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Chapter Twenty-Four
Sebastian
I need to find Luciana.
Things are going to get wild for the next few hours, and I feel a strange need to shelter her from all of it. She may be part demon now, but she hasn’t grown up around any of this. Plus, she wasn’t even alive during the last demon summit. Not to mention I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach because I know Caspian is still angry with me.
I’d asked her to get intel from the different demon groups today, and I know she’s already hit Aza’s group based on where I found her earlier. Which means she’s probably in either Caspian or Drazos’ suite. I send her a text, but while I’m waiting, I start walking.
Taking a deep breath to maintain my cool, I head to Caspian’s suite first. I’m not one to get ruffled this easily, and I don’t like it. First, rocking the boat with my brother at the worst possible time. Then, getting all bent about the blood banks the Guild is running. And now this? Usually the window of time before a summit vote is prime entertainment. Getting to see how desperate everyone is to claim the throne, what lengths they’ll go to. But no, I’m striding around my own goddamn property worrying about a half-demon I met two days ago.
Luciana. She’s the common denominator in all of this.
I don’t like how she’s come into my life and spun everything upside down. She’s not good for me. For a moment, I contemplate heading to my office in the winery and having a bottle of wine while all of this plays out. It’s what I should do. I’m not the white knight. I don’t need to protect Luciana. It’s not as if I actually care for her, she’s just got my cock more spun up than the average woman. It’ll pass. It always does.
I pause in the entryway to the hall leading to my brother’s suite. Then, with a growl, I slam my palm against the ornate molding, splintering the wood. Because I can’t let it go. I have to find her.
When I get to Caspian’s suite, however, it’s eerily empty. My brother apparently hasn’t returned yet from the meeting, either. I grind my jaw and stride back the way I came, then turn down another hallway at the next intersection.
In Drazos’ suite, it becomes instantly clear why Caspian’s was cleared out, because all of Caspian’s demons are here. But they’re not exactly partying. I can see that the pre-vote rivalry match has begun. Magic is ping-ponging across the room, destroying all my furniture and the walls, too. Squinting through the chaos, I search for Luciana, but after a couple minutes I conclude that she’s not here, either.
Where the fuck is she?
Luciana hasn’t texted me back, so when I head back out into the hall, I text Violet. Do you know where Luciana is? I need her.
While I wait for a response, I walk toward the winery. I expect a ping on my phone at any moment—in all the time Violet has worked for me, since long before the invention of cell phones, she’s always responded to any request within two minutes. But I make it all the way up to my office, which takes at least five minutes, and my phone remains silent.
Something is going on.
I ring the front desk staff next, but none of them have seen Luciana. It’s probably just that she’s traveling between destinations like I am, and we’re merely missing each other. After all, the resort is not a small place. There are three large buildings, close to a hundred rooms altogether. But despite what I tell myself, how logical it all sounds in my head, I’m starting to get a really bad feeling.
Any one of these demons could have her. I’d been dumb enough to bring her to the party with me last night, which basically declared to everyone that I’m fond of her. Fond enough that I’d be rather put out if something were to befall her. And that’s how I’d feel about any woman I’m sleeping with. Luciana, however, is different from any of those other women. More unique than all the women in my past combined.
The thought of someone hurting her is about to make me lose my mind.
I knock the lamp off my desk, sending it flying into the wall to smash into a million pieces. Then I pull myself together and start to search the winery methodically, going through each room. Luciana has to be on this property somewhere. And I will find her.
Ten minutes later I make my way down to the main wine cellar, where I come face-to-face with Violet. She blanches, mouth opening and closing several times, before backing away from me slowly.
“Why aren’t you answering your phone?” I growl, my eyes darting to the cell in her hand.
She looks down at it. “I must have accidentally put it on silent. Apologies, Sebastian.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “I’m looking for Luciana. When did you last see her?”
Violet blinks, shoving back a strand of her black hair behind one ear. “Luciana? Um, I don’t know, a few hours ago?”
“Where at?” Not like she’d still be in the same place…
“In the hotel, near Aza’s suite.”
I nod. “Yes, I ran into her over there, too.”
“Maybe she went off property.” Violet shrugs, blinking innocently up at me.
I take a step toward her. “Why would she do that?”
Violet opens and closes her mouth again like a beached fish. “Well… I mean, how well do you know her, boss? How do you know she’s… on our side?”
