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We stand in silence.

“Let’s go before this smell gets into my clothes. There’s nothing left here,” he says.

My shoulders sink. Lex doesn’t look at me again. He just turns and walks out, his guards following behind him. I stay in the sorting hall a moment longer and crouch in the center of the room. My fingers hover above the concrete. Nothing answers. No blood. No dead whisper. Just damp stone.

Waste of time.

I leave the warehouse with the smell clinging to my hair and the absence of my mother’s watch against my wrist. I get into the back of my BMW and close the door harder than necessary. Sava watches me in the mirror.

“Where now?” he asks.

CHAPTER 17

NIGHTRUSH

I don’t know where to go. I cannot go back to Henry and dig in his blood again. I’m not going anywhere near Alexa, that’s for sure. I have a pile of clues, and every single one leads nowhere. Besides, what motive would the Silver Witches even have? They don’t have beef with vampires. Not a real one. Not the kind worth kidnapping Marcus’s heir and dumping dead bodyguards by the tracks. I’m tired. Tired of looking for answers and finding only dead ends.

Maybe this is it. I paid Nyx Bank, but I still don’t have money for the Institute, not enough to fix that old wreck of a building before mold eats the walls and the roof collapses. I am a failure. Just like my father. I feel powerless. I want to cut myself off from it all. I don’t want to feel anything anymore. I tap my fingers nervously against the car door.

“Let’s go to Pulse,” I say.

Sava looks at me in the mirror. “I think they call it Fang now.”

I raise a brow. Sava, club expert? But he’s right. It used to be a vampire rave club, all hard electronic music and drugs, closed-in black walls. Then wolves took over the location, renamed it, probably pissed on every corner metaphorically or otherwise, and made it theirs.

“Same place,” I say. “Different monsters.”

As we leave the docks, a black Mercedes slips into traffic behind us. Probably Lex’s people. By the time we reach Fang, the half-moon shines brightly, and the club glows neon at the end of the block. Sava parks but doesn’t unlock the doors immediately.

“Not a good idea, girl,” he says.

“Do you see something?”

“Not exactly.” His eyes stay on the club. “Just a bad vibe.”

“Since when do you know what a vibe is?”

He doesn’t answer.

I grab my bag. “I just want to have fun. Keep your phone close if you’re so worried.”

When I reach the entrance, I don’t recognize anyone at the door but that makes sense. The old bouncer was a vampire, and the wolves probably cleared out everyone loyal to the previous owners. There are a lot of people outside, and I hate standing in lines.

A voice cuts in behind me.

“Lara? You here?”

Piro pulls up on his bike with a few of his men, all leather and wolf smiles. I don’t see the fucked up one.

“Hi,” I say. “I just got here.”

“I didn’t know you came here.”

“I used to. Different owner.”

“Trust me.” He flashes that big, reckless smile. “It’s better now.”

He takes my hand and walks me straight inside.