See Love Die

Chapter 15

CONRADS POV:

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I woke up on the floor in Lucas room, with Jack on the floor next to me.

Lucas and Luke had taken the beds.

We had another long drive ahead of us today, and should reach the lakeside by tomorrow, my main priority today was making sure Harry was feeling up to this and that my team where up to scratch.

Ben fed on one of those scumbags from last night, just enough to strengthen him up, and compelled him to forget the whole interaction.

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Harry kicked herself for her weakness when all along it was strength.

No man should ever lay his hand on a woman like that and who knows what they would have done if she was some helpless human, I'm glad we didn't have to find out.

Harry was clearly struggling with her self control and human blood, so we would have to lay low again tonight.

And find somewhere a little more elegant to stay so nothing pushed her over the edge.

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I woke the guys up, and hopped in the shower to freshen up.

Slipping into some Jogging bottoms and a tight black tee so it was more comfortable driving, I combed my hair and gathered everyone.

The guys were all dressed in similar clothes, while Harry was in her Jogging bottoms paired with a cropped tank.

She pulled it off well with her slim thick figure, and I wondered how Christoph could ever put himself in a position to play with her feelings.

I didn't know exactly what was going on with them, but whenever she saw Chase and Cheryl she looked like she was longing for the same.

The guy was not doing his job properly.

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We all made our way over to the cafe from yesterday, and I ordered two bacon and egg sandwiches and a hot coffee.

I was sat next to Harry and Ben.

"How are you feeling?" I asked Harry.

"Not too bad, thankyou" she said softly, tucking her hair behind her ear.

She looked so sad, and broken but was still trying to remain strong.

"Are you sure about doing this?"

"Yeah we have to" she answered, staring into her orange juice.

"We don't, we can find a way to explain this to Christoph, he doesn't know wolves are involved yet" I tried to soften the fears she had, but the sound of Christophs name made her flinch.

"I need to find my dad, Conrad" she replied, looking into my eyes intently.

I nodded.

"Okay, we will, I promise" I spoke without thinking, I couldn't promise that and it was selfish of me to do so, but we would all give it our everything.

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We continued eating almost in silence, I felt bad for Harry as the awkwardness was visible.

Everybody wanted to say something about last night, but didn't want to rock the boat.

After a few minutes Harry spoke up.

"Look I know what I did last night was out of character" she said, loudly.

"But please don't sit here and pity me, I'm fine, he tried to hurt me and I lost my cool with it" she spat.

The guys looked down at their finished food, crumbs and napkins on their plates.

"Look, Harry" Luke went to speak but she interrupted him.

"I'm not that weak, I promise" she spoke softer this time, feeling clear shame and annoyance at herself.

"Nobody thinks you're weak" Luke spoke, "quite the opposite actually" he smiled.

"You killed it" chimed in Lucas.

"Yeah, that shooter game had you being boss" laughed Hardin.

All of us nodded in agreement.

Ben rubbed her shoulder.

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"I told you, we have your back and you do not need to see that as a weakness" he soothed.

She smiled and looked up at us all, with watery eyes and red cheeks.

"You really mean that?" She asked, looking around at everyone.

We all nodded.

"What you did was brave, and he deserved to have his head ripped off, we only stopped you because we know that you don't drink from humans, and wouldn't want you to end up with cravings you don't need right now" I smiled, touching touching arm.

It sent electric through my veins and I had a flashback of last night.

Being so close to her, holding her, it felt like my body was calling out to her and made my hair stand on end.

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The way she looked into my eyes with longing and how her focus shifted so easily.

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I shoved the thoughts back away, per usual, and retrieved my arm.

She looked down to where I touched her and back up at me with a weak smile.

I think she thought it was pity, and I had to allow her to see it that way, she could never know how our skin colliding made me feel.

"Come on, let's get out of here" Lucas spoke up, and we all left the cafe feeling full of energy and respect for one another.

Our little group was a good fit, all 16 of us were getting along great and I hoped deep down that after this we could continue to hang with each other.

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The drive was ambient, and we all made jokes even over the walkie talkies to involve the other 4.

Harry and Hardin got Luke involved in the game they were playing with each other and I vowed to play it with them later on.

They would shout obscenities at their mobiles and Hardin would give Harry the occasional shove when she'd beat him.

Apparently Luke wasn't very good at the game.

After 6 hours we were all hungry again and pulled over to a small bar to grab a refreshment and a bite to eat.

It was 4.30 so we would eat and get back on the road again.

It would only take another 5 hours to get to a cabin in lakeside so we would stay there for the night and go looking the next morning.

We'd have to hike to get to the warehouse with our weapons and snacks as the hike would take roughly 3 hours through the forest and would also give us the element of surprise.

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The warehouse wasn't listed anywhere but the directions Chase had given us would have to be trusted, he only knew the rough coordinates himself but said it was big enough to be spotted from height, and that would be our way of finding it.

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"I'll have the 8oz steak, medium rare and a beer please" I ordered.

