Chapter 44 CHAPTER 44
CAEL'S POV
This is a dead end.
Just like the other trail I'd followed like a wolf hunter, sniffing scents that always ended up nowhere.
I called his number again, something that had become a routine now and it didn't ring.
Before this whole madness, Marcus always made a point of bragging that his phone is always charged unlike mine that's almost always dead.
Now he was unreachable.
Again and again, I try as I head back to the car I'd driven here.
Every time I'd used vampire speed, I always felt like I missed something and then had to use the car to try again so I gave up on that style.
My legs were feeling cranky and my arms hurt from driving Nashville to every town in Tennessee.
I've called so many contacts that at this point, once I call someone, their first words are, "We've not seen, Blade."
No one knows where he is, no one remembers when they last saw him, it's as though I'd imagined the last three hundred years of our friendship.
It didn't feel like people's minds were wiped, but it was like their connection with him was deleted.
As if such a thing were possible.
But it's the only thing that made sense.
I've been on this road for a week and I was going crazy.
With fear and with anticipation.
Fabian wasn't picking up my call either and I don't know if it's because he still hasn't figured out how to use the phone I gave him before leaving or if something had happened to him.
Right now, I am driving towards the last location Lord Turan and his friends were seen.
He's been my primary suspect right from the beginning but I didn't want to go there because I had a vendetta against him. It felt like I was putting my vengeance before my friend and I couldn't do that.
He deserves better than my emotional crash-outs.
But I've exhausted all options which is a lot coming from me.
I've always been able to find anyone I wanted, but then Marcus always helped so it stung that now that he's missing, I can't do my job.
How low I've fallen.
Can't even fulfil any mission anymore.
First the girl and now Marcus.
It took me about three hours to find his nest.
The last time, they'd jumped me with poison, but all through the week, I'd been pumping myself full of it and getting my system used to it.
They were like lambs brought to slaughter now.
But questions first.
Marcus first.
Turan is an ancient Vampire so he knew how to build a nest, hidden from view if you didn't know what you were looking for.
In fact, even if you die, you might still not know where the exact entrance was.
There were fifteen and one wrong pull will alert them and they will take the tunnel underneath and flee.
But I've been doing this for centuries now.
Every thread in the nest was overused.
Well, except one.
Without wasting time, I pulled and the spider web appeared.
It wasn't as slim as actual spider webs but it was as complicated.
Thick vampire made wires covered the entrance.
It was by the road too, so I probably looked like a madman standing here and pointing at thin air and grass.
But the entire thing began unravelling when I put my special sword through it.
A large hole leading into the forest appeared and as I slid in on my back, I heard their panic, everyone scampering to the underground tunnel.
It was at least a good minute before they got to it though, enough time for me to catch who I was looking for.
"Don't bother running, Turan. You owe me your life," I said as I jumped down.
They'd done a good job of making the place livable.
But it was just proof that my brother and I had done a lot for our people.
Before now, we all lived like this, like rats, huddled underground, cold and scared of the humans and wolves discovering us.
Powerful as we were, stakes were very powerful.
Now, they all lived among humans, up there, living affluently and demanding the throne that gave them the peace and comfort they didn't have before.
Ingrates.
He was about to jump in after his people when I snagged him from the air and pulled him back.
"You always doubt my abilities, Turan. I don't like that," I grunted as I dragged his screaming form back, trapping the rest of them in.
"I'm sorry, please spare me, I won't do it again. Please Blade, I beg of you!"
Words like this always irritated me.
If you see me, with this sword behind me, you should be begging death to take you, not me.
"I have a trade to make with you," I said instead and his irritating tears stopped.
"What is it? Anything, I'll do anything!"
"Where is Marcus?"
He looked genuinely confused for a second and I cursed.
The bastard doesn't know.
"I saw him! I think, erm, he's..."
I tuned out his rambling and looked at his friends who were stuck in the nest, unable to escape now.
"Does any of you have any useful information?"
They looked at Turan who had stopped rambling.
My sword came loose and I sliced him in two, quickly.
"You have no master anymore, now give me answers."
"Four days ago!" A girl, newly turned with violet eyes exclaimed.
One of the older ones tried hushing her.
I sped in, grabbed him and came back to the entrance and gave him the same treatment as Turan.
Their ashes mixed together.
"You were saying something?"
"I was sent to buy blood up North to avoid being caught. He was there. He was wearing a hoodie but I remember everyone whispering about the Blade's right hand. He quickly left after."
"And you have no idea where he went afterwards?"
"No, he was three lines ahead of me."
"I'll spare your lives. All of you. On one condition?"
"Anything master," a man nearly as old as Turan replied for them.
"Find Marcus for me. Go around the entire planet if you have to, rouse every vampire nest, palace, empire. Every scent of our kind. I want reports every week. You hear me?"
They all nodded.
"Except you," I pointed at the girl, knowing they'd kill her right after I leave. "You're coming with me."
I left the nest, no longer scared that he might be dead.
Now I was confused.
What could have made my best friend run from a mission that would save our claim on the crown?