Chapter 17 #2
“Yes, yes, now can you quit twisting the knife in? Otherwise, I might abandon this search and take you back home.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Let’s focus on finding him so we can get back home. It’s cold as hell here.”
Pax had stayed silent the entire time. He flipped his visor down and opened his mirror, his eyes trained on me. “You are the Floromancer who took on the gods, Miss Quinn?”
“Evie, please,” I said with a slight grimace. “And, yes, I suppose I did in a way.”
Pax had an unnerving intensity about him. Under his attention, I felt like he and I were the only people in the vehicle. “Is it true you were trapped inside of a tree?”
“Pax,” Christian hissed.
I held up a hand. “No. It’s okay. Really. The fae are tricky, and the more knowledge you have, the better, especially since they’re finding our plane of existence far more interesting than before.”
Christian’s eyes narrowed. “You’re seeing more fae in Joy Springs?”
Caelan nodded. “Far too many for my liking.”
“We are, though I’m afraid part of it is my fault.
I am of mixed heritage, which adds some unique flavor to my magic.
My Floromancy is…strange among my own kind.
And, to answer your question, yes, I was trapped in a tree for…
a month, I think.” I shook my head. “Time was fuzzy inside. I was incorporeal in a way, and my thoughts weren’t always coherent. ”
Pax studied me. “How did you get out?”
I shifted in my seat and tugged my jacket closer.
This question required treading carefully.
I’d escaped that tree because of my Chimera magic.
If I’d gone in as a simple Floromancer, I don’t think I would have survived.
“A witch cast a spell focused on my…” I frowned.
“My soul, I guess? I’m not sure, but it was a beacon back to her and the people who loved me.
Once I had a direction, it was a matter of channeling every bit of power I had left to find my way home. My mixed magic came in handy.”
Pax’s eyes lit up with gold around his irises. Caelan stilled beside me. He’d noticed it, too. One day this young wolf might be a Lord. The promise of power glimmered in his eyes. “You believe other species can find peace and sometimes love with each other?”
I blinked in surprise. That was not where I expected this conversation to go. “Absolutely. I never expected to be involved with a Lord, yet here I am, tracking another one down.”
Pax’s eyes flicked to Caelan and back to me. “Has it been complicated?”
At that, Caelan let out a belly laugh, surprising all of us.
I laughed too. “Extremely,” I admitted. “Forces worked together to keep us apart, but I’m still here.
With Caelan. And with all of you. I think paranormals should be able to love and mate with whomever they want to.
Though I understand purity in bloodlines and know it’s necessary in some cases where mating outside of the line might be harmful, intermingling bloodlines allows for new veins of magic, and interesting opportunities to solve problems.”
“Problems?” Pax’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
I thought about how much information to divulge.
“Well, some bloodlines are volatile and breed magic that is harmful both to the user and to those around them. Intermingling might help tame those abilities to something more manageable. Take seers for example. Many of them can’t drive or hold normal jobs.
What if having children with a shifter could tamper their line just enough to allow them to live normally? ”
I shrugged. “I’m no geneticist, but if you continue to breed within your kind, you can’t breed out any problems.”
“We don’t have illnesses,” Christian said.
“Sure, but I’m sure there have been cases where certain genetic factors might pop up in families.
Let’s take cystic fibrosis as an example.
One parent has the gene, and one does not.
That child will not be born with cystic fibrosis because only one gene passes down; however, there’s a fifty percent chance of them being a carrier of the gene, so the cycle continues.
If both parents have the gene, there’s a 25% percent chance of their child having cystic fibrosis, and a 25% chance of not being a carrier of the gene. Right?”
Everyone nodded, though Caelan was giving me an odd look.
“Same thing with shifters or witches or Floromancers, any paranormal really. There’s always a chance of something odd in the gene pool.
So why wouldn’t you want outside blood and genetic material to see if you can eventually breed those out? ”
Caelan’s lips twitched. “That is both a coldly analytical and surprisingly scientific take.”
I shrugged. “The fae cling to their bloodlines like a tick on a thigh.”
Pax’s look lingered before he turned his attention to Caelan. “Your Floromancer is both intelligent and beautiful. I look forward to seeing the future of your Keep and your shifters if you two marry.”
For the first time since I’d known him, Caelan looked nonplussed. “Err. Thank you?”
I hid my smile. “Why are you so interested in interspecies relations?”
Pax’s eyes flickered. “My parents dealt with their own genetic issues.”
I waited for him to elaborate, but when he didn’t, I nodded. Maybe this was an extremely personal matter, and Pax only wanted the opinion of an outsider. “I hope one day they will find a resolution.”
The shifter inclined his head before snapping the mirror shut and raising his visor.
“We’re almost to town,” Christian said. “Pax, roll down the window and see if you can catch his scent.”
“I have the vehicle’s scent,” Caelan said. “It had an oil leak and at least two people inside, minus Ben.”
Christian nodded. “We’ll stop at his apartment first.”
“How many places does Ben have?” I murmured.
“He stays in the apartment when he has business in town and then with us a few days of the week. Most of the time he resides at the home you just left.”
Curious. I didn’t like leaving my home much and couldn’t imagine splitting my residences between three places.
Ben didn’t seem like a typical Lord, and I wondered if that had something to do with his reticence to live at the Keep full time.
He wasn’t a wolf, nor was he a bear…maybe the difference made him uncomfortable?
Shaking my head, I tugged my jacket closer and looked outside the window. Caelan and Pax both had their faces out the window sniffing like German Shepherds. The sight of it amused me, and I wished we were here on something much more mundane than finding a lost Lord.
Ethan had escaped with our intervention, though he didn’t know we were the reason for his reprieve.
