Page 101 of The Guardian's Curse

“It’s business,” Paris replied. “And Eduardo will see it that way when we tell him as much.”

* * *

At nearly two in the morning, the traffic was minimal. It took half an hour to reach the address Nikko had sent them. His sporty black car was already parked outside, and the faint blue glow of a phone screen illuminated his face. Elliott McAvoy lived in a small townhome in a row of identical units. Most of the windows were dark, with a single home at the end of the street illuminated in the flickering blue light of a TV.

Paris and Alistair stormed up the sidewalk while Nikko darted around the back of the house. Alistair and Paris silently crept to the front door. They were both still and silent, listening carefully. Though Alistair heard the whir of several air conditioning units and a loud conversation in the house next door, there was silence from within Elliott’s house. Paris tapped lightly on the door, then moved to open it.

Alistair gripped his arm. “If he made her...” he sighed. “If he made her use her magic, she might have trapped the door. Let me.” He broke the door handle and braced himself for the scorching burn of Shoshanna’s sunlight sigil. But there was nothing, just the lingering smell of vampire and something spicy. Was that tacos?

“Elliott McAvoy?” Paris asked quietly. “Delivery for you.”

Inside the home, the air was crawling with the smell of a vampire. Mixed with it, he detected two familiar scents. There was the leafy, herbal scent that surrounded Ruby, and the vanilla-sage smell of Shoshanna. He also smelled both human and vampire blood. “Shoshanna?” he called.

He didn’t know if smelling her here was a comfort or a pain. He wanted to believe that she was somewhere burying her feelings in a piece of cheesecake while crying about what a wretched excuse for a lover he was. Then she would be safe. Knowing that she’d been here opened his imagination to a whole new avenue of dread.

Despite finding her scent relatively fresh, he knew they would find nothing. Nikko had since joined them, and they silently moved through the house, inspecting each room. He heard Nikko and Paris saying, “Nothing,” as they searched rooms.

Upstairs, he found one large bedroom lit only with a table lamp. Blackout curtains were taped to the walls with shiny silver tape. A single cup crusted with dried blood sat on the nightstand. He wrinkled his nose at the inelegant setup.

The room across the hall was sparsely furnished, and Shoshanna’s scent was stronger here. His stomach lurched at the sight of her clothes, discarded across the bed. He lowered himself slowly to smell the bedclothes. They smelled a little musty, like fabric that had been stored for a long time. There was no hint of sex, nothing of the impossibly rich scent of Shoshanna’s body. Relief washed over him. Tucked against the far wall was a big pink duffel bag, and he checked the tag to find Ruby Wang on the label.

Paris sauntered in, then picked up a pink plastic tube from the dresser. “Looks like someone was getting pretty. Makeup and perfume.” He patted his pocket and took out his phone. “Shit, it’s Julian.” He answered and set the phone on the dresser. “You’re on speaker.”

“Good,” Julian’s rich voice said. “I have information for you, but whatever you’re doing, do not make a move on Elliott McAvoy.”

They exchanged looks. Paris smirked. “We’re in his house right now. Uninvited, if that matters.”

“Then get out,” Julian said. “I’ll meet you at Alistair’s house. Get there now.”

“But we need to find Shoshanna,” Alistair protested.

“I know where she is,” Julian said. “We’ll get her back, but not tonight. Get to Midnight Springs.”

They left the apartment quickly, pulling the door closed. “He’ll know we were here,” Alistair said.

“All he’ll know is that a couple of vampires were here,” Paris said. “What’s he going to do about it?”

Paris and Alistair were nearly silent on the way back to Midnight Springs. Streetlights zipped past them in a glowing blur as miles of interstate rolled by. Between this futile search and his disastrous hunt with Safira, this was the most he’d left home in decades, and with nothing but simmering anger and despair to show for it.

Alistair wanted to voice his frustrations, but how many ways could he say I need her back? He had to apologize for the ways he’d failed her, most of all for failing to believe in her. If she was correct, and they were soulmates, then perhaps there was hope. He had to trust that there was a chance she would forgive him.

But he knew well that being bound by such a powerful love didn’t guarantee a happy future. Julian and Lucia were proof of that. He squirmed, digging his dark nails into his palms until they broke the skin. The pain only made him angrier.

He should have been out there, hunting her down. What if she thought he was so wrapped up in himself that he had abandoned her to a terrible fate? She had to know better. Though he could not see the magic that Shoshanna saw, he tried to imagine a red ribbon winding around their hands, alive and pulsing like blood through an artery.

I promise that I’m coming. I love you. Stay alive for me.

It was Paris that broke the silence just before he exited the interstate to drive into Midnight Springs. He spoke in his native French, as he often did when he was feeling particularly introspective. “Is this soulmate thing real?”

“Shoshanna believes it is,” he said quietly. “She believes that Kova and Lucia were soulmates. She noticed something in Lucia that led her to breaking the curse. And that’s how she saw it in herself and in me.”

He was quiet. “And me? When she looked at my aura or whatever she called it?”

His heart sank. He wished he could lie, but his silence would say everything Paris didn’t want to hear. “She said you were different,” he said. “But I don’t know what that means.”

Paris forced a bitter laugh. He knew when the other man’s smile was faked to hide pain. “Of course I am. I imagine I’m too much for one person to handle.” He glanced at Alistair. “I care for her, too.”

“I know.”

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