Chapter 19
Chapter
Nineteen
Istood sandwiched between two supernatural men in the middle of my messy living room. My chest rose up and down, and my rapid breathing showed no signs of slowing down.
The more I looked around, searching for any signs of what had happened, the more my pulse sped. My home wasn’t the refuge I’d so carefully built. It was a messy war zone.
The couch cushions on the ground were torn apart with something sharp—white material stuck out and covered my floor like freshly fallen snow. The calligraphy pages Mom gave me were ripped into tiny pieces.
I scanned the small kitchen, searching for Dad’s apron. I stepped over shards of glasses, plates, and food and found the apron on the ground, shredded.
Whoever did this had been searching for something but also wanted to trash the place to make a statement.
It wasn’t a robbery to steal electronics or jewelry.
Mom’s wall decor and Dad’s apron were the only valuable but inexpensive items that I had in the apartment to remind me of the people I missed so much.
My stomach churned as I realized that whoever did this was still out there.
“Princess,” Hayden said from my bedroom.
He rarely called me by my title.
The tone of his voice made the hairs on my forehead stand on end. I dashed inside the space. I felt Torin’s presence right behind me. He’d been standing close to me ever since we entered the apartment.
Half of the mattress still lay on the bed frame, metal springs poking out. The other half lay on the cluttered floor. The clear cut of the metal pieces must have been done with claws and talons. Most of my clothes were shredded on the ground.
I let out a loud breath and sucked in more air.
Unlike the kingdom, my London apartment had no security cameras, buff guards, or secret escape passageways. I was an average human living among other people, all while not raising the suspicion of any supernaturals.
I found strength in knowing that even when I bumped shoulders with them on the city sidewalks, my special instincts would alarm me of their otherworldly presence, but they wouldn’t know who I was. Blending into the human world was how I’d survived for seven years.
Until now.
“These monsters were looking for the book,” I said with a shaky voice.
Stomach roiling, I placed my hand over the leather bag on my shoulder.
The vampires had gone too far to get their hands on my book. Who else could it have been?
The urge to open the magic book now grew in my chest to the point that I couldn’t take my next breath. Whoever wanted my book so desperately knew something about it that I didn’t. Perhaps the faster I learned the answers I sought, the faster any supernaturals would give up chasing me for the book.
My gaze set on Hayden, who was partially visible at my bathroom entrance. He stood unmoving and staring at the mirror above the vanity.
When I moved next to my bodyguard, I gasped. The number ten was written on the mirror in what looked like red paint. The heaviness in the air grew thick, and a sense of foreboding made my heart race.
My stomach churned as the truth hit me.
“Is it…” I swallowed hard and met Hayden’s gaze in the reflection.
“It’s blood,” he said.
But whose blood was it? Did they sacrifice some poor animal?
My heart thundered as realization slammed into me. I sprinted to my front door and across the stairwell.
Torin attached himself to me, following my every step. A strangled sob escaped my mouth, and all I could do was point to the bronze numbers on Lisa’s apartment door. Ten.
Torin’s gloved hand grasped mine, and I tilted my head to look at his face. His amber eyes were on fire but softened as he gazed at me.
Hayden appeared in front of us, leaned into the door, and sniffed at the space where it connected the frame. “It smells like blood and death.”
I placed my free hand over my mouth to stifle another sob.
“Are you sure you want to walk inside, sweetheart?”
I nodded. I couldn’t find the courage to speak. I was responsible for all of this.
The vampires must have been angry they didn’t get the book, so they… I couldn’t think about what I would find inside.
Hayden pressed on the handle and walked inside. The lock was broken. Hayden first, then Torin with me in tow, entered the narrow hallway, and Torin led me to one of the bedrooms. Our hands were still connected, and I didn’t want to let go of him.
Lisa’s bed was unmade—the middle of the pillow had a dip, and her quilt was tossed to the side as if she had woken up and gone to the bathroom.
There were no signs of robbery or struggle, except in the bathroom.
Lisa’s unmoving body rested in a puddle of blood on the cold tiles, most of it around her head and torso.
