Toxic (Venom Series) Book Three Read online

  “What can we do?” asked Liam.

  “Find out as much as you can about Lucian. See if he has any contacts or friends in Europe who might be helping him.”

  “I’ll try but I don’t even know where to start,” he said. “Something tells me we don’t hang around in the same social circles, either.”

  “True, but you can check with other vampires. In fact, call the other guys in the band and see if they can help us. Maybe even one of them knows Lucian.”

  “What about me?” asked Melody. “What can I do to help?”

  “Check around the castle again. She was in the library last night, maybe she went back and I missed her.”

  “Okay,” she said, pushing her plate away. “I hope we’re just jumping to conclusions and she’s upstairs, somewhere, fiddling around.”

  “You and me both,” I replied, but something in my gut kept telling me otherwise.

  “Do you think he has her?” asked Liam, as Melody raced out of the room.

  “Honestly?” I sighed. “Yes.”

  I DON’T REMEMBER much after Lucian appeared at my bedroom door and literally, swept me off of my feet. Oddly enough, I allowed him to carry me out of the castle without a fight. Then, as we ascended into the air, he said something and I lost consciousness. It wasn’t until several hours later that I came out of my fugue and woke up in some kind of hospital room. An older man, in a white lab coat, was checking my blood pressure, while Lucian and Talia stood at the end of the bed, watching me.

  I looked around in confusion. “What’s going on?”

  Lucian stepped closer to me, his expression now somber. “Dear girl, you really don’t remember?”

  My eyes widened. “Remember what?”

  He looked at Talia and then back at me. “Faye Dunbar found out where you were staying. I rescued you in the nick of time.”

  “Rescued me? Where’s Melody, Slade, and the others?”

  “There were just too many of them. The Roamers. They stormed the castle and her brood killed your friends, I’m afraid. Aiden. Liam. Slade…”

  I gasped, staring at him in horror. They were all dead? “What?!”

  “It was a good thing that I reached you in time. If Faye would have gotten her hands on you....” He clucked his tongue. “You’d be gone, too.’

  My eyes filled with tears. I couldn’t believe that Slade and the others were gone. The grief hit me like a cement truck and I wanted to die myself. “What about Melody?” I squeaked.

  “She’s gone, too. I’m so sorry that I couldn’t save her. Believe me, I tried, but it was too late.”

  I began to cry, pulling my arm away from the old man. “No! This can’t be happening! How in the world did she find us?!”

  “She’s a very resourceful bitch,” he replied. “But, you’re safe with us now and I promise, we won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

  “The last people to say that to me were murdered,” I replied miserably through my tears.

  “Only because they misjudged Faye Dunbar’s obsession in finding you. I won’t make that mistake. Now, let Doctor Shephard check your vitals.”

  “What about Bradan and the other members of the band? Do they know what happened?” I asked, obeying him.

  “I’m not sure,” said Lucian, watching as Dr. Shephard began testing my blood pressure again.

  I looked over at Talia, who hadn’t been saying anything. When our eyes met, she gave me a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, Chelsey. We’re all going to take good care of you.”

  “Yes. Like I said, you’re safe here,” said Lucian. “Nothing will harm you.”

  “Where is here?” I asked, wiping the tears from my face with my fingers.

  “We’re in a private hospital in London,” said Lucian, walking over to the sink. He grabbed some tissues and then offered them to me. “Where you can recover fully.”

  “Recover? Recover from what?” I asked. I wasn’t hurt and the only pain I felt was grief.

  “You were bitten by one of the Roamers.”

  “What?” I gasped, staring at him in shock.

  He leaned over and touched my neck, his eyes burning into mine. “The fiend bit you right here. You must have escaped and fled to your bedroom. That’s what I’m guessing. It’s where I found you.”

  At first I was confused, but as his eyes held mine, everything seemed to make sense. I was bitten by one of Faye’s minions, but I’d managed to escape. Lucian had come to my rescue. “Yes,” I replied, touching my neck. “I fled… to my bedroom.”

