Page 12 of Blood Lost

My place. Now. She wants to go back to Roarke. My hands shook as I typed the message to Vik and sent it before I could change my mind. It would be easy for us to keep her here. There was no way Declan Roarke could know that we had her. He might not even be looking for her. I had to talk to Vik and figure out what we needed to do.

On my way. Vik’s response was short and to the point. I needed to stall her until he arrived. Maybe the two of us together could convince her to stay. We deserved a chance to make things up to her. If only there was a way for her to remember. While I waited for Vik, I tried to steel myself against the thought that we’d found Delilah only to lose her again.

Chapter 15

Declan

It had only been a few hours when I got the call that Kayden and his crew had arrived. I knew the moment they’d entered the building. Wolves had a particular scent that could not be masked from a vampire's heightened senses. It was the reason I’d had Kayden send me the profiles of his team with photos of them in human and wolf form. I had distributed the files to my security and other relevant associates. If anyone else showed up, my team would stop them from entering the property.

“Kayden, thanks for coming so quickly. I appreciate your help with this.” I offered my hand, and he hesitated before shaking it.

“As long as she hasn’t broken any laws, we’ll bring her back to you. But you know that there will be repercussions from an unsanctioned transition. I hope she’s worth it.” My oldest friend ran his hand through his light brown waves as he sized me up.

“You’re worried for nothing. I told you earlier I had to turn her in to save her life. This one is special. Trust me. If there had been time to file the paperwork, I would have.” I was certain that Kayden could see my regret all over my face. I knew it was only a matter of time before the hunters got to me, but I was hoping for some leniency because my best friend was their leader. It didn’t matter anyway. I knew that I would save Delilah again if I had it to do over. I couldn’t help it; something was pulling me to her as if we were meant to be together. Logically, I knew that I couldn’t already be in love with her, but my heart disagreed. I just had to find her so I could tell her about it.

“Declan? Did you hear anything I just said?” Kayden broke into my thoughts. I wiped my hands over my face.

“Sorry, got a little distracted there.” I shrugged and winked at him.

Before he could repeat what I had missed, the phone rang. I answered without hesitation, holding a finger up to Kayden. “Yes, Carol, what is it?”

“You said to let you know if anything strange or out of the ordinary happened.” Carol’s irritation was obvious.

“What happened?” I asked, making sure to keep my tone even. I knew that showing my frustration with Carol would cause a significant backlash.

“Eli Strain called again, insisting that he and Viktor Maxwell meet with you urgently. He refuses to tell me what it’s about. He says it can’t wait until next week. You don’t have any openings unless you want to do a dinner meeting.” She knew that I hated dinner meetings. But if it was that urgent, why not let Strain or Maxwell buy me dinner?

“A dinner meeting is fine, so long as it’s on his tab. I’m not dressing up either. What night does he have in mind?” I looked at my calendar as I spoke, realizing that I’d cleared my afternoons and evenings to spend with Delilah.

“Tonight. They’ve made a reservation at Starlight. You’re expected at eight promptly. If that’s acceptable, I’ll confirm with him.” Carol’s curt tone told me that I’d better accept without making her go back and negotiate.

“That sounds perfect. Thank you, Carol.” I hung up and turned back to Kayden. “Looks like I have dinner plans tonight. You guys can still get started without me, right? I’ll be available by cell if you find anything.”

Kayden nodded. “From the sound of it, this might be harder than we thought. I was reviewing the file while you were on the phone. You know virtually nothing about this girl. How do you expect us to find her if we don’t even know where to look?”

I tossed a shirt at him. “You guys are great trackers. This is something she wore. Use it to sniff her out.” Smirking, I turned to leave. I needed to do some research and prepare for dinner, and I had other meetings scheduled for today. The business didn’t care that Delilah was missing, even if it was tearing me apart.

Kayden caught the sweatshirt and sniffed deeply. I could have sworn I’d heard him moan at the scent of her. It wasn’t possible—he hated vampires. My transformation was the ultimate betrayal to him. So often, I missed my best friend, but there was nothing I could do to change his mind.

A low growl stopped me in my tracks. I turned to see Kayden with his hands fisted at his sides. Rage poured off him.

“We’re not your lapdogs, Declan. I agreed to do this as a favor for you. Don’t treat this as anything else. You gave up your chance to lead the hunters. It was your choice.”

“You think I don’t know that? You think I haven’t questioned that decision every day since I made it? I was backed up against a wall, and the options were to jump in the flames or surrender. Don’t think you know everything, friend. Yeah, I made my choice, but so did you.” My fist hit the wall, inches from Kayden’s face.

His eyes met mine. “You don’t want to start a fight with me. I have the hunters on my side. You won’t win.”

“If you’re not going to help me, then leave. I’m not playing games. I need to find her. That is the only thing I’m focused on right now.”

“Fine. We’re out.” Kayden turned, motioning to his crew to leave. It looked like I would be on my own again for this. It didn’t matter. I had to find her. That was all that mattered. Kayden would be pissed for a while; then we’d talk again like nothing happened.

After he left, I screamed and slammed my fist into the wall again. It didn’t matter if I left a hundred holes in the drywall; I would be the one to fix it. I needed to get my temper under control. Getting on the hunters’ bad side was not in my plan. Now I would have to find Delilah on my own while dodging Kayden’s men. I shouldn’t have had such a flippant attitude about Kayden’s anger. Shit. And to top it off, I had to have dinner with the pompous asses who’d been dodging me since I took over this zone.

Chapter 16

Vik

“What the hell do you mean, we’re having dinner with Declan Roarke? That asshole wouldn’t even meet with us when we were searching for Delilah.” I screamed at Eli on the phone when he’d called to tell me about dinner at Starlight. He seriously expected me just to hand Delilah back to her captor and pay for dinner simultaneously. What the fuck was wrong with him? “He probably had her the whole time we were searching.”

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