Chapter 25 – Locheran
To say I’m pissed is an understatement.
She left.
She left without waking me.
When I jerked awake, about an hour before sunset, I reached for my mate. Instead, I found Potato, curled up next to my side.
Then I saw her note:
Loch,
I didn’t want to wake you because you would have stopped me from going. I have to do this. If not now, it would have been some other time. I’m confident my family won’t harm me. Vara and Rorik and the other supes will be there protecting me. I can do this. I’ll see you tonight.
I love you.
Mouse
My knees weaken at those three little words. She may not have said them out loud, but they still mean the world to me.
I never expected her to use them so soon.
Now I’m even more determined to go to her so she can say them to my face.
After dressing, I use the stairs to run up one floor to Xander’s penthouse. Once the sun sets, we’ll head to wherever Farrah is meeting her family.
But when I enter, everyone in the room quiets and all heads turn to me.
“What happened?” I ask, rushing to where Xander, Evangeline, and Mira stand. “Is she okay?”
I search the bond and realize it’s like a fog. I can feel her, but her location is fuzzy.
They’ve done something to her to cause this. I should be able to locate her with no issues.
“Where?”
It’s all I say.
“We… we don’t know,” Xander says solemnly. “Vara and Rorik lost her at the Coney Island subway stop. She was pulled away by the crowd and then she seemed to vanish in thin air.”
“We believe they’re utilizing their witch’s spells,” Mira adds.
Evangeline stays silent, her eyes red-rimmed from crying.
“How long has it been? Why didn’t anyone wake me?”
“It just happened. I was about to come get you,” Xander answers. “We’ll head out the moment the sun sets.”
I curse.
That’s still forty-five minutes of waiting and worrying. Anything could happen between now and then. They could take my mate further away.
I just found her and there’s a chance I’ll lose her.
It would mean the end of me.
When the skies darken, we fly to the command center set up in Coney Island. Xander carries Evangeline, and I carry her mother. We’re hoping Mira can pick up any traces of where the hunters took Farrah.
But once on the ground, and after thirty minutes, the witch opens her eyes and shakes her head.
“Her trail has been erased with magic. Powerful magic, even more so than my own. I’m sorry.”
She squeezes my arm and steps back to stand next to her daughter. I hadn’t realized how much the two look alike. Mira is gaining weight back after her stint in the psychiatric hospital. Despite her white hair, she has the same blue eyes and cheeky smile as Evangeline.
“You still do not sense her?” Xander asks me.
We stand around a table with a map of Brooklyn on top.
We’ve marked out a few neighborhoods where supernatural activity is heavy, and the hunters wouldn’t dare go unless they wanted to be instantly caught.
Park Slope, Williamsburg, and Flatbush to name a few.
They couldn’t have gotten far, but now I’m not so sure.
They have a powerful witch helping them, so anything is possible.
“I’m getting pulses of our connection, but they’re not strong enough for me to follow.”
“Sounds like she’s fighting whatever magic is blocking it,” Evangeline offers.
Vara and Rorik stand outside the tent that’s been erected, speaking with supernatural soldiers of all species and assigning them to locations to scout.
Layla and Thorne have just arrived and approach the two.
The moment they get to the sphinx, they bring Vara into a three-way hug…
that’s followed by heated kisses. They were worried about their mate.
It makes sense. Vara was kidnapped by these hunters a few months ago.
She’s here because she wants her vengeance, even if that doesn’t involve killing the hunters.
She wants them off the street just as much as I do.
After a passionate reunion, the three head our way with Rorik following close behind. He frowns at their backs. He does that a lot. I assume it’s because their three-way bond reminds him of his own.
I close my thoughts to the vamp as he enters the tent. He nods to me before slinking to a corner, hands in his pockets.
“Any update?” Vara asks, joining us at the table.
“Mira had no luck,” Xander says. “Locheran still can’t get a strong read on their connection. He says it’s flickering in and out but not sticking long enough for him to track her.”
“They’ve shut off her phone as well,” I say. “I had a tracker app installed on it, but it’s no longer showing up for me.”
