He tiptoed into the bathroom, gaze searching the shadows, which made me glare hard into the corners. Nothing moved. The building was silent, empty of any heartbeats but ours. Remi’s steady rhythm in the living room, my own constant thrum, and Jude’s.
I paused, listening for the familiar cadence of his pulse. Comforted by the beat, I returned to my search, leaning down to peer under the bed. Nothing but dust bunnies and a dozen discarded kid toys. On my way back up, I froze.
Silence.
The familiar beat of Jude’s heart… gone.
My stomach lurched as I whipped around toward the bathroom, my vision narrowing as fear clutched my soul.
The bathroom was empty. Curtain pulled back to an empty shower, and no Jude.
He’d been right there.
I stalked across the room and into the bathroom, slapped the light on, blood roaring in my ears with rising panic. “Jude?”
Had he slipped past me? I bolted from the bathroom, through the bedroom, and into the living room where Remi still knelt by the markings.
Nothing.
No.
Remi glanced up. “Everything okay?”
No.
I raced through the apartment, throwing open every door, my heart a frantic drum against my ribs. Nausea and terror rose with every empty room, a silent scream building in my chest.
No, no, no.
“Did Jude pass you?” I begged, coming to a screeching halt in front of him.
“Uh, no? Wasn’t he with you?”
“He’s gone.”
“What?” Remi’s confusion snapped into sharp focus.
Ezra’s voice crackled in our earpieces. “What’s wrong?”
“Angel says Jude is missing.” Remi brushed past me to sweep the bedroom. A desperate, foolish part of me prayed he’d find Jude with some ridiculous flourish—ta-da!—hiding in a closet.
But the grim set of Remi’s shoulders as he searched only drove my heart further into my throat. He stalked from room to room, his lips pressed into a bloodless line, his entire frame rigid with a tension that mirrored my own rising dread.
“Fuck,” he cursed from the main bedroom.
I was behind him in an instant, my gaze darting past his shoulder into the brightly lit bathroom, half-expecting to find Jude’s body crumpled on the tiles. But the room was sterile, empty.
Except for a single, stark rune drawn in soap beside the drain.
“What is it?” I demanded, my voice raw. I’d have felt Jude’s death, that much I knew of the mate bond. It likely would have dragged me with him, even while our bond was still growing. This was something else. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know this rune,” Remi admitted. “It honestly looks like a half-dozen runes mashed together.”
My control snapped. I grabbed a fistful of Remi’s shirt and slammed him against the bathroom wall, the tiles cracking with the impact. “Your spell was supposed to hide him! Not make him vanish! Bring him back!”
“I didn’t do this!”
“What the hell is going on?” Wade demanded through our earpieces.
