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* * *
Lunch and shopping had been fun. Rowan and Sariel had been awesome, and they were well on their way to becoming good friends.
It had been a bit strange to see Sariel in his gui
se as an ordinary brown-haired young man, and Jacee thought once more that it was sad he couldn’t show the world his true self. Yet he clearly enjoyed himself despite having to assume a different form.
He was this joyous sponge, soaking up every bit of information, no matter how trivial. And yet at times he would say something like “My brothers would be amazed by this!” Then he’d look so sad for a few moments that she wanted to cry.
His sorrowful mood never lasted long, and he was soon chattering again about everything.
The mental conversation with Micah, however, put a damper on her mood. Her friends noticed as they were leaving the restaurant in Cody.
“What’s up all of a sudden?” Rowan asked.
Jacee debated how much to tell them. The truth was always best, though, even if you thought you were doing the right thing by holding back. “Parker Anderson got away.”
“What? Why didn’t Aric tell me through our link?”
“Um . . .”
Rowan closed her eyes for a few seconds. Jacee knew she was trying to speak to her mate, and when Rowan opened her eyes again, she was starting to look panicked.
“He’s not answering me. What’s going on?”
“Micah said he was injured, but he’s okay,” Jacee rushed on. “He’s probably getting treated right now.”
Rowan paled. “Injured how? What happened?”
“He didn’t say, just that Aric’s fine and he said for you to have fun. That’s all I know.”
“Oh. Well, if he said that, it can’t be too bad, right?”
“Right.” But her friend still looked worried.
Sariel took Rowan’s arm. “We can return if you’d like. It’s not a problem. We’ve already had plenty of fun for one day.”
“If you guys don’t mind, I would like to check on him,” Rowan said, worry etched on her face.
“Then by all means, let’s—” Sariel gave a soft grunt and his eyes widened in surprise as he jerked backward. Two holes appeared on his shirt, and blue—not red—liquid, began to spread across his chest.
“Blue!” Rowan shouted.
Jacee lunged for him, intending to catch him. She managed to grab his shirt and stuck her hand right on one of the strange blue bloody spots. But pain exploded in the back of her head, and she stumbled and fell. She hit the ground, head spinning. Shouts reached her ears as she was picked up and bodily thrown. Her palms scraped on carpet as she landed and fell limp.
She heard Rowan yelling at their attacker.
Then she knew nothing more.
* * *
Micah wasn’t too worried when Jacee missed the next check-in text. It hadn’t been that long since he’d spoken to her via their mind-link, so he let it go. For a while. But when he sent her a text and she didn’t answer, he grew uneasy.
Still, she’d missed one last time, and things had been fine. Really, though, he couldn’t believe Rowan hadn’t insisted they come home when she’d heard Aric had been injured. The man was the love of her life, and it would be unlike her to just keep shopping like it was no big deal.
That concerned him more than anything. Aric, too, when Micah walked over to the ER and stepped behind the curtained partition to ask if he’d heard from Rowan.
Aric frowned. “No. Come to think of it, I’m kind of surprised. You told Jacee about me, you say?”
