by Dannika Dark
Whatever that was.
Attention? A normal life? Stimulating conversation? A foot rub? Christian could be abrasive, but he didn’t apologize for who he was. Up until now, Raven had accepted him without conditions. And Christian desired her like nothing else. Every light and dark part of his soul wanted to keep her, kill for her, seduce her, and hunt with her. His infatuation extended far beyond his control, but he refused to destroy the one thing in this world he prized—especially if the feelings weren’t mutual.
Learn from your mistakes.
Learn from your mistakes.
Odds were she was only attracted to him because of the blood sharing. Taking his blood—especially when he was feeling all kinds of desire for her—could have influenced her. He should have known better, but his Vampire nature compelled him to drink from her. Compelled him to heal her with his own blood. What had begun as a necessity was fast on its way to becoming an addiction. Maybe she recognized the danger and wanted to put distance between them.
Or maybe, deep down, she wanted a nice guy.
Once back at Keystone, Christian preoccupied himself by cleaning every corner of his room from floor to ceiling. He’d never given much thought to his modest surroundings, but now he was questioning everything. Had he driven her away by this abhorrent excuse for a bedchamber? She’d probably given more thought to what their first time might be like than he had. His private room at the club was out, and motels were for whores. That left his bedchamber as the only option, which wasn’t even soundproof, let alone clean. A cluster of spiders had taken permanent residence in one corner, and a thin layer of dust covered the stone floor beneath his feet.
Not anymore. Even the walls glowed after a deep scrubbing, and the hearth was so clean you could eat off it.
He stroked his beard, visualizing Raven spread across his sheets. The soft feel of her silky skin, her wild black hair spread out like spilled ink, the ticking of her heart. She smelled like sweet flowers from the vine on a humid spring morning. Christian had coveted many women in his life, always tempted by the fruit of another. At the club earlier, when their luscious lips were on his ear, whispering words that should have turned him into a pile of ash, his thoughts remained pure. Their sultry bodies gyrating on the dance floor barely caught his eye. He’d never given any woman absolute loyalty—dominion over his thoughts and his body.
Not until Raven.
Just knowing his blood had glossed her lips, wetted her tongue, and infused with her own blood made it imperative that he have his cock inside her. He needed to claim her in every way. Monogamy had never sounded so appealing, and that scared the ever-loving hell out of him.
During those weeks apart, he’d longed for her. And now that they were together, she was slipping through his fingers.
Right into the hands of a fecking human. Raven always had a soft spot for mortals. He should have known better.
Christian tilted his head to one side and listened to the sounds within the house. Long distances took too much effort, but he could usually hear Raven in her room since they shared the same floor. The silence mocked him, and he stared at the wristwatch on his bedside table.
She should have been back by now.
Like Christian, Raven was spontaneous, a loner, and ditching the group to do her own thing wasn’t out of character. Especially after a few drinks. But the more time that passed, the more he began to wonder if she’d gone off with a serial killer.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
Christian moved swiftly down the dark spaces in the hall where the candles had burned out. Some called it shadow walking, others called it shadowing. It only worked in the absence of light, allowing Vampires to teleport through shadows at the speed of darkness.
Confirming his floor was empty, he hurried down to the second level. Raven paced the halls during the night, and when it wasn’t snowing or raining, he’d often find her sitting on the roof. Sometimes he watched her from the shadows, wondering what she was thinking as she stared vacantly into the black night.
Voices overlapped from Wyatt’s room. It sounded like an argument brewing. As he reached the doorway, he leaned against the doorjamb and listened in.
“I’m telling you, I had it in my pocket,” Wyatt said, yanking open his desk drawer and rifling through the contents. “Someone took it.”
Blue’s hands disappeared into the sleeves of her red gown when she folded her arms. “No one stole your damn key.” She met eyes with Christian, a look of exhaustion on her face. “He can’t find the master key.” Before Christian could ask, she rapped her knuckles against the vending machine behind her. “So we’re in crisis mode.”
