Chapter Thirty #2
Why do my eyes keep searching him out? It has to be a stress response or something. If I can avoid him, he can’t be mean to me. And I can’t avoid him if I don’t know where he is. That’s all it is. Survival instinct.
“Bliss,” comes Pisces’ deep voice from behind me. It has a softer quality this time, almost a question.
I turn around and find him standing at my right shoulder, looking down at me with his head cocked to the side.
“Can we talk?” he asks, his deep gorgeous blue eyes boring into mine.
Nope.
I want to turn around and ignore him.
He is such a dick.
And yet I can’t help but feel like I should at least hear him out.
Things were going okay between us while we were hiding during the game. Until I brought up Wrath. Maybe that’s a sore spot for him. How many fans have probably attempted to hit on him, flirt with him—date him even—just to get a glimpse of one of the Voracious Maw boys?
And I’m not much better. Though I have my reasons.
I let out a sigh. “Fine.”
He leads me out from the backstage area and heads out into the throng of people, making sure to stay by my side, probably knowing my strides could never match his.
He towers over me as we walk, his height and lean muscular build causing the crowd to part for us.
A particularly rowdy group of drunk men comes barreling towards us and he switches to my left side, shielding me from them as they’re forced at the last minute to go around him.
We wander through the festival grounds until we’re close to the maze. My eyes zero in on the entrance.
Pisces tugs on my sleeve. “We could sit over there?” he asks, pointing to a picnic table. When I don’t respond, he must follow my gaze, spotting the maze.
“Shit, Bliss, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring you back here.” That snags my attention and I stare at him. The question must be plain on my face because he frowns. “Simon told me what happened. How Wrath and Eerie found you.”
“Right,” I say, but I find myself looking to the maze again. The entrance of the maze, roped off with a single strip of caution tape and a small sign saying the maze is closed, almost dares me to face it.
I take a few steps towards it and feel Pisces at my back.
“Bliss, where are you going?”
“I need to see it, where I was attacked.”
Pisces overtakes me and puts his hands on my shoulders, stopping me in my tracks. “Maybe you should wait. Give it a few days,” he says softly, in that deep voice of his. His hands drop to his sides.
I shake my head, darting around him, and duck inside the entrance, going under the tape. I come to a stop where the path splits in opposite directions.
“What did you want to talk about?” I ask, my arms starting to get cold as the night air cools another degree or two. There’s enough light from the streetlamps and the patio lighting they used inside the maze to see where I’m going.
“Are you sure you’re okay to be here?” he asks. He sneezes, just like the day we were partnered to give out prizes. After a moment, he continues, “I get wanting to face your trauma, but there’s no rush.”
I nod, but I don’t agree. I drove the very next day to the place where Jordan crashed the car, almost killing me. I knew if I didn’t I would never drive on that road again. It’s a Band-Aid you have to rip off.
I turn around and face him. “I need to do this now. Before they take the maze down. I want to go look at the spot where I was attacked.”
He motions for me to lead the way and I do. I’m not sure how my brain remembers it, but I know the exact path I took trying to get away from Jinx, and I know even before I turn the corner that I’m going to find my blood.
And there it is.
It’s dried, but it’s coated the hay-covered asphalt floor of the maze. I notice splatters on the walls as well.
“Fuck,” Pisces breathes out. “Do you know who attacked you?”
“My ex, Jordan. He’s a vampire.”
Pisces growls and the sound reverberates through my body. I turn and look at him, finding him staring stonily at the blood splatters.
My heartbeat starts to pick up its pace and I find I’m having a hard time taking a full breath.
I turn and break into a sprint away from the scene of my attack.
“Oh stars,” I say, coming to a stop and placing my hands on the hay wall in front of me. Pisces is behind me seconds later.
“Bliss, are you alright?” He places a gentle hand on my shoulder, slowly turning me around. I cave and bury my face into his chest. He strokes my back soothingly as tears streak down my face. “I’m so sorry, Bliss. God, I’m so sorry.”
Pisces pulls me into him even tighter and I let him scoop me up as he carries me to one of the little benches made out of hay. I curl into him, letting my nose rest against his collarbone.
“I shouldn’t have brought you anywhere near here. Fuck, I keep making everything worse,” he whispers hoarsely, but I don’t think he meant to say it out loud.
I clutch his shirt and finally pull my head up. We meet each other’s gazes, and for some reason the sight of his runeless eyes makes me sob even harder.
I’m only here at the festival because I’m trying to get a mate. I was only attacked because my mate bond is broken.
That’s not entirely true, a voice in my head reminds me. Amelia asked me to be here. Even if it weren’t for the wraith’s deal, wouldn’t I have eventually caved and come with my sister to support her?
I got attacked because Jordan attacked me.
It was on him and nothing else.
I hastily wipe at my cheeks, trying to dry them, and sniff to clear my nose.
I am not going to keep crying over anything related to Jordan. I’ve wasted enough tears on him.
I am done crying.
The only tears I want to see now are Wrath’s. I’m going to get my mate and become a water nymph.
