Lauren reeled back in horror as she realised she was staring at a pair of legs and feet, standing on the bonnet of the car.
She barely heard Nikolai’s yell of, “Lauren!” when the windscreen shattered into a thousand pieces, glass spraying all over her. Instinctively, she lifted her hands in front of her face to protect herself, but something grabbed her, and the next thing she knew, she was being pulled directly through the gap left by the broken windshield. Hands grappled for her feet, but it had all happened too fast, and she was gone before anyone could do anything.
She was flying through the air, literally flying, held by something ferociously strong. Beneath her were cars, and people, and the buildings of London, but they all appeared as a blur, they were moving so fast. Lauren could barely breathe, the air whipping past her face too fast for her to catch. Her heart raced, thrumming in her chest, and she felt light-headed with panic. She didn’t want to fight whoever was holding her, knowing if they let go she’d fall to her death. And she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t get her chest to inflate, and her lungs felt like they were burning, and the world pulled away at the edges.
And then she was gone.
Chapter 15
Nikolai reached to the length of wood that had been driven through the glass, his shoulder, and straight into the seat behind him, and wrenched it out with a roar that would likely echo through the streets for hours to come.
Behind them, the second vehicle had only just stopped in time, preventing Henry and Ivan from slamming into the rear of Nikolai’s car.
The men in the back had already jumped from the car, brandishing guns he hadn’t known they’d had, but they wouldn’t do any good now, anyway.
He could barely believe what had just happened. It had all been so fast. One moment, he’d been driving with Lauren’s head rested on his shoulder, and the next second she was gone, and he’d been left with a length of wood shoved through his shoulder. Not that he cared about his own injury. It didn’t matter—nothing mattered with Lauren gone.
Henry came running over. “What the hell happened?”
“He took her. The goddamned vamp who bought her.”
“You’re sure?”
He gestured to the hole in his shoulder. It was already healing, but that didn’t stop it from hurting like a motherfucker. “You think anyone else did this?”
Ivan’s eyes widened. “Shit.”
Nikolai rounded on Henry. “You believe me now? I told you Deacon had sold her! We need to go back to the club right now and get him to tell us who the vampire is”
But, to his frustration, Henry shook his head. “No, I have a better way of finding her. There’s nothing stopping Deacon from lying, but my magic always tells the truth.”
Nikolai stared at him. “You’d better be right, or I’ll be holding you responsible.”
“Which way did they go?” Henry asked.
Nikolai pointed ahead of them. “That way, but we’re never going to catch up. That son of a bitch was flying.”
He didn’t think it was possible for Ivan’s eyes to widen further, but they did. “Flying? Actually flying?”
“Yep. Like a goddamned bird.”
Henry nodded. “It’s rare, but not unheard of.”
“But he has Lauren,” Nikolai snarled.
He wanted to rage at the world, to pick up the car and lift it from the road and throw it after the retreated vampire. He wanted to get his hands on him and tear him limb from limb and bathe in his blood. Never had his fury reached such extremes. He thought he might lose his mind to it. The idea of another vampire biting her made him crazy. To taste that sweet nectar, when he, her Bloodmate, hadn’t even done so yet was more than he could bear. What if the son of a bitch bit her and took it too far? What if he hurt her? What if he killed her?
Around them, people had begun to gather to watch the spectacle. Behind them, horns began to blare, trying to get the traffic moving. The sound did nothing to help Nikolai’s mood, and if it weren’t for the presence of one of The Directive beside him, he would have gone back and torn whoever was beeping their horn from their car.
“Listen to me, Nikolai,” Henry said, taking control. He was a smaller man, and seemed more reserved than either he or Ivan, but at the same time he had a way of commanding attention. “The other members of my team are already on their way. We can drive to meet them from the Channel Tunnel to try to save some time.”
Nikolai checked the time. It didn’t normally bother him that he could only move around freely during the night, but now the frustration of his reality gripped him. It was now the early hours of the morning, and in a mere few hours, he was going to need to be back in his penthouse, in his bedroom, which had been specially designed to keep out the light, sleeping.
“Shit!” He slammed his fist against the car, leaving a sizable dent in the body work. “How long is it going to take for them to get here?”
“They’ll be on the first train, so they’ll be coming ...” The understanding of his predicament dawned on Henry’s face. “It will be daylight by then.”
Nikolai nodded. “Yes. I can’t come with you.”
How could he be sleeping when Lauren was in mortal danger? He’d told her that he’d protect her now, that no harm would ever come to her, and he’d failed her. She’d been snatched while he’d been sitting right beside her. How were they supposed to defeat this vampire?
Henry must have sensed his frustration. “Try not to worry, Nikolai. This vampire, whoever he may be, won’t have bought her to kill her. If he wants her blood, he’ll make sure she survives to continue feeding him.”
The words caused hatred to coil deep within him. Had he ever felt such hatred?
“You’re saying we have time to find her, but the problem is we don’t. I’ve been afflicted with The Thirst, and she’s my Bloodmate. How long will it be before I lose my mind completely? Hours? Days? Weeks? How long do I have before I become a danger to myself and others around me?”
