Chapter 21

Isensed that something was wrong before I even turned the corner. As soon as the warehouse came into view, my entire body locked up, rage beginning to fill every cell of my body.

Glass was on the ground, and the second-story window overlooking the street was broken out. The elevator door meant for people to use was destroyed, as if someone had used a giant pry bar to peel back the metal. I pushed the button on my keyfob for the larger lift to open but got off my bike instead of pulling inside.

Once the elevator had risen to the second level, I braced myself for what I would see. As soon as the doors opened, the rage that boiled inside me caused my wings to explode from my back as my demon took control. I threw my head back and roared as I stormed forward to see the glass on the floor. There was a metal canister that had likely been filled with some kind of gas to make it easier to capture my mate lying in the middle of the floor. What was left of my control vanished at the sight of the bathroom door hanging on its hinges. There was a blanket on the floor that Kallista had probably used while trying to protect herself from the fumes.

My fist went through the wall, leaving plaster dust to scatter on the floor. Another rage-filled roar shook the entire building. As I glanced around the room, looking for something to destroy, I caught sight of our bags sitting by the service elevator. My mate had packed, and by the look of the bulging sides of the bags, she had done her best to ensure everything she owned, everything I had purchased for her, was inside them.

My tail whipped around me as I dropped to the floor beside her things. With a trembling hand, I reached out to brush lightly over the material before withdrawing and clenching it into a tight fist. Blood droplets hit the floor from the wounds my nails made in my palms as my mind searched for what to do. I needed to find her, to help her.

With renewed determination, I stumbled to my feet and wiped my bloodied hand on my leg. I was going to go straight to the vampire’s lair. From there, not a soul would survive. I would tear each of them apart with my bare hands if I had to. I would get my mate back. Until she was safely in my arms again, I would rain hell on the earth.

I bent down to pick up our bags with one hand and stalked back to the lift. There was nothing left for me in the loft. I would never be back, not to the building and never to this town.

Somehow, I wasn’t surprised to see Syn standing next to my motorcycle as I strode forward. I ignored her presence as I opened the saddlebags and began to toss the food to the ground. Once I had Kallista back, I would take her anywhere she wanted to eat. As long as it was far away from here.

“Val, please. I need to talk to you,” Syn pleaded as I continued to ignore her. I pushed Kallista’s backpack deep into the saddlebag, ensuring it was protected. “Val!” she snapped.

With a growl, I whipped my head up. I met her glare with a snarl until her face dropped. “I told you,” she pleaded, “I needed to talk to you. You were supposed to meet me for lunch, remember?”

“I don’t have time for your games, Syn!” I yelled as I turned back to latch the leather flap closed. “You need to leave. Go back to your club. Forget you ever knew me.”

Her shocked gasp sounded from behind me, but I didn’t care to look at her hurt expression. I had learned a lot about Syn over the last few days, and what I had learned told me I never knew the real her.

I swung my leg over the seat and started the engine, ready to head straight to the vampire nest I had scoped out the other day. I had zero doubts that it was them who had her. It was already heading towards noon. If they had human henchmen grab her, I still had a few hours left to get there, retrieve her, and set fire to the whole place with the vamps still in their beds.

“I murdered my mate for you.” Syn’s whispered words had me freezing. I slowly turned my head to face her, my blood turning to ice in my veins at her confession. I saw her looking down at her wrist, the same one she previously had covered with a wide bracelet. When I thought about it, I realized she’d had something on her arm the last few times I’d seen her.

The brand that was on her wrist, similar to the ones Kallista and I shared, was a faded brown. If a brand could look sickly, that one did. She stroked a finger over the blurred lines. “He wasn’t what my heart wanted. Fate failed me.” She looked up at me then, a tortured expression on her face. “From the moment I saw you, I knew no one else would do. I tried, Valen. I tried to get you to see me. When that girl was being attacked, and you stormed into my bordello to rescue a total stranger,” she sighed dramatically. “I gave you my heart. I never thought I was capable of doing that.” She laughed softly and shook her head.

I looked back on that day. I had been riding through a town, needing supplies for my horse and myself. When I heard the screams, I couldn’t have stopped myself from intervening. As I remembered it, though, I began to see things in my mind that I hadn’t noticed then. The way Syn had been sitting primly in a settee in the lobby, sipping tea, instead of going to her employee’s rescue. She had followed me up the stairs, surprised at my appearance but saying nothing to stop me.

