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She gripped Felix’s hand. “Yes. I’m here. What happened?”
“Ahmed called.” Ahmed was Maria’s mate, whom Gabby had met twice before she left for the Gathering. “He said Maria didn’t return from her hunt last night. She was tracking a few of the missing vampires.” Beside Gabby, Felix became still as a statue. “When Ahmed tracked her, he lost her trail.”
“That makes no sense,” she said, confusion and worry warring inside her. Mates could always track each other through the mating bond. The further apart, the more difficult it became, but even then, the trail didn’t disappear. When she and Felix had been on different continents, before he’d followed her to the New World, she had always sensed his general direction. His very existence tugged at her.
The only time the mating bond stopped working was if one of the pair was dead.
No. Daggers of agony stabbed into her heart. No, Maria wasn’t dead.
“Ahmed said she’s not dead,” Nikolas added, right as the horrifying thought occurred to her.
“But how?”
“I don’t know. I plan to head back to Haven tonight.”
“Me too.” Nikolas was more than capable of taking care of whatever was happening, but she couldn’t stay here while Maria was in danger. It had always been the three, no, four of them, with Stephen, but she’d left them behind.
She wouldn’t do that again.
“Wait.” Felix grabbed her arm. His next words were unyielding and had her spine stiffen. “You’re not leaving. Have you forgotten what the Council threatened you with?”
She jerked out of his grip and bared her teeth as anger and frustration swarmed her. “Whose fault is that? Without Maria, Haven would not exist anyway.” She refused to believe Maria was dead. Her next breath shuddered out of her, and she hugged herself. “I cannot lose her.”
Silence. Narrowing of those sharp eyes that missed nothing. “Fine, but I’m coming with you.”
“What?” She blinked. “No.”
His stony face transported her back to a memory she’d rather forget. She pinched herself to stay in the present.
“You can’t stop me. We can either waste time to argue and I’ll end up camped outside of Haven if I must, or you can accept my help.”
Let him camp outside of Haven,a childish part of her said, but her brain was working overtime. With Maria gone, and if Ahmed was telling the truth about his inability to track her, then something strange was going on. It would hurt nothing but her sanity to have Felix’s help.
“Fine, but I’m in charge,” she agreed.
A triumphant grin. Then he was all business. He glanced down at the phone, checking the time. “We can leave from here. There’s no need to return to Vegas unless you want to?”
Gabby shook her head. She’d brought a light traveling case to Vegas. Anything she needed, she could get at Haven. “Do you know the way?”
“Yes.”
“Then we leave from here. Nikolas, we’ll meet you at Haven tonight.”
“Got it. I will call them to prepare for our arrival.”
“Thank you. Wait, what about Alistair and the Gathering?” She did not want the Council to come after her House despite what she’d said.
“I will talk to him,” Nikolas said.
“I will too,” Felix added. Then a slight hesitation before he exhaled. “There is something else. You said Maria was tracking missing vampires before she disappeared?”
“Yes.” Nikolas sounded as skeptical as she felt.
“Eden has had vampires gone missing as well.”
An ominous silence enveloped them at his words. Nikolas was the first to break it. “I see. Have you located them?”
“Not yet.”
