Chapter 18 – Deserted

EPOV Again

“What happened?” Sookie asked and sounding panicked, which only made me go back on alert. But when she reached out and grabbed my arm, the give in the now torn leather reminded me of Furnan’s bite, just as she added, “You were hurt?”

“Not really,” I answered, trying to soothe her with my softened tone and showing her my already healed arm. While my skin was unblemished even to my eyes, the dried blood still coating it didn’t help my cause any. But remembering his reaction to my blood, I turned to everyone and said, “It may have been my imagination, but I think he liked the taste of my blood.”

“What do you mean?” John asked. “Do you think they’re like you? They need to drink blood?”

I couldn’t be sure, but remembering the wounded humans in the room and the disinterest of the wolves regarding them, I answered, “I don’t think so, but I can’t be sure.”

Their spilled blood was noticeable to my senses, but I’d been able to resist too, so there was no way I could be sure of anything.

I wasn’t feeling very genius-y at the moment.

But we didn’t have long to ponder when Godric’s voice broke into our discussion by saying, “I have located the source of the video. The connection was broken the moment the transmission stopped, but the coordinates put them approximately fifteen nautical miles due west of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.”

“Mexico?” I asked, wondering if there was any correlation to the fact it was where Furnan seemed to have entered the US and at the same time wondering how fast I could fly there.

“Technically the transmission came from international waters,” he corrected.

And before I could calculate the distance versus the rate of speed I knew I could fly, Godric showed me at least one of us was still a genius when the TV screen lit up with a satellite image. A few tweaks on his part later and we could see the live images of the now burning remnants of what looked like a ship.

“The thing exploded?” Alcide asked. “That can’t be a coincidence.”

“Nah,” Jake added. “Even if they don’t know about Big Brother Godric, they probably figured they would’ve been tracked down eventually. Destroying the evidence and scattering the bits left behind would be the way I would go.”

There didn’t seem to be any point in trying to fly there now, so I turned to John and asked, “So what’s our next move?”

He seemed to think about it for a moment, while four sets of eyes were glued to every twitch his eyes made in thought, when he finally turned to me and asked, “Have you ever been hunting?”

Did prowling for pussy count?

Since I had a feeling asking that question could very well lead to Sookie cutting off my dick and beating me to death with it, I held it in and answered with a simple, “No.”

“Well I have and since we don’t know where the big game is hunkering down, our best bet is going back to where we’ve known them to be and leave out some bait to lure them back.”

“Bait?” Sookie asked and because she’s smarter than most people gave her tits credit for, her worried eyes turned to narrow back at me.

Because it was precisely the reason why I found myself dressed in a tuxedo and mingling with the rich and infamously boring a week later.

It was hard to concentrate on anything other than the heat of her body pressed against my own as we moved across the dance floor, but I tried to tamp down the ever-erection Sookie always managed to cause and asked, “Have I told you yet how lovely you look this evening?”

“You might have mentioned something along those lines,” she smirked up at me.

In actuality, what I’d said was just the sight of her made my dick hard and come hell or high water – if I had to fly us clear to the middle of the Nevada desert for the privacy we’d been lacking since the wolf attack a week earlier – we were fucking tonight.

It had been a long week.

Almost as long as my dick in my pants or as long as her legs looked thanks to her high heels and the dangerously high slit of her dress.

Almost.

She wasn’t too keen on going out tonight, but since we hadn’t been able to track down Victor – and the wolves were still in the wind – the guys and I decided our best bet to get them to show themselves would be to lure them out.

And I was the bait.

I had no way of knowing if Furnan was one of the wolves who’d attacked me at the house. My eyesight and sense of smell were still within human range then, so I didn’t know if he’d recognized me at all when we’d broken up their party by dropping in on him and his pack at the hotel. Given we hadn’t had any unexpected visitors at the house since that night, I would guess not.

But now thanks to Sookie, the guys and I all had new disguises to wear, if and when we met up with the wolves again. Sewing was apparently something her grandmother had taught her as a child and she claimed it had come in handy over the years until she could afford to have her clothes tailored. And since we couldn’t afford our secret identities being discovered, Sookie took it upon herself to create unique disguises for all of us.

And mine would come in handy now that I was letting it be known to the ones who’d attacked me I wasn’t dead to the world.

If we were caught on video, it would also come in handy to the guys. While not as well-known as me, they would’ve been considered AWOL had Godric not wormed his way into the Department of Defense’s computer network and wiped them clean out of their system. He did the same thing for every other system that could identify them in any way, so for now they were ghosts. Every trace of their identities had been erased from every computer network until they no longer existed on any mainframe. Paper trails could still be used, but it would take longer and whoever was looking for them would need to know where to go to even begin to look for them, but it was the best we could do for now. As a group we decided it would be better that way to lessen their exposure. Without an identity there would be no way the wolves could identify them without inside knowledge, which was still a risk. But it meant their families would be safer for now too.

