CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The air in the room crackled, every molecule vibrating with unspoken tension. The four vampires, their faces like granite, registered the subtle shift in atmosphere. Lucian, ever the master of composure, smoothly turned the knife.

"I'm not quite sure," he said, a feigned air of confusion in his voice. He then looked to me, the predatory glint in his eyes barely concealed. "Does this human look familiar to you, Kaelen?"

Taking the cue, I leaned back against the velvet couch, adopting a bored expression. "Possibly," I drawled, my voice laced with indifference. "You know how much these creatures all seem to look the same to me, Lucian. He does seem familiar, though." I let the unspoken implication hang in the air: insignificant, forgettable, like so many others.

The four vampires remained unimpressed, their impatience radiating like heat from a furnace. Seraphine, never one to shy away from a confrontation, jumped into the fray.

"He does look familiar. I believe he was in here harassing some of our female human clientele." Her tone was nonchalant, almost dismissive, but carried the weight of absolute certainty. She was stating a truth, after all. The man had indeed been caught forcing his hand down a woman's pants – a transgression that warranted more than just a reprimand in our establishment.

The leader of the visiting vampires fixed Seraphine with a cold stare. "That sounds like something Brent would do."

Brent. Of course, he had a douchebag name like 'Brent', I thought, a grim smile tugging at the corner of my lips. Lucian, I could tell, was thinking along the same lines; a slight smirk playing on his face betrayed his amusement.

"This Brent," I said, pushing myself upright slightly, feigning a sudden spark of recognition. "Yes, he definitely looks familiar. As a matter of fact, he was here. Now that I think of it..." I trailed off, letting the implication sink in. The pause was calculated, designed to breed uncertainty and anxiety. If they were here for retribution, they needed to know just how much trouble they were in.

The air in the room crackled, every molecule vibrating with unspoken tension. The four vampires, their faces like granite, registered the subtle shift in atmosphere.

The lead vampire held my gaze for a long moment. "He was here? And where is he now?" The question wasn't a question, it was an accusation.

My face hardened, all traces of boredom vanishing. "We have rules here at Crimson. Your friend broke those rules."

The lead vampire's control snapped. "Fuck your rules! Where is Brent?"

Lucian stepped forward, his voice now a low, dangerous growl. "Your 'friend' will no longer be a rule breaker here," he stated, "nor anywhere else, as a matter of fact!"

The realization of what Lucian was implying hit the four vampires like a physical blow.

"Where is he?" the lead vampire demanded, his voice trembling with rage.

Everything happened in a blur. The lead vampire surged towards Lucian, claws extended. Dimitri and I moved instantly, ripping him away and pinning him back. The other three vampires tensed, ready to join the fray, but the lead vampire held them back. They knew we had the advantage on our own territory.

"This isn't over!" the lead vampire spat, struggling against our grip. "Brent better show up. And soon!"

Lucian's growl deepened. "Or…?"

The lead vampire gave Lucian a chilling smile. "Or? There is no or."

"You want your friend? You won't like what you get," Lucian hissed, his fangs bared. If the club wasn't packed with humans right now, this would have devolved into an all-out war.

"Dimitri," Lucian said, still looking at the other four vampires, "would you be so kind as to take out the trash?"

Dimitri grinned, a predatory gleam in his eyes. "Of course." He chuckled, clearly relishing the task.

"Oh, Dimitri," I chimed in, a cold smile playing on my lips. "Don't forget to give them their 'friend' on the way out!"

I knew this was just the beginning of something ugly. We'd made an enemy. These vampires weren't as old as Lucian and me, that much was clear. But they were strong, and determined. They were smart enough not to start a brawl in Crimson, but I knew that as soon as they retrieved what was left of Brent, all hell would break loose.

Dimitri led them towards the exit, the lead vampire's glare burning a hole in my back. Just before he turned away, he gave me a wide, unsettlingly knowing smile.

"I just love the smell of lilies, wouldn't you agree?"

My dead heart stopped.

Ellie.