  “Her blood pressure is stable,” said Dr. Shephard, removing the dark wrap from my arm.

  “Splendid,” said Lucian.

  The doctor walked over to the counter and I watched him prepare a syringe.

  “What’s that for?” I asked.

  “You need to sleep,” said Lucian, sitting down next to me on the bed. “You’ve been through a lot today.”

  “I just woke up,” I replied quickly. “I don’t want to go back to sleep.”

  “It’s for your own good,” said Lucian.

  “I don’t care. I need to try and find Bradan, Sean, and the others. See if they’re okay.”

  “We’re nowhere near Dublin and it’s far too dangerous anyway. You can’t go near that castle again. I’m sure they’re expecting that.”

  Feeling defeated, I sank back down on the bed. “Are you sure they’re all dead?” I asked, my heart aching at the thought of never being in Slade’s arms again. Never seeing that smile or the tenderness in his eyes. Then there was Melody. We’d gotten so close in the last few days. Now she was gone? All because of that hateful shape-shifter, Faye Dunbar. I despised her with every fiber of my being.

  “Yes. They’re gone,” said Lucian softly. “I’m so sorry, Chelsey.”

  I turned away and stared at the wall as Dr. Shephard injected me with whatever was in the shot. Sleep came quickly and so did the dream where I asked Lucian to make me a vampire, so that I could kill the beast who’d destroyed everything in my life that had mattered.

  WHEN AIDEN RETURNED with Torin and his three female guests, we still hadn’t found Chelsey.

  “Where’s Liam and Melody?” he asked, when I met them at the castle entrance.

  “Still searching for her,” I replied, frustrated. “Did you get a hold of Vanessa?”

  “She’s not answering her phone,” said Aiden. “She knows what’s going on.”

  I frowned. “Vanessa is not the woman I knew. That’s for sure.”

  “Don’t worry, Slade. We’ll find Chelsey. Dobs,” said Aiden, taking off his jacket. “Could you show Meredith, Megan, and Caitlyn to their rooms? I’m sure they’ve have jet lag and would like to rest.”

  “Of course,” he said. “Please, ladies, this way.”

  “Wait,” said Torin. He pulled Megan into his arms and kissed her.

  Aiden and I glanced at each other. I could tell that he was surprised to see his brother romantically involved. I wasn’t however. Megan and Meredith were not only beautiful, they were Lycan. The females gave off some kind of natural pheromone which made them irresistible to their species, and extremely attractive to Vampires. Megan’s daughter, Caitlyn, was also very lovely, but didn’t have yet the scent, which told me that she hadn’t reached maturity yet.

  “That son-of-a-bitch, Lucian Tepes, was here?” asked Torin, after the women were gone.

  “Yes,” said Aiden. He went over the details of the last couple of days, while Torin listened quietly.

  “Do you think he might use her for the experiments?” asked Torin.

  “That went through my mind as well,” replied Aiden. “But why take her when there are so many other females in New York City? Ones he could snatch right off of the streets.”

  “Maybe to be an asshole,” I said, wanting to murder Tepes. The thought of him using Chelsey as an egg donor for their crazy experiments had indeed also entered my mind several times. “And you know damn well that he wasn’t paying anyone to be
in those trials. With vampire persuasion, he wouldn’t need to. I don’t care what they said.”

  “I know,” said Aiden. “They weren’t fooling me with that bullshit, either.”

  “What do we do?” I asked, looking at the time on my cell phone. It was almost three o’clock. The more the hours ticked by, the farther away she could be. “We need to find her.”

  “I know. I doubt she’s in Dublin anymore,” said Aiden. “Hell, he probably has her on a flight back to New York as we speak. How long has she been missing for?”

  “Three or four hours,” I replied. “I don’t really know, to be honest.”

  “When was the last time you saw her?” asked Torin.

  “This morning. I left her chamber around ten.”

  Aiden didn’t look happy to hear that, but he didn’t ask me what I’d been doing in her room.

