AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Rather than tell him what had happened, Queenie replayed in fast forward everything that’d happened in the previous hours, starting with the phone call that originally alerted her to the problem. She’d been in contact with Kirsten, Mordecai, Nathan, Apollonius, and others, and he saw and heard every conversation.
Whoever was hiding Morella was clearly doing the same with Lauren and the others who were taken, because not even Mordecai could find her.
And if a god of old couldn’t find his stepdaughter, it was doubtful anyone could.
Gavin stormed from his secure resting spot into his sitting room. He was already dressed, so he made his way to the coterie’s control room, where Queenie was. Nick was there as well, and as much as he wanted to tear the man apart for not protecting Lauren, he could sense the lion’s rage and frustration as well.
“If I thought you could’ve stopped this, I’d whip the skin from your body before I evenconsideredhow to begin the process of adequately torturing you.”
He both scented and saw Nick’s anguish when the lion shifter told him, “She’s gone, and I don’t know who took her or how to get her back.”
Gavin would destroy the world to find her, but where did he start? Who did he torture first?
“Nathan would like to speak with you, Master,” Queenie told him. “He asks if you can meet him on the deck above the pool.”
Gavin stormed from the room, Nick on his heels. Nathan was waiting for them on the deck when they arrived, and Gavin didn’t bother asking him how he’d managed to get onto the property. They’d look at the feeds later to figure it out.
Nathan’s gaze landed on Nick, and he said, “I should whip the skin from your back for allowing Lauren to be taken.”
Gavin found himself intervening, despite the fact he’d considered doing the same not five minutes earlier.
“Nick was driving the van. Ambrose and Ellania were sitting on either side of her on the van seat. If they couldn’t stop it, what do you expect Nick to have done?”
“Mordecai has Ambrose and Ellania with him. Kirsten is with them as well. They’ve gone to every realm except Hell, and they could not sense her. Aaron Drake went to Hell to meet with the Prince of Hell, who assures him Lauren is not there.”
“Apollonius stopped by a few hours ago and talked to Queenie. He feels they’re likely using Faraday cages to keep…” Gavin took a breath and started again. “Nifleheim uses a different form of electricity than us, and it’s possible to block all magics in a way similar to our Faraday cages with it. There are some castles there that are cut off from the rest of the realm in this way, heated, so they aren’t as miserable to live in, and magics possible from the inside that don’t reach outside, so the vampires don’t mind living there. Apollonius is checking them out, one by one.”
“It sounds like you’re up to date. I’m going to return to our control room,” Nathan told him. “Call me if you hear anything, or discover even the smallest clue.”
The Amakhosi made a phone call to Mordecai, and the old god popped onto the deck and barely came fully into being before he and Nathan were gone.
“Clearly, I need to pay someone to go over the estate and make sure there are no other places someone can flash into on the property,” Gavin told Queenie, who’d followed them out and remained off to the side. “Make a note to remind me to talk to Ambrose about it later, and post an extra guard here, to make sure we don’t end up with someoneelseon the property we aren’t aware of. Maybe an extra motion detector or two in this area as well.”
“I’ve already telepathed to have the extra motion detectors put in place, Master. We’ll also move one of the sentries into this area and be certain he or she understands the possibility someone might just appear out of nowhere.”
“I need to feed. Send me an owl shifter, please. Something to help me focus.”
“Boris’s contract doesn’t allow for torture, Sir, but he’d be the best choice.”
“Then send me someone I can beat to a bloody pulp after I drink from the motherfucking owl.”
Chapter 29
One minute, Lauren’s body was leaned into the seatbelt as the van went down a steep part of the mountain, and the next, she was falling onto a floor, having been teleported into a cage of some sort. It was like having your seat jerked out from beneath you on the downhill portion of a slow-moving roller coaster. She levitated herself a little at the last instant, but she still landed hard on her hands and knees.
She didn’t have to artificially manipulate her adrenaline or terror levels, so she expected Mordecai would show up in seconds, but he didn’t.
One of the humans in the cage with her reached for the bars, and Lauren grabbed her arm. “No, don’t touch it. We’re in a Faraday cage, so it might shock you if you touch the bars.”
No sooner than she’d said the words, they saw one of the horse shifters in the cage closest to them touch the cage and then scream in pain, fire shooting in arcs before he pulled back.
“Don’t touch the bars!” Lauren shouted. They were in a large, warehouse-type building, with cages placed all around. Shapeshifters had been sorted, so the horses were all together, the antelope types were all together, the birds were all together, and the…”
“There are no large predators,” she told the other humans in her cage. “No lions, no tigers. The civet cats and bobcats are in that cage,” she motioned off to her left, “but nothing larger, I don’t think.” No Nick. Also, no demigod or goddess.
“Civets aren’t cats,” one of the horses said from the cage nearest hers.
“I know, but maybe someone else doesn’t, because they’re caged together.”