The first time I saw a dead body, it belonged to someone I loved.
I was nine years old. No child should have witnessed the lifeless body of someone who’d given their life to protect me.
After that, I was never the same overly enthusiastic and chatty kid.
My childhood innocence was shattered, and as the years passed, I discovered that danger could hide in every shadow, and death could hide around the corner.
Since then, I had only grown warier of the supernatural world, avoiding it like a virus.
How many more people had to make the ultimate sacrifice because of me?
A familiar pain at the back of my dry throat returned. A stabbing ache tore into my chest with such force that it felt as if it had left a wound there. No, not a wound, but a hollow void.
I sucked in a sharp breath and looked around the bathroom. A smudge of blood was visible on the edge of the bathtub door. She had a small tub adjusted for her physical needs with a bench inside and a short door for easy access.
It was made to appear as an accident, as if the elderly lady had lost her balance or slipped and fell and hit her head.
But I knew the hard truth. I’d caused the death of yet another loved one. The vampires got to her because of me. My enemy had left me a warning and would be back for the book…and for me.
My vision blurred from the gushing tears, and I desperately wiped at them, rubbing my eyes. This life I’d built for myself over the years, with Lisa’s help, had crumbled in a moment.
Torin nudged me out of the bathroom. “Stay here to investigate and deal with the police,” he said to Hayden. “We’re going to Anna’s work to request time off. She needs to disappear for a while.”
He pulled me gently toward the door.
I couldn’t understand why Torin and I had to go to my work when I could just call Steven to request time off. Hayden looked at me with hesitation in his eyes, and I nodded.
“I’ll be okay,” I said.
I wasn’t going to be. My friend was gone, and I hadn’t been there for her.
I hadn’t saved her.
I was the catalyst for her death, and the thought intensified the stabbing pain in my chest.
My legs moved where Torin took me, but my brain didn’t process anything of my surroundings, and I just let the Alpha lead me. Somehow I made it inside his car. A sudden weakness took over my limbs, and as soon as Torin sat next to me in the back seat, I rested my shoulder against his side.
I didn’t expect Torin’s reaction—his arms engulfed me in a hug and pulled me into his chest. I buried my head into him and cried.
And he let me.
Torin whispered sweet nothings to me, his warm breath on my earlobe. I couldn’t clearly make out the words, but it was enough that his voice traveled over me, shielding me from the outside world.
I kept inhaling his familiar scent, trying to calm down. His embrace was stronger than anything, making me feel safe and giving me a false sense of belonging.
I didn’t know how long he held me gently while I broke apart in his arms.
After a moment, some of Torin’s words pierced through my foggy mind.
“You show a strong front while breaking on the inside,” he whispered.
My tears stopped pouring like a waterfall, and my mind cleared slightly. I rested my cheek on the thin material of Torin’s shirt, feeling his warm body.
And it suddenly hit me. The thought came with a heaviness that expanded from my chest to my stomach.
“Tammy,” I shouted, feeling nausea rising in my throat. “What if they got to her too?”
What if my best friend was next? Was I too late?
My panic over Tammy’s safety turned into full-blown hyperventilating. I made a wheezing sound from my lungs and tried to swallow the dryness in my throat.
Torin asked his driver to change the route to Tammy’s apartment, but the ride there felt so slow.
My panic attack triggered images of another heartbreaking day in my mind. No breathing techniques, no visualization exercises, and no meditation sessions were enough to help me forget that day.
Lisa had died because of me, just like Uncle Derek. He was the King’s only brother, my favorite uncle, and Layla’s dad. I was only nine when he died, but the memory of his dead body could never be erased from my mind, no matter how hard I tried.
I squeezed my eyes shut, only making the horrific images more vivid behind my hot eyelids. My stomach churned with sickening dread of what I’d find in my best friend’s apartment. A lump caught in my throat as the car raced down the streets.
What if we were too late? If Tammy followed Lisa’s and Uncle Derek’s fates, I wouldn’t be able to live in my own skin. A flood of guilt washed over my itchy skin. The body count would only keep increasing the longer I interacted with the supernatural world.