Page 140 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

Just like when we arrived here a few minutes ago to wait

out this so-called meeting. Minutes into our stakeout, we knew something was off. Especially when the bond cut off minutes later.

We all know what the absence of the bond could mean and had felt it multiple times over the last few days.

It means she’s gone, that she no longer exists. Not in this world or any other.

That monster is killing her, and if not for her ability, we would have lost her by now. Lost the very heart that keeps us whole.

The thought alone makes everything around me turn dull and gray. This world is no longer vivid and full of hope or happiness without her in it; instead, it is full of despair and darkness as it swallows me up.

When her bond disappears, time becomes stagnant. Each one of us no longer anchored to her. We fracture a little, becoming less whole. The longest few seconds blend into minutes, moving by in agonizing waves as we wait for the bond it to reattach once more.

Rubbing the spot over my heart, I take a deep breath, focusing on our bond and the slight pulse that’s been weakening every day since she was taken.

It’s been seven days since King showed up and took her. Seven days with only scraps of sleep and food to keep us going. Each of us is struggling to adapt to our new abilities and forms, while becoming more beasts than men the longer it takes to find her.

“Find Garath. I want to see the life seep slowly from his eyes when I rip the truth from his throat.”

Axel gives me a savage smirk, about to turn and find him when Rion appears from nowhere, splatters of fresh blood on his white shirt, his suit jacket destroyed and tore open.

“He’s gone.”

A tremor of rage works its way through my body, threatening another shift. Glancing at Axel, I see him in a similar state, trying to push back his dragon.

“That rat bastard.” Axel punches his fist into the wall beside him, smashing what’s left of it.

I stay quiet, my own rage a split second from trickling out and becoming another problem we could not afford.

“We need to stay focused,” Rion says, his basilisk voice sending a wave of calm around us.

“On what? She’s not here. Every time we think this is it, she slips right through our fucking fingers.” Axel thumps his chest. His dragon is not fully subdued, and his rage turns to anguish and despair.

“It’s getting weaker.” Axel’s words are broken, making me think he might be the first of us to break.

“We’ll find her.” I try to pacify him.

Rion yanks the shredded jacket off him and throws it to the ground, meticulously folding his sleeves as he attempts to rein in his own temper. Out of us all, Rion is the one who has always remained calm and collected even in the toughest of times, but the fine tremor in his hands and the distant look in his eyes tell me otherwise. This was pushing evenhislimits.

Kiarra.

A violent pang shoots through the right side of my chest. Where the hell is she now?

Seeing my family break in front of me snaps something inside me. We can’t go through this, not again. We barely made it through the first time.

I push back my own emotions, determination lighting my veins to keep my family together and find our lost mate. “He’ll get what’s coming to him. We need to find out where King has taken her now.”

Rion and Axel subconsciously rub the same spot in their chest.

“I can’t tell where she is anymore. It’s too faint.” Axel bows his head.

Rion swallows hard, staring off into the distance.

I reach for the bond and the pull, hoping to have better luck and get any lead in the direction we could go, but it’s like a limp rope loosening and fading off into nowhere.

Clearing my throat, I push back the panic and try to come up with another way. “Let’s stop and think for a minute. Where could he have taken her now?”

The bond has led us to a ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a couple of islands around our cities, and a small town in New Jersey.

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