Bloodstream (#2 Blood Series)

Chapter 2

                                                                                  Present Time

Nathan's POV

I can see sweat forming as drops on his forehead as the demon in front of me reaches for hazy memories that I'm forcing him to relive. I wouldn't usually bother with an addict like him but this time I'm desperate for answers, for any kinds of leads.

"I swear, I don't know! I haven't seen Oliver in months and he never told us anything about his plans!" the addict vows but his words mean nothing, they just piss me off. He does know something, he just needs to think.

Before he can finish his sentence he's against a wall and struggling to breathe while my fingers dig deeper and deeper into his skin. White circles surround my fingers as I press even harder and lean close to stare the guy straight into his eyes. I want to see his fear. It's intoxicating to see someone else afraid for a change when I've spent these past three months feeling terrified and physically nauseous while I search high and low for the girl I love but she's nowhere. No one has seen her, no one knows anything about her. Like she has gone up in smoke.

"Where is Oliver Knight?" I ask for what feels like the millionth time. If this guy knows anything useful about how I can track them down I'll squeeze the air out of him until he tells me. He is a demon so he won't break easily but I have my ways. I'm not proud of them but this is far too important to worry about morals. I need to find them. I need to find her.

His eyes are big and glistening from losing oxygen. "I... don't... know", he wheezes out.

"Liar", I spit. I'm certain that he knows more than he's letting on. "Where is he?"

"Nate, you're going to kill him", Mike says quietly. He knows not to touch me when I'm in the zone, I could kill him if he grabbed me at the wrong time. My powers have been restored in full and because I didn't have them for a month I'm now constantly bursting with restless energy. Alastor wasn't happy with having to give my powers back to me and so soon nonetheless but even he had to agree that this was a direct attack on the Bloods. We need all of our strength to protect our assets - and those of Hell's.

The guy keeps turning more and more blue as I repeat the same question over and over until suddenly I'm ripped away from him. The second my hands let go of him he falls to the ground and teleports away. I curse out loud and turn to glare at the person who pulled me away.

Lukas' blue eyes return my glare. He just made my one tiny clue about her whereabouts disappear. He's my brother but at the moment it's kind of hard to remember any kind of warm and fuzzy feelings towards him when all I want to do is rip his head off.

"What?" I growl at him.

Lukas stares at me for a while. "I know you miss her. I know you're worried about Haley but --" he starts to say but I won't let him continue further than that, I can't hear it.

"Don't. Don't talk about her", I bark an order. I can't hear anyone say her name. It hurts too fucking much. She's all I ever think about but hearing anyone else remind me of my colossal mistake just rubs salt into the still raw and bleeding wound. If I just wouldn't have been so weak... She would still be here.

"You know you're not the only one who worries about her", Lukas murmurs. His words make my blood boil because he's right. I'm the reason we have all been hunting ghosts, clues that don't really exist or vanish as soon as I hear about them. I bite my lip to keep myself from screaming out loud. Lukas blames me too. As he should. I know I fucked up. He doesn't have to remind me.

"Shut the fuck up, Lukas."

Lukas loses his patience with me and snaps: "What, you're the only one allowed to worry? Is that just your prerogative?"