After the video threat had aired around the country – and immediately gone viral around the world – the guys all knew we were the only ones who had a chance of defeating them. The government was quick to step in and claim it was all a hoax, but we knew better thanks to Godric eavesdropping on them. They were just as worried about the wolf threat as we were, but we hadn’t shown our hand to them just yet.

Not when we hadn’t yet figured out who the mole in their ranks was.

Speculation was still running amok amongst the talking heads on TV that the video was altered, along with the conspiracy theorists saying werewolves were a government experiment gone wrong. The city was overrun with animal lovers squawking about the wolves’ rights to be wolves, but so far the people we’d saved at the hotel that night hadn’t been much help to law enforcement in identifying us. The initial talk about masked possible vampires had come from the first responders coming into the room before I’d jumped out of it through the hole in the ceiling, but so far the sketches based off of the eye witness accounts of our appearances from the people we’d saved were so far off the mark that any one of us could stroll into the FBI’s headquarters and not garner a second glance.

Coincidence or their way of paying us back, we had no idea. But it was helpful nonetheless.

Since we didn’t know who was behind it all, we couldn’t be sure of anything more than the fact they existed. Where they were hiding out was still a mystery too. Whoever they were, they were certainly hiding their tracks and with nothing left to go on, having me come out of hiding seemed like our only option.

But since the only attack I expected tonight would be in the form of what I was going to do to Sookie’s dress later on, I did my best to try and convince her to relax. We were currently in the middle of yet another Leclerq shindig. Sophie-Anne certainly liked her parties, but on the upside she also liked putting herself in the spotlight which meant her parties always came with media attention. A-list celebrities were always welcome and if your wealth put you in the top one percent, she wanted to be your best friend. Therefore the sidewalk outside was littered with paparazzi and I was surprised either one of us could see after all of the flashes that had gone off in our faces.

Hopefully Furnan and whoever held his leash kept up with the gossip rags.

The guys were all keeping watch from various lookouts outside the building and I was seriously contemplating trying to convince Sookie to let me fuck her in a dark corner when someone tapped me on the shoulder asking, “May I cut in?”

Glancing down, I noticed the dagger like red fingernails still hovering over my shoulder. And looking up, I noticed they were very similar to the daggers now shooting from Sookie’s eyes. Both women continued to smile like they weren’t plotting the other’s demise, while I plotted my polite refusal to the host of the party, but before I could decline Sookie pulled away from me with her smile firmly intact, agreeing, “Of course.”

I stared unashamedly at her back – more so her backside – as Sookie sashayed to the bar before looking back at Sophie-Anne and reluctantly picking up the dance where Sookie and I had left off with her.

I could feel Sookie’s desire to launch her own attack on Sophie-Anne, knowing business wasn’t the only kind of merger Sophie-Anne had been after me for over the last few years. But feeling it fade away the farther she walked away from me only reminded me that I couldn’t feel her as strongly as I could before. Jake had been tagging along with her to work and wherever else she’d needed to go over the last week guarding her. And while I’d been waking up earlier and earlier with each passing day, I’d noticed that it took her being closer and closer in order for me to feel her.

Maybe the effects from having my blood were wearing off?

She hadn’t seemed too upset over me being able to feel her moods, so I thought I would bring up the idea of giving her more of my blood later on to strengthen our connection.

But for now I had to deal with the woman I could feel in my arms and against other parts of me when she boldly rubbed herself along the front of my body and said, “I’m surprised you actually came, Eric. But I can’t say that I’m disappointed. Even if your hands are cold, other parts of you are feeling pretty hot.”

“What can I say?” I smiled flirtatiously down at her. Sophie-Anne had been trying to notch me onto her bedpost for as long as I’d known her, but I’d never been dumb enough to take a ride on her crazy train. And seeing the hope in her eyes that maybe I was finally ready to let her punch my ticket, I dashed them just as quickly by adding, “My date has a way of keeping me warm, even when she’s clear across the room.”

And even from clear across the room, I didn’t need to be able to feel her to know that she was feeling pretty hot at the moment too, seeing me with Sophie-Anne, but unable to hear our conversation.

Sookie was so hot I was surprised she didn’t burst into flames from how pissed off she looked.

“Your date?” she asked, spitting out the word and huffed, “I thought she was nothing more than your glorified servant.”

“Hardly,” I chuckled, feeling even more amused now watching Sophie-Anne trying to hide how pissed she was over my admission. Being an asshole to the guys lost its oomph since I never felt any malice towards them, but I’d missed having anyone around to be a dick towards. And not about to waste this opportunity, I added, “If anyone is the servant in our relationship, it’s me who lives to serve her.”

