Chapter 31

THIRTY-ONE

BASH

Gaston had warned us we’d have to be patient. He warned us we had to wait for Riven to show up at his own club. But twenty-four hours later when we presented the bouncer with our cards, I knew we were all praying he’d be in there. The vampires of Fourth Realm could not withstand sunlight so we felt it safe to assume he would not appear during the day.

Collins’ condition hadn’t changed, for better or worse, which was both good and bad.

The club lounge looked exactly as it had the night before, just with a different set of clients. It was a little more crowded than before. Stellan suggested that meant it was a trap. Ellie assured him that adult humans were too exhausted on Mondays to go out, so most clubs had ladies’ night on Tuesdays. And given how the ratio of women-to-men was 3-to-1, I suspected Ellie was right.

The bouncer didn’t even glance in our direction as he moved the velvet rope out of our way so we could head back down the dark hallway. With every step I took, my pulse shot up. My chest was tight and hot. My stomach was in knots. Please be here, please be here, please be here.

I stepped inside the Marceau room and cursed.

It was empty.

Again.