Page 41 of Craving Darkness
He cringed back at my threatening tone. “It was S-senator Hargrove. That’s all I know, I swear it!” His sobs grew louder as he shook.
Crispin immediately turned away, speaking rapidly into his phone. I frowned as something occurred to me that I missed at the time. I had been too focused on hurting the man who had stolen my woman. “Isn’t that the name the Master called Kallista earlier?”
I turned to Crispin as he glanced up and gave me a look I wasn’t sure how to interpret. “Senator Hargrove has a daughter who disappeared from the public eye a year ago. The family claimed that she was very sick at the time. Since then, the Senator has been garnering sympathy votes.”
He looked down at his phone and then held it up for me to see. On the screen was a younger Kallista standing demurely behind the Senator, who must have been her adoptive father. I wanted to grab his phone and study every feature of my mate. She smiled for the camera, but her eyes told the story of how miserable she was.
“That’s her,” I rasped out through a suddenly tight throat.
Crispin nodded, then exchanged a few more words before hanging up and looking at me. “Senator Hargrove chartered a plane early today. The flight plan indicated a round trip from Arkansas and back two hours later. It looks like he picked up your girl and took her back home.”
I walked straight past the sniveling vampire, not even caring about his fate. That was Crispin’s deal. I only had one thing on my mind. I passed the broken front door and stood on the sidewalk, suddenly at a loss for what to do. I needed to get to Arkansas, but I only had a motorcycle, and that was back at my warehouse. I tilted my head back to look up at the moon. The sky was an inky black dotted with tiny stars, and the moon was nearly full. But I saw none of it.
A hand clasped me on the shoulder. “I’ll take you to her. The Council has its own plane that can be here in the morning. If I’d known I needed it sooner, I would have kept it here, but one of the other Council members needed it for business.” He shook his head and sighed. “The amount of shit we have to deal with on a weekly basis is ridiculous. If I’d known most of my job on the Council was going to be mediating arguments between rich old vampires as if they were a set of kindergarteners, I would have thought twice about taking the job.”
I snorted, appreciating his levity. I looked over at him and saw that he was also staring up at the sky. “I appreciate it. I’m not sure how this whole thing would have gone down if you hadn’t been here. If I haven’t said it yet, I’m glad you’re still alive. Even if you are a bloodsucking leech.”
He grinned. “That’s Councilman Leech.”
“I’d really like to meet the kind of woman who decided to put up with your haughty ass.” We walked to the SUV and climbed inside, waiting for the Sentinels to finish up in the house while we caught each other up on our lives.
It turned out that the plane Crispin had been waiting on ended up being delayed twice. The first time was because of a mechanical issue that was an easy fix, but it took an entire day before it could fly again. Then we had to wait for the other Council member to fly back to the vampire island since they were done with whatever had taken them out to begin with. I had to concede that since the plane was still there with them, it didn’t make sense to fly in circles. It didn’t mean that I wasn’t growing more impatient and furious by the moment.
The only thing that made it bearable was knowing she was with her parents. From what she’d told me, they were shit parents, and I didn’t trust them to keep her safe, let alone happy. But at least it wasn’t with human traffickers like I’d feared when I’d heard she’d been sold.
By the time I stepped on the small jet, I was nearly out of my mind. I settled into the large leather seat but hardly noticed the wealth and comfort around me. It wasn’t until the plane began taxiing down the airstrip that I remembered I’d never flown before and dug my hands into the armrests. I ignored the chatter around me as I hung on for dear life and wondered how much it would hurt if we crashed and if it was finally something my body couldn’t come back from.
“First time flying?” Jared grinned at me. I grunted and flipped him off, then immediately regretted taking my hand off the armrest.
I felt the plane level out, and everything became much smoother. It no longer felt like the entire piece of metal was going to fall apart, and I was finally able to pry my eyes open.
“You know, you’re lucky your first time was in this plane and not a commercial flight. Those are crowded, smelly, and shake so badly you can’t help but wonder if it lost a bolt or two during takeoff. These planes are so much smoother.” I wasn’t ready to say what I thought about their idea of smooth. I let my heart rate slow back to a somewhat normal pace as I gratefully drank the glass of scotch the flight attendant offered with a sympathetic smile.
It seemed like we’d only been in the air for a few minutes when the announcement came over the intercom that it was time to prepare for landing, which was no better than the takeoff. But at least I knew what to expect that time. It was when the wheels touched down that I nearly ripped the arms off the chair.
As soon as the doors opened, I was out of my seat and making a beeline for the door. I was happy to be back on solid ground but even more grateful that I was a short drive away from my mate.
Chapter 28
Kallista
Iwoke up, immediately sensing that something wasn’t right. The room smelled like wax and something burning, bringing back memories I did my best to keep buried. I tried to roll out of bed but was pulled to a stop before I could move even an inch. I frantically darted my eyes around, seeing my wrists tied to the headboard. Dozens of candles were lit, sitting on every available surface of my furniture.
My gaze stopped on my mother before continuing over to see the man who had haunted my nightmares for ten years. Father Butler stood at the foot of my bed, looking smug as he stared down at me. His robes hadn’t changed. Nothing about him had.
I chose to ignore his presence, knowing that his only goal was to hurt me. There would be no pleading with the priest. Instead, I looked back over at my mother, who stood further away by the door. She had her arms crossed over her chest, and her chin was jutted out.
“Mother, please don’t do this.” It was the only plea she would hear from my lips. If she ignored me the way she’d done all those other times, she would kill the last thread of familial bond I’d held for her.
“I saw you last night.” She swallowed, then shored up her confidence with the squaring of her shoulders. “There is a demon inside of you. I tried to help you… before. It didn’t work.” She looked over at the priest, who was still staring down at me with a maniacal gleam in his beady eyes. “Father Butler has assured me that he can rid you of the demon once and for all.” She swallowed thickly. “It might hurt a bit.”
I laughed bitterly. I didn’t know what he had planned, but if it was worse than the lashings he’d given me as a child, I knew I should be afraid. “The only demon inside of me is me, Mother.”
Her eyes widened, and she let her arms drop to her sides as she took a step back. Her hand waved behind her back as she searched blindly for the doorknob. Once she found it, she quickly opened the door.
“Just let me know once it’s done, Father.” And then she was gone, the door closing with a bang as she slammed it closed.
I took my disbelieving gaze from the door, actually surprised that she had taken the coward’s way out. I wasn’t sure if she was more scared of me or what the priest had planned. I looked back at Father Butler.
