Page 27 of Lured

“Come on. We have places to be.” I grinned to myself, pleased with the result of the night, even if it hadn't gone according to her plan.

It took her another fraction of a second to recover from all of the teasing and then she followed me out of the suite. I took her hand again before we descended to the casino lobby. I was about to go to the main area where we had spent the early evening and look for Ludis when I caught his scent in the air.

He had clearly been up to the lobby and hotel clerk area, which was unlike him. Normally, he had me to handle travel arrangements for him and he barely had to think about it, but it appeared as if this was a moment where he had dealt with something himself.

I took Anais with me as I tried to trace the unhelpful vampire to his final destination. The trail was too fresh for me to think this wasn't recent. Ludis had done this while we had been gathering belongings and taking Anais to my suite.

To my dismay, his scent took us all the way to the parking lot where all but one of the cars was gone. The butch vampire was standing there, leaning against the only one that remained near mine.

“Wondered when you would bother to show up. Ludis has gone.” The vampire stared at Anais as if he was unsure where he had seen her before.

“I'm still looking into the shooter and I have proved that my enthralled isn't a threat to us. She isn't a hunter.” I smiled as if all this should have been obvious. It didn't matter if it wasn't the perfect opportunity to introduce Anais as mine, it was very much about the situation with Ludis, but if he was gone there wasn't much more I could do.

“Do you know where he went?” I asked, hoping that the meat shield would respond, but he didn't, only smiled, smug and clearly not intending to tell me anything.

After a few seconds he folded his arms across his chest and looked at me as if I was an amusing ant that he couldn't wait to step on. It took all my self control not to use my full strength to do something I might regret later. Rearranging his face didn't seem like a solid option.

“Come on, man. I'm meant to be taking the new enthralled to meet him and part of the team to keep Ludis safe. I can't do that if I don't know where he is.” I tried to act like this was just an inconvenience and nothing to worry about but it was clear Ludis was now suspicious of me as well.

“Where were you when the boss needed you an hour ago.”

I frowned and glanced toward Anais, hoping the dumb brute would get the hint that I was bonding in a new enthralled, but he didn't pick up on it.

“I was bonding,” I said, hoping not to elaborate further.

“When the boss needed you.”

“I was making sure he was protected and she wasn't a hunter like he feared.” It was sort of the truth and this did make the brute relax a little finally.

“Well, he's gone back to the usual turf. And he didn't want everyone to know where it was.”

“Fine. Write it down for me and I'll go meet him there.” I shook my head as if I was more irritated than I was. The more offended I appeared by this the better. I should be trusted and I should be hoping to be in the circle of vamps around Ludis.

The brute looked between my and the enthralled a few times, but Anais only smiled back and leaned in closer to me as if she was very much part of the package now. I reached around and stroked her cheek again, showing her affection for now and just affection.

Not sure what else to do, the brute wrote down the destination for me on a piece of paper and handed it over. It was a port in Italy where we could get on a cruise ship.

I noticed that there wasn't a long time until the cruise boat left and we were going to be cutting it close to get there in time. I certainly wasn't likely to have time to get a private plane or anything that would allow me to be alone with Anais and properly fill her in, but there was almost certainly likely to be some first class tickets on one flight or another.

As I hurried away, Anais in tow, I took her back up to the suite.

“We need to pack and get in the air quickly,” I told her on the way. You'll have to go to the airport dressed as you are and we'll get you some clothes on the other end.”

“Get me some clothes?” she replied, struggling to keep up as I strode down the corridor and away from the elevators.

I didn't respond to that, thinking through what we had and what we would need.

“Please tell me that you have a passport and know where it is?” I said as we came up to the suite door.

“Yes. It's in the ruck.”

“Good. I'll need the details to book flights. I need you to help pack my belongings. There isn't a lot and I'm mostly packed, but every minute could matter.”

She nodded and gulped again, but she cooperated, heading to her ruck where she pulled out her passport. When I went to take it, she hesitated.

“I will give it back. You have my word. A vampire would normally keep their enthralled's passport, but I understand that you will want this and need it.”

“Thank you,” she replied, but it still took her a moment longer to let go of it and let me take it.

---