by R. E. Butler
John turned to her. “What do you mean?”
“Henry’s shift ended at three. Who came on after him?”
“No one tonight,” James said. “Eryx had the main phone forwarded to his cell because Alek is away for a few days with Lachlyn and Jericho, and he was trying not to stress all of us with extra hours.”
“You guys stay put,” John said. “James and I will meet Eryx there.”
“I want to come with you,” Ehrin said.
James shook his head. “It’s better if you stay here.”
“No, it’s not. My bird is going crazy, and I need to be helping to find Henry. If you leave without me, I’m just going to drive around like a maniac looking for him.”
James sighed. “You’re saying it’s better if I just let you come along?”
“Yes.” She softened her tone. “Please.”
“Grab your coat. We’re out the door in five.”
Rue hugged Ehrin. “We’ll get him back.”
Ehrin choked on a sob, trying to hold it together but failing miserably. “I can’t lose him,” she whispered. “I just got him.”
“You won’t, honey,” Rue said. “Find him and bring him home. Your arms are where he belongs.”
Ehrin swiped at the tears on her cheeks with her fingertips and took the shoes that Dom handed her. She put them on and followed him, James, and John out of the house and into their SUV.
Please be okay. Please be okay.
Please.
It felt like forever, but only a few minutes had passed when they reached the squad car Henry had used. Eryx was there ahead of them, a large spotlight shining on the vehicle.
Ehrin got out of the SUV and walked slowly toward him.
“He’s not here,” Eryx said. “I’m sorry, Ehrin.”
She opened her mouth to answer, but no words came out. She stared mutely into the interior of the car and inhaled slowly, sorting through the scents. Her scenting abilities weren’t as good as some other predator shifters, but she was uniquely in tune with Henry because he was her mate, and she thought she might be able to pick up something.
She ignored the voices around her and stepped slowly around the car, her gaze sweeping the ground as she opened her senses. Something caught her eye on the ground, and she squatted down and touched gravel that had dark splashes on them. She sniffed and smelled Henry’s blood.
“There are tire tracks here,” she said, “and Henry’s blood on these rocks.”
Eryx, James, John, and Dom joined her.
“I checked his log,” Eryx said. “His last entry was a stranded motorist call just after midnight.”
“It was the nest.” Ehrin dropped the rocks and squeezed her hands together, her fingertips tingling from her talons. The urge to shift and rip apart her people for what they’d done was overwhelming. She stood and faced the small group. “What are we going to do?”
No one said anything for what felt like an eternity. Finally, Eryx cleared his throat. “If the hawks took Henry to force you to return to them, then they’ll call.”
“What if they don’t?”
He shook his head. “It wouldn’t make sense not to.”
James said, “Right. If the point of taking Henry was to force you to return to the nest, then they’ll contact you with instructions. Since we have nothing else to go on right now, we need to treat this as a kidnapping and wait to hear from them.”
“Wait?” Ehrin said, the word squeaking out of her throat.
“What else can we do?” Eryx asked. “There was another vehicle here, and Henry is gone. We have no idea where the nest was staying, and we’d have no clue where to search for him. I believe they’ll call. They want you, and they’re attempting to use Henry to force you to come back to them. They can’t achieve that without contacting you directly.”
John stared silently at the ground where the bloodstained pebbles were, his jaw working as he clenched and unclenched it. “Treasure’s a fairy, right?”
Dom said, “Half fairy.”
John lifted his head and stared at James. “Do you remember when we attended that conference in Philadelphia about ten years ago and someone presented a case about a child abduction?”
James’s brow furrowed for a moment and then rose. “Oh, yes. They had a fairy on staff who could find someone with a spell.”
“Fairies can do that?” Dom asked.
“I don’t know if all of them can,” John said, “but it’s worth calling Rhett’s and finding out if Treasure knows how.”
For the first time since she’d realized that Henry had been taken by her people, hope sparked within her.