“It won’t be hours, Nikolai. Don’t worry about that.”
“But days?” he prompted.
Henry glanced away and nodded. “Yes, most likely days. I have a way I can find out for sure, but it will need a spell.”
Nikolai rubbed his hand over his mouth. Already he could feel the tightness at the back of his throat, an itching need working its way through his veins. He didn’t care about his own life, but if he lost his mind, what would happen to Lauren? Would The Directive continue to work to find her, or would they give up? And how would she feel if she heard he’d been taken down because he’d started to slaughter and rape? It would break her heart, and he couldn’t imagine being the person to cause her such pain. Just the thought caused an emptiness to appear inside his chest and start to grow.
More blares of car horns sounded behind them.
“We need to move the cars, sir,” one of the bodyguards called out. “We’re starting to cause a disturbance.”
“Is yours still drivable?” Henry asked Nikolai.
“Yeah, so long as I don’t mind driving without a windscreen while sitting in a pool of my own blood.”
“I’ll drive,” Ivan offered.
Nikolai shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I can do it.”
“We’ll go back to your building,” Henry instructed, “and take things from there. Things can and will be done while you’re sleeping, Nikolai. And don’t blame yourself. You can’t help how your body works.”
His thoughts went to how he’d tried to reach for her, even though he’d been pinned to the car seat with the length of wood. His hands had caught her ankles, but he’d had to let go. “I could have been faster, I could have held onto her.”
“Then both of you would have torn that girl in two. You did the right thing.” He put his hand on Nikolai’s shoulder. “Please believe that.”
He wanted to, but still he found himself going over and over what had happened, trying to see if there was more he could have done. He should have seen it comi
ng, he should have swerved, he should have ducked out of the way when the length of wood came crashing through the windshield. But the truth was it had happened so fast he’d barely had time to think. As a vampire, he was fast, but he was nothing compared to the vampire who had taken her. And then the other vampire had flown away with Lauren in his clutches.
How was he supposed to fight that? How were any of them?
“One of my colleagues, Delia Costanzo, is an ancient vampire, and a day walker,” Henry reassured him. “Whoever this other vampire is, he’ll be no match for her. And the other member of our team is Mac Ferguson, a powerful wolf who’s worked for The Directive for twenty years. I know it doesn’t feel like much, Nikolai, but you have the best people behind you. If we can’t find Lauren, no one can.”
“That’s what worries me,” he muttered.
The car horns had built to a cacophony, and they had no choice but to get back behind the wheel. Nikolai didn’t want to be driving back home without Lauren beside her. Right now, he had nothing to go on to try to find her. Because the damned vampire had flown, he wasn’t even able to track her scent. He tried to centre in on himself, hoping to pick up on her voice, as she had on his, but there was nothing.
With his hands clamped around the wheel, not caring that splinters of glass were spearing his flesh, he drove back to his building. He parked his car in his reserved spot and climbed out, just as Henry and Ivan pulled up behind them.
Needing to figure out their next move, they went back up to the penthouse. The place felt bereft now, as though the soul had been stolen out of the place.
Henry didn’t bother to take off his jacket or even sit down. “I’ll go and pick up my colleagues,” he told Nikolai. “Don’t fear, we’ll work tirelessly while you’re sleeping to find out who took your Bloodmate. That’s our job. I’ll leave Jennings and Price here with you to make sure the other vampire doesn’t come here while you’re sleeping to finish the job.” He nodded at Nikolai’s injured shoulder.
“Don’t worry about me. I don’t need damn bodyguards,” he growled.
“Nikolai, we don’t know what sort of frame of mind you’re going to be in when you wake. We’re assuming The Thirst takes days rather than hours to fully take hold when a vampire is separated from his Bloodmate, but the truth is the cases of these are so scarce, we can’t know for sure. The bodyguards aren’t purely for your safety. They’re to make sure you don’t go on a rampage after you wake.”
Nikolai ducked his head, chastened. Of course, this wasn’t all about him and Lauren, though that was what occupied his heart and mind. The Directive needed to consider everyone, including the general population. A rampaging vampire in the middle of London was going to look bad on everyone.
“Okay,” he said, relenting. “But please, if you find any way of waking me, even if it’s only to let me know what’s happening, then do so. I don’t care if it causes me physical harm. I’d rather that than go another second knowing Lauren is in danger, with me unable to help her.”
Henry nodded. “Of course. We’ll do everything we can.”
Ivan also had to sleep in the day, so Nikolai gave him the guest room, which was also designed for vampires. It wasn’t as though he had many human friends. Or many friends at all, for that matter.
Already, the push of the sun rising affected his body, pulling down on his limbs like gravity had suddenly grown stronger. If he didn’t shut himself in his bedroom, he’d become a statue. Frozen, and unable to react, shortly before bursting into flames.
It tore him up inside, but he had no choice.
“Just do your job and find my Bloodmate.”
