Chapter 17
“Well that was helpful,” Alexandria sarcastically muttered. “That last comment she made was likely just to mess with your head.”
“You don’t sound so sure,” I told her. “Is there something you’re not telling me?” Alexandria stood up and stared down at me with an unreadable expression daring me to say more. Was it just my imagination that Alexandria’s eyes darkened? “Never mind,” I ended up saying.
“Now this means you have no leads for finding any of the people you’re looking for,” She commented as she held out a hand and pulled me up off of the ground.
“Yeah, there’s something I don’t quite get though, Tristan has always been one to keep all his information on something electronic but I didn’t see any laptop at his apartment and I looked everywhere.”
“Just because you didn’t see something doesn’t mean he didn’t have one.” Alexandria pulled out her keys and with one last glare at the coven’s house started walking towards her car. “He may have hidden it or it may have been taken.”
“You think he hid something?” I asked her once she was on the road again. Alexandria nodded then once again turned the music up. “What do you think is up with Erik?”
“I don’t know, he’s your friend,” she replied. She didn’t glance at me as I took out my phone to check for messages. There were none, I had hoped that Erik had maybe texted me.
“He’s not really a friend, just my partner,” I told her.
“Yeah, sure,” Alexandria said obviously not convinced. It wasn’t until we were back at the apartment I was renting that I realized what happened; Alexandria had expertly changed the subject by saying Erik was a friend. I narrowed my eyes at her, she knew something about Erik. Alexandria sent me a questioning glance but I didn’t disclose what I was thinking.
I shoved the two duffel bags off of my bed and they fell with a thud on the ground. Alexandria froze and stared at the bags with a peculiar expression. She took a step towards one of the bags.
“I don’t think duffel bags packed full of papers make that noise when they hit the floor,” she said before she grabbed one of the bags and ran her fingers along the lining while I stared at her thinking she was crazy. I watched curiously at her as she dumped all the papers out and then ripped apart the inside lining of the bag and held up a flash drive. I gaped at the flash drive in her fingers and was about to reach for it when we were interrupted.
“What are you doing?” asked Veronica. I sighed; Veronica really needed to learn to respect privacy and not just walk into other people’s apartments. I opened my mouth to tell her that she needed to leave but Alexandria started talking.
“Do you have a laptop we can use? It’s really important.” I shook my head at Alexandria but either she didn’t see it or she ignored it. Veronica nodded, also not noticing my action.
“Uh, yeah sure, I’ll go get it now,” she replied looking surprised by the question. She turned around quickly and practically ran out of the room and as a result was back pretty quickly.
“Okay thanks, I’ll bring it back after we’re done,” Alexandria said as she took the laptop from her. Veronica hesitated but upon seeing Alexandria’s annoyed look backed up out of the apartment and left.
Alexandria set down the laptop which was already unlocked and plugged the flash drive in it. When it loaded I saw there was only one file on it. I reached out and clicked on the file. The file was basically a bunch of addresses but only one was highlighted; a warehouse that was located outside of the city.
“Okay come on, we have time to check out this warehouse,” I ordered.
“Isn’t it kind of late? Humans do after all need more sleep than vampires,” she responded. I rolled my eyes.
“Well if you’re tired you can stay here, I’ll just take your car,” I said standing up as I reached to get her keys that were lying on the bed. Just before I could grab it her slender hand snatched it.
“My car? I don’t think so. You’ll get there faster with me driving anyway.” She picked up Veronica’s laptop and gave it to my landlord on the way to her car. “By the way, this is the last time I’m driving you today.” I nodded tired as she sped up once again over the speed limit.
“How do you not get speeding tickets?” I asked her; surely some cop had caught her speeding.
“I’ve been pulled over many times, I just talk myself out of it,” she explained. “Also when you get to a certain speed most cops are too lazy to try and stop you.” I laughed; leave it to a vampire to get out of speeding tickets. “So have you ever been to this warehouse?” I shook my head. “Yeah neither have I, so I have no clue what to expect.”
“Well I guess we will find out,” I stated as we neared the warehouse. We were still quite far away but I could see the big grey warehouse. It was the only building anywhere close. “Do you think this will be like the last place we went to?”
“No I don’t think there will be another coven; your luck can’t be that bad.”
“Thanks for the confidence,” I waited a bit before trying the big doors at the front of the warehouse, they were locked. “Let’s see if we can find a back door.”
“With any luck it’ll be locked,” muttered Alexandria. I sent her a glare and saw that she was smirking at me. I shook my head then spotted a single door. I ran over to it and with out hesitation pushed down on the handle, it gave no resistance as it went down and made the door open.
