Page 111 of Taste of Forever
The henchman stomped up the stairs and then Soren knelt in front of me, his face coming into focus and looked like pure evil. How could I have ever thought of him as handsome? He was nothing compared to Laith.
“You ghosted me, Heather. I thought we had an agreement.” He shook his head slowly, clicking his tongue as if he were disappointed. “It was only for two months. None of this would have happened if you had just done your part.”
My head pounded. I probably had a concussion and could barely hear him over the rushing of my own blood. This wasn’t looking good for me, and my fragmented, panicked thoughts couldn’t determine if it was better to keep quiet or antagonize him.
Time. Stall for time. Laith will get here. He has to.
“You kept changing the rules on me,” I choked out. “I felt trapped. I was scared.”
Soren laughed dryly. “Come on, Heather. You’re no damsel. It was a simple assignment. You could’ve handled it.”
Anger flared. For some reason, his deflection reminded me of Justin. “Youstalkedme. You threatened to make me disappear. You came to my house and my work. You’re not my boss. You’re just some psycho who showed up out of nowhere.”
“You forced my hand when you kept visiting a parallel world we know nothing about.” Soren stood to full height, towering over me in the chair. “I’ve silenced a lot of people for doing exactly what you did. Usually, I only need to do so once.”
I swallowed, fighting the sickening idea that he must have stalked and terrified tons of other people.
“When you refused to listen, I tried to give you a break,” he went on. “One of their kind seemed attached to you, so my employers thought you might be useful.” He clicked his tongue again. “Until you weren’t.”
My breath sawed in and out through my nose. The seconds dragged by and I tried to listen for any sounds of a motorcycle outside, but I heard nothing. The basement was probably too well insulated.
“We figured you left our world for theirs when we lost all trace of you here.” Soren gave me a disgusted look. “Abandoning your whole life, your own kind, for one ofthem—really?”
“Well, with the choices presented to me”—I gave him a pointed look up and down—“I think I picked the better option.”
“They’re creatures, Heather. They’re not human. Not people.”
“They’re definitely people,” I shot back. “Better people than most of the humans I’ve met.”
Soren sucked his teeth, eyes flickering over me like deciding what he should do. “Too bad.”
He walked to a table set against one wall and opened some kind of case. My heart jumped into my throat with a fresh wave of panic.
“What are you doing?”
“If you’re really choosing them over humans, there’s little chance you’ll give us any more intel.” Soren’s wide back blocked my view, but he was messing with something that sounded metallic. “I have permission to torture you, and while I’m just as much a scumbag as you think I am, I’d prefer not to. It’s not something I enjoy, believe it or not.”
“What do you even want?” My voice broke with fear. “Why are you doing this?”
“The human world at large will eventually learn about these parallel words, and how they slightly overlap with ours. And when that happens, the United States needs to have full knowledge and control over those places before any other nation does. Wouldn’t you agree?”
I stared at his back. “No. Why can’t you just leave them alone?”
“And let Russia harness the power of vampires? North Korea to breed an army of werewolves? Leave Iran or China to utilize dragon shifters?” I heard the unmistakable sound of a slide being pulled—a round being chambered into a gun. Soren turned around, holding a handgun fitted with a long silencer. “It really should be us, don’t you think?”
Despite the fear running through me, I shook my head. “There is nous, Soren. I’m not part of anything you’re aligned with.”
He looked almost apologetic, but mainly resigned as he brandished the gun.
“I can kill you instantly, make it painless as possible,” he said. “Or I can hit a major artery and make you bleed out. You’lldie slower but”—his lip curled with disdain—“you can give that creature you love so much a final meal when he finds you.”
“Why?” I willed myself not to cry, not to blubber and beg for my life. “Why do this at all? Just let me go. Forget we ever met.”
“It’s not my decision. I either pass on intel to my employers, or I tie off a loose end.” Soren held the gun by his thigh, pointing down. “You don’t want to die, Heather? You can talk.”
I closed my eyes. There was so much I could tell them at this point. I could talk about the ruling clan, about the vampires’ biggest weakness, draitrium. I had enough of a clear mental image of Sanguine now that I could draw out a rough map. I could tell them where the Blood ‘til Dawn compound was, the blood bank, and Novak’s house.
But when I pictured Laith smiling in bed before he kissed me, his hands on me with reverent affection, I knew I couldn’t say a word. It wasn’t just him, either. It was because of Tavia sharing her wine with me. Amy chatting with me as we walked to her house, and the way she and Novak looked at each other. It was the gruff sincerity of Thorne and the other vampires when I’d identified the werewolf blood. It was how they’d all helped Laith search for me after I’d been attacked.
