Chapter Eighty-eight

“Who is this and what do you want?” A thick, Romanian accent barked into the phone.

“Mihaela, it’s Bram. We need to talk.” He was standing outside her current hideaway. An old broken down building on the wrong side of town.

“Why? What do you want? I thought you were going to try to help me get Marius back, but you haven’t exactly been great about assisting me with him.”

“Yeah, we’ll, at least you know he’s with Scarlet. Someone took Izabella and the kids from me. I need help tracking them down. They took Tyler too, and killed Gavin. I’m trying to figure out who it was, and what they’re looking for. Have you heard anything? Have you spoken with Scarlet or Vlad recently? They’re not answering my calls.” Mihaela was the last person he would ever actually call for help, so he didn’t really believe that she would believe him.

There was silence on the other end of the line. He was pretty sure she was trying to figure out if he meant it or not. “Let’s meet up in person. There’s a bar not too far from me. It’s called Crimson Night.”

“I’m familiar with it.” Bram grumbled. “I’m not far from there, it’ll only take me a minute to get there.”

“I need to change, so I’ll be a bit longer.” She said, then hung up. Bram climbed up the side of the building, hiding himself in the shadows trying to see if he could tell where she was or where she was going. It was a futile attempt, she wasn’t in any of the rooms he checked.

Next thing he knew, he was sitting at a table in the dark corner of the room. Sweaty bodies were grinding and dancing on the floor. Strobe lights flickered across the mass of bodies. In the table behind him, he was pretty sure the two people sitting there were having sex in the booth. He drank a glass of whiskey, waiting. He was pretty pissy about the fact that he had been waiting for nearly an hour for Mihaela to show up at this point.

“Hello, love.” It was her breasts that came into view first. He frowned up at her.

“You really need to stop calling me that.” He was very annoyed by the whole situation. “Anyway. Have you talked to Scarlet or Vlad recently?”

“No. Should I have? I only came back here to the city because I have a meeting that I needed to attend. Do you know what happened to the transport? When I tried going back, it was destroyed.” She frowned at him.

“Yeah, I killed it. I didn’t want you and that witch to be able to follow me. Yet, here you are.” He growled at her. “That’s what I want to talk to you about. We were attacked in Romania by dozens of assassins. Scarlet and Vlad came to help, but after that, I decided it was time to bring my family home. Interestingly enough, when I get back, I find out that Tyler’s been taken as a hostage and his lover was slain. Conveniently, you were in the area. So, guess who’s first on my list.” Bram’s fingers drummed the table. The two people sitting a table away were breathing heavy and the woman was now whimpering as she came. Bram rolled his eyes. “Would you care to step into my office for a little more privacy?”

He didn’t wait for her to answer. Instead, he went to the hidden door along the wall and used his key to open it. Mihaela frowned. “I didn’t realize this was your bar. I wouldn’t have been coming here this past week if I had.” Bram waived his hand, not caring as he settle for leaning against his desk when she took the red leather seat in front of it.

“Look, I don’t know anything about your family. I’m a little disappointed to hear about Tyler and his pretty little toy though. I would have preferred if it was me. That boy was a sweet little morsal I would have loved to have sunk my teeth into.” Her red lips parted, smiling at him. “I do know that mom was looking for a way to get rid of your sweet little girl friend though. You know how everyone feels about you dating a mortal. The only reason they don’t care about me, is because they think you can’t get me pregnant. What the Elders don’t realize, is that this was exactly what I was created for. Also, you know how the two of them, especially dad, feels about unicorns. If he so much as gets the chance to be alone with her for three minutes, that girl is as good as dinner. And Scarlet would use the leftovers for her spells.”

Bram knew, that much was at least true. Everyone wanted a unicorn. They were so damn rare he’d only ever met two in all his years. Scarlet used to hunt them down though. Even in children form. Part of the reason they never get the chance to become one. All children were pure, but one who made it to adult hood without jading themselves… not an easy task. Even he, himself, as in love with Izabella as he was, almost couldn’t stop feeding off her sweet nectar. Part of the reason he knew he could never harm her again. “So, you think Scarlet and Vlad could have something to do with it?”

She went to his bar, pouring herself a drink and topping his off. “I mean, it could be anyone, honestly. You have plenty of enemies. But I think your parents are the most likely to want them. Whether to pull your ass back home, or for the properties they have. I don’t think they’d care much for your golden boy though. I feel like if they killed him, they’d just dangle it in your face while laughing.” She shrugged, crossing her legs slowly as she sat back down. “Do you want me to call Aleigha? She might be willing to tell me if something is going on with the Elders.”

“Actually, that would be great.” Bram nodded. Even if she said so now, he still didn’t trust her.

Clicking her phone on, she pushed the contact, and waited as the phone rang. “Hello, my darling bitch, how are you doing?” She chatted her friend up for a little while. Bram cleared his throat loudly, bringing her back to the point. “Fine, just settle down. Hey, Aleigha, I have a question for you…” a while later, she clicked the phone off. “So, she wasn’t part of it. But they do have someone under guard. Sounds to me like they’re taking an opportunity to try to corner you because Chisisi has gone into one of his deep slumbers. She thinks they’re keeping her out of the loop on purpose, because of her connection with me and your family. But I have a feeling they’re going to try to turn the tides on who’s at the top of the food chain again.”

“That’s ridiculous. We’ll always be on top of the food chain.” He growled.

Clicking her tongue at him, her arms pushed her breast up, and nearly out of her little red spaghetti strap dress. “You know what I mean. Think about keeping the humans as livestock instead of having to hide all the time. You and I both know that we could. I think you should walk in there, tell them you don’t give a damn as long as you can have golden boy and your fam back, and be on your way. If you finally stop pissing everyone off, they may even let you get the little bitch preggo.” He instinctively growled as she called Iz a bitch.

“No. The world wouldn’t be able to handle it. You know that, Mihaela, I’ve explained it to you. In detail.”

She stood up, slamming her drink on the table. “You don’t know shit, Bram. Just because some stupid monk told you half a lifetime ago what he thought would happen, and why the humans needed a protector. You took that gauntlet up pretty fucking fast. I don’t know if you just always feel like you need to be the hero because you have some fucking monster complex or something, but I’m so sick of your shit. Everyone is. The only reason people have kept you alive this long, is because they want to fuck you. Because lets face it, you’re one hell of a piece of meat. But you’ve become such a pain in the ass—”

“Shut up, Mihaela.” Bram rolled his eyes, pinching his nose. “Give me Aleigha’s number. I’m going to call her and make sure they know exactly what I think of them taking my, what did you call him? My golden boy?” His blue eyes turned on her.

“I’m not giving you shit.” She spit on the floor at his feet. Turning to stomp out of the office. Before she could reach the door, Bram was blocking it.

“Oh, love. I’m not done with you yet.” He held up a slim, little danger. “I have something I want to return to you. And now that you’ve contacted your real lover, it’ll give me all the time need to get where I need to go.”

Her blue eyes went large. “I didn’t have anything to do with this.” Her six-inch heel slipped under her, and she stumbled, catching herself just in time.

Bram’s fangs elongated. His eyes burned with furry and hate as he sauntered ever closer. “I warned you. I warned you that if you touched any of them, I would kill you. Gavin’s dead, and my current lover is missing, as well as my only friend. That’s not even mention my son. Don’t worry, you’re only first. You wanted to see the world burn, it starts here.”


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