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Chapter Fifty - Raid Vaziri

Present day

Outskirts of Albemarle, NC

Raid checked the time on his phone. He'd paced up, down, and around the entire parameter of the bridge trying to locate Zara, and she was nowhere to be found. Now keeping west of the river, where the afternoon glare of the sun didn't prevent him from having a clear view along the highway, he read her message again. Two miles north of the Pee Dee River by the bridge. He opened up his GPS, took in every inch of his surroundings, and was certain he was in the right location.

He tried Zara's number again. As soon as he heard the automated voice confirming her phone was still off, he hung up. Where the hell was she? He said he would be back at the house in fifteen minutes and that time had already passed. Deciding not to wait any longer, he headed back to the car. If she wanted to talk to him, she could damn well turn on her phone and call him.

Then, like he'd willed it to life, the device vibrated in his palm. But it wasn't Zara. Raid answered the call while opening the door to the car.

"I just finished getting Flick registered here," Gabe explained on the other end of the line. He was now sitting in his vehicle waiting for her and Phoenix to return from exploring the rest of the college campus. "Why do I have missed calls? What's happened?"

"Zara's disappeared," Raid said, throwing himself into the driver's seat and slamming the door in frustration. "She told me she's working for the Coven."

"Told you in person?" Gabe sounded like he was waiting for a punchline.

"Never got the opportunity," Raid complained, starting the engine. "Her phone's off. She asked me to meet her at the bridge, but she's not here. She admitted everything in a message. She's the vampire working for Dimitri, she turned Flick, she betrayed us---"

"That's a lie, she never turned Flick. She would have recognized Zara instantly." There was no hesitation in Gabe's voice.

"Zara could have compelled her to forget," Raid replied, a question now hidden in his statement. That's what vampires did, right? He knew first-hand how effective compulsion was.

"The compulsion would have ended when she was turned. That's how it works; not that I would have expected any of you to know that, not even Zara. There are rules we have to abide by as Council Members and not turning anyone against their will is one of them," Gabe clarified. "But I'm telling you now, Zara has never wiped a memory nor turned another person a day in her life. If you knew her history---knew her views on autonomy---you'd understand why." Gabe stepped out of his car, heading back towards the college campus. He had to find Phoenix and Flick and return to the safe house immediately. "Do you even know if Zara's the one who has her phone? Do you know for sure that she's the one who sent you the message?"

Raid gripped the phone tighter. He had to have an answer for that. Adam said he'd witnessed her escape, but what if there was more to it? What if the same person who had been threatening Stef was now also threatening Zara? What if Cristian had lied and he'd intercepted her before she could reach the bridge? There were so many other possibilities he hadn't considered. Raid hit his fist against the steering wheel. "Shit!" He immediately put the phone on loudspeaker, slammed the car into drive, and pulled the car off the grass verge and back onto the highway.

"Somebody wanted you out of that house, Raid," Gabe warned. "Did you check everywhere before you left? Who's in there right now?"

"There was nobody in the house when I left except Stef, Adam and Lorraine." He hoped that was still the case. He took the next turning off the highway, heading towards the house.

Gabe was suspicious at the unfamiliar name. "Who's she? Who's Lorraine?"

"Don't worry, she's human," Raid stressed, laser focused, the curves in the road acting as no deterrent as he continued to increase his speed to sixty miles per hour. "She's my ex-girlfriend who turned up out of the blue. She's got top tier stalking skills."