"You must be hungry." Luca said and that was when Kaia noticed the tray of food in his hands. She smelt the rich, creamy pancakes before she saw the content of the tray and her stomach let out a loud, embarrassing rumble.
Kaia winced slightly at the sound but didn't take her eyes off Luca as he gently approached where she was and dropped the tray at the small table there.
Pancakes with a dollop of cherry jam and some blueberries by the side. Also there was a steaming cup of hot chocolate and Kaia wanted nothing but to dive in. However she couldn't be so careless, it could be drugged. This could be some human trafficking ring and once she was drugged, they could piece her apart.
They could've done that when you were unconscious, you idiot.
Kaia ignored that thought.
"Who are you? Where's my sister?" She asked, finding herself subconsciously moving back. It was subtle but it seemed Luca noticed that and he took a step backward.
"I won't hurt you." He said, his voice low as he maintained eye contact with Kaia.
Kaia wanted to look away, the intensity of his gaze was too strong but she had to establish some kind of power here. To show him that she wasn't scared even though her insides were blaring all kinds of alarms; about where Chanel was, about where she was, about what the hell was going on.
"Yeah, I don't know about that." Kaia said, scanning around for some kind of weapon she could use. There was a fork in the tray Luca just dropped. It looked sharp enough to do some damage.
Luca took two steps back. "You're hurt, and you need rest." He turned to leave. "I'll let you be."
"Thinking I would just let you go without getting answers?" Kaia shot, knowing how stupid that sounded because with a hurting, bandaged feet and the fact she was no match for Luca's big frame, there was nothing she could do to stop him from leaving.
Luca stopped anyways, looking over his shoulders shoulders for some beats then walked back and grabbed a chair, settling into it.
"Ask me your questions." He said, looking so intently at her, quietly awaiting her questions. And the look on his face told Kaia that he would answer everything.
"Where's my sister?" She asked, holding on to everything in her that they really were the ones holding Chanel. For whatever reason, she didn't care. She would feel stronger if she saw her little sister again. She would feel the life spark that went off the day Chanel went missing.
However, the slight way Luca parted his lips before thoughtfully sealing it once more told her everything she needed to know.
That was when her floodgates erupted and she choked on her sobs. "Where's– Where's my sister? What– Where–? Please tell me she's here."
"She's not." Luca said straightforwardly and winced so subtly Kaia missed it." I'm sorry, we weren't able to save her in time."
Kaia's eyes widened as she processed Luca's words." What... What do you mean "in time"?"
"She's alive." Luca reassured her quickly. " But she's been turned. She might not recognize you anymore."
Kaia was about to run mad from everything. Chanel missing, some crazy people telling her all about werewolves and vampires and wizards in the world, this ridiculously hot man not making sense about what happened to her sister, EVERYTHING.
She wanted to scream. Wanted to hit someone. But all she did was drop her head and hold it in her hands, pulling tightly at her locks. Enough to feel pain and maybe draw her out of whatever shit show nightmare she found herself in.
She wanted to wake up in her bed back at her Nashville apartment and walk into the kitchen to see Chanel playing her favorite band's awful music while mixing different types of cereals in a bowl. She wanted to argue with her sister about her spending habits and how she should stop wasting money on expensive sneakers because she already had enough. She wanted to pretend that she didn't know that her sister still vaped while thinking of a way to gently talk to her about it and how she would help if she needed to quit.
She wanted to see her sister. She wanted to see Chanel, hug her, tell her how sorry she was for being so inadequate, move away to another state, far away from all this madness.
"Where's my..." She started to ask again but shook her head. "What happened to my sister?"
Luca's grey eyes clashed with her brown ones, gauging her silently.
After a long silence, he let out a sigh. " She was turned... by the vampires."