Asher’s head pops around the bedroom door. “This morning?”
Of course he was listening, though he has the grace not to react when Vlad turns so I can look at him properly. “Yeah, apparently. Plus, some people have noticed that no one official seems to be talking about what’s going on. That’s less surprising, I guess.”
“Why would they kill another one?” Asher asks.
“Eirian is likely running more experiments,” Vlad says and casts a significant look at the window. “I believe she now knows that giving a vampire her blessing is not enough to protect them from the sun.”
“Great,” Asher mutters. He opens his mouth again, but before he can say any more, the door to the flat slams open and Margot comes running in.
“Rachel,” she says, breathing fast. “She’s not come back?”
I shake my head and pull out my phone, checking the time. “She’s been gone for like forty-five minutes.”
“Yeah, and I followed her probably a minute after she left and nothing. I’ve been to every spot she’d go. She’s not there.”
“She may well be fine,” Asher says, tone immediately grounding. “We’ll take a look, okay? I’m sure it’s all okay.”
Margot shakes her head, breaths coming fast. “No. I know something is wrong, I know—”
Quinn gently takes her by the shoulders and guides her to the sofa, then sits next to her. I turn in a circle and spot the laptop sitting on a bookcase. “Does she have her phone on her, do you think?”
“Yeah,” Margot says. “I tried ringing her, and it rang and rang, but she didn’t answer.”
Not off, then. I grab the laptop and take a seat next to Margot. “Tell me she’s got one of those find my friend things turned on.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Vladimir
Thedecisionismadeto leave me behind. I am not at all pleased about it, of course, but there is nothing I can do. I cannot go outside while the sun is up. I cannot demand that Grant remain behind with me while his cousin is missing.
I am also more than old enough to have a handle on my emotions, so I tell Asher that I will join them should they stillbe searching once it is dark, and that I will ring should Rachel return home in the meantime.
Grant kisses me before he leaves. It mollifies some of the unjustifiable hurt.
Once they are gone, I pace. I am not the one to be left behind, not usually, and when I must be, Jeremiah and Maurice are in the exact same boat. It is easy to ignore our limitations when there are so many of us. Vampires have always outnumbered other species in the Hunt, even accounting for Rook and Saide.
They had the same limitation, after all. Looking back, I believe their tolerance to the sun is somewhat better than mine, but not by much.
I am careful not to wander over to the window. My eyes still sting, and perhaps it would have been better to take the chance and attempt to convince Grant to heal me. No matter what, we will not be parted. I must make sure he understands that. I must make him understand, also, that the bond we currently share is far more than I ever could have imagined. Vampires do not bond like wolves, and I expected that one day I might find a partner in the same way I would have when human, only we would have had so much more time to spend together.
The floor is quiet but not silent. The other residents have retreated to their flats, and the crowd below is beginning to disperse with no visits here, so whatever pull Margot has with the police department has worked, at least in this case. I move the chair Grant fixed back to its place at the small table in one corner of the living room, then straighten up the sofa and other areas we have disturbed.
That done, I pace again. I am not bored. I am restless. And I cannot call Maurice because he needs to rest before he comes here.
I pull my phone from my pocket. I could call Jeremiah, though he is unlikely to remain on the line simply to entertain me orsoothe my worries. Moreau maybe, but it was made clear we were not to disturb him once he left London, and I have broken that once this week already.
A floorboard creaks outside and I put my phone back into my pocket. It is likely just someone from one of the other flats, but I walk over to the door all the same and peek out through the peephole.
I see no one, but that does not mean no one is there. Perhaps they are on a different floor. Perhaps they have already made their way downstairs. Perhaps—
“Oh, I had hoped to find you all here.”
I whirl around, blessing flaring, but Eirian is already standing there, leaning back against the bookcase. As I watch, she reaches out and tugs the bags we have used to cover the broken window from the frame, and light falls across her, golden and warm.
I bite back a hiss and drop my gaze. I will not be harmed in my body unless I step into the light, but of course, it can affect my eyes when I look at it. If it is reflected at me, too—I take a few steps to the left, and Eirian laughs.
“Don’t worry, little vampire. I’m not here to kill you.”
