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“You wanted me to look around,” I say. “So I am.”

The warehouse door opens with a long metal groan that scrapes through my ears. Inside, damp air rolls over us, thick with mildew, salt, dead seafood, and something sour. It’s like tasting Henry’s blood all over again. The rot and decay flood my mouth so violently I have to spit on the ground to get rid of the taste. Darkness swallows most of the space, broken only by thin strips of streetlight leaking through filthy windows.

I see almost nothing. The vampires don’t have that problem.

Lex gives one of his guards a nod. The man crosses the room and smashes some of the windows. Glass rains down, and weak evening light spills inside from the streetlamp outside, silvering the wet floor.

We search the first room.

Nothing.

Old crates, broken pallets and rusted hooks hang from the ceiling. The place is abandoned, nets rotting in the corners, shells crushed into the floor dirt.

Lex looks at me.

“I don’t feel anything,” I say, scanning the floor.

“Are you sure?”

We move through the next rooms, deeper into the warehouse. Moisture clings to everything. The walls sweat. Our footsteps echo loudly. Every room smells worse than the last, but none of them gives me what I need. No pulse under the skin. No blood memory. We reach the old sorting hall, a wide room lined with rusted metal tables and conveyor belts that haven’t moved in years.

Lex stops in the middle of the hall.

“Fucking nothing.” I can hear he is furious. I don’t remember the last time I saw him like this.

I turn just as he grabs a massive lobster crate and throws it across the hall. The metal cage smashes into the concrete wall with an explosive crash, twisting on impact and clattering to the floor. The sound makes me flinch. Lex sees it and starts toward me as I step back on instinct.

“Sorry,” he says with remorse. “I didn’t mean to. It’s not your fault. It’s just… “ He drags his hand through his white hair. “It’s been so long, and how can someone fucking vanish like that.”

I can feel what he is trying to hide from me. Under the anger, there’s exhaustion. Resignation. He’s spent all this time looking for someone Marcus chose to put above him, and that’s finally wearing him down. I don’t have an answer for him.

Something is still off. Henry’s behavior at the party. His blood got me here. Why would a Silver Coven witch of high rank be here? I look around again, forcing myself to think instead of looking for magic.

“Do you have UV lights?”

“In the car.” Lex frowns. “But if you can’t feel blood, UV won’t find it either.”

“Bring them anyway.”

He signals the guards. A few minutes later, they return with forensic lamps from the SUVs. I take one of the lights and walk around the hall. The floor changes near the center. Nothing glows. No new stains, but also no old ones.

“You see?” I ask.

Lex stares at the floor. “I don’t see anything.”

“Exactly.”

He looks at me.

“It’s too clean,” I say. “Not just no fresh blood. There are barely any old stains. In a fish warehouse. With concrete floors and drains. They cleaned this place so no blood would show.”

I stare at the scrubbed patch in the middle of the floor. The shape is almost square. Like something was kept here for a long time. Or someone.

“They?” Lex asks. “Who do you mean by they?”

“I don’t have any proof. But I think Julian was here.”

“Lara.” He looks at me with frustration again. “That doesn’t give me anything. I need him. Alive, preferably.”