Page 71 of His Eternal Temptation

She led the way out of the office, Evangeline, Jack, and Kai close behind. Lane stood, and with Rowan at his side, he followed them out of the building.

A black SUV was parked in the alleyway. Kai climbed into the driver’s seat, and Cecile into the front passenger. Everyone else filed in, and Kai pulled out.

“I’ve sent the location to the rest of the coven,” Cecile announced.

“Good. We’ll aim to question him, but killing him is better than losing him,” Rowan said. “If he has an accomplice, treat them as hostile.”

“Think he’ll have captured any more humans to turn?” Jack asked.

“It’s possible. We’ll need to get anyone mid-transformation safely to Arcadia.”

Lane hoped like hell this vampire hadn’t gotten his hands on another victim. What if they couldn’t help them the way they had with Caden? Even if they could, Caden wasn’t exactly okay.

Kai navigated to the nearest bridge allowing traffic to cross the river. Lane had never spent much time south of the main city, and the farther they went, the more industrial it became.

Rowan was an unreadable wall beside him. All the vampires were. It was as if every single one of them had gone into kill mode and were no longer bothering to act human. It was a little unnerving.

Speed and strength made them far more lethal than Lane, even with his magic. They were all experienced fighters, he supposed, so they must be used to this. Lane soaked up as much of their confidence as he could.

He took a moment to cast a hypnosis-blocking spell over himself. It should give him enough time to incapacitate any vampire who tried to enthrall him, but the protection wouldn’t last forever.

“Ready?” Rowan asked in his ear.

“As I can be. I’ll check for protective spells when we arrive, in case he’s hired a witch.”

Rowan nodded, a furrow creasing his otherwise smooth brow.

“What’s up?”

“I’m not sure. Cris hasn’t invaded my mind since the curse broke, but I keep getting flashes of him.”

“Flashes?” Could the curse have given Rowan permanent mental scars?

Cecile swung around in her seat. “What are you talking about?”

Rowan glanced around at them all, giving Lane the impression he wanted to brush this off. He pressed their hands together. “As the curse wore me down, old memories surfaced. It was almost as if Cris were lurking nearby, intruding on my mind. I’d hear him as if he were in the room with me. It was part delusion, part resurfaced trauma. I didn’t expect the effects to linger.”

There was a beat of silence before Cecile said, “Mental wounds take time to heal. Far more slowly than our bodies.”

Rowan hummed in grudging agreement.

The curse had undoubtedly traumatized him with all it had triggered. Cecile was right, healing would take time, and lingering effects weren’t necessarily permanent. Once this was over, Lane would see how Rowan wanted to address it. He had too much cooped up inside his head to ignore it forever.

“The warehouse is coming up.” Kai caught Lane’s eye in the rearview mirror. “Scan for spells, and I’ll circle around.”

Lane wouldn’t have been surprised if the building were abandoned before the vampire moved in. It looked rough, with most windows boarded up. He scrambled to concentrate and scanned for magic. “There’s something there.” He couldn’t immediately tell what the spell did.

“Any protections?” Rowan asked.

“I don’t think so. It’s not a ward.”

Kai pulled around the corner and parked in a loading zone along the side of the warehouse.

Rowan placed a hand on Lane’s knee. “Do you need to be closer to get a better look at the spell?”

“No. I can sense it fine. It’s not anything we need to break through to get in. It’s a spell blocking…sound.” How odd.

“If he’s holding victims inside, he wouldn’t want anyone to hear them,” Cecile suggested.