Blue had remarkable patience for a woman who carried an axe. Unlike some of them, she didn’t like high drama past midnight. Once she put on the long dress that must have kept her warm in a mansion without heat, she shifted into a quieter person. Christian suspected her personality was aligned with her animal. Quiet, intelligent, and fearless. Falcons didn’t live in flocks. They hunted alone. From what he’d read, they also mated for life.
Wyatt turned to Christian, straightening his T-shirt, which said: THE FUCK I GAVE WENT THAT WAY. “Did you take my key? Joke’s over. Ha ha.”
“Has anyone seen Raven?” he asked, ignoring Wyatt’s inane question.
Blue shook her head and glanced at Gem, who was snoozing on the black sofa. “Gem! Wake up.”
One eye popped open, and she sat up reflexively, hair stuck to the side of her face. A bright-green pillow tumbled to the floor. “What? Huh? Oh, my date was wonderful. Hooper took me to a bookstore.”
“Have you seen Raven?” Blue asked.
Gem shook her head and yawned. “Not since they left.” Then she glanced at Christian. “Oh, you’re back. He probably knows.”
“He’s the one asking.”
Christian’s stomach knotted. Maybe Raven was in the gym, but this wasn’t her usual hour for exercise.
“Call her,” Blue suggested.
“She left her phone behind.”
Wyatt plopped down in his chair, his thoughts consumed.
Gem rubbed her eye. “Why would she leave her phone behind?”
“She forgot her purse. It wouldn’t be the first time. I thought she took off with some wanker who was hitting on her, but now I’m not so sure.”
“She probably did,” Blue said matter-of-factly. “Raven’s got needs like everyone else, and she’s been cooped up in this house more than anyone. We shouldn’t pry into her affairs.”
“What the clusterfuck is going on in here?” Shepherd grumbled from the door. He didn’t smell like a barn, and since he also didn’t smell like soap, Christian surmised that he must have skipped his nightly workout.
Christian looked over his shoulder. “Have you seen Raven tonight?”
“No.”
With every no, a sinking feeling came over him that something had gone wrong. But with humans? Raven could handle herself just fine. Maybe Boomer had returned and knocked her unconscious.
Wyatt crawled onto the floor and poked his head under the desk.
“Jaysus wept. Raven could be lying in a trunk, and all you can think about is that fecking key.”
When Wyatt sat back, a dust bunny clung to his beanie. “First of all, most modern cars have emergency trunk releases inside them. Ask me how I know this. And secondly, I paid good money for this machine. I don’t want to have to switch out the key because one of you might be hiding it so you can get free food.”
Gem stood up and tightened the belt on her blue kimono robe. She strode over to Wyatt, her purple slippers swishing against the floor. “I wonder if I can pick that lock.”
“Just because you have a talent at picking locks doesn’t give you the right to mess with my stuff.”
“As long as you keep using air quotes to emphasize your words, I’ll mess with whatever I want.”
When she neared the machine, Wyatt pressed his index finger against her forehead and pushed her back.
Gem leaned into him and simpered, an energy ball the size of a marble rolling between her fingers.
His eyes widened, and he jolted back as if he’d just seen a rattlesnake. “That nifty little trick of yours is going to blow us all to smithereens.”
She blew the tip of her finger as if it were a smoking gun, and the light disappeared. “Just remember that the next time you put your finger where it doesn’t belong.”
Shepherd shifted everyone back on topic. “Who was Raven seen with last?” He folded his arms, which emphasized his biceps.
Christian’s jaw set. “A Billy Idol wannabe.”
Viktor suddenly appeared in the doorway in his black silk pajamas. “What’s this all about?”
Confused as to why Viktor had shown up, Christian glanced back at the crew and spotted Blue holding what looked like Wyatt’s phone. She shrugged an apology and tossed it on the couch.
“Raven’s gone AWOL,” Wyatt informed him.
