Bloodlust - Helen Harper Page 0,12

“What really happened?”

“I told you,” I said, exasperated, “I walked into a door.”

He leaned in towards me until I could feel his breath hot upon my cheek. My chest tightened. “Who’s lying now?” he whispered.

Just then there was a crash from out in the corridor. Both Corrigan and I tensed immediately and my hands reached back for my daggers. He tilted his head up, nostrils flaring, then took hold of my arms to stop them in midair. An expression of irritation flickered across his eyes, and a nervous looking face peered round the gap in the door.

“Dude! Sheesh! What happened here? And what the bejesus happened to your face?” He sent an accusatory look in the Lord Alpha’s direction.

“It’s alright, Alex,” I said, pulling away from Corrigan, and trying to ignore the burning imprint his hands left on my skin. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Are you sure? Because, man, it looks like a hurricane tore through this place.” He rubbed at his cheek worriedly. “Was it that Endor dude? Was he here? Did he take Wold?”

I started. “What? No, Wold’s here, she’s just…”

I turned around to the chair where the Batibat had been sitting. It was empty. Fucking hell. Had I really been so engrossed in Corrigan that I’d not noticed a three ton naked woman get up and leave? A window towards the back of the room gaped open, as evidence of my own idiot culpability.

I swivelled back to Corrigan. “Didn’t you see her get up and go?”

He growled at me, clearly pissed off. “Didn’t you?”

I glared. “You were the one facing in her fucking direction!”

Alex held up his hands, palms facing outwards. “Whoa, should I go out and come back in again?”

“Set up a Divination spell, Alex,” I snapped, looking away from the Brethren Lord in self-directed disgust.

He nodded, and half closed his eyes, starting to chant. A snake of blue inveniora light curled up from his hands and etched its way through the clammy air of the room. I moved out of its path as it veered over to the empty chair where it hovered for a second before screwing upwards and out of the window. Without pausing further, I followed it, leaping out of the window and landing with a heavy clatter on the ground three feet below. Corrigan, right at my heels, arched out and hit the ground while barely bending his knees. Stupid cat reflexes. Then the pair of us took off in pursuit.

Alex’s blue tracking spell made a beeline for the end of the narrow street. Keeping up with the front of the trail, we followed it down.

“It’s heading for the main street,” I said, stating the obvious. “She can’t go there. A huge naked female Batibat is hardly going to go unnoticed at three o’clock in the freaking afternoon.”

Corrigan grunted his assent. As soon as we reached the sunlight of the crossroads that stretched back into the less shadowy manifestation of London, however, the blue inveniora arced upwards into the air and disappeared into one of the leafy green trees that edged the pavement. The light hung there for a second before it too vanished.

“Fuck.” I slammed my hand into the trunk of the tree, ignoring the answering shot of pain that I received back. “We’ll never catch her now.”

Corrigan’s eyes followed the street down, glancing from tree to tree. “She could jump from one to the other and we’ll never know where she is,” he agreed.

“This is your bloody shifters’ fault.”

“They might have a lot to answer for,” he growled, “but they’re not the ones who allowed her to disappear in front of their eyes.”

I had no answer for that. My shoulders sagged in defeat.

“Screw this,” I said. “I’m going to get Alex and go home.”

“Corr? Is everything okay?”

I stiffened, and glanced over at the owner of the voice. A pretty blonde was standing a few feet away, her perfectly manicured eyebrows raised in Corrigan’s direction. I instantly hated her.

“Everything’s fine.” He didn’t even look at me, but instead held out his arm for her. She took it and he smiled down at her. “Come on. Let’s go and get that late lunch that I promised you.”

Without so much as another glance, the pair of them walked off. I watched them go, mouth hanging open. Well, it didn’t take him fucking long to get over me, I thought, brimming with unjust ire. “In the sodding vicinity, indeed,” I muttered to myself. “In the sodding vicinity wining and dining so that he