Page 44

My Missing Vampire

Tears of frustration wormed their way out of my eyes as the elevator doors closed on Julian’s face. Once again, he was in trouble, and all I could see was concern for me in his expression.

Daphne hugged me, and I let her, inhaling her sweet floral scent. They were the last to depart, leaving us alone in her basement where she had immediately made plants and grass cover the crime scene.

“I can’t believe they took him away,” I said into her shoulder. “Don’t they want to find the real killer?”

“I think the general is too wrapped up in his own feelings to know the difference,” Daphne said. “Come on, instead of physical training, let’s do some mental exercise today. You deserve a break.”

I sniffed and raised my head. “It’s Saturday anyway.”

“True. But here we are.” Daphne smiled and a bench-shaped boulder sprouted from the ground for us to sit. “Let’s go over what we know. You think the culprit is a shapeshifter and that’s how they got through the vent. But how did they get Lauren out of the elevator without shifting her?”

I blinked, stunned. “I…I hadn’t considered that. Maybe they took her somewhere else on base before sending the empty elevator to the command center?”

“Logical. But the elevator goes where it’s supposed to. So where would that be?”

We sat in silence, puzzling it out. I wished I better understood the magic the elevator worked on. Maybe I could find someone who did.

“Who are you texting?” Daphne cocked her head as I tapped at my phone.

“I’m asking Hazel to come help. I figure if anyone understands the magic system and has clearance to come on base—”

“It’s her,” Daphne finished. “Good thinking.”

But instead of Hazel coming to us, a portal opened up with both she and Zoe standing on the other side, Karma perched on the arm of the couch and cleaning his raven feathers. Afraid someone would detect it, I grabbed Daphne’s hand and sprinted through so Zoe could close it up.

We sat in a row on the sofa, and I couldn’t help but notice my sister’s normally perfect hair was mussed as she pressed close to Hazel, thigh to thigh. My eyebrows rose.

“You should be more careful about your portals,” I said. “On base?”

Zoe slung one long leg over the other. “First of all, I am always careful. Second, Hazel helped with the wards, and third, it was Daphne’s basement, which according to Hazel, is protected from SHADE’s spyware.”

Before I could respond, Hazel wiggled her phone in the air, reminding me of my original text. “Yesterday you hated men. Now you want to save one?”

Karma fluttered across the others to my lap and turned into a cat. I stroked his soft fur as he curled there, resting.

“Things weren’t quite how I thought they were.” That was the best I could do without launching into an all-out explanation. “The point is, he didn’t do this, and we need to find out who did before… What will happen to him?”

The other women exchanged a look and Daphne spoke. “If he’s found guilty by tribunal, likely the death penalty. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Hazel, do you know how the magic of the elevator works?”

“Right,” I said, trying not to think about the possibility of losing Julian. “If a shifter was able to get into it, how could they change the original destination? And where on the base could Lauren be hidden so thoroughly until…until last night?”

Hazel pursed her lips as she thought. “Well, the elevator goes to the best destination for the occupant. It also takes into account the force of the person’s intention. So, theoretically, if someone new appeared inside, it could change its mind. And if the new occupant was a killer and purposely directing it—”

“Then that would outweigh the original destination mathematically,” Zoe concluded. “But where on base would a killer both need to go and want to go?”

“It might take them to the brig!” Daphne exclaimed.

We all stood, sending Karma darting off into the kitchen.

“If that’s where they kept her, why wouldn’t anyone else have found her?” I asked, sitting again and feeling like I was on an emotional seesaw.

Daphne hesitated then met my eyes. “They could have used the deprivation chamber.”

“Explain,” I said, completely baffled by her response.

The corner of Hazel’s mouth turned down as she scooted in next to me, placing a hand on my knee and taking over. “It’s used mostly as a torture device to extract information from difficult sources. Not technically legal, but I know the general has one because he used one of my contacts to get it. It places the individual in a kind of in-between stasis so that they aren’t fully in any dimension. The result is extremely uncomfortable. A minute could feel like days, but you just can’t tell. If someone does something to your body while you are in it, you feel it like it keeps happening. Maybe it does in each dimension, and you get to experience it each time. We aren’t exactly sure. It’s a fae device.”