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“Thanks.” She slid it on with another sigh before glancing back at Sage’s cabin.
My eyes unfocused, my thoughts wandering off on a trip of their own as I thought about the plan again.
The details we laid out were as close to perfect as they could be. Absolutely solid. We had everything we needed: vehicles, blood, weapons, and a group of people who were willing to fight. We were only missing the most important thing . . . the location. Unfortunately, none of us, not even the ex-Venom members staying here, knew where the Vampire Research Center was located.
We had been prepared for weeks, doing everything in our power to find information. The Winter Solstice party came and Drag didn’t want to go. He felt it wouldn’t be right to look for a mate while other people were missing theirs. Christmas and New Year’s had also come and gone, and now it was already April with no leads.
Dead. End.
As the night went on, Marcus grilled some food, and everyone joined us around the firepit. We had a blend of people in our group now. Vampires, wolven, and humans had banded together with one common goal: fighting for what’s right.
We had another common component I realized as I watched everyone take their seats. Hope. The group possessed a formidable strength because of it.
Even though I could see the pain in Vivi’s eyes, she still had hope that one day we would find her bondmate. She laughed at something Kimber said, showing her dimples before passing a bottle of whiskey to her.
A natural pink eyeliner lined the light skin around April’s eyes, and even though she’d been crying all night, hope to one day have a family filled her. She wiped away a runaway tear, and her husband Zeke wrapped a blanket around her shoulders, comforting her.
Lyric’s hope wasn’t a secret. She told me every day how much she missed Sage and hoped she would get better soon.
Though it may sound sentimental, our collective hope was for peace. We just wanted to be happy with the ones we loved.
The wood planks on Sage’s porch creaked when she finally stepped out of her cabin.
Her hope vanished several weeks ago. The strong, snarky, kind, yet stubborn as hell woman I once knew had been slowly fading away. She strolled past wearing the T-shirt and sweatpants she’d almost killed herself to steal from Luka’s house and headed to the edge of the woods without making eye contact.
Lyric shifted, looking down at the ground, and I squeezed her hand, letting her know I would always be there for her.
Gazing past my girlfriend, I locked eyes on Sage as she took her normal standing spot, once again closing herself off from the world.
The way she had given up hope pissed me off. She had become family to me, and that was the only reason I held my tongue for the longest time. But not anymore. Even though she had given up on life, and on Luka coming back, I’d be damned if I gave up on her.
I needed to make her understand that we’d find where they were being held, and she needed to get her head out of her ass and get ready for this mission. Even if it meant hurting her feelings and jeopardizing our friendship.
Marcus and Drag appeared with handfuls of wood, laying them close to the fire pit. Nighttime in New Mexico brought in an icy chill, even colder deep in the woods.
Being the alpha of a wolven pack, Drag owned the small camp we stayed at, but few people outside of his pack knew about his leadership status. Most of his pack members stayed four miles away at the main camp, filled with mated couples and children. Drag went back and forth constantly between the two, but slept here since he was unmated. That’s also why Kimber and a few other wolven stayed here. Camp Singleton, I liked to call it, though most of us were fucking somebody.
“We need to get a group together and head into town,” Drag said, getting my attention. “We have more people than ever and we’re running low on supplies.”
“I need to go into town too,” Peach added, strolling up with Marcus. “I still haven’t paid Eddie.”
“How much is he charging?” Marcus asked, perching himself on a wood log across from me.
Peach took the seat next to him, and my brows rose. She seemed to be growing to like him. “He said to throw him twenty, but it doesn’t seem like enough. I have fifty to go toward it.”
“It’s definitely not enough,” Ravage said. He was an older vampire, and Luka’s origin, which means he turned him. “I’ll add fifty to that, Peach.”
He held his cup out and Lynx filled it with whiskey. She was his tattoo apprentice, a vampire, and cool as shit.
“I think I’ve got a couple of twenties in my wallet,” Jimmy added, an ex-Venom member we obtained. Of course, I took a huge liking to him since he was a genius with computers. I’d been teaching him my knowledge on hacking. “I may be able to get money out of my bank, but I’m uncertain if Venom has frozen our accounts.”
Ravage chuckled, appearing amused. “We appreciate the gesture, but I think adding fifty thousand to the fifty Peach has will be enough.”
Jimmy’s brown eyes enlarged under the thick lenses of his glasses. “Fif . . . fifty thousand?”
“He deserves it. Do you know how long it took to burn thirty-six bodies?” Peach asked, causing Sage to suck in a gasp.
Fuck.
