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“We’ll keep you safe so you won’t have anything to worry about.”
“And if I accidentally incinerate someone?”
He held her tight. “What if this power isn’t a new one? What if it’s an old one that simply hadn’t revealed itself before.” His deep voice rumbled in a calm, soothing accent that she’d learned meant he felt completely comfortable with her. Mating had settled something in them both.
“Why would it wait until now to show itself?”
“Maybe you didn’t need it before. The first time you healed someone, what triggered your magic then?”
“I don’t remember. It feels as though I could always heal myself and others except for the burns left by the shackles, which is why I need to know what Noxx put in them.”
“Alys will show you what she has discovered although I still say she could’ve brought the results to the house.”
“But we’re here so I can go over the labs in person if things get…weird.” She couldn’t think of a better word for the craziness that could come out of whatever Noxx had done while playing god.
“True, and we can talk to Nita. None of her hacker searches have identified missing demon hybrid children. She’s working on sorting through the shifters and witches, but they’re as protective of their young as we are.”
“Kyle said she had children—”
“The man also believed his mother still lived. With the torture he’d taken, he must’ve been half out of his mind by the time he spoke to you.” Alexei’s sadness weighed at her heart, making her wish for the thousandth time that they could’ve saved them. “If there are any kids out there, we’ll rescue them. I have contacts working on it around the world.”
Alys hustled into the room, a yellow skull on her lab jacket smeared with what looked to be soot or gunpowder. She held a small metal box in her hands. “We won’t need to search around the world for Noxx. She wouldn’t leave LA as long as Joelle is here, and after reviewing the shackles and her DNA, I have the tiniest inkling as to why, but not the full picture—not yet anyway. As for the kids, no one reports the children as missing because they don’t suspect they’ve been taken. They assume they died along with their parents.” Her gaze blazed with anger. “Noxx wipes out entire families in a methodical targeting.”
Joelle’s breath stuck in her chest, and her magic flared, sending a glow through her shaking fingers. “What led you to that conclusion?” Her voice came out flat, all factual inquiry with no heart. She’d mastered faking apathy during her time with the Order, but this close to Alexei, her mated magic fought the lie. The more horror that built inside her, the brighter the symbols shone. “Where did you get the information about the children?” Her own origin could wait.
Taking a seat in a wingback chair that looked as though it’d been stolen from an imperial palace, Alys raised a brow. “How about you start by explaining why you haven’t toldyourbrother about you being mated to mine?”
“I tried.” Joelle had. She simply hadn’t tried very hard. “Getting through the news about Noxx and the ship made for a difficult conversation. Josh wanted to drive down and force me into hiding with his witch’s family.”
“What?” Alexei glared at her, and she hurried to finish her explanation.
“Which obviously I wouldn’t do becausemated.” Gods save her from uber protective demon prince tendencies. “What does my brother have to do with the kids Noxx stole?”
Alys stared at her as if deciding whether she would allow the change in subjects. Joelle wanted to crawl beneath the desk or at least get off her mate’s lap, but he wouldn’t let go. Their playful tug-of-war seemed to settle something for the scientist. “Stay put,” she said. “I own a kink club, remember? Lap sitting comes on the menu, and he’ll be grumpy if you move.” She gave a dramatic sigh as though resigned to address the topic in question. “Our goblin queen cousin had her mate call his witch dad for help. He suggested I contact the acting witch queens while he researches anything he can find in the bookstore.”
“The witch works with Nita,” Alexei said.
Trying to piece through the explanation, Joelle frowned. “But then why didn’t Nita just ask him?”
“It’s complicated,” Alys said. “Anyway, I called in a favor to the elemental witch queens for saving their asses from the Order’s bombs at the party. More importantly, I figured family ties would go a long way, considering the top witch bitch is mated to the dragon brother ofmynew sister.” She glared. “Super close family ties, right?”
Joelle’s stomach dropped. “Oh no. Please tell me Josh isn’t on his way here.” He wouldn’t rage in human form. No, he would quietly fume until she lost her friggin’ mind and magical control. Or he might turn into a giant flying reptile and torch the whole city. Either seemed equally likely.
“I stopped him,” Alys said. “You owe me. Well, his witch helped. With her mom being back from what sounded like dimensional kidnapping, they’re distracted, but at least that means they sent information instead of storming the demon castle.” Swiping a remote from the desk, she pointed it at the large-screen television mounted on the wall. “Give me a second to pair my phone, andvoilà, we have a map of all the places your brother hit while he worked for the Order.”
“Because he was forced to,” Joelle whispered. “To keep Noxx from killing me.”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s the lie she sold you both.” Alys swiped to another map. “With my lady love’s help, I filtered the locations to the ones where the Order targeted families with children. We’ll have a list of the potential powers for each house they hit within the hour.”
Alexei had gone tense beneath her. “Any demon hybrid children?” he asked, and Joelle wanted to pinch him.
She didn’t get the chance before his sister answered. “Nita hacked a ton of databases. We should know within the hour, maybe two. If we get lucky, one of them has a magic that can be tracked. Otherwise, Eddie and his team remain our best hope of finding them.”
Joelle couldn’t stand the wait. “Can’t we do something? Shouldn’t we be out there?”
“Doing what?” Alys asked. “Wandering around a city of millions hoping you find lost supernatural children without the Order finding you first? Yeah, that sounds smart.Not. Like Alexei said, we need to know first who the missing kids belong to.”
“What does it matter if those children are witches, shifters, or whatever science experiment I am?” she demanded.
