Chapter 44
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Travis
Blood pounded in my ears as I ran down Nightshade Avenue, dodging the huge Monsterval crowds as best I could while not mowing down tiny children. Every few steps, a fan recognized me, but I ignored them and kept going.
I thought I’d heard a man’s voice before the call with Daphne suddenly ended. I’d tried calling her back, but I kept getting the coffee shop’s voicemail.
The bell above the door at Unholy Grounds jangled noisily as I burst through, banging it against the opposite wall. Several people jumped, startled at my loud entrance. Stomping inside, I spun around but didn’t see my mate anywhere.
“Where’s Daphne?” I barked.
Sister Mary-Francis blinked at me, bewildered. “Daphne…was here?” she asked slowly, glancing around.
“Yes! I was talking to her on the phone. Your phone. She was just here.”
Brow furrowed, Sister Mary-Francis tapped her forehead with the tips of her fingers as if to clear her head. Apparently, it worked. I could see the realization in her eyes.
“Of course, Daphne was here,” she said, more to herself than to me. “I don’t know what just happened to me. She was sitting right over there.”
The nun pointed to an empty table where a cup and saucer sat next to several crumpled napkins. I scowled. Something was very off. The nuns ran a tight ship and rarely left a table looking like this.
“Well, that’s odd,” she said, echoing my thoughts as we made our way through the line of magical creatures waiting to place their orders. “She didn’t bus her table. She always busses her table.”
“And you’re sure she was sitting right here?” Daphne’s scent wasn’t particularly strong, so it could’ve been from another day.
“You bet your tail she was. I brought her the phone to call you. What in heaven’s name?” She bent and picked up the coffee shop’s phone from the floor.
My rising panic had me seeing red. “Did you notice her talking to anyone? Did someone come over to her table?”
“I...I honestly don’t know,” she said apologetically.
“My last recollection is of Daphne sitting here, talking on the phone. I didn’t see anybody approach her.
And I didn’t see her leave.” She pursed her lips and scrunched up her nose as if she had caught a whiff of something bad.
“Some strange magic has been used here.”
I took a deep breath and sniffed the air. I smelled nothing rancid, but I did detect a scent-masking agent. The same one used when Daphne’s villa was ransacked.
Rushing outside, I scanned both sides of the street. Where could she have gone? There were people, so many people. And magical creatures. Everywhere.
I was about to shift into my wolf form to better pick up her scent when I caught sight of Merrick and his wife standing outside Dark Tarts.
They appeared to be having a heated argument.
She pushed him hard in the chest, then her claws came out.
She tried to take a swipe at his face, but he grabbed her wrists before she could scratch him.
Catching my eye, he said something to her and shoved her away. Then he jogged over to me.
“You’re looking for Daphne,” he said, eyes dark with anger. It was a statement, not a question.
I could barely contain my wolf from coming out and tearing him to pieces. “What have you done with her?”
Merrick looked me straight in the eye, a ballsy thing for one male wolf to do to another.
Then he cast his gaze downward, a sign of respect from a pack member to the Alpha.
“Nothing. I would not hurt your mate, Travis. But I think I know who has her. Does the name Griffin Pharmaceuticals ring a bell?”
The blood in my veins went ice cold. The CEO who had killed Daphne’s co-worker. He was here? On Darkaway? Which meant that he now had Daphne.
“Come on,” he said. “I think she’s at the marina on his private yacht.”
As we dashed through the streets down to the waterfront, Merrick explained what he knew.
“Lavinia has been acting strangely lately. Stranger than normal, so I followed her to her cousin’s place in Wickedville, where she met up with Griffin.”
Her cousin? Wickedville? Then it dawned on me, and I nearly tripped on an uneven cobblestone. “Your wife is a Crutchfield?”
Merrick looked like he had just bitten into a lemon. “Unfortunately, yes. I’m not sure if our...our father knew. He wasn’t exactly of sound mind this last year. I certainly didn’t know until after the wedding a few months ago.”
“How does Griffin fit into all this? Daphne worked for him.”
“From what I’ve been able to piece together, Lavinia cyber-stalked all the Date-A-Wolf contestants, and she contacted Daphne’s employer.
” At the confused look on my face, he added, “She wanted to rig the contest so you’d choose Sarah, a distant cousin of hers.
Who, by the way, does not know she was a pawn in all this.
From what I can tell, she’s completely innocent. ”
I flexed my fists, wanting desperately to punch something. As if sensing my ire, Merrick moved further away from me as we ran. “So that’s how Griffin knew Daphne was here. He must be a magical creature to have found his way to the island.”
Merrick gave me a grim nod. “He’s a dark wizard.”
“Who wanted his spell book back.” At Merrick’s confused look, I added, “I’ll fill you in later.” It must’ve been his scent and Lavinia’s at Daphne’s villa after the break-in. And when Griffin either couldn’t find the spell book or it wouldn’t go with him, he had to kidnap Daphne to get it.
When we got to the marina, Merrick pointed to where the yacht should be, but the slip was empty. And it was nowhere in the harbor either.
I nearly fell to my knees.
Daphne was gone.