Page 91 of Grayson’s Challenge

“It’s Mom’s blood,” Grayson assured him. “Delilah’s blood.”

A pained sound issued from his throat and Grayson set the bottle to his lips. “Drink it, Dad, please. Delilah loves you. She needs you. I need you.”

Finally, Samson took his first sip. Relief washed over Grayson, and he urged him on to drink more.

“That’s it, Dad. Drink it all, so I can take you back home. I love you, Dad.”

Samson’s eyelids lifted only for a brief moment, and their gazes connected, before he closed his eyes again, the effort too great in his weakened state.

“Mom can’t wait to see you,” Grayson said gently. “Now, drink up. And when we get home, you’ll drink from her. You’ll drink from Delilah.”

Now more greedily, Samson swallowed the liquid, the only blood that could heal and sustain him, until there was nothing left in the bottle. Grayson put the empty bottle aside, then looked to Cooper, who was feeding Cain bottles of human blood. Hamish stood at the entrance to the door, making sure that nobody would attack them in this vulnerable position.

“Grayson,” Samson said, his voice hoarse and barely audible.

Grayson pulled him closer and lowered his head. “I’m here, Dad. Everything will be all right now.”

Samson’s lips quivered as if he was trying to smile, but was too weak. “Son, I’m so proud of you.”

At his father’s praise, tears welled up in Grayson’s eyes, and he sniffled. “I love you so much, Dad.”

Grayson wasn’t sure that Samson had heard him, because his head rolled back. He was still weak, and his body needed time to heal, and sleep would help him.

He tapped his earpiece again. “Thomas, we need two stretchers to take Samson and Cain out to the vans.”

“Understood. I’ll send them in once all hostiles are dead or tied up. Situation update please,” Thomas replied.

A moment later, some crackling came through the earpiece. Then a voice. “Everybody’s dead. Except for the homeless men,” Zane reported.

“Did you kill Abel?” Grayson asked. “I said to leave him alive.”

“I would have, if I’d seen him,” Zane replied. “But I didn’t lay eyes on him, or the other two we identified, Rufus and Matt.”

“Anybody see Abel? Or Rufus and Matt?” Grayson asked.

One by one his team members came back with a negative.

“They weren’t here,” Wesley concluded. “And Charles and I placed a magical warding along the building once you were all inside. They wouldn’t have been able to break through it.”

“Fuck!” Grayson cursed. “Why weren’t they here?”

“Rats and sinking ships, you know,” Wes said. “They must have known we were coming and decided to split.”

“We have to find them. As long as Abel is out there, our families won’t be safe. He’ll try again.” He knew enough about Abel to know that he’d only be satisfied if he got his revenge. “Collect the cell phones of all the dead vampires. Maybe we can find something on them to tell us where Abel would run to hide. Sebastian, you, Ryder, and Yvette will remain here to heal the homeless men, and to wipe their memories and remove anything incriminating from this building.”

“Got it,” Sebastian replied, and Ryder and Yvette issued the same answer.

“Zane, you, Patrick, Cooper and I will take Samson and Cain back to our house. The rest of you, return to HQ and extract any information you can from the collected cell phones. Eddie, go through the traffic cams to see if you can catch when Abel, Rufus, and Matt left this building.”

“If they were ever in it,” Eddie added.

“Yeah, it’s possible Abel stayed away, knowing we’d find the place eventually.”

“He was here…” The faint voice came from behind him. Grayson looked over his shoulder and saw Cooper helping Cain sit up. He looked like death warmed over. “Abel… he was here… spoke to me…”

“When?”

Cain shook his head. “Don’t know… I was unconscious… in and out…” He lowered his eyelids.