Chapter 33 #2
“I had other things on my mind.” I placed the useless cup of coffee on the tidy desk and let myself fall in her chair. Maybe she somehow knew Vladimir was in here and decided to go to her old place…
“I don’t need to know about you and my sister’s sex escapades, I’ve been through enough in my life to have to deal with the thought.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Wasn’t she supposed to marry your mate? I’m sure that fact was harder to think about. Remember, I read that damn journal, I know what happened.”
Vladimir scoffed. “Barely the tip of the iceberg. You think Amyntas wrote everything in that damn thing? He didn’t. All that happened after Lola sold her soul isn’t in there.”
That piqued my interest and infuriated me at the same time. “And what happened, then?”
He scoffed. “I need to speak to her—”
“What. Happened—”
“Don’t you go and try to take that menacing tone with me,” he said coolly. “Pick up a fight, and see what happens.”
“So you did become a Hell of a prick over the years.”
Dimitri’s voice was calm and condescending as he strolled toward us, hands in his pockets, looking around the room the same way I did when I got here.
“Dimitri,” Vladimir greeted coldly.
“Aghen,” Dimitri spoke back. “To what do we owe the… honor of your visit?”
Aghen? So Vladimir wasn’t his real name either?
“I’m just visiting old friends,” he answered. I couldn’t help but notice the slight fear shining in his strange burnt orange eyes. “What are you doing here?”
Dimitri’s smile was everything but cordial. “You know that wherever my mate goes, I follow.”
That wasn’t entirely true…Didn’t they spend almost a century apart before finding each other here?
“I know. Like a parasite no one can get rid off.”
The Nephilim’s lips turned into a grin. “How’s your own personal Parasite, by the way? Last time I checked, he was still as mad at you as he was at your sister…”
“Leave him out of this,” Aghen hissed.
Dimitri shrugged before turning to me. “Where’s Lola?”
“Not here.”
His expression changed dramatically from annoyed amusement to what looked like straight up concern.
“Let’s check her old apartment,” he answered, turning around abruptly.
“I was thinking that too.” I followed after him, taking the cup of coffee with me. Maggie would hand me my ass if I left food or drinks to stink up the place for who knew how long. “Maybe she knew he would be here and was trying to avoid him.”
He gave me a strange look. “She knows he’s here?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Kai actually gave him a room in her old place and she’s been hiding with me ever since he arrived. Only found out he was her brother when he showed up uninvited at the house and she freaked out.”
“If you guys weren’t dry-humping like crazed animals, you would have felt I was there.”
Aghen walked quickly behind us and Dimitri glared at him over his shoulder as he opened the door for us to leave.
“Why are you even coming with us?” he asked him.
Aghen gave an innocent, toothy smile. “I’m just heading back home. The apartment where I live.” Dimitri let out a grunt, nearly closing the door in Aghen’s face. “She’s not there anyway.”
“How would you know?” I asked.
“Because I live there. She’s been avoiding that place like the plague ever since I moved in.”
“And yet you still can’t read the fucking room,” Dimitri grumbled.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Dimitri stopped abruptly and spun around, his hand landing on Aghen’s throat, pushing him against the wall.
“You know exactly what I mean. She had no fucking clue you were still alive. That you’ve been looking for her all this time, all because you can’t deal with the guilt over what your actions caused.
Well, newsflash, you showing up here? It won’t bring any fucking good.
Because that’s what you always fucking do, mess up everything and everyone.
You messed up Amyntas. You messed up your sister. You—”
“You and I both know it was Nefertari’s fault, she—”
“Would have been easy to deal with,” Dimitri interrupted sharply.
“If you hadn’t been a prick and avoided your mate, maybe he wouldn’t even have considered mine to be his fucking Maiden.
If you hadn’t blabbed about all this to your father in front of your manipulative mother, things could have gone completely differently. ”
“If Anastasia hadn’t sold her fucking soul and lost the soul shard in the process we’d—”
Dimitri shoved him harder against the wall.
“You don’t get to judge her for something you imposed on her.
You were selfish. You shoved the shard in her because you saw the opportunity to be free from this burden.
She didn’t ask for this, we just wanted her to be free from being sold as a fucking Dragon breeder.
So know your fucking place, and keep your misplaced anger to yourself, she doesn’t deserve any of it. ”
He pressed his hand one more time around Aghen’s throat before stepping back and resuming his walk out of the building.
“Let’s find her,” he said to me as I walked behind him, ignoring Aghen joining us, rubbing at his throat with a dark look. “And I’m counting on you not to let this asshole get to her. He has no right to blame anything on her.”
The rest of the way toward Lola’s apartment was quick and quiet. As we stopped in front of the building door, waiting for Aghen to open it for us, I somehow knew she wouldn’t be here. But maybe Marcus would know where she was.
As soon as the door was unlocked, Dimitri pushed his way inside, walking past the vampire to climb the stairs two at a time. Aymeric opened the apartment with a confused look.
“Hi?” he said, frowning as he surveyed all three of us. “Can I help you?”
Aymeric moved to the side, letting us in.
“We haven’t seen Lola all day,” I said. “We thought that maybe she hid herself here? We had a bit of a…disagreement.”
Said disagreement being her wanting more sex and us only wanting her to get some rest. Who knew she would pout about it?
Aymeric tilted his head to the side. “I’m sorry, I haven’t seen her today. Have you checked the Archives?”
Dimitri nodded. “She isn’t there.”
“And hasn’t been there all day,” Aghen continued.
“Do you know where Marcus is?” I asked.
“Haven’t seen Marcus or the girls either,” Aymeric answered. “They’re off because they had their chip replacement yesterday evening. Could they be outside, having dinner?”
Dimitri turned his head toward mine with a grave look.
“What?” I asked him.
“I think I know where she—they are.” I waited as he started pacing, looking anxious. “Fuck. I should have seen this coming.”
“What’s going on?” Aymeric asked.
“I think she went to the prison to try and free Arc.”
My heart stopped.
Oh shit. “But Arc is—”
“Yeah,” he interrupted. “She told me yesterday morning she wanted us to go and get him out of there. I told her I needed a bit more time before I could deal with this but—fuck, I should have known she wouldn’t wait.”
“You think she asked Marcus to go with her?” I asked.
“I don’t know him that well, but you said they’re friends, right?” I gave him a tense nod. “Then probably. She’s not stupid enough to go alone…But only the two of them?”
“Wait.” I turned to Aymeric. “You said the girls haven’t been here either?”
“I haven’t seen them since I woke up, although I rarely see them during the day anyway. But, yeah…The house has been quiet since I came back from work.”
Dimitri spun around, hands gripping the edge of the island counter as he cursed, his breathing turning labored.
“We need to go,” he said. “We need to go now. To stop them. It’s too dangerous, and we can’t let her get to him.”
From what I’ve seen the few times I’ve been pulled in Arc’s head, Dimitri was right.
“I’m coming with you,” Aghen said, determined.
Dimitri pushed himself away from his spot and nearly got his hand back around his throat when I stopped him.
“We could use the help,” I said, placing a hand on Dimitri’s shoulder to keep him far enough from Aghen. “I’ll trail him and ensure he doesn’t stay alone with her if we do find her before you.”
“If we find her, we might have bigger issues,” Dimitri said darkly.
And he was right. We needed to get to her before she got to Arc.