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Dad saw me first, repositioning Mom so that she was tucked under his arm.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, glancing between the two of them.
“The kids snuck off the compound, and no one knows where they are,” Dad replied, “Jesse and Makayla are missing too.”
“When you say kids, is Samael included?” Nyx inquired.
“He went too, sweetie,” my Mom softly responded.
“Yeah, I thought so,” Nyx quipped. “I’m gonna go find my mom,” she then said to me.
I nodded, watching her set off in the direction of the main house.
My cousin, Samael, had never been allowed to wander the compound. All his lessons and training had been done inside with close monitoring, and for a good reason.
He was every bit like my, Uncle Grimm with one exception. He had a Primary immunodeficiency, something he had just started receiving treatment for because his parents’ had just gotten a proper diagnosis.
To think it was okay to be out and about, especially off the compound that was the safest place he could possibly be baffled me. He was smarter than this.
“And because he went, Bella went,” Luce spoke up from nearly right behind me, staring after Nyx.
“Which is why Lilith went,” Butcher stated, referring to his baby sister.
It made sense the three of them would go off together. They spent all their time in each other’s company.
It was incredibly foolish, but I had no room to speak on that because I was known to be reckless.
“I’m thinking Jesse and Makayla either weren’t paying attention and went after them, or they decided to make a life-altering, very unwise decision and encouraged them.
“We don’t know when they left, sometime between noon and four because they climbed into the back of one of the supply trucks to get past the guard shack. It’s back now. They aren’t,” Dad explained.
He seemed rather calm for a man who had no idea where his youngest daughter was.
Then again, I couldn’t recall one time I had ever seen my Dad non-composed or overtly emotional.
In this regard, I had a side of me that was a lot like him, a part of my genetic makeup that made my not give a fuck iron-clad. Then there was the side of me that was just like my mother, feeling too much of everything and refusing to bend for the devil’s will.
Luce had described it best. We had chests encasing hearts of gold, but were born empty vessels that lacked a soul.
In its place was something far better though, all thanks to the man we called Dad. Sometimes it was difficult to balance the psyche that came with who we were—keep ourselves in check, but we did the best we could.
I kept my demons under lock and key, placating them with a bit of bloodshed every few weeks.
If I didn’t, things turned ugly.
Something devoid of humanity clawed at my insides until I gave it what it wanted, and fed its debased desires. In turn, it grew a little stronger.
Thus far I’d managed to keep it complacent. I feared the day it refused to be caged. It already stained my insides with its malignant presence. Luce never seemed to have an issue controlling his as I did—the fucker.
Some would say we weren’t normal, but I believed the definition of that word was skewed and based on personal interpretation.
“We have to find them, Rome. Sam can’t be out there,” Mom stressed.
He said something in response, but I was already brainstorming a map of all the places they would have gone.
“We will, Pixie. I’ll send out a few groups of—.”
“Don’t do that,” I cut him off, catching the tail end of whatever he’d been saying.
