Chapter 11
That strange presence inside me surged forward, stronger than ever before. The new magic that swirled inside me was warm and feral, heating my body in a different way than my blood. Between that and the uncomfortable pressure where I could feel Raffe’s emotions, I almost didn’t want to know what the new problem was, but ignorance hadn’t worked well for me in the past.
Not missing a beat, I followed. With his wolf-shifter speed, Raffe was already halfway to the elevator, but that didn’t matter. He’d have to wait on it the same as a human unless he decided to take the stairs at the opposite end of the hallway.
As expected, he paused and pressed the button. The elevator tended to be fast, so we never had to wait long.
By the time the elevator arrived, I’d caught up and slid inside with him. I tensed, waiting for him to complain about me being here, but he remained quiet.
That was something. “You aren’t going to tell me to go back to the apartment?”
He crossed his arms, his biceps bulging underneath his evergreen EEU sweatshirt. “Would you listen?” He narrowed his eyes, waiting for my answer.
Fair question.
I shook my head. “Nope. Not a chance. Remember how well things went last time you left me behind?”
The way he flinched had me regretting the words.
“Yeah, I fucking remember, Sky,” he rasped, and his crushing guilt stole my breath. “It’s haunted me every moment since you vanished.”
I wanted to yank my hair out. “That’s not what I meant. I was trying to say that we’re stronger together.” The elevator door opened, and I moved to exit, taking his hand.
“Believe me, I don’t plan on leaving your side unless someone I trust is there with you,” he gritted out and increased our pace as we walked outside.
That was more than okay with me. I had no desire to get kidnapped again, and I was certain the Veiled Circle would try again or straight up kill me. I’d say I had about a fifty-fifty shot at either option. “What’s going on?”
He led me toward the men’s apartment building, and I realized I’d never stepped foot inside before. Every time Lucy and I hung out with the guys, we were elsewhere on campus, or they were at our place. I hadn’t considered how odd that was until this moment.
“Dave,” he said, so low I was surprised I’d heard him. “He’s gone.”
My steps faltered, but not long enough for me to fall behind, especially since he was pulling on me. “How do you know?”
“Did you really think we wouldn’t hunt him?” Raffe shoved open the doors that led into the men’s apartment.
The place was identical to the women’s, down to the gray walls. The two buildings must have been built at the same time.
Two guys got off the elevator, their eyes widening as Raffe shoved his way inside, not waiting for them to exit fully before we entered.
“What the hell—” the shorter, bulkier guy exclaimed, turning to us just as Raffe pushed the third-floor button.
The taller, more athletic one shook his head and tugged on the guy’s shoulder. “Dude, that’s Raffe Wright. Don’t piss him off.”
“You got something you want to say to me?” Raffe arched a brow, edging in front of me to block me from the guys’ view. His jaw twitched, everything inside him on edge.
The shorter guy’s jaw dropped open. “Uh, no, sorry we were in your way.”
“Don’t let it happen again,” Raffe sneered as the doors slid close.
I pushed him gently in the back and sighed. “Seriously?”
Raffe shrugged, glancing over his shoulder at me. “He was running his mouth, and I have a reputation on campus to maintain. We don’t need humans feeling tempted to hang out with us.”
“Did you forget?” I pointed at myself. “I’m human.”
“Don’t smell like one much since I claimed you.” He winked, a smug smile tugging at his mouth for a split second. When the elevator opened, the smile vanished like it had been a figment of my imagination.
Still, my heart pattered—until we stepped into the hallway. On the right, four doors down, the door to an apartment was open. As soon as Raffe’s gaze landed on it, he bolted to it.
I couldn’t move as quickly as him, and by the time I entered, things were chaotic. The apartment had the same floor plan as ours but opposite, so I turned left toward the living room and found Raffe grabbing a guy I’d never seen before by the throat and lifting him high above an evergreen couch.
Adam and Keith stood at the sides of the couch, watching Raffe as if this wasn’t a big deal.
My instinct was to close the door so no one would see what was happening and rush to help this random man I didn’t know. I inhaled sharply. That wasn’t normal. But Raffe had to be acting this way for a reason.
“Where is he?” Raffe spat, droplets of spittle hitting the guy’s face.
