Page 21 of Even Vampires Bleed
Ever since Elhyor tried to teach Angie to fly and made her mad, Léandre has been tasked with helping her, which leaves only me in the archives half of the day.
So, yeah, Elhyor made me feel essential, and I couldn’t deny him.
Sue me.
As the first day passes and the teams that are coming back haven’t found anything, I start to think Elhyor made the right decision.
I still haven’t found anything else though.
I’ve taken over to reading Zair’s journals since Angie doesn’t spend as much time in the archives anymore, and there are almost a hundred of them.
On the second day, I’ve read through half of them, and I have yet to find another lead.
And we definitely need another lead because Luc has finally managed to crack Angie’s media key and what is on there would freeze anyone’s blood from fear.
It doesn’t help either that Marcus—one of the warriors on the recon mission in Blois—disappeared, and his holo has stopped emitting.
Well, it doesn’t help to ease my mind from that feeling of urgency and from needing to read more. And more. And more.
I don’t remember the last time I’ve slept.
Sure, I go to bed with Léandre every night, but when he falls asleep, it’s like my brain refuses to stop spiraling. I’ve taken to bringing Zair’s journals to my room.
And each night, when everyone is tucked in, I’m reading yet another journal.
Maybe I should stop though, because it’s been the fourth time I read that sentence, and I’m not even sure it still makes sense to my sleep-deprived brain.
But I’m not giving up. I’ll get my dad back.
There is a knock on the archives door, and I jump in my seat.
There is a bit of drool at the corner of my mouth and my usually lustrous hair looks like a rat’s nest.
I look around and see that I’m alone. Léandre must still be outside training with Angie.
I double check that I didn’t drool on the journal I was reading before I obviously fell asleep, but everything is in order.
I’m the only one being a mess.
There is a second knock and I remember that I didn’t answer the first time.
“Come in,” I say as I pass my fingers through my hair to make it look a bit more tamed.
Luc just slips his head through the door.
“I haven’t seen you in days,” he says “Are you okay?”
I nod to him. I’m not going to tell him about the turmoil inside of me. Luc only asked out of obligation. He has some sort of allergy to feelings, so I know for him it was more in the vibe of “I came to check that you were still alive” than anything else.
“Okay. Good. That’s not why I came here though,” he adds, and I’m waiting for him to elaborate, but nothing comes.
“Why did you come, Luc, then?” I ask with a soft voice.
“Do you know how Marcus and Ana stopped answering their holo two days ago? Ana called back. They found Brice’s team. Everyone upstairs is getting ready to go on an extraction mission.”
Luc hadn’t gotten through the sentence before I got halfway across to the room toward him.
“Lead the way,” I tell him as I straighten myself, walking through the door.
