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Chapter32
Elijah
Before evacuating the suite, Silver, Draven, Jake, and I hid the five shifters until we could return and deal with them more thoroughly. The fire brigade made no comment about the bloodbath they’d found inside, but that didn’t surprise me; that was well above their paygrade, and they had no interest in involving themselves in whatever was happening.
Their only concern was ensuring that the Sandstone didn’t burn to the ground, and once they were sure that Draven’s fire-breathing had not spread, they packed up and moved on, leaving my small team and me to return.
In the interim, one of the hotel staff had already replaced the splintered door, but beyond that, the suite was in the same disarray that we’d left it.
I was impatient to hear from Abby, my eyes glued to the cellular phone, but as dawn broke over the cloudy horizon, there was still no word.
Silver and Jake took to dumping the gang members. I wanted them delivered to Orson’s doorstep, but that was just an immoderate use of manpower.
“Throw them in the dumpster,” I said flatly. “And hurry back. We have to devise a battle plan. We’re going out today.”
Draven stood next to me at the splintered table, poring over the map of Pario City I had acquired earlier in my travels. I was still wrapping my mind around its growth, so many of the places foreign to my eyes. Without seeing these structures or the residential areas that had formed around there, I had no real sense of what was where.
“This is Abby’s house,” I explained to Draven, pointing to the general area on the map.
Draven cleared his throat and looked back toward the ground where the laptop had fallen.
“What?” I demanded.
“There’s an easier way to get surveillance,” he offered, reaching for the fallen device. Flipping open the computer, he turned it on and grimaced. “The screen is damaged.”
“What does that mean?”
Draven showed it to me. Lines crisscrossed over the surface, but I could still read the information, and the dragon began to enter something into the search bar. A moment later, a map showed up on the screen, partially marred by the damage. But it was a digital copy of the paper on the broken dining table.
“They really do have everything on here,” I said admiringly.
I had so much catching up to do.
“If you hit this button here,” Draven said, reaching over to show me, “it gives you a view of the area.”
He clicked, and I blinked in shock.
“That’s Abby’s house!” I choked.
Draven nodded. “Where else do you want to see?”
My mind raced as I tried to recall addresses, but after so long, I was sure they had changed.
The door opened, distracting me for a moment as the men returned, but they weren’t alone. Flanked between them was a black-haired female with wide, green eyes. Her scent was familiar, but it wasn’t until she whimpered that I realized who she was.
“You came back,” I chuckled, bemused. “What happened? Orson didn’t like the message?”
Lora’s porcelain complexion was translucent, and if not for the guards holding her, I was sure she was going to collapse.
“A-are you really Elijah Webb?” she whispered.
My smile faded slightly. “You know who I am?”
She nodded, swallowing visibly. “We—I know who you are… M-my father worked for you.”
My smirk disappeared entirely now, and I gestured for the men to sit her down and leave her alone. I joined Lora at the table.
“Your father?”