“Let’s go see Treasure,” she said. “I want to get my mate back.”
* * *
Treasure woke slowly to a soft knocking on her bedroom door.
“Honey?” Rhett called as the door creaked open.
She blinked at the bright light spilling in from the hallway. “Is it morning?”
“Well, technically, but it’s really early.” Rhett sat on the edge of her bed. “Listen, honey, John called. Henry was kidnapped by Ehrin’s people when he was working. They found his squad car and some of his blood on the road, but they haven’t heard from the hawks about why they took him or how to get him back.”
“That’s awful,” she said, sitting up and hugging her knees. She would feel terrible if someone kidnapped one of her mates.
Rhett cleared his throat. “John said he heard a fairy once talk about doing some kind of spell to find someone who was taken. Do you know anything about that?”
“A location spell?”
“Is that what it’s called?”
“Yes. My aunt Georgette said she was sure the males who tried to take me used a location spell.”
“Can you do one? Could you find Henry?”
“I’ve never done one before, but I think so.”
“What do you need?”
“A map, a candle, and something that belongs to Henry. Plus my aunt’s spell book.” She chewed on her lip for a moment. “I’d like my boys, too.”
Rhett’s brow arched. “Really?”
She smiled. “Yeah. They make me feel more confident, and they settle my dragon. I don’t know what doing a location spell is going to do to my powers or my beast. I’d like them with me.”
Rhett rolled his eyes with a soft snarl. “You and those boys.”
“Be nice, Dad.”
“I’m always nice. Get dressed, and we’ll go to the boarding house. Everyone’s waiting, so hurry.”
She nodded, her pulse fluttering as she climbed from her bed. Rhett left the room, shutting the door, and she turned on the nightstand lamp and hurried to the closet. She dressed swiftly in a pair of jeans and a tank that would allow her wings to be free, then grabbed socks from the dresser, nearly tripping on her tennis shoes on her way to the bathroom to brush her teeth. Rhett and Lisa were waiting at the bottom of the stairs when Treasure was ready, and they left the house and got into Rhett’s truck.
Treasure hugged Georgette’s spell book to her chest as they drove quickly to the boarding house. Her nerves were a tangled mess, her fingertips tingling with the press of her claws, and her back aching as her wings pushed against her skin.
“Are you okay, honey?” Lisa asked, turning in the front seat.
“Nervous.”
“Why?”
“Because I need to find Henry.”
Lisa glanced at Rhett, then said, “We know we’re asking a lot of you, and if you can’t find him, that’s okay.”
“It’s not okay.”
“Just try your best,” Rhett said. “Don’t let yourself get bowed under pressure.”
Treasure laid her head back on the headrest and closed her eyes. She was almost thirteen. Her future was already at least partially laid out because she’d claimed Kevin and Brian as her mates. Her dragon adored the males, preening like a peacock whenever they complimented her scales or wings. Or her ability to blow intricate smoke rings.<
br />
But what their life together would be like wasn’t written in stone. She didn’t know where they would live or what she’d do for a living. And she hadn’t really been paying attention to the fairy part of herself. She was a hybrid: half dragon, half fairy. She should’ve probably been spending time studying her aunt’s spell books and nurturing that side of her powers, but she hadn’t. And she’d totally blame her addiction to her cell, except if she said that out loud, she was pretty sure Rhett and Lisa would take it away.
And that would suck.
When they reached the boarding house, Brian and Kevin were standing on the front porch. Her dragon trilled in her mind, excited to see them, and she hurried from the truck into their waiting arms.
“We’re here for you,” Kevin said. “What do you need?”
She reveled in their warmth and comfort, soaking it up like a parched flower needing rain.
“Thank you for being here.”
“Well we live here,” Kevin said with a grin. “But we’d walk across the country if you needed us. In a heartbeat.”
She rolled her neck and relaxed her shoulders. “I need to look at the spell more closely.”
“Let’s go to the kitchen,” Brian said.
