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“Well, apparently, she didn’t stay behind,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Don’t you blame this on me,” Lex said. “She’s not my responsibility.”
He was right, but it pissed me off. She wasn’t anyone’s responsibility except mine, and I’d let her down. I’d ruined everything between us because I...
Well, I’d made the mistake of thinking that I was invincible. I made the mistake of thinking that we both were, and that I didn’t need to worry about her.
Well, apparently, I needed to worry about her.
“Where would she have gone?” I asked Raven.
I could track her.
I could get out in the Grove and I could track her, but things would be so much easier if I didn’t have to do that. If there was any chance that Raven could tell us where to start looking for Kimberly, the world would be a better, simpler place.
“Raven?” Helena asked, placing her hand on the woman’s shoulder. Raven looked up at Helena, patiently waiting for whatever Helena was going to say next. They loved each other, I realized suddenly. This wasn’t just obsession or desire. It was something more.
It reminded me of the way that Kimberly and I looked at each other, and I regretted telling her about her friends in such a rough way. If I’d spoken to her more simply and sweetly, would things be different?
“Raven, what can you tell us?”
“Look,” Raven looked over at me. She reached for Helena’s hand, which was still resting on her shoulder, and she squeezed it, le
tting Helena know she was okay. “Kimberly is the type of person who needs space.”
“Explain.”
“When she gets overwhelm, she likes to go out. She likes to run or go hunt. Well, she did. Sometimes she just wants to be by herself.”
“Where would she go to be by herself?”
“Well, in the past, she would go hunting. Now? Maybe she wants something more familiar.”
“What do you mean?”
“Try her apartment,” Raven said. “I mean, maybe she went home.”
“This is her home,” I said.
“You know what she means,” Michael added. “And it’s a good idea. The girl may have gone back to a place that was familiar. Maybe she wanted to be in a place where she felt comfortable.”
I didn’t like that idea.
I didn’t like the idea that she had to run away to be comfortable, but that was what we were dealing with. The truth was that transitioning to a vampire’s life may have been harder than I gave her credit for. I’d been turned for so long that I barely remembered being human.
The opposite was true for Kimberly.
She probably remembered being human like it was the core of who she was, which wasn’t true. She was so much more. Now, as I thought about Raven’s words, I thought more and more that she was probably right.
“Let’s go,” I said to Michael and Lex.
“Excuse me?” Helena raised an eyebrow.
“You should stay here,” I said. “In case she comes back.
“Absolutely not,” Helena said. “I’m not staying, and neither is Raven. We’ll all go, all five of us, and the servants will call us if she returns.”
“She’s not coming back,” Raven said carefully. “If she was coming back, she’d be here already. I think something happened.” Her words were a whisper, but I heard every single one of them. The worst part was that I thought she was right. I thought was she was saying was true. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that something really had happened to Kimberly.