Viktor pointed at the vending machine he hadn’t seen until now. “We’ll talk about that later. Who was the last person to see her?”
Christian raised a finger.
“And does this have to do with your assignment?”
“Aye. She ran into some trouble in the parking lot when we thought we had a lead. Nothing she couldn’t handle. Just a human with bad manners.”
“Has anyone tried calling her?”
“She left her phone behind.”
Viktor’s eyes filled with worry.
Claude wandered in, his grey sweats falling uncomfortably low. By the looks of his messy hair, he must have picked up a strong scent that roused him out of bed.
“Raven’s missing,” Wyatt announced.
Christian stalked forward. “So help me, if you say it one more time—”
“What crawled up your ass and made a nest? I’m not the one who lost my partner.”
When Christian lunged, it took three people to hold him back. Shepherd stood in front of him, hands on his shoulders as he walked him back to the desk chair and made him sit. Christian squeezed the arm of the chair so tight that something beneath the leather cracked.
“Don’t break my chair,” Wyatt warned him.
“Shut your gob.”
Maybe Wyatt could be casual about death because he saw the other side of it, but Christian didn’t want to consider the unthinkable. He’d only taken his eyes off her for one second. And he had his ear on her every moment until…
He covered his mouth and slowly stroked his beard before letting his hand drop to his lap. “I thought the eejit who ran the sound system had taken a smoke break,” he began, everyone giving him a bemused look. “That kind of ear-piercing sound forces a Vampire to muffle his hearing. It hurts too much, like the way the sun makes you shut your eyes when you look at it.”
“What are you saying?” Viktor asked.
Christian cocked his head to the side. “Someone jammed my frequency on purpose.”
Wyatt’s computer chimed, and he hurried over and switched on the monitor. After a few keystrokes, he stood up, just as pale as a ghost. “Now that’s a plot twist I didn’t see coming.”
Christian slowly rose to his feet, his heart slowing down.
“What do you mean?” Viktor snarled. “Give me details.”
Wyatt pointed at Christian. “I posted a request on a Vampire website, pretending I was a buyer who wanted a girl with different-colored eyes. I also put a couple of oddball requests out there so it wouldn’t look obvious. This isn’t the black market site,” he quickly said. “Just some human website where Raven thought a trafficker was hanging out. We found out one of his favorite human clubs, and Raven went to see if he’d take the bait.”
“She had a good plan,” Christian added. “We wouldn’t have trouble spotting a Vampire in there, and I always stayed close, watching and listening.”
Viktor sighed, his grey eyes no longer able to look at Christian. “And yet she’s missing.”
Christian made a fist. “Aye. She’s missing.”
“Not anymore,” Wyatt said.
Christian stared daggers at him.
“I set up my computer to notify me when certain keywords hit the board. There’s a message header with a description that matches Raven.”
Christian shut his eyes. “And what does the message say?”
“The bidding is open.”
Chapter 13
I blinked in confusion as I stared across a table at Chase. In front of me was an open wrapper with a few bites of hamburger left and some onion rings. How could I have eaten without remembering?
“I told you they’re the best burgers,” he said.
I rubbed my temples, a swirl of confusion clearing like a fog. “What’s going on?”
“Life is going on, Raven. You should finish those onion rings before they get cold. I already heated them up in the oven once, but twice will ruin the flavor.”
Did he just call me Raven?
A french fry poked through one of the three holes in the glass between us. “Try this,” he said. “I just assumed you were an onion ring girl.”
I sat back and looked around. The glass wall between us spanned the entire length of the room. My side was narrow, bright, and sterile. There was a door on either side, but the one on the right led to what looked like a small bathroom. The only furniture—aside from the chair I was sitting on and the half table in front of me—was a bed and an upholstered lounge chair. His side was dark, but I could tell it was an ordinary living room. Why couldn’t I see everything in detail? There was a dim lamp on in the background, and I had stronger eyesight than most.