Rhett and Lisa followed them into the house. Treasure greeted the lions who were waiting in the kitchen. The nervous energy filled the air with a pungent scent like rotten eggs, and her nose wrinkled. The worry she’d had in the truck came roaring back. There was a lot riding on her. What if she failed?
Brian put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “You’ve got this.”
She looked at him and then at Kevin, who nodded. Exhaling deeply, letting go of the worry that had cascaded over her like a waterfall, she set the spell book on the island. She’d laid a dried daisy on the page to mark the spell she needed. Opening the book to that page, she said, “I need a map of the area.”
“Here,” James said, opening a large yellowed map. “What side do you need?”
One side was the entire state, and the other was their county, which was more detailed.
“This one,” she said, pointing to the county side. Her gaze swept over the spell, her back tingling as her fairy nature seemed to awaken. “I need a taper candle, matches, and something of Henry’s, preferably something he held or wore recently.”
Ehrin disappeared up the stairs. Rue set a candle on the map and then opened the kitchen cabinets one by one until she said, “Finally!” and withdrew a book of matches.
“I need a bowl,” Treasure said, chewing on her bottom lip.
“What kind of bowl?” Rue asked.
She looked up briefly. “A ceramic one is okay.”
Rue turned to the cabinets and removed a ceramic cereal bowl. Treasure took it and set it aside, then spread her hands over the map and smoothed it flat. She exhaled and reached for the fairy part of herself, and her wings extended as her whole body hummed with power.
Ehrin joined them in the kitchen, out of breath from running down the stairs. “Henry wore this shirt last night.”
“Cut a piece off for me, about the size of a dollar bill.”
Ehrin nodded and cut a section from the shirt with a pair of shears that Dom handed her from the kitchen drawer.
Treasure put the fabric into the bowl and scraped the match along the cover, the scent of sulfur filling the air as it flared to life. She dropped it into the bowl and began to chant the spell in the old fae language Georgette had been teaching her. The fabric flared quickly and burned up, leaving only ash behind.
Treasure lit another match and touched it to the candle wick. She chanted the second part of the spell and held the candle upright for a few moments until the wax started to pool at the top then tipped it to the side and let the wax drip into the bowl over the ash. She chanted faster and the wax began to melt so quickly it ran into the bowl like water. Tipping the bowl over, she dropped the last of the candle into the hot wax until it was dissolved then spread her hands over the surface. Her skin glowed an odd blue and her wings fluttered.
The wax bubbled and moved under her hands, and she closed her eyes and said the entire location spell in a loud voice.
She opened her eyes and looked at the map as the pride gasped. There were three blobs of wax around the name of a town: Bricktan. On the surface of the wax blobs were three crystal-clear images. One was the face of a man, the second was the number sixty-two, and the third was the word ‘Cemetery.’
“What the ever-loving fuck?” James whispered.
Treasure felt her power ease away, and she let her wings go into her back. Her knees weakened and her vision swam, but Kevin and Brian were at her side to support her.
“You okay, baby?” Kevin whispered.
“Yeah,” Treasure replied shakily. “I just never did that before. It’s draining.”
“What do the blob things mean?” John asked.
“Well, that guy is the hawk alpha,” Ehrin said.
“According to the spell,” Treasure said, “it will show who’s with the person being searched for, as well as their location. Normally it’s the street name and house number. The blobs surrounded the name of the town where Henry is.”
James opened his phone. “Bricktan is south of Ashland, only about fifteen minutes from here. I put 62 Cemetery into the GPS app and it’s showing farmland.”
“I don’t know where it is,” Treasure said, “but the spell isn’t wrong. Henry’s there.”
“Oh, I hope he’s safe,” Ehrin said.
Treasure released her grip on Kevin and hugged the hawk shifter tightly. “I wish I could go with you to find him, but I’m too tired from the spell to shift, and I wouldn’t be useful.”
