Chapter 22 Valens
Valens
“Tomorrow morning? Sparring ring behind the castle?” she pressed, wanting to nail down the specifics with almost breathless intensity.
“You’ve got yourself a date.” I wanted to seal the deal with a kiss on those delectable lips of hers, but at the same time, I didn’t want to press faster than she was willing to go, heat forcing our hands or no.
She seemed much more at ease with a physical challenge than a physical caress. So, I’d give her what she wanted.
Maybe the key to her heart all along was a little physical combat? That was when my wolf had first laid claim to hers now that I thought about it.
But damned if I was going to be an easy mark. If she wanted to test me, I’d give her all I had. No holds barred.
The thought had me grinning even as we separated, her to run to the kitchens for food now that she felt better, me to step into my bedroom to return Lucien’s call that I’d so abruptly dropped when I’d seen Elodie, huddling against the wall in pain.
My cell phone had a big-ass dent in the side of it, but the call went through just fine. He picked up on the first ring.
“Sorry about that. What’s up?”
Lucien snorted. “You’re going to have to give me more of an explanation than that. You literally picked up the phone, said ‘one second’ while you stepped somewhere quiet, and then—”
“It was Elodie. I… would like to keep the details private, but she needed me. Urgently.”
There was a long pause, and I held back a grimace. Lucien was a good Alpha, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t see me dropping him and making him wait for a callback as a sign of disrespect.
“Understood. Is she okay?”
Relief flooded me, as time and time again, these wolves, this Alpha, proved to me that they were everything the Vargas hadn’t been.
“She is now, yes. We’re actually going to spar in the morning.”
Lucien loosed a low whistle. “I used to think you were smarter, but I’m starting to question that. You think it’s a good idea to fight with the woman? There’s no possible good outcome, is there?”
I imagined myself pinned to the ground, my mate straddling my hips with a triumphant expression, and heartily disagreed with his assessment. “Let’s just say I’m trusting my gut.”
Lucien chuckled, and I could easily imagine his incredulous expression. “It’s your funeral. She can fight like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”
I grinned, not at all deterred by that statement. “Good. Maybe I’ll learn a few things.”
“Be that as it may, that’s not why I called,” he said drily. “I might need you to postpone your sparring plans. We’ve got a new problem.”
I stood up straighter. “What’s wrong?”
“I just received a report from Batten in Canada that the local goblin clan here in Europe is missing two members.” I blinked down at the phone in my hand for a second.
“If I’d had one thousand guesses as to what you were about to say, I still wouldn’t have guessed that.”
“That’s not all. There’s a missing lynx shifter, a warlock who didn’t report for council duty, and a vampire who has been reported as defecting from the ODL after his leave. His family, however, is insisting he never came home to begin with and is putting up missing posters.”
“What in the nine hells?” I mumbled, confused. “What do you think happened to them?”
“The same thing that happened to Sandrine. And that’s what we need to find out.”
I kept my mouth shut as he outlined what he needed me to do, taking notes when he gave me an address a short drive away.
“Oh, and V? Don’t go alone. Take someone with you. All the missing were alone when they were last seen, so it stands to reason that they were abducted alone. Possibly because they were easy targets and nothing more.”
“Makes sense. Pick people off one at a time. But for what?”
“I have no idea, other than nothing good.”
I couldn’t disagree with that, but a new thought struck me. “Hey, Luce? When we went to follow up with Sandrine, didn’t Reed say that Petró was buying magical protection devices?”
“Yes, yes, he was. You think that has something to do with this?”
“I think it’s too close an issue to be a coincidence. Those disappearances all happened within two hundred miles of the pack lands. Sandrine too.”
“We’ll do some more digging. Something bigger is happening here, I can feel it.”
I could feel it too, but I kept that to myself as we ended the call. Some bad shit was about to go down, and I hated not knowing which direction it was coming from.
I tossed the phone on my makeshift dresser and left to go tell Kane I needed someone for a mission tomorrow.