He let out a small sigh and pulled me to him, his strong arms holding me tight. “We’re going to find them, Phoebs. I promise.”
“I know,” I snapped and jerked out of his embrace. I wasn’t sure if I was more annoyed with him or myself. This weepy person, crying in the kitchen when I should’ve already been out the door tracking them both, wasn’t me at all. And Dax of all people should’ve known that. I gritted my teeth and stared him right in the eye. “Don’t comfort me.”
“Why the hell not?” he shot back, annoyance flashing all over his handsome features. “Because I’m not your boyfriend? Not allowed to care about you? Well, I’ve got news for you, Kilsen. Just because you won’t let me back into your bed doesn’t mean I don’t give a shit about you. Got it?”
I bit back a wince, knowing I deserved his ire. His only sin was that he’d cared too much. “That’s not…” I ran a frustrated hand through my hair. “I don’t fall apart. Ever.”
“That’s an understatement,” he said, not breaking eye contact.
I gritted my teeth. “And I’m sure as hell not going to start now. Comfort is not what I need from you.”
“So what the fuck am I supposed to do? Ignore the fact that you have tears in your eyes? Jesus, Phoebe. I’m not a fucking machine. I can’t just turn off everything I’m feeling like—” He clamped his mouth closed and stared at the ceiling. “I’m not a robot.”
“Of course you aren’t,” I shot back. Then I lowered my voice and added, “I’m not either, you know.”
His unreadable gaze met mine as he waited for me to continue.
“I’m not,” I said again. “But what I need from you right now is for you to kick my ass into gear. Falling apart is not an option. I’m stronger than that. I have to be stronger than that because right now we need to be focusing on finding Willow and Talisen. And the best thing you can do is to remind me of that, not be my savior.”
“Savior?” he scoffed. “Impossible. You’d never allow that.”
I sucked in a deep breath, willing myself to not scream at him. Then I let it out, and in a controlled, emotionless tone, I said, “I’m not doing this right now. If you want a fight, it’ll have to wait.” Then I grabbed one of Willow’s energy bars off the counter, turned, and stalked out of the room, Link following at my heels.
“Shit,” I heard Dax say. “Kilsen, wait.”
I didn’t slow down as I passed Willow and Tal’s room. The door was open, revealing the enchanted tree that gave them strength in a city of concrete. My chest ached as I imagined them both locked away in some cell or building with no vegetation. Without nature, they’d both start to weaken, making them even more vulnerable. Damn.
Link turned his head, his golden eyes scanning the room. Then he shot down the stairs and paced in front of the door while he waited for me to catch up. “Don’t worry. The two of us will find them, Link.”
“The three of us will,” Dax said, reaching past me to open the door.
I met his brilliant blue eyes and said, “Thank you.”
“There’s nothing to thank me for, Kilsen,” he said. “Now get your ass out the door. We have a job to do.”
My lips twitched in amusement. He’d heard me loud and clear and was giving me exactly what I needed. And damn if that wasn’t sexy as hell. I slipped past him and headed for the Trooper. “You drive.”
He cast a glance at my gunmetal-gray Charger, his eyebrows raised.
It was a good question. Given a choice, I’d usually take mine any day of the week. But today we had company. I waved a hand at Link. “He sheds.”
Dax let out a deep laugh, shook his head, and climbed into the driver’s seat of the Trooper, not bothering to open my door.
Finally, I thought. He was learning.
* * *
“Something tells me Bell Fountain Hotels won’t be inviting the Cryrique back anytime soon,” I said as Link and I stood in the middle of the ballroom, eyeing the utter destruction. The glass on the french doors that led to the balcony had been smashed to pieces. One had been completely ripped off the hinges. Food was smeared on the walls, flower petals swam in puddles of champagne, and there was blood spatter on the floor and one of the walls. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
A muscle in Dax’s jaw pulsed as I watched the anger boil inside him. He walked over to me and pointed to the balcony. “Remember when you left? I jumped into that altercation with Leo and those fucking vampires who were taunting him.”
“Taunting?” I asked. “I thought it was just another vamp-shifter brawl. You know, when the two groups feed off the other’s hostility until one finally snaps.”
He gave me a derisive snort. “Yeah, I was expecting that too. But this was different, personal. The vampires, they knew stuff about Leo’s family, bad shit that would fuck with anyone. And they knew about his record and the fact that he took the fall for a girl of his, who ran off with his mortal enemy the moment he was locked up.”
“Ouch. That’s fucked up.”
“Tell me about it.”
“And the vampires brought that shit up at the gala? Why?” I asked.
“I had no idea at the time.” His expression turned murderous. “Now it makes sense.”
A lightbulb popped on over my head. “A distraction?”
“Exactly. Right after you walked out of the gala, one of the vamps attacked Leo. You saw him. The kid was already on the verge of shifting.”
“Let me guess. After that Leo couldn’t control himself. And once he shifted, so did half the shifters in the ballroom.”
“Half? Ha! Try three-quarters. Most of the shifters who showed up were young. Old guys like me usually don’t want anything to do with Allcot or his lackeys.”
Old guys. Dax was all of thirty years old. But I knew what he meant. The shifters at the gala had been young, early twenties like Leo and Dali, and most had been relatively new in town. “Okay, so I imagine all hell broke loose?”
“You could say that. I was busy keeping Leo from being torn apart. Meanwhile, the other shifters started attacking the vampires.”
“Why?” I asked, jerking my head back in surprise.
“Instinct. Too young to control themselves. The next thing I knew, there was a full-on brawl. The minute I got Leo away from the vamps who’d been taunting him, I hauled him outside and sent him home. Then I ran back in to find Willow and Talisen. But…”
“They were already gone?” I filled in, my heart sinking.
He nodded then dropped his head, appearing defeated. When he glanced back up, sorrow and determination and guilt were shining back at me. “There is no doubt in my mind it was a setup. Everything from you being called away to the attack on Leo. The vampires did this. They took Willow and Talisen. I’m sure of it.”
The night’s events replayed in my mind. The redheaded vamp had been embarrassingly easy to find considering he’d done nothing to alter his appearance even after an alert had been issued for his description. I hadn’t thought about it much at the time, but usually vampires weren’t that stupid, not if they were trying to stay below the radar. But he definitely hadn’t been. He’d waited for me to see him before he’d fled the strip club. He’d stayed nearby, making sure he’d be easy to track. Then he’d stalked right out into the street and all but challenged me to a duel.
I cursed. I’d thought we’d been set up. Now I was sure of it. “We’ve definitely been played.”
6
“Have you tracked Allcot down yet?” I asked Dax.
He shook his head. “While the healer was working on you, I got ahold of one of his vampires. He told me Talisen and Willow had been taken by one of the rival hives. He claimed he didn’t know where Allcot was. Said the entire inner circle at Cryrique is in a frenzy.”
“Do you believe him?” It was hard to imagine the Cryrique vampires being anything but in control. Allcot ran a tight ship. If what the contact said was true, it was possible Allcot wasn’t responsible for Willow and Tal’s disappearance, and if he wasn’t, it sounded like they’d been just as surprised as we’d been.