“No, you did enough,” Ehrin said, wiping at tears on her cheeks. “You found him. It’s up to us to go get him.”
“We want to take Treasure home,” Brian said. “She’s weak.”
Rhett grunted a little in displeasure, and Lisa elbowed him. “You can all bunk in the family room,” she told them.
“Thanks, Mom,” Treasure said.
Kevin turned to his dad. “Will you let us know when Henry’s safe?”
Grant nodded. “Yes, and I’ll come get you in the morning.”
Lisa led the way out of the boarding house, with Kevin and Brian flanking Treasure. She was so tired from the spell-casting that the moment she was seated in the back of the truck between her mates, she couldn’t keep her eyes open a moment longer. As she drifted off to sleep, her last thought was that she needed to spend more time studying her fairy nature and not just her dragon. She never knew when she might need to cast another spell to help her family.
Chapter 15
After Lisa left to take the younger kids home, the adults spent several minutes discussing plans to get Henry. Dom wished he knew if Henry was okay. When they’d first really connected as brothers, Henry had saved Dom’s life. He’d been nearly dead and floating toward the afterlife when a mountain lion encouraged him to stay put on Earth. He’d known the moment he woke that Henry wasn’t just his brother because their parents had mated; he was the brother of his heart.
The front door opened and footsteps echoed in the hall. “Where is everyone?” Alek called out.
“Hey!” Rue said. “What are you doing here?”
She met Alek, Lachlyn, and Jericho at the entrance to the kitchen and hugged them all. Jericho held their two-year-old daughter, Brileigh, in his arms.
“We came to help,” Alek said. “We figured you could use another lion, and also a bear.”
“You didn’t have to come back early from your vacation,” John said, “but thank you.”
“Of course,” Jericho said. “Someone messed with our family, and we need all hands on deck for this.”
“Thank you,” Dom said.
“I’m going to put our little one to bed. Keep me posted, and for goodness sake be safe.” Lachlyn kissed both her mates and then wished them luck.
“Who’s going and who’s stayi
ng?” Alek asked.
The lions debated for a few moments, and finally Rhett, Wesley, Micah, and Dylan chose to stay at the house with the kids and females. Dom wanted Ehrin to stay in the house as well, so she would be safe and far away from her crazy people, but he could tell by the set of her jaw and the determined gleam in her eyes that she’d never willingly stay away.
John kissed Rue. “I’ll be in touch.”
“You be careful, and bring my boy back to me.” She hugged Dom and then Ehrin. “Take care of each other. Love you both.”
“Love you, too, Ma,” Dom said.
Ehrin sniffled as they hugged tightly. “We will. Love you.”
The group of lions left the boarding house and climbed into three SUVs, Dom riding with Ehrin, James, John, Eryx, and Ethan. They took the lead in the small caravan. Dom was in the third row between his dad and Ehrin, and although there was some light conversation, he couldn’t bring himself to make small talk. Ehrin was leaning heavily on him, her hand tightly linked to his, but she wasn’t inclined to chat either. Both of them stared silently at Dom’s phone, which he’d plugged Henry’s location into.
He looked at Ehrin and noticed her bottom lip was swollen from the way she kept biting it. She trembled from time to time, and although she wasn’t crying anymore, he could still feel her sorrow. It was the kind that burrowed deep into your bones and didn’t let go. Even though he was very hopeful that they’d get Henry back without any harm to him, or anyone else in the pride, he knew she’d harbor guilt over his abduction for a long time.
Dom cleared his throat softly and whispered, “Henry’s going to be okay.”
Her hand clenched his. “How can you be sure?”
“Because they wouldn’t kill him and expect you to skip along back to the nest. They took him to force your hand.”
“But they haven’t called.” She turned her hand over, her cell screen dark.
“I don’t know what they’re waiting for. They may expect that no one would realize he’s missing until morning. Don’t forget that you woke up and knew something was wrong. If it weren’t for you and your bird, we’d all still be asleep.”
