46. DEVRIM: CAUGHT IN THE FRENZY

“It’s getting dark.” My eyes darted over to the window. “What exactly did you tell him to do?”
“I told him to tell her the truth.” Ezra ran a hand through his messy hair as he slowly sat up. “Vanya needs to eat a proper meal so I suggested that he take her out for breakfast.”
Unease gripped me. Leaving the hotel had been a bad idea, I had told them that but then Ezra started puking and by the time he was done, they had already left.
I stood, unable to sit still, and walked over to the window.
“You’re going to get grey hairs like Vernon,” Ezra said, making me pause.
“Did you see him? How is he?”
He nodded. “Red took me to the cabin after the bear attack. Vernon is still as grumpy and unsocial as he’s always been. He’s like another version of Obsidian but without the urge to cut you to pieces when you piss him off.”
I laughed.
He was once of the oldest Hybrids still alive that we knew of. Most of the older ones had been killed because they were considered useless. I knew from the rumours that Vernon had been transported from another facility who had been planning on killing him.
“What about Leroy?” I asked him.
Ezra shrugged. “I didn’t see him. Vernon stopped by when Iris was sleeping. Red said that they stayed away because they didn’t want to scare Iris. Besides, I’m sure that I would’ve seen him if I stayed longer.”
I was about to answer him when something occured to me. “You’re trying to distract me.”
“Both of us actually,” he muttered. “I...I don’t want to think of all the things that could’ve gone wrong because I was the one who told him to take her out.”
After hesitating for a few seconds, I walked over to the bed and took a seat facing him.
“Ezra, is everything okay between you and Obsidian now?” I asked. “You’ve always gotten alon…” I pulled a face. “Well, mostly. But ever since Vanya came along all you’ve been doing is fighting.”
“Before Vanya, we barely saw each other. Obsidian mostly hid in his basement whenever he returned home.” He sighed when our eyes locked. “We made a truce.”
My shoulders sagged in relief. “Good.”
Ezra stood and walked over to the bathroom but he paused in the doorway to look at me over his shoulder. “Don’t expect the truce to last forever. Sometimes he pisses me off and I feel like strangling him.”
I stared at the closed door with a smile. I didn’t care for how long the truce between them lasted, but as long as Vanya was happy, I was happy.
A soft knock on the door pulled me out of my thoughts. Frowning, I hesitated a few seconds before I opened. My frown deepened whe my eyes locked on Iris.
“Hi,” she greeted. “Uhm, we have a sorta problem. Dad asked me to come get you.”
“What kind of problem?” I questioned.
Iris’s eyes lowered. “Someone alerted the press that you’re staying at the hotel.”

