Wolf Bound

Chapter 30: Distractions

In less than two hours we had somehow turned Vincent's precious office upside-down and into a disastrous train wreck. There were papers scattered all over his desk. Not as organized as they'd usually been, which I was sure was the cause of Vincent's cringing. Most of the books from the shelves had been tossed around on the floor in mini piles, of no use to us. The mess wasn't the worst part though. Three spell books in, and we still hadn't found any of them useful.

"How many Goddamn books does he have in here?" Vincent groaned and threw yet another useless spell book to the side. He plopped down in the chair behind his desk, massaging his temples with one hand. I sighed and took a seat on the edge of his desk beside him.

"Well, that makes four. . ." Apparently, there should have been five spell books in total. For some reason though, the fifth one was the hardest to find. There were a lot of interesting things in the first four books. Part of me couldn't believe I was looking through spell books. After all, it took a while for me to accept that shifters were real. Now, I needed to accept that magic was real? It was absolutely fucking bonkers. My reality was literally shape-shifting before my eyes.

Regardless, if the first four books didn't have what we were looking for, then the last one must have had it. And by the looks of it, we were fucked. Because without that book, there was no learning about those spells or performing them again. As if he could sense my negative thoughts, Vincent looked up at me with narrowed eyes.

"Is Amaury sure he didn't misplace the last book?" he asked.

"He says he didn't and I can't get in contact with him right now," I said.

"That's just great." Vincent slouched in a way I'd never seen him before. His eyes were shut, his hands folded on his lap as he tilted his head back towards the ceiling.

I chimed in, "If it wasn't Amaury who misplaced it, could someone else have?"

One of his eyes opened. "What? Like someone beside me?"

"Maybe?" I shrugged.

"But that would mean someone touched something they weren't supposed to. . ."

"And stole it," I finished his sentence, frowning, "has anyone been in here recently?"

"Not without permission . . . that I know of." Vincent gritted his teeth and forced his fingers through his curls. "Few people come in and out of here. Most of the time they're here when I'm in the room. I can't imagine anyone could have grabbed that book without me knowing. . ."

"So if someone did take it, they would have had to do it while you were gone. Whether you gave them permission to access your office or not. . ." The revelation shot chills from my head to my toes until my nerves were in a bundle of anguish. I didn't like the idea that someone could've been roaming the house while I was here—if someone were sneaking around.

"But that's. . ." Ridiculous, I'd imagined he was going to say. Or perhaps, something else along those lines. It was indeed ridiculous. But not impossible.

"Okay. . . I guess we can call it a day for now. It'll be pretty late soon." Vincent sat up straight and leaned forward, laying his elbows on his desk. Both of his eyes were closed again as he inhaled a deep breath of air, then rested his chin on his hands.

I occupied myself with the nearest book. Nothing interesting was in it. But it refrained me from saying something stupid and embarrassing myself. It'd only been three days. So, I didn't know why the hell I was acting like Vincent and I had been separated for three years. I could last another night alone with him. He wasn't going to run away from me again. Well, I'd hoped.