Chapter 16
Nearby, something dripped.
Plop, plop, plink.
The sound worked its way into Lauren’s subconscious, pulling her from her dreams and back into the real world. She didn’t want to wake, knowing she wouldn’t be waking in Nikolai’s arms in his beautiful home. No, she was somewhere else entirely now.
Her eyes fluttered open, though she didn’t move. The light was dim, but it no longer appeared to be night—early morning, perhaps. How long had she been unconscious? She blinked, willing her eyes to get used to the lack of light so she could make out her surroundings. Old stone, grey walls rose around her, and a floor of similar material was directly beneath her. Cold leeched into her body from where she lay on the rock. Its history was steeped in every crook and cranny. How long had they travelled to get here? Was she even still in England?
Yes, she thought she was. Though she knew she was somewhere ancient, the smell in the air was still the same, the same atmosphere, the same temperature. Yes, this was still England.
She was awake now, but she remained still. Her mind pieced together what she could remember. The car, the flying, the passing out. Was the other vampire in the room with her? It was impossible to tell without sitting up and looking around, and even that wasn’t foolproof. She was in gloom, and her eyes still hadn’t got used to the low light. Would he attack her if she tried to move? She wasn’t under any illusions that this vampire would be anything like Nikolai. This man—this creature—had paid money to werewolves in order to have her kidnapped. He wasn’t going to care about her tears or pleas for freedom. He’d only care about what flowed through her veins.
Lauren had never been the kind of woman who sat back and let others take control of her life. She had no idea how she’d measure up against a vampire who could fly, but she’d take any opportunity available to her to escape if she could, and that was going to have to start with her sitting up and looking around, and seeing if there was anything she could use as a weapon. She wasn’t naive enough to think the vampire would have left a door open, or just happened to leave a stake lying around, but if she didn’t sit up and take control, she’d never know.
Slowly, she pushed herself up to sitting.
Tall, narrow windows with arches at the tops filtered in slants of early morning light. Though she was thankful for the daylight, she realised it meant something else. Nikolai wouldn’t be able to move in the day. Right now, he wouldn’t be able to come for her. She didn’t know how the others worked who were with him—Henry and the other men—but for the moment, she was all alone.
She remembered how she’d been able to hear Nikolai’s thoughts before, and desperately, she reached out to him again, praying she’d be able to hear his familiar voice in her head, but there was only silence.
“You’re awake.”
A sudden voice echoed from the corner of the room, and she jumped, clutching a hand to her chest. It was him, the vampire who took her. She remembered the moments before she’d been torn from the car, how Nikolai had been hurt.
“You bastard,” she snapped.
He chuckled. “Now, now, young lady. That’s no way to speak to your elders.” He had an accent, one she recognised.
“You don’t deserve respect. You’re nothing to me. You buy women, which makes you filth in my mind.”
“You’re going to make this far more painful than it needs to be if you continue with that attitude,” he chastened.
Her eyes began to grow used to the light. The shape in the corner rose to his feet. He’d been sitting on a chair, watching her as she lay unconscious. The thought made her shudder, but she figured there would be far worse to come.
“Where the hell am I?”
“An ancient place, steeped in history. I found it spoke to my soul.”
“You don’t have a soul.”
“And what would you know about that?”
He stepped forward, into a slant of moonlight. He was tall—even taller than Nikolai—with a slender frame that wasn’t far from being hunched. His hair was jet black and a few inches long, and his dark eyes had a wicked glint to them. The idea of this creature feeding on her repulsed her. She didn’t want his mouth anywhere near her.
“Who are you, and what are you going to do with me?”
A slight crease to his brow. “You mean no one has told y
ou my name?”
The question confused her. “No. Should someone have?”
He gave a one-shouldered shrug. “We vampires have our connections. I wondered if anyone had mentioned me yet, that is all.”
“No. You mean nothing to me. You clearly aren’t as famous as you think you are.”
That same shrug again. “Only among certain circles. And as for what I plan to do with you, well, I am a vampire.” With that, he stretched his jaw wide, far wider than ever would have been humanly possible revealing the white flash of fangs in the hazy light.
Horror speared through Lauren’s heart, and she scrabbled backwards, even though she knew she had no place to go.
But even as she moved away, the vampire stepped towards her.
“No, no, no ...” she cried.
The glint in his eyes became one of triumph, and he darted at her, so fast, Lauren barely had time to scream ...
Chapter 17
Help me, Nikolai!
Her voice sounded in his head as clearly as if she’d been standing right beside him.
He’d never had this happen before, a kind of consciousness while he was sleeping. And he was still asleep—or at least caught in his kind’s version of sleep. He was aware of his own consciousness trapped deep inside his body, but not of anything in the outside world.
Nothing except Lauren, of course.
He didn’t know if it would work, but he was sure as hell going to try.
Lauren, baby. Where are you?
Her voice came back to him. I don’t know, but it’s a very old building. Thick stone walls and narrow windows. I’m locked up in here like some kind of princess in a tower.
Who’s taken you? Do you know his name?
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