At the same time, I feel like a slut, considering what I just did with Kane. It seems pointless to have given myself to him now since my rescuers showed up directly after. It did calm my overwhelming desire to be touched, though it certainly didn't fully quell it.
"You're right. I missed you. I've been worried to death," he says as we materialize in a part of this castle-like place I've never seen.
"I'm fine. Just a scratched knee. How'd you find me?"
He smiles as he tugs at his jacket I'm wearing.
"She masked your scent, but she didn't realize you were wearing my jacket. She never thought to get rid of it. That was her fatal mistake. Drackus will rip her heart out."
"So he knows you're here with me now?"
"Hell no. Thad told him he was the one trying to get you out of town before Castine did a sneak attack. We need to find Drackus and see if we can bring him down before the high takes him."
The exploding sounds in the darkness ring out, and we follow the sounds at a brisk pace. Gage humors me by keeping my speed, not vaporizing. I know he won't leave me alone though.
We stumble into a wide, spiral stairwell. The cylindrical middle gives us a glimpse of the battle raging on below between my father and Castine.
His black leather duster jacket sweeps behind him as he spins out of the reach of the deadly blast she shouldn't have disposable at her fingertips. Drackus killed a demon without so much as touching him, yet he has to fight to beat the Vampiress. That doesn't make any sense. What did our kind do to help her get this much power?
She shrieks as the dark eyes of my father glisten, and he sends a shot so deadly at her she shouldn't be standing. She does stand though, and she tries to use her powers of subduing against him.
It proves fruitless when he grabs her hand and breaks it in his. She screams out again, but she slips free from his clutches before he can catch her by the neck.
His jet black hair is shorter than the last time I saw him. His misleading appearance would make you think he's in his early thirties. His centuries of death and destruction would prove otherwise.
Just as he's about to finish her off, a dark shadow appears. A dark-haired man materializes beside Castine, and then they begin to vaporize. Drackus growls as he lunges at the shadow, but they're gone before he reaches it.
"Damn it!" he snaps, staring at the air devoid of any presence.
"She has dark users on her payroll? Why the hell didn't I know this?" he barks to someone I can't see.
"I didn't know she had dark users," a familiar voice says as he goes to join him.
I gasp when I realize it's Dray, Kane's friend. He's working with my father?
"If that bitch comes within a hundred miles of my daughter again, I'll rip his throat out for ever bringing his fight to her. Do you understand that?"
Dray nods, not seeming the least bit rattled by my father's presence. He apparently knows him, but if he knows him, then why doesn't Kane know who Drackus is to me?
"We need to go. Your dad seems to be unaffected by the toxins this time," Gage whispers against my ear.
"I want to talk to him. That guy knows Kane."
"Not now, Alyssa. Thad was supposed to get you out of here. If Drackus finds out he failed, he'll be punished. I was fine with you coming when I thought you might be the only one to bring him down, but he doesn't need to be brought down. Let's go."
Crap.
Thad better be glad my concern for him outweighs my need for answers.
Gage pulls me to him, and then we vaporize into the air, leaving behind the conversation I desperately want to stay and overhear.
"By the way, I know what this mark is now," I murmur as we materialize outside, next to his car.
He steadies me as the dizziness sweeps in without mercy.
"What is it?"
"Something you're really not going to like."
