* * * *
She sneaked away from the fortress an hour later, already late for work. Friday was one of her peak nights, and she liked to be at the club early to prepare for the rush. Faith hadn't discussed her plans for the evening with Bale any more than he had bothered to discuss his. And while she was feeling a little chafed about it, she knew he would not be happy once he discovered her gone. Hence her sneaking away.
Prue, Tempy, and Calie, one of her other waitresses, were waiting for her in the parking lot when she arrived.
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“So where is Big Jolly?” Prue called out as Faith climbed out of her car.
She grinned, approaching the door with keys in hand. “He's out being the big and bad.”
“Ooh,” Prue purred. “I just love big and bad.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Calie curiously, one of the young vampires who worked for Faith and had yet to go through her Transfiguration.
Prue stopped short in surprise. “Haven't you heard about Faith's mate? Super huge. Super yummy.”
Faith rolled her eyes at Calie's grin. “Who hasn't? It's had twelve hours to sweep through the grapevine. Lucky bitches.”
“I'm only one, and I'm not a wolf,” Faith teased, following the three females inside the building.
Calie gave a wistful sigh. “I was talking about you and Hope. To both find your one and only at the same time.”
“Hope?” Prue questioned, turning around to grace her with an arched brow.
Faith gave her head a quick shake when she was certain Calie was not looking, then rolled her eyes and replied, “One of Bale's yummy, leather-wearing brothers.”
With a slight nod, Prue indicated she understood something was up, something that Faith could not speak about in front of the little vampire. “And you plan on introducing me to
my
mate, when?”
Faith laughed. “I'll have to give that some consideration.” Finally she glanced at Tempy, her curiosity piqued. “What are you doing here this early?”
“I'm filling in for Chari. She called me earlier; some wolf shit she has to take care of. She'll probably be out of touch all weekend,” Tempy answered.
Faith was silent a moment, considering Tempy's words and actions. “Just tell me, is she okay? Or do I need to do something for her?” While Faith was not going to step over the boundaries of her boss-employee relationship with Charity, she did consider the other female her friend and would use all resources available to her if Charity needed them.
Prue sighed. “She's going to have to work this out herself, Faith. But I wouldn't be surprised if she disappeared for a while.”
“What's going on, Prue?” Now Faith was really worried.
“I don't know all the details. What I do know is that her mate died.”
Faith sat down on one of the bar stools, stunned. “I didn't know she had a mate,” she said softly.
“Neither did we,” Tempy added, sitting next to Faith. “And she wouldn't say much more than he was gone.”
“Shit,” Faith mumbled.
Prue nodded. “She was seriously messed up, so much so that she shifted right there in our kitchen. Tempy barely got the back door open before she took off into the woods.”
“When things slow down here, I'm going to head out looking for her, if only to make sure she is okay.”
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Faith immediately nodded to Tempy. “I'll try to get someone else in to cover for you. If I can't, I'll help with the tables so you can scoot out as soon as possible.” At Tempy's look of relief, Faith realized she and Prue were more concerned than they were letting on. “What?”
Tempy glanced at Prue, then shrugged. “It's just that a wolf cannot survive the death of her mate, can she?”
That stopped Faith for a moment, and she considered Tempy's question. “That kind of mating for wolves is really rare, I think. And if that had been the case, we would have known, right? Male wolves get really possessive. I'm certainly no expert, but how could Chari have had a mate and we not know?”
“We all have our secrets,” Tempy said softly. She glanced at Prue, who clasped a hand on Tempy's shoulder.
Faith looked away from the two, silently agreeing with Tempy's assessment. She certainly had her own doozy of a secret herself. She left her employees to get ready while she went to her office. After calling every available person she could think of, Faith finally gave up trying to replace Charity and did so herself.
The club was packed, but she had Charity's tables firmly within her control, and Tempy on her way before ten. It was a long and tiring night, and Faith was relieved when it came to an end.
Having already sent everyone else home, she exited the back door, locked it tight, and moved to her car.
She didn't realize she was under attack until it was too late.
He sneaked up behind her and hit her at the base of her skull with the handle of his broadsword, knocking her out cold. As she slumped to the ground, he stood over her, a strong sense of satisfaction filling him. He'd beaten Remy, Bale, and the rest of the damn Grigori.
Whistling, he dragged the redhead to the van where Magnus sat waiting for him. He slid the side door open and tossed the female inside, then quickly wrapped her wrists and ankles with thick rope. While he wasn't worried about her posing any threat—he was fairly confident he could overcome one little female vampire—he wasn't about to let his prize escape. He had big plans for this one. He grinned, a set of perfectly white teeth shining in the darkness. Yes, big plans.
* * * *
Her gaze lingered on a full set of armor standing in the corner by the door. She'd already come to recognize Kash's work. He had others littered around the abbey, as he enjoyed the creativity of designing the full-body armor when he wasn't making the males' weapons. It amused her that deep down he was an artist.
The sun was peeking over the horizon behind her, just starting to filter through the large windows. She usually liked to work through the night, the lack of light helping to add a sense of darkness to her work. Setting her pencil down, she wondered what it was that was trashing her The Watchers: Faith Revisited
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concentration. Was it the knowledge that Kash was lying upstairs, injured because of her? Or was it the room itself and working in an unfamiliar setting?
Hope shook her head, glancing down at the image before her. She would be lying to herself if she didn't acknowledge she felt at home in the abbey…safe for the first time since her parents had split up. As Zeke's image stared back at her, Hope recognized that, while the male irritated her beyond reason, she found herself drawn to him. But she had not been joking when she had told Kash she despised marriage. She hated love, period. Love had ruined her mother, left her open to a Lilu demon's attack. Never would Hope be so vulnerable as to allow herself to be destroyed by a male.
