Page 35 of Blood Moon
“Elle,” Zane pulled me close to him. “Go to the basement until we get these monsters under control. If they find you, you’re as good as gone too.”
“What if they take me to Aria?” I looked at all the guys in the room. “Let them take me back to Enzo. Let Enzo think they got me, too, and you all can follow. We have to convince that bastard to work with us anyway.”
“Are you out of your goddamn mind?” Logan questioned. “That’s a no, and before we do kill Val for being a worthless whore, let her actually do something that’s of use to us.”
“We keep one alive,” Cole said, his eyes still following whatever his vamp hearing was alerting him to. “We need info from it, and then we can determine what the hell these things are made of with the dead ones.”
“There are more than two?” I asked.
“Get her in the basement, now,” Braden ordered Val.
“Fuck off, Braden,” I said. “Answer me, and quit treating me like I’m some idiot. I’m the only one thinking clearl—”
“Now!” Zac said, snatching me, and in the vamp-blurred speed they used, I was in a dark room with Val, holding her hand over my mouth.
“Just be quiet and very still,” she said softly. “The guys can handle this, and they’re right, it’s better to keep one and get info out of it. You may not know yet, but Cole is a ruthless interrogator.”
“God, you guys better be right,” I whispered back when she pulled her hand from my mouth. “My baby girl could be in danger of whatever the hell Enzo wants with her while we sit here and play games with all this shit.”
“If the guys—especially the protective, alpha-shifter father she has—felt that way, then yes, they’d throw the second most powerful person out as bait. It’s not happening. We can hunt him down better this way.”
“Can Aria protect herself?” I asked.
Val’s eyes were severe when her face fell at that question.
“What the hell, Val?”
“We hadn’t had nearly enough time before we were attacked, and I never saw it coming.
“I thought you were aseeror whatever the hell that is. How couldn’t you see it coming?”
“I did see,” she closed her eyes and swallowed hard, “I saw all of us at Enzo’s place…” She stopped herself and looked at me as if I were the crazy, malfunctioning, supernatural vampire, “We were having dinner with him.”
“Something is definitely misfiring in your brain,” I answered, trying to ignore the squeals of torment coming from upstairs. My vampires were kicking ass with Zane who’d shifted into his wolf—and now I could only assume that they were at the torture-for-information part. “I have to get up there. They’re getting answers.”
Val grabbed my hand. “Trust me, you don’t want to watch that,” she said. “Just give them a little more time.”
“Fuck that.” I stood, “Is it safe?”
“I’m not a hundred percent on my instincts right now,” she said sorrowfully.
“Knock that shit off,” I said to her. “Don’t fall apart on all of us now, Val. We need you in the game. Shit is getting pulled over your eyes, and you can’t help that. Braden almost died from one of Enzo’s vamps, and so he’s not perfect either. We need to Enzo and my daughter and end of all this once and for all. He’s distracting us from the greater enemy we know is waiting for us. So, pull it together and do it now.”
Val smirked. “Let’s get upstairs, then. I sense they took everything out except for the one they’re getting answers from.” She chuckled. “Girl, you could’ve probably handled this shit better than they are. How the hell are you so cool and collected right now?”
“I have no fucking idea,” I said, leading the way up the stairs. “I just know I’m ready to find my daughter and end all this shit so I can live a normal damn life.”
“Then, let’s get our answers and finish it.”
20
We entered through the doors that led to Aria’s room, following the smell of burned flesh. Good God, was I ready to know what was going down to interrogate this idiot who worked for Enzo?
Over in the corner were the vamps and Zane, huddled around a screeching vamp who had lost nearly everything except its head by this point. I felt my stomach do a drop when I saw this monstrosity and forced myself to maintain my drive to find Aria, not forgetting that Enzo was also responsible for Nakia and Bren’s deaths.
“Fucker,” Braden snarled. “This is the last time before we smoke your ass like the others, where is the girl?”
“I told you, I don’t know.”
