Page 25 of Lured

“We're only going to be a few minutes, right?” he asked as he switched the engine off again.

“I hope so,” I replied. “You don't have to come in with me if you don't want.”

He shook his head and got out of the car before hurrying around to me. By the time I had my seat belt off he was holding the door open for me again. I got up and looked out at the apartment block, nervous.

“I'm not letting you out of my sight right now. You could run off anywhere.”

“I told you I wouldn't.” I frowned as I made my way over to the door. I had a key, thankfully, having told my friend I would be coming and going at strange hours and I let myself into the block. I hurried up the several flights of stairs toward the front door.

To my surprise, it wasn't fully shut despite the early hour of the morning. My friend should have been sleeping. As I reached out to push the door open, Leo put his hand over mine and stopped me.

“Something isn't right here,” he whispered. “The same scent from the hotel room.”

I paused, not sure what to do.

“I'll go first, stay close behind.” He didn't wait for me to respond before he hurried inside. I had little choice but to follow. With someone out in the wild trying to kill me, I needed his safety.

We tiptoed inside and he shut the door behind us as softly as he could, keeping close beside me. The hallway had been trashed, the furniture broken up and a small drawer from a table in the hallway pulled out. The contents were on the floor along with all the jackets, coats and shoes that had been stored to one side.

From the hallway we could see into the living, dining and kitchen area and I could see that the kitchen had suffered the same treatment for sure, all the drawers pulled out and many of the visible cupboards open.

I didn't doubt that all the areas I couldn't see from here would have the same mess. Someone had been in here looking for something. Throwing caution to the wind, I hurried toward the bedroom I had crashed in. There were only two in total and the one I had used was tiny.

This room hadn't contained as much stuff, but it had everything I'd left behind in here somewhere. At least I hoped it did. The mattress had been pulled off the bed, the bedding scattered over the whole room. All the belongings my host had stored in here were scattered everywhere too, clothes, makeup and all sorts.

I gingerly pushed some of it to the side so I could get over to the bed and the wall beside. While it was clear that the room had been searched from top to bottom, I had to hope that I'd done a good enough job of hiding what mattered.

Because I had stayed here more than once in the past, needing somewhere to bunker down away from everyone, I had made sure there was somewhere I could hide my most precious possessions from anyone. I had feared that Emma would have found it on previous occasions, but she hadn't either.

I was soon on the wonky mattress and pulling at the wallpaper in the corner. Normally the mattress sat over the bottom part, which is what made me fear it had been discovered, but the wall panel behind was still in place. As I reached down to shift it out of position, Leo came to the doorway.

“It appears as if the occupant of this apartment is no longer alive. Whoever was searching through the house, they didn't want her talking about this.”

Not sure how to take this information, I froze, barely balanced in place. My friend was dead and it was likely to be my fault.

“Do you think they were looking for me?” I asked, thinking of the photo he had found of me and that the same scent was here. It hadn't occurred to me that they might kill people associated with me as well.

“It's likely. But that doesn't make this your fault.” He came closer, looking around the room. “Is this where you slept?”

“Only when I had nowhere else to go. And it looked a lot better earlier than it does now.” I tried to smile, but I was as shaken by this news as I had been earlier.

Leo came closer, also picking a path through everything. I focused back on the wall again and pulled away a small chunk of the plasterboard. Being careful how I did it, I revealed a small cavity I had made in the wall. Inside sat a small waterproof pouch that contained everything in this world that mattered to me.

He didn't say a single word as I pulled it out, put the panel back and smoothed the wallpaper back down again.

Somewhere in here, I had left a small rucksack and I made my way over to where I'd left it. After pulling a couple of blankets and some t-shirts up from on top of it, I revealed it and most of the emptied contents.

Leo picked it up, correctly anticipating that it was mine. I tucked the pouch into it first before bending down and retrieving my hairbrush and a few other basic items that had been mine.

It wasn't all my worldly possessions, but it was enough of them combined with the weapons and supplies at the hotel that the rucksack would be easily full once I put it all together, but there would be little left over other than the blades that wouldn't fit inside.

Leo didn't say anything, but he handed the half empty rucksack to me when it was obvious I was done taking anything from here.

On the way back out I considered going to the other rooms and seeing the body of my friend, but Leo took my hand and pulled me away.

“We should get back to the hotel where it's easier for me to keep you safe,” Leo said. “We still don't know where the shooter went.”

He had a point and I was beginning to get very tired. This night was going from bad to worse. I truly had nothing left for me now but this vampire who had decided to adopt me as a pet of his.

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