Damien shook his head. “No. She made me leave after she told me that. And warned me to be safe.”
Gray sunk onto the couch, resting his elbows on his thighs. “We’ll find her, Gray,” Alexander assured him.
“Will we? Wherever he has her, you can bet it’ll be damn hard to locate her. And how the hell did that bastard come back to begin with?”
“I can ask next time I communicate with Celine,” Damien offered. Gray nodded, silent. “In fact, Millie, can you hypnotize me? I’ll go back now and ask her.”
“No,” Alexander argued. “It’s too soon. You cannot go back now. You aren’t even recovered yet from the last visit.”
“Then I’ll go back in an hour or two whenever I recover.”
“Damien, you can’t. This isn’t a trip into the park. This is dangerous,” Alexander commented.
“I went before twice in a few hours. I can do it again. I’m with Gray. We need to find Celine now! We can’t leave her with that maniac!”
Gray stood, recovering a bit. “No. Alexander is correct. You cannot go back. The trips are becoming worse on you. We need you healthy. If it overwhelms you, we’ll have no way of communicating with Celine. We can’t risk it.”
“But…” Damien protested.
“The answer is no. I’m as upset as you are about Celine’s whereabouts, but we have to be safe. We’ll find her, it’s just going to take time.”
“Time she may not have,” Damien surmised.
“She’s Celine,” Gray responded. “She’ll survive. She’ll find a way. She’s smart, and she’s tough.”
“She survived three years with that man before she met Gray,” Alexander informed them. “And while no one wishes her to spend even another moment with him, she is capable of surviving.”
Silence fell over the group again as the afternoon wound down. Damien continued to recuperate. Despite improving, Damien remained tired. Dinner conversation was stilted, a heavy pall hanging over everyone as their concern for Celine eclipsed all else. Following dinner, Millie prepared the sedative for Damien.
“Perhaps we should skip it tonight,” Damien suggested.
“No, you need it now more than ever. You need to recover from today’s events,” Gray advised.
“I’m fine. There’s so much to discuss. I don’t want to be sidelined.”
“I went through the same thing after my… bite,” Michael replied. “Sometimes you need to be sidelined. For your own good.”
Damien groaned.
“We can’t take the risk!” Gray countered.
“Fine, fine,” Damien answered, holding his hands up in defeat. “Go ahead, doc. Stick me.”
Millie administered the sedative. “You should start to feel drowsy in about an hour.”
“Then let’s make that hour count. What’s our plan for the next meeting with Celine? And everything in between.”
“We must find out where Celine is being held. That is the next piece of information we should request from Celine,” Alexander answered.
Damien nodded in agreement. “Okay. What else?”
Gray stood staring out the window, his arms crossed. “How the hell didn’t we realize that bastard was back?” he asked. “Celine did.”
“He’s hiding himself well,” Alexander replied.
“We need to find him,” Gray answered. “Poke under every rock until we find that bastard’s hiding spot.”
“I’m all for that, flush him out,” Michael agreed. “Let him know we’re aware he’s here. Strip away his element of surprise.”
“As much as I’d like to strike out, this is not wise,” Alexander countered.
“Why?” Michael questioned.
“If he realizes we are aware of his presence, it may jeopardize any chance we have of finding and rescuing Celine. He may retaliate. Or worse, he may realize Celine is communicating with us.”
“Good point,” Gray conceded.
“Why did you say Celine realized he was back?” Damien queried.
“Her painful memories. It all makes sense now,” Gray explained. “The danger she sensed, the flood of memories, the overwhelming sense. It was him. Every time, it was him. She sensed him but never made the final connection.”
“The adjudicator mentioned it. Perhaps we should contact it to determine if we can glean any information about his whereabouts,” Alexander suggested.
“I doubt it would have any information, but it can’t hurt to ask,” Gray agreed. “We must be careful though. No one can realize we’re summoning it if we want our knowledge of the Duke’s presence to remain a secret.”
“I agree,” Alexander concurred.
“Not a word of this to anyone. Understood?” Gray asked Damien and Michael.
“Lips are sealed,” Damien said.
Michael agreed. “Not even to Celeste,” Gray added. “I find it hard to believe she’s not aware of the Duke’s arrival.
“As do I,” Alexander agreed. “Theodore and Celeste are the first people he’d have contacted upon his return.”
“We’ll summon the adjudicator tonight. I don’t want to be away from Damien when Celine may be in contact. Millie, are you and Michael okay to watch him for a few hours?”
“Sure,” Millie answered as Damien yawned.
“No problem, we’ve got it covered,” Michael responded. “And it looks like you’re about ready to hit the hay. Want to head up?”
Damien shrugged. “Yeah, the sedative is taking effect. I hate to leave this conversation, but I’m ready.” Damien stood, stretching and yawning. “At least tomorrow’s a new day and, with any luck, a new conversation with Celine.”
“Good night, Damien,” Gray said and paused. “And thanks for what you’re doing.”
“Good night, Damien. See you in the morning. Sleep well,” Alexander said.
Damien climbed the stairs with Michael in tow. Gray retrieved his clothes from the main house last night. Damien changed and climbed into bed as Michael settled into the armchair. “It’s ridiculous that I have to be monitored like a kid,” Damien complained as he settled under the sheets.
“Hey, at least you haven’t been handcuffed to your bed… yet!” Michael joked, referencing his own experience after his vampire bite courtesy of Celeste.
Damien chuckled at the joke. He laid back, contemplating the strange new world they lived in. Between the brutal aftereffects of his Shadow World visit and the sedative, he fell asleep in minutes.
Chapter 8
Celine paced the floor of her cell. The sun lowered in the sky. Marcus promised her a visit with Celeste. If she
