Davian

I came to in the trunk of a car. Little bounces and the rushing sound of tires told me we were moving. To my surprise, I wasn't tied up, so I poked out the trunk's lock with a hard jab and looked to see where I was. The taillight would have been better, but also more obvious. Putting my eye to the small hole, I studied the world outside. It was night. I just couldn't tell if it was the same night or a different one.

From the evergreen scent in the air, I knew we were still in the Huntsville area. But why? And who? I thrust a fist into the trunk lid above me, wanting to pop it open, but nothing happened. My arms were heavy and not as strong as they should be. I then tried to punch my way through the back seat, but my arms had grown even weaker. I blinked. Things went blurry again, and I passed out.

The second time I woke, the car had stopped and I heard Zion's voice.

"Wire the whole club. I don't want a single brick left when we're done. It all has to go boom."

My stomach dropped at the thought of Adele. Worry lent me some extra strength, and this time, when I punched the trunk, it opened. The night air stuffed my sinuses with astringent pine from the surrounding forest. Overhead, the quarter moon shone, unceasing and unblinking.

The guards from the club were there and reacted to my appearance by pulling their guns and backing up. Zion stood behind them, leaning against a tree with his arms crossed. He didn't register surprise or alarm, just watched as I climbed out of the trunk.

Flexing my thighs, I prepared to rush him and grab him by the throat.

Instead, someone hit me from behind with another tranquilizer.

"What should I do with him, boss?" The guard stepped in front of me. The drug hit me and I dropped to my knees, which put the darts lined up along his utility belt at my eye level.

"Tie him up and use a bungee on the trunk. I need him alive," Zion said.

"Why?" My tongue went numb and the word came out garbled and tangled up. I tried to reach for the darts. If I could get them, I could take out half of Zion's crew, but my arms wouldn't move. They'd become leaden and numb.

"You're insurance," Zion said. "If anyone from the council survives, I need a scapegoat."

I tried to talk, but it came out in a stuttering mumble. "Wh..wh..whaaaat?" I fought to stay awake, but my body didn't have much fight left. My muscles had gone slack and my brain slushed like half melted snow. I fell over onto my side, hitting the cool earth with a hard thud.

Zion came over and lifted my head. "It's time for a change. We're vampires, not philanthropists. We eat people and some of us are tired of the council telling us what we can and can't do. So, I made something big enough to draw them out. All those shifters were bait. And it worked. The council is coming to see this for themselves. And when they do, the whole building explodes. Boom. Done."

He let go of my head and I slumped to the ground. The last thing I thought of before oblivion took me was Adele. I'd failed her, just like Dahlia.

***

I woke to quiet stillness. This time they'd looped steel cable around my wrists. Difficult, but not impossible to break, although it cut me to the bone in the process. The bungee cord was more troublesome due to its elasticity, and I finally just gnawed on it with my fangs, fraying the fabric strand by strand. It felt like it took a century to get through the elastic cord, but it probably wasn't more than a few minutes.

I didn't know if it still mattered or not, but I had to get back to the club. I had to try and save Adele. I couldn't give up. Not until I knew for sure. She didn't deserve to die. None of them did.

Carefully raising the trunk, I scanned the area. The car, a big, boxy Mercedes, had been parked to the side of a wide clearing in the woods. The guards stood several feet away, their backs to me. Zion didn't appear to be anywhere. With slow, quiet movements, I stepped out of the trunk and arranged the bungee cord so it looked like it was still in place.

Darting to the side, I circled around and up behind the two men, kneeling down to listen in on their conversation.

A blond guard with a thick scar down his cheek looked to the sky. "Hey, Ekon, isn't the chopper late?"

The other guard shrugged and hoisted up his pants, drawing my eye to the tranquilizer darts. I edged closer to him. "It'll be here soon, Thad."

"What if the council finds us first?"

"They'll be dead. Zion's smarter than they are." The guard spun on his heel to scan behind him. I dropped to the ground below his line of sight.

"I hope you're right," Thad said.

The other guard, Ekon, turned back, shaking his head. "Don't let Zion hear you. He doesn't like complainers."

"I'm not complaining."

"If you like being dead, you won't say that where he can hear. It's a good way to turn yourself into dust."

"But—"

"Don't question it, Thad. Just do what you're asked to do, all right? Now shut it. We need to be paying attention to what's out there, not talking about your feelings."

Leaving the guards to bicker, I fell back on one of the other skills the Rom had taught me and carefully lifted a few of the tranquilizer darts from his belt. With the dart in hand, I positioned myself to leap out and strike them both down, but the arrival of another car forced me to jump out of sight behind the widest tree trunk I could find.

A black Mercedes SUV whipped around to park next to the sedan, and Zion stepped out of the back seat. His white shirt had been unbuttoned and sunglasses hid his eyes.

"Where's the copter?" he asked.

"About ten minutes out," said the guard with the scar.

"They're late." Zion paced and watched the sky.

"Are we done here?" asked another guard.

Zion gave a curt nod. "Yes. The club is gone, but the council never showed. It was a waste."

I frowned. If the club was gone, what did that mean for Adele? Pushing out my awareness, I used our blood bound to feel for her, but found nothing but emptiness. Either the drugs had interfered with the bond, or we were too far away from each other, or...I refused to contemplate the idea.

