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Chapter 4
Viktor
I wasn’t handling Delilah’s disappearance well. I felt as if I were losing my mind more and more the longer she was away. I knew that there would be another bloodbath, like when I was first turned if I didn’t pull myself together. I couldn’t let that happen again. I’d been able to cover up my involvement and kept that secret hidden all these years. I couldn’t go through that again. I needed to find Delilah. That was the only way I would genuinely regain control.
Eli had been playing peacekeeper for the past few days. I had no idea how he managed it. Our roles would have been reversed in the past, with me trying to reign him in. There had been so many times in our human days when he’d gone entirely psycho to protect his family, and I had been the one to clean up the mess. I wondered if he understood me better since taking on my usual job in our relationship.
I wanted to rip him in half when he stopped me from killing that guy at the deli. I needed answers. I knew that the only way to make people talk to us was to scare them into it. If I had killed that guy, someone else would have told us what we’d wanted to know. Instead, Eli knocked me out and dragged me back to his office.
Our next lead had us going to the East side of the city. I wasn’t convinced that we would find anything useful in Phantom territory, but I went along. What else was I going to do? I refused to sit around and wait to find out who had Delilah.
While Eli drove, I contacted the contractor to check on his progress with Midnight. I needed to make sure the rebuild was on schedule. We'd been set for the grand opening just before the bombing. After, the entire building had to be torn down and completely rebuilt. I trusted Mike to keep his crew on task, but I wanted an update.
Before I could dial Mike's number, my phone rang. "Jane? Is something wrong?" I hoped that Jones' replacement had good news. It wasn’t likely, but I had her assemble a team to comb my part of town, looking for clues about Delilah’s disappearance.
“Mr. Maxwell, we haven’t found any sign of her yet,” she began. I didn’t get a chance to ask why she’d called when she continued speaking. “I found something down by the docks, though. I thought I’d run it by you and see what you want to do about it.”
“What is it?” I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I really didn’t care. Without Delilah, nothing else mattered.
“We found a portable Powder operation, Sir. It was abandoned, but we ran samples anyway to ensure we knew what we were dealing with. The Powder is poisoned. If it gets distributed, we’ll have a lot of dead vamps on our hands.” She seemed concerned, and I knew I should probably do something about it.
“Let me discuss it with my partner, and I’ll get back to you. If you find anything else, call me immediately.” I disconnected the phone and stared out the car window. Why should I care if a bunch of addict vamps died because of their drug of choice? Well, if they were citizens of my zone, I should care. At the moment, I didn’t. I stared out the window, ignoring Eli’s attempts to get me to talk. I saw a girl with long dark curls turn a corner. “Eli! Turn here. I just saw her walking down 5th!”
“What? Are you sure?” He asked but turned to follow my directions anyway. “I don’t see her. Which way?” We had sped down the empty half of the street, then Eli slammed on the breaks to crawl past the crowd.
“I don’t see her now.” I punched the dash. Was I hallucinating again? Would this be like when I swore I saw Delilah destroying my home at the cabin? Of course, it wasn’t her. This probably wasn’t either. I felt my sanity slip away a little more. I couldn’t tell Eli that I had imagined it. He would lock me up, and I’d never find her.
“It’s okay, Vik. We’ll keep looking. What was that call about?” Leave it to Eli to change the subject to calm me down.
“Jane said something about poisoned Powder being manufactured at the docks. If it gets out, a lot of vampires will die.” I couldn’t believe my tone. I had made the statement so matter-of-factly as if it didn’t matter that people were in danger.
Eli stopped the car and pulled out his phone. I didn’t have to ask if he was sending an email to Scott with Jane’s contact info. He would have them coordinate their efforts and assign a team to deal with the Powder issue. At this point, I felt like Eli was running my corporation as well as his own. The longer we sat there, the more guilt ate at my insides. “We need to find her. We aren’t doing enough. There has to be something we’re missing.”
“Vik, we’re doing everything we can. People have to rest. You can’t expect everyone to go for this many days straight without a break. It’s not healthy.” Eli tried to calm me down again, but I wasn’t interested.
“If you’re not worried about her, then maybe I should do this on my own.” It wasn’t a fair statement, but I didn’t care. I was pissed enough at myself to take it out on Eli or anyone else who tried to get in my way.
Eli growled at me, and I knew I had hit a nerve. He leaned toward me and grabbed my shirt, pulling me closer until our faces were inches apart. “Don’t you ever tell me that I don’t care about Delilah or that I’m not worried about her. She’s all I ever think about. You should know that better than anyone. I’m not going to defend myself to you. We’re going back to the office to regroup. If you’re not interested in doing anything helpful, you can get out and walk home.”
I stared at him in disbelief. I knew that he cared for Delilah as much as I did. And I knew that he was doing his best to find her. I was so mad at myself for everything that I didn’t care who else I hurt. It was as if I needed someone else to hurt as badly as I did. I could see now that I had accomplished it with Eli. I wasn’t sure if I should go with him or be alone for a while. It didn’t seem like we were any closer to finding Delilah either way.
He didn’t wait for my decision, tearing through the streets toward Strain Industries’ main office building. I hated to admit that Eli was right. We needed a break. I couldn’t tell him that I finally understood what he meant. I’d always had trouble admitting when I was wrong. Instead, I waited for him to stop the car at his office.
“You go ahead and take a break. I’m going back to Maxwell Industries to run down some leads on my own. I’ll let you know if I find anything.” I got out of the car and headed toward my own before he could respond. I knew it wasn’t fair, but I couldn’t admit that I needed some alone time. I was terrified that I would lose control if I let myself dwell on Delilah being gone without doing something about it.
I headed back to my office, making sure to turn down the street where I thought I had seen Delilah earlier. I crawled down that stretch of road three times before giving up. Once I was back at my office, I locked myself in and collapsed on my couch.
I’d been so exhausted that I passed out as soon as my head hit. Sleep was fitful, though, as I was plagued by nightmares of Delilah being killed. I walked into the deli in time to see Jones pull the trigger and shoot her in my dreams. I tried to save her, but no one could see or hear me. I dropped to my knees and picked up her limp body. Why wasn’t anyone trying to help? I could only hold her as she bled out on the floor. I knew it was a dream because her body hadn’t been there when Eli and I arrived. But my heart shattered as I watched my love die.
I woke with a start, sitting up on the couch. The nightmare dazed me, and I stared blankly around the room, looking for her. I shook the haze from my vision, forcing myself to push the dream away. I knew that what I had seen wasn’t how she ended. She was out there somewhere. I could feel her. I had to find her.
I couldn’t do it alone. I needed Eli’s help, which meant I had to apologize. Delilah had brought us back together just for me to push him away again the moment there was trouble. I hoped she wouldn’t be too disappointed in me. I dialed the phone with a heavy heart.
“Eli? We should talk.”
Twenty minutes later, he was standing on my doorstep. I took a good look at him as I opened the door. My old friend had bags under his eyes and was paler than I had ever seen him. I knew that part of his stress was my fault. Like when Kat died, I blamed him instead of seeing my involvement in the situation. I pulled him into my arms and hugged Eli tightly, letting the tears I had been holding back fall freely. If we were going to save our girl, we needed to work together and trust each other. I’m not sure exactly when I decided that Delilah truly needed us both, but I knew that I would no longer try to change her mind about Eli. If we could get her back, that is.
If she was gone, I knew that Eli and I would burn down the city to make sure the people Jones was working with paid for it. We had to figure out who they were and what they wanted. Then we’d find her or get answers. Either way, this would be over.
