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Now that all that was settled, Syrus was about to suggest the two vampires make themselves scarce when the phone rang out.

Sybil cocked her head, a smirk playing on her painted lips. “A landline? How quaint.”

“I believe Luke uses it for business purposes.” Syrus had heard the occasional message left about commissions over his time here. Presumably Luke found it easier to manage those in a separate sphere from his portable phone.

Syrus let it ring now, and they all remained silent, as if the ringing phone was another guest that required its time to speak. In the quiet, a message began.

“Hi Luke, this is Deb.”

Syrus frowned. The voice was familiar, as was the name.

“I already tried your cell, just thought I’d try this number too. I wanted to make sure you and Colby were all right. If he’s sick and planning to miss tomorrow as well, please let me know. Be well, dear.”

A terrible, rushing cold surged through Syrus’s veins, freezing him in place. That was the day-care teacher, the one he’d met and inspected, and she was calling because Luke and Colby hadn’t shown up the way they were supposed to.

But that couldn’t be the case. Syrus’s human was a man of routine and habit. He wouldn’t be late or absent when it came to Colby’s care. And he definitely wouldn’t be either of those things without proper communication.

Daphne and Sybil rose from the couch in unison, their faces grim and determined, no doubt a match for Syrus’s own.

“You think something’s happened,” Sybil said.

“Yes,” Syrus managed to reply.

“Where do you need us?”

Syrus tried to think reasonably. If something unforeseen but not unnatural had happened—a human incident, like a flat tire or a lost phone—then Luke’s usual paths would need to be searched. “The town,” he said flatly. “Around the day care, the bakery, his sister’s store.” He gritted his teeth as his mind moved beyond natural human incidents. “And if not there, the next town over. The scientist’s house, just in case.”

“And you?”

“The beach,” Syrus said without hesitation. Because if it wasn’t something mortal, if it was what Syrus feared, what was making the blood run cold in his veins…

If Luke and Colby had been taken…

The beach was where the scientist had tried to find Syrus. Where he had left him, where he needed him to return. That was where that wretched human would go. Syrus had no doubt.

He itched to transform. He didn’t know how to contain this fear and rage in his current shape. He needed sharp teeth and spurs and a powerful tail. He needed to be the biggest predator in the room, in the area, in the whole entire ocean.

But he would have to make do, wouldn’t he? For Luke. For Colby.

Luke’s work truck was still here, and he hung all his keys in the same spot. Syrus had watched enough of the mechanics as a passenger. He could make it the short distance.

He started moving.

“We’ll go now,” Sybil said from somewhere behind him. “If we find nothing, we’ll come to you. And Syrus⁠—”

Syrus whirled on her with a snarl. The cold dread was being replaced by anger so fierce his skin could barely contain it. “If you tell me to be discreet, you won’t make it out of this house intact.”

Syrus didn’t care if they were faster and stronger and he was stuck in this human packaging—this bubbling rage would fuel him.

Sybil’s eyes flashed at the threat, but she held her ground. “I was only going to say, do whatever’s necessary to protect them.”

Syrus nodded stiffly, his feet already leading him toward the key ring at the back door. The vampires could find their own way out.

Sybil may have meant well, but Syrus didn’t need the words, and he certainly didn’t need her permission. The scientist wanted a guide, did he? A tame pet to take him into the wilderness he so wished to explore. He thought Syrus some sort of wild animal, vicious but entirely possible to subdue. And no wonder, given how their paths had collided in the first place.

But no. Syrus may have been caught by surprise during his initial capture, a fluke if there ever was one, but he was more than a mere animal. He was built of legends and primal fear and all the sharp danger of the ocean. And if this human had taken Luke and Colby, if he wished to use those Syrus had vowed to protect to compel him into servitude…

Then this human would learn just how monstrous Syrus could be.