Page 13 of For Love and Blood and Fury

“Ma’am, you can’t park there,” a man with a valet polo shouted before Zuri reached the door.

Whirling around, Zuri glared at him with the ire of a millennia of women over being told what to do. Of being told no.

“I don’t want to tow—” The guy stopped his advance like Zuri had brandished a blade.

“If you so much as look at my car, I’m going to come back with Luna and Loba and feed them your spleen,” she roared, challenging him to take another step. To say one more word.

His eyes widened, face paling in the direct sunlight. With a nod and his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat, Polo turned back to his shaded valet stand.

As soon as Zuri walked away from him, she knew she’d been an asshole. But she was too full of anger she couldn’t redirect.

Inside, the heat and blinding sun gave way to air conditioning and disorienting darkness. She blew past the hostess. Why did any place have to be so dark? If she ever visited as a patron, she’d be afraid she’d go home with Eva Mendes and wake up with Frankenstein’s monster.

When she reached the black door, she hit the buzzer and waited for one of Elena’s lackeys to open. It only took a few seconds before she escaped into the soundproof oasis of the private lounge.

Before Zuri could rampage her way to Elena’s office, she stopped just inside the doorway. Librada rarely answered the door, and the mood wasn’t usually so somber.

The surrounding energy was stagnant and chilling. Silent. It was completely silent despite a dozen vampires sitting around the lounge like it was some creepy ass wax museum.

Zuri’s stomach dropped. Everything in her body told her to turn and run. It was good advice, and she hated herself for not taking it.

“Where is she?” Zuri seethed.

Librada’s reddish-brown eyes flicked to Sofia, who was sitting at the bar. Sofia, who always had the chaotic energy of a homicidal tween, was motionless.

“Lib, what the fuck?”

With the personality of a dull machete, Librada looked like she was debating something. Realizing that Elena wasn’t in the office, that something had happened, Zuri’s skin turned clammy.

Zuri stayed within arm’s length of the door. Elena’s vampires obeyed her every command, but Zuri had never been in theviper pit without her. She couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t attack her. She wasn’t Elena’s girlfriend anymore. There was nothing to protect her. She needed to find out what was going on and get out.

“There was an attack,” Librada said, like that told Zuri the story.

“Attack?” Zuri scanned the group again. “Just fucking speak in full paragraphs. Where’s Elena? What the hell is going on?”

Zuri wished she could listen at double speed. Vampires truly lacked a mortal’s sense of urgency.

“By the time we were alerted, she was gone. We covered up the human’s death, but…”

Zuri couldn’t absorb any more language.Gone. The word was a sucker punch, snatching the air from her lungs and leaving a gaping hole in her chest.

Gone?

A wave of nausea rolled over Zuri, her surroundings spinning. “Elena is dead?” she whispered, debating whether she should bolt before she passed out.

“No, she’s not dead. She’s missing.” Librada looked at Zuri like she was an idiot. Like Zuri was supposed to read her cardboard box body language.

“Jesus.” Zuri clutched her chest, lungs burning from the rush of relief.

Librada’s expression darkened, her eyes cast down to her terrifying stiletto nails. “He did not survive.”

“What?” Zuri shook her head and got back on track. “Rewind. What do you mean Elena is missing?”

“After the attack, she was just gone,” Librada replied with visible dismay. Like hundreds of years of language had failed her. Like she didn’t have the words to explain.

“Can’t you use your internal find-a-friend and locate her? What do you mean,missing?” Zuri couldn’t process theinformation. Couldn’t understand what the point of being a damn vampire was if they couldn’t use their heightened senses when they needed them most.

“It doesn’t work like that?—”

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