Page 66 of Don't Bite the Director
Baylin tapped at a small marker on the screen. “Found it. That red flag indicates she is NCM. Non Compos Mentis. It means the Coalition believes her to be insane more or less. Completely unpredictable. No enforcer is allowed to go after her alone.” Baylin cast Saiden a dubious look. “That means you too, bro. No cowboy shit. I know what she did but—”
“You have no idea just how much damage she did,” Saiden snarled, pushing back from the desk. “Knowing I’ve lost my mate is tearing me up inside. I feel like the other half of my soul has been ripped out.”
“You don’t know that you’ve lost her,” Baylin offered. “She might be okay with it.”
Sure, Saiden thought,and maybe you’ll take up drinking tea.
“Does it say where she was last spotted?”
Baylin scanned the screen. “Looks like she was seen entering the U.S. from Canada about a decade ago but nothing since. She’s an expert at avoiding detection. I can run the photo through a wider database of traffic cameras, but it will take a while.”
Saiden spun around and started toward the door. “I’m not waiting for her to get away. I doubt she went far, and I’m going to find her.”
“How, Saiden?” Baylin called after him. “You going to knock on every door between here and the East Coast?”
“If I have to,” he replied, halting long enough to grab a blood bag. “But I’m starting with Donna. My mate is in there hooked up to an IV because she nearly bled to death, and any minute she’s going to wake up to a terrifying new life. I don’t care how long Donna worked for us. I don’t care how much everyone loved her. If I need to break every bone in her frail human body to get the answers I want, then I will.”
“She’s human, remember? You can always try compelling the answers from her,” Baylin pointed out, his words stopping Saiden at the door.
Rotating slowly to face his brother, Saiden’s lip curled up into a snarl. “She doesn’t deserve the easy way out.”
The amount of concern Baylin showed should have made Saiden pause to consider if he was going too far, but he already knew he’d gone off the rails. Now it was time to get back on track.
“I’m going to swing by Cora’s room to check on her, then I’ll be inthe dungeons if you find anything else.”
Saiden spun on his heels and sped away before his brother could try to dump more useless logic on him. Baylin hadn’t tangled with Bianca, so he didn’t know just how accurate the NCM flag was. It also meant she wouldn’t leave her toys behind. She wanted to keep playing with Saiden, wanted to keep breaking him, so she had to be nearby. Somewhere.
He was halfway down the main hall when a strong hand clamping on his shoulder halted his movement, and his momentum nearly forced his feet out from under him. Regaining his footing, he turned to see Marquin standing behind him with a dark expression.
Lilith save me, what now?
Saiden didn’t think he could handle any more tragedies. He was about to tear his skin off if he didn’t get back to Cora for at least a little while.
“We have a problem,” Marquin stated grimly.
Of course they did. When it rains it pours. Except in his case it felt like acid.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, scratching at his arm. The prickles under his skin were getting worse. A sire wasn’t meant to be away from their changing progeny for this long.
“The Coalition knows.”
Saiden’s entire body locked up at the three words nobody ever wanted to hear. “Knows what exactly?”
“About Cora.”
All the fight left Saiden, and his body deflated alongside any remaining trace of hope. Slumping back against the wall, he slid down to the shiny marble floor. That was it, then. Game over.
“Who told them?” he asked weakly when Marquin knelt beside him.
“Anonymous tip,” his sire answered, taking the blood bag from Saiden and setting it aside. “Probably your blonde attacker wanted to twist the knife a little deeper.”
Saiden sat quietly for a moment. He should have known Bianca would try something. It was his job to anticipate his enemies’ next move, and while he’d known she would do something, it hadn’t occurred to him just how deeply she would bury the knife. Some enforcer he was.
“I knew the risk,” he stated, forcing himself to meet the sadness in Marquin’s eyes. “And I would do the same thing again a million times over. I couldn’t just let her die.”
“I know,” Marquin agreed solemnly. “I never told any of you, but when Eliana saved me as a rogue I was in the process of trying to end my own life. I wanted nothing more than to be spared this tortuous existence. But I was her mate, and she refused to let me go despite knowing how I felt about being a vampire. It was her love that changed my mind in the end. I owe her everything, Saiden. Perhaps someday Cora will feel the same.”
Someday. He’d spent so long clinging to the hope that someday they would get the chance to be happy. The problem with someday is that you rarely get to see it. The only thing you could ever count on was today.
