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I was so wrong.
When I arrived, the shock of the elevator doors opening to furniture carnage smacked into me. As I stepped out I could sense the anger emanating from him. He was pacing back and forth like a caged animal, which did not bode well. Whatever he was about to tell me wasn’t good for either of us.
As I waited for him to speak I looked around the room. Broken furniture. Holes in the wall. A refrigerator that was no longer was lying on its face, with its door elsewhere. One of the big, two-story windows was shattered, which I'm sure the building owner was going to be pissed about.
My heart sank as I took in the destruction he caused. His pain was evident everywhere I looked. There may as well have been scratch marks everywhere as well, that's how beastly Rook looked when I turned back to him, and for a moment I was glad Cordie wasn't there because I knew Rook wouldn't want her to see him like this.
The only thing that made sense was that he’d found out something so dire that he sought to destroy everything in his path to try to work out the anguish. Fuck. Was Cordelia dead?
"What happened?" I asked, fearing the worst. If she was gone, we were in for a lot worse than a destroyed room and some broken furniture.
Rook turned to me, eyes narrow and flashing, teeth clenched and nostrils flared. Whatever happened, he was blaming me and this look of pure hatred in his eyes was aimed my way. "I tried to reach out to Cordelia through our bond after our connection was prematurely severed and failed over and over again, just like before."
My shoulders relaxed. At least Cordelia was probably okay, for the most part, anyway. She was alive, based on Rook’s most recent interaction with her, and that's what mattered most to me. It actually mattered more than I cared to admit, which made me feel more than a little uneasy in the face of everything, especially Rook's fury.
"Here, Rook." I dusted the broken glass and splinters of wood off a bar stool and handed it to the prince. "Have a seat."
Luckily, Rook didn't try to argue with me. He was exhausted but until Cordelia was found there was no way he would allow himself to truly rest. He was obsessed with reaching Cordie, and I didn't blame him. She was one of a kind. I just couldn't help but worry about him as well, not to mention what this might do to everything he'd been working toward in terms of returning to court.
Once Rook's breathing slowed, I filled him in on the situation at Gran's.
"Those damn hunters have the place surrounded. There's at least twenty that I counted, which is more than I've seen congregated together in a long time," I explained, running my fingers through my hair. This wasn’t an act. I was frustrated. “They’ve set up traps, the kind I haven’t seen in forever. I'm fairly sure some of it was right out of the middle ages. They know what they're doing."
"When I get my hands on the bastards, they'll wish they'd never been born," Rook muttered, teeth gritted and voice low. Wrath would be unleashed and maybe, this once, he could let someone else bear the brunt of it. I hoped so anyway. But it was going to take giving him some positive news before he exploded.
"I managed to get close enough to see Gran through a side window. She was completely fine and untouched." Glancing at Rook, I noticed a sigh of relief. His shoulders slumped, and he rested his head in his hands.
"Do you have any familiars you could pull from to check on the house? They could slip in and out, undetected," I offered.
Rook shook his head. "No, I don't. But ask Ash if he can provide some."
I didn't want to owe Ash any more than we already did. He was the reason Rook and I still had any sort of understanding of the comings and goings at court. And he was the one that kept us apprised of Hugh and Fiona who were unstable enough that they could decide to send their underlings after Rook at any moment, and Ash was the only one we could count on, the only one who was bold enough, to warn us.
He didn't let court opinion sway him much but still kept up good relationships with the other vampires at court as well as maintained their respect. Ash was a talented man when it came to court politics and had more resources than I understood.
Now we needed him and his resources. Again. And it appeared we had no other choice.
"Let's just take out all of the hunters that are camped out at Cordelia's house. Let’s turn their mistake on them.” I could visualize how it would go down. And it would be incredible.
“What mistake? We’re the ones sitting here while she’s out there and we can't do a damn thing to find her.” He was about to turn on me.
“Theymade the mistake of congregating in such close proximity. They've underestimated how far we will go to get her back. Let's take advantage of that." I rubbed my hands together as I imagined the glorious sensation of snapping their necks one by one. "They'd never see us coming."
Rook let out a humorless laugh. "Yeah, if we knew where Cordie was so we could be sure they wouldn't kill her before we rescued her I'd be on board with the plan. We can't trust that they don't have check ins scheduled with the guys around the house. If they miss one, or one of those assholes is able to get a message off before we kill them, then Cordie's life would be over. Not to mention that it would make the council and Hugh angrier, which would make it harder for us to return to court. And we certainly don't want to give them any more reasons to refuse our homecoming."
I knew he was right, but I felt like I had to voice my idea or I'd eventually regret it. With more than a little effort I held in the sigh I wanted to release, knowing that it would only exacerbate things even more if Rook interpreted it as me being irritated with him for declining my plan.
Rook had spent so much time allowing his rage to take over his rational thoughts. He left a trail of terror in his wake, but I had kept all of my emotions bottled up inside. I hadn’t allowed myself the luxury of losing my shit the way he did. Because I had to worry all the time.
I had to worry about what might happen if I lost control, especially when I saw Cordie again. I had to worry about who would be protecting Rook if I was being emotional, which wasn't acceptable. I mean, I was his bodyguard, and I was the only one he had. And I worried about Cordie's Gran and us getting back to court without ruffling too many feathers.
This was the closest I'd ever been to losing my shit though. My anger and fear was writhing under my skin like a snake and all I wanted was to set it free.
No, I couldn't allow that to happen. I would continue to hold it, tame it, and I would continue to worry about what happened if it ever got out of me. Above all else, I would figure out how to make sure that it never did. Cordelia was too important both to Rook and to me, which was something I'd never expected.
If we couldn't get her out of this then I wasn't sure what we'd do. I wasn't sure I'd be able to stop Rook from painting the town red, hell, if she didn't survive then I wasn't sure I'd want to stop him.
That thought alone was terrifying, which was why we had to find Cordie before it was too late. There was no other option.
