Page 36 of Taste of Forever
“It’s certainly hard to be grumpy all the time when you’re blessed with a blood mate.” Novak swiveled in his chair. “Isn’t that right, Cyan?”
Cyan had been intently staring at the phone, but then looked up with a wry smile. “Yeah, it’s pretty great. Now if only we could get my best friend back.”
“We will,” Thorne insisted. “But we need to figure out if that’s really him.”
“When Inessa gets the location to you, a couple of us will check it out,” I said. “We’ll be low-key, discreet.”
“I’ll go with,” Cyan said. “If it’s him, I need to see with my own eyes.”
“You got anything else for us?” Thorne asked our host.
Novak shook his head, casting a sympathetic look across the desk. “I knew you’d want to see the video, but it’s all I have for now. I wish I had more.”
“I’m sure you do.” Thorne stood from his chair and abruptly exited the room without another word.
An uncomfortable silence followed, though it didn’t last long.
“Thank you for this.” Cyan extended his arm out to Novak. “And look, he’s coming around. He stayed for the whole meeting this time.”
Novak snorted as he clasped forearms with Cyan. “Oh, I know. Trust me, I’m not affronted. It’s nice to see Thorne’s warm and fuzzy side coming out.”
Novak and I said goodbye with another clasping of forearms, then Cyan and I took our leave, heading down the stairs.
“What do you think?” I asked. “Is it him?”
Cyan sighed. “I don’t know. It looks just like him. I want to say yes, but I might be deluding myself, you know? If it’s not, I don’t want to get my hopes up.”
I could understand that. And if it was Kalix, the video raised so many other questions. He was supposedly a prisoner of Carpe Noctem for murdering the head of their clan, but the vampire in that video was not in a prison cell.
Cyan bumped his shoulder into mine as we hit the ground floor. “Anyway, how’s the search going for your mystery blood mate? Find her yet, Prince Charming?”
“Uh.” Our boots echoed across the tiles of the foyer floor. “It’s a little complicated.”
I hadn’t been able to stop yapping about the fact that I’d found my mate purely by the taste of her blood, but since meeting Heather face-to-face, I wasn’t sure how to explain the situation to everyone. She was from the human world and had a boyfriend, who she was apparently loyal to.
She had seemed curious about me, since she was a scientist and I was of a different species, but that’s where it seemed to end. I didn’t get the impression that wanted tobewith me.
I knew I had to work to earn my blood mate’s trust and, eventually, her love. I’d seen what Cyan and Novak went through, but neither of their mates had already been claimed by someone else. How was I supposed to work with that?
Naturally, I continued to watch her after showing up that first night. Something had scared her badly before I’d arrived, and I was determined to keep her safe. Maybe the boyfriend was abusive and she anticipated getting hurt whenever he got home. It was a good thing he wasn’t there at the time, but I hated being forced to leave before the sun came up.
Since then, I had followed her to work each night on my motorcycle without incident. Her workplace was secure, with cameras everywhere and an electric fence that scanned an ID card to get in. I hated that I couldn’t stay with her longer, but I figured she’d be safe with such measures in place. Watching her drive through the gate was all I could do, because the sun always rose before she left work.
“Complicated, huh?” Cyan scoffed and poked the side of my face. “You’re a little gaunt, buddy. Doesn’t look like you’re feeding.”
He wasn’t wrong. I was living off of marrow and, without a regular diet of blood, the benefits were dwindling. She would hate me for it, but I was not completely closed off to the idea of removing Heather from her world, and from her boyfriend especially.
Sure, maybe it wastechnicallykidnapping, but it would be temporary, of course. I wasn’t a monster. I needed her blood to live and she’d need to recover from blood loss. And if she just happened to figure out how good she had it while with me, well that would still be her choice.
“Working on it,” I muttered to Cyan as we went out the front door and into the courtyard.
Damn, now I couldn’t stop thinking of Heather’s blood. We didn’t even stay long enough to nibble on any snacks from Novak’s chef. It wouldn’t satisfy my hunger, but would at least distract my palate for a little while.
“Laith.” Thorne leaned against his bike, his eyes meeting mine with his phone to his ear. “I’ve got Skye from Pulse Point.”
“Yeah?” I paused next to my ride.
“He said someone’s there waiting for you.” Thorne paused, then his brows lifted slightly. “A human woman named Heather?”
