I hung my slightly damp coat and umbrella on the hooks by the door, then hurried to the stairs. Just as I rounded the first three steps I saw Malin standing halfway down.
I stopped, looking up with raised eyebrows.
“Where were you?” he asked accusingly.
“Out on errands. Why?”
“Well, the mutt’s gone.”
“What did you just say?”
“The omega. He's run away or something, I don't know.”
“Have you looked around the house?”
“Yep. Checked everywhere, even his rooms. Your precious commodity has flown the coop. I knew it wouldn't work out. It was a stupid idea anyway.”
I pressed my lips tight, wanting badly to ask Malin what he had done. Kirion was an innocent in this. What a fool I'd begin to leave knowing Malin would be in the house alone with the set omega I'd forbidden him to have contact with. Malin always did the opposite of what I told him to do. Don't touch? He would touch.
“Well, let's keep looking.” I kept my voice calm but my heart was pattering like the rain. If Kirion had run away there was a good reason for it. And Malin had to be involved.
“He probably left the house and will never return,” Malin said.
“He has nowhere to go. He doesn't know his way around. Besides, the storm is really bad out there. He wouldn't go out in it.”
Malin shrugged as if he couldn't be bothered to care. “If that's what you think.”
“I'll go check his rooms.” I hurried up the stairs and shoved past my son.
“I already did.”
“I'll check again.”
“Suit yourself.”
Our conversations always went that way even when there wasn't any drama.
When I got to Kirion’s bedroom I knocked on the door and called his name. No response. Slowly, I opened the door and stepped inside. The room was dark except for one light on in the closet. From where I stood I could see the room was a shambles. Things had been broken, lamps turned over, bedspread askew, clothes strewn from the closet door to all around the bed. His laptop was on the floor and there was broken glass on the countertop of the little bar where I found the fridge was wide open as if the hinges had been damaged.
“What the hell?” I stepped further into the room and called out. “Kirion.”
But I could already tell he wasn't here. His scent had faded. He hadn't been in here for hours.
Why would he destroy his room like this? He’d shown no hint of anger at lunch and seemed fine to learn that I was going out for the afternoon.
I wanted to confront Malin again but when I came out and look down the stairwell he was long gone.
I searched the second room that I'd given to Kirion but it was easy to see he wasn't in there. There were other guest rooms and I gave a quick look over them all but they were undisturbed.
I ran down two flights of stairs to the first floor and begin to walk slowly through all the rooms, peering behind couches, chairs, under tables, everywhere I could think to look. I asked the cooks in the kitchen. They’d not seen him all afternoon. Nor had Elias.
I turned around twice in frustration, rubbing my forehead. I hurried back to the big living room and spoke out loud to myself. “He couldn't have gone outside, could he?”
Follow his scent.
I took a step back, startled. Tanekan had not spoken in thirteen years. It was almost alarming to hear his voice. We'd flown together. He enjoyed his exercise. In the past few years his emotions were always relaxed, nonchalant. He was happiest when he was free to take flight without a time limit and I tried to give him that at least twice a week to make up for the fact that after Rupert died I didn't shift for over a year.
It was wonderful to hear him again.
