AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Mordecai answers to no one.” He shrugged. “Okay, he occasionally answers to Jupiter, but not often enough to mention. The point is, he’ll do whatever he’ll do, and we may or may not find out what happened later. Your mother will probably be able to get it out of him, but not necessarily. She might try to flash to him if he doesn’t show up soon, but she’ll give him a chance to fix things before she risks doing so.” He sighed. “Honestly, the thoughts of her flashing into a battle between gods and possibly demons and who knows what else terrifies me, Little Bit. Let’s try to keep her from doing that if at all possible.”
Her phone hadn’t turned on when she’d first arrived, and she’d plugged it in to charge it. She tried again, since it’d been plugged in for a good ten minutes, and nothing happened. “Wherever we were taken, it bricked my phone.”
“Another clue pointing to Niflheim,” Nathan said, “though Faerie sometimes has the same effect. Not always, but sometimes.” A hawk shifter sat in front of a keyboard, and Nathan touched his shoulder. “Can you ask someone to bring a new phone down from the stock?”
Nathan looked at Lauren. “We’ll try putting your sim card in a new phone. If it didn’t get fried, you’ll be up and running. If not, we can either provide a sim card with a different number, or you can use it with Wi-Fi only until we get you a working sim card with your own number.”
“You can do that at Drake, right?”
“Yes.”
A few minutes later, a wolf shifter Lauren recognized but didn’t know by name walked in with a new phone still in the box. Lauren took it out, used the provided tool to open the sim tray, accepted the card Nathan took out of her old phone, inserted it into the tray of her new one, and pressed it closed. She turned it on, went through the steps necessary to get it booted for the first time, and then breathed in relief when it looked like she was connected to the cellular network. She knew Nick’s number by heart, so she dialed it and then smiled when it rang in his pocket.
She disconnected before Nick had a chance to answer, and told Nathan, “Thanks. Let me know what I owe you, and I’ll transfer the funds over.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m glad we had a simple fix for you.”
Lauren sat in a chair halfway between Gavin and Nick, connected to Homewood’s Wi-Fi, and then went through the menu options to restore the last backup of her other phone to this one. She set her phone to the side and asked Nathan, “How long will mom talk to Xaephan?”
Nathan shrugged. “Sometimes he makes her jump through hoops before he’ll tell her anything, other times he says what he has to say and is gone.”
“Lauren,” Gavin said, and he sounded as if he were carefully choosing his words. “If I could see the people in the warehouse, it’s possible I would recognize them.”
Of course. She knew Mordecai had likely seen them, but Gavin knew all of theold ones, too. She pushed her memories of them outside her aura and towards him, and he sat back and shook his head. “The people handling intake are just doing a job. No one special. Morella was with one of the groups that came through, choosing slaves for themselves.Alaric, Bain, andLaszlo are with her. Alaric is on the Concilio board, Bain has been a few times in past identities.”
The guy on the keyboard typed rapidly, and one by one, four people came onto one of the huge monitors in the room.
Lauren’s gut clenched when she saw their faces. “Yeah, that’s them. So we’re supposed to fight the Concilio?”
“No,” Gavin told her, “We have to hope the Concilio cleans house and takes care of them so we don’t have to.”
“They have a god or a demigod working with them,” Nathan said. “They’re either being moved between realms, or they’ve paid someone to create portals.”
“You didn’t recognize the other two people with Morella’s group?” Lauren asked Gavin.
“No.” He didn’t know if Lauren wanted people to know how her gift works, so he telepathed,Your overlay of the other woman gave her a halo.
Which could mean she’s a good person being blackmailed into doing bad things, or it could mean my subconscious was telling me she’s a god or a demigod or an angel.
Nathan sighed and looked at Lauren. “Your mom got some names from Xaephan. I gave her the ones we have as well. She’s on her way to Mordecai.”
Lauren stood, walked to Nick, and folded herself into his lap. She was afraid for her mom, and she was cold. Nick would make her warm while the vampire would make her cold.
I need his warmth, she telepathed to Gavin. She didn’t owe him an explanation, but she didn’t want to hurt his feelings, either.
We’re both frustrated, having to sit here while our people are being held captive. Have you eaten since you were rescued?
No, but I’m not hungry.
Nathan stood and told them, “We’re going to do a swap. No reason for alarm.”
Nathan disappeared, Cora appeared, and Lauren stood and asked, “What’s happening?”
“Things get complicated when I leave the realm, but Nathan has a system set up so he can do so at a moment’s notice without it causing a stir. He, Kirsten, Mordecai, Apollonius, and a few others are going after your people.”
“I should be going, too,” Lauren told her.
Cora walked to her and pulled her into a hug. “Maybe, but you have to know your mother and Nathan aren’t going to allow that.”
