Page 108 of Twisted
I nod, secretly hoping some of those vampires from the bar will come after me.It’s been a while since I’ve killed anything, and now that I know you can kill a vampire by removing the heart, I want to try it for myself.
“Be careful,” I tell him, brows pinching together.
He gives my hand a squeeze.“You don’t have to worry about me.”
“I’ve seen some of the best hunters get cocky, and it gets them killed.”
Instead of disagreeing or saying hunters are weak humans, he just kisses the back of my hand again.“I will be careful, and I will have my brother with me.”
“Do you think she’s at the bar?”
“Perhaps.Wherever she is, we will find her.”
I can see the worry behind his blue eyes, but he’s holding it together.Calm and confident.I nod and take a breath, looking out the window again as I watch the runway come closer and closer.We land and get off the plane as soon as we can.Theo is already there, standing outside the driver’s side of a McClaren.His eyes narrow slightly when he sees me, and while Xavier is logical and knows us going away has no bearing on what someone else decided to do, I don’t think Theo is thinking the same.
“Go home, and don’t worry about us,” Xavier tells me, stopping short.He turns around and takes me in his arms.My heart swells in my chest and everything feels like it’s going to be okay when he puts his lips to mine, kissing me deeply.I can still feel his big cock inside me and I long to sink into bed, disappearing under the covers with him.
“You know I can help.”
“I do,” he says, lips brushing against mine.“But I can’t risk you, Wren.I won’t risk you.”He puts his forehead against mine and my eyes fall shut.“Stay vigilant.”
“I will.”We kiss once more and Xavier gets in the car with Theo.I stand there, watching for a moment, before going over to the black SUV meant to take me home.Henry, the driver, opens the door for me and I get in.
I check Mabel’s social media accounts, going about this as a hunter trying to find a missing person.A lot of what I do is like PI work, and there’s something inside me that tells me Mabel wasn’t taken by the gang of young vampires.
Her last post was from yesterday, and it was something she recorded a few days ago.I’m certain because I remember her outfit.The last Instagram story she posted was almost twenty-four hours ago, and I screen-record it before it disappears.It’s a boomerang of Mabel standing next to a fan.Mabel looks so quintessentially Mabel, wearing a robin-egg blue dress with her hair curled tightly around her face.The fan is a cute twenty-something girl, dressed casually.She’s holding an iced Starbucks coffee.I don’t recognize the street behind them, though it has to be somewhere downtown.The text “love seeing my Maybells in the wild” has been added at the bottom of the story.
And that’s it.
Biting my lip, I look out the window, trying to get a sense of where Mabel is.I get nothing.I watch the boomerang again, looking for a street sign or anything, but nothing is clear enough to make out.Then on the fourth watch, I notice the cup is from Starbucks, but sayswe proudly serve Starbucks.
Holy shit.This narrows it down to just a few places that sell Starbucks but aren’t actually a Starbucks store.The cup is full, which most likely means they are standing close to wherever this girl bought the coffee.
Okay…what places sell Starbucks?Hotels.Airports.Bookstores.Heart in my throat, I open my internet browser on my phone and do a search.There aren’t any hotels serving Starbucks downtown, but there is a bookstore.I open my maps app and pull up the street view of the bookstore.An audible gasp escapes me when I match the street to the one behind Mabel.I look back and forth a few times, needing to be sure.
It’s a match.
The trees on either side of the sidewalk are the same, as is a purple banner hanging from a streetlamp a little down the street.I drop a pin on Mabel’s last known location and then look at the area, trying to see if there are any businesses around that Mabel would be interested in going to.
I have a list going by the time we pull into the garage.
“Thank you,” I tell Henry and rush inside, going right into the parlor to grab one of Mabel’s teacups.
“Hey,” Devon says, appearing in the room.“I take it you heard.”
“Yeah,” I reply and pick up a pink tea cup.“Have you heard any updates?”
“No.Everyone left as soon as the sun went down.”His eyes go to the bite marks on my neck but looks away when I notice him looking.“Did you find your parents?”
It feels like yesterday happened ages ago, though the thought of Xavier naked on top of me inside the mausoleum is fresh in my mind.“I found their graves.”
“Oh, Wren, I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks, and it’s okay…or it’s not.”I shake my head.“I’ll deal with it later.”
“Right.Mabel.”
I hold his gaze for a second and then nod.“I couldn’t get the locator spell to work, and I don’t know if it’s because she’s a vampire or because I didn’t have anything of hers.I can find demons, but that’s picking up on dark energy.There’s nothing dark about Mabel.”