She rose to get a cup of coffee, hoping the caffeine would give her the jolt she needed to get her ass moving. That was when it hit her, an overwhelming sense of panic, and she had to grip the edges of her table to keep from falling. With wild eyes, she glanced around, her gaze finally settling on the figure standing in the doorway. Zeke.
Zeke had been watching Hope for several minutes. He hadn't wanted to, had tried to turn away, but his feet had refused to cooperate. Then it was as if the very air in the room had been sucked out, replaced by the putrid stench of fear. Panic had slid into Hope's eyes. His feet ate up the distance with a sense of desperation as he moved to her side.
She turned to him, her gaze meeting his. “Bale, help me,” she whispered just before her eyes rolled back in her head and she started to slump to the ground.
Zeke lunged forward and scooped her into his arms. He was left shaken because for a moment, her eyes had appeared to change from their normal light blue to a vivid green, and Zeke could have sworn he had been gazing into Faith's.
Then he heard Bale bellowing his mate's name throughout the abbey. Carrying Hope, Zeke moved in the direction of Bale's voice. As he rounded the corner with the intention of climbing the stairs, he met Bale.
“Where is she?” Bale demanded, his glare pinned on the bundle in Zeke's arms. “Damn it, Hope, I'll beat you both if you do not tell me this very minute.”
Zeke shook his head, drawing Hope tighter against his chest in a protective gesture. “She passed out, Bale, just after she said your name and begged for help.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“I don't know, but I could have sworn her eyes changed color…from blue to green.”
All color drained from Bale's face.
“If you are looking for your little chickie, she sneaked out not long after you left last night,” Penny stated from behind Bale. As Bale slowly turned, Zeke caught a glimpse of her walking down the steps.
“And you did not think to stop her?” Bale barked, his stance rigid as he clenched and unclenched his fists.
Penny shrugged nonchalantly, stepping around them. “I did not realize it was my responsibility to supervise her.”
Remy appeared just as Bale lunged for Penny, and wrapped a beefy arm around Bale's shoulders. Jet and Arak were also there, helping to control a struggling Bale. He ceased all movement, pinning Penny with a deadly glare.
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“If anything has happened to my mate, I will hold you personally responsible.”
Then they all felt it, like an invisible thread being snipped. Bale severed all ties to Penny, leaving her effectively dead to him, unable to sense him or mind-speak with him, and she staggered back from the loss of the connection.
“Bale,” she whispered, reaching toward him.
Bale broke away from those holding him. “Do not,” he warned raggedly. “Never did I begrudge what you had found with Raym and Caym, even if I did not understand it. Now my mate is missing, and if she has been harmed, I will never forgive you.”
Penny sobbed his name, but Bale did not remain to listen to her tears, her pleas for absolution, as he teleported from the room and from the abbey. Zeke thrust an unconscious Hope into Remy's arms, then immediately followed Bale. When he appeared in the parking lot of Club Dominus, he wasn't surprised to find Jet and Arak right beside him. Zeke nodded to the two before approaching Bale. Their brother was kneeling over something lying on the pavement.
As Bale looked up, the tears rolling down his cheeks tore at Zeke, and he almost staggered back from the extent of his brother's despair.
“I should have realized she would feel the need to come here. How could I have been so stupid?” he whispered, his voice rough and haggard.
Zeke glanced down at the purse and keys scattered across the parking lot, uncertain how to respond to Bale's misery. He couldn't tell his brother what he really thought—that Faith's senseless act was what had led to this event. If she'd remained where she should have, she'd still be safe.
A few drops of blood splattered around her possessions caught Zeke's attention. It was a relief to realize there was not enough blood to signal any serious harm had come to Faith. At least not here.
“Vampires again?” Arak asked softly, coming to stand beside Zeke.
Bale glanced up, his eyes lit with fury. “If so, I will destroy every last one of them,” he vowed; then he disappeared again.
“I will go and confirm whether they were involved. You said a werewolf had helped determine who had attacked Kash. Now would be a good time to find this female and get her assistance. Who knows? She might be able to lead us to Faith.”
“Faith should have employee files inside the club. As soon as Jet gets the lock picked, I'll start calling around.”
Jet was already moving to the door when Zeke closed his eyes and concentrated on Bale's presence, then reappeared in front of Garrett Magee's palatial estate. Bale had his weapon in hand, his gaze glued to the windows in the far right corner of the estate. Then he blinked out again.
Zeke sighed, trailing his brother into the fortified home of the vampires. They were in a large master bedroom, and Bale had pinned Faith's father to the bed, the blade of his sword pressing into the vampire's neck. Zeke stepped forward, observing the scene indifferently. The vampire was devoid of color, clearly unprepared for their invasion and quite terrified by it.
“Where is she?” Bale growled. “Where is my mate?”
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“Who?” Garrett whispered, the confusion on the vampire's face something Zeke was not certain could be faked. But the male's aura couldn't lie. Not to Zeke. The vampire had no idea what Bale was ranting about.
“Tell me where Faith is and I'll kill you quickly. Otherwise I promise it will be slow and it will be painful.”
The vampire tried to shake his head, denying Bale's accusation, but the blade only further embedded into his skin, nicking the flesh and causing the male to wince.
“Bale,” Zeke said quietly, placing a restraining hand on his brother's shoulder. “He's telling the truth, Bale. He didn't take Faith.”