Chapter Six
After spending most of the day traveling when I usually spend my daylight hours sleeping, I needed a short rest. The sunlight drained me to the point where I could barely stand by the time I got Lola settled in her new room. All I wanted to do was pass out and recharge until sundown, but my body seemed to need more sleep.
The cold sweat on my brow is my first clue that something”s wrong. I wake up in the middle of the night, disoriented. The darkness of my room presses in, and for a moment, I”m not sure why I”m so on edge. Then it hits me—Lola. Where is she? I don”t hear her rhythmic breathing in the next room anymore, another benefit of the heightened abilities of a vampire.
I vault out of bed and stalk over to the wall between our rooms. Leaning my ear against it, I listen for any signs of life beyond the cool brick surface. Nothing. Only silence. She”s gone.
Panic wells up within me as my worst fears come true. ”Damn it,” I curse under my breath, balling my hands into fists. ”I should”ve insisted she stay in here with me.”
I pull on some clothes, foregoing shoes, and dart down the hall to her room. I enter without knocking and scan the empty room. The bedsheets are a tangled mess, but everything else looks undisturbed. Her suitcase is still standing at the foot of the bed, unopened. There”s no sign of her.
Her absence is a void, and my mind races through possibilities—has she run away, or worse, has someone taken her? Where could she have gone? Maybe she went for a walk around the grounds. There”s no way she could”ve gotten out of the house without one of the vampires spotting her and reporting back to me. I wouldn”t put it past her to try to escape, but one of my clan members would”ve heard and stopped her.
”Adrian,” I mutter under my breath. He”s the only vampire in my clan that would dare challenge my authority, and he”s been known to defy me from time to time. Would he be reckless enough to try to take Lola for himself?
The thought sets my teeth on edge, and my fangs spring out on their own. I whip around and charge out of the room, tearing through the mansion and calling her name on my way to Adrian”s quarters. When I reach his bedroom door, I slam my fist on the thick oak hard enough to put a dent in it. I”m not worried about waking anyone up. Vampires sleep during the day, if they can help it.
”Adrian!” I bellow. ”Get your ass out here now! If you”ve done something─”
The door swings open, cutting me off mid-rant. Adrian gawks at me from the other side. ”What the hell, Drake?”
”Where is she?” My voice is a low snarl, and I grab him by the collar, ready to shake answers out of him.
He raises his hands in surrender, a look of bewilderment on his face. ”Who?”
”Lola.”
”Lola?” he repeats. ”Calm down, Drake. I haven”t seen her. I was just in here working on getting that treaty finalized over the phone with that clan in Germany. I know you”re pissed that I”m not there in person, but this is how things are done in this day and age.”
I release his shirt and barge into his room anyway, determined to see for myself that she isn”t hidden somewhere in here. ”Lola?” I call out, searching behind furniture and even under his bed. I don”t care how crazy it makes me look. Her safety is all that matters.
Adrian follows close behind me, frowning as he watches me search his room. ”I told you, she isn”t here, Drake. Did you check the kitchen? Maybe she”s hungry. Humans have to eat a lot more than we do.”
I”m already on my way out the door, taking two steps at a time as I race down the stairs toward the kitchen. ”Lola!” I yell. My footsteps echo throughout the house as I come to a grinding halt in the hallway just before the kitchen and see the hidden basement door hanging open. ”Oh, fuck,” I breathe, running my fingers through my hair. ”She found my study.”
There”s too much sensitive information in there, too much that could send a human woman into a tailspin of hysteria. If she can”t focus on what we need to do because she”s too engrossed in her family”s history... I have to stop her from going any further down that rabbit hole.
”Lola?” I call, stepping into the basement. My voice is less forceful now, and my pace is a slow walk instead of a frantic run. ”Are you down here?”
When I reach the bottom of the stairs and start creeping into the study, my senses are immediately flooded with her scent. Her pheromones cling to every surface. That sweet aroma invades my lungs and tickles my taste buds, and when I catch sight of her nestled into a chair with a book open in her lap, my heart rate skyrockets when I realize it”s her ancestor”s diary.
She turns a page and reaches up to brush a loose strand of hair out of her face before scratching her nose. ”What”s got you so worked up?” she asks without looking up at me. Given what she”s reading as we speak, I expect her to be freaking out a bit more, but she”s as calm as can be.
”You scared the hell out of me,” I admit. ”I woke up and you weren”t in your room, so─”
She does look up at me now, with a smirk playing on her lips. ”So you thought I ran away? This journal is pretty interesting, by the way.” She turns the book toward me to show me the page she”s on, but I”ve already read it twice over. ”But there are a lot of gaps in the story. Some of the pages are torn out and stained, like someone doesn”t want the information contained in here to get out.”
I lean down and pluck the diary out of her hands, shaking my head. ”That”s exactly why this was hidden away in here.”
She scowls at me and makes a swipe for the journal, but I pull it back just out of reach. ”Don”t be such a stick in the mud,” she grumbles. ”It”s my family. I have a right to know what”s in there.”
”These aren”t just scribbles in a diary,” I remind her. ”There”s some very dangerous information in here.”
”Like what?” She pushes herself out of the chair and plants her hands on her hips, raising an eyebrow at me. ”If you want me to help me, Drake, you”re going to have to be transparent. I”m not going into this blindly.”
I sigh and readjust my grip on the diary before tapping it against my palm. ”Come upstairs. We”ll go through it together in my chambers.”
”In your chambers?” She waves her hand around the room. ”What”s wrong with right here?”
”The missing pages are kept in a safe in my room. If you”re so curious, then come with me.” I flash her a smile, extending my fangs just a bit. ”Don”t worry, Lola. I won”t bite. Not tonight.”