39. Alec

39

ALEC

Nora wasn’t in her tower.

The door was left unlocked, but she was gone. For the first time, I felt the connection to her in full. Something was terribly wrong. Dread iced my chest, a sense of foreboding filling me.

Our souls were converging. I was remembering all of the terrible things I’d done over the years. All of the deaths. I may have been a monster, but I wasn’t the only one that plagued St. Thorn. It was the Dean, The Hunt, the men that sought power. They felt the need to sacrifice their own students so they could receive whatever dark gift they believed I could give them.

I offered them nothing.

My head pounded as I stumbled down the path. Where was Nora? Where had she gone?

Thoughts of her rolled through my mind. I remembered our first night together, all of the details now. The way that I played with myself, the way that I made myself jealous. I let out a dark laugh as I stumbled forward, heading towards the maze.

She was my mate. The day that I had bit into her, I had no idea what I was doing. But I was sealing our fate completely, although maybe that had happened the night of the murders. The night that I'd watched her kill the professors, and instead of stopping her hand, enjoyed the vision of her in red.

I entered between the hedges, weaving down the path until I came to the greenhouse. I went to the door and pulled it open, stepping inside.

“Nora?” I called.

My voice echoed through the conservatory. I blew out a breath, searching for her. Listening for her. She had to be close. She had to be okay.

If anyone touched her, I would kill them without hesitation. Even before the monster and I were one, I hadn't shied away from murder. Knowing what and who I was now, those urges had only magnified. I would burn the entire world down for her. I would take down this university brick by fucking brick.

My senses heightened. The scent of earth was strong, permeated with the metallic stamp of blood. My mouth was dry from screaming in the forest. Even disguised as a human, power flooded my veins, saturating every muscle as I spun around.

Bump. Bump. Bump.

My heart thrashed in my chest as I listened for my mate. Where was Nora? Where had she gone?

She had known. I knew exactly the moment that she realised I was a monster. Her mind had put two and two together and she’d never once run from either one of us.

I felt as if a lens had been lifted and I could see the world in a new light. One that was rich in the most depraved darkness, but it was that darkness where Nora and I thrived. It was where we belonged.

Why am I feeling things so strongly ?

Because I am whole again.

The monstrous voice was no longer separated. The voice was just my own.

“Nora!” I called again.

There was no answer. I heard a shuffle of movement behind me and turned as Jacob entered the greenhouse. He held up his hands.

“I’m here on her behalf, Alec,” he said quickly. “Nora was taken by the Dean, and then she killed him.”

“Fuck,” I whispered. I rushed towards him, grabbing him by the shoulders. “Where is she? Why would he have taken her?”

“They found Louis,” Jacob said. “Harold has lost his mind over it. The two of them were way closer than you probably even knew. They went to Nora, and brought her to the university. Then she attacked the Dean.”

Once, I would have been surprised by that. But now that I knew everything that had happened, I wasn't. Nora, like me, had moments where she was merciless. And just like me, she could flip it off with a switch, doing what she needed to do.

Nora, I will find you. Getting to her was crucial. The tension I felt through our bond right now was the only thing that had ever frightened me.

“She wants you to leave,” Jacob said with a grimace. I growled, shaking my head, he held up his hands again. “She claimed that she killed you as well so that you can run off and be free from everything… I take it that means that you are the monster.”

I studied him closely. “Why are you helping us? If Nora is a killer, and I am a monster.”

Jacob offered a somewhat kind smile. “There's a lot happening here that even you are unaware of. Nora's colleague and friend, Bart, asked me to keep a closer eye on everything because he trusts me. He worried about the history of the university. Neither one of us could have guessed The Hunt intended to sacrifice her to you.”

“I won't leave her,” I said. “I will find her and we will leave together. They’ll never see us again.”

He nodded. “It would be best for her to disappear completely.”

Being a professor here, the comfort of the greenhouse, everything that I knew—I would leave it all behind for her. The future that she had painted when we were in each other's arms, one where I could grow my plants in peace and she could carry out whatever experiments she wished to do.

That was what I wanted.

There was no future without Nora in it.

“If you hurry and get her out, I can meet you at the edge of the cemetery with an auto. The two of you can take it and leave, which would give you a headstart before anyone else.”

“She will need her documents,” I said. “And her journal. And I will need certain plants. Can you gather those things for us?”

“Yes,” he said. “I know nothing about plants, though.”

“There are packs of seeds in the bottom drawer of my desk. There is also a set of vials. That is all I need.”

“I can do that,” he said.

A shout echoed from outside. I glanced up.

“We are running out of time,” he said quickly. “I do not know what they will do with her. Harold has gone mad.”

“How can I trust you?” I asked.

“You have no choice,” he said. “But I want Nora to be safe as much as you do.”

“Even knowing that both of us killed people?”

“Yes,” he said. “Are you going to continue questioning me, kill me, or allow me to help? ”

I nodded. “I will meet you at the edge of the cemetery,” I said. “Where did they have her last?”

“They put her in the same room you questioned us all in.”

“Go,” I said.

He nodded, and then moved around me, taking off into the dark for my desk area.

I breathed out, readying myself to fight. If I could do this without killing anyone else, I would. But if one of them tried to stop me, I would rip them limb from limb and leave their organs decorating the walls of the university.

I left the greenhouse swiftly, taking off down the path that led to the cold halls of the university. I rushed through the door, moving in a blur.

The agony of realising I was a monster had turned into the realisation that I had the power to save the only person I truly cared for.

Nora, Nora. I’m coming for you.

A man down the hall shouted, pointing at me as I rushed past him. I didn’t pause, didn’t hesitate as I kept rushing as quickly as I could.

I made it to the other side of the university in no time. The room where we’d questioned everyone loomed ahead.

I threw the door open, the wood cracking beneath my strength.

She wasn’t here.

Fuck. Where was she? What had they done to her?

I could smell Harold and others too. Then there was her scent, a mix of fear and familiar rage and everything that I knew to be Nora. I growled and spun around, stepping back out into the hall.

A movement down the way drew my attention and I descended upon them like a demon.

The groundskeeper. “Where are they?” I snarled, grabbing him by the front of his jacket. His eyes widened, the smell of piss filling the air. “Where did they take Nora?”

“The-the woods,” he gasped. “They took her to the woods.”

Fuck.

A single scream broke through the night.

Nora.