Page 62 of Death Raiser

Hard jostling woke me up. My body slammed into metal. I blinked, but the images around me remained fuzzy and dark. The sharp smell of dirt and rubber burned my nose along with the odour of gasoline.

I was in the back of a truck with a windowless canopy.

Rope chafed the sore skin around my wrists behind my back. My ankles were also tied together, making it difficult for me to brace in any way with each bump and jostle of the truck.

An engine roared.

Weak light streamed through the cracks between the canopy and the tailgate, so it was either early morning or early evening.

Kang’s face flashed in my mind. Would he know I had been taken? We didn’t have any definitive future plans and I’d already completed the raisings for his current case. Would he text or call after he helped Jacobs and figure out why I didn’t respond? Or would he assume my silence was because he’d left our date prematurely?

When would Logan realize I was missing? Would he stumble into the apartment with Brandon and wonder where I was? Or would he assume I left for work? I didn’t have regular hours and the nature of both our jobs meant we didn’t check in with each other unless a significant portion of time had passed.

When would anyone notice I was gone?Would they see my purse and make the connection in time? What about my phone? I didn’t feel it in my pocket, so either my attacker destroyed it, got rid of it, or left it at the apartment.

Or would it be too late when they finally figured it out?

A bump in the road lifted me off the bottom of the truck bed, only to slam me back down. The bed had one of those liners with a beveled surface, so each time I got thrown around, the hard peaks of each ridge jabbed into my body with bruising force. My head spun. My ass and thighs hurt. But aside from a small cut on my forehead, I wasn’t bleeding. At least, I didn’t think I was.

And that was the unfortunate part. If I had blood, I could possibly do something. Blood and bones.

And I didn’t have either. Normally, I’d hesitate to use my own blood as a sacrifice, but I’d make an exception and risk the veil as an alternative to whatever the fuck this was. Even if I used my own blood, though, I couldn’t use my own bones—those had to come from the dead. So without blood and bones, I may as well be a regular human.

Vulnerable. Trapped.

I shivered and tried to peer through the cracks.

Nothing but weak light that seemed to brighten.

Early morning, then.

I must’ve been out for at least a night. Or even longer. I didn’t know a lot about chloroform, but that must’ve been what the person used on me. Surely, it shouldn’t have knocked me out for that long. I must’ve been drugged with something else afterward.

And who the fuck was responsible for this? Grant? Did his obsession lead him to abduction? Was it the rose giver? Were they one and the same? I had so many questions and no answers. One thing was certain, this person was taking me for a little field trip, and I needed my energy for whatever he had planned.

It had to be Grant—that creepy motherfucker. I should’ve kneed him in the balls in addition to stomping on his feet when I’d had the chance.

I curled up on my side to better brace myself against the sides of the truck bed and to prevent myself from getting chucked around with every pothole. Trying to force my breathing into a more regular rhythm, I made my lungs hold air for a couple of seconds longer with each breath.

There. Finally.

Breathing established.

My heartbeat still thudded in my ears and rattled my already-aching brain, and my stomach twisted into a knot, but I had to start somewhere.

With another deep breath, I attempted to reach for my bond with Gregor.

Nothing.

I tried again.

A faint presence in my blood responded but slipped away when I tried to grab it. My bond with Gregor had run its course. I should’ve renewed it right away. I should’ve insisted on raising a third vampire to clear our debt.

The truck kept ambling down the mystery road to my unknown future, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

I didn’t like that one bit.

Chapter Nineteen

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