Then I noticed a silver bracelet on my wrist with an infinity knot. I tugged at it, but it wouldn’t come off.
“They’re so rare,” he said. “I had that specially made. It’s impossible to remove by the wearer, and the metal won’t bend or break. It cost me a pretty penny.”
I shook my head.
“You really are out of it. I thought the food would help. Why don’t you sit down over there?” He gestured toward the brown chair on my left, but I remained seated.
“Where am I?”
Chase sighed and rested his cheek against his fist. “I do tire of hackneyed questions. Do you have anything original?”
I slammed my fist down on the table. “Get this fucking thing off me.”
“The bracelet is a necessary measure, and only I know how to remove it. I’m sure you’ve already ascertained how it blocks your Mage energy. Not that you could use it against me, but I couldn’t risk having you flash out of my grasp. It blocks almost all Breed gifts.”
“How do you know my name? How did you even get me here?”
The last thing I remembered was sitting in his car while he bandaged my hand. I had no recollection of a struggle, which is what it would have taken to kidnap me. How did he know about Breed magic?
Chase rose from his seat, his whole demeanor different from the man I’d met at the club. “Now that you’re lucid, I suppose I’ll introduce myself again.”
“Again?”
He bowed. “Houdini, at your service.”
My jaw slackened when the name rang a bell. “You’re the one who’s been sending Viktor those letters?”
He pushed up the sleeves of his shirt and paced off to the right, the reflection of the overhead lights against the glass making it difficult to see him. “You’re free to move about as you please. Well, as much as you can in that room. There’s no point in screaming; we’re in the Bricks, so you’re better off keeping your composure. If you scream, you do so at your own peril.”
The glass wall went from floor to ceiling, and the table was cut in two—each side bolted to the glass and floor. It must have been Plexiglass or something unbreakable.
A smile touched his lips. Did I amuse him?
Houdini stood before the table and pressed his fingertips against the white tabletop. “I’ve got a fully stocked kitchen. When you’re hungry, I’ll del
iver your meals through that opening.”
He swung his gaze to the wall to my right. On each side was an opening large enough to slide a tray over, but not big enough for me to crawl through. I glanced back at the door to my left, but there wasn’t a knob or lock on my side.
“There’s no wood in my house,” he informed me matter-of-factly.
My eyes widened at his indirect admission.
Houdini took a seat on his chair. “I do wish I could understand your loathing of Vampires.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Your eyes are hazel. You’re not a Vampire. You don’t look like one. Bullshit!” I shot up out of my seat, flipping my chair over.
“It was much easier this time getting information. You were uncooperative last time we chatted.”
“Which was when?”
“Patrick Bane’s party. That’s a man who loves balls.”
Something Wyatt would have said, but not a hint of a smile touched my lips.
Houdini leaned back. “You’re wondering why you don’t remember me, but deep down, you always seem to know me, don’t you? I only wanted what was mine.”
“And what’s that?”
“I wasn’t sure at first. An old acquaintance had incriminating evidence on me, which he decided to use as leverage to get what he wanted. Shame. I really liked the guy. After he met his unfortunate demise—which I swear I had nothing to do with—I went to his house to gather my things. Collectors beat me to the punch, and by the time I tracked the items down to Pawn of the Dead, not all of his belongings were there. True, they could have tossed some of it, but the guard informed me that they hadn’t gone through it all yet, and your outfit had stopped by earlier that day and took some things that didn’t belong to you.”
The pieces were coming together. “You’re the one who broke into the shop and killed the guard, Big Dog, aren’t you? Look, we don’t have anything of yours.”
“Oh, but you do. A little box with a key inside.”
I turned away from him and stared at the blank wall. Once again, destiny screws me over. Of all the things I decided to take from Cosmo’s inventory that day, that box was the one item this psychopath has been obsessing over. A key. A fucking key to bad deeds I really didn’t give a shit about.
