just a few blocks from where it says Ares is.

He walks out of the shadows of a garage .

And every bit of my stomach disappears when I see him.

His eyes are a little wild, a little frantic. And he steps out from the dark not wearing a shirt.

As much as I enjoy seeing my fiancé shirtless, he certainly wouldn’t normally be wandering around Queens without a shirt.

“Ares, what happened?” I demand, struggling to get the kickstand down. Ares kicks out a foot and gets it in place with zero effort. I climb off the bike, ripping the helmet off my head.

“I don’t know, Lana,” he says, and he looks… scared. Confused. “I… I remember leaving the office, I was heading home. And then I woke up outside a gas station a few blocks from here. Lana, I have no fucking memory of how I got here.”

My eyes are wide, and I shake my head. “I… I don’t understand.”

Ares shakes his head too. “I don’t either. Billings is off for the night, he didn’t drive me out here. I don’t even have my fucking wallet, so I couldn’t pay for the subway or a rideshare. Either I was knocked out and dragged here, or I got here on my own two damn feet, and I have no recollection of it.”

“Ares, this doesn’t make any sense,” I breathe. Something stings the backs of my eyes. I feel panic rising in the back of my throat. “Where’s your shirt?”

He looks down at his bare torso and shakes his head. “It was gone when I came to. Lana, I don’t…” He cuts off when a police car rolls down the cross street. “We can talk more at home. I think we better get out of here before I draw attention.”

I nod numbly. I pull the helmet back down on my head. Ares swings a leg over the bike, settling into the driver’s seat. And just as I climb on behind him, I notice Ares’ hands as they grip the handlebars.

There’s something dark under his fingernails, wrapping up around the sides just a little. But before I can study farther, because it’s so damn dark, he grips the throttle, and his fingernails disappear from view.

I wrap my arms around Ares’ middle as he gives the bike gas, rolling down the street.

Something bad happened tonight. Something really, really bad.

How does Ares not remember it? How does he have no idea how he got here? And what the fuck is that under his fingernails?

My mind goes back to when he called me, to the sound of running water.

What did he wash off his hands?

But I don’t get to ask him more questions. Ares takes off through the dark, directing us back toward the heart of Manhattan.

We’re just three blocks away from home when I feel Ares’ phone buzzing in his back pocket. Once. Then three times. And then it keeps ringing.

When he’s stopped at a light, he reaches back into his pocket and withdraws it. There’s a missed call from Harry and then two texts from him.

A former employee of mine, Felix, was found dead yesterday, ripped apart just like Cliff’s cousin.

We all need to meet. Now .

Ares lets out a curse.

My stomach drops.

I met Felix. Just once. It was at the Red party where I met Ares. He was a slimy flirt, but I didn’t think he knew the real reason for the Red parties. Now he’s dead.

Torn apart, just like Cliff’s cousin and his wife.

“I’ll walk home from here,” I say when the light turns green.

“You’re not coming to the meeting?” Ares questions. He looks a little frantic when I state it.

I shake my head. “Not this time. You can update me after.”

I know something is wrong when Ares looks genuinely terrified that I’m not going to the Baron’s meeting with him. He leans forward as I slip off behind him, tucking the helmet under my arm, and he presses a kiss to my lips.

“I’ll see you soon,” he says, but it comes out as a wary-sounding promise.

“Okay,” I say shakily.

As someone pulls up behind Ares and honks for him to go, Ares hits the gas and rolls forward.

I watch as he takes off down the road. I pray it’s in the right direction, that he’s really headed to where he’s supposed to be going.

I pull out my phone as I walk back in the direction of our place. I pull up Ares’ assistant, and hit James’s name.

“Lana?” James answers, his tone a little surprised. “Everything okay?”

It’s no shock that he’s surprised to hear from me. I’ve never called him before and have only texted him twice.

