Kai has taken the aura that I found and is showing us an illusion. We can see the man who knows what happened to Gordy. He’s at a bar right now, drinking, and we have his exact location.
Hope pulses through my chest as I stare at my target. This is our only lead, and it will have to do. If he stands between my fated mate and me, I will tear him apart, but I pray it doesn’t come to that.
“Gordy,” I murmur. “We’re coming for you.”
CHAPTER 23- LOXLEY
THERE’S NOTHING REMARKABLEabout the bar in the neighboring city where we’ve tracked down our target. Since I have no magical tether to Gordy, he’s our only lead. We drove in two cars to get to this guy, and I’m once again thankful our extended coven is so ready to help me. As nervous as I am, I need to trust my magical instincts that Gordy is still okay and we’re doing the right thing. With the Jade Lion on our side, we should be able to get answers.
Kai is standing across the street in a dimly lit alleyway. We could have grabbed this guy by force, but we don’t want to expose our powers to mortals. Bursting the bubble of secrecy about the magical world can’t possibly help us find my fated mate. Instead, we formed a plan on our way here, and Taina is in there working on it.
When she steps out, I almost laugh; we glamoured her a low-cut dress, and she’s playing the role of tempting seductress well. Fortunately, the dude isn’t gay. Now she’s leading him to the alleyway between bars, the perfect secluded location.
In a blur, Kai’s hand appears over the man’s face, rendering him immobilized. “Let’s move,” Auntie says. The rest of us hop out of our two cars and stride across the street. Taina puts her glamour down, revealing the plain sweats and t-shirt she was wearing this whole time.
“Great work,” Kenta says to her, more out of breath than the rest of us.
“He was gross; he kept overtly staring at my boobs.” Taina shrugs and points to Seb. “Shall we fog it up?”
Seb nods and replies, “Right.” He nods at his boyfriend, and Kai grins. The Jade Lion lets go of the man and snaps his fingers. In moments, orbs of green energy illuminate this pocket dimension, courtesy of Kai’s arcana.
When the man snaps out of his daze, he studies us. “Wha…what happened?”
“I’m not actually here to hook up with you in an alleyway,” Taina says, crossing her arms. “I’m here for answers.”
The man looks around, bewildered. “What…where am I? Who are you all?”
“The Ruby Turtle,” I blurt. “Gordy. W-w-where is he?”
The man stares at me, and a moment of recognition flashes on his face. Then, he smirks and lifts his chin. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do!” I bark. Shugo holds me back, and I try to calm myself from using brute force on the guy.He took my familiar!
“So, you kidnapped a reptilian man, and won’t tell us where he is?” Seb asks with a confident half-smile.
The stranger shakes his head and scowls. “I don’t need to tell you shit.”
Seb shoots him a smirk and crosses his arms. “Well, try not to think about the turtle man as we pluck the information from you.”
“What?” he asks, right before Kai shifts into his tall lion form. The man spins around at him, but before he can scream, Kai puts his hand over the man’s head. Green arcana swirls around the stranger, and he’s rendered frozen in a trance. I almost feel bad for the dude; I’m not one for forcing information out of mortals, but he did this. I know he’s responsible for taking Gordy; it’s written all over his aura.
“Where is he?” Kai asks in a deep, bestial voice.
“The 55 Yarwood Lane garbage dump, second house on your left, in the basement.” He recites it like he’s robotic, and hope blooms in my chest. We have an address!
I dash to run out of the fog, but Seb takes my hand. “Wait.” He turns to Kai and says, “Ask him if there’s anything else we need to know about getting our friend back in one piece.”
Kai waves his hand around the man, who still appears to be in a trance. “Well?”
“She carved special symbols into the ropes. She wrote them into the surfaces of the whole basement. Something about making sure no one finds him. I thought she was fucking crazy until I saw the big turtle man. And now she’s like, feasting on him or something.”
I gasp, and Auntie holds me close. “We gotta move,” Kenta says.
“Who is she?” Kai asks.
“S…Sally.”
Fortunately, this dump is only a few miles from the bar. After letting that dude, O’Connor, go?wiping his mind of all traces of us and allowing him to think he drank too many beers?wequickly pulled up the address and headed there, driving through the darkness. With all the info pulled out of the lead, we know Gordy hasn’t been kidnapped for too long.
