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Tossing the blankets aside, I shoved myself out of bed, the crippling pain in my muscles getting worse. The longer I spent away from Rune, the more I hurt.
I stepped over my clothes that were strewn all over the floor. The mess did my head in, but I couldn’t find the energy to fix anything. It felt like I barely existed, all my energy consumed with finding my mate, and keeping back the darkness trying to consume me.
My chest tightened, and I unleashed raspy coughs that hadn’t left me for weeks.
Our mating bond was slowly killing me. There was something dark connected to the bond I’d formed. The distance from her was slowly destroying me from the inside out, and I had no doubt how this would end for me if I didn’t find her soon.
Making my way into my bathroom, I dragged myself into the shower. The only thing that got me out of bed most mornings was the thread of hope that today we’d find something on Rune.
People didn’t just disappear, and we knew from our research that Ares had some kind of base here, somewhere he returned when he hadn’t been out with the Hunters. It was just a matter of finding out where that base was.
Once I finished, I stepped out of the shower and wiped a hand across the fogged up mirror. Staring back at me was a sickly looking face, pale as fuck, eyes red like I hadn’t slept a wink.
“I look like death,” I groaned.
I never got a full night’s sleep. And when I did sleep, I was constantly chasing Rune in my dreams. Her last words always stayed with me, playing on my mind, day in, day out. Driving me mad.
Don’t you dare give up on finding me. You promised me forever.
“I’m coming for you, Rune. I give you my word. I won’t stop until I’m dead.” I gripped the sides of the porcelain sink until my hands hurt. Until a wave of dizziness washed over me, and I stumbled back into my room that looked like it’d been hit by a tornado.
I rubbed at my chest, staring at the mess in a daze. I was getting sicker. I felt the hole inside me expanding. How long before it inhaled me completely?
Getting dressed, I heard muffled voices outside my room. Stepping into my boots, I raked my fingers through my wet hair and hacked out my lungs before I moved out into the corridor. We’d rented this place because it was central in the city and made it easier to go out and search.
The smell of blood suddenly assaulted my nostrils, slamming into me the moment I entered the main living room. I hissed as I came face to face with a scene right out of the show,Dexter.
The furniture had all been shoved up against the walls, and a plastic tarp had been laid out across the room where three bodies lay, all dead by the blood, pungent stench, and their blue faces.
Wilder was kneeling next to a body, staring down at him, wiping off his blood covered hands with a cloth.
“Look, I’m all for you taking a page out of my book, but don’t bring the victims right into the house where anyone can peer into the window and see them.”
“The blinds are drawn,” he murmured, and I glanced at the blinds that were in fact only partially drawn. Amateur. While I’d been losing my head and falling sick from my mate bond to Rune…Wilder had gone feral. One could say, he was becoming me, furious with the world and ready to murder anyone who stood in his way.
I was rather proud of him because for too long he’d been a fucking sissy. Finally, he’d seen the dark side and came over.
“Who exactly are these assholes?” I asked, casually kicking at the tarp curling up near my feet.
“Well, fat head over there,” he pointed to the one on the left with a head that did indeed resemble a fat melon, “pissed me off last night by smashing a bottle of beer over my head at a club. The second prick’s a hyena shifter who said he knew where a vampire lived, but he lied and took me to his studio where he was gonna slice out my organs to eat them. The fucker had no idea who’d he brought home. Then the third guy…” He stared down at the blond man at his feet.
He was skinny and covered in blood from his throat sliced.
“This guy actually had some useful information for us.”
I stiffened, my shoulders rearing back. “What’d he say?”
“There’s a woman named Vrajitoare somewhere in the city, and apparently she frequently deals with a vampire who lives nearby. I’m hoping that vampire is Ares.”
I blinked at Wilder who went back to wiping his hands before getting up.
“How do we find her?” I growled.
"This Vrajitoare chick, she’s going to be at the night markets tonight. We’ll make her tell us what she knows.” When he glanced up at me, darkness slithered behind his gaze.
Hope flared in my chest.
“You did fucking amazing. This one is going to take us to Rune, I can feel it,” I rasped, before breaking into a dreadful cough that felt like my lungs were literally trying to climb out of my chest and up my throat.
