Page 49 of To Love a Vampire
“Hey, she didn’t leave. She wouldn’t have left you. Get rid of that thought. That isn’t what happened, I’m sure of it.”
Thousands of worse ideas come tumbling through my mind at the sound of his reassurance. If she didn’t leave me then she’s missing… She was taken...
“What’s going on out here?” Luca emerges from our hut in one of Gabriel’s shirts, hugging her arms around herself as she squints up at me. “Why are you here? Where’s Fallon?”
I shake my head and keep shaking it for several moments. Fear wrecks my body, pressing in on me with nowhere to go and my breath comes out in a long and jagged heap.Where is she?
Luca’s lips part, as her wide eyes search my face.
“Let me get dressed. We’ll wake my father. It’ll be okay, Asher.”
I nod at her as I swallow hard, pushing down the climbing fear that’s clawing up my tight throat.
Last night I told her I wanted to take care of her.
I couldn’t even keep her safe for a day…
* * *
Anger replaces the dread that consumed my body just moments ago. The hybrid—the traitorous hybrid is hiding something. I didn’t tell Fallon how much it felt like a set up when I was captured. How quickly Declan fled when the guards arrived. How little trust this hybrid holds in my eyes.
The six of us sit at the table just as the sun creeps over the horizon. An hour has been wasted making sure all the important parties are present.
An anxious beat pats against the dry dirt as my boot taps restlessly beneath the table.
Kaino’s stern dark eyes hang on every word I speak, his limited emotions cross his face in a look of worry. Lord Raske’s features are set in edgy lines, Gabriel and Luca sit on either side of me. Luca’s as afraid of losing her friend as much as I am. She hasn’t stopped biting her nails since we sat down.
The only person who doesn’t hold a look of fear or worry or even distress is Declan. The hybrid focuses on the deep etched lines of the heavy wooden table. His eyes dart back and forth against the polished surface as he taps his fingers repetitively against the table top.
“And you said you followed her scent up the coastline?” Lord Raske asks, tilting his head at me, interrupting my thoughts on the suspicious mystic across from me.
“It disappeared where the opening lays, the trail was swept away in the wind.” I pause, the rest of my words falling away in thought. “What do you know?” I ask, my burning gaze settling once again on the hybrid.
His head darts up immediately, his wide eyes hold… regret in them, making them appear full of liquid steel.
“I—Nothing. I don’t know anything.” The look washes away, once again full of hidden secrets.
Why did Fallon trust him? He has mistrust written all over him.
“If you know something about where she is, if you consider yourself a friend—she was a friend to you.” I can’t even bring myself to finish a sentence. My fists clench tightly, my nails biting into my shaking hands.
Gabriel’s blind eyes shoot toward Declan, seemingly trying to gauge his appearance, his demeanor.
“He’s lying,” Gabriel says, his unseeing gaze narrowing on Declan.
Raske and Kaino pin the hybrid with a tense stare, the father and son sharing a mirrored look as they watch him.
“I have no idea what happened. Perhaps she realized the mistake she made.” Declan folds his hands neatly in front of him as he settles his sneering eyes on me.
My jaw tightens until it hurts, my teeth grinding together as I stare at the worthless hybrid across from me.
“You had better be careful. The only thing tying me to this community, to the mock kindness I’ve shown you, went missing this morning. Fallon was the only thing protecting you from me. I won’t play nice without her.”
He swallows visibly, studying me without fear.
“I’ll find her by myself. Your help isn’t needed.” I push my chair back in a rush, not bothering to wait for Gabriel or Luca as I storm out of the tent.
“I know where she is.”