The scent of honey hit my nose, and it took me a second to realize I was smelling a man I didn’t know. His scent overpowered the woodsy smells of the other guys, suggesting he wasn’t a shifter.
“I don’t know,” the man rasped, his wavy, dark-blond hair framing his face. “He left late last night to find something to snack on. He asked me if I wanted to come, and I told him no because I’d eaten earlier. I told these two the same thing when they woke me up around three this morning, and I don’t know why you’re here, asking again.”
Adam flinched. “Yeah, about that, we—”
Snapping his head in Adam’s direction, Raffe’s eyes glowed. “We’ll discuss that shortly. Right now, I need Jared to tell me where I can fucking find Dave.”
I swallowed. This must be Dave’s roommate. Vampires already hated shifters, and the Veiled Circle was using that to their advantage. Raffe’s behavior would only help their cause. “Jared, I’m sorry we barged in, but Dave stuck a needle into my neck and drugged me.” If we couldn’t get his help via threats, I hoped he was a decent person—er, vampire—and would help because of the situation.
Jared’s light-gray eyes focused on me, and I moved to Raffe’s side. I placed a hand on Raffe’s arm and gently pushed down. The buzz of our connection thrummed, and I could feel Raffe’s rage retreat a bit.
He growled, clearly unhappy, but he obliged me by lowering Jared.
Jared’s legs hit the couch, and he caught his balance and stood in front of it. Raffe released him but didn’t move back. He was prepared to grab Jared again if needed.
I continued my explanation. “After Dave drugged me, people who wanted to brainwash me held me captive.” I wasn’t sure how else to put it. “We need to know how and why Dave is involved. So it would mean a lot to me if you could help us find him.”
Keith snorted, unhappy with me, but I understood what it was like to feel threatened by bullies, and that was how the witches and the vampires viewed Raffe and his pack. If someone had shown me kindness, it would’ve made a difference.
Jared lifted his hands. “Seriously, I don’t know where he is, but before he told me he was going to eat, he got a phone call.”
“Who was it?” Raffe seethed. “And what did they want?”
“If I don’t tell you, will you choke me again?” Jared rubbed his neck where Raffe’s handprints showed faintly.
Nostrils flaring, Raffe hissed.
He was going to ruin the progress I’d made. I tightened my hold on his hand, wanting him to get the hint. He needed to shut up and let me handle this.
I tried to shuffle him sideways so he wasn’t standing right in front of Jared, but he refused to budge.
“Do you know who it was?” I asked gently.
“No.” Jared sidestepped, so he was in front of me and not Raffe. “I don’t have any idea. But this last month, Dave was acting weird, and it wasn’t unusual for him to get angry after taking a call.”
Raffe tilted his head and sniffed, his eyes on Jared’s face.
That was interesting, but it didn’t help us. I felt like an incompetent detective, and I didn’t like it at all. “Can you think of anything else? Any places he’d go or people he’d visit?”
“His parents are dead, and all his friends are here on campus.” Jared shrugged. “But I think he was heading out to meet someone he didn’t want me to know about.”
Keith stepped up next to Raffe, staring Jared down. “I don’t know how he’s doing it, but he’s lying. He’s found a way to conceal the smell.”
Jared grimaced. “And you wonder why I don’t want to talk to you.”
“He’s right.” Adam shrugged from his spot a few feet away on my side of the couch. “You said he invited you to go with him. If he was meeting someone he was arguing with, why would he ask you to come along?”
Dammit. They had a point. But Jared had sounded sincere.
“Why not ask the question instead of accusing me of lying?” Jared wrinkled his nose. “Dave invited me because he knew I’d fed a couple of hours ago. I didn’t need to eat again, and I was already in bed watching por—er, a movie.”
My face flamed. Now, things were awkward. Images I didn’t need to have of him flashed in my mind, and I pushed them away.
Of course, now Keith laughed. “Are you saying he walked in on you whacking off?”
Raffe shoved Keith in the shoulder hard, and he stumbled into the wall. Raffe bared his teeth and said, “Don’t talk like that in front of my mate. Got it?”
