Sebastian stood in the middle of Rachelle's pink-and-flower-decorated living room like a sore thumb. Champagne flute dangling from his fingers like a broken thing.
The party buzzed around him—shifters laughing, humans flirting, music thumping, Beatrice giving him some flirty, seductive looks —but all he could hear and feel was the silence where Lucas' voice should have been.
"You look like shit, Seb. How are you coping?" Maximus, who was munching on one of the pink donuts in his left hand while sipping soda from his right, asked.
Sebastian looked up, his eyes sunken, evidently deprived of sleep since Lucas's departure. He smiled bitterly at him, muttering a low, "I feel like it."
Lucian looked at the vampire and smiled thinly. "We'll find him. Timothy had already been asking different packs if they had seen a light brown lone wolf".
"Oh yeah, he also had to spread his pictures around those packs, just in case he will be in his human form."
Sebastian could barely utter a word as he slowly took a deep breath. He smiled tightly at Max and nodded his head. Lucian, who had been watching his reactions, tapped Max and nodded his head towards Timothy's direction.
Quietly muttering "We need to go" towards Max.
Sebastian took a sip. The champagne had gone flat. He followed his gaze to the empty chair in the corner—the one that Lucas had always claimed, tucked just close enough to the group to not seem rude, just far enough to bolt if he needed to.
Someone had left a cupcake there, the pink frosting sweating in the heat.
"He's not coming?" The question came like a screeching halt in Sebastian's ears.
Sebastian's chest ached. Not the bond—that had gone quiet, like a TV left on mute. No, this was just… him. His ribs pressing in too tight. His lungs were forgetting how to work right.
"I called him," he said, his voice filled with restraints, as if trying to mask the sadness that lingered for a long time. "Twice. No answer, just went straight to voicemail."
Rachelle's mouth twisted. She didn't say, I told you so. She didn't have to.
Across the room, Beatrice laughed at something some guy said. The sound was too bright. Wrong. Lucas would've rolled his eyes at it. Would've caught Sebastian's gaze and shared the joke without words.
Now there was just silence where he should've been.
"Rache, I think I need to—" "Go?" Sebastian set his cup down on the table near him. Liquid sloshes over the rim, alcohol splashing on his fingers.
"Go. Find him. We'll just be here whenever you need us."
He didn't look back as he left. The door clicked shut behind him, sealing away the music, the laughter, and the empty chair.
Outside, the air was cold, chilly some might say, against the skin of the cold one. Sebastian stood on the porch, taking his phone out of his pocket.
His last text to Lucas was still there, unanswered: You got home, okay?
Sent days ago.
He took a deep sigh and tried to dial Lucas' number again. [No answer].
Sebastian felt the anger in his chest as he smashed his phone onto the gravel. "Fuck! Where the hell are you?"
He went back to the meadow that once belonged to him and Lucas. The lavender scent that surrounded it slowly clouded his mind.
Outside of the forest, a car alarm went off. A dog barked. Someone shouted, and life kept moving.
Sebastian? He closed his eyes and wished Lucas was there to comfort him.
---
The highway stretched before them like a scar across the land. Lucas sat in the rusted Cadillac, his forehead pressing against the cool glass of the passenger window. Slowly watching those telephone poles flick past in a steady rhythm.
The hum of the engine vibrated through his bones, a low, constant thing—the same feeling of his fading bond, a persistent ache in his chest.
Aida tapped her fingers against the steering wheel in time to some old country song on the radio. Silence engulfed them as they passed through each town, leading to the cloudy south of Tanesab.
"Have you been in Tanesab before?" she quietly asked, breaking the deafening silence between them. Lucas opened his eyes and hummed lowly. "Once." Aida nodded slowly at the short answer Lucas gave.
"Mm."
Aida took a slow drag of her cigarette before cracking the window to let the smoke curl into the cold wind. "It's a nice place. A place that has a way of taking in strays. You'll fit right in."
Lucas grumbled under his breath as he took a slow, deep inhale. The landscape outside blurred—fields giving way to the dense forest, the road winding upward to the hills.
They passed along a green sign surrounded by wallflower.
Tanesab—10 miles.
"Almost there, pup." Aida exhaled another puff of smoke through her nose. The thought made his stomach twist. He's really doing this. He's already far from home.
Was he really ready to start anew in this cold, unknown place?
Aida glanced at him sidelong. "Do you have someone to call? Letting them know you are not dead in a ditch somewhere?"
Lucas flexed his fingers against his knees. His phone was still off, buried at the bottom of his pocket like a guilty secret.
He shook his head and slowly muttered, "No one to call."
Aida smugly snorted, yet didn't push.
They drove in silence for a while longer, the sun dipping low in the sky. The sky grew cooler as they climbed, the scent of pine and damp earth seeping through the cracked windows.
Soon, they reached the border, a huge arch that spelled out Tanesab, weathered and peeling at the edges.
"We are here, pup."
Lucas swallowed hard. Somewhere beyond those trees was a fresh start. A place where no one knew him, where the ghost of Sebastian's touch couldn't reach.
Lucas looked at the sign as they slowly passed onto it. Lucas inhaled a deep breath and slowly breathed out.
"You nervous, pup?" Lucas stayed silent as the Cadillac rumbled on, carrying them further into the village and away from everything he'd ever known.
"No. Not anymore."