Perfect.
Abigail put thecaskon her shoulders, grabbed the wick and bottle, then hurried out of the treatment suite and locked it up tight. She rushed to the other end of the hallway and unlocked a door with a touch of her hand.
Inside was her office. First, she opened a magical locker, revealing arechercheof the building they were in, sitting on the top shelf. Therecherchelooked like a snow globe, and it represented her magical protection around the building. Now that Sage’s essence was hidden in Abigail’scask, therecherchecould be deactivated. It used much power and could not run indefinitely. Abigail pressed her hand to it, squashing the energy bubble flat. It broke like a soap bubble andvvystsplashed around the inside of the locker. Abigail shut the locker door, leaving therechercheinside.
The security monitors showed Maria, one of the nurses on Abigail’s payroll. She was sitting at the nurse’s station on the third floor, drinking coffee and scrolling on her phone, waiting for orders from the doctor.
Abigail set the bottle of water, which was still half full, on the table. Whispering spells, she held her hands over it, until the bottle shrunk, looking like a liquid medicine bottle, and the label read WHIT-WHIT. Ethedra’s concealment spell still held strong.
Abigail left the room and took the elevator to the third floor. She placed the bottle of WHIT-WHIT inside the medical refrigerator situated outside the research section of the building, and then she hurried back to her office.
Abigail used the computer to create a fake medical order and routed it through the building’s communication system, then watched Maria on the screen. The computer next to Maria beeped. She read the medical order, then left the room. She went to the research section, took the bottle of WHIT-WHIT, then strolled down the hallway to the elevator, to the treatment suite.
Abigail watched the security monitors carefully.
It was finally happening.
57—Traced
Eventine Mundelein,wolven, sat on a bench inside a tactical tent, drank hot coffee and read investigative notes. At the opposite end of the tent, two patrol officers rested on cots, and the rest of the team was outside preparing for the day’s mission. They’d been set up in temporary headquarters at the base of Morning Bluff for two days, searching for Canyon and Timber, plus Conri Bloom. This was the third day Canyon and Timber were missing, and the fifth day for Conri. Canyon and Timber had been up Morning Bluff investigating thefoxenwitch Abigail White and the possible One True Mate Sage White, and Conri? They had no leads on him, but common sense told them the disappearances were linked.
Harlan, her handsomewolvenmate, opened a door flap and came in. He kissed her on the cheek and nuzzled her hair, then whispered in her ear, “Sergeant, you need me to do anything?”
“Love me,” she murmured, grabbing him around his neck and pulling him close.
“Always, even death can’t keep us apart,” he murmured. Eventine laughed, since she’d been dead for 30 years, but Harlan’s love had brought her back. They kissed, and when he pulled away he looked deep in her eyes. He growled overtly, lifting his lip to show a canine. She growled back, showing him her teeth. He leaned in and kissed her, then scratched his salt-and-pepper stubble against her hair, saying, “Trevor and Mac are ready.”
Eventine stood and gathered her things. “Let’s go.”
Harlan strolled to the other end of the tent and kicked the legs of the cots, growling at the patrol officers, “Nap time’s over.” He watched the males until they were up, then he opened the door flap for Eventine. She smiled and patted his chest as she passed him, then made her way out into the sunshine.
Cold air greeted her, but no snow yet. All around them, sixty-foot-high White Pine trees towered, blocking the sun. They were broken up into two teams. Mac was leading Team A, with his mate Rogue riding shotgun, plus Beckett and Cerise and two patrol officers following. Eventine was leading team B with Harlan driving, Crew, Dahlia, and two patrol officers following.
Trevor stood on a boulder near their grouping of vehicles, with their team milling about. When he saw her, he raised a hand to her and called out to everyone.
“Gather ‘round.”
Rogue came toward her, wearing jeans and a blue and white SPD jacket, an SPD cap pulled low over her head, her hair pulled back in a ponytail. “You hear that?” she asked.
Eventine listened. “Hear what?”
Rogue shook her head, grimacing. “Something far away… calling my name.”
Eventine listened for several moments but still heard nothing but the wind in the trees and the cars driving by on the lower road. “I don’t hear it.”
Rogue nodded and wandered off toward Beckett’s truck, where Cerise was sitting in the driver’s seat and Beckett was in the back, one booted foot up on the toolbox, his eyes on Trevor.
Trevor held an image of Canyon’s truck and an image of Conri’s truck over his head, speaking for the benefit of the new batch of patrol officers who had just come on shift.
“We’re still looking for Canyon and Timber, and also for Conri. Their phones are all gone from the network—untraceable, but last known inputs had each of them near this spot right here.Our search up the bluff yesterday turned up nothing, no houses, nofoxen, no Morning Wood Inn, and no clues, but we have new information and we’re going off-road as soon as the ATVs arrive.”
Wade yelled from the open window of a vehicle. “The witch wants war!”
Harlan growled, and the patrol officers did, too. Eventine stayed quiet. She didn’t know what to think. She watched Rogue and Cerise, who were paying Trevor no attention at all. Instead, Rogue pointed up the bluff, and Cerise nodded, lifting her hand in the same direction.
Trevor held up his hands. “We don’t know what’s happened and we’re not assuming anything.”
Wade opened the car door, got out, and sauntered close to Trevor, looking ready to fight. A vehicle drove past and everyone’s head swiveled to see it, but all the heads swiveled back to Trevor and Wade when they saw it was a minivan filled with kids.