Now, I was looking at the commanding Raffe I’d met on my first day here, but this time, his anger was directed at one of his own and not me. I gritted my teeth. I didn’t like him turning on Keith, which didn’t make sense because Keith made my life hell.
“Mate?” Jared’s eyebrows rose almost to his hairline, and he focused on my hand on Raffe’s arm. “Wait, I thought she was human.” He sniffed, his eyes widening. “You’ve claimed her. Holy shit.”
“Which is why, if you two don’t stop talking about your movie, I may kill you.” Raffe’s chest heaved.
“Yeah, okay.” Jared took a step away from me, moving closer to Adam. “Got it. Though, in fairness, he’s the one who took it to the next level.”
“Oh, I know,” Raffe replied, glaring at Keith, who was yanking on the hem of his black polo shirt. “If anyone says anything that might make my mate think of someone else inappropriately, I will hurt them. Happily.”
I smiled a little then sobered. We were losing focus. “Dave entered your room.”
“Which he forgot to lock, clearly,” Keith added with a smirk.
Raffe snarled, and my blood jolted. Keith was going to keep pushing Raffe. Did he want Raffe to kick his ass? I didn’t want my mate to lose his cool, especially with his father already upset with him.
I had to fight to keep my smile from spreading. “And he invited you to join him in feeding, knowing you’d say no.”
“Why would he do that?” Adam scratched the back of his neck. “If he knew you’d say no, he could’ve just left.”
Pursing his lips, Jared tapped his foot on the floor. “One time, when he left without saying anything, I went searching for him. He probably didn’t want that to happen again.”
My blood was at a mere jolt, but I could faintly read something coming from him. He was nervous, like he wanted to hide something. From the way the guys were reacting, he was telling the truth. Jared had to be hiding something. “Was he meeting someone that time?”
Jared shook his head. “He wasn’t, but seriously, that’s all I know. He’s probably in the woods somewhere, but you’ve had someone watching me all night, so I haven’t been able to search for him.”
He’d deflected my question, confirming my suspicion, but I doubted he’d be willing to tell me anything specific with Raffe, Keith, and Adam here.
“He’s not there.” Adam clasped his hands in front of his chest. “I recruited two other wolf shifters to help me canvass the woods. We didn’t find him, just a faint trace of his scent that disappeared into thin air.”
Despite my recent entry into the supernatural world, I knew what that meant.
A coven member had covered Dave’s tracks.
I stopped breathing. “What time was the phone call?”
“A little after midnight.” Jared’s brows furrowed. “Why?”
That was around the time Slade and I had escaped from the underground bunker.
Raffe punched his palm. “That fucker ran. He was alerted about the escape.”
I was still trying to reconcile Dave, the druggist jerk, with the nice guy I’d known up until he’d injected me. The night he’d fought so hard to resist my blood when I was damn near losing control had earned my trust.
Maybe he’d fought the temptation so hard because he knew the Veiled Circle wanted me.
Had I been wrong about him this whole time?
“A coven member must have helped him.” Adam pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Reasons I don’t like coven members.” Keith pursed his lips as if he’d tasted something bad.
Jared huffed. “Because wolf shifters are so great.”
I wanted to reach out and shake him. Was he trying to provoke Raffe? Could he be part of the secret society?
Glancing at the clock, I noted the time. We were already five minutes late meeting Aldric. “Raffe, we need to go.” Though I was nervous as hell about going to Raffe’s home, I didn’t want to piss off his dad further.
“Yeah, okay. Come on, guys.” Raffe took my hand and headed toward the door. “Let’s go. Jared, contact one of us immediately if you see or hear from Dave.”
I flinched at the barked-out order. Just asking Jared would have gone a long way.
“Sure. I’ll get on that,” Jared replied as the four of us entered the hallway.
Keith and Adam glanced at each other as Raffe and I headed to the elevator. More tension filled the air, which puzzled me. We’d left Jared—what else was there to be upset about?
A guy stepped into the hallway and paused when he saw us, then hurried back into his room.
Strange.
When the four of us got onto the elevator and the door closed, Adam cleared his throat and said, “Raffe—”
My mate released my hand and shoved Adam into the wall, anger pulsing off him. “Don’t say another fucking word.”