Lex sat cross-legged on the couch, totally engrossed in Brad Pitt wielding a sword in Troy. The ringing phone, which lay all but forgotten on the couch next to her, was a harsh interruption of the movie. She answered the cordless, expecting it to be Allie again warning her she’d better stay in or else. Lex wasn’t brave enough to ask what the “or else”
was.
“For the thousandth time, I promise not to go anywhere.”
“Lexine?”
Obviously it wasn’t her sister on the other end. “Who’s this?” She didn’t immediately recognize the deep male voice on the other end.
“It’s Sebastian.”
“Oh, hey!” she said excitedly. “What’s up?” She paused the movie.
God forbid she missed a second of gorgeous guys running around in mini skirts and brandishing swords.
“Is Allie home?”
“No, why? She told me she was going to see you after she got out of her meeting.”
“I know.” His tone had a sick feeling building in Lex’s stomach. “Have you spoken to her at all since she left?”
Lex glanced at the clock on the DVD player. Eleven already, the meeting wouldn’t have gone on for six hours. Not even Josh and Nick could run on at the mouth for that long. And man, did those two love to talk.
Lex jumped off the couch, grabbed the universal remote from the coffee table and turned off the TV and DVD player. Panic tightened like a fist around her heart. “No. She hasn’t called here. What’s going on,
Sebastian?”
“I need you to listen to me very closely, Lex.” Though his tone was steady and clam, Lex felt his unease as if it was a living thing that came through the phone to grab at her soul. “I need you to lock every door and window in the house and wait for Constantine. Do not open the door to anyone but him. Do you understand?”
She nodded, even though she knew he couldn’t see her. “I understand. Sebastian?”
“What is it?”
Lex swallowed the lump that lodged in her throat. “Is my sister okay?”
She expected a quick reassurance, what she got was a dose of brutal truth instead. “I don’t know.”
She admired his honesty even though she hated his answer. “Find her, Sebastian. Please.”
He didn’t even hesitate in the slightest. “I will. Don’t you doubt that for a moment.”
For now, his assurance would have to be enough.
Lex hung up the phone before running around the house locking the windows and doors. She even shut off all the lights except for the small lamp on the table beside the couch. Her mouth ran dry and her gut twisted painfully at the thought of anything happening to her sister.
Allie was all she had left, she couldn’t lose her sister too.
She couldn’t go through that again. Couldn’t bury another person she loved.
With shaking hands, she grabbed the cordless phone and crouched on the floor, pressing her back against the couch. She drew up her knees and folded her arms across them. Resting her chin on her arms, Lex closed her eyes and did the only thing she could. She prayed.
In the name of the father And of the son
And of the Holy Ghost
Please God, protect my sister. Please don’t take her from me too. Amen.
Lex chanted her short prayer over and over in her head as she wept
silent tears of worry, waiting for Constantine to come for her.
* * *
At Randall Manor, Constantine stood in the doorway of the kitchen.
Arms folding over his chest, feet braced apart, he already knew what Sage had to say.
Sebastian cursed as he slammed the phone down on the table. “She’s not home.”
Raphael ended the call to Tristan. “Luc isn’t at Seacrest.”
“Bloody hell.” Sebastian’s frustration was evident in his tone.
Allie and Lucian were gone and no matter how hard he tried, Constantine couldn’t sense who took them or where they were. His goddamn brain hurt from the effort of reaching out with his mind to locate them. All that came back to him was nothingness—never a good thing.
As soon as Constantine woke for the night, the overwhelming absence of Lucian hit him like a physical blow to the mind. He felt the loss of his brother as keenly as if a piece of his own body had been torn away.
He immediately woke Sebastian and Raphael. The moment they gained consciousness they too felt Lucian’s absence.
None of them ever spent a night away from the safety of their sanctuary. Not in seven centuries. For Luc to have done so now didn’t bode well for what might have gone down last night.
This was the first time since Constantine became a vampire that he couldn’t feel the presence of one of his fellow Templars. Needless to say the feeling was on par with what it felt like for him to have his soul ripped out of his body. He may be a miserable son of a bitch on his best day, but after hundreds years of having those bastards in his head, it was a hell of a thing now to have one of his blood-brothers gone.
At first they assumed Lucian’s sudden disappearance was the work of the Obyri, fellow cursed Templars who couldn’t give a shit less about
redemption. They rejected that idea almost as soon as they thought it. If those fuckers managed to get to Luc, Constantine would have known it immediately. He would have felt their presence the second they passed into the area.
That left them to assume it was renegades who took Lucian and Allie.
