Page 61 of Blood Submission

Chapter25

Dante kepthis steps measured as he walked through the parking garage to the elevator after the others. They had just returned from hiding the box in the woods outside of an abandoned building that Luukas owned near Fish Town. At least, it appeared to be abandoned to outsiders. It was actually one of their numerous bug-out buildings, in case the shit hit the fan and they needed to get out quick and re-group, far enough away, but close enough to get to it quickly, if need be. Outside, it was impenetrable. Inside, it was decked out with everything a vampire could want or need for weeks. But the area around it was rural, and hiding the box near it posed little threat to the few humans that were around.

Because they’d taken the human females with them, they’d had to drive, which meant that Laney had been here alone for just over three hours when all was said anddone.

“Are you coming up, commander?” Aiden asked him as they all piled into the elevator.

He glared at the Brit, but gave the asshole no other indication that the name bothered him. It would only make him use it more, he knew. Aiden was a bastard like that. “No,” he told him shortly.

Aiden grinned.

“We’ll just see you at sundown,” Luukas toldhim.

Dante gave him a nod of agreement, and as the doors closed, he made his way to the second elevator that would take him to the underground.

He wondered if Laney would still be there.

Sitting up in the front seat of the SUV beside Luukas—the only one that would give him any peace—he’d kicked himself the entire drive for giving her a way out. And the reasons why he was beating himself up surprised evenhim.

It had hit Dante that, in the short time he’d known her, this particular human was not one that he could easily push out of his mind. Somehow, she had gotten under his skin as easily the knife blade she had tried to plunge through his heart. And he was…not horrified…at having her there.

The elevator doors opened and he entered his underground. His boots pounded along the walkway, crushing his fears with each step. He refused to entertain the thought that she wouldn’t be there. She felt something for him other than fear, he would bet his retched life onit.

Which was exactly what he had done by telling her how to escape. A deep growl rumbled in his chest at his own stupidity. He should never have said anything. She was perfectly safe down here, and he needed more time with her. More time to cleave her to him, whatever it took. Dante wasn’t stupid. He was a killer. And not only that. He enjoyed it. A female like Laney would never willingly agree to stay withhim.

So he would force her to submit to him, whatever ittook.

Jumping down from the top of the cave-in, Dante stopped. The scent of Laney’s blood was in the air, and it was fresh. His eyes fell to the wooden planks he stood upon. Just ahead, about twenty feet away, was blood. Just a few drops, but easily seen with his vampireeyes.

Pain shot through him. Pain as such that he hadn’t felt in hundreds of years. He knew exactly what the blood meant. She had tried to claw her way out of the rubble behind him again. Maybe she had tried to get out the other way and couldn’t lift the bench top. It would be heavy for a human, now that he thought about it. So she had come back out here and tried to get out this way again.

Dante continued down the passageway, hardening his heart against what he would find when he got to his room, but it mattered not. For when he arrived, he found the room empty, and his cold heart plummeted to shatter upon the wooden floor.

His little mouse had escaped.

He knew this even without checking the other room. Only wisps of her delicious scent hung in the air. She was gone. She had left him. Clenching his fists at his sides, he threw his head back and raged with all of the anger that was stemmed up inside of him, until he felt nothing.

Sinking down onto his makeshift bed, he reached behind him and pulled the small box from where he’d hidden it in the waistband of his pants. The others didn’t know he still had it. They thought he’d buried it next to the abandoned building, but he’d gone back for it when everyone was piling into the vehicles again. He’d told them he’d dropped his phone, and no one thought twice about it. It was a stupid fucking idea to leave it there. If the demons were after the box, they needed to keep it close, not leave it somewhere for those assholes to findit.

Throwing it on the mattress next to him in disgust, he picked up the blanket he’d brought her and held it to his nose, breathing deeply. He couldn’t give a rat’s ass about that fucking boxnow.

The lingering remnants of his anger slowly withered and died, only to have grief well up in its place. The unexpected emotion hit him so suddenly that a scream of anguish tore from his throat before he realized he meant to voice it. It shook the walls around him, loosening dirt to rain down between the cracks in the wooden ceiling. With a violent jerk, he tore the blanket in two and threw it aside. Then he swept the box off the bed with his arm, sending it crashing into thewall.

It landed next to her backpack lying on the floor near the wall. The zipper was open and some of her things had spilled out. Dante’s eyes skipped over the now familiar items, but then his head whipped back around. Lying on top of her other things was the copy of Goodnight Moon that she carried withher.

His blood froze in his veins to see it lying there, so innocently. She never would have left without taking that with her. Not unless she’d had to run for herlife.

Or she’d been taken.

Relief battled with terror inside of him. Shooting to his feet, he dove headfirst into the tunnel and came out the other side. He didn’t need light, he could see just fine in the darkness. The bench top in the back of the room was lifted, the latch broken. Dante tore across the room and peered down the ladder. “Laney!” he bellowed. “Laney!”

There was no answer. Fear struck his soul. What if she was hurt? He stuck his head farther inside, searching the area at the bottom of the ladder for her prone form. As he did so, he caught a whiff of rotten meat, but didn’t think much of it, as this was the way he carried out the corpses of the humans he’d fed on once he was finished withthem.

With one hand on the edge, he vaulted over the side. His boots landed with a soft thud on the packed earth eighteen feet below. He took off running, not stopping until he hit the end of the tunnel, hidden in a copse of trees near the Sound. He found no other signs of his female. The stench of decay, however, accompanied him the entire length, growing weaker the closer he got to the end. Again, not unusual, as the smell would naturally be stronger closer to his feedingroom.

Dante frowned. Think, you stupid fuck. Think!

Turning around, he went back the way he had come, slower this time, scenting the air and paying more attention to the scenery around him. By the time he got back to his lair, he was convinced that Laney had not escaped through that tunnel.

---