Read Online Crimson Dahlia by Abigail Owen - Free Book Online Page B

I
was always cold.”
    “Are
you still there?” Griffin asked.
    Lila
struggled to find her memories. She closed her eyes to better picture things.
“I think so. They dragged me through hallways and up an elevator, but never out
of the area. I’m in a separate room now, strapped to a table.”
    “Griffin,
did you catch any of that?” Ramsey asked.
    “Yeah.”
    Selene
rolled her eyes at her fiancé’s brief answer. “Is it enough to find her?”
    “No.
Once we get to where they’re holding her, we probably could find her. But she
doesn’t know exactly where that is,” Griffin said.
    “Underground,”
Ramsey muttered. Everyone turned to look at him.
    “What
about it?” Lila prompted.
    Ramsey
eyed her as though anticipating her reaction to what he was about to say. “I
feel a link with you.”
    Lila
snorted. “Since when.”
    Ramsey
frowned and stepped right up to her, within inches of touching. But she
couldn’t feel his warmth, though this close up she should be able to. “Since
you decided to go off on your own adventures. I’ve known every second where you
were and how you were.”
    Lila
paled. “How?” she asked in a shaky voice.
    “I
don’t know. I started feeling it around the time of Maddox’s attack on the
Vyusher castle.” Ramsey took a deep breath and backed away to give them both
space to breathe. “But it disappeared just recently. I was using it to try to
find you.”
    “Do
you think you know where she is?”
    Lila
caught her breath at the hope she could suddenly see in Ramsey’s eyes. It was a
desperate sort of hope. Wild.
    “I
think so,” he said, his eyes never wavering from hers. “She’s underground.
Right where I stopped feeling her is my bet. It’s why I could feel her in those
woods so constantly but never find her. She was under my feet.”
    “Jeez,”
Griffin muttered. “All this time.”
    “So
how do we get her out?” Selene asked. “What’s the plan?”
    Griffin
turned to Lila. “Do you know how many of Maddox’s people are down there?”
    Lila
shook her head.
    “Then
we’d better gather a hefty group to go,” Griffin said. “Just in case we face a
lot of resistance.”
    “I’ll
just wait here then, I guess,” Lila said.
    “I
think Griffin needs to stay with you, to keep that line of communication open
until we can get to you,” Ramsey said.
    Lila
glanced at Ramsey’s determined expression and then looked back to Selene.
“Why?”
    “If
we all leave, then you could disappear back into that fog again. I’m fairly
certain it’s the same stasis Talia was in.”
    Lila
gave her a confused look, “Uh… who’s Talia?”
    “Oh!”
Selene made a face. “Talia is that sleeping girl. She woke up just recently.”
    “Sheesh.
I get myself just a little bit captured, and all sorts of interesting things
happen.”
    “Not
funny,” Ramsey muttered to Lila.
    She
shrugged. “Yeah, it was. You just don’t have any sense of humor.”
    Ramsey
turned to face her, “Griffin’s telepathy can keep him here with you. Selene
will need to organize the Vyusher coming with us. We’ll be as fast as we can. A
few hours maybe.”
    “O—”
    Ramsey
and Selene disappeared.
    “—kay,”
Lila finished on a drawn out breath.
    She
glanced at Griffin who just shrugged. “It’s good to see you, Lila.”
    She
sent him a halfhearted smile, but her eyes remained on where Ramsey had just
been standing.
    And
she hated that it felt like a little piece of her had left when he did.

Chapter
11
     
    Ramsey
entered the Great Hall to the cacophony of fifty Vyusher preparing for battle.
He quickly found the rest of his family and went to join them. Selene stepped
up onto the dais at the front, and the Hall fell silent.
    “Every
man and woman here has volunteered,” she began. “I thank you for your noble
service. I know that Oren has gone over the plan with everyone. Once we are in
the complex, find and free any prisoners. If you can take any of Maddox’s
forces alive, do so, but