“Does Farrah know you did that?” Evangeline asks, eyes wide.
“I don't give a fuck.”
Xander puffs his chest, ready to yell at me for speaking to his wife like that. She puts her hand on his forearm, stopping him.
“I should be able to—” My words are cut off by my anguish. I plant my hands on the table and lower my head, trying to get it the fuck together.
I can’t break down now. Not while my mate is in the hands of the very men who want us dead. If there’s any chance they know she’s involved with monsters… it may not matter that she’s family.
I suck in a sharp breath and lift my head. “I should be able to sense her. She’s my mate. But something felt off about this meeting. It felt too easy. So, I downloaded the tracking app while Farrah was asleep. Just in case.”
And it still didn’t matter. The app doesn’t work unless her phone is on. All it shows is the phone’s last pinged location, which is right where we’re standing: a street ten blocks away from the subway station.
Xander and Thorne appear on either side of me. Their big hands squeeze my shoulders simultaneously, offering me comfort. I would have expected this from Xander, being my best friend of 995 years, but Thorne offering me his support is a surprise.
He’s never been one to show emotion, aside from broody. His mates are changing him. He’s no longer the quiet, intimidating gargoyle. He's more caring, outgoing. I love that for him.
Xander and Thorne also know what I’m going through. Both had mates who were kidnapped.
Millie’s mate was kidnapped, too. She's not here with us, only because she and Teddy are heading teams of supernatural soldiers in Manhattan in case the hunters make it that far.
What’s with villains and kidnapping?
“Tell me about it,” Vara says, chuckling. “It’s annoying.”
Okay, I guess I said that out loud.
The sphinx, who’s standing across from me, softens her eyes.
“But you know what we all have in common? Me, Evangeline, and Teddy?” She doesn’t give me time to answer. “The villains lost. The mates were recovered. And the same thing is going to happen for Farrah.”
Tears fall down my cheeks, and I quickly wipe them away. I can’t remember the last time I cried. Probably when I lost my parents and siblings.
“Okay,” Layla says, tapping her chin in thought. “You said you can’t sense your connection, but it comes in spurts? Like, what? A bad radio signal or something?”
I nod. “That’s exactly what it’s like.”
Or like I’m swimming in the ocean and waves of fear keep slamming into me. Sometimes, I’ll hear her voice calling for me. There’s also a strange scent in my nose. Like dirt or earth and smoke. There’s something herbal, maybe a flower. And… huh… mead. I haven’t smelled that in hundreds of years.
Rorik suddenly appears at the table, emerging from his corner.
“What did you say?” he asks, boring his eyes into me.
“I didn’t say—”
He rolls his eyes and waves his hand at me. “What did you just think then?”
“It’s like I’m swimming in the ocean and waves of fear keep slamming into me. Sometimes I’ll hear her calling my name. It’s like a radio signal struggling to break through.”
He snaps his fingers, clearly wanting me to say more. I swear, I’m going to break his fucking wrist if he snaps at me again.
“The smell, Locheran.”
I narrow my eyes and huff out a breath.
“I keep getting a whiff of something. Sometimes it reeks, sometimes it smells good. It’s like dirt or earth.
I smell smoke and herbs. Or a flower, but I don’t know anything about flowers so I couldn’t tell you what kind.
There’s also a hint of sweetness that reminds me of taverns in Europe during the Middle Ages when they made mead. ”
Rorik reaches out and grabs my head, pulling me closer. I have to plant my hands on the table so I don’t fall on top of it.
“Uhhh, what is happening?” Vara asks.
“Shush,” Rory says.
“He did not just shush me,” Vara growls.
“Quiet!” Rory growls back then adds, “Please.”
He closes his eyes and presses his palms to my temples. I can sense him digging around in my head. It’s disturbing and uncomfortable, but if he thinks this will get us closer to finding Farrah, then I’ll suffer through it.
After what feels like hours, but is likely only seconds, Rorik releases me.
“I know who’s helping the hunters. I think I know how to find Farrah.”