Taken

by Jennifer Blackstream

  It would have been nice to spend the rest of the drive discussing the case, or something productive. Instead, it was a small eternity of mediating a nonsense argument between a ghost and a pixie. By the time Andy pulled into the recreation center where we’d arranged to meet Liam, my eyelid had a muscle spasm, and I’d gone through my entire pack of mints.

  Andy was silent as I ripped my car door open and fixed Peasblossom with a glare. I held out my hand, and she stared at it for a solid five seconds before landing in my palm.

  “I love you,” she said tentatively.

  I let out a slow breath through my nose and grabbed the My Little Pony from the dashboard.

  “I love you too?” Echo tried.

  “You will stop this incessant fighting,” I said, each word clipped. “Or so help me…” I wasn’t sure how to finish the sentence, so I let a witchy look do it for me. Peasblossom shrank away, and Echo’s eye lights dimmed.

  Andy watched me as I got out of the car, and I did my best to project an image of a valuable crime-fighting partner and not a mother of two who’d just broken up a fight between her children.

  The recreation center towered over me as I searched the parking lot for the rangers. Windows made up the center third of the building’s face, flanked on either side by cream-colored brick. It was a nice, welcoming building, at odds with the sour feeling in my stomach.

  “That your ranger?” Andy asked.

  I followed his gaze to a large green pickup truck, and a shot of adrenaline made me sit up straighter. The six foot three shifter standing next to the truck turned piercing blue eyes in my direction, pinning me in place as he left his vehicle to stalk toward the SUV. He wore his ranger’s uniform, and the sleeves had been rolled up to his elbows, baring strong forearms and giving the impression that he was ready to get to work. I didn’t know for sure why he’d decided to come himself instead of sending Blake and Sonar. I preferred to think they’d been busy, and not that Liam had decided I was a big enough threat that I required alpha attention.

  “That’s him.”

  I cleared my throat as Andy opened the door to get out of the SUV. We both moved to stand in front of the vehicle, and as Liam got close enough for introductions, the buzz of his aura washed over me. I curled my hands into fists. I would not embarrass myself this time. Whatever it was about a shifter’s aura that called to me, I would not let it make me look like an idiot. Again.

  “Ms. Renard.”

  “Liam.” I gestured to Andy. “This is Agent Andrew Bradford, FBI. Andy, this is Detective Sergeant Liam Osbourne, Cleveland Metroparks Police.”

  Andy offered a hand to Liam. “Thanks for your help.”

  Liam studied Andy as he returned the handshake, a firm, but friendly grip. “So, I went to the Memorial Center like you asked, and I was able to pick up the trail of one of the missing kids. I tracked him to this place.” He gestured with his chin to the rec center.

  I blinked. Liam had tracked him? A shifter’s senses were still strong in human form, but I would have thought he’d have to shift to track a kid through a city like Cleveland. I resisted the urge to ask for details about his process, mentally promising myself to ask later. “I take it he wasn’t inside?”

  “No. He never went inside. Just sat at that picnic table.”

  Andy and I followed his gesture to a picnic table beside the building. My heart fell. “Nothing after that?”

  “No. I’m guessing he got in a car.” Liam took a deep breath. “And here’s more bad news—he wasn’t alone.”

  “What do you mean?” Andy asked.

  “There were two other kids with him. A male and a female. I picked up traces of the youth center on them, though not as strong. Likely as not they were there yesterday and hadn’t changed their clothes. I found your missing kid partly because he’d been painting before he left the Memorial Center, and these kids had paint on them too.”

  “So we’re searching for three more missing kids, new total of five. Anything else?” I asked.

  “That’s not all.” Liam’s jaw tightened. “Your kids were with a sidhe.”

  I’d suspected Keegan had taken them, but still, hearing it made my stomach drop. “Blood and bone,” I said.

  Liam flexed his hands at his sides, as if wishing he could get his hands on the fey responsible. “I followed each trail. Best guess is the sidhe went to the center to fetch the boy. He left alone, presumably so no one would see the boy leaving with him. Same deal with the other two—he meandered around the city, meeting each one, but always leaving by himself. Then the kids made their way to that picnic table. My guess is he told them to meet him here and picked them up in a car.”

