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The chopper was from the EA, but the human police said they wouldn’t help until she was missing for longer. They’d suggested that The White Claws probably had her, then had hung up.
But it wasn’t The White Claws. Dr. Shen wouldn’t be turning his plane around if he had her.
Frustrated that the call hadn’t led me any closer to finding my mate, I hurled my phone at the couch. It landed with a thud on the soft surface.
“Here’s what I found on Dr. Shen’s children,” Eamon said. “He had two sons and a daughter. His second son is mated to the daughter of a high-ranking Chinese official. His daughter was reported as missing about ten years ago. And his first son is deceased. A car accident. Totaled his Lamborghini. He was reportedly a playboy and got around. I’d bet any money that he was Lillian’s biological father.”
We’d known Lillian was one of many illegitimate children of a snow leopard shifter. We just didn’t know who the shifter parent was. Had Dr. Shen taken on this project of revitalizing the snow leopard bloodline for personal reasons as well as professional ones? Was he on a search for all his missing grandchildren?
Here, perhaps, was an unexpected ally.
“Is she wearing her charm? The one I spelled for her?” Tansy asked.
“She could be. Why?” I asked.
“It still has my magic attached to it. I can try to change the spell a tiny bit so I can see images through it, instead of it preventing others from taking images of her. Sometimes it’s doable. Do you still have the box the charm came in?”
I did. I retrieved it for her. She took it from me and sat down on one of the couches, the box in her hands.
“This might take a while, so keep scanning the drones.”
I did so, going through the feeds on my laptop, my heart sinking. We’d gotten the drones into the air too late. The SUVs had long arrived at their destination. The city of Darlington was going about its day as usual, none the wiser that my life was imploding. What would I ever do without Lillian? She was all I lived for now.
We had a few drones circling just outside the city limits as well, but Darlington’s surrounding countryside was quiet, as per usual.
“I see a ton of marble. And a room with golden bars. Shit—that’s a cell. A very pretty cell, but a cell nonetheless. I think she’s lying on the floor. I can only see what the charm sees, so it’s not much.”
Whoever had her had money. A lot of it, too, if they were keeping her in a marble cell.
“What the fuck?” Tansy shook her head. “There’s a lion in the cell next to her. Like a mane and all. And it’s huge.” She blinked twice. “And…that’s all I got. I just got kicked out.”
“Animals in a cell?” Shelby asked. “Like a zoo? Didn’t some rich bitch try to trap Sybil’s naga Zayn for her collection?”
“Yep, Avalon. They caught her,” I said. “I was there to bring her in after Sybil wrapped her up nice and tight. You think she’s behind all this?”
They’d freed two gators and a saltwater croc from her collection, as well as a lone wolf shifter. Avalon’s daddy had paid a fine, and she’d walked away with just a slap on the wrist, like most super-rich people do. Knowing this, Zayn and I had made sure that the idiot she was working with, a man who’d harassed and threatened Sybil, was removed from the equation in a rather permanent fashion.
“Well, they are a family of witches, and there’s been plenty of magical interference through all this,” Tansy said. “It would fit.”
“We’ll get the EA to officially send someone over,” I said. “They won’t be able to search without a warrant, but we can check out their other properties while they are distracted. I doubt they’d keep them at their home in the city.”
The EA already had a list of the family’s significant number of properties, which were scattered across several states. We’d check out the closest ones first, a vineyard and a farm. Neither of them made much of a profit, but that didn’t matter. All the family money was old money, earning interest in the bank.
I couldn’t just sit around and do nothing. I stood, shoving away my chair.
“Where are you going?”
“Out,” I said, making my way to the rooftop patio. “I can’t just sit and watch screens. I need to go look for her.”
“Understood, brother.” Grayson said. “You helped me when the WEC took Shelby, so if you need backup, I will be there.”
“We all will,” Eamon said.
Graham nodded. “Just because I don’t plan on getting mated doesn’t meanyoudon’t deserve happiness. You can count on all of us.”
I stepped outside just as a chilly autumn wind swept across the rooftop. I walked to the edge, stepping up onto the railing. In one motion, I leaped into the air and spread my wings. There was a moment of vertigo as I dropped, then the air caught my wings, and I was gliding across the city.
Chapter 31