  “If I were you, I’d get your ass to the Dublin Airport and look for them,” said Aiden. “They’re probably headed back to the United States and using false names, if they haven’t already done so.”

  “He may have charmed some other passenger to give up their seats,” I added. “I’ll leave now.”

  “What if they took a private plane?” asked Torin.

  “I’m going to start making some phone calls and find out if he chartered anything,” replied Aiden. “I’ll contact Steve, too. See if he might know something.”

  “Call me if you find anything,” I said, heading toward the doorway. “I have my cell phone on me.”

  “You’ll be the first to know, Loverboy,” replied Aiden dryly.

  I stopped and turned around.

  “This is exactly why we shouldn’t invite mortals into our world. Because of the danger. But,” he sighed, “what’s done is done. The only thing we can do now is try and get her back safely.”

  I nodded. “I agree.”

  “Don’t sweat it, Kid,” said Torin. “We’ll find her. Especially now that I’m here. It’s what I do and I do it well.”

  “He’s right. Torin is the best at tracking. If anyone will find her, it’s him,” agreed Aiden.

  In my gut, I knew we’d find her, too. What worried me was the time in-between and what kind of horrors she’d be facing in Lucian Tepes’ custody.

  THE NEXT TIME I opened my eyes, I was alone, hungry, and confused. It took me a while to remember what had happened and when I did, I closed my eyes and grieved in silence, remembering my last few hours with Slade.

  When the tears finally subsided, I got out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom. As I washed my hands, I gazed at myself in the mirror, surprised at how my appearance had changed in the last few hours. My skin was pale and my cheekbones were more noticeable. I almost appeared… gaunt. Truth be told, I looked as if I hadn’t eaten in days and it made me wonder how long I’d actually been asleep. Then there were the tiny holes in my neck, from the Roamer. They were such small marks but burned when I touched them. They weren’t anything like the holes in my shoulder. I wondered if I might have caught some kind of infection from the horrible Roamer.

  My stomach growled and I decided to leave my room, in search of Lucian or Dr. Shephard. I had more questions about what had happened at the castle and I needed something to eat. The hunger inside of me was getting so intense that I could barely think straight.

  Not wanting to walk around in the hospital gown, I went in search of my clothes, but found only a white terry-cloth robe. I slipped it on, stepped out of my room, and wandered into the hallway. As I passed by some of the other hospital rooms, I noticed how deathly quiet they were. In fact, the entire floor was silent and void of movement. Then, when I reached the nurse’s station and saw that the computers were shut down, I began to realize that I was alone.

  “This is weird,” I thought, walking toward the stairwell, to check the other floors.

  “You’re awake,” said a voice, stopping me in my tracks.

  Talia.

  I turned around. “Hi. Where is Lucian and Dr. Shephard?”

  “They had to leave for a spell. Dr. Shephard is going to be gone for a few days, but Lucian will be back soon. Do you need anything?” she asked. “I can get it for you.”

  “Something to eat,” I answered, feeling a little uneasy in her presence, especially knowing that she’d had sex with Slade in the past. I felt so young and naïve next to her. “And if you could get me something to drink?”

  “Of course,” she replied. “You should go back to your room while I do that. Rest.”

  “Where is everyone?” I asked. “The other patients? The staff?”

  “There is nobody else, right now.”

  My eyes widened in surprise. “What do you mean? We’re the only people in this entire hospital?”

  “Actually, it’s not as big as it seems. It’s more of a clinic. Anyway, Dr. Shephard just recently acquired the place. It’s not running at the moment, but we had to bring you somewhere safe.”

  “So, it’s just us, right now?”

  “Yes. It’s better that way, though. Nobody will see you.”

  Her words were meant to reassure me but they made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. “I guess.”

  “What are you hungry for?” she asked, walking toward me.

  “Anything. I’m not picky.”

  Her eyebrow arched. “Anything?”

  I laughed nervously. “Well, nothing with blood.”

  “It’s an acquired taste,” she replied, smiling. “What about a sandwich or some soup?”

