บท 34: Starting Point
LUCAS
"Russell." Lucas took long strides towards the scientist who had just stepped out of the elevator and dropped the tablet he was holding when he heard the Alpha call his name.
He quickly picked up the tablet before Lucas got to him. "Alpha, we still haven't made any –"
"Where's Imani?" Lucas asked, cutting him off.
"Sir?" It took him a moment to process the question and his eyes widened slightly. "Oh, Miss Tallerico. I saw her with Lucille on the fourth floor over an hour ago but they're no longer there. I came here to find them because they're not on the other floors either."
Lucas furrowed his brows since he still saw her car in the parking lot on his way into the building and began to wonder where she could be. He walked past the scientist as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialled her number before he hit the elevator call button. After a little while of ringing, the call ended when she didn't answer it and Lucas dialled her number again. He stepped into the elevator when the doors dinged open and began to tap his foot on the floor as he waited for her to answer the call. She didn't.
Lucas had just gotten back to the lab a couple of minutes ago. He would have been back earlier but addressing his people took more time than he thought it would and they all had a lot of questions. Questions like how long would it take to find a vaccine and a cure, when would the virus finally be curbed, when will their lives return to normal and so on. He'd answered the questions as best as he could but he didn't give a specific answer whenever they asked when the vaccine and cure to the virus will be found.
He couldn't see their reactions to the things he said because he had addressed them by going live on Shifters, the pack's social network, so he could only see what they typed. Shifters was just like the Weaver app but it was for all the werewolves in the world and it was divided into sections for different packs. He addressed them on the social network because he couldn't have people congregated in a hall when there was a virus going on a rampage and because they couldn't talk over themselves there.
When he told them that Imani was in the lab, most of them had been excited and wanted to see her while the others were indifferent because they felt that she was Lucas' girlfriend and she was only just showing up to help his people now. He didn't address the rumours about him dating Imani because they would have more questions about that and he really didn't want to spend a lot time trying to convince them that he and Imani weren't in a relationship.
Besides, he had been thinking about the message he received from the unknown number before he left the lab. It was obviously a threat and Lucas does not respond well to threats, especially one that he was sure came from a vampire. To be more specific, Nikolay Ponchikova - the vampire king.
The message made him remember the vampire from Quik that had tossed the delivery bag over the gate of Imani's house on Sunday. He had thought the vampire did that just because he saw him but now he was sure it was because he saw him in Imani's house and that was more than enough to confirm the dating rumours so he ran back to tell Nikolay about it.
With the things that had been happening recently, Lucas hadn't realized that being associated with Imani will get her dragged into the long-standing feud between werewolves and vampires but he sure as hell wouldn't allow her to get hurt.
He walked out of the elevator when its doors slid open and surveyed the lobby. The humanoid robots that had been behind the counter before he left the building were no longer there.
He was sure that she was still in the building because she couldn't be anywhere else but that didn't stop one thought from running through his mind repeatedly.
'Could vampires have taken her?'
Vampires don't go into werewolf territories unless they wanted to start a fight and the message from the unknown number proved that was exactly what they wanted. He knew they couldn't have taken her because anyone that didn't have their prints in the system couldn't get into the building.
'But what if she had stepped out of the building to grab something from her car? ...No, Lucille would have followed her because she can't get into the building without access.'
He dialled Lucille's number as he took in a deep breath. There were different scents in the lobby but Imani's scent stood out to him and his head snapped up before he guessed that it was from when she walked into the building with him and when she followed him out to unlock her car.
"Lucas," a voice called out as the call ended and he glanced to his left to see Lucy approaching him. "It's nice of you to check up on us today. Also nice of you to finally bring your girlfriend around."
"Lucy –"
"Oh, I'm just Lucy to you now," she stated before her eyes darted to the floor when she realized that she just cut him off.
She had only ever been just Lucy to him. He knew that during the brief time they'd spent together, she expected the both of them to get married even though he made it clear that would never happen.
His phone buzzed in his hand and his eyes darted away from the woman in front of him and at it. He immediately answered the call when he saw Imani's name on the screen.
"Lucas?" came her voice over the phone just as Lucas heard it down the hallway on his right and he headed there at wolf speed, stopping directly in front of Imani who was standing next to Lucille.
"Oh my God," she jolted as her heart rate elevated and her phone dropped to the ground. "Do you people want me to die of shock? Can't you just -"
She instantly stopped talking when Lucas cupped her face with his hands before he scanned her body. "Where were you?" he asked in a gentle voice.
She opened her mouth to reply him but no words came out as she was really distracted by how close he was and the way he was staring into her eyes. Her heart was still pounding but it was no longer because of he'd suddenly appeared in front of her and she swallowed.
"Where were you guys?" The question was directed at the other scientist.
"We were in the forest," Lucille replied before she took in a deep breath. "Imani might have found where the virus is coming from."
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