10. Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Sage
My stomach was my nemesis, flipping and gurgling as midnight approached. My hangover had finally faded, eliminating it as the cause. Since I had to talk to the woman who played a role in Luka’s abduction, my nervousness had taken over, turning my emotions inside out. Even if this call brought us no leads, my plan was to eat healthier and restart my training because, one way or another, I was going to get my man back.
“This shit is making me sick, Winnie.”
“Breathe. You got this.”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t feel like I do.”
“Listen, Luka is my best friend, so I’m just as nervous as you are.”
The phone rang, startling me. I glanced at Winnie in a panic, and he stopped his anxious pacing of the cabin. “Answer it.”
I sucked in a hard breath before slowly releasing it and hitting the answer button. “Hello?”
“Hey, Sage. I know you don’t want to talk to me after what happened to the vampire you were with, but I need to give you an important message.”
The sound of Naomi’s light Russian accent had my heart racing, anger immediately filling me. “His name is Luka, and you’re part of the reason he’s gone!” The emotions I attempted to contain made me speak louder than I intended.
“Sage.” Winnie’s whispering scold had my gaze darting to him. He shook his head, silently reminding me to stay on the mission.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know what Soren was doing . . .” Naomi sniffed back tears.
“Just tell me what you need to tell me so we can get this over with.”
She cleared her throat before attempting to sound stable again. “Janene wants to meet with you as soon as possible.”
The fact she would use my mother to get to me had me furious. “Do you think I’m stupid enough to fall for your tricks? Fuck off!”
I hit the end button on the phone, causing Winnie to throw his hands out.
“What the hell! Why the fuck did you hang up on her?”
“She said my mom wanted to see me. She’s lying, Winnie.”
“Do you know for a fact?” The way his eyes narrowed on me had me doubting my decisions.
“Well, no, but—”
“This could be our only chance at finding out where Luka is located and you hung up on her!”
I pushed back my apprehension and thought about the situation.
Could I trust Naomi? Hell no.
Would I risk being murdered to find Luka? Hell yeah, I would, so why did I hang up on her?
“Fuck, Winnie. Should I call her back?”
“Prob—”
The phone vibrated in my hand, ringing again. “It’s her. What should I say?”
“Umm, answer it.”
With a deep breath, I clicked the phone on. “I’m sorry, I—”
“Sagelynn Argent, did I not teach you manners?”
My heart raced at the sound of the familiar voice. The person on the other end was not one I’d expected. “Mom?”
“Yes, baby. It’s me.” Her words cracked with emotion, sending tears brimming my lids.
I hadn’t gone more than a week without speaking to or seeing my mother in my life before this. She was my person. One I knew would constantly be there for me. I missed her more than I could ever express.
As I stared at the phone, I pictured her beautiful face with her high cheekbones framed by her dark hair. Her sweet smile and caring nature. I’d missed it.
“Are you still there, sweetie?”
“Yeah,” I croaked, trying hard to hold my emotions back. “I’m still here.”
“I can’t be long, but I need to see you. I can’t go any longer without hugging my only child.”
Worries of me being captured left me the very second the words fell out of her mouth. The one thing in this world I would bet my life on was the fact my mother wouldn’t do anything to put me in harm’s way.
“When and where?” I asked.
“Oh. I don’t know. I didn’t expect you to answer so quickly.” She let out a small laugh. Angelic and pure . . . like her.
Winnie cleared his throat, getting my attention. “Tell her to hold on.”
“One sec, mom.” I hit the mute button. “What, Winnie?”
“I have an address of a place she can meet us at. It’s roughly halfway between here and there. I’ll drop it to her in a text. Tell her tomorrow night at ten in Las Vegas.”
I shook my head, my brows pinching. “Vegas is too far. We’d have to spend the night.”
Winnie smirked. “Las Vegas, New Mexico.”
Taking the phone off mute, I immediately relayed the information to my mother.