When I had entered the small room with nothing but a bed in the corner, I immediately spotted the man striking the naked young woman repeatedly in the face as he took what he wanted from her. My vision had turned red. I had never been able to withstand the abuse of innocents, so I acted quickly, yanking him off her and punching him in the face. It wasn’t enough, though, as I listened to the young woman whimpering from the bed. I glanced back at her to see she had covered herself with a thin sheet as she wiped tears and blood from her face.

Syn had simply stood in the doorway, watching everything with a critical eye. My fury had been overwhelming as the man had screamed profanities at me and attempted to fight back. I’d used my ability to cause physical illness then without even thinking about it. It showed on his face as it began to sag, giving the appearance of melting candle wax, as his insides did the same. I could sense the damage I was causing but was unable to make myself feel sorry for what I was doing.

At the sound of the two women in the room screaming in terror at my actions, I pulled back before I had fully killed him. The illness I had inflected couldn’t be undone, though. Knowing the man would die soon, I pulled him with me out of the house. Syn had followed me, asking my name. I gave it to her, and with a nod, I’d thrown the bastard on the back of my horse and rode out to the nearest ravine before tossing him over the edge. It wasn’t a steep one, and I thought if the fall didn’t kill him, the local wildlife would finish what I’d started. It was no more than what he’d deserved. I left without a backward glance, moving back towards town and to the feed store, which had been my original destination.

Syn had found me before I’d managed to leave town. From there, she seemed to pop back up in my life occasionally. I hadn’t minded, or at least, I hadn’t stopped her from doing so. I had sensed there was more to her, the same as there was more to me. I had seen her as nothing more than a friend and the occasional fount of information for demonkind. Since I had held myself isolated for most of my existence, it was a reluctant welcome change. If she was attempting to be more than friends, I had never noticed and wouldn’t have been interested if she was.

“I never asked you to do that, Syn,” I rasped out, horrified at what she had done. I couldn’t imagine killing my mate now that I had found her. She completed me in a way I hadn’t considered possible. I could only imagine how much better my existence would be in another hundred years with her by my side. I shook my head. “I should have realized when you began pushing me to murder Kallista. You knew what would happen with the bond because you had experienced it yourself.”

Syn looked at me sadly. “I did. And I knew if you would just give me a chance, we could be perfect together.”

“Syn,” I said with a tone filled with every ounce of determination I had for her to understand my words. “I will never care for you in that way. Kallista is the only person I have ever come close to caring for. She’s my mate, and I couldn’t be prouder of that. You and I were never meant to be.”

Her shoulders drooped at my words, then stiffened as her expression changed from one of heartbreak to fierce anger. “Just so you know, that man who you left for dead in the ravine? He’s the same one who I agreed to let feed on my girls. We have been working together for the last two hundred years. I owed him for what happened in my bordello that day. We’d had an agreement then that he could do whatever he wanted to my girls as long as he paid well. You destroyed our agreement that day. He’s the one who has your precious mate.” She spit the last word out as if it were poison on her tongue.

I gritted my teeth as the implications washed over me. My mate was in the hands of a monster who’d somehow managed to survive that day. “He was made into a vampire?”

She nodded, a smile spreading over her face. “It hurts knowing the person you care for will never be in your life again, doesn’t it? Now, maybe you understand how I feel.”

I revved my engine, preparing to take off to rescue my mate before it was too late. I had no more time to waste on Syn and her vindictiveness. “If he hurts her, I am going to wrap my hands around your pretty little neck and squeeze until your head falls from your body. I can survive a beheading, can you?”

I turned my back on her and lifted my foot to leave when the unmistakable sound of a cocking gun had the hair on the back of my neck rising. “I can’t let you do that, Valen.”

I heard the loud report of a bullet leaving the chamber. It was several seconds before I registered the searing pain that consumed me as the bullet moved through bone and muscle. It tore a path straight into my heart. I knew I would survive the bullet. But before I collapsed off my motorcycle to fall face first onto the asphalt, I worried that I wouldn’t make it to my mate in time before I lost her completely.