Chapter 14 #2
“Our cub’s a little shy this morning. Juni, do you want to say hi to Harlow?”
Juni peeked out from underneath Carleigh’s chin. “Hi, Low.”
Harlow pressed her hands to her chest, her eyes misting. Juni had that effect on everyone. “So flipping cute.”
“You want some juice?” Katherine asked.
“Juice, pease.” Juni wiggled, and Carleigh set him on his feet. He raced over to Kat, bouncing up and down. Harlow let out an “eep” and covered her mouth.
Carleigh understood. She was still enamored with everything the little one did. “Did you stop by just to see Juni, or did you have news for us?”
Harlow removed her computer bag from around her shoulder and set it on the island.
She removed her laptop and opened it, tapping the keys.
Carleigh felt Bayu before he entered the room, and Harlow turned to look over Carleigh’s shoulder.
Her fingers faltered, which never happened.
Bayu stepped up behind Carleigh and snaked an arm around her middle, setting his chin on her shoulder.
“You must be Harlow.”
“Uh huh.” Harlow snapped her mouth closed and returned to typing.
Carleigh laughed at her cousin. She understood that as well. Bayu Tan was one stunning male.
Juniper, after pulling a pan of bacon out of the oven, said, “You get used to it.”
“I doubt that,” Harlow muttered. “Barrett sent me a text while I was driving, so let’s see what they have.” Harlow pulled up the drone footage from the Black Lotus compound. “Also, Nekoma is still trying to find the male from the safehouse.”
The video played, and the drones had swept the entire area.
No one was outside the main house, and there was a couple walking toward it from one of the smaller buildings.
Then another man appeared from the opposite direction as though he had been down the driveway.
“Hold up. Can you zoom in?” Carleigh leaned closer, and when Harlow brought the man into focus, Carleigh held back a curse since Juni was in the room.
“That’s either the male who was at the safehouse or he has a twin. ”
Harlow froze the frame, then opened a different video from where Dominic and company had approached the couple. She froze that frame as well and placed them side by side. “Same clothes. He must have walked back to the main road and called for a rideshare.”
“That, or he used his voodoo to convince someone to drive him.” Carleigh stepped out of Bayu’s arms and ran upstairs for her phone. She dialed Nekoma.
“Hello, Carleigh. I’m still searching the area.”
“Don’t bother. Dude is back at their compound.”
Nekoma groaned. “I’m so sorry.”
“No apologies necessary. We appreciate your diligence in searching. If you want to pop in, we’re making breakfast.”
“I would enjoy that. I’ll see you soon.” Nekoma disconnected, and within seconds, a swoosh sounded outside. Carleigh went to the front of the house where Nekoma was walking toward the porch. She opened the door for him.
“Come on in.”
“Thank you. I’m not sure how he got away. I had my ravens scouring the area.”
“Magic, no doubt. If he can vanish into thin air, it makes sense he can cloak himself. Maybe he used the shadows the same way Elle does.”
Nekoma rubbed the back of his neck. “I thought of that, and I used a spell to see within the shadows, but neither I nor my ravens could sense him.”
“Well, at least we know where he is.” Carleigh led the fae to the kitchen where Juniper was setting out the food. “Grab a plate.”
Harlow moved her laptop to the island but left it open as everyone gathered around the kitchen table.
Talk was minimal while they ate, with Juni making appreciative noises as he chewed his bacon.
Carleigh helped him scoop his eggs onto his little spoon, and he was getting good about not missing his mouth.
He began wiggling, and Carleigh asked, “Do you need to go potty?”
“No. Gemi.”
Everyone froze, and Juni banged his spoon on the table, chanting, “Gemi, Gemi, Gemi.”
“Junebug, Gemi’s not here,” Juniper said softly.
“She dere.” He waved his spoon at something across the room, and Carleigh looked to where he was pointing.
“Holy gods.” Carleigh jumped up from her chair and rounded the table. The laptop was frozen on the drone footage from the compound. She manipulated the screen so it zoomed in, and sure enough, Gemi was in the corner of the frame. “We need to call Barrett and Warren.”
Bayu joined her. “How is that possible? She was in Anjailang last we spoke.”
“And that was Friday. Plenty of time for the Black Lotus to put her on a private plane and fly her to the States.” Carleigh rewound the footage to see where Gemi had come from.
When she first came into the frame, she was one half of the couple walking toward the main house.
Instead of continuing toward it, they stopped.
The man said something to her, and she shook her head.
It didn’t appear as though she was in distress.
After a brief conversation, they started up again and disappeared into the house, with the man holding the door for her.
“That cannot be her. She would be fighting tooth and nail to get away.”
“Unless they threatened you or the cub,” Carleigh whispered. She didn’t want to speak of bad things in front of Juni.
Harlow was standing close, tugging on the braid hanging over her shoulder.
“Make a screenshot of her face. I’ll send it to Warren and have them follow her with one of the drones whenever she’s outside.
We need to get her out of there somehow.
He and Barrett can’t phase since the mages could take pictures of them. ”
“I’ll go,” Nekoma offered. “I should have been able to find the one who slipped away.”
Harlow turned to the fae and hugged him. “Stop beating yourself up. You’ve never experienced their type of magic.”
A phone pinged somewhere in the house. Bayu took off running, and when he returned, he placed it on the island.
“It’s a text from her. I guess since my burner is dead, she decided to risk using my regular one.
” He began pacing and rubbing the back of his neck.
“I didn’t open it in case the same thing happened as last time. ”
“What happened last time?” Harlow asked.
“He was on a call, and the burner phone began heating up. He dropped it, and I stomped it to bits.” Carleigh tapped the screen to see the preview. “We should clone his phone so we can read the message safely.”
“On it.” Harlow stood and left through the side door.
She came back in carrying a black case. After pressing her thumb to the scanner, the locks clicked, and Harlow opened the lid.
She pulled out a small device and inserted a cord into one end, then she held out her hand.
Bayu passed his phone over, and Harlow inserted a different cord into the charging port.
She placed the phone next to the cloning device.
“Now we wait.” Harlow stepped away from the counter and looked around. “Where’s Nekoma?”
*****
Nekoma owed so much to the Stone Society Clan.
They had taken him in after he saved Elle, but she was his sister, and for that, they owed him nothing.
Still, they gave him a place to live and work.
They ensured he was busy with orders for furniture and clothes.
They visited him when Elle and Anthony were gone, keeping him company and teaching him about life on Earth.
Nekoma missed his mother, but he had gained a large family.
That was something he never envisioned for himself.
While the others were focused on Bayu’s phone, Nekoma slipped out the back door and opened a portal to the woods surrounding Elle and Anthony’s home.
His home. He sneaked into the barn, which was now his workshop, and gathered several items he might need going up against the Black Lotus.
When his satchel was filled with the potions, he returned outside.
Earlier, he had called on his winged brethren to watch the Black Lotus compound, and using their eyes, he knew where to go.
Opening another portal, Nekoma slipped between places.
He called on the shadows to hide him once he was on the other side.
Nekoma did not believe the woman they saw through the drone footage was Gemi.
He had a feeling she was using a type of glamour to hide her true visage, and he was going to find her, then take her back to Georgia.
He would not return her to Carleigh’s, as he didn’t want to upset Juni.
The cub, though resilient, had been through enough these last few days.
Instead of heading straight to the compound proper, Nekoma found the two Gargoyles who were hiding a mile away. When he approached Warren and Barrett, they did not seem surprised to see him. Nekoma raised a hand in greeting. “I am Nekoma. I take it Carleigh realized I left?”