“I’ll be there.” The conversation went silent since neither of us wanted to hang up. Finally, my mother whispered, “I love you, Sagelynn.”
“I love you, Mom.”
The call ended and I felt broken again. Lost.
“The next twenty-four hours are going to be the longest ever.” A long sigh left me as I wiped a runaway tear. I glanced up at Winnie and he was staring at me. “What?”
Taking a few steps forward, he pulled me in for a hug. “Everything will be fine.”
“Why are you being nice?” I asked when he let go.
“I’m going to need a favor.”
I narrowed my gaze on him. The look on his face told me I wasn’t going to like what he needed me to do. Which seemed to be a familiar scenario lately. “Like what?”
His hazel eyes burrowed into me for a few quick breaths before he said something stupid. “I need you to ask your mom if she knows where VRC is.”
“Are you serious, Winnie? You know how dangerous that is! What would happen if someone found out? She could be killed.”
“Who’s the president of Venom?” he asked, and my brows furrowed.
“You know it’s my dad.”
“Do you think your dad would ever allow harm to come to your mom?”
Thinking of the answer, I shook my head. “I don’t think so. But if you asked me a year ago if I would be standing here talking to my vampire boyfriend’s best friend while he’s possibly being tortured by VRC, I would have said hell no.”
Winnie crossed his arms and leaned back with a grin. “You called Luka your boyfriend.”
“What? I did not.”
Wait, did I?
“You did.”
“Shut up, Pooh Bear.”
Winnie’s eyes glistened as he gave me a fanged grin. “There’s my Sage Stick.”
A few hours later, I grabbed a battery-operated lantern and went to find Vivi, hoping she would accompany me on a walk through the woods.
“You want me to go?” Her suspicious expression amused me.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“You’ve been so, I don’t want to use this word but, you’ve been super depressed and didn’t seem like you liked anyone. Since we were never really close beforehand, I just assumed you would want one of your friends to go.”
“I figured we have a lot in common since both our men are locked away somewhere being starved of our blood and . . .” Vivi’s expression turned sad and I quickly changed the topic. “Anyway, you’re my friend and I thought maybe we can walk, talk, bond, whatever.” I bit my lip nervously, waiting for her to laugh at me.
Her cheeks tightened with a smile, which showed off her dimples. “I’d like that.”
My brain was in hyper-drive as we headed for the edge of camp. “Can you tell me more about this pulling from the bond? What’s it like? And do you know why it’s called a lenxus? Is there a specific meaning behind it? Oh, and can you feel it all the time? Can the person you’re bonded to feel it? Does—”
“Let me answer the first hundred questions before you stack on a hundred more.”
We both laughed and it felt good, considering our situations. But feeling joy while knowing Luka suffered felt weird at the same time.
Vivi didn’t hesitate to start answering my questions.
“Like I told you before, the bond is a pulling. It’s like I’m one end of a magnet and Strike is the other. No matter how long it’s been or how hard I fight it, I can’t. My emotions aren’t mine anymore. My body isn’t mine anymore. It’s always looking for him. Begging to be touched, loved, held. He’s like some kind of life source now. And . . . and I miss him.”
I stopped walking and glanced up at her. “Somehow, I know exactly what you mean.”
She may have been smiling but her eyes screamed with the sadness she carried. We started walking again and the smell of the evergreen trees tickled my senses as we entered the forest. Making sure I didn’t fall on my face, I turned on the lantern.
“To answer another of your questions, as far as I know there isn’t a specific reason the bond is called a lenxus. But to me, it makes sense because it’s like we’re linked to our mates. I can’t feel what Strike’s feeling, but I know he’s alive. And yes, I can feel it all the time and so can he, unfortunately. I was already a vampire when I linked with him, so I don’t know how it feels for you. But Peach said she was human when she bonded to Alvin, and told me after she turned into a vampire it felt similar but much stronger. She finally felt the electricity that happens when we connect to our bond-mates and the vibrations of that connection to their soul.”
