“Let’s check her old apartment,” he answered, turning around abruptly.
“I was thinking that too.” I followed after him, taking the cup of coffee with me. Maggie would hand me my ass if I left food or drinks to stink up the place for who knew how long. “Maybe she knew hewould be here and was trying to avoid him.”
He gave me a strange look. “She knows he’s here?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Kai actually gave him a room in her old place and she’s been hiding with me ever since he arrived. Only found out he was her brother when he showed up uninvited at the house and she freaked out.”
“If you guys weren’t dry-humping like crazed animals, you would have felt I was there.”
Aghen walked quickly behind us and Dimitri glared at him over his shoulder as he opened the door for us to leave.
“Why are you even coming with us?” he asked him.
Aghen gave an innocent, toothy smile. “I’m just heading back home. The apartment whereIlive.” Dimitri let out a grunt, nearly closing the door in Aghen’s face. “She’s not there anyway.”
“How would you know?” I asked.
“Because I live there. She’s been avoiding that place like the plague ever since I moved in.”
“And yet you still can’t read the fucking room,” Dimitri grumbled.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Dimitri stopped abruptly and spun around, his hand landing on Aghen’s throat, pushing him against the wall.
“You knowexactlywhat I mean. She had no fucking clue you were still alive. That you’ve been looking for her all this time, all because you can’t deal with the guilt over whatyouractions caused. Well, newsflash, you showing up here? It won’t bring any fucking good. Because that’s what you alwaysfuckingdo, mess up everything and everyone. You messed up Amyntas. You messed up your sister. You—”
“You and Ibothknow it was Nefertari’s fault, she—”
“Would have been easy to deal with,” Dimitri interrupted sharply. “If you hadn’t been a prick and avoided your mate, maybe he wouldn’teven have consideredmineto be his fucking Maiden. If you hadn’t blabbed about all this to your father in front of your manipulative mother, things could have gone completely differently.”
“If Anastasia hadn’t sold her fucking soul and lost the soul shard in the process we’d—”
Dimitri shoved him harder against the wall. “You don’t get to judge her for something you imposed on her.Youwere selfish.Youshoved the shard in her because you saw the opportunity to be free from this burden. She didn’t ask for this, we just wanted her to be free from being sold as a fucking Dragon breeder. So know your fucking place, and keep your misplaced anger to yourself, she doesn’t deserve any of it.”
He pressed his hand one more time around Aghen’s throat before stepping back and resuming his walk out of the building.
“Let’s find her,” he said to me as I walked behind him, ignoring Aghen joining us, rubbing at his throat with a dark look. “And I’m counting on you not to let this asshole get to her. He has no right to blame anything on her.”
The rest of the way toward Lola’s apartment was quick and quiet. As we stopped in front of the building door, waiting for Aghen to open it for us, I somehow knew she wouldn’t be here. ButmaybeMarcus would know where she was.
As soon as the door was unlocked, Dimitri pushed his way inside, walking past the vampire to climb the stairs two at a time. Aymeric opened the apartment with a confused look.
“Hi?” he said, frowning as he surveyed all three of us. “Can I help you?”
Aymeric moved to the side, letting us in.
“We haven’t seen Lola all day,” I said. “We thought that maybe she hid herself here? We had a bit of a…disagreement.”
Said disagreement being her wanting more sex and us only wanting her to get some rest. Who knew she would pout about it?
Aymeric tilted his head to the side. “I’m sorry, I haven’t seen her today. Have you checked the Archives?”
Dimitri nodded. “She isn’t there.”
“And hasn’t been there all day,” Aghen continued.
“Do you know where Marcusis?” I asked.
