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“Dammit, Lucius, I—”
“Tell.”
“I’m in town for a project,” she said. “But it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with your precious little ward. So why don’t you get the hell out of my face?”
He opened his mouth to retort, but the words never came. Instead, his head seemed to explode, bursting apart from the force of Sara’s scream all the way on the other side of the city. A scream and then the sharp snap of an image forced into his mind—the bastard Stemmons, and beside him, Tasha.
ChapterTwenty-Nine
Luke backed away from Caris, his head pounding with pain and the image still sharp in his mind as the truth hit him with the intensity of a punch to the face.Tasha had played him.The girl he loved like a daughter. The child he’d saved.
The woman he should never have turned.
She’d hidden her growing abilities—abilities that he’d given her by turning her in the first place. And now she was
playing a game of revenge to punish him for wanting another woman, and to punish Sara for being the woman he desired.
He ran.
Blood pounding and terror racing through him, Luke raced back to his car, terror raging through him as he raced down the street. She was trapped. She was scared.
He saw snatches of her hand. Felt the pressure of fear coiling inside her. The smooth grip of the gun in her hand.
And then the connection popped.
Gone. Nothing.
The lock he’d had upon her thoughts had snapped like a rubber band. They’d taken her, and in him, the serpent raged, screaming to kill, to find, to rend.
Calm, he told himself as he pulled the car over, trying to find a center, a place where he could think and plan. Sara needed that. Needed him sharp. Needed him calm so he could find her.
He lifted his head, nostrils flaring, as if he could catch the scent of her on the wind. There was nothing, of course, but the motion, the effort, seemed to sharpen his mind. Allowed him to hone in, bring him closer.
To see what she saw and feel what she felt.
Except there was nothing but the faintest hint of her essence. Panic rose within him, and he fought it back. But he knew now what had happened. They’d taken her. Transformed her into mist. That was why he couldn’t find her with his mind.
He needed help. And right then, he could think of only one person who could offer the help he needed.
He pulled out his phone and called Doyle. “They’ve taken her,” he said without preamble. “Goddammit Doyle, Stemmons has Sara.”
He heard the sharp intake of breath, then Doyle’s gruff and steady response. “Where was she?”
He released a breath. “Her apartment. They took her. Stemmons and Tasha. Transfigured and got her the hell out of there.”
“Materialized yet?”
“No.” He said the word forcefully, because he had to believe that the connection between him and Sara would remain strong. Once she was solid again, he’d find her in his mind.
Once she was solid again, he would save her.
“Tucker’s on the phone beside me contacting Security Section. We’ll meet Roland at her apartment. See if we can learn anything.”
“I’m in my car,” Luke said. “Call me the moment you know anything.” He had to keep moving. Had to keepdoing. If he didn’t, he was certain he would go mad. Goddamn the detention device. It kept him solid. Kept him there. Kept him from moving fast and striking hard.
Dammit, dammit, dammit.
With no other way to unleash his fury, he took it out on the streets, once again flooring the Mercedes and careening around curves as he drove. Ignoring Tasha’s betrayal. Ignoring his own blindness against the vile serpent that had been preening within all these years.
