Page 13 of Taste of Forever
“You didn’t try to call me? File a missing person’s report?” I demanded when I returned home. “Or even check in with my friends or coworkers to make sure I was okay? I could’ve been dead in a ditch or something!”
“Well, you’re obviously not,” he’d said. “I figured you wouldn’t answer if I called. You’re the one who stormed out.”
Always your fault,mused the resentment demon.Even your own disappearance. Your boss called because you missed a day of work, but your boyfriend? Not a peep.
I rolled to my side with a frustrated groan and yanked my phone off the charger. I wouldn’t make a habit of this. Seriously, I wouldn’t. But if there was a chance that the vampire’s voice could relax me enough to sleep, I’d take it.
My eyes half-closed when I hit the play button on the audio file. I wanted to immerse myself in that room again and recall every sensation. How strange that I’d rather be there again instead of in my own bed.
But instead of hearing recorded voices, I got nothing but static.
“What the hell?” I opened my eyes and dragged the slider to different parts of the audio file. It was all static.
I sat up, confused and frantic as I swiped through my recent files.
“No! What the fuck?”
The video and still images I’d shot were corrupted too. Nothing could be made out through the dead pixels and random lines of distorted color. Everything I’d recorded that day, all the proof I had of vampires’ existence, was completely unusable.
How? I had checked everything when I got to my car. It had all been there.
My head shot up, recalling the guy who’d bumped into me. Something must have broken when I dropped my phone.
I turned on my bedside lamp to inspect my phone more closely. Maybe I missed something because of how dark it was outside. I popped the phone from the hardshell case and brought both pieces right in front of my nose.
Nothing. Every dent or scratch had either been there before or was entirely too small to cause any internal damage. The same scuff on the case’s corner I’d noticed before was the only visible damage that I could attribute to dropping it.
“Damn it,” I sighed, replacing the case and checking my files again. Just for good measure, I powered the phone off and turned it on again. No change. All the files from earlier today were corrupted, including photos I’d taken of the tiger lilies I grew on our back patio. At least those would be easy to re-take.
I held the phone next to my ear and shook it, expecting to hear some loose component rattling inside, but there was nothing. At a loss, I tossed the phone back onto the nightstand and flopped down onto the pillow.
It seemed really weird that dropping my phone on a sidewalk would corrupt only my most recent files, but I supposed stranger things had happened. Like finding a hidden world full of vampires, getting bitten by one, and nearly having an orgasm as a result.
Without those files, I realized, I had no proof of vampires. That was the whole fucking point of me going there.
“Shit.” I rubbed my forehead.
My brain was locked on to the vampire world like a target. Ineededproof—for my own peace of mind, if nothing else. I needed to know that I wasn’t completely losing it.
Which meant I had to return to Sanguine once again.
Chapter 4
Laith
“You need to stop,” Des warned, grabbing at my sleeve. “The blood bank is gonna blacklist you if you keep this up.”
“I know, but what if she’s the one?” I jerked my arm out of his grip and kept walking, heading across the street to the blood bank’s donor exit. “Hey there, sweetheart. Can I ask you something?”
The night was young with a full moon casting plenty of illumination, and the human woman still jumped, startled at my approach. It always surprised me how dulled their senses were compared to ours. I wasn’t trying to sneak up on her. Vampires just moved quietly. Even so, I figured my head of pale blond hair would stand out in the darkness of night.
When the woman recovered, she gave me an assessing look. “Yes?”
“Did you happen to donate blood here two nights ago?”
“No. I donate about every two weeks, usually on Thursdays.” Her posture relaxed and she smoothed a hand over her hair. “If you’re wondering.”
My hope deflated as my gaze wandered over her fingers and arm. There was no sign of purple nail polish or a forearm tattoo.
