Page 5 of Blood Submission

Chapter4

Luukas glancedup from the map on his desk to find four expectant faces watching him closely. There was only one face still missing—Dante’s—and he had no fucking idea how to continue the search for the top commander of his Hunters. After he, Nikulas, and Aiden found the abandoned van that had abducted Dante from their apartments, the trail had gone completely cold, even after towing the vehicle back to their garage and going through it with a fine-toothed comb. There wasn’t one fucking clue as to where his friend could be at this moment.

But they needed to find him, and quickly, for things were about to become very dicey in their world. And according to Aiden—or rather Waano, the evil entity currently residing inside of Aiden—the demons that Leeha had so foolishly set free from the altar appeared to be waiting for something, and they were becoming restless. What it was, he didn’tknow.

Nik and Aiden had managed to track down the leader of the group in China by employing some trustworthy vampires over there—the one calling itself “Steven”—and they were keeping close tabs on that group. Though their sporadic movements and killing sprees seemed to have no rhyme or reason as of yet, other than causing mayhem within the city of Dalian and the nearby towns, Aiden was convinced that they were, in fact, looking for something.

In the meantime, the demons that had possessed the vampires still in the area of Leeha’s destroyed mountain fortress were laying low. They were unusually inactive compared to their friends across the pond, according to Waano and Luukas’s scouts. Which only confirmed his suspicions that they were waiting for something to happen. And Aiden’s entity was not forthcoming about any information other than what he’d already toldhim.

Someone’s phone vibrated, and they all turned to look at Shea, cautiously hopeful. The Hunters were all here in this room, who else would be calling her but Dante? And she was his favorite, after all. If he reached out to anyone other than Luukas, it would beher.

Glancing briefly down at her cell, she refused the call. “Wrong number,” she told them when she looked up again.

Luukas noticed that she wouldn’t quite look at him as she shoved her phone back into the pocket of her jeans. Instead, her green eyes touched on him only briefly and then skittered away. An unusual behavior for his only female Hunter, and one that did not go unnoticed.

Before he could question her, however, Christian broke the silence. “So, what’s the next move? Do we concentrate on the search for Dante? Or on trying to figure out what’s going on with Leeha’s monsters?” As an afterthought he added, “And what about Cedric and his bunch? I bet the wolves would help us. Has anyone askedthem?”

“Our werewolf buddies have their own problems to worry about at the moment,” Nik said. “So it’s just us for this one. As Luukas mentioned when we all came in for this meeting, we already have some of our people in Dalian, ones that knew his vampires before Leeha possessed them,” he clarified. “We sent them over right after Aiden and Grace came home. They’ll keep us updated on anything they findout.”

“Okay,” Christian said. “Anyone have any idea what it is they’re lookingfor?”

“I think I might,” a female voice said from the doorway.

“She’ashil.” Christian jumped up from his chair to greet his mate. Taking Ryan’s face in his hands, he kissed her until Nik rolled his eyes, leaned his chair backwards, and smacked him on theass.

Luukas waited patiently for Christian to release her before he spoke. He understood the need a male had for his mate. “Come in, Ryan. Please sit down.” He indicated Christian’s vacated chair. With a nervous glance over her shoulder at the empty apartment, she did as he asked, arranging her navy and white tie-dye dress neatly around her legs. Christian took a place standing behind her. He moved her long red hair out of the way and put his hands on her bare shoulders.

Shea made a sound of disgust, but quickly tried to mask it as a cough at a look from Luukas.

“Don’t be jealous, love,” Aiden teasedher.

“I’m not jealous,” Shea responded in a sugar-sweet voice. “I just don’t likeher.”

“Enough,” Luukas told them sternly. At times, he felt like he was the teacher leading a class full of hormonal teenagers. Turning to Ryan, he asked, “What is it that you think they’re lookingfor?”

She took a shaky breath, her hands twisting nervously in her lap. Christian bent down and whispered something in her ear. Something they all heard, of course, because they were vampires and had excellent hearing.

“She’ashil, if you think you know something, you need to tell Luukas.”

Ryan nodded. Looking straight at Luukas, she said, “I overheard the other girls say something about abox.”

“You interrupted this meeting to tell us about a box?” Shea’s snide voice interjected.

“Shea! ENOUGH,” Luukas ordered.

“Sorry,” she told him. With a sarcastic flip of her hand, she indicated for Ryan to continue.

Ryan narrowed her eyes at the other female, but otherwise continued speaking as if she hadn’t been interrupted. “Grace apparently has a box that she brought with her from China, and I heard the other girls arguing over whether or not to tell you aboutit.”

Aiden smacked himself on the forehead. “Bloody hell! I completely forgot about the box!” He looked over at Nik. “Remember, mate? The box I told you about? It has an etching of a dagoba in the bottom of it. Grace took it with the bag that Mojo was in. It’s how we met.” He grinned broadly.

“What about the etching in the box?” Luukas asked. “What is it there for?” He directed his question at Ryan, as she seemed to be the only one there able to speak sensibly.

“They were saying something about a clue, but they didn’t know for what. Just that the demons and the humans were both after it, and that’s why they were chasing Grace when she took it.” She shrugged.

“So we are now at risk because we are in possession of that item,” Luukas mused, mostly to himself.

Ryan shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. I think Keira put some kind of protective ward aroundit.”

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