One scream of frustration later, and Nikolai was staring at a damaged hotel wall, with a now broken phone lying on the floor below. Sitting on the couch, her lovely, off-the-shoulder cashmere sweater and jeans beginning to acquire stains, was Petra. He stiffened slightly, grateful he was across the room. While she wasn’t known for her temper, she still had one, and one didn’t want to be on the receiving end of her ire.
“I’m so angry I could punch someone.” she growled, red blemishing her face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, approaching her, now that he was sure he wouldn’t be a target.
“Men!” she snapped, then buried her face in her hands.
He sat down next to her, placing an arm around her, and she leaned into him. “What did they do this time?” he asked, guessing it was Vince related, and nothing new.
“Just the usual cluelessness.” she muttered. “He’s so dense he wouldn’t know I cared even if someone beat him with that fact.” she snuggled into him, gripping his arm firmly, but not too tight.
“How could he?” she finally said, tears running down her face. “He told me he loved me, yet he loves someone else… is pursuing them…he had so much time to tell me before…is he just toying with me??” she said aloud, leaning heavily against Nikolai.
“Vince?” he asked.
“No, Brandon.” she sighed. “He said that I would have never been happy with him the way he is…yet he never even thought to try. I don’t know if I would have been either…but couldn’t we have tried? Couldn’t we have made those memories so that we’d have them? Now he tells me he’s dying due to a curse…and doesn’t want me around! So much wasted time…” She turned, and buried her face in his shoulder.
He scowled. How dare he. He couldn’t remember a time she had been so upset, and he’d been serving her for centuries. He could feel his own baby beast stirring in the back of his mind, but for now he worked on soothing her, and getting her cleaned up. Eventually he got the tears to stop, and helped get her cozy. She looked exhausted; drained.
“Nikolai, you should go.” she finally said.
“What do you mean?” he asked, fearful for a moment she might be disowning him for some reason.
“Go out for the night. I’d like to be alone.” she mumbled, running her finger around the mug of hot tea he’d brought her. She couldn’t drink it, but she liked the warmth all the same.
“Alright. I’ll come back in the morning.” he said, and left her in the suite’s main bedroom, before heading to his area. There, he changed, getting out of the clothes she’d cried on, so he wouldn’t be walking around stained. He grabbed his jacket and the hotel key card, and left, leaving her with the rental car’s keys in case she decided to leave.
But where to go? Phoenix was a big city, and he wasn’t sure what to do. A drink first, he decided, and then…then he would hunt. While he was better in the wilderness, he was still a good tracker in urban areas, and it would pass the time, trying to find Vince or Brandon — preferably Vince, because he had done the least of the damage to her. Brandon? He may well have broken her, at least for now. Someone deserved to know. That, or he just needed to talk. He didn’t know yet what he was going to say — but it was worth talking to someone about her. It hurt him to see her like that, and he could only imagine what she was going through.
He pictured her again, crumpled, small, and defeated in that moment. It angered him, and he punched the nearest surface, leaving a wall chipped. He thought over when Petra had last seen both Brandon and Vince — it had been a few days ago, at the Chase building, he remembered, so he headed that way. Knowing it was an Elysium, he figured it was likely to be guarded, and if so, he would try to get someone — anyone — to tell him how to find Vince, and go from there.