I straighten up in Pisces’ hold. “I’m okay now. Sorry for running and crying all over you.”
He smiles softly at me, dipping his head. “It’s fine. Least I could do.”
He lets me get up and I turn and face him, wiping again at the stray tears that have leaked down my face. “What did you want to talk about?”
“I wanted to apologize—” He’s cut off mid-sentence by a scream that feels like it reaches into my soul and slashes it to ribbons. Sheer panic courses through me at the fear in that scream.
“Stay here,” Pisces says, starting to take a step, but then he stops. “Never mind, I’m not leaving you alone.” He firmly grips my hand in his and we run towards where we thought we heard the scream.
But no other sounds follow it.
We hit a T in the maze. “Which way?” I ask.
Pisces looks down both ways and pulls me to the left. The path cuts to the right a few yards afterwards and we’re led into a little dead end, where—
Oh stars.
I recognize her instantly.
Her blue-streaked blonde hair is splayed out around her head, almost like a halo, and her limbs are limp next to her, covered in blood. I try not to focus on how deep her wounds are. At how many of them there are.
She’s wearing the Voracious Maw shirt we handed out to her a couple days ago.
Pisces draws me close into his body, looking over my head behind me, probably searching for whoever did this.
I pull out of his grasp and go check her pulse. There’s nothing. Her artery is still beneath my fingers.
Pisces keeps his eyes on the entrance to the maze. I wonder if the sight of blood does anything to him. I still don’t know what type of fae he is, and he doesn’t smell like a vampire, but maybe I’m wrong.
He pulls out his phone, dialing something quickly, and speaks quietly to the person on the other end. While he still has his phone to his ear, he reaches for me. “Come on, Bliss, we need to get out of here.”
He pulls me after him, while continuing to talk on the phone. I gather quickly that he’s talking to an emergency dispatcher. We come out the entrance in front of the maze. Police lights are already making their way towards us as cop cars drive carefully onto the grassy lawn surrounding the maze.
Pisces tells one of the officers where we found the body and then his arms close around me again, as he leads me to a picnic table. We sit with our legs on the outside of the bench, and Pisces runs his hand up and down my arm to keep me warm as I settle into his side.
I can’t seem to get the images of the girl out of my head.
“We met her.”
“I know,” he responds quietly, lowering his cheek to rest on the top of my head. “I know.”
“Do you think it was a warlock?” I finally ask after a long pause.
My mind can’t help but compare the blonde girl with the woman in the green dress.
The similarities are too much. We watch the rest of the police close down the scene with tape and police gates.
The swirling blue and red lights take over my vision until it’s the only thing I can see.
“I’m not sure,” is all he says.
But something doesn’t seem right. The attacks I heard about on the news were more public and random. This felt more purposeful.
Like maybe she was lured here.
Or herded, my mind points out.
A silhouette approaches us, but I can’t make out who it is until he’s only a few feet in front of us, the streetlamp nearby shedding its glow on his face.
“Bliss, you were the one who found the body?” Grim asks, looking from Pisces to me.
“Yeah, we both did.” Pisces gets up, as members from Voracious Maw, Goddess’ Trance and the Phantoms all converge on us.
“We heard a scream and found her. It— It looks like the other attack,” I tell Grim, as he comes and sits down next to me.
Grim glances at Pisces. “Can you give us a minute?”
Pisces looks between us, an unreadable expression crossing his face, but he nods and heads off to his friends, giving me one last look over his shoulder.
“Do you know who she was?” Grim asks.
I shake my head. “No, not really. Pisces and I met her during the scavenger hunt. She was here with her friends to see Voracious Maw. She couldn’t have been more than twenty.
I can’t believe this.” Tears start falling again and I wipe furiously at them.
I said no more tears, but this feels like the only thing I can do in this moment.
Grim puts his arm around me. “I’m so sorry you were the one to find her.”
“I think—” I start to say, but stars, I can’t get the words out.
I start sobbing harder. Amelia and Reese are there in seconds, and I try to meet their gaze through my tears, but my vision is too blurry.
“Stars, it’s all my fault,” I sob out. “I don’t know much about the warlock attacks, but I don’t think this is the same.
I think it was Jordan who attacked her. Maybe the woman in the garden too.
” Would I have ended up just like them if Eerie and Wrath hadn’t found me?
Grim stiffens beside me. “I’m not sure these were vampire attacks, but I’ll talk to the investigators. They’ll want to talk to you again at some point.” He squeezes my shoulder. “I’m gonna go see if I can help out,” he says, more so to Amelia and Reese. “Call me if Bliss needs anything.”
Reese replaces Grim to my left and Amelia sits down next to me on the right.
I’m not sure how long I’m there for, but I rest my head on Reese’s shoulders.
At some point a fae officer makes her way over, asking me a series of questions.
The next hour or so passes in flashes, both quickly and slowly.
I don’t remember how I get home, but at some point I realize I’m all tucked into bed, with Reese next to me.
I turn so I can see her and curl up closer to her. I beg sleep to take me.