“Her necklace,” Kain sighs sadly. “She did not have it on when we left, I will go and get it from her room.” He stalks out of the library and it's as if the witch holds her breath until he returns.
“Thank you,” she says as he hands her the necklace. “I’ll search for Fallon first, since she is easiest to look for, but after, I will look for Remy too, in case they’ve been separated.”
Levi nods at her but hovers close to the table she’s standing by anyway. I stop pacing and stare out of one of the huge windows in here that look over the back of the property. So much lush green, it helps settle my wolf a little more, trying to focus on that rather than the fact that we can’t feel our mate right now.
My heart rate spikes at the thought, and I curl my hands into fists that burn as my nails grow sharper as they change to claws. I take a deep breath and remind myself that tearing shit apart isn’t going to help anyone right now.
I turn back to the room. The witch has a dozen or so candles lit, and a world map laid out. I swear to anyone who’s listening, if she isn’t even in this country, I’m going to break shit. Probably people’s skulls.
The witch slices her hand, her blood dropping onto the page, chanting something I don’t fucking understand, but all of the hairs on my body stand up and I shiver. I fucking hate magic. It might be of the earth, but every single instinct tells me it's bad and shouldn’t be fucked with. The candle flames flare and she opens her eyes. Her face falls, and her heart races as she looks at the map and she murmurs, “That can’t be right.”
That does not sound fucking good.
She reaches over and picks up Remy’s necklace in her bloody hand, and starts to chant once more. Again, my body reacts to the bullshit magic, but I’ll withstand all of it if it means we find Remy. The candles flare again, but when she opens her eyes after her chant, I feel it in my gut before she even utters a word.
“I can’t find them.” Her words are barely more than a whisper.
“What the fuck do you mean you can’t find them?” I snarl, my patience wearing thin.
“I mean, I can’t find them. The spell can’t find them. They’re gone.”
“What do you mean, gone?” Levi roars.
“I mean, it’s as if their power is no longer on this plane. They’re gone. Untraceable.”
Chapter Three
Remy
I wake to water dripping onto my face. I blink as my eyes open, the water running down my cheeks, and the sound of a low chuckle as I try to wipe it away.
Fucking Nevin.
“Wakey, wakey.” The glee in his voice is like nails on a chalkboard, and I want to rip his vocal chords out. It might be irrational, but so is fucking drugging me, kidnapping me, and chaining me to a goddamn wall, all because my boyfriend doesn’t love him.
“What the fuck do you want, Nevin?” I snap.
“Oh, so she does still have some bite.” He grins as I pull myself to stand. “You slept through my fun with your friend.” I look over to Fallon and see the bruises on her face, the swollen, bleeding lip, and throw myself at him.
“You’re fucking lucky that you’ve got me chained, because even without my powers, I’d tear you a-fucking-part. You’re nothing more than a bratty coward,” I spit.
“If I had my way, you’d be dead already.” His grin is malicious and he moves closer, until he’s almost nose to nose with me.
“Oh right, you’re just a dog on a leash,” I snarl, and his grin widens.
“Maybe I am, but this dog had a nice visit with your boys. They have no fucking idea what’s going on. They’re spiraling, and they’re going to fall right where we want them. Everyone you hold dear is going to die because of you. All except for Levi. He will be accepted back into the fold.”
“You’re fucking delusional.” I step backwards, because being that close to his crazy just makes me want to vomit. My stomach flips just at the thought of his words being real. I didn’t think he’d left this fortress, but really, that was wishful thinking. I have no idea what’s going on outside of this room. But it could all still be lies.
“I know you think so, but that’s because you have no idea of the enormity of it. You’ve barely scratched the surface. So many chess pieces are still in play. You’ve done nothing more than take a few pawns from the board.” His maniacal laugh sends a shiver down my spine, but I don’t let him see that I’m affected. He’s bluffing, he has to be. We’ve cut off so much of the forces that they were using. They no longer have the demons, the Hunters, and they never had the Dracul.
“You’re nothing but a liar. I will get out of here, and when I do, you had better run and hide. Not that it will help you, because I will hunt you to the ends of fucking existence and make you regret everything you’ve done to us.”
“Oh Remy,” he chuckles. “So much fire. It's a shame to put an end to you, but you can’t be as easily manipulated as those around you. It's a bit of a waste, but all I want is you gone, so I’m happy.”
“Why? Why are you working with Gabriel? You and he have never seen eye to eye.”
“Or so you and everyone thought. Gabriel has been a very good friend of mine for a long time. This isn’t some whim. We’ve been working towards this all for a while.” I roll my eyes because he sounds ridiculous. It might not be a whim, but it's some crazy ass stalker vibes going on over here.
“If you say so.” My words make me sound unaffected as I slide down the wall to sit back on the hard floor.
“You’re just here as a lure, Remy. Otherwise, you’d be dead. Remember that.”
“If that’s the case, why keep Fallon here? Why not just kill me anyway? We both know they’d come for me either way, because that’s what love is. They’ll fight for me even if I’m gone.” He hisses at my words and I smile at him.
“You know he’ll never love you, right?”
His eyes narrow to slits as he watches me while he practically shakes with rage.
“Even if he might have found it in himself to love you in his own way once so long ago, after all of this, he will never love you. All any of this will do is make him hate you. This is a lose-lose for you Nevin. I almost pity you, since you don’t seem to see it.”
His hand cracks across my face, hard enough to make my vision dance, but it just makes me smile. I’m getting to him, if I can knock him off balance, even a little, just enough that I can think of a way to get us out of this fucking mess, then I’ll be happy. “You have no fucking clue.”
He stalks from the room, leaving the bottle of water behind. I don’t dare to try and drink it, in case it has more of whatever they’ve been giving me in it. But fuck, my throat is dry. I pull on the chains again, searching for weaknesses in them or in their fastenings to the wall. Now that my wrists have healed a little, it's not as painful as it was, but the skin is still red and raw. Apparently salted iron really isn’t my fucking friend. Though, I think they’ve coated the cuffs in something, because the actual chains don’t ruin my skin the way the cuffs are fucking with my wrists and ankles.