I stared into the darkly lit warehouse trying to make out the various shapes. Alexandria took advantage of me just standing there and entered the warehouse first, and nothing happened, no ambushes, there weren’t even any people. Alexandria cocked her head and listened.
“There is at least one other person here, if not more,” She realized. For once I was actually glad that a vampire was here, they had really good hearing. I peered into the warehouse but still saw nothing.
“Where are they?” I whispered. Alexandria shrugged and stepped further into the warehouse only to be attacked by a vampire.
“Stay there,” she commanded me as the attacker knocked her head off the wall leaving a gash on her forehead. Alexandria cursed as she touched her head. She was about to fight back but there was no need to. Her attacker was thrown and ended up in a pile of wood haphazardly stacked so when he landed he was staked instantly.
“What are you doing here Alexandria?” asked another male blond vampire. I blinked and suddenly the vampire was really close to Alexandria, but the position wasn’t at all threatening. I gasped and pulled out a stake automatically in case the situation turned violent. The sound of my movement caused the blond vampire to become aware of me and then I was the one pressed to the wall, the stake no longer in my hand.
“Gabriel, release him,” Alexandria ordered haughtily while she wiped blood off her forehead smearing it. Gabriel glanced at her.
“He’s a hunter,” Gabriel hissed, his fangs bared as his grip tightened on my throat. When he turned to look at me I realized who Gabriel was and why he had looked familiar to me, he was the blond vampire that was with Alexandria at the club Erik and I went to on our first day here after we had found an apartment to rent.
“Gabriel, please, just do it for me.” Gabriel sighed and with a glare released me. I rubbed my throat painfully while I looked for my stake; Gabriel seemed unstable and unhinged.
“What are you doing protecting a hunter? Did you come here with him?” he asked protectively. Alexandria picked up my stake and held it out to me. I reached out and took it all the while keeping a close eye on Gabriel.
“Relax,” Alexandria laughed, “I’m just helping him find some people and I had nothing better to do.”
“You should have told me,” Gabriel said, sounding hurt, “now that I know I’m sure I can find something better for you to do. He went over to Alexandria and stroked her hair. My eyes narrowed. I shook my head to clear it, it was plain to see that Alexandria would go with her boyfriend leaving me to find Liz, Jordan and Tristan alone, at least until Erik chose to reappear.
“I can’t Gabriel,” Alexandria sighed looking apologetic,” I’m not one to do things halfway, I have to see this through to the end, that is if Damien wants my help.”
I looked up surprised, and saw both of them staring at me. Alexandria had a thoughtful expression while Gabriel was glaring at me. I realized they were waiting for a response from me.
“Yeah sure, I think I need all the help I can get.” Alexandria nodded to herself while Gabriel’s glare got darker, his sliver eyes darkening to match his mood.
“Why are you here anyway?” Alexandria asked as if the thought had just come to her. She gave Gabriel a suspicious onceover.
“Someone asked me to make sure that some guy didn’t get away. When I got here I found out that I would be looking after a person of interest with another vampire, the guy that just died.” Alexandria rolled her eyes. “What? I owed this guy, and you know how I hate owing people,” Gabriel said. Alexandria shook her head at him.
“Well then, let’s go see this person of interest,” she said, “unless you’re against that, Gabriel?” Gabriel sighed and shook his head.
“Not particularly, I don’t like obeying orders, but if anyone asks you overpowered me and I was helpless to do anything to stop you seeing the guy,” Gabriel laughed pulling Alexandria close with one hand wrapped around her waist. Alexandria laughed as she disengaged herself from his embrace and walked further into the warehouse. Gabriel glared one more time at me before following suit leaving me to trail after them.
“Get away from me you filthy bloodsucking vampires,” yelled a male voice when we passed a large stack of crates and came into view. Alexandria and Gabriel hung back watching the guy warily but Alexandria obviously couldn’t resist replying.
“Wow, bloodsucking vampires, how accurate since vampires drink blood,” she told him sarcastically. “I think you should think of better insults, I mean it’s not as if you haven’t had the time.”
“Tristan?” asked the guy when he glimpsed me. I looked at the man curiously as he seemed a bit familiar, he was most likely a hunter associate of Tristan or my family. It wasn’t unusual for someone to mistake me for Tristan; we were very alike and this guy seemed a bit crazy after being held captive for who knows how long.
“No, I’m his brother, Damien. Do you know where Tristan is? He’s missing and when my friends and I tried to find him they went missing too.”
“That’s what I was afraid of. Tristan was in way too deep; it was a wonder he managed to stay above serious trouble for so long. I have a few ideas of where he might be, near the time I got captured Tristan was starting to entrust me with a few morsels of important information on the mission he was working on.”
Then the already dim lights in the warehouse were shut off thrusting the room into complete and total darkness…