Page 21 of Blood and Bonbons

“It couldn’t be him,” Vena mumbled, fingering the broken chain. “Miles was at our house when it was still light out and left before dark. And he never touched the ring.”

“What are you talking about? What’s going on, Vena?”

She turned to me, her blue eyes darker with the intensity of her gaze.

“The vampire was gone when I got there, Ev. No sign of him. I told you to get here because we need Miles to tell us what to do next. Returning the ring and hoping the vampire doesn’t wake before the scent of your blood fades is no longer an option.”

I sat heavily on the bed.

“Don’t freak out,” she said. “We’re safe. It’s not even noon, and the sun is shining. But we need to find Miles.”

“You think the vampire took him?”

Vena looked at the chain in her hand then dropped it beside me to focus on his phone.

“No, this has to be something else. It doesn’t make sense for the vampire to come here and not to our house. It was your blood, your scent, that he would follow.”

“So what do you think happened? Where is Miles?”

“I’m not sure. The charm should have protected Miles from whatever wanted to hurt him.”

“From supernaturals. But what if a human attacked Miles?”

She glanced at me. “The front door wasn’t damaged, right?”

“No, it seemed fine.”

“Check the windows,” she said, lifting her phone to her ear.

As I inspected the window frames, I listened to her report to the police that Miles had possibly been kidnapped.

“They’re sending someone over,” she said, pocketing her phone and unlocking Miles’.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to look through his phone.”

“For what?”

“Any hint about who might want to kidnap Miles.”

“The window in here looks okay,” I said. “I’ll check the rest. You should look in the living room at what he’s researching. He’s got papers everywhere. Stuff about how to kill vampires and random things about creature sightings.”

Vena nodded and turned to leave the room without looking up from Miles’ phone.

I followed her out and tried not to let fear overwhelm me. We had been twelve when her grandparents disappeared during a hunting expedition–of the treasure variety–almost ten years ago. I could still remember how the days had turned into weeks and the agony of Vena’s heartbreak over not knowing what had happened.

I didn’t want her to go through that again.Ididn’t want to go through that again.

Each window I inspected turned out like the rest of the apartment, battered by age but undisturbed.

“None of the windows are broken or look like they were forced open,” I said.

Vena paused scrolling through the phone and glanced at me. “This doesn’t make any sense,” she repeated. “The charm’s chain was broken, and his phone was left behind. That sounds human, but then there should be signs of a break-in.” She sighed as she deflated into a chair at the table. “This morning, I’d only been worried about the vampire.”

My stomach twisted at the reminder. Or from the dick cake. I frowned and rubbed my middle.

“It looked like Miles was worried about the vampire, too,” I said, nodding at the table littered with vampire information. “But I didn’t see anything that would help our situation. Did you find anything in Miles’ phone? A threatening message? A booty call text that made him run out the door so fast he forgot his phone and broke his necklace?”

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