Ben rolls his eyes, and for a second, my vision goes red. It’s over. It’s fucking over, and it’s been over since before I even realised anything was wrong.
I turn on my heel and leave the room. My pulse thunders in my ears as I snatch my keys and wallet from the kitchen side, and I’m only half-aware of the fact that Ben is following me, repeatedly saying my name likehe’sexhausted, as thoughhehas any right to feel anything but guilt and remorse.
“Come on,” he says from the doorway when I storm out into the night. “Let’s talk about this, okay? I didn’t know you’d get this upset, baby, or I wouldn’t have done it.”
“Stop fucking lying to me!” I scream, whirling on him, and for a second, he looks taken aback. “I can’t—I don’twantto be anywhere near you right now. Fuck you!”
“You’re overreacting.”
“I’m reacting just fine.” I spot movement past him, where the other guy, now dressed, is clearly trying to make a surreptitious escape. “I hope you’re both fucking happy together.”
Not my best line, considering I definitely have to come back and get all my shit at some point, but I don’t really care.
My hands are shaking as I shove the keys into the ignition and I grip the steering wheel extra tightly as I drive away. The rear-view mirror blurs through my tears, so I can’t see if Ben is still standing there or if the other guy is leaving.
It’s late enough, empty enough, that it takes no time at all to leave the city behind. I press the accelerator down and rub a hand over my face, wiping away tears. I can’t work out whether I’m angry or hurt or sad—probably all three, but as the landscape changes around me, I know I’m driving
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Grant
Theoutsideoftheclub looks dismal in the daylight. It’s the only thing I’ve seen in the sun so far that I don’t like, though that might be more down to the way it makes my skin crawl than the actual aesthetic.
Margot strides off ahead, trying the doors, but of course they don’t open.
“You really think she’s here?” Asher asks. He’s being pragmatic, I know. We don’t have any proof that Rachel is missing, and looking up her phone revealed nothing. She might have turned it off, but that only made Margot more frantic. She’d never do that, apparently.
“No,” Margot snaps, “but we don’t have any better ideas, do we?”
We’ve not had a call from Vlad, so she’s not at their flat. Margot spent an hour calling around all their friends, spreading the word, but no one has seen her, and I know Margot thinks it’s an hour wasted, even though it’s not.
“Let’s go around the back,” I say, and some of Margot’s temper cools as she stalks off.
We all follow. Asher hovers closer to Quinn than I’ve noticed him do the entire time they’ve been here. I get it. We’ve all got people we can lose.
Vlad is safe, at least. He’ll join us once it goes dark, and I’m sure that once he’s here, we’ll find her. She’s probably fine, has likely retreated somewhere to think everything through. I scowl and run my fingers over the brick of the building next to the club as we make our way down the alley. Ten years ago even, I’m sure I would have known all the places she could be. Things have changed. This place has changed. We’ve both changed.
Margot tries the back door, but that’s locked, too. She levels a glare at Asher. “Open it.”
“I’m not that good at lockpicking.”
“You know what I mean. Please. What if she’s in there?”
Asher looks at me, eyebrows raised, and I ask my power to reach out, but I butt up against wards almost immediately. Those weren’t there the other night. “Wards,” I mutter, and he sighs.
“I’m not sure we’ll even be able to get in then,” he says, but he hunkers down next to the door all the same. Quinn takes upposition at his back, watching down the alley to make sure we don’t get caught.
The wards were not designed to prevent non-magical breaking in, seems like, because Asher picks the lock quickly. I push my power out around us. The wards feel more like a deterrent than a warning, but we’re going to have to be fast.
“They’ll know we’re here,” I say as the door swings open. The corridor beyond is dark and uninviting.
“Let them,” Margot says. She strides down the corridor, the torch on her phone lighting the way, and I scurry after her. Asher sighs before he and Quinn follow.
Asher must shut the door behind us because the corridor is suddenly darker than it was before. I blink quickly, then frown. Seems like spending time in the sun has done something to my vision—I can see better in the dark than I could when I was human, but not as well as I could last night. I blink again. Maybe it’ll just take some adjusting. I hope I don’t lose the ability completely. That would suck; we hardly ever have lights on in the house if we’re just walking from place to place.
Margot pushes another door open and we walk out into the club itself. It’s almost eerie during the day, with how empty and quiet it is. I reach out with my magic again. For a second, something brushes against it, but in the next instant, it’s gone.
“Someone’s here,” I murmur.
