“We know who bought him,” Paige said, “but we don’t know their real name.”
“Who?” she asked.
“Sansom. He bought him for Frankford,” Lily said.
“Frankford is dead, though,” Ellie said.
“Sansom took him back,” Paige stated.
Ellie pinched the bridge of her nose. “Sansom was one of the covered ones. He never showed his face, not clearly. I don’t think I could identify him if I saw him.”
“That’s fine,” Lily said.
“I know what he looks like,” Lincoln said. “I don’t know who he is, though. I’d never seen him before or after those auctions.”
“So what do we do?” Ellie asked. “How do we get him back?”
“We can’t yet,” Lily said. “We know who has him, but we don’t know his real identity, and we don’t know where he’s being held. We cannot rush this.”
“Sansom is a key player,” Lincoln said. “He was always front row. I’m pretty sure there wasn’t an auction he didn’t buy at.”
“We’ve been looking for my brother for months,” Ellie said. I could feel her shaking. “We know who has him. Why can’t we do something?”
“We are,” Fischer said. “But this is a long process and we can’t afford to mess it up.”
She slammed her hand on the tabletop. “Every. Single. Fucking. Day. He’s in that monster’s hands is another day we lose more of him. Do any of you realize what they did to me? I was hard at fourteen when they grabbed me, but I didn’t fucking enjoy being broken down and used as a human fleshlight. I knew what I was, I was old enough to reason it out, and I was able to hide in my head. Ben is six. They are destroying him, cell by cell. I’m not even sure he’d remember me at this point because that’s what they do.”
She slapped her hand on her head. “They get in here, they carve you out. They rip away whatever made you you. And they replace it with literal nothing. You know what I was like in the hospital! I was clinically insane for four weeks because suddenly my nothing was filling with me again! And you think a six year old can survive this!?” She slammed her hand on her head again. “He can’t! He’s a baby! He’s my Benjamin! We need to get him back here!”
Fischer grabbed her hand and pulled it away from her head where she was hitting herself, hard. “Stop. Ellie, do you think we aren’t working on this every day? Of course, we want Ben out of there. His adoption papers are sitting in Paige’s desk, just waiting for him. We want him here. But this is huge and you know that. We can’t go charging in like Don Quixote at a windmill. We need a precise strike.”
Her eyes flared in a way I had never seen before. There seemed to be fire in them, and Lily saw it as well. She glanced at me, worry on her face.
“I have a fucking sword. I’ll give them such a precise strike—”
“Ellie!” Lily snapped, her eyes cutting over to Paige.
Slamming both hands on the table, Ellie pushed to her feet. “I don’t give a shit right now. I want to know where my brother is.”
“Ellie, stop,” I barked at her.
She wasn’t going to be stopped. “I will get him back since none of you can do anything!”
Her hand slipped over her shoulder and I saw the sword start to shimmer into existence. Lily wanted to leap over the table to stop her. Paige was sitting there, looking terrified of my daughter, and Ellie was about to do something I didn’t think we would ever repair.
I needed to stop her.
“Elutheria Persephone!” the name roared out of me, and a sensation like the very air around us was shaking ripped through the room. “Drop it right now!”
The sword shimmered away. Paige was now staring at me, and so were Lily, Fischer, and Lincoln. Ellie looked terrified and sheepish.
I stood slowly and stared at her. “If you think that we aren’t trying to get him, and the other thousands of children trapped in the Pipeline out, you really don’t know who we are, do you? Sit. Down.”
She dropped back into her chair. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Step out, Wren,” Fischer said, quietly.
Nodding tersely, I spun and marched out the back door. I made it halfway across the patio before my legs gave out and I sank to the ground.
What the fuck had I done in there.
“Christ, Wren,” Lily gasped, dropping to the ground next to me. “Are you all right?”
“Can’t walk,” I managed, pulling my knees up and dropping my head to them. “I don’t know what the hell just happened in there. Ellie was about to pull her flameblade with Paige—”
“I saw,” Lily said. It was quiet a minute. “Paige suspects there’s something more going on here, but you made the right call stopping Ellie. Paige shouldn’t see that.”
“But what did I do?” I whispered. “You saw. You saw everything shake and shiver when I yelled.”
Lily looked down at the ground and swallowed again, then grabbed my hand. “You’ve been learning to use the sword for two weeks now. It’s from Hades. It has all the properties of Hades. Just like you. It was bound to start connecting you to it at some point. And the more you touch it, the stronger you connect, to both it and the After. And the stronger you connect…” she hauled in a deep breath, “the more power you’re going to awaken. That was a small, and I mean small sampling of what you’re capable of.”
“What did I do?”
“You just got a little angry and…uh…shook space a bit.”
I turned my head and stared at her. “I did what?”
“You grabbed some molecules that exist, like quarks and gluons, and rattled them together to shake the space around you. It happens when you’re angry. It takes time to learn how to do it and how not to do it.”
I blinked a few times at her. “You’re serious.”
“Absolutely.”
Dropping my head back to my knees, I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “This is unreal.”
“This is the most real,” Lily said. “There’s one other thing I need to tell you. Paige may have some idea that we’re not just average people.”
