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“Oh good, another waiting game,” I sighed in frustration.
“I’m checking old maps,” Antonio reassured me. “Adam, can you stick around?”
“Of course,” Adam said.
He didn’t hesitate to take a seat next to Antonio. It was kind of nice to see a vampire and a wolf sitting next to each other. We’d seen so much more unity lately, and I honestly believed that would be what saved us. He spoke of a war that divided our kinds years ago and now here the Grave Alpha was, unifying us all. Ironic. His ego and obsession would be his downfall.
ChapterThirteen
Vanya
The sun had already dipped down below the horizon. I was walking back from the security office, again. Antonio and Carlo were likely ready to yeet me out of the gates at this point since I wouldn’t stop bothering them, but they’d been patient so far.
We hadn’t heard anything from the vampires, and Adam and Antonio hadn’t had luck with the old maps. We had a name and history now, yet we were no closer to confronting the Grave Pack than we were before.
A cool breeze blew through the streets, and I rubbed a hand over my arms before the sun blazed to life. My eyes burned and I blinked against it, confused at how I was in daylight. Somehow I was standing in an unfamiliar forest, trees taller and everything covered in fresh rain. It reminded me of the stories Garren had shared about the Oregon forests and the encounter with the strange forest spirit there.
“It’s just a hallucination, Vanya. This isn’t real and it can’t hurt you,” I hissed at myself. If I was already going to look crazy as fuck, what could talking myself down hurt?
I closed my eyes tightly, taking a few deep breaths. When I opened them, the forest was gone. Yet the sunlight still burned, so this was obviously not over.
Not wanting to be a sitting duck, I take a few steps forward until a growl and hiss ring out. A cougar is keeping pace next to me, eyes locked on mine in a battle for dominance. Terror slams through me but I don’t break eye contact, refusing to give it the upper hand.
“It can’t hurt you,” I reminded myself. “It can’t hurt me, it can’t hurt me, it can’t hurt me.” The mantra did little to calm my frazzled nerves.
The cougar lunged at me, claws extended and glinting in the sun. I couldn’t stop the scream from escaping me as the vision slammed into me. But instead of a large cat it was that awful cold feeling again.Fucking Straya.
Just like that, I was back in the Bluffs, the night such a harsh contrast, I was blinking in shock again.
I was closest to the clinic tent and knew that Nyx was inside so I veered to the left. The moment my feet left the concrete and stepped on grass, I was back in the forest again. Now that I knew what the fuck was happening, it wasn’t terrifying but annoying. I was fucking livid that she thought she could fuck with me like this.
“You know what, Straya?!” I screamed into the void. “You can try every fucking thing you can think of to scare me. All the head games. But it won’t fucking work. It will backfire and I will be the one watching you scream for your life soon!”
My screams cut off as she appeared in front of me and I took a few steps back. She was attractive, but she had the same dead eyes we saw in the photos at the archive. She was a true sociopath.
“Yet, we know your weakness, Vanya,” she said in a coo. “That little stunt from your sister and her mate, it cost them their lives.”
“Liar.” I snorted. “He wouldn’t throw a bargaining chip away like that. And you don’t have the power to make those calls. Clearly you’re just another underling to the alpha.”
She let out a snarl and I could see that I’d also struck a nerve. “I am no underling.”
“And yet you have no power here any longer. So kindly fuck off,” I said.
‘Vanya!’My name was screamed in my head and I flinched at the intensity. When I opened my eyes again, I was staring at Nyx instead.
“Apparently our mate bond is stronger than her head games,” I said evenly with a sheepish smile.
“It worked,” he said out loud this time, relieved as he pulled me into a hug. He seemed to need it more than me but I couldn’t fault him for that. “Come on.” He dragged me into the clinic, securing the door behind us. Nyx didn’t stop pulling me until we’d reached his mattress at the back and he dropped onto it, pulling me into his lap and rocking me. “I know it has to be horrible.”
“It’s annoying,” I said with a frustrated sigh. “I never know when or if it will happen. And when it does, it’s disorienting. I’m just over the constant taunting. I was in a forest getting attacked by a cougar, then I was in the forest and yelling at Straya, then you were pulling me out of it. I was just trying to go back to my fucking tent.”
“What’d she want this time?” he asked, almost tentatively, like he was afraid of the answer.
“To try and get to me. She said my sister was dead now,” I said with a shuddering breath. “That her mate’s stunt cost them all their lives.”
“Do you believe that?” His voice was even more gentle now.
“No.” And I truly didn’t believe it. “She was very obviously annoyed with his decision too. She’s not calling the shots and she knows it. But even if she’s alive now, it may not be that way for long. We have to find them soon.”
