I helped them out with eyewitness facts once in a while. Mostly I kept quiet. It was too painful to go over it again.
All I wanted to do now was find out where they’d gone. And then get my beloved man-tiger back.
“There is a piece of good news, though,” said Rufus. “If she’s willing, I’ll let Finola tell you that herself.”
“Oh. Oh, yeah. I’m pregnant.” My voice sounded flat and tired.
Dahlia’s squeals could probably have been heard on the other side of Dublin.
“We’ll bring him home,” Lucas said, once he’d hugged me. “Don’t you worry about that, Fin. And, oh man, he’ll be so be thrilled when he finds out he’s a dad. This is epic news.”
“Bad girl,” Dahlia whispered in my ear, after everyone else had wandered away. “After all the safe sex lectures you gave me?” She was just teasing, but she had a point.
“Yeah, I don’t know what happened. I was… reckless.”
“It’s okay. Lucas told me all about shifters and fated mates and how you can’t fight it even if you try. You’re excused, just this once.” She laughed and kissed me on the cheek. “I cannot wait to meet your baby tiger.”
“Seriously? You know about shifters? You know about… Lucas?”
“Yeah. He’s a liger, whatever the hell that is. I don’t know. This whole situation is batshit crazy. It’s just one more thing in a sea of weird.”
“I know. It is a little… odd. But did Lucas tell you I may have… some…”
“Magical ancestry? Yeah. He mentioned it.” She put her hands on her hips, in mock outrage. “What the hell, lady? Why didn’t I know about this before? That is so cool!”
We laughed together. It temporarily damped down the rising fear and grief in my heart.
Isabel insisted I rest on the bed while she, Rufus and Lucas discussed how to proceed. I did as she told me. It was quite right that I do my best to protect the baby. And, truth be told, I was exhausted.
Dahlia sat on the edge of the bed with my hairbrush in her hand. She brushed out my wild waves with long, soothing strokes.
“So you need to tell me everything. What's it like being with a shifter? Is he a normal man, apart from the claws and teeth? Is he somebody you're happy to bring home to meet your mother?”
“It depends who you mean by my mother. If you mean my adoptive mother, then yes. But I haven’t introduced them yet. I will, soon.”
“You’re back in touch?” Dahlia looked genuinely excited for me.
I realized how much I’d missed her cheerful company lately.
“Yeah. I went to see them. I’m so relieved. Everything is fine with them. My mum’s been sick but she’s improving a little. Dad takes great care of her. And yes, Sebastian’s normal. If you can call a billionaire banker normal. Possibly not. Anyway, he’s cool.”
“So glad about your family.” She tugged at a tangle and I yelped. “Sorry. Oh, wow, you got hella knots in here, girl. Yeah, Sebastian did seem nice. He bought me a ton of food and told me how great you were in about thirty different ways. How can I do anything but love him after that?”
My throat ached with sadness. It would all be perfect right now, if only he were here.
If only he wasn’t in mortal danger.
Lucas and Rufus announced that they were going to call their various magical contacts. If anyone had any information about Sebastian, they said, then they’d find it.
Dahlia watched Lucas intently as he punched buttons on his cellphone. Her eyes were wide and adoring.
Did she have a little crush on him, I wondered?
I remembered how I’d been convinced Dahlia would find Lucas attractive, the evening I met him. That was back at the restaurant in Cornwall.
That night seemed a lifetime ago now.
Isabel came to sit by the bed. She smiled at us both.
“Time to get back to learning the Grand Trine wording, sweetheart. Are you ready?”
I nodded. Dahlia moved further down the bed, but stayed with us.
Isabel cleared her throat. “Okay, let’s kick off with a complicated bit. ‘O mighty source whence universal paragons were formed’. Repeat that.”
“O mighty source when the… parallel uni… universal paralyze… Oh mighty universal source of… Oh, I can’t get this right. I can’t.”
I flopped back onto the bed.
“It’s hopeless, isn’t it? I’m no good at memorizing stuff. Not even when it isn’t a life and death situation. Now I have baby brain to contend with. That’s on top of my natural terribleness.”