The second the doors closed behind the four vampires, I was moving, practically teleporting to the elevator. Lucian, sensing the shift in my demeanor and the sudden terror in my eyes, followed close behind. "Kaelen! What is it?" he demanded.

I shoved past him into the elevator. "Ellie!"

Lucian was inside before the doors could close again. The ride up was an eternity, a torment of imagined horrors. We burst out of the elevator and tore into my apartment. Ellie's scent hit me first, a wave of delicate sweetness I craved. But underneath it, something else: the acrid tang of other vampires. Someone had been here. Lucian smelled it too, his expression darkening.

We flew to my bedroom, but it was empty. We searched the entire apartment, our panic rising with each barren room. In the kitchen, we found the emergency exit door, the one leading to the alley below, hanging open. On the kitchen counter, a note scrawled in hasty, jagged letters.

"An eye for an eye!"

The words were written in Ellie's blood.

The roar that ripped from my throat was not human. It was something ancient, primal, echoing the fury that had been slumbering within me for centuries. Marble, a substance that should have been unyielding, crumbled beneath the force of my rage.

"KAELEN!!" Lucian's voice cut through the haze, sharp and commanding. His hands, surprisingly strong, gripped my shoulders, shaking me. "Breaking your apartment apart will not get Ellie back!"

He was right. Gods, he was right. My mind felt like shattered glass, each shard a jagged edge threatening to cut me. Reason, strategy, the cold calculations that defined my existence – all threatened to vanish in the red tide of my fury.

"FUCK!!" I screamed, pushing away from Lucian, pacing the ruined kitchen. We needed a plan. Time was bleeding away with every second that passed.

We both ran back to the elevator. The wait and ride down was torturous.

Back at Crimson, the air was thick with a different kind of tension. This was not the simmering undercurrent of lust and intrigue that normally permeated the club. This was fear, laced with grim determination.

Dimitri had returned, his usual swagger replaced by a hard, unforgiving edge. Blood stained his clothes, though the wounds themselves had already begun to knit. Vampire healing was a blessing and a curse.

"They attacked as soon as they saw Brent... or what was left of him," he explained, his voice tight. "Luckily, the sun is coming up. They took off pretty fast."

Dimitri's face dropped as he registered the grim set of our faces. Seraphine, ever the pragmatist, stepped forward. "What happened?"

"They took Ellie. Wrote a note. In her blood," Lucian answered, the words clipped and devoid of emotion, a stark contrast to the storm raging within me.

"An eye for an eye, I'll give them 'an eye for an eye'," I growled, my fangs baring themselves involuntarily. The promise hung in the air, a threat as palpable as the blood that stained Dimitri's clothes.

"We need a plan," Seraphine stated, her voice calm but firm. "We can't just rush in and expect to get her back. We don't know what they're capable of, or where they've taken her."

Lucian nodded grimly. "Seraphine is right. As much as I want to tear them apart, we need to be smart about this. We know they're connected. They came looking for Brent because he was one of their own. Let's start by finding out who they are."

"How do you propose we do that?" Dimitri asked, crossing his arms. "They aren't exactly wearing name tags."

"Their scent," Sera interjected. "We could also dig into Brent, who he was, where he lived and worked."

"Good thinking, Sera." Lucian said, his mind already racing. "Kaelen, I know you want to be out there tearing the city apart, but we need you here. Your contacts, your resources, they're invaluable."

I clenched my fists, the urge to hunt, to destroy, almost overwhelming. But Lucian was right. Raw power would only get me so far. This required finesse, strategy. This required...control.

"Fine," I bit out, forcing myself to breathe. "What do you need me to do?"

"Start with the local vampire networks," Lucian said, pacing the room. "Find out if anyone knows anything about these guys. Who they associate with, their weaknesses, anything. Dimitri, I need you to discreetly question our informants in the human world. Find out if anyone's heard whispers of new vampires in town, or any unsavory characters looking for trouble."

Seraphine poured three glasses of blood, handing one to Lucian and me. "We'll need to be sharp," she said, raising her glass. "For Ellie."

An eye for an eye? They had no idea what they had unleashed. They'd taken Ellie, but they would soon learn, taking someone from me was a fate worse than death.