Danzig
“I’ve got a bad feeling,” Marduk said, echoing what I’d been thinking for the last few minutes.
“Same,” I said. “I’m going to go find her and Hugo.”
I moved to the front door and opened it hoping to see Bec and Hugo walking back from the green area. Instead I found Ysabella standing there with Muggsie at her side and Hugo in her arms.
“No,” I whispered.
Ysabella tilted her head in a questioning manner. “Yes? Bec had to run to work to check on something. She asked me to bring Hugo back to you when he and Muggsie were done playing.”
I looked over my shoulder to see Marduk with his phone out and up to his ear. His expression was dark.
“Who are you?” he asked into the phone with barely suppressed rage in his voice.
I rushed over with Ysabella behind me. “Put it on speaker phone,” I demanded.
He did as I asked, and we heard an unfamiliar voice come from the phone.
“ …bring me the dog or you’ll never see her again.”
Marduk opened his mouth, probably to issue threats of destruction and death, but I slapped a hand over his mouth.
“How do we know you have Bec?” I asked.
“She can’t talk right now, but I’ll send you a picture,” the female voice said, her tone smug and taunting.
We heard some shuffling, then Marduk’s phone pinged with a text. It was Bec, curled up in the trunk of a car. Her eyes were closed and her body relaxed, as if in sleep. I wished pictures could show auras, that might’ve told me what they’d done to her, but at least there weren’t any obvious injuries.
I felt Marduk’s rage growing, but I pushed my need for him to remain calm and in control.
“How do we exchange Bec for Hugo?” I asked.
“I don’t want Hugo, I want the dog,” she said.
“Hugo is the dog, remember?” a strange male voice said and then giggled. “How did you forget that, Gale?”
“Shut up, Lars,” Gale hissed. “The damn dog's name doesn’t matter.”
Lars started to protest. “Yeah, but you were—”
“Lars!” Gale shouted. “I know I’m talking to Marduk or Danzig. I know you're both snake shifters. I know you can do all kinds of things, so if you want Bec back, you’ll do everything I want exactly as I tell you.”
“We’ll give you the dog,” I said quickly, disturbed to find out that she knew so much about us. “Where should we meet for the exchange?”
The other end went silent, as if they hadn’t thought out this part of the deal.
“I’ll text you a time and place. Be ready,” Gale finally said, then ended the call.
The moment I moved my hand from Marduk’s mouth, he started talking.
“We aren’t waiting for them,” he said.
I nodded. “I can track her.”
Ysabella put a hand on my shoulder to turn me so we were all facing each other. “How?”
“Danzig is good at seeing auras,” Marduk said. “Much better than me. He’d be able to spot Bec’s aura unless they put her deep underground.”