“Actually, baby brain is a myth,” Dahlia interjected. “My aunty Val, the midwife, says…”
I silenced her with a stare.
Isabel gripped me by both shoulders, leaning down to look right into my eyes.
“You can do this. You know you can.”
“I don’t. I can’t.”
“You can. We are going to find Sebastian and we’re going to do the Grand Trine. Say it.”
I shut my eyes, furious with myself. Why couldn’t I just absorb it easily? What sort of halfwitted witch was I?
But the fact was, I had no choice. It was either work hard now and get Sebastian back, or lose him forever.
“Okay,” I said, exhaling slowly. “I’m going to make a supreme effort. And I am going to nail this thing.”
“Bravo!” Isabel clapped me on the back.
“That’s my girl,” Dahlia said, squeezing my arm.
We noticed Lucas grabbing Rufus’ arm, while both men were busy on their cellphones. They both suddenly stopped talking.
It looked like Lucas had information.
We cut short our own conversations, waiting impatiently for the conclusion. Rufus closed his call too and watched Lucas.
“Yeah. Okay. Great. Thanks so much, Beelu. Talk soon.” He hung up.
“Well?” I almost burst from the suspense of it.
“Good news. Sebastian’s still alive.”
I shouted “Oh!”, Dahlia said “Yess!” and Isabel said “All right”.
Rufus just clenched his fist and shook it at the air, looking intense but pleased.
“Tell us more,” he said.
Lucas nodded. “One of Lavery’s hired goons broke away from the group while they were traveling. He’s been talking about the kidnap in the shifter community. Unfortunately, he’s not sure exactly where Lavery and the group are headed. But they’re definitely still in Ireland. And the plan is to keep Sebastian alive until around five o’clock this afternoon. There’s some sort of planetary alignment or something. Lavery wants to wait until then for the dark magic ritual. Something to do with it being auspicious. Who knows what that madman’s reasoning is.”
“We still have a good chunk of time to catch him, then,” said Rufus, checking his watch. “If we can locate Sebastian before then, and if Finola can learn the Grand Trine magic, we’re in with an excellent chance of saving the day.”
He seemed genuinely pumped to hear this information. They all did.
But fear still gripped me in its shadowy claws.
“What if I can’t get my head around the magic?” I said.
Everybody looked at me.
“You’ll do it,” Dahlia said, quietly. “I know you, babe. I know there’s nobody more determined than you when you put your mind to something.”
I looked at her. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Once you make a decision, you can move worlds. Look how you got yourself to college, against all the odds. You’re unstoppable. And I’d trust you with my life. You’ve got this, babe. You know you have.”
Her faith in me was so touching, I started to cry again. Damn these stupid hormonal tears.
Lucas took my hand. “I’ll tell you what,” he said. “If we don’t manage to do this, I’ll blame myself. Not you. I’m half-lion, half-tiger, so I’m the same as Lavery. And I still can’t find a way to stop him.”
He looked deeply pained by this.
“But you can do this, Fi
nola. In fact, only you can. You’re not even a shifter and you still have more power than me in this situation. And you’re guarding the next generation too.”
“But I-”.
“It’s this simple, girl. Are you gonna step up and be a superhero, or what?” He winked.
I smiled through my tears.
“I love your thinking, but… My visions. My migraine visions predicted my own death. You all know what that means. What if I don’t even make it to this evening? What if the baby…”
I couldn’t continue that sentence, or even that thought. The idea that my baby might not be safe made my heart hurt.
Rufus shook his head. “We don’t know which event the visions relate to though. Your death could be months or years from now. Or decades. Hopefully the latter.”
“It probably isn’t though. Is it?”
Isabel sighed. “You know what? We don’t know. We have no way of knowing how long it takes for every death premonition to become reality. It sounds harsh, but you can’t let it paralyze you. There’s no way of preventing it. There’s no way of finding out any more about it. The only thing you can do is move on like it never happened. How will it help to spend all your time worrying about it? How will it help Sebastian if you’re terrified to make any moves in case every minute is your last? It won’t. Let’s get this job done, people.”