It forced their hand, pushing them to declare open war on the inferior vampires. Once it was done, such an order couldn’t—nor wouldn’t—be undone. Shit was going to go down badly and would bring too much attention to their existence. Tristan might even be forced to leave Damascus, something damned dangerous for all the Templars, since this was where the relic the Guardian protected needed to be.
“I want blood for this.” Raphael’s incensed declaration vibrated through Constantine. Rogue’s fury caused his own to rise to a seriously dangerous level.
“You’ll get your blood,” Sebastian promised with ominous intent.
The only time Constantine ever saw the promise of death light Sebastian’s eyes was right before they charged into battle, when Sage, always the logical one, transformed. The cool facade of civility was stripped away and in its place was the fierce warrior who lay beneath it.
Constantine also felt his fear.
The others might believe Sebastian had loved Selena, but Constantine knew the truth. Sebastian couldn’t have loved her. How could he, when the woman was nothing more than shadows? Sage stayed by her, watching over her, protecting her, out of obligation. Not out of love. That he reserved solely for Allie.
She had his heart—what was left of it after Michael destroyed it.
Constantine stepped forward and, in a rare show of affection, put his hand on Sebastian’s shoulder. “We’ll find them, Sage.”
Sebastian gave him a nod, beyond words as his emotions ran so hot Constantine had to step away from him lest Sebastian’s rage burn him.
“Of that I have no doubt.”
Sebastian had every intention of hunting down the bastards who took Allie and Lucian. He would bring a reckoning to them that would rock Hell itself.
He turned to Constantine. “Go to Allie’s and get Lexine. I want her at Seacrest where she’ll be safe.” Then to Raphael, “I need you to go to The Gate and see if you can find anything that might tell us what happened with Lucian,”
“I’m already there, Sage.” Raphael had his keys in hand and his body loaded with weapons. He tied his blond hair back in a queue before tugging on the long black trench coat that concealed the various blades strapped to his person. “I’ll meet you both at Seacrest.”
Sebastian nodded curtly. Even though vampires didn’t age, right then he felt every one of his years pressing down on him. The weight was oppressive, nearly crushing him as his worry for Allie and Lucian shook him to his core.
He felt so goddamn helpless.
He should have forced her not to go to that bloody meeting, should have gone with her if he couldn’t talk her out of going. Lucian shouldn’t have gone to The Gate alone…
“At least they’re still alive, Sebastian,” Constantine said to him.
“Remember that and try to hold it together. We can’t have you losing your shit and going off.”
Sebastian ran a hand over his shorn head. “I know.” His tone held all the pent up emotions he was fighting back. “I can’t loose her, C.”
Even he heard the note of desperation in his voice. “Fuck all, what if they have Luc in a cage…”
He couldn’t go on, couldn’t even entertain the idea of Allie and Lucian being held like animals. If his thoughts went there, his mind would snap and he’d be no better than a mindless beast out for blood.
Constantine gave him a curt nod to acknowledge the unspoken understanding.
The worst thing you could do to a Templar was to cage them. After three years in that French prison, the last place any of them wanted to be was at the mercy of a captor. Not even an eternity in Hell was as much of a threat to their sanity as one moment of captivity was.
They’d all been through that and had the scars to prove it—both inside and out.
The need for blood raged in Sebastian as he went to his room and grabbed his baldric. The weapon felt good in his hands, calming him somewhat and taking the edge off his fury. As long as he had his sword he’d never be helpless.
At least she’s alive.
He ran his hand over the cross pattee in the pommel of his sword as Constantine’s words came back to him.
Alive.
Yes. Allie was life, and so much a part of him he no longer knew where he ended and she began.
When he was a boy he never knew love, never knew it to miss it. As a man he gave his life to the sword and to God, having no desire to know a love other than for the thrill of battle. Once dead, he believed himself beyond something to be loved or who could love in return. Yet Allie burst into his existence and became the soul he lost.
Allie’s love for him held the power to chase away lifetimes of loneliness and cold. For that alone he would make damn sure the ground ran red with the blood of those who dared to take her from him.
He pulled on his baldric and his duster before grabbing his keys off the dresser. He stomped down the stairs, past Constantine who was strapping an arsenal of weapons to his body, and out to his car.
His only thought was of finding Allie and Lucian. He fully intended on bringing Hell down upon the renegades who had them. The need to spill their blood consumed him as he slammed the Charger into drive and hauled ass to The Specter’s office.
The renegades, who dared to take from them, were going to learn exactly why the Templars were the most feared creatures this side of Hell.