Blue Flames

Chapter 77

I reached on instinct to twirl my ring. But it wasn't there. I sighed.

"I will get you another once we get back home," Arthur said.

"You better," I said. "Rami just had to get rid of it. Asshole."

"A smart move, I must admit," he growled. "He couldn't risk the ring having a tracking device or some such surprise."

I turned my face and raised my brows. "Did it have a tracking device?"

"No. But the next one will," Arthur said.

I rolled my eyes and turned in his arms. "I have to see Noah. He's still in the infirmary?"

Arthur raised his brow. "You have to see him?"

I patted his chest. "Yes. Don't worry, my lord. I have not fallen in love with the wolf during our time alone in captivity."

He was not amused. I guess his sense of humor has suffered a swift death during the fight, too. A muscle ticked in his jaw.

"Too soon?" I asked with a grin. Arthur looked up, exasperated. I chuckled.

"All jokes aside, Noah is...how do I say it? A brother! Yes, an older brother of sorts. You have nothing to worry about."

"Who said I'm worried? I know who your heart belongs to. And if someone decides to challenge that fact they would never see the light of the day."

"Great. Now that we cleared that up, let's go."

I got dressed in a hoodie and jeans. My body was clean and smelled of the vanilla shampoo that was in the bathroom. Someone had given me a bath while I was unconscious. I didn't want to know who and how, so I ignored that fact and strapped on my weapons.

Arthur waited for me by the door, in a white t-shirt and cargo pants, the sleeve of his missing right arm pinned to his top. I pulled on my hood, because while Arthur was not bothered by my sorry state, I was.

It was very easy to say that scars did not matter, or that they gave me character, but deep down they left their mark on my psyche. Fortunately, my hair and my eye would grow back in a year or so, and most of the scars would be gone in a few years.

Arthur and I walked through the castle hallways. It was very busy this early in the morning. Staff and soldiers ran back and forth, no one paid us any mind.

"Amelia?" I asked Arthur.

"Gone."

I stopped. "What do you mean, gone?"

"She was with your father when he was attacked. She was injured. I don't know what happened between them exactly, but your father ordered her confined to her room before he left with us. When we got back she was gone."

"She ran away."

"It seems that way," Arthur said, nodding to a vampire who'd stopped to give him a salute. "Your younger brother is still with his relatives in the south. She didn't go to him. Your father sent a small army of guards to keep an eye on him."

I sighed and kept walking. So she was involved in this mess. My father must be heartbroken. Even if he wasn't in love with her, he cared about her a great deal. Her betrayal must have cut him very deep.

We stopped by a door guarded by two vampires wearing Venus' blue and gray fatigues. Arthur pushed the door open without a knock.

"Rude." I poked his back.

He glanced over his shoulder at me, amusement lifting the darkness in his eyes just a little bit.

The room held four beds, two on either side of a large window. A seating arrangement occupied the left corner, where Marianno sat with Madeleine Byrne and Ryan, my cousin.