“I can see you must be a formidable doctor behind enemy lines,” Rufus grinned.
She shrugged. “I do my best. Let’s jump to it, guys. We’ve got magic to work here.”
35
Twenty minutes later, we were driving around Dublin in an SUV that Rufus seemed to have acquired from his recently-dismissed security team.
“I have my ways” is all he would say about it. We didn’t probe further.
Isabel and I sat in the central row of seats. I tried hard not to hurl every time the vehicle hit a pothole in the road.
“There has to be some way of harnessing whatever magical heritage I have. Something that would make me absorb these magic words like… like…”
“Spooky blotting paper?” Dahlia added, helpfully. She sat stretched out on the back seat, listening in on my spell-learning practice.
I pretended to glare at her. “How come the skinny non-pregnant person is the one with all of the legroom?”
She grinned. “Enjoy your snug seat, Malley. The time will come when you won’t be able to fit your pregnant belly through the car door in the first place. You know it’s triplets, right?”
We both laughed. It felt good to goof off like we always had. Even if the situation we found ourselves was one of sheer terror. Maybe especially because things were so scary right now.
I slapped the scrawl-filled paper onto my lap, willing my legs to absorb the words and send them to my brain.
Then it struck me.
My mother’s letter.
“Wait, I have an idea,” I said. “My birth mother wrote me a letter before she died. My dad gave it to me when I visited last week. I haven’t read it yet. Do you think it could tell me something about my magical genes? Something that might help? Anything?”
I was clutching at straws and I knew it. Dahlia looked concerned.
Isabel, on the other hand, just looked intrigued. She leaned forward and peered into each of my eyes individually.
“Do you feel it might tell you something useful?”
“You’re doing it again, Isabel. Are you suggesting I’m having a visionary moment here? Because I’ve never felt less visionary, let me tell you.” I ran my hands through my hair in frustration. “My brain is clogged. It’s not like having a window into the future. It’s more like trying to squint through a muddy windshield at an oncoming truck.”
“Think consciously. Carefully. Actually, don’t think. Empty your mind and just feel.”
I rolled my eyes like a sullen teen. But I did as she said.
Shutting my eyes, I sat with my back straight against the seat, hands set loosely on my lap. I tried to empty all the nagging thoughts and fears.
It took a few minutes, but then it began.
A feeling.
It wasn’t as vivid or realistic as my migraine visions. But it was a definite, slow impression of something.
I was suddenly able to focus my thoughts to my mother’s letter, as though I was holding it in my hand.
Murky shapes floated in my brain. I kept my eyes shut and tried to will them to turn into something recognizable.
Was because of it Sebastian? Was he trying to contact me somehow? Sending out magical signals or something?
Was my brain trying hard to decode them, like a creaky old satellite dish?
Was my mother sending me a message from beyond the grave? That was my stupidest idea yet.
The effort quickly became tiring. Just concentrate, I scolded myself.
But it didn’t work.
After just a few minutes, I was flung straight back into reality. Worse still, I landed with no more insight than I’d had before.
“Damn it,” I muttered. “I think I need to get that letter. Can we shoot back to the hotel soon?”
There was no particular reason to think my mother’s letter would give me any extra help. But now I had a bee in my bonnet about it and I couldn’t let it go.
“We need to head back to the hotel anyway,” Rufus called out from the front seat. “We’re getting nowhere fast out here.”
Lucas was in the drivers seat. The two of them looked deep in an animated conversation.
“None of my magical contacts in Dublin knows of anywhere particularly auspicious for a magic ritual,” Rufus went on. “Also, Lavery knows where we are. He’s proved he’s not above targeting us individually. Let’s not make it any easier for him by being exactly where he expects us to be, every night. So we’ll leave Dublin. We’ll fly back to London with Sebastian tonight, once he’s free.”
He added the part about freeing Sebastian so lightly. As though it was just another minor, easy chore to do.