“She lost him, didn’t she? That’s why she knows how it feels when the bond’s gone. She lost the love of her life.”
Vivi stopped walking, and I held the lantern up so I could see her face.
“I can’t say much about the situation because I don’t know the whole story. But yes. Their bond lasted for over three hundred years and his death nearly destroyed her.”
I shook my head, my chest aching for Peach. “That’s a long time. I can’t even imagine.”
“I knew Strike for only a month before we bonded. He was basically a stranger to me, but the bond didn’t care. The magic that seals you to a mate has a mind of its own. Or at least, that’s how it feels.”
Vivi began walking, so I followed. “How long were you guys together before they took him?”
“I met Strike after Luka turned Winnie. Which was twenty-seven years ago.”
“How old are you now?”
“I’m fifty-eight.”
“So, you were thirty-one when you were turned? And how old was Winnie?”
“Twenty-five. He’s fifty-two now and still acts like a damn toddler. He’s smart, though. Like really smart. He always had issues in school because he usually knew more than the teachers.”
I thought about how Winnie would act in school and giggled. “I could see him telling a teacher he was smarter than them.”
“He for sure did. More than once his mouth has got him in trouble. That’s kind of how he died.”
My feet immediately came to a halt, my eyes going wide. “What happened?”
“I was at a bar one night and some dude kept hitting on me. I ignored it for a while, but the guys he was with joined in and it made me uncomfortable. It was the nineties and back then, people minded their own fucking business. Sometimes, too much. No one in that Podunk town would’ve batted an eye if those guys would’ve forced me to leave. So, I called Winnie from a payphone and asked if he could come get me. After a few mins, I went outside to wait, and the guy and his friends followed. They kept flirting and grabbing at me, trying to get me to leave with them. It scared the shit out of me.”
Vivi stopped walking for a second and even though I couldn’t see her face, I knew how she felt. When Mannie had me locked up, I feared being raped more than I feared dying.
No matter how scary a situation is, that feeling, that fear, is like no other.
I laid my hand on her shoulder, and she nodded before she continued walking. Neither of us had to say anything to understand we both knew what that feeling was like.
“A few people even passed by the front of the bar and said nothing. When Winnie pulled up and saw the situation I was in, he flipped his shit. He jumped out of the car, screaming at them. One of them shoved him and he shoved back. Next thing I knew, he was on the ground. Six guys against one man wasn’t fair odds, so of course I jumped in. I’m a scrapper and got some good hits on them, but I got my ass beat. Not as hard as Winnie did. He was beyond bloody and bruised, and I had a feeling he was going to die from the kicks and punches to his head and stomach. But just as I had that thought, three men walking on the opposite side of the street saw it. They didn’t hesitate to run over and jump into the brawl. I had never seen people get thrown around with such ease and the only thing I could think of was, I wish I was that strong.”
Knowing Luka turned Winnie, I assumed he was one of the men who had stopped to help. After thinking for a second, I quickly figured out who the other two were. “So, Luka and his brothers helped you and Winnie?”
“Yep. They beat the creepy guy and his friends with little effort, causing them to run off scared. Andrei and Luka helped Winnie off the ground, and Strike checked on me. They put Winnie in the passenger seat of his car, and I got in the driver’s side. I was about to pull off when the bar owner came out and said he called the police on us. On us! Not the assholes who started it. Can you believe that?”
Even though she walked in front and couldn’t see me, I shook my head in disgust.
“Anyway, I told Strike and his brothers to get in and I would take them home so they didn’t get arrested. Before I could pull away from the curb, Winnie coughed up blood, and my panic set in. So, I headed across town toward the hospital, hoping he made it, but once we were a few minutes away, Winnie started having a seizure. Luka was sitting behind him in the car, and I could hear him and the others arguing about something, but had no clue what they were talking about. I told them to shut the fuck up unless they could save my brother.”
I laughed because I could totally see Vivi doing that.
