Warrior (Relentless #4)(154)

“Sara?”

The line was silent, and I knew she’d hung up. I sat in the dark, hoping she’d call back, but after half an hour I lay down again. I finally fell asleep with the phone in one hand and my other hand rubbing at the hollow ache in my chest.





Chapter 29





“Nikolas, you heading out?”

I grabbed my phone from the counter and looked up as Wayne, one of the warriors stationed in Los Angeles, walked into the kitchen.

“I’m on my way to meet up with Chris and the others at Blue Nyx.”

Chris and I had stopped by the club to visit Adele the moment we got to the city two days ago, only to find out the succubus was out of town and not due back until today. Adele knew more about the Los Angeles underworld than anyone else in the city. Two young Mohiri in the company of two werewolves would not go unnoticed for long, and if anyone knew where to find them, it was Adele.

We’d spent the last two days scouring the city, visiting every club, informant, and cheap motel we could think of. LA’s supernatural community was the biggest in the country, and there were hundreds of species living here. It also had one of the largest vampire populations, which made me even more desperate to find Sara and get her away from here.

She’d called me again last night. It was a different number and she didn’t speak, but my gut told me it was her. I’d spent the short call trying to get her to talk, to no avail. I consoled myself with the knowledge she must be missing me too if she felt the need to call. I wished she would talk to me.

Wayne clipped a knife sheath to his belt. “I just heard that two girls were attacked by a vampire at a motel over near LAX. Everyone else is out, so I’m going over there. I could use some backup.”

I immediately thought of Sara and Jordan, and my stomach dropped. “I’ll go with you.”

Chris and the rest of the team were on route to Blue Nyx when I called to let him know where I was.

“You need me to come there?” he asked.

“No, go talk to Adele. She’s our best bet of finding Sara and Jordan if they’re here. I’ll meet you there.” I wasn’t going to take the chance of missing the succubus if she decided to leave town again.

The motel was a pay-by-the-hour dump with a flickering neon sign and peeling paint. A prostitute who couldn’t be more than sixteen approached me before I’d even shut off my bike, and I sent her on her way with a hundred-dollar bill and a warning. Not that I expected her to heed my advice to go home for the night.

As Wayne and I entered the lobby, a short balding man in a crumpled suit passed by us, reeking of cigarette smoke and sex. I knew before I went to the room on the third floor that Sara wasn’t here. She’d never stay in a rat hole like this.

“Prostitutes,” Wayne said as we stood in the doorway, looking at the bloody scene. “God, they can’t be more than eighteen.”

I stared at the two naked girls sprawled across the bed with their throats ripped open, their eyes wide and unseeing. I’d seen so many vampire victims in my lifetime I’d thought I was numb to it. But the sight of these two filled me with revulsion and rage. The longer I went without finding Sara, the more I feared her ending up in the hands of a monster like the one who’d done this. The thought shook me so much I had to leave the motel to calm down.

“The clerk called the police before we got here,” Wayne told me when he came outside five minutes later. “They don’t usually respond as quickly to this part of town, but they should be here soon.”

There wasn’t anything we could do for the girls, so we left. Wayne returned to the safe house to monitor activity from the control room, and I went to meet up with Chris at Blue Nyx.

After the scene at the motel, I wasn’t in the best of moods when I pulled up behind the black brick building that housed Adele’s club.

One of her security guys opened the back door for me when I rapped on it.

“Evening, Dolph.”

The seven-foot ogre gave me something that resembled a smile. “Evening, Mr. Danshov.”

The club was crowded with the usual patrons: demons, weres, Fae. Adele’s was one of the few places in the city where species that never mixed in the real world could party together. Although party was a loose term for what was going on here. It was after midnight, the time when Adele’s succubus magic was at its strongest, and when her customers cast off all inhibitions and took part in the real reason they came here.

All around me, I could hear couples and threesomes engaged in sex on the couches in the dark corners. On the dance floor, a blond faerie kissed a voluptuous nymph while one of his brethren pressed against her from behind. Soon the trio would leave the floor and find a corner of their own – or they might not. Faeries were notorious exhibitionists.

I found Chris talking to the bartender while the four warriors who’d accompanied him stood like sentries observing the room.

“How was it at the hotel?” Chris asked.

“Bad. Two dead prostitutes. We left before the police arrived.”

He grimaced. “Vampires don’t even try to hide their kills anymore.”

“I know. It’s getting bad out there.” I looked up at the window on the second floor that overlooked the club. “Have you seen Adele already?”

“Briefly.” He smirked. “I told her you were on the way, and she wanted to wait to see you instead.”