Lucas turned the car around at the next available turn. Before long, we pulled up outside the hotel again and Lucas threw the keys to the doorman.
“They don’t have valet parking,” Isabel said. “Ask for your keys back, you chump.”
But the doorman handed the keys to a young guy with rolled-up shirt sleeves, who jumped into the driver’s seat with a cheery salute.
“They do when you’re traveling with the CEO of Pallida Fortis,” said Lucas. “All part of the service, apparently.”
“We’re not traveling with him any more, though. Are we?” I said. There was a rasp in my voice. “We still don’t know where the hell he is.”
We stood in the big driveway of the hotel, looking at one another. I shivered, though it was nearly summer and the sun was shining.
Rufus patted my back paternally. “Well, look. Lucas and I compiled a list of sites in Ireland with strong magical connections, based on our phone calls with contacts earlier.”
He reached into his inside pocket for his reading glasses, then read something on his phone.
“And hey, check this text. We now have two witnesses who say Lavery’s entourage was seen in Meath several hours after the abduction. Which suggests they’re not leaving Ireland, or even this part of Ireland. That’s a good enough start for now.”
“Meath?” I gasped. “Oh my god. That’s where my parents live. They can’t go there!”
“They may be passing through on their way somewhere else. We don’t know yet. Try to stay calm.”
I clenched my fists so hard, it hurt. “We’re going to get Sebastian back, aren’t we?” I whispered.
Isabel looked drawn and pale, but she nodded.
“Finola, we’re going to throw absolutely everything we have at this,” she said. “You know we will. Think positive thoughts. I know it’s hard.”
I was trying desperately to think positively. But with the nausea and the tiredness, it was a wonder I was even balancing on two legs at all.
The doorman of the hotel nodded at us as we went through the big gold-trimmed wood doors. As we reached the lobby, we stopped in surprise.
There were police everywhere. I counted ten officers in that space alone. Panic rose in my throat.
“You think they’re here because of Lavery?” I whispered to Dahlia.
“Could be,” she said. “Well, probably. Yeah. Must be.”
Rufus slipped away from us and casually sauntered over to one of the cops. He spoke with him for a few moments. Then he smiled and nodded, heading back to us.
He didn’t drop his fake smile when he reached us. “We need to get our stuff and get out of here fast,” he said through gritted teeth.
We headed for the elevator.
“If the elevator doesn’t hit the first floor soon, I suggest we leave our stuff and just get out,” Rufus said, jabbing at the button again. “The police will want to talk to us soon and that could stop us getting to Sebastian.”
I shook my head. “I can’t just leave my stuff! The letter from my birth mum is up there. I have to get it.”
Rufus nodded. “Of course. All right. If we don’t all go up, I promise I’ll get the letter for you before we leave. Don’t worry, Finola.”
“Why will they want to talk to us anyhow?” I said. “Do they know Sebastian is missing? Are they here looking for him?”
“Not yet,” said Rufus. “The news hasn’t been announced. Even Pallida Fortis doesn’t know. But if the police find out a billionaire bank CEO has been kidnapped, we’ll certainly see a huge investigation under way.”
“But that’d be helpful, wouldn’t it?”
Rufus snorted. “Believe me, it’d be the worst possible outcome. The police force does solid work, but it’s a slow and pondering beast. By the time their people are sufficiently organized to find Sebastian, he’ll be long dead.”
I gasped, holding my throat.
“But why are the police here then, Rufus?” Isabel said. “If they don’t know about Sebastian? Why?”
“One of the hotel gardeners was found dead this morning. He’d been dumped in a laundry hamper in the basement. It was a single shot to the back of the head. He was left in just underpants. Most likely, the murderer ordered him to strip at gunpoint, then shot him anyway. He’d have needed the clothes to be free from blood, so he could disguise himself in them. That’s just my conjecture. The police wouldn’t tell me much, now I’m a civilian.”
Tiger Billionaire: The Whole Story (BBW Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Box Set) Page 23
