AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I walked away from the crime scene and decided to head to my sister’s apartment to suss out whatever was going on. Knowing Anastasia, she would probably be asleep with a hangover, but I still needed to be sure, especially with everything that has been going on around town.
Nobody seems to have answers. I would hate myself if anything happened to Ana and I was not able to protect her like I promised I would. I’ve seen the worst of her, a couple of centuries of hardened madness—but I still love her nonetheless. Despite being over a thousand years old, she would always be my baby sister.
I greeted a couple of people on the way as I finally made it to her apartment building. I walked to the reception and asked if she was in, but the security had no memory of her coming back recently, so I decided to head up to check it out for myself.
Ana lives on the top floor, and according to her, she enjoys watching the whole of Harmony Grove spread out in front of her while she sips wine. She watched this town grow from the ashes left from the war all the way into what it is now.
I knocked a few times, reaching into my pocket for my bunch of keys when the fourth knock went unanswered. I made her give me a key to her place after I hadn’t been able to reach her for a whole week. I pushed the door open, and the sight in front of me shocked me to the marrow of my bones.
“What the hell!?”
CHAPTER 2 | ANA IS MISSING
ALEXEI’S POV
The sight before me couldn’t be possible even in a thousand years. Ana’s apartment was neatly arranged, and everything was pristine. It was as if a professional cleaner had swept through, erasing any hint of Ana’s usual disarray. My instincts, honed by centuries of existence, screamed at me—something was wrong.
I had known my sister since birth, and this was the cleanest her apartment had ever been. Growing up, I would always have to clean up after her. I used to hate it, but slowly, I started to enjoy it too. We only had each other, and I wouldn’t do it for anyone else.
Ana wasn’t the type to tidy up after herself. In fact, the instant you opened her door, you would always find clothes scattered all around from whenever she was trying to dress up and go out. But this? Thiswas a stage too clean; whoever did this obviously didn’t know Ana well enough.
A knot tightened in my chest as I called her phone again, desperately hoping it would go through and she would ask me not to bother. The line went dead, and I decided to look around; maybe I would find something that would give me a clue to her whereabouts.
The room still had a faint smell of bleach, and I wondered what could have gone down between these walls. Instead of allowing myself to think about the worst scenarios, I just decided to look around. I moved from the living room to the bedroom; everything looked the same, well-arranged as if there was some sort of inspector coming to check it out.
My eyes caught sight of something in the dustbin, and I moved closer. It was Ana’s favorite necklace. The silver chain, adorned with a ruby-stone charm, was the only thing in the can. Ana never took that necklace off; it was a gift from her mother. In fact, Ana once tried to kill me because I snapped the necklace off her neck, and since then, I got the memo. They were inseparable.
Dread clawed at my insides as I retrieved the necklace, the cold metal biting into my palm. My mind raced through the possibilities, each more chilling than the last. What had happened to my sister, and why was her apartment wiped clean? Why was she not wearing her necklace, and who took it off?
I had so many questions and dark thoughts plaguing my mind. I would rather not try to assume the answers myself. Anastasia was a pure-blood like me, the only two of our kind. A lot could go wrong if my sister is used for the wrong reasons. She could be used to bring me and the rest of Harmony Grove to our knees.
Ana’s rebellious spirit made her a thorn in everyone’s side, but she was family—my family. No matter what they thought of her and howshe acted around them, we would find her together, and we would bring her home. I closed up her apartment and headed back to the townhouse. I sent an urgent SOS asking everyone to meet me there, and I drove as if I were being chased. I pulled up at the townhouse, and I could see that most of my warriors were already waiting for me.
My sister wasn’t dead; I could still feel her linked to me.
“Ana’s missing. We’re starting a search party. Now,” I declared the moment I walked in, urgency lacing my words. Their response was a chorus of groans and complaints. Anastasia was a pain in everyone’s ass, and her disappearance wasn’t met with the concern I’d hoped for.
I gritted my teeth, frustration boiling within me. “I do not care what you all think of her; she is an important part of this clan, and we will bring her home.”
There was silence for a moment before begrudging acknowledgments followed. They were testing my patience, and they knew it, too. I hated that they were pushing me to the wall. I couldn’t afford delays, not when every second wasted counted against finding Ana alive. I still couldn’t bring myself to think of my little sister being harmed.
“I would hate if anything happened to her as a result of these delays. We don’t even know how long she has been missing or where she is right now. None of my calls are going through, and she hasn’t returned any of them.”
“She’s missing, not dead,” one of them muttered, earning a sharp glare from me. Ana might be a headache, but she was my responsibility.
“Start searching. Check out her usual haunts and her favorite places. Leave no stone unturned,” I ordered, my voice cutting through the discontent.
I moved like a storm through the apartment, tension fueling my every step. My sister was out there, somewhere, and I wouldn’t rest until I had answers.
The search party begrudgingly dispersed, grumbling under their breaths. But one of them, a particularly stubborn vampire, dared to linger.
“Alexei, she’s a big girl. Maybe she wanted to disappear for a while. You know how she is. She might be halfway around the world, in the arms of a lover right now.”
I snapped. My patience, worn thin, shattered like glass. In an instant, I had him against the wall, my grip on his throat unforgiving. “This is my sister. I will not tolerate any disrespectful assumptions about her. I would do the same for any of your sisters. You do not get a pass to speak about my sister like that. Are we clear?”
His eyes widened with a mix of fear and realization. He nodded rapidly, and I released him, his body slumping to the floor. The message was clear—I would not tolerate half-hearted efforts or dirty jabs when it came to my family.
The search began in earnest, with the city’s shadows concealing both secrets and potential dangers. My emotions, usually locked away in the depths of immortality, surged to the surface. Fear, anger, and an unyielding determination led my every move. I couldn’t afford to lose my sister; how the hell would I spend the next hundreds of years without her? Especially when I promised her that I would always protect her.
