A deep seeded primal feeling rooted his feet to the ground and blurred his vision. If his heart still beat it would be beating a thousand times a minute. The fear inside him threatened to overthrow all reason.
It had been one of Alessandro’s. The thought was the only one that made sense, the only one that fit. It would also account for his mate’s complete lack of memory. He may be one of the strongest in his House in Domination, but the skill was one that all of House Dukart shared. His lessons may have weakened his mate, thus making her more susceptible to it? Someone now knew what he had worked tirelessly to keep hidden from Alessandro and they had probably made Natalia help them to understand exactly what it had all meant.
He hadn’t told her anything of any real consequence, but the woman was his mate and she was smart and resourceful in her own right. Under the influence of Domination, she would have told them everything that they wanted to know.
He slowly stood up and walked out of the office, past Natalia, and sat in his deep lounge chair. His eyes were glassy and unfocused, looking at his extensive bar and the multicolored bottles displayed there.
If Alessandro knew what he had been doing, then he only had one option left to him. He had to find the Shape shifters and kill them, kill them all, and gain the favor and support of the other two Houses in the city. That might be the only thing that would save him and keep him alive. But nothing was ready yet.
He had to force his head to turn, his neck protesting like a rusted hinge, so he could look at the clock. Four thirty, it was too late to go to the lab and prod Trevor again. He had chosen him for his brilliance and his ambition. He could always count on those with ambition to serve themselves first. This project would give him everything that he coveted, to include world renown and prestige. If there was a way Trevor Swaan would not fail.
He still had to find the Shape shifters, where they lived had eluded him for decades. Now his time was up and the necessity of finding them pressed down on his shoulders, like Atlas’s globe.
He could see Natalia out of the corner of his eye holding a glass filled with red liquid. He stood up unsteadily and took the glass from her. He drained it quickly. “Get me more, Natalia. I need more.” Natalia ran to prepare more of the life preserving blood for him.
He walked to the bar and grabbed the phone he kept plugged in there. He thumbed through his contacts and pressed down when the right name came up.
“Yeah?” came the short, groggy sleep encrusted response.
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“Mark, have you done nothing?” Kenneth asked tightly.
“Sir?” there was rustling and a commotion like moving sheets, and the phone being dropped and quickly picked up again. “Oh shit…Sir, I didn’t know this was you…”
“Don’t apologize you moron, just tell me what you have done about our problem,” Kenneth demanded.
The phone was silent for a few moments, “Sir, we haven’t found anything. I tried to explain the last time you were here; I have limited resources and we have other pressing concerns from the...”
“More pressing concerns?” Kenneth hissed. “Now you listen to me, every month we seem to be killing less of those monsters than the month before. You have yet to find where William may have disappeared to. And your only answer to me is, ‘we have other pressing concerns’!”
“Sir, the LAPD is stretched thin as it is.” The voice was a little pinched in consternation, “I have kept this city safe from those monsters as best I can. But you can’t expect me to use one of our very few helicopters every day to search for something that may be thousands of miles away. Los Angeles would never allow that kind of wastage and I’d lose my job.”
Kenneth forced himself to breathe and pause a moment. He was still shaken from what he found in his office and the implications of that. But he couldn’t afford to be seen as irrational or weak to anyone, especially those that were on his payroll.
“The only… let me say that again so that you will be sure to understand, Mark. The only pressing concern you have is to make yourself worth all that money I pay you. I don’t pay for people’s excuses or failures. You’ve had ample time to do this. Find them Mark, now.” He said quietly. He thumbed off his phone and pressed it down on the counter.
That had been pointless, he knew. There was no way that Mark or anyone else could find where the Shape shifters were. In all the time he had had he hadn’t been able to find them either. He scrubbed his face with his hands.
Natalia came in shortly thereafter with another glass filled with red liquid. He took it and again drank it down quickly. He shoved the empty glass back at her, “I need more.” He walked away from the bar and stood in the center of the room, looking skyward.
He stood there, waiting. What was he waiting for? Soon, tonight? Tomorrow? Alessandro would either summon him, or come for him himself. He could try to hide, but that would mean banishment and forever looking over his shoulder. The only way back, he knew, was forward.
Setting his jaw, he went straight to the small refrigerator behind the bar. He grabbed four bags of blood and drank them down, one by one. The blood was cold and disgusting but it was nourishment that he needed. The blood would sustain him and give him strength. He wasn’t just going to sit around and wait to be taken like a lamb to slaughter. He would meet this head on just as he had done with all his trials in life.
He left the empty bags on the bar top. Natalia came in with another glass filled. He took it and forced himself to gulp it down. He shoved the glass back into her hands and stalked out the front door. He summoned Michael and soon he was being driven back to the Zoo.
He got out of the car at his destination and looked toward the east. The sky was already beginning to lighten, the sun would rise soon. He was safe, for now. But the sun would not protect him forever. The blood he had drunk was coursing through him, strengthening him for what must be done. Setting his shoulders he hurried inside the Zoo and let the door close noiselessly behind him.