“Why?”
“When we first traced Ben into the Pipeline, it was an ugly mess and the mother shot the father in the living room before I could get the information out of him. I…uh…used some of my power to yank his soul back before it got to Tartarus to get him to talk.”
My eyes were wide. “You can do that?”
“You can do that,” Lily said. “You don’t understand how powerful you are. Everything Luce can do, you can do. You’re his twin. You’ve been cut off from it and the sword is reconnecting you.”
“Is Ellie okay?”
“Just surprised.” Lily smirked.
“Paige?”
Lily rolled her eyes. “Confused and oblivious as ever.”
“Well, I guess we don’t have to erase her memory.”
“I try not to do that.” Lily coughed.
I glanced at her, and she gave me a one shoulder shrug. Narrowing my eyes, I considered her. “Lil, did you ever flashy-thing me?”
She chuckled. “Honestly, no. I really do try not to do that. I have—especially at the house when I pulled the guy back—but it’s not my go to method.”
My legs felt better, and while everything was still whirling in my head, I was calm enough to go back into the house. “We should go back—”
Lily let out a little gasp. “Barry,”
“What? Who?”
She shot to her feet and yanked me to mine. “Mederos can help us find Sansom. We need to find Mederos.”
Lincoln
The phone alerts on either side of the bed went off. Fischer groped for his and I grabbed Wren’s, holding it out for her.
She squinted at it in the low light of dawn.
“CHoP,” she grumbled and sat up to try and pay attention to it.
“CHoP,” Fischer said, and also sat up. “Shit. All hands, no media.”
I finally sat up, and looked at the two of them. “What’s that mean?”
/>
“There’s a good chance they’ve found another stable, and busted it,” Wren answered. “They’ll need both of us for triage and assessment.”
She nudged Fischer out of the bed and climbed out after him. The two of them hurried around the room, dressing quickly, and heading for the door.
Wren came over and dropped a quick kiss on my lips. “Don’t change the plans for today. Take Laxmi or Miriam, and keep looking for Bastian. I’m sure that Lily will be trapped with us at the hospital or on scene.”
“You got it, little bird,” I said.
After another quick kiss, she was out the door after Fischer and I found myself staring up at the ceiling alone in the massive king bed we usually shared.
No one had seen Sebastian in nearly a week, and no one knew where he could be. But oddly enough, Ellie had said he’d been there for her appointment, and when I pulled the logs for the security system, sure enough he’d been there for her and another patient. His arrival coincided with hers, and the lock coincided with her leaving. Same with the second patient.
I was at a loss. I didn’t know what the hell to do. Or why the hell I felt a magnetic pull toward him.
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I finally climbed out of bed and headed for the bathroom. I couldn’t stay in bed all day, but I wasn’t ready to face this stupid search again.
Ellie was in the kitchen with the twins. She looked up and smiled at me. “Morning, Linc.”
Tabitha and Timothy launched themselves at me, and sing-songed their good mornings. There was no stopping the smile that came over me.
“When can we go to regular school, Daddy?” Tabi asked.
I was instantly on alert. “You don’t like your tutor?”
“We like Miss Junie fine,” Tim said, “but I miss real school with bells and lunch and gym.”
“I don’t like gym,” Tabi said. “But I like school.”
“You just want to go to regular school.” I looked between the two of them.
“Yes,” they chorused.
“Okay, well, let’s talk to Mom and Fischer and see what we can do about getting you into the school. But if Mom says you’re not ready, we’re going to trust her, right?”
“Always, Daddy.” Tim smiled.
How the hell had I gone from a selfish, greedy playboy to a man with a good woman, a best friend, and three kids? I would never get tired of hearing these two calling me ‘daddy.’ And Ellie trusted me too. It was such a strange place to be, and yet comforting.
“Are you going out today?” Ellie asked.
“I am,” I answered.
“Can I come?”
“You have school.” I knew what she was trying to do. “Please don’t argue. I know you want to help, but you need more time training. The display the other day kind of proved that, baby doll. You just need time. Plus, I’ll feel better if I know you’re just up the road a bit and can bust out to come running back here to Tim and Tabi.”
She sighed and stared at him. “That’s not fair using the kids.”
“All’s fair in love and war, my sweet.” I grinned.
She huffed then downed her orange juice in two gulps. “Fine, fine. I’ll stay.” She walked over and smacked a kiss on my cheek. “But you’re a jerk for that.”
“Just get more practice, baby doll, then you can come along. You’re strong and we all know it. Just young.”
“Whatever,” she mumbled, but I could see the pride in her face.
Minutes after Ellie was out the door, Miss Junie walked into the house with a chirpy happy good morning. I motioned the kids down to the library, and had June wait.
“They’re asking about school, full time.”
She nodded proudly. “They’re just about ready.”
“You’re not upset?”
“I knew from the get-go the goal was to get them acclimated to normal, and get them back into a regular school, mainstream. They’re doing really well, and I’m also glad they asked. It means I’m doing my job right, Mister Foster. There are thousands of other children I can help along the way. So no, I’m not mad at all.”