"What do you want us to do?" asked the other guard, the one who had been complaining.

"You two drive back to the City Oscura with our cargo there. We're going to need him, but I don't want to arrive home with him. We can't be seen together." He tapped the trunk where everyone still believed I was. "I'll fly back tonight and start laying the groundwork for plan B."

A whirring sound overhead cut off further conversation. The helicopter landed, and Zion ran to get inside, stooping low to the ground, and not waiting for the blades to stop rotating. The men who'd been in the SUV followed, clambering in after him and leaving me alone with the two remaining guards, Thad and Ekon.

I watched Zion disappear behind the blacked-out windows of the helicopter, wondering what plan B was. The whole thing had been a trap, a power play. The blood slave ring had been a means to an end, a complete upheaval of power in the vampire world. I couldn't let him get away with it.

But first, I had to make sure no one would come up behind me. Creeping forward, I took advantage of the distraction the helicopter provided and buried tranquilizers in the one guard's neck before he even registered I was there.

They each half turned to look at me, their mouths gaping open in surprise. The one I'd hit tried to attack, but instead fell down, unconscious.

I wrapped the younger guard in a head lock. He tried to punch me, but I grabbed his hand. I wasn't gentle or kind in what I had to do. This wasn't Adele. Pinning him against a tree, I ripped his forearm open with my fangs and gulped down every drop of blood I could catch. Once I had enough to heal my injuries, I jabbed the guard with a dart and held him in a tight hug until he, too, passed out.

Taking the bungee cord from the trunk, I tied them together. Then, searching their pockets, I found the keys to the Mercedes sedan and took off. It was time to find out what the hell had happened while I'd been unconscious.

***

The club was, as Zion had said, rubble. A pile of stones stood in its place like a cairn. Another vampire massacre. My hands clenched at the thought. I'd believed I could make an impact, change things from the inside. Yet here I was, hundreds of years later, with more blood on my hands. No thanks to heartless, soulless vampires.

I kicked at a stone and growled in frustration.

But then a scent hit my nose. Shifters and not the ones that had been in the basement. Healthy, vibrant shifters, and...a hint of lilac. Adele.

I ran around the parking lot, sniffing like a crazy person. If she'd survived, I had to find her. I needed to see it to believe it. But there were no other clues beyond the scent.

Kicking more stones, I remembered she'd said something about a bad alpha, the one who'd lured her into Zion's trap. There were packs all over this area. Maybe they'd found her and taken her back to sell again. In which case, I absolutely had to find her.

Going back to the car, I drove up into the woods. Shifters avoided cities and congregated in remote areas. I just had to find the right spot.

***

I didn't get too far in my search, though. The car died a few miles in. I left it behind and ran through the forests, my senses alert for any sign of shifters or Adele. After several hours of nothing, I decided it would be better to regroup and come up with a strategy. Maybe contact local packs or pack law enforcement. I had no way to know which direction to go or who could and couldn't be trusted.

I made my way out of the woods and back to Hudson, the largest nearby town. A new cell phone would give me the answers I couldn't find on my own. Plus, it was beyond time to check in with the Contessa and access resources besides my nose.

Hudson wasn't large, but it had a busy retail area on its main street. I found the nearest twenty-four hour big box store with phones and paid a small fortune to make the calls I needed. Thankfully, my wallet was still with me.

Back in the sedan, I called the Contessa, my current patron. She was Italian nobility who'd been turned in the US during the Jazz Age. Her sensibilities were more modern than most vampires. I'd learned how to use a cell phone because of her. She'd been the one who'd made me a special investigator for the council. Not everyone was a fan, though, and my position had caused trouble over the years.

The phone rang and a second later her thick accent purred in my ear. "Hello?"

"It's me. You're in danger," I said. "They're targeting the council. It's way more than a blood ring."

"Davian, listen to me."

"You need to get out of the City Oscura." I spoke over her. "The vampire behind everything is coming and he's got something up his sleeve."

"Ah, yes. I've already met this Zion. He has video of you."

"Of me?" I fell silent. He'd called me insurance and scapegoat. I hadn't really considered what that might mean.

"Yes, you. Feeding. Claiming."

"I had to as part of my cover."

"He says you were running the ring."

"That's ridiculous."

"He's got evidence and is showing it to everyone."

"You sent me here. You know the truth."

"The truth is whatever people believe, and Zion has their eyes and ears right now."

"What do I do?"

"Don't come back to the city. Not now. With time, I can manage this, but if they get a hold of you..."

"Is there an execution order? Is that what you're telling me? After all this time?"

"It's dirty politics, Davian. It's not about you."

"I'm just the latest pawn in the game then? What about you Contessa? Are they going to kill you, too? And the general? The baron?" The three of them made up a triad of power on the council.

"We can take care of ourselves. It's you we can't protect. Just stay out of it."

"So...what? I just sit here?"

"Yes. I'll call you if I need you." She hung up, and I hurled the phone across the car. It hit the window and shattered into pieces, leaving a web of cracks in the glass.

It had all been a trap. All of it. I'd fallen for it. So had the council members who'd trusted me to know better. Damn it.