Page 141 of Shifter Situations

He shuffled some envelopes around, sounding distracted as he read and climbing on autopilot. “So I told her that you were all drunk too.”

“Oh. Good idea,” York murmured.

My wolf heaved in a breath. “I know you’re joking. The cops will be here in ten minutes if you guys are being serious.”

“Is that a guesstimation or a for-sure timeline?” I questioned. “Because if you know that for a fact, then we should speed this up. I won’t go back to the ward, Briggs. They won’t let me keep the fingers.”

He growled at me. “You can’t say shit like that to humans.”

“And I didn’t,” I sassed. “She isn’t a human; she’s a dhampir. And she wanted to know if Vaughn tasted sweet.”

“Do I taste sweet? Is that why you and Novak kept asking me what I tasted like?”

Novak and I smiled ruefully, and my fae shook his head. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”

As we exited the stairwell, I wondered aloud, “Did you guys really not sense that she wasn’t a human? She thought we were all humans too. I don’t remember seeing her the first time I was here.”

“She’s only here because the lower levels are businesses. You came over the weekend, so she wouldn’t have been here,” Stone explained.

Briggs paused in the middle of the hallway, sliding me down his chest until my feet touched the ground.

“Franklin was here last week?” he questioned.

“Yeah.”

“Does he know that he left the door to our apartment open?”

“He didn’t use the door. He came through the Void.”

Stone and Novak crept forward, disappearing into the open doorway. I stalked after them, Briggs bitching at my back about being careful while York snickered at him.

Their front door lay on the floor inside their apartment. The trim was splintered from it being kicked in. I walked across it, into the living space, and the utter chaos made my mind whirl a-mile-a-minute.

“The fuck?” Palmer whispered, echoing everyone’s thoughts.

The couches and armchair were shredded, the fabric slashed and foam inserts pulled to pieces. The polyfill-like stuffing had been strewn about the room, as if someone had been angrily searching the contents of all the pillows.

I turned left, noticing that the appliances were no longer where they should be. The fridge was shoved against the kitchen Island. The dishwasher was flipped on its side. Cabinet doors hung by one hinge. And all the boxed or bagged food looked like it had exploded, covering the floor in a layer of crumbs and broken bits.

I followed Vaughn and York down the hall on the other side of the kitchen. Holes littered all the walls, most the size of a sledgehammer or a large fist. Crushed picture frames and shattered glass coated the carpet, crunching under my shoes.

My mage stood in one of the two bedroom doorways on this end of the apartment.

“Why would they take all your books?” Vaughn scrutinized the disaster of an office before turning to Palmer and me.

I raised my brows at them. “His books are in the library at home or in his bedroom. Franklin moved everything out except for the big furniture, appliances, and pictures.”

Palmer nodded as Vaughn clapped him on the shoulder. I glanced at York, both of us shrugging to each other. The mess that the apartment was left in was overwhelming and a bit confusing.

I backtracked to the living area, slowly combing over the sights for any clues... Not that I had any idea what would and wouldn’t be useful at this point. The list of destruction continued to grow as I made my way down the hall on the right side of the apartment.

There were four bedrooms and all of them were trashed. The mattresses had been sliced open on both sides. The pillows had been violently ripped apart. Mirrors busted. Shelves knocked over.

I had to walk away to think.

I leaned against a wall in the living room, too cautious to even attempt sitting on the remains of the furniture. I fumbled with my phone as Briggs stepped up beside me.

“I don’t know what they were looking for,” he began aloud, mentally finishing. “But whatever it was, I’m guessing it wasn’t here.”