  I nodded. “Yes. They both sound great, to be honest.”

  “I’m sure they do. Why don’t you go back to your room? I’ll be back shortly and bring you your food.”

  “Thank you, Talia.”

  “Call me Vanessa.”

  I stared at her in shock. “Vanessa? What do you mean?”

  “It’s a long story. Anyway, I’ll be back shortly.”

  “Wait a second,” I said, taking a step toward her. “You’re Vanessa? Slade’s Vanessa?”

  “He told you about me?” she asked, looking surprised.

  “Yes. Some. I mean I know that he loved you. I don’t get it, if you’re alive… what happened to Talia?”

  “She’s dead.”

  I was more confused than ever. “Did Slade know that you were really Vanessa?”

  “Yes, he did.”

  This news made me angry. “He did? He actually knew that you were Vanessa when we were at the castle?”

  She looked amused. “He didn’t tell you?”

  “No, as a matter of fact, he did not,” I said sharply.

  “Was there something going on between you and Slade?”

  I nodded, my eyes filling with tears again. “Yes. I thought there was, at least. He told me that you’d died, a very long time ago. I can’t believe that he lied to me again.”

  “What exactly did he tell you about me, besides that I was dead?”

  “He said that he’d been in love with you and that Talia had deceived him into thinking she was actually you. Then, supposedly, you’d killed yourself and that it had… wrecked him.”

  Her eyes softened. “He actually told you that?”

  “Yes, but now I don’t know what to think since he’d obviously been lying to me.” I brushed the moisture away from my eyes. “Was there something still going on between the two of you?”

  She sighed. “No, and to be perfectly honest, he just found out himself that I was alive.”

  “Is that right? He did?”

  “Yesterday was the first time he’d learned of it, Chelsey. I made him promise not to say anything to anyone until I confessed everything to Aiden. Obviously, I never got the chance.”

  I relaxed. “I guess you didn’t,” I said, relieved to hear that Slade hadn’t withheld the truth for other selfish reasons.

  “Anyway, there is so much more to this story and maybe when I get back, I’ll tell you about it.”

  “I’d really like that.”

  She nodded. “N
ow, go back to your room and I’ll find you some food.”

  “Okay. Thank you, Vanessa. You’ve been very kind to me,” I replied.

  “You really loved him. Didn’t you?” she asked softly.

  “Yes I did. Did you?”

  “I did, a long time ago. Don’t worry, though. You’ll get over him,” she replied solemnly. “I did.”

  “I don’t want to get over him,” I said, feeling like I was going to cry again. The thought of him being gone was breaking my heart.

  “If you don’t let him go, you’ll never stop suffering,” she replied.

  I remembered him telling me about how horrible it had been to watch those he loved die before him.

  “What irony,” I mumbled.

  “What was that?” asked Vanessa.

  “He thought he’d live forever and was frightened of losing anyone close. Now he’s gone and I’m left to suffer.”

  She was about to say something, but then changed her mind.

  “What is it?” I asked as she let out a weary sigh.

  “Nothing. I’ll be back soon. Go back to your room and wait for me.”

  Nodding, I did what I was told.

  “SHE’S AWAKE AND she’s hungry,” I told Lucian over the disposable cell phone as I headed across the street to a local pub.

  “You’re not seriously leaving her alone to get her food?” he said, sounding angry.

  “What choice do I have?”

  “You could have ordered something to be delivered,” he snapped.

  “I’ve already left.”

  “If she escapes, it’s going to take that much longer to find a proper egg donor. You know that. We’ve already invested time in Chelsey. She only needs to be bitten one more time.”

  “I know. Lucian, don’t worry about her. She’s not going anywhere,” I told him. “She feels indebted to us now.”

  “I don’t know about indebted.”

  “Believe me, she does. Chelsey believes that everyone she’s ever cared about is dead. That she has nobody but us.”

  “She might try contacting the other members of Venom,” he replied.

  “I don’t think she would know how to go about doing that on her own. Anyway, she feels safe with us.”