"Are you kidding me? He has four different hairbrushes. I will take some from one of those," Valentine replied with a shrug. "That is, of course, if Apollo doesn't talk his way out of the situation and they end up giving him back. He will probably annoy them so much that they dump him in sheer frustration."
"Really funny," Lachlan replied, pulling on his jeans. "These fuckers aren't amateurs."
"Neither is Apollo. I know you see him as some delicate unicorn, but he can be a right fucker himself. He knows this kind of magic, especially if the Sanguis Vitae are still primarily interested in alchemy. He will find a way to escape, or we will rescue him."
"Gods, you're so cold about this." Lachlan found a shirt and put it on, his ribs barking in pain.
Valentine gave him a scathing smile. "One of us needs to be. You can't see past the hearts in your eyes. My brother isn't a fool. He will handle the situation until we find him. Now, show me this van."
Charlotte caught Lachlan by the arm. "Please be gentle with yourself for the next few hours. Let the patches work, and I'll prepare others to take with you wherever you end up going."
"Thanks, cousin," Lachlan said and hugged her. "And thank you for getting me off the road."
"That was Valentine, but I helped clean you up. Passing out on asphalt is never a good idea."
Lachlan looked at Valentine. "Thanks."
"You called me, and I tracked your phone. I was in the area," Valentine replied and made a hurry-up gesture. "Reeve? Call Dad and update him. Get him to find some of Apollo's hair, just in case. Ask him to check the archives about the Sanguis Vitae."
"Will do," Reeve said, already reaching for his phone.
Lachlan hobbled down to the elevator and tried to swallow the panic bubbling up his throat.
"You need to breathe, Lachie. You are no use to him if you panic," Valentine said, getting in beside him.
"I can't help it. I got the van brought here. I had a bad feeling about moving him from the estate, but he insisted on leaving. I shouldn't have let him go," Lachlan replied.
Valentine laughed softly. "You really are naive if you think you could stop Apollo from leaving if he wanted to. This isn't your fault, Lachlan. We will find him. Don't you worry about that."
Lachlan nodded, but he didn't feel any better. He should never have let Apollo out of his bed.
"I'm concerned about what they want with him. If they want his opinion as an alchemist, why not approach him through conventional means? Why go through the drama of kidnapping if they didn't mean to hurt him? They know who our families are and still thought it was worth the risk."
"Which tells us what?" Valentine pushed as they stepped out of the elevator.
"That they are idiots or powerful enough to think they could stand against the family."
"They could be desperate."
"They didn't seem desperate." Lachlan's voice hardened. "The guy who killed himself said Apollo was a prize. Like they were big game hunters or some shit."
"Troubling. Let me have a look at what I can find on the body. Have you searched it yet?"
Lachlan shook his head. "No. Apollo was a mess, vomiting up whatever they had dosed him with. I didn't want to leave him. I was going to call you or Cosimo in because the magic was fuckedup, Val. I've never seen anything like it. He used his own blood to kill himself rather than be taken."
Valentine was silent as they walked through the house and outside toward the van parked behind the estate.
"Blood magic is dark magic, but it has its uses," he finally said. "He was a true believer if he was willing to kill himself rather than be questioned."
"A true believer in what?"
Valentine shrugged. "It's what we need to find out. What I remember about them is too old to be really useful. Back then, alchemy was an art being practiced all over Europe. Catherine was fascinated by it, and that makes sense, considering she was a Medici. The Sanguis Vitae was focused on what all the alchemists were chasing at that time."
"Turning lead into gold?" Lachlan asked, reaching for his limited knowledge of alchemy.
"Among other things. Primarily, they wanted the secrets of the Philosopher's Stone. No one really knows what it is. The lead-into-gold thing was generally told to their rich patrons because the rich always want more gold," Valentine explained.
They opened the back doors of the van, and Lachlan straightened the body out. It hadn't begun to smell yet, but they would have to cremate it soon enough. Valentine wasted no time going through the guy's pockets.
