Page 76 of Bad Demon

ChapterNineteen

RELIC

Lowering my head,my leather vest in my jaw, I tore through the forest towards the spots I’d left Fern.

I’d tried to call her again, but still, no answer. Lothar said she hadn’t been back to the clubhouse, and there was no fresh scent from her back at her store or in her apartment.

No one had seen or heard from her since I had been summoned to Hell. For me, it had been close to four hours, but for Fern, it had been four fucking days.

My brothers howled in the distance, they were close. I snarled around the leather in my mouth as I broke through the trees and shifted. I didn’t know what I expected to find. Days had passed since I’d stood in this spot with Fern, but her scent still remained. With our sense of smell, I could pick up a scent from over a week ago, sometimes longer. Yeah, my female still lingered in the air, but it was different from when I’d left her; now, it was mixed with her fear.

Lothar and Jagger bounded into the small clearing, Loth carrying what I’d asked him to bring in his mouth.

“Still getting nothing?” I asked as they shifted.

Jag shook his head. “Tracking’s not working. She’s behind some kind of ward—something that’s strong enough to block our powers.”

I growled. Yeah, I’d figured that out for myself, but I still had to try. “Give it to me?”

Loth tossed me Fern’s shirt. I pressed it to my face, dragging in her honeysuckle scent, the stronger her scent, the easier to track her. I closed my eyes, let my powers pulse through me, and searched, but I couldn’t see her. No sign. Hounds tracked by scent, yes, but we didn’t need to keep our noses to the ground. Once we had a scent, we saw exactly where our prey was in our mind’s eye, and when I took in Fern’s scent, there was nothing. Just darkness, a blank space where Fern should be. “Fuck,” I snarled.

“She say anything about who’s after her?” Loth asked.

“Not one fucking thing.” My beast’s voice was blending with my voice now, making it sound distorted. “She was opening up to me slowly. I was getting her to open up to me, and then Lucifer …” I roared, spun to the tree behind me and slammed my fist into it.

“Are you mated?” Loth asked. “With the connection, you might be able to—”

“No. She wasn’t ready.” I shoved my fingers through my hair. “She doesn’t even fucking know I’m her mate.”

“We’ll find her,” Lothar said, expression hard. “Whatever it takes. You’ve waited too fucking long to find her. You’re not losing her this way. No fucking way.”

I lifted my chin, even as the beast rippled under my skin, contorting my shoulders and vibrating through my chest. I couldn’t speak anymore, lost to my rage now—the beast had my throat, full control of my vocal cords now, so I let him lead, and tilted my head back, scenting the air.

My lips peeled back on a growl as I dropped to the ground, breathing her in. She’d been standing a little in front of me. She’d turned away while she talked, sharing more of her past with me, hiding her eyes while she did it. She tried to conceal what bringing those memories to the forefront did to her, but I’d heard it in her voice—

“I got your scent and Fern’s,” Loth said.

I breathed deeper and rose when I picked up something else. “What the fuck is that?”

Lothar breathed deeply as well and turned, striding to the edge of the track. “They stood there. Male. Demon, but it smells fucking weird.”

“I know this scent,” I said.

When I’d been outside Fern’s store, it had been distant at the time, unimportant, but I knew without a doubt that this was the same. I followed it down the track, and the beast vibrated through my chest. They’d been together, Fern and whoever that scent belonged to. They’d taken her.

My brothers surrounded me, and closing our eyes, we focused on the new scent.

Fuck yes.My mind lit up, showing me the way, leading us right to him.

I was going to tear him to shreds. I was going to make him scream.

With a vicious growl, I shifted and tore through the forest, my brothers right behind me. We made it back to the edge of the forest in record time. Quickly dressing, we got on our bikes and sped away from the city.

The ride felt like an eternity, and the whole way, my mind threw images at me, one after the other, of what was happening to her. My heart was thumping hard, and my blood rushed through my veins while the beast rumbled and snarled, constantly vibrating with rage in my chest.

We finally rolled up to a building an hour later. It was in the middle of nowhere and a similar distance, give or take, from a couple of other bigger towns. The faded sign on the wall said, “Maple Grove Age Care Facility.” Going by the washed-out and chipped paint, the broken windows, and the burned-out left wing of the building, it’d been abandoned a while ago. Turning off my bike, I swung off and strode to the front door. With every breath, my chest expanded, and my urge to shift was harder to resist.

“How you wanna do this?” Loth asked me.

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