But Ben could be anywhere. I interlaced my fingers together and sent a whisper of power out the window as Christian slowed the vehicle.
Plants and trees couldn’t talk, not in the sense we could, but they could send back images and feelings.
I projected an image of Ben to the landscaping and waited for it to respond. Seconds later, a faint sigh came through my senses. They’d seen nothing of importance.
I touched them with thanks and waited as we moved on.
Christian pulled into the parking lot of a small apartment complex a few minutes later. Nondescript, taupe apartments with black doors, all the units identical. “Come,” the shifter said as he pulled into a parking spot and slid from the vehicle.
We followed, Caelan coming up beside me. His body heat beat at my skin, and I squashed the urge to burrow into him.
Christian went upstairs and knocked a few times, but no one answered. He pulled out a keychain loaded with multiple keys and, after a moment of searching for the right one, opened the door.
I knew the moment we walked in Ben wasn’t present. Christian and Pax searched every room before shaking their heads. “There’s a warehouse under Keep ownership where we conduct business sometimes. Let’s check there.”
Without a word, we loaded up and got on the road again.
This place was fifteen minutes away, and there wasn’t much around to hide our presence.
“We’ll need to park somewhere and walk in if we want any hope of stealth,” Christian said.
Caelan nodded. “How far?”
The shifter pointed to a large gray building maybe half a mile away.
“Do you want to stay in the car?” Caelan said.
I snorted. “Not particularly. I can help once we get closer. I see one large tree, but there may be more. I can try to calculate how many people are in the building before you approach.”
Christian’s eyebrows rose. “Can you really?”
I shrugged. “Trees and plants can communicate in their own way. If there’s any greenery inside, that’s even better.
His brow furrowed. “We don’t use the place to meet that often, so I don’t think so. Anything inside would have died.”
I chewed on the side of my lips. “No admin people with plants on their desks or anything like that?”
Pax spoke up. “We do have a female wolf in charge of operations. It’s very possible she has something. Should I call her?”
“Text,” Caelan ordered. “We need to get moving.” He looked at me. “Do you need to know what it is?”
I shook my head. “Approximate location would be nice to prevent anyone from sensing my magic, but if they don’t have it, I’ll make it work.”
Pax bent his head over his phone and typed rapidly as we headed over.
“Let’s get within a block. We may need someone to go to higher ground and see if anything stands out.” Caelan moved to the front, leaving me walking next to Pax.
“Pothos,” Pax said. “That’s all she has. And she said it wasn’t in the best shape. Some shit about the lighting.”
My look was disapproving. “Just like people, plants have needs that must be met, too.”
To his credit, he looked chagrined. “Sorry. I’m not used to plants being of assistance in something like that.”
I nodded. “That’s because they’re too busy keeping you breathing.”
From ahead, Christian barked a laugh. “She’s got you there.”
Pax grinned. “That’s why we need a Floromancer around.”
We fell silent as we approached a two-story building. Christian examined it with a critical eye. “It’s higher than most buildings, but I’m not sure how much advantage going up there will give us.”
“Try anyway,” Caelan said. “You never know if there’ll be a clear path to a window in your eyesight. If they left one open, we might be able to see what’s going on from a distance instead of going in blind. If not, we’ll keep moving and let Evie do her thing.”
Christian said nothing, taking hold of a drainpipe and shimmying to the top of the building. He gave us a thumbs up before disappearing up and over the side.
“The building isn’t that large, so it’s possible he’ll be able to see something,” Caelan said.
“Who are we potentially dealing with?” Pax asked.
“I’ll tell you when I know for sure,” Caelan said.
If it were Donovan and Nadia, which it had to be, I wondered how far they would go to get answers.
The problem was, no one they took had any answers.
But there was an even bigger problem. Donovan knew what happened to Gianna, so he was playing Nadia, allowing her to question the other Lords without divulging he knew where Gianna was buried.
Or used to be buried.
I’d discarded her bones to the elements and hidden her DNA so deep into the earth, no one would ever find it. Unfortunate, but I wasn’t the one who’d killed her. Finn and Rhona had done those honors, involving Donovan as well, in an effort to frame me.
While I felt for Nadia and thought her mission to find out what happened was honorable, if she found out, it could cause a war with the other Lords and potentially with the fae as well.
There was no way to return Gianna’s body, which might have appeased her, because it simply no longer existed.
My brow furrowed. Could we rebuild her a new body? Was there a fae who might be able to create something that might serve as Gianna’s body so they could hold a funeral for her?
Or was there another reason Nadia was searching so hard to find her cousin? Was it possible Gianna had something on her that Nadia needed? Something I’d missed when I sent her remains to the earth?
Paranoia was occasionally one of my specialties.
While my theory seemed a little outlandish, I grew up with a fae mother and nothing about them surprised me anymore, except for their most recent revelation which I was still trying to process.
They’d go to the ends of the earth for revenge and never let a slight go.
But, at least in the case of my mother, they had an endless capacity for love and would go to extreme lengths to keep their loved ones safe.
Shifters also had some of the same mentality, especially if it had to do with Pack. I knew jack shit about swans, though. Everything I knew came from those funny video shows where swans would harass the shit out of someone. Maybe the swan shifters hated each other.
Or maybe I was making shit up just to try to make sense out of this mess.
A soft thump revealed Christian crouching. “Those idiots left the windows uncovered. We’re too far away for a facial I.D., but there’s two men and one woman.” His expression was grim. “One of them is in a chair and covered with blood.”
Caelan swore. “Let’s go. Evie, as soon as we get close enough, see if you can find anything else out.”
Christian gave us an odd look but shrugged.
We took off running, careful to avoid the icy spots, but hurrying as fast we could.
Ben’s life depended on our expedience.