49. Liam
Chapter 49
Liam
I have barely made it three steps into the apartment building when I come across another fucking body.
This fucking night. I am so exhausted.
Before me is the crumpled body of my next-door neighbor, Helwig. His lifeless form lies on the ground, fang marks visible on his neck.
With trembling hands, I reach out to check for a pulse, but it’s futile. Helwig is gone, another victim of the night’s senseless violence.
I curse under my breath and race to my apartment.
Dread coils in the pit of my stomach as I scan the room, but Selene is nowhere to be found. Instead, I find Emmett lying on the floor in a pool of blood and struggling to breathe.
”Emmett!” I choke out. “Why aren’t you healing?”
“Knife,” he moans as his eyelids flutter rapidly.
That makes no sense. He should be healing. Why does he keep bleeding?
“Where’s Selene?” I ask.
“Gone. Levi!”
Fuck! Emmett reaches his hand to take mine. His palm is sticky with blood. I have seen enough blood to last me a lifetime. “Hang in there, buddy. Help is on the way.”
But even as I speak the words, I know it might be too late. Emmett’s injuries look severe. I feel the cold grip of fear tightening around my heart.
Desperate, I reach for my phone, my fingers fumbling as I dial my mother’s number. It rings and rings, each moment stretching into eternity until finally, she picks up, her voice thick with tears.
“Liam,” she gasps in a trembling voice. “Your father just told me about Lennox and Elara. I can’t believe—”
I cut her off, my own voice breaking as I try to hold back the flood of tears threatening to overwhelm me. “Mom, Selene’s gone. I think they took her.” I say, my words barely more than a whisper. “And Emmett... he’s hurt. Bad.”
There’s a long moment of silence on the other end of the line, broken only by the sound of my mother’s ragged breathing. I can hear the fear and anguish in her voice as she speaks again. “I just put a spell on Alyssa to help her rest,” she says. “Raskogr’s with her now. I’m on my way. We’ll help Emmett and Liam. I promise. We are not losing anyone else tonight.”
“Mom.”
“I swear it, Liam. No other deaths.”
“Thanks, Mom. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Less than ten minutes later, the front door bursts open, and Layla, Colt, and Grayson come rushing into the house.
“Dad asked us to get here as soon as possible,” Layla says as she takes in the scene.
They find me cradling Emmett on the floor, his pale face a stark contrast to the blood staining his shirt. Colt’s eyes widen in shock as he absorbs the gravity of the situation.
“What happened?” he asks.
“Levi attacked,” I reply in a strained voice. “When I was out looking for Lennox.”
Layla rushes to my side. “I’ll explain everything to Colt,” she says, her tone soothing. “Grayson, help me with Emmett.”
Grayson nods, tears glistening in his eyes as he takes Emmett’s hand. “Why isn’t he healing?”
I shake my head helplessly. “I don’t know.”
As Layla examines the wound on Emmett’s side, she lifts his shirt, and her gasp sends a shiver down my spine. “They tampered with the knife,” she says angrily. “It’s already infected.”
Emmett’s breathing grows shallow as Layla’s words sink in. She directs us to move him to the sofa, her hands already glowing with magic as she begins to work her healing spells.
I watch in awe as Layla’s hands move with precision and grace, weaving intricate patterns of light around Emmett’s injured body. The air fills with a faint hum of energy as she channels her magic with laser focus.
Grayson, desperate to help in any way he can, grabs a towel and a bowl of water and sets to work cleaning the blood from the floor with shaking hands.
Colt watches Layla work and then looks at me. “Layla’s got everything under control here. You and I can go out and start looking for Selene.”
I nod, grateful for Colt’s level-headedness because right now, all I feel is helplessness.
Colt and I step outside into the cool night air, ready to start our search for Selene.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Colt mutters worriedly.
“Yeah. I just hope we find her before something happens.”
We split up, searching every alley and street corner, calling out Selene’s name into the darkness. Fear grips me as I imagine the worst possible scenarios.
“What if her brother does something to her?” I ask, voicing my worst fear.
“We’ll find her, Liam. We just have to keep looking.”
Hours pass, but there’s no sign of Selene. Not even her scent. It is like she disappeared into thin air, her and all the other vampires.
Each passing minute feels like an eternity. I can’t shake the feeling of dread that hangs over me like a dark cloud.
“We should head back,” Colt suggests, his voice weary. “There’s no sign of her out here.”
Reluctantly, I agree, knowing that staying out any longer won’t help.
Helplessness gnaws at me.
Where is she?
Back at the house, Layla and Grayson are still tending to Emmett, and their expressions are grim.
“Any luck?” Layla asks hopefully.
I shake my head. “No sign of her.”
Layla’s expression falls, and I can see the concern in her eyes. “We’ll find her, Liam. We just have to keep looking. Mom came by and did some magic. She says Emmett will be okay.”
I nod gratefully. “Does she know why his wound is infected?”
“Magic. The vampires are working with some witches. The knife was spelled. That also explains how they were able to bypass the wards we put up around your house.”
“A witch?” I gasp.
“We are not sure yet. We still need to figure it out, but we are all on high alert. We will get to the bottom of this, Liam.”
What in the conspiracy theory is going on?
Selene is out there, alone and in danger, and I don’t know if we’ll find her in time.