Page 43 of Signed in Blood

“I’m not putting down this phone until we go back in and make sure we check every freaking corner,” I tell her sternly and she laughs at me.

“You’re literally crazy but I love you,” Sabrina says as we make our way back into the barely furnished condo.

“Whatever. I’m not letting you get killed…and I love you too,” I tell her and she smiles at me before asking which corner I want to start with.

“I don’t care but we’re not splitting up,” I tell her and she laughs. A deep laugh that’s genuine and so her. It forces me to let out a laugh as well.

“Okay, boss,” she tells me and leads the way.

Chapter Nineteen

Lucifer

* * *

I hadn’t suspected she’d be a problem. Not like this.

My little piece didn’t come to me. She didn’t think of me in the least. She crawled her way to a rooftop for the sole purpose of seeing her.

I move about the dorm, weighing my jealousy, my anger, my contempt for someone else holding space in Lilith’s heart. I haven’t felt emotions like these in so long. They stop me in my tracks, Lilith’s happiness means so much to me, but I need to be the one to grant her that.

She is mine and I will not lose her.

Sabrina sleeps soundly although I know it’s because of the sleeping pills. I pick up the bottle on her nightstand and then pick up a Ziploc bag of pills next to it. Xanax and something else. She needs them now. She’s barely alive, her grief has destroyed what used to be…well what made Sabrina her.

I blend into the darkness as I look around her bedroom. Clothes are dumped in piles, and the trashcan overflows with used tissues and empty tissue boxes. Scrap books lay open on the walnut desk that’s standard in a dorm room.

I turn the pages of one seeing the two of them, Sabrina and Lilith over the years, since they were only children. Stacks and stacks of photographs are all she has left.

Shutting the book, I turn to look at her sleeping form. Her grief outweighs rage, but it’s only because she doesn’t know what happened.

It’s apparent that Sabrina’s not been handling the loss of Lilith well.

A paper catches my eye on the desk chair. A police report for a missing person. Under that, there’s a stack of flyers for a missing woman. I pull out the black-and-white image and stare at it.

The beautiful smile Lilith used to wear forces one of my own to my face. I’ve seen it once since she’s been with me. What a treasure it is. She truly is stunning. In life and in death. An open notebook partially hidden by the flyers proves to be a diary. Black pen scribbles over the pages, detailing as much as Sabrina can remember.

It’s almost incoherent and the scribbles barely deciphered.

She remembers the concert and wanting to meet up with the members of the band. And then it’s hazy. The drug concoction Warren used will do that to the memory. There’s no way she remembers much past the first half of the band playing.

She wrote more, and it’s more legible although not helpful.

* * *

No one will listen to me! No one is doing anything!

Come home Lilith! Please! Come home!

* * *

Her pleas in pen will go unheard.

A small noise of agony slips through Sabrina’s lips and the pain is evident. The comforter rustles as she stirs. Putting down the diary, I stalk toward her and hold my hand over her face.

She dreams of that night, but this time it’s a nightmare. The last night she saw her.

* * *