“Luka made eye contact with me in the rear-view mirror and told me he was going to do something weird, but I was going to have to trust him if I wanted Winnie to live. At this point, I didn’t have a choice, so I told him to do what he had to do.”
I sucked in a hard breath. “Oh shit. Did he turn him in the car?”
“Yes, and no. The next thing I see is Luka biting into his wrist. He wrapped it around the seat and covered Winnie’s mouth with it. Of course, I freaked out and started screaming at him. But Strike grabbed my shoulders and leaned forward, whispering calmly in my ear, promising me Winnie would be okay. And I believed him. There was something about him. Some kind of force drawing us to each other. We felt destined to be together.”
“I know the feeling.”
“I know you do. The bond is similar to what the wolven feel for their fated mates. It doesn’t care what you want.” Vivi stopped and pointed to the ground. “Watch out. There’s a fallen tree.”
I held my lantern down and made sure I didn’t trip as I went around it.
“Anyway, Winnie stopped seizing and went still,” she continued. “Almost too still, but I could tell he was still breathing. The guys were in discussion in the backseat, saying things like, ‘if he turns, he’ll kill her,’ and ‘he’s gonna need blood soon.’ And I didn’t know what any of it meant. Strike gave me directions to their place, but by the time we got there, Winnie was gone.”
“Were you scared?” I asked.
“More than I had ever been at that point in my life. When Luka yanked Winnie out of the car and took him in the house, my human vision barely caught it. That was the first time I realized these guys weren’t human. Andrei ran after Luka, leaving me alone with Strike. My ass was out of the car and ready to follow, but Strike was in my face. He told me everything was going to be okay, but if I went into the house, I could be hurt. He’s an amazing guy who always had a way of calming me. I think that’s why I fell for him so quickly. He just knew me.”
Vivi inhaled deeply before releasing it.
“After Winnie came back to life, the guys had no choice but to let me in on their little secret. Luka promised to teach my brother how to be a vampire, and they went out feeding a lot. With Winnie being the only family I had left, and scared of being left behind, after a week of hanging out with them, I wanted to be a vampire, too. Not to mention I wanted the kind of strength where no one would ever make me feel too uncomfortable to sit in a bar. When I asked, everyone refused to turn me. They said it shouldn’t be something you want, it should be something you need. Well, I disagreed with them. It only took me another week of threatening to stake them all, including my brother, while they were sleeping before Strike gave in, deciding he would be the one to do it.”
“Is it common for someone to be bonded to their origin and their mate?” I asked, completely fascinated with the magic system of supernaturals.
“Actually, everyone’s bonded to their origin. It’s called a sentinel bond. It feels different from the lenxus bond one has with a mate. If you have both bonds with the same person, it’s called an ardent.”
Feeling like I needed a dictionary, or possibly an encyclopedia on vampires, I didn’t even ?attempt to remember everything she was telling me.
Vivi stopped walking and took a seat on a fallen tree. I did the same, plopping down next to her.
“Can you explain the difference between them? Sorry if I’m asking too many questions.”
“It’s fine. I did the same thing to Strike when I first found out about vampires. I loved annoying him, and I secretly think he loved being annoyed by me.” She smiled but it melted off her face rather quickly. “The lenxus is a mating bond. It gets you in your feels. Makes you want to kiss, hug, fuck, and protect your mate at all costs. The sentinel bond someone has with their origin is about loyalty. You have an attachment to the person, almost like they were one of your birth parents. You love them like family. If you fall in love with your origin and the bonds combine, it’s like magic. I can’t even explain it.”
“I don’t want to sound like a nerd, but this shit is cool.”
“If you think vampire statistics are cool, you should talk to Drag about the wolven. Theirs is the coolest.”
“I’ve heard them say some things about it. It fascinates me.”
“We better get back before someone thinks I killed you.”
Vivi hopped up, and I did the same with a laugh. “Why would they think that?”
“I may have told Winnie I was going to murder you in the woods because you got us in trouble with him.”
I laughed again, and for the first time in a long time, it felt good.