Chapter 23
Bash
“Mother, tell me you have something,anything,” I ask her desperately, a note of pleading in my voice. “It's been more than a day since she was taken.” It’s Saturday night. She disappeared sometime Friday.
“Maybe. I have been having some trusted members of my enthrall and my sirelings track Talia’s movements around the city. She went to a nightclub last night after the meeting with Marcus, while we were here. She stayed inside until right before dawn.” She watches me. I fidget nervously, stilling myself when I realize. Vampires do not fidget. “She went back to the club tonight as soon as the moon rose. If she follows the same pattern today, of not emerging until sunrise, I am ordering the enthrall to search the building tomorrow.”
“What? Why would you wait until tomorrow? You’ll go now! She is my entire life and it’s been stolen!”
“If we burst into a club full of humans and vampires to search the building, not only will we draw attention to ourselves, we will alert Talia to something. If she disappears,we won’t have anything to go on. I know you’re worried, but you need to be patient.”
“Patience.” I shake my head and walk out.
Knowing that I am about to walk into my loft and find Sarah and Ethan waiting for news makes me feel sick. I don’t want to tell them that they trusted me with the most important thing in their lives, except each other, and I lost her. I failed to keep her safe.
Jumping up onto the roof of the cathedral, I crouch like a predator in shadow. I watch the vampires move through the Quarter below. Looking for anything that will help. Anything that will lead us to her.
I watch Talia approach. Mother just said she was at the club. Now she is here. Maybe the club is a dead end. Mother was right, we need to be patient.
I watch her. She seems unusually light, happy even. Happy while my world is falling apart around me. What have I done to deserve this?
I stay perched on the roof like the night stalker I am masquerading as. She enters the church and I wait.
And wait.
She finally emerges and I run across the roof to keep her in my line of vision. She turns a corner and I take chase, jumping across rooftops as quietly as I can while I track her on the ground. A few blocks away, she turns ahead of me and before I am back on her tail, she disappears. Like, actuallygonein thin air. Seems to be an epidemic in this city.
I jump down from the roof, landing heavily on the empty street, looking around for any traces of where she may have left behind. I don’t see anywhere she could have gone. Nothing is even open on this street—it’s all human businesses.
I swing hard at the support post for the balcony above me—crack—splintering the wood.
“Bash!” Sarah runs to me as soon as I enter the apartment. “Anything? Any news?” Dropping my head down, I feel myself start to shake. My knees give out from under me and I hit the carpet.
Kneeling, I think about all the times I knelt at Elina’s feet, trying to show her the depth of my devotion to her. How priceless she is to me. I ache to cry.
Ethan kneels beside me and puts his arms around me as Sarah hits her knees next. We collapse into each other, limbs tangled, breaths shared, our grief held tight between us.
Elina was the magnet that drew us together and we need her here—our glue. We have to find her. My shoulders shake, my breathing ragged, as grief suffocates me. Sarah cries against my shoulder and Ethan holds us both while we lay our wounds open for each other to see.
“We will find her, Bash. We have to.” Sarah sucks in a lungful of air, sounding as though it is a tremendous effort. “I’ve been thinking.”
I raise my eyes to her. “Something to help Elina?”
She hesitates for a minute. “Maybe? Kind of. I think I am ready to turn. I want to help. I don’t want to be stuck here like a useless human.”
I shake my head at her. “No, Sarah. You would be a baby vampire—weaker, volatile, driven by blood. If Elina found out I did this only because you wanted to help, she would extinguish me, herself.”
She balls her fists and pushes her shoulders back, taking in a few deep breaths.
“No! You don’t get to hide behind what Elina would wantor what Elina would do.” Her outburst surprises me and I look at her appraisingly. “Elina was mine before she was yours. She is the other half of my soul too.” A sob escapes her. “And I am broken without her. I need to help. I’m ready. Just like she is.”
“Ok, Sarah. If you’re serious and truly understand what is going to happen now, then I’ll do it.”
“I’m ready.”
Something about her, one of the only other people in this city as committed to finding Elina as I am, deciding she is done wallowing in grief steels my spine. I take a few more deep breaths and tell myself that I am done being upset, done falling into a black hole of terror and anguish. I will find her, I will bring her home, and I will make her mine,in eterno.
“Let’s do it,” I say. Excitement and love fills Ethan’s eyes. I’m impressed that he was able to hold his opinions to himself and let Sarah stand on her own. I wouldn’t have listened to him either way, this is and should be Sarah’s decision, but I’m surprised nonetheless.