“Thank you, June. You’ve been amazing.”
“Those children are amazing, and they just bring it out of me.” She patted my shoulder and headed into the library to start their school day.
I stared at the coffee mug a little longer while I tried to figure out what to do about this missing doctor situation. He had changed the message on his machine to say that he was backing off taking appointments. There was no sign of him at the townhouse, save those appointments. He was just missing.
I was going to be pissed if he missed Ellie’s regular appointment. She was doing so much better with herself between Wren and Bastian that it would be unfair of him to just miss it—though Ellie would understand.
Wren and Fischer had planned something today to see if they could find him, but I came up with a different idea as I sat there.
John Doe. I knew there would be a concentration of police personnel at the hospitals if they found and broke another trafficking stable. That meant that I might get in through the dropping of Lily’s name to see if I could visit any John Does in the different hospitals.
We had to find this guy. I didn’t know who Barry was, but from what Lily was able to tell us, he was our key and one of the most unsavory motherfuckers to roam the streets.
I suspected that the wife of Lucifer didn’t use the phrase lightly.
I scrubbed my hands over my face. This really was all slightly incomprehensible to me—but it always hit me again when I saw the bruises on people’s wrists from their sins, and when any of the versilange pulled their flameblade.
Or when I remembered why my car was slammed into a wall after running away from a damn demon who was trying to eat my children. Or take their soul. Or whatever the fuck he was doing.
Grabbing the keys, I decided to hit Penn Medical first. Everyone would be over at CHoP and St. Chris with the kids. The patient care advocate there was helpful when I dropped Lily’s name, and gave me the pictures of the current John Does. There were three and none of them looked like Bastian at all.
I kept it in the back of my mind that he could be beaten up very badly—which did strange things to me. I didn’t want to ever see anyone beaten, but something about Bastian being hit and hurt made butterflies slam dance in my gut.
The same kind of slamming they did when I thought about Wren, Fischer, or the kids being hurt.
Goddamn it.
There was no denying that Sebastian Mederos was hot. Achingly so. And really, we’d only had a few interactions, including the one in the hospital. But I’d noticed him—so had my bisexuality, and all kinds of thoughts leapt into my head.
I didn’t need this. I was in love with Wren. This didn’t need to be any more complicated.
I walked into Thomas Jefferson and repeated my act, playing Lily’s credentials. They were also accommodating, but they also only had one John Doe. The other two were Jane Does.
There were a lot of hospitals in the area and this was going to take me a while. I decided that hitting UPenn and the ME’s office was going to be the best use of the time. Get the medical examiner out of the way.
Hopefully with no results.
UPenn was more accommodating after I also dropped Wren’s and Fischer’s names. They had three John Does, none Bastian.
The medical examiner’s office was just down the street. I hurried down there so I could have some hope to get to the other hospitals.
Someone who wasn’t the ME was sitting at the desk working on paperwork. He turned and smiled at me, and walked forward wearing all of his protective cover ups.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes, hi. I’m Lincoln Foster. I’m working with Detective Lily Haden on the sex trafficking case and we’re trying to locate someone. He’s been missing a week, but we can’t put out a missing persons report yet. We’re just trying to see if he’s shown up as a John Doe, and so far the hospitals are leadi
ng nowhere.”
“Ooh, man,” he said. “It sucks that you’re here. We have three Johns and two Janes.”
“I’d have to see the Johns,” I answered.
“In person?”
“Uh…do you have pictures? I don’t think I need to go into the freezer.”
He chuckled. “No, no one really ever wants to go in there. Including me, really. Let me grab those pictures.” He walked back to the desk. “How do you know Lily?”
She’s my lover’s sister-in-law, married to the devil. That wasn’t going to work at all. “She’s a friend. I’m working with her as a…uh…civilian consult.”
“Ah, okay,” he said. “I’m Reid, by the way. Doctor Reid Sadowski. Assistant ME.”
“Good to meet you. Wish it was under better circumstances,” I answered.
He walked back over with a file folder and opened it up.
I regretted this immediately.
None of the faces were familiar, but they were beaten and crusted and—there was a snake in the one man’s hair. I blinked hard and saw the real picture, with no bruises or cuts.
“Shit,” I breathed, tracing the form in the picture. I could even see sins in pictures.
“You know him?” Reid asked.
“No, but…” I let out a huge breath. “This one is going to remain a John Doe, isn’t he? He had gang tats? Left to rot somewhere? Maybe some fingers broken?”
Reid stared at me. “All of the above.”
“Shirtless, shivved in the back between ribs, right into the heart, but it was only nicked so he bled out for hours before he finally died.” I traced the gash over his eyebrows, and studied the two black eyes that weren’t really there. “He was killed because he raped someone. Probably more than one someone. Left them beaten and for dead, but they were found. His death is justice served because the law failed those women.” A bolt shot through my brain. “Three women. A mother and daughter, and a friend. And when the brother came in, shot and raped him as well.”
I looked up. “He’s better off dead.”
Reid was shocked. A moment later, he gathered himself and whispered, “Zhadanjir rek’cherade.”
My brain translated it. “The darkest ones be damned eternally.”
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