In fact, I was only alive because of her. A fact I wasn’t lost on.

But that’s not to say I didn’t get any enjoyment out of seeing Sookie’s jealousy. I thought it evened the scales since everything I’d just admitted to Sophie-Anne was the god’s honest truth.

Yet another bullet point on the fact sheet in my mind.

But since Sookie really wasn’t telepathic, I surmised my exchange with Sophie-Anne looked a lot less innocent than it was. It only served to remind me once more that I wished she could feel me like I could feel her.

But since that wasn’t possible I would just have to show her how I felt about her later on.

There would be nothing innocent about the way I did it either.

With the guys always around and everything we’d been busy doing in trying to find and prepare ourselves for the wolves, Sookie and I hadn’t had much time to ourselves. I hadn’t wanted to weaken her by constantly feeding from her either, so I’d been sticking to bagged blood over the last week. She wouldn’t let me near her for anything more than innocent snuggling, with our guests always within earshot, so I made a vow to myself right then and there once the wolf threat was eliminated I would take her away somewhere. Just me and her where we could relax and fuck to our hearts’ content.

It couldn’t come soon enough. And me and Sookie couldn’t cum soon enough either.

Another bullet point for my fact sheet.

Sophie-Anne chose to ignore my admission and changed the subject, continuing to make small talk with me through the next song the band played. So by the time I was able to extract myself from her clutches, I found Sookie was no longer standing by the bar where I’d last seen her. I figured she was either mingling amongst the other guests or fashioning a shiv out of a spoon’s handle in the corner of the room, but by the time I’d checked all four corners I still hadn’t found her.

Making my way back over to our table, I noticed her small purse was still sitting there. I knew she’d left her cell phone in it, so I didn’t bother trying to call it and instead made another round through the room, concentrating on trying to feel her.

And I felt my own worry start to grow when I felt nothing from Sookie.

Walking over to the bar, there were too many other scents invading my senses, and too much time had elapsed for me to pick out hers to try and track her that way, so I thought maybe she’d gone to the bathroom and made a beeline over there.

Only to come up empty handed again.

Maybe she really had thought there was more to what she was seeing between me and Sophie-Anne?

It seemed ridiculous since she already knew I loved her.

Not that I’d said the words to her again since that first time.

Not that she’d said them to me either.

But Sookie and I weren’t the type to be all flowery and shit. Instead we gave each other a bunch of shit and all but blamed the other for making us feel that way. It was the way we worked.

And it worked for us.

And no longer caring if I looked like a panicky bereft asshole that my girlfriend had possibly stormed out on me, I took out my cell phone and called Jake, knowing he was watching the front of the building and asked, “Did you see Sookie come outside?”

She’d been willing to walk barefoot, with a bullet hole in her side, and penniless through a sketchy neighborhood to get away from me the last time she’d been pissed at me. So I didn’t think being up two out of three would make her any less inclined to take off in the middle of Beverly Hills if she was mad enough.

“Dude, you had one job and you already fucked it up?” he asked, with a chuckle. “I haven’t lost her all week long, so tell me you didn’t lose her in a single room.”

“Did. You. See. Her. Leave?” I growled into the phone, not feeling the humor in the situation.

Not when I couldn’t feel her at all.

“You’re serious,” he said, sounding just as serious now. “No. She hasn’t come through the front. Did you check the bathrooms?”

I could hear him relaying the information to the others, while I confirmed that I wasn’t a complete idiot and had checked the bathroom for her, when suddenly it was John’s voice coming through the phone saying, “She hasn’t come through any of the exits. Jake’s on his way inside to help you look.”

He appeared at my side a moment later wearing the same uniform the servers were wearing and said, “I’ll search the rest of the ground floor for her while you search in here again.” Handing me another earpiece, so I could communicate with all of them, he took off through the doors leading into kitchen.

John and Alcide were keeping watch on all of the exits from the front and back of the building, while I made another sweep through the room with my eyes and senses searching for her. The more time that passed, the more worried I got, so I ended up startling a few of the guests when I moved much faster than I should have hearing Jake’s voice come through my earpiece saying, “Basement.”

The three of us converged on the basement, bringing our group total to four when it should have been five. But it wasn’t.

Instead what we found was Sookie’s unmistakable scent and one of her shoes lying next to a crudely made opening in one of the walls, leading to the sewer tunnel on the other side. The four of us dove through it and I filled my nose with the stench, moving at top speed and seeking out any little part of Sookie’s scent I could find, until it led me to an opening a few miles from the hotel.

But the area was deserted.

Just like her scent now deserted my senses.

Just like her emotions deserted my body.

But the agony I felt not knowing where she was or who had taken her filled the air around us as my anguished roar thundered through the night.