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Micah smirked at his friend. "You did remember to charge it right?"
Kendrick glared at the other witch. "Of course I did." He looked around. "How far are we from town?"
Liam pointed to the west. "Monroe city limits are about ten miles thataway."
Kendrick scowled down at his compass. "That should easily be close enough." He tapped it harshly, causing every witch to groan at its rough handling.
Aiden pointed to Kendrick's pocket. "Maybe you should try the blood."
Kendrick stared at the commander. "Didn't you just hear me explain that we would only try that in the event we don't get any readings."
Aiden raised an eyebrow, and Kendrick blinked. "Oh." He pulled out the bottle and very carefully released a single drop on the center stone. It immediately began to blink rapidly, in a blue light. "Son of a bitch," Kendrick muttered.
Aiden looked down. "If it's blinking rapidly, that means there are fae close by, to the west of us, right?" Kendrick just gave a short nod. Aiden pointed to the diamond. "Then why didn't the light work?"
"I h
ave no idea. Then again, this type of compass did come into existence this afternoon, there may be a learning curve," Kendrick replied acerbically.
Aiden shrugged, then pointed westward. "Move out."
*****
"Are you sure this is right?" Aiden asked for the fourth time, pointing to the large, generic-looking warehouse.
Kendrick looked like he was about to reach over and throttle their commander. "Yes, I'm sure!" he hissed. "The stone is a solid blue color now. It looks more like a sapphire than a diamond."
Aiden reached up to tap the comms unit in his ear. "On my signal," he said quietly.
Aiden, Kendrick, Micah, and Ben would be joining the Tau unit when they entered the building. The other ten Vanguard split into two teams. One would be entering from the back of the building, while the other would enter from the side.
Aiden peeked around the corner of the building of the adjacent warehouse. "I don't like this. Why would fae be in here?"
Kendrick stepped out into the open, heading toward the front of the building. "Only one way to find out."
"Arrogant bastard," Aiden growled. He reached up to his ear. "Go!"
Ari's heart was pounding as he ran alongside Aiden to enter from the front of the building. They fanned out, clearing each of the small offices before moving to the door leading to the main storage area. When the door opened, he fought his body's urge to gag. "Gods! What is that stench!"
"Gods, no," Aiden whispered, as he ran forward.
They quickly joined the other two Vanguard teams standing in front of a large clothing pile.
"Why do those clothes smell so rank?" Kincaid asked.
Kendrick turned to him with uncharacteristic kindness in his eyes. "Look closer, Kincaid, it's the bodies that smell, not the clothes."
Kincaid paled so fast Ari moved to wrap an arm around his waist. In seconds, Gage was on Kincaid's other side.
Their warrior brother shook his head. "I'm sorry," he whispered.
"It's not just you," Ari replied, as the sound of retching reached them. Across the room, Liam was bent at the waist, emptying the contents of his stomach.
Cadoc walked up to Aiden. "We need Cam. His crime scene investigator is a vampire and does double duty as the medical examiner. We may miss something if we start moving bodies."
"Call him," Aiden replied, his eyes never leaving the stack of deceased fae. "Kendrick, would you estimate that to be about seventy bodies?"
Kendrick closed his eyes and nodded. Aiden ground his teeth together. "I think we just found the missing fae of Monroe."
