Chapter 8
Hayden
What the fuck just happened?
I was waiting when Ansley got off work. She didn’t hop into an Uber like she normally does.
She walked to a gas station and bought cat food.
She didn’t go home. She went to some other apartment.
An apartment with a cat that ate so fast I’m certain he was starving.
It reminded me of the way the lion shifters devour prey after a hunt.
Then something really strange happened. Ansley was on the couch with her phone. I was watching from the rooftop across the street. It looked like she was about to dial a number, but then she had… some sort of seizure? I’ve never seen anything like it.
But that wasn’t even the strangest thing. As soon as it started, everything drained out of me. The urge. The need. The overwhelming desire. It evaporated the second she succumbed to the trance. I felt empty, like everything had been ripped out of my chest.
I actually stumbled. Had to catch myself on the edge of the rooftop. For days, I’ve been drowning in this need. Suffocating, all-consuming. And suddenly, nothing. Just absence. A void where the pull used to be. It terrified me more than the urge ever did.
I was seconds from rushing to her aide when she sat up, gasping for air. Her eyes opened, and everything returned. The need. The pull. Stronger than before. I gripped the ledge and felt the concrete give beneath my fingers.
Now she’s in an Uber, speeding through the streets of Chicago, and I’m struggling to keep up.
The buildings in this part of town aren’t uniform.
Three-story apartments give way to single-story warehouses.
I have to drop to street level, which risks exposure, but I can’t lose her trail. That makes me slower.
Her car gets further away. I shift into my true Human Form and climb the next building I approach without bothering with the fire escape. My fingers hammer holes in the concrete as I ascend it, barely concerned about staying hidden.
Every delay costs me precious seconds. Where the hell is she going? She’s venturing deep into Chicago’s infamous south side. It’s not a safe part of town. Most people wouldn’t have an Uber drop them off here.
Maybe I’ve been blind. I thought she might not even realize she is a Scion.
It’s unusual, but it happens, especially when a Scion is raised by humans.
After seeing her episode, or whatever it was, I could be wrong.
Maybe she knows what she is, and I’m about to find out there’s more to this woman than my senses detect.
Maybe she’s been playing with me this whole time. The thought should piss me off. Instead, it just makes me want her even more. What is she? What can she do? And why the fuck can’t I stay away from her?
I leap across another rooftop in my Natural Form, paws skidding across the concrete before I accelerate again.
A traffic jam allows me to catch up with her Uber.
I pause on the rooftop above it, shift into my true Human Form, and catch my breath.
It’s definitely the first time I’ve ever been grateful for Chicago traffic.
“What the hell are you doing, Ansley?” I ask out loud, ready to shift at a moment’s notice if necessary. “Where are you going?”
The traffic jam clears, and I start running. I shift into my Natural Form as I leap, landing on the next building without missing a beat.
We approach the industrial area. There are no buildings here I can cross.
I’m forced to return to the street level, shifting into my Third Form as I do, because there are quite a few workers wrapping up their day.
The sight of a naked, average sized man will raise fewer concerns than my true Human Form or an eight-hundred-pound wolf.
This form is too slow. Too weak. I hate this form. It’s not natural. It’s just a fucking disguise meant to be worn and not one I can rely on. It limits my speed. Limits my strength. Every instinct screams at me to shift and run. But I can’t risk exposure. Not here. Noth with workers still around.
I do my best to keep up with the Uber, but I lose the car when they turn the corner. I can’t go sprinting into the street, since my clothes are still on the roof across from York Financial.
Panic claws at my chest. Not just fear of losing her trail, but something deeper. Something primal that demands I stay close to her.
No. I can’t lose her. I growl under my breath, shift into my true Human Form, and sprint to the closest building, climbing it as fast as I can. I scan traffic until I see her Uber making another turn.
“Fuck, this is going to hurt,” I growl as I leap from the building, shifting into my Natural Form as I do.
It’s not the safest way down, but it’s the fastest. It also ensures I don’t lose sight of her again. I hit the ground with a light grunt but easily recover.
We’re moving into a residential area again. I have to be careful. Luckily, a lot of the houses on this side of town are abandoned. I keep pace with her Uber from the next street over until it comes to a stop in front of a cathedral.
At first, I don’t recognize it. Just another abandoned building in a neighborhood full of them. But as I get closer, the architecture becomes clear. Gothic. Old. The kind of place that was probably beautiful once, before the city left it to rot.
As soon as I spot some clothes hanging on a clothesline, I shift into my Third Form.
“Really hope this fits,” I mutter, snatching clothes off the line and making sure I’m not spotted before putting them on.
Once I’m dressed, I hop a couple fences and circle back to where the Uber stopped. Why did she stop here? Did that seizure cause her to have a religious experience and rush to the nearest church? No, that can’t be it. We passed a lot of those on the way here, and this one looks abandoned.
Ansley gets out of the car, looking up at the cathedral with concern.
There’s a sign out front that identifies it as St. Michael’s Cathedral.
Eerie spires stretch towards the clouds.
The stained-glass windows that used to adorn the church are mostly shattered.
A few have survived, but they’ve lost the luster they had when they were newly created.
I probably passed by it when it was in better condition, but that would have been a long time ago.
“Not where I’d come seeking a religious savior,” I mutter, creeping closer, keeping low to the ground so that Ansley doesn’t spot me. Then again, my kind doesn’t really believe in all that.
Ansley walks towards a set of rotted wooden doors. Is she actually going to go inside? I wait until she’s closer before I cross the street. The grass is higher here. In my Third Form, I can stay hidden.
Then I smell it.
Blood. Old blood, stale and rotten. Beneath it, something else. Something cold and dead.
“Oh shit,” I growl. “Vampires.”
Is this the nest we’ve been looking for? It has to be. Remy said he was tracking activity in the south side. This cathedral is abandoned, forgotten, in the part of town where people disappear and nobody asks questions. It’s perfect for them.
And Ansley is walking straight towards it.
Vampires don’t usually have a scent unless they’ve recently fed, but their lairs always smell rotten.
They don’t notice it. Most humans wouldn’t either, until it was too late.
I don’t know what Ansley actually is, but she seems unbothered as she approaches.
Either the scent hasn’t caught her attention, or she simply doesn’t care.
But how? How the fuck did she know to come here? And why?
I need to call my brothers, but my phone is next to the clothes I left behind, and there’s definitely not enough time to go back for it.
I could stop her. Shift into my Natural Form, cause a distraction, and scare her away.
She’d never know it was me. But if she runs inside instead of running away, she’ll be all alone.
Scion or not, she’s no match for a vampire.
Fledglings are weak, but a maker is a predator like me.
A Fae could dazzle them, a witch might have a trick up their sleeve, but neither would be enough to escape the vampire’s fangs if they were alone.
If she goes in there by herself, she’s dead. And if I don’t go in with her, I won’t be able to protect her.
As she gets to the stop of the broken stairs and peers through the rotten doors, I make my decision.
I have to reveal myself to her.