“That is news indeed,” Marcus responds, excitement evident on his face.
Ever since that day, mother has stars in her eyes at the thought that I will finally settle down, with a bloodline vampire of my own. Marcus, always the strategist, believes that uniting Elina and myself through a bond will bring an end to any potential war.
Whatever their motivations, I am grateful to have their support in the search.
As we walk, side-by-side down Royal Street toward St Phillip, we keep our heads down and our senses on high alert. We are making our way toward the bar—I like to finish my nights there, if only to feel slightly closer to my heart, which feels as if it has been ripped from my chest.
“Do you- do you smell that?” Jack’s whisper breaks through my concentration. My head snaps up and I breath-in deeply as we reach the corner.
It’s her. I know it’s her. It’s so faint I might have missed it ifnot for Jack, but it’s definitely her. I freeze in the middle of the road. My head swims with the realization that she is here somewhere. After weeks of nothing, she’s here. I don’t know where but I know it’s her.
“Yes,” I answer in a hushed whisper. “Where? Where is it coming from?”
He prowls around in larger and larger circles, starting in the middle of the empty street and moving outwards, until he reaches the sidewalk. He stops atop the sewer opening and scents the air. We are at the intersection surrounded by buildings. Hotel Royal is across the intersection with its mirrored windows and a retail shop with apartments above it is on my left. A restaurant with tables overlooking the street on my right, and an empty parking lot. I scan the windows and balconies around us, trying to see or hear anything. I tilt my head curiously toward the mirrored windows. Something that appeared so innocuous before is fairly suspicious now. We have knocked on these doors before but I never got the feeling she was here and we’ve never smelled her despite walking here, every day, for two weeks.
Leaning down, he puts his face closer to a grate set into the curb. “Here. I can smell her here.”
I walk closer and follow his movements—her scent gets stronger the closer I get to the opening. There are dozens of other scents emanating from the sewer but I can tell it’s her mixed in. “Get it open.” I point to a manhole cover in the sidewalk as I pull a phone from my pocket. “Meet us at the corner of Royal and St Phillip. Hurry. We found something.”
I hang up before I get a response, as Jack lifts the sewer cover and jumps into the hole. I peer down at him, watching him scent the fetid air before I drop in next to him.
“This way.” He points to his left and starts moving, me following closely on his heels. We walk, maybe 10 feet, before Ihear splashes behind me. I immediately crouch in a defensive position until I recognize Sarah and Ethan’s presence.
Standing upright, I press a finger to my lips and motion them to follow.
Jack leans up and rubs his fingers across a pipe draining into the sewer, pulling them back; bloodied. He holds them out to me and I inhale a lungful of a familiar scent, the first in weeks—Elina. And it's coming from the blood on his fingertips. The pipe that is dripping Elina’s blood into the sewer disappears into the concrete ceiling.
That’s her blood. Her life dripping from a disgusting sewer pipe into dark dirty water flowing over my shins. I feel relief at knowing she's here, but the idea that someone is hurting her, making her bleed, fills my chest with an emotion so far beyond rage that I can’t think straight.
Red clouds my vision as I lose control.
I scream out in frustration before ripping a pipe that is hanging over my head out of the ceiling. I smash it into the wall, rage lashing out of me like a whip.
“I will kill them all,” I whisper, my wrath like a living creature inside me, writhing around, trying to find an outlet and building up to an explosion.
