“Does anyone want to know if I want them to stay?” Decebel asked, his voice a gravelly form of pissed-the-hell-off.
Jen patted his leg. “I think we know where you stand, and we’re choosing to ignore you.” She looked back at Costin and Fane and pursed her lips. “Now, end my curiosity. Blue hands. Go.”
As Jacque listenedto her mate and Costin tell the events of the day, and explain how they ended up with blue appendages, she had to agree with Jen, it was ridiculous. All of it. The fact that she and Sally had foolishly thought taking their best friend’s three-day-old baby without saying a word would be okay was ridiculous. The fact that Fane and Costin subsequently stole the baby from them was ridiculous. The fact that Fane and Costin attempted to bathe the baby with an unknown chemical in a laboratory was ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. Isn’t it interesting how snap decisions that seem rational at the time can sometimes seem so foolish in hindsight?
When the guys were finally done telling their tale, with Sally and Jacque intermittently adding their own commentary, Decebel looked legitimately horrified, and Jen looked surprisingly amused. If nothing else, at least it distracted her for a bit.
“So, not only was my daughter taken, she was also dyed blue?” Jen asked.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Fane answered.
There was a knock at the door and then Alina’s head poked in. Her eyes were red and puffy. Jacque knew that Alina and Vasile saw Thia as a surrogate granddaughter, and it had to be just as frustrating for them to be unable to help.
“I just wanted to check and see if Jen and Decebel needed anything,” Alina said as she stepped into the suite.
“Non-thieving, non-idiot, non-blue-paint-fetish friends would be a good start,” Decebel said.
“He doesn’t mean that,” Jen hurried.
“He totally does,” Jacque said smirking at her friends’ desire to make her mate seem less homicidal. She’d have better luck selling a coat to that man in hell who is still waiting on ice water.
“Thank you for checking on us, Alina,” Jen said. “We don’t need anything, well, other than Thia back. But we appreciate you asking.”
Alina nodded as she exited the suite and closed the door quietly behind her.
Sally let out a deep sigh and looked from Jacque to Jen. “What do we do now?”
“The only thing we can do,” Jen said. “We wait.”
“Waiting sucks,” Jacque grumbled.
“Are you alright, Luna?”Fane asked through their bond. Jacque could feel his worry for her and his remorse for what had happened to Thia. He genuinely felt like it was his and Costin’s fault, that they should have been able to prevent this.
“You aren’t to blame, Fane,”Jacque assured him.
“If I can’t keep my friend’s daughter safe, what chance do I have of keeping any pups we have in the future safe?”
“Nothing is truly safe. You know that. We are a part of a world where the strong and smart thrive, and the weaker simply survive. We can’t bury our heads in the sand and act like we are somehow unsusceptible to danger. But that doesn’t mean we hide out in a bunker and stop living. The only person responsible for Thia being taken is the person who stole her.”
Fane took her hand and pulled her closer to him as they settled deeper into the love seat. Jacque figured that, unless Decebel used an alpha command on them, they weren’t going anywhere, so they might as well get as comfortable as they could.
“You are a wise female, Jacquelyn. I love you,”Fane whispered into her mind.
“Wise or not, waiting still sucks. And I love you back.”
Chapter Eleven
“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch an elf by the toe.” ~Perizada, the poet and didn’t know it.
Peri and Cynflashed onto the fourth floor of New York Episcopalian/Upper Manhattan Hospital. Peri wasn’t positive about her suspicion, but she wouldn’t leave any stone unturned when it came to Thia.
Peri glamoured herself and Cyn to keep the humans from noticing them and motioned for Cyn to follow her to Kimily Blankenship’s office. Once they were inside, Cyn spoke.
“Why have we come to a human hospital? I thought a supernatural took Thia.”
“I need some info on your man, Thalion. Without getting into any pillow talk, has he ever mentioned if the elves have the able to mask their magic?” Peri asked, not bothering to answer Cyn’s question, at least not yet.
“I’m not even going to address the pillow talk comment,” Cyn said in her usual cool voice. “As for the elvish abilities, I’ve never heard him mention something like what you’re suggesting.”