***

It was easy to tell that Jarrod disliked us. It was in the way he looked at us, in the way he spoke to us and the way he avoided close contact. I was sure that if Monica was in the room her behaviour would’ve matched his.
I wasn’t worried about them or what they thought of us, but I knew that Jarrod was the only one who would be able to help us figure out what happened to Vanya and Obsidian.
A video of them had been showed on TV. They had entered the hotel, seemingly unaware of the reporters waiting for them, but both of them had froze until Vanya said something that made him hurry her towards the stairs. It was when they had been spotted. The video ended with them entering the stairwell with a group of reporters following them.
Dealing with the press was something I hated because they were like vultures. Reeves had made sure to involve them when the facility had been exposed and we were freed. I knew how to handle them because I had been trained for it when I agreed to take leadership, but Obsidian was too short-tempered not to do something stupid and Vanya. . .I wasn’t sure how she would handle it. Being the mayor’s daughter I was sure that she had a few run-ins with reporters.
My hands curled into fists as I stared at the monitors that were being used to find them. The hotel had camera’s everywhere but it was just our luck that the camera’s in the stairwells weren’t working.
Jarrod had made it clear that we weren’t allowed to step foot out of the room. Despite his dislike for us, he was protecting us from the press for some reason. I wished there was a way to get a hold of Red because I was sure that he would be able to find them while we were stuck inside the room.
“I can’t take this anymore,” Ezra growled.
“Ezra. . .”
He flashed his fangs at me as he stormed closer to the man who sat behind the desk where the monitors were. Gripping the back of the chair, he jerked it back and growled at the man.
“Move.”
All he did was blink up at Ezra. With another low growl, Ezra gripped the front of the man’s shirt and jerked him up. He pushed him away before he took a seat and rolled the chair back towards the desk.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Jarrod hissed when his eyes darted up from his phone.
“I’m doing what he’s clearly not qualified to do,” Ezra answered without looking at him. “If he knew what he was doing we would have found them hours ago.”
I stepped in front of Jarrod when he moved towards Ezra. Sneering at me, he moved to the left. Before he could walk past me I gripped his arm and flashed my sharp teeth at him.
“Let him do it,” I hissed. “You don’t want to help us, fine, but you sure as hell won’t stop us from searching for them.”
His lips parted like he wanted to say something but he pursed them and jerked out of my hold. I watched him until I was sure that he wasn’t going to try anything before I turned my attention to Ezra.
He had the video of Obsidian and Vanya that had been showed on TV paused on one screen while he typed something on another screen. I stepped closer to watched as two dotted squares appeared around their faces. The image was cropped until only their faces remained and then it was dragged to another screen.
“What are you doing?” I asked him.
“In simple terms, I’m searching for them by using face matches. It’s running a wide image search while using the footage that has been uploaded earlier from the security cameras,” he explained.
I frowned. It all sounded so complicated but he seemed to know what he was doing.
“There,” Ezra exclaimed, pointing to one of the screens. “Let me just...” he trailed off as he tapped some buttons on the keyboard. “I know where they are.”
“Lead the way,” I told him.
Jarrod silently nodded at the men that blocked the door, making them step aside. Ezra exit the room and I hurried after him without waiting to see if Jarrod followed us or not.
All the reporters had been removed from the hotel by the police which made it easier for us to navigate through the lobby to the stairwell.
“They went in there and never left.”
We stared at the door marked with bold letter. It was where they stored cleaning supplies. Stepping forward, I gripped the door handle and turned, but the door didn’t open.
A sound from inside made me freeze. Tilting my head to the side, I held my breath as I listened. For a moment my eyes fluttered closed and my knees weakened when relieve flooded me. Pressing my palms to the door, I leaned closer.
“Rosebud.”
“Dev,” Vanya croaked.
“We’re here,” I told her. “Unlock the door for me, rosebud.”
“I can’t,” she said a little louder.
“Are you hurt?” Ezra questioned as he stepped closer and pushed me aside.
There was a short pause before she answered him. “I’m not hurt but I can’t m-move.”
I ran a hand through my hair as I tried to figure out why she couldn’t move. She was locked in a room with Obsidian. He wouldn’t have hurt her, not again, but I knew that he hated being locked up.
“Fuck,” I whispered, stepping closer. “How’s Obsidian doing, rosebud? Is he okay?”
I avoided Ezra’s eyes even though I could feel them burning into the side of my face.
“He’s calm,” she answered, “but I don’t know for how much longer he’ll stay like that.”
“You’re doing great, Vanya. Just hold on for a few more seconds okay?”
Turning, my eyes locked on Jarrod who was holding out a key to me. I blinked at him in confusion.
“It’s the spare key for the room,” he muttered.
I took it from him but paused before I turned around. “It’s better for every human within sight to disappear.”
“Has he gone feral?” someone questioned.
“He will if we don’t get them the fuck out of there,” I snapped.
I waited until I was sure that they all left before I pushed the key into the lock. Ezra stepped away and braced himself. Sucking in a breath, I slowly blew it out and turned the key.
Obsidian growled.
“Shh,” Vanya whispered. “It’s Devrim. He’s going to get us out of here.”
I wasn’t sure what to expect. Obsidian was dangerous, we all knew that. He had a lot of issues and although he managed to handle himself most of the time, he had changed. I mentally prepared myself for the worse as I slowly pushed the door open.
What I saw made me pause. It was definitely not what I expected.
Vanya sat on the floor with Obsidian wrapped around her. His face was pressed to her stomach while she ran her hands through his hair. She was leaning over him, whispering words close to his ear.
I swallowed loudly, making her eyes snap up to me. Red-rimmed eyes, locked with mine as her teeth sunk into her bottom lip to stop the quivering.
We found them just in time because it looked like both of them were about to loose it.
“Devrim?” Ezra questioned from behind me.
“Shift,” I ordered.
“What?”
I glanced at him over my shoulder. “Shift.”

****I left a clue on the next book. Did you find it?**