  I bit my lip, then dug around in my waist pouch. I was pretty sure it was Keegan, but better be certain. “I have a card he touched.” I knelt on the rough pavement. The leggings were ruined anyway. I dug through my pouch, searching for the card, pulling out a candle, a flashlight, and a smattering of paper clips, and ignoring the way Liam stared at me as if I’d lost my mind.

  “Here.” I stood. “Is this the same sidhe?”

  It wasn’t until I held the card out to Liam that the awkwardness hit me, and I realized I was holding it for him to sniff it. Since he wasn’t in wolf form, it felt a little weird.

  Liam didn’t seem to share my discomfort. He took the card and raised it to his nose, his nostrils flaring. Gold light glittered in his blue eyes, and my heart skipped a beat.

  “That’s him.”

  I dropped to my knees and shoved everything into the pouch. “It’s Keegan.”

  “We can see if they have security cameras,” Andy said, gesturing at the building. “If he picked them up in the car, maybe we can get a picture of the license plate.”

  “Already tried,” Liam said. “No luck. The car never faced the camera at the right angle.” He waved for us to follow him. “There’s more.”

  He walked away with the confidence of a man who was used to being obeyed, and Andy followed him with the efficiency of a man who wanted answers. I gathered the rest of my stuff from the ground and shoved it into the pouch as I followed suit.

  Liam led us down the rec center’s driveway and across the street. A set of red-brick apartment buildings sat side by side. In front of one of them was a smaller white brick building in bad repair, with a splotchy patch job and peeling paint.

  Well, the edges had peeling paint. Street art covered the majority of the wall. Different artists had claimed different squares, each one putting their own artistic signature on the brick. Some were black and white; some were color. Some were pictures, and some were intricate letters woven together.

  “There.” Liam pointed. “Your Keegan stopped here. And he touched that painting.”

  I focused on the area he indicated, and my lips parted. It was Keegan. Keegan the way Pam had described him. The sidhe stood like a beautiful sentinel at the edge of a forest. One hand pointed to the trees, and he held the other out to a second figure. A boy.

  Simon.

  “That’s Simon.” I pointed from Keegan to the boy. “Simon did this.”

  “What are all those scribbles up there?” Andy asked, pointing to the top of the wall.

  I stared at the section of wall above the picture of Keegan and Simon, and my eyebrows shot up. “That’s Gaelic.” I squinted. “The grammar is awful. He used an online translator to write this message.”

  “Can you read it?” Andy asked.

  “Yes. Mother Hazel was big on languages. Said if I couldn’t speak at least seven, then what sort of a witch was I?” I indicated the scribbles. “They’re directions. From what I can tell, it’s leading to somewhere close by.”

  “And here I thought the paint was the most interesting aspect of his message,” Liam said.

  Andy stiffened, then leaned closer. “That’s blood.”

  Liam crossed his arms. “Not all of it, but some. Human blood.”

  My chest tightened, squeezing some of the breath from my lungs. “W
ere any of the kids at the picnic table bleeding?”

  “No,” Liam said firmly. “I would have picked that up.”

  “So where did he get the blood?” Andy asked, using the hushed tone of someone asking a question he wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to.

  “That, I can’t tell you.” Liam stared at me and gestured to the Gaelic scrawls. “Where does it say to go?”

  I stepped around him to stand closer to the wall, squinting at the words as I laid the tips of my fingers on the brick. “Revelare.”

  Silver light washed over the wall, traveling over the lines of paint, the cracks in the brick. Nothing sparked; no magic or spells twinkled at me.

  “What was that?” Andy asked.

  “If Keegan was here, he might have laid a glamour on this to mislead us, but I checked for magic, and I’m not seeing anything.”

  “So where are we going?” Andy asked.

  “It’s not an address, just directions.” I dug my cell phone out of the side pocket of my pouch and snapped a picture of the directions. I stared at the picture, my imagination providing unpleasant and unhelpful images of what might be waiting for us wherever these directions would lead. At the top of the list of horrible possibilities was more dead children.

  Hot vibrations against my back chased away some of the fear curling at the base of my spine, followed immediately by a rush of heat to my face as I realized where the vibrations were coming from. I lurched forward without looking at Liam, without acknowledging that I’d been leaning against him—again.

  “Let’s get going. I’ll give you directions as we go.”

  The werewolf’s gaze followed me, a solid weight between my shoulder blades. “You’re pursuing this alone? Just the two of you?”

