Dracula Hearts of Fire Book two of Dracula Hearts
CHAPTER SEVEN

MICHAEL ARRIVED IN NEW YORK and commenced his search for Lauren. He got a comfortable room at the Fairfield Inn and Suites hotel, but the problem was that he didn’t know where to begin his search. He was an architect and had to finish a project and bow out of bids for two others as his mind had been higgledy-piggledy since Lauren’s departure. His attempts to snap out of it were overridden by his emotions. Michael dreamt about her a lot and always awoke with such a lonely feeling. He was lost with no GPS to guide him.

Law enforcement refused to give out her address and wouldn’t even give her a message from Michael because, in the past, similar schemes lured at least two red sheriffs to their deaths. So-called friends had used the ploy to entice red sheriffs into traps. Any vampire that could boast they had eliminated a red sheriff had their status instantaneously elevated. In the world of vampires, status was significant, impressing the other evil vampires and gaining much-wanted respect. Some biters wouldn’t kill another vampire that had killed a red sheriff. It was a crazy world.

Michael ended up having lunch at Delmonico’s Steakhouse on Beaver Street, a place Lauren told him about that had great food, and he hoped there was a chance he would bump into her there. He thought the place had a great atmosphere, with tiny lamps on the tables being a nice touch, but he couldn’t enjoy it much without Lauren. Only time or Lauren could take care of Cupid and his sharp arrows. One’s emotional state needed balance, or life’s ride wasn’t pleasant.

Michael had even called a private eye, but with only her first name, he had said it was doubtful that he could track her down, never mind that following a sheriff was a dangerous business. But 42-year-old John Shaw took the case because the money was good though he promised nothing.

After less than a day of searching for Lauren, he was getting discouraged; New York City was a vast place to hunt for someone with no clues to follow; he may as well have been searching for a particular grain of rice in a fifty-pound bag. He kept his beautiful brown eyes on news stories in the chance that he would see her fighting someone in a particular area; that way, he could zero in on that location. Sheriffs almost always had specific areas to watch over. But what if weeks went by with no sign of her? Months? Michael felt like banging his head against the wall for letting her slip away.

Lauren arrived in Boston and soon discovered that Michael had moved. She went to several places they had been together, including the Boston Athenaeum, but luck was not on her side. Lauren did entertain the thought that Michael had headed to New York to search for her but quickly dismissed it. It was an idea that tickled her emotions, but she knew he had commitments in Boston, making it unlikely. She was starting to rue the day that vampires had decided to drop their last names; it made it almost impossible to track them, and of course, that was probably the point for some.

Lauren hadn’t been with Michael long enough to have been introduced to his friends; she could have gotten some information that way. She didn’t want to abandon the humans in the part of New York she had been protecting, and rumors had it that something big would go down in the city; she could feel it in her bones. Lauren headed for Logan International Airport to wait for her flight back to the Big Apple. She hoped that Michael hadn’t gotten himself into some sort of trouble.