Street Level

We weren’t even close to the entrance when Tony and Ryan showed up from the shadows. “If they took her instead of killed her they are in for a treat.” Tony said.

“Trust Tony. If not you’ll be puking on the other side.” I said as I grabbed the two body guards and Liam was gripped by Tony. Ryan’s hand squeezed Tony’s shoulder as we shadow walked to the apartment’s travel location. It was the only place on the whole floor you could walk to from the outside. Inside was another story.

When we arrived there was a silence I never thought to hear. There was nothing. Not even a drip of water. It was like sound didn’t exist. It was so still, two floors of complete emptiness. How on earth did they get in?

Ryan was shaking his head too. It was unfathomable. “It had to be someone inside.” He said. “There is no way they could take everyone if it was an attack.”

A traitor. I sighed. There wasn’t much I could do against a traitor. That was something that was going to happen. People were people. Wasn’t exactly the first time. I could count the number of times it happened with in the past few months since my birthday. Hell with in the past few weeks.

But I pushed all of that away as I tried not to panic. My family was gone. And it looked like an inside job. Who the fuck Took my family?

And what the fuck had happened in the tunnels. I was feeling better. But something was different. I felt Alex. I brushed my fingers across the tattoo on my left arm and I could feel him even more. It wasn’t exactly a homing beacon but it was working better than anything else I could think of. I needed to get them back to get my family home.

I could feel a growing hunger and I staggered as we walked through the streets of New York following this feeling.

I stumbled and fell against the brick wall of the closest building. Ryan was at my side, his hand against my forehead. “Nox you need to eat. This is…”

I interrupted, “Ant got woken up. He hasn’t fed yet.”

“You’ve never felt this before have you?” Ryan said rhetorically. “And that thing happened in the tunnels. Let’s assume you just preformed a very draining magic, and you were connected to someone else mystically. What happens?”

I leaned against the wall, “Logically the magic would drain from one to the other.”

“And what if Ant just took a Chevalier? To save a life.”

I stared at Ryan and he looked at me. “You need to eat, so Ant can gain from your strength.” Ryan looked at Jae and Seraph, I need you to wrangle whatever food you can find – preferrably not fried or we’ll have to clean up a mess as the health nut pukes up all the grease. Vegetables, and yougurt and the likes. Meats precooked – things that don’t take a lot of preparing.

My bodyguards looked as if he was crazy. “Look.” Ryan said, “If Ant doesn’t feed soon he’ll drain Nox of all his power. And Nox’s power is what keeps him alive. Nox needs to eat. And I am more than enough body guard. Tony will take us home.” He looked at his friend with a smile, “And we’ll watch over him. But he needs massive quantities of food. Nox doesn’t power up with blood like Ant does and whatever Ant is doing or did just drained him and they need to work together. Symbiotic bonds are even worse than than one sided ones. Now move.”

“How does a kid get so knowledgable?” I joked. For all of Ryan’s 16 year old looks, he was over 800 years old and tied to the scarest fucking vampire in the world.

And that was what we did. Tony found a deep shadow in the next alley and the three of us walked through into our apartments and Ryan started finding food. He tossed a bag of bread at me. “I know carbs but eat now. Fuel first, Carbs are good. We’ll get protein soon.”

Tony handed me a jar of peanut butter and I frowned, “I need jelly or fruit cause this will be utterly dry.”

Ryan pulled some berries from the fridge. Perfect. I made a sandwich and started eating. The act of shoving food down my throat was tempered only by the worry of what Ant needed the power for.

As I ate, I pushed magic at him. At Alex too. To and through the bonds. Ryan kept the food coming and I ate as much as I could as fast as I could. My stomach rumbled.

Doc was there monitoring my status. “The fever is dropping. Try some ice-cream to break it down.”

I glared at him even as Ryan pushed a pot of ice-cream at me with a spoon. “At least it’s chocolate.”

“How much fucking blood does he drink in the morning.” I commented as Jae and Seraph set down their haul on the counter we were sitting at.

“It’s not about how much. It’s how much he’s expending just living right now. The sun is hours from being down, he made Chevalier. And while the spell itself isn’t simple, the process isn’t. Most vampires will eat and sleep for three days. When Cari takes a new one she has to be careful of the blood lust.”

“So shouldn’t I be helping them get out of their predicament instead of eating?”

Tony put his hand on my shoulder. “You are helping. Trust that my son and your husband can find their way home to you Nox. I’ve had Allison call your friends in. Your council and the heads of the community. We can lend you strength. So you won’t have to eat as much, but right now keep eating. Let your boys get our family back.”

I had listened to what Tony said, but his words got stuck in my brain. My husband… Alex was my husband. Maybe not on paper but he was in reality my significant other, my other half, my ball and chain. He was mine and I was his and now he was gone.