  I braced myself to meet his eyes, hoping the cool breeze had chased the worst of the blush from my cheeks. Liam shared the question between Andy and me, but I answered first.

  “If the kids are being Taken, then there’s a good chance they’re not in immediate danger. And if we do find the sidhe who are holding them, I have a better chance of getting them back if it’s just the two of us than if I bring an army.”

  “One of them has already turned up dead,” Liam pointed out. “You’re not worried the others are in danger?”

  I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “I think they are in danger, but only because they’re humans surrounded by non-humans. I think they’re vulnerable and easily manipulated, and I want to get them back before they find out the reality of what they’ve gotten themselves into.” I eased back a step, away from Liam and closer to Andy’s SUV. “We should get going.”

  “How did he die?” Liam asked, taking one step forward to keep pace with me. His tone didn’t leave room for argument.

  “He was stabbed,” Andy answered. “His body was covered in multiple lacerations, old and new, but only one of them was fatal. A blade of some kind, about six inches long.”

  “Enchanted weapon?” Liam asked.

  “Not on the weapon that delivered the death blow, but the lacerations were caused by something Other.” I frowned, staring into space as I remembered the way the lacerations had glowed under my spell. “I don’t know what caused them, but it wasn’t mundane.”

  “Do you have any suspects?” Liam asked.

  Andy looked at me too, as if hoping that at some point I’d come up with a name we hadn’t had before. I shifted my weight to my other foot. “No. I know they were Taken, and I know that Keegan or whatever he calls himself now is the scout, the one who picks the victims and prepares them for the day he’ll lead them away. He’s the one who hangs around the youth centers and gets to know them, grooms them so they’ll be willing to follow him when it’s time.”

  Liam’s cell phone chimed with a text message, and he took it out of his pocket. A frown pulled down the corners of his mouth and he shook his head. “I need to go. But I can meet up with you later, help you track down these kids.”

  Part of me wanted to leap at the offer. There weren’t many dangerous situations that wouldn’t be improved by having an alpha werewolf on our side. Unfortunately, meeting with the sidhe was one of them. “I’ll call you if we can use your help, but right now, we need to keep this subtle. The sidhe love to negotiate, and I’ll have a better chance of getting the kids back safely if I can do it without starting a war.”

  Liam narrowed his eyes as he shoved his phone into his pocket. “You think I’ll start a war?”

  I shifted to my other foot. “I think showing up with an alpha werewolf who’s also a cop will be viewed as a challenge more than showing up with a human.” I glanced at Andy. “No offense.”

  Andy inclined his head. “None taken.”

  Liam’s energy burned hotter, and I took a step back, overcompensating as I resisted the urge to lean forward. He drummed his fingers on his cell phone through the lining of his pocket. “Fine. But call if there’s trouble.”

  “We will.”

  I didn’t run away from the werewolf, but I crossed the street briskly, getting to the SUV before Andy. The electronic locks hummed as he used the key fob to unlock them before he got there, and I scrambled inside with as much dignity as I could muster. It took more effort than I wanted to admit not to call out to Liam as he walked by, tell him I’d changed my mind, and I wanted his help. But the fact of the matter was, the sidhe would see his presence combined with a request to see the children as an implied threat. A human, even an FBI agent, was something to be dismissed. Not so with an alpha werewolf.

  “I hate politics,” I muttered.

  Peasblossom crawled out from behind my neck, holding on to my ear for balance. “Was that painting really done with blood?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  Echo spoke from the shadows of my pocket. “Do you think it was the boy they found this morning? The…dead boy?”

  Andy climbed into the driver’s seat, and I retrieved my cell phone, opening it to the picture of the directions. “Goddess, I hope not.”

  The drive didn’t take long, despite the need to drive at a snail’s pace so I could give him directions based largely on landmarks. In less than fifteen minutes, we pulled into the parking lot of an apartment building. It was in a nice area of the city, but not so nice that Andy didn’t lock the car doors when we got out.

  I studied the square brick building with its weather-worn, but freshly painted shutters. “This is the building.” A splash of color caught my attention, a streak of red on one shutter. Blood? I pointed. “There.”

  Andy scanned the building. “Third floor, second unit over. Let’s go.”

  The building wasn’t as secure as one might hope, a detail that worked in our favor. There was no key card needed for entry, no code required to unlock the front