“Not really,” I say honestly. “I needed to ask you some questions. Was Ares at work all day yesterday? ”

James hesitates, and I can practically hear the gears turning in his head as he debates how to answer my question about his boss, who also happens to be my fiancé. “Most of it, except when he left for dinner with you.”

A curse falls from my lips.

“Lana?” James questions. “What is it?”

“Me and Ares never went to dinner yesterday,” I say, which maybe I shouldn’t. I don’t know what is happening, I should probably be protecting Ares right now until we understand. But deception won’t help get this solved any faster. “Has he been acting weird toward you lately?”

Another hesitation as James considers. “Actually, kind of. I thought I’d done something to piss him off, but he won’t say what. He’s been… tense whenever he’s around.”

Another curse fires off in my mind.

“Lana, is Ares alright?” James questions when I don’t say anything as my mind reels.

“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “Sorry, I have to go.”

I hang up before James can say another word.

I scroll through my contacts again, and it seems like a miracle that I have this one saved.

Aleah Steele.

I hit call and press the phone to my ear again.

It rings twice before it connects.

“Hello?” she answers, her tone already annoyed and pissed off sounding.

“Aleah, this is Lana Kincade, from New York,” I say, jumping right to it.

“We’re still working through the record,” she says, assuming I’m calling for a different reason. “So far, we’ve recovered eleven people.”

“Oh,” I say, taken aback. “That’s great. But that’s not why I’m calling.”

“Okay,” she says, sounding impatient.

“Look, I’m sure this isn’t particularly kosher to ask, but I’m really fucking desperate right now,” I say. I’ve reached my building, but I don’t want to walk through the lobby and have the night doorman hear this conversation or chance losing reception in the elevator. “I’ve heard the history with your family here in New York. What your uncle did. I guess my question is—would you have ever expected your uncle was capable of taking out the family?”

“What the hell kind of question is this?” she asks, her tone cold and sharp.

“Please, Aleah, it’s important,” I beg. I feel desperation rising inside me. “Was him killing all those family members something you ever would have foreseen?”

She’s quiet for a long moment. I can feel her contemplation seeping through the phone. “No,” she finally answers. “My uncle was a sweet guy. Never a day of drama in his life. To this day, I don’t know what caused him to snap like that. If I hadn’t seen him do it myself, I never would have believed he did it.”

I squeeze my eyes closed. “Do you think it’s possible something happened to him? Or that maybe someone could have convinced him to do that?”

There’s something dark gnawing at my insides. It’s cold, sharp. It’s terrifying.

Aleah is quiet again for a long moment. “It would make a hell of a lot more sense than him just going ‘crazy’,” she answers. “This world is a whole lot bigger than we can see, Lana. Just because we don’t have a reasonable explanation for people’s actions doesn’t mean there isn’t one. ”

I nod, and something pricks the backs of my eyes. My chest feels tight, my throat tighter. “Thank you, Aleah. Good luck with the record.”

She pauses, thrown off guard that I wrap up what should a long, deep conversation so quickly. But I hang up before she can say anything else.

I look down at my phone, debating what to do. Who the hell do I ask for help? Who do I tell? I don’t want to put Ares in danger. I don’t really know what’s happening. But I know something for sure now.

That was blood beneath Ares’ fingernails.

Ares did not go to dinner with me yesterday like he told James.

Felix the vampire died yesterday.

This is looking pretty fucking bad.

I tap on the screen of my phone and start a text to the one vampire I feel like I can trust with this.

Don’t react to this right now. But something is wrong with Ares. I don’t know what’s going on yet. I need you to tail Ares when you’re done with your meeting. And then I need to talk to you.

I hit send, and it says it’s been read by Sysco just a moment later.

He looked like he was going to kill Cliff the second he walked in here. Brother’s been acting weird as shit for days. I’ll follow him. Fuck, I don’t like this, Lana.

Me either. Don’t let him out of your sight.

I look up from my phone, and a sense of absolute dread drops in my stomach.