Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 39596 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 198(@200wpm)___ 158(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39596 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 198(@200wpm)___ 158(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
“Roman took Lonnie in the lot outside. He’s gone.” The utter anguish ripping through him made his voice ragged. He’d failed. Failed to protect Lonnie.
“We’ll get your mate back.” Xavier pulled out his phone. “Lake, I need you to come back to the office. Now.” He hung up and put his hands on Callan’s biceps. “I promise you that we will get him back.”
“He’s your mate?” Dax spoke up as he and Emory joined them. Dax was an ogre and the largest preternatural they had on the roster. He was also a genius who had always been friendly to Callan, despite Callan’s own problems with speech. “A human?”
“He’s my everything.” Callan was having trouble controlling his rage, bloody hands opening and closing over and over into fists. Felt like his heart had just been ripped from his chest. All he could do was picture that terror on Lonnie’s face as Roman had grabbed him. He looked at Xavier. “Roman has to know we would follow him. Why do something this stupid?”
Xavier sighed as he reached for his long coat off one of the hangers by the door. He slipped it on, then pulled out a pair of leather gloves. He seemed to be weighing his words, taking so long Callan wanted to shake him. When he finally spoke, his voice sounded tired. “I’ve known Roman for many years. He was once…different. A good man. An excellent wizard. He fell in love, and his partner was taken, tortured, and killed. Roman snapped. He used darker magics to exact his revenge, and it changed him. All of that changed him. I never met his lover, but I have a very strong feeling that Lonnie must resemble him. It’s the only explanation I have for why he’s so obsessed he would risk coming here. He can’t be in his right mind.”
“If he hurts Lonnie, he’s dead.” Callan looked outside, wishing Lake would hurry up.
“Let me try to reach him first, Callan,” Xavier said. “He used to be…a friend.”
Callan glared at his boss. “I don’t care.”
Xavier just studied him before nodding. “Believe it or not, I do understand. It seems Roman has passed beyond the ability to think clearly. We may have no choice.”
Headlights shone through the window by the door, flashing across Xavier’s face.
“Good, Lake is here.” Xavier opened the door, but Dax halted him.
“We would like to come with you. Help get our friend’s mate back. A human mate, which I don’t understand and will have questions about later.”
Xavier smiled at Dax. “You and Emory are welcome. Find Finn and meet us outside.”
He’d always shown outright fondness for the ogre, who Callan did want with them. The preternatural was seriously strong yet held an uncanny grace for one so large. And Emory, the angel, fought like, well…a demon. He had a lot of rage from having his wings clipped by other angels who hadn’t liked his parentage. He and Callan shared that in common—human mothers.
Callan and Xavier walked outside to meet Lake, and Callan took him to the exact spot where Lonnie had disappeared. All his thoughts were colored black by how scared Lonnie had to be.
And how Callan had promised to keep him safe and failed.
That complete and utter failure made his entire body feel heavy. Weighted down. His regret like a living thing in his chest. He’d make this right. He had to.
Lake stood in that spot and closed his eyes. The magic he used raised the hair on Callan’s arms. It made the air feel thick, close to what wards did.
A few minutes passed before Lake opened his eyes, which had gone black with the use of his spell. “I’ve got their location. I’m taking you a little farther out, so you can sneak in.” He held out his hands, and Xavier took one while Callan took the other. “Touch my back,” Lake said to Dax, Finn, and Emory as they arrived. “It will take a lot of magic for me to move all of you at once, so I’ll be incapacitated on the other side.”
“We’ve got this,” Finn said as he placed his hand on Lake’s back.
Callan hated warp travel. He closed his eyes as the atmosphere around them ripped open and they were sucked through. It all happened fast, took only a few moments, but those moments were spent spinning uncontrollably. It also felt like his body was stretched as Lake’s magic pulled him toward their destination.
When the world stopped spinning, Callan staggered on his feet, still dizzy. The others hadn’t fared much better. Both Finn and Dax were holding their heads. Emory was laughing, obviously a fan of warp travel.
Xavier, on the other hand, looked just as polished and put together as always—but of course he often traveled this way.
Once his brain felt steady, Callan took a good look at their surroundings, not recognizing anything, but the first thing he noticed was the humidity and wet smells from a recent rain. “We aren’t in Seattle anymore,” he murmured as he looked at desert trees and sand. There were no houses anywhere he could see.