Drinking one wouldn't hurt my abilities to drive, and I could do with the crisp taste as it was a hot day and we'd been stuck in the car all morning and afternoon.

Everybody else ordered and within 10 minutes we had it set infront of us and started eating.

"So the plan for tonight is to chill, not too much drinking as we have an early start tomorrow and a hike which nobody wants to do with leftover alcohol in their system" I spoke.

"And what do we know about the mafia members that run things there?" asked Hardin.

"They've been well known to kidnap people and drain them out in these places, this warehouse is one of many but the guys and I have had numerous tips before and saved 2 people that had told us this warehouse was the biggest.

It's out of the way compared to the others so if they've taken someone known they would probably have used this place" Ben answered.

This was going to be one of the most dangerous places we've been so far, and a part of me wanted to tell Harry and Lucas to keep a distance.

Lucas was a powerful Warlock but neither had experience with mafia or any knowledge on how to use a weapon.

"Lucas what spells do you know that would help us out with being unseen?" I asked him.

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"I could probably make at least 3 of you invisible for maybe 10 minutes? Alone I don't have the right kind of power for any more or longer than that" he replied.

"Okay so I think Me, Luke and Ben should go in first, Hardin and Zia you stay near the entrance but hidden with the semi autos and Jack and Lucas and Harry stay quite far back to notify the others if anything goes wrong.

"Why can't I come and help?" Harry puzzled.

"I don't want you getting hurt, I don't think you're weak, well hell, I know you aren't, but you and Lucas have no experience with Mafia or using weapons and I think this is going to get messy" I replied.

I tried my best to use a tone that she wouldn't feel patronised with because i was being honest with my reasons.

"Okay" she agreed.

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"From a distance, I can only keep you guys invisible for about 5 minutes, it's harder when I can't see you" Lucas admitted, and I respected his honesty.

"That will have to do" I replied.

It should be enough to look around and see if Patrick was being held.

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Knowing our formation was set, I took a minute to go outside and call Chase.

He should have made it to the settlement area by now and could have possibly questioned them by now.

When I took out my phone I saw he'd already tried to call me twice.

I dialed his number and he answered straight away.

Relief hit me, knowing he was okay.

"Is everything okay?" I asked.

"Yes, and no" he replied.

"What's going on?"

"Well when we got here, we found nothing. No trace of anyone but we did find blood, wolf blood" he replied.

"The mafia are a wolf pack" I confirmed.

"Well I think somebody else has gotten here before us, I dont think Christoph would have harmed anyone, it's had no sign of life for at least a week" he said.

If somebody had taken out the pack members already, we had no way of knowing if they had anything to do with the disappearance.

"I think you should question anyone in the surrounding area"

"Okay" he agreed.

"I'll see of anybody has noticed any activity" he added.

"We'll be at our destination around 1pm tomorrow, I'll let you know how we get on" I said, ending the call.

And went inside to inform the others.

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We were back on the road now, everybody in food comas and deep thought about the impending day ahead.

If the pack house was empty, they could all be at our destination tomorrow.

We only had 3 more leads after this, but something inside me told me that this was our men.

I remember a fued with a pack a year ago, and their fight was common gossip amongst ours.

The imperium pack were powerful, exactly what their name meant and would always go rogue getting involved with drugs and violence that wasn't needed.

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The rumours were that a well known vampire was responsible for the death of their alpha, Diego.

His Beta, Malcom would always boast that he would get his comeuppance.

Now I couldn't help but think this was the exact vampire they had been talking about.

"Hey Jack, do you remember the talks of the imperium pack a year ago?" I asked.

"Yeah, the Alpha was apparently ripped limb from limb" he nodded.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" I asked, side eyeing him.

"Ahh you think The King was that vampire? he questioned.

"Which one would that be?" asked Harry.

"There was rumours that an Alpha was killed by a well known vampire, and we think it could be your father"

"But my dad would never kill a wolf, especially an Alpha, he knows what that would cause" Harry defended.

"He might be their culprit, even if he wasn't responsible" I told her.

"But why would they think it was him? He hardly left the kingdom" she asked, questioning her fathers intentions.

"I personally don't think it would have been him either" I offered, "But there were rumours of it being someone in the pack, an inside job, and if so they would have definitely blamed a vampire to get away with it" I scoffed.

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"Mortal enemies are always an easy option" Jack added.

This made me flinch, and I think I saw Harry pull a face too.

Jack picked up on the tension and quickly changed it.

"Obviously our generation is more evolved and we can get along, but the older generation are stubborn on their views, and would have definitely thrown a Vamp under the bus to clear their own name"

"If so, does that mean this will be our best lead?" she asked, hope lighting up her face.

"It's not definite but it makes the most sense, why they didn't want ransom money or any recognition for it" I said.

"Okay, well tomorrow is the be all and end all, I just hope they haven't killed him" she said, he voice breaking.

"I know it's not a nice thought, but wolves tend to torture for a while before they kill, and although it would mean more pain for your father, it means we have a chance of saving him" I tried to offer reassurance and Harry nodded, lost in her own world.