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Sebastian hid an amused smile when I turned, flushed red.
Thirty cubicles later, and Draven wasn’t in any of them. I peered through the gap of the last cubicle, and one man struggled as the vampire's fangs reached his neck, but he was nothing against the sangaree’s immortal strength. The creature allowed the man to hit him, laughing as his fist hit his impenetrable jawbone.
“They left this one conscious for any vampire who enjoys a challenge,” Sebastian clarified, and I closed the curtain, wishing I could save them all, but I was as helpless as they were. I turned, rubbing my forehead as frustration threatened to pull me apart, and then I saw him.
Not Draven. Worse.
I had to be hallucinating. This was impossible. Sebastian tugged my arm, but I couldn’t move. Everything moved in slow motion as I looked at him. I took in every crease of his face, watching as his honey-brown eyes widened and the lips I’d kissed a thousand times muttered something to another woman.
“Olivia.” Sebastian’s voice echoed in my mind as I slowly came back to reality, blinking several times. He looked between Astor and me. “What’s up? Is that Draven?”
I shook my head, the hairs on the back of my neck standing erect. “It’s Astor.” My jaw slackened. “My dead ex-boyfriend.”
Glancing from the woman who stood at Astor’s side, to Erianna then Sebastian as if they might somehow provide an answer for the impossible, I rubbed my chin. Had he been taken here as a prisoner, and the vampires made his death look like an accident? But that didn’t explain the note or voicemail he’d left saying he was done with life. Unless they made him do it to cover their tracks before the attacks began.
The pieces clicked together in my mind, and tears brimmed in my eyes. “Astor,” I whispered as if he might disappear if I made a sudden movement. Every dream of him being back, every memory, suddenly materialized. He was alive, and my prayers had been answered.
“Olivia.” His voice was music to my ears. I’d listened to his voicemail a hundred times, just to hear that deep but sweet tone, and I never thought I’d hear my name from his lips again. My knees buckled, shock forcing me to my knees. Astor watched, tilting his head, blinking several times.
A sob wretched me, and Sebastian tried to lift me to my feet, but I pushed him back before he could.
“How?” I spluttered. “Is she?” I observed the blonde woman next to Astor, and my tone filled with venom. She couldn’t have been much older than us, but she was perfectly immortal, with not a blemish on her deceivingly youthful face. “Are you her prisoner?”
“Not exactly.”
He looked as I remembered him before he got sick. In fact, he looked healthier than ever.
Sebastian spoke softly, standing at my side. “Olivia, he’s not mortal.”
I closed my eyes to the scene. “They forced you to become like them.” My heart skipped a beat at the realization.
The woman next to Astor spoke, her voice sickly sweet. “Astor, who is that?” She turned to Sebastian. “And why are you here?”
I despised the way his name sounded on her lips. Erianna pulled me up. I opened my eyes, staring at them both through tear-hazed vision.
“Say something,” I demanded. “Did she force you to become a vampire?”
Astor shook his head, unable to look me in the eye. “You were never meant to get tied up in any of this.”
“What does that even mean?” I struggled to reach him as Sebastian placed his arm out in front of me. I glared at him and spoke through gritted teeth. “Astor won’t hurt me.”
“She will,” he stated, staring down at the woman.
Vampires emerged from the cubicles. “What’s all the noise?” one asked, and Sebastian shook his head in warning.
“Don’t,” he told a few other sangaree who were edging closer to our small group.
Astor puffed out his cheeks as he looked at Sebastian and back to me. “I didn’t mean for them to take you too.”
A fluttering erupted in my stomach. “I don’t understand.”
The woman tutted, her red-painted lips curving into a mocking smile. “You’re not the brightest, are you? He’s one of us because he wanted to be. He came to me. I didn’t need to do anything to him against his will.” She whispered a kiss against his cheek, and he flinched.
“No.” I took a step back, almost tripping into a cubicle, but Erianna caught me. “He would never.”
Astor stared at his feet.
“We should go,” Sebastian announced. “Gwen, get your friend out of here. Now.”
