Free Eternal Demon: Mark of the Vampire by Laura Wright Page B

where he ends up—that I did not want him.”
    There was a moment of silence between them, and Nicholas’s eyes softened. “You don’t have to do this alone for him to know that.”
    Erion straightened his shoulders, shoved away the sentiment and emotion. “I must find him.
I
. Must find him.”
    “You are being irrational. And it’s dangerous for the boy.”
    “My passion, my drive, will bring the boy home. You will see.”
    Nicholas released a grave sigh. “God, I hope so.”
    Erion bit into his wrist, then grabbed his brother’s and bit into his flesh too. Nicholas cursed, but he allowed Erion to press the two bloody gashes together.
    “Now we are connected,” Erion said, his eyes locked on his twin. “Feel for me within yourself if Cruen contacts you.”
    Without waiting for an answer, Erion ripped his arm away and pushed past Nicholas to the door. He had to get back to his search, to his prisoner. The moment he stepped out of the house, the moment he felt sun on his face, he flashed.
    In seconds, he landed on another lawn, in another country. It was night and the rain had stopped. Erion ran his bloody wrist along the lock, then waited for the gate to draw back. It had barely swung two feet before he saw the front door to the castle burst open. One of his servants came running out, followed by the brown-and-white canine. Both barreled down the small incline and through the vines.
    Breathless, the dog on his heels, the servant halted before Erion. “Your prisoner, sir.”
    Instantly alert, Erion said, “What about her?”
    The servant’s mouth formed a grim line and his eyes were wide with anxiety.
    “What?” Erion demanded, a sudden caustic panic gripping him. “Has she escaped again?”
    The male shook his head.
    He grabbed the male by the collar and said in the deadliest of voices, “Tell me before I gut you.”
    “She has eaten Timothy,” the male squeaked.
    At first Erion didn’t believe he’d heard the servant correctly. But one look at the male’s utterly terrorized face and he knew it was true.
    “Christ!” he uttered, tossing the male aside and immediately flashing up to the house.
    Goddamn female
! What the hell had she done? And, more importantly, what the hell was she? Humans didn’t eat flesh, and vampires drank only blood.
    He stalked into the house and down the many hallways that led to the door and the dungeon stairs. Whatever she was, he wouldn’t tolerate her making meals out of his staff.
    •   •   •
    Return . . .
    Return her to me—
    Cruen opened his eyes and snarled at the plants surrounding him in the rooftop greenhouse. He couldn’t even send a message to the walls of the Roman brothers’ compound. He couldn’t get through their enchantments.
    He grabbed at a violet bloom and ripped it from its stem. For too many years to count he had been all-powerful, divine, feared, and formidable. Sending a message to anyone, anywhere, took only a brief thought, such little effort.
    Now he was . . . what? Like all the other vampires? Limited powers. He didn’t know how to exist in the realm he now found himself in.
    Erion had taken his key to continued power, his key to unlimited life, and to his work developing the ultimate vampire.
    Erion had taken the key that would finally unlock the door to Cruen’s true love.
    Celestine.
    He had to find the female. But how was he to get to his
mutore
son? He couldn’t use any of his advanced magic. And he couldn’t go to the source of his power and ask for it.
    He crushed the flower in his fist. He couldn’t bring Abbadon into this. The demon king would make Cruen pay, make him go without a feeding until Hellen was found. Abbadon would consider her abduction Cruen’s incompetence, but the fact that Cruen’s adopted son had done the deed . . . well, that might just make the Demon King forget their union altogether.
    And Cruen couldn’t allow that.
    Without Abbadon’s blood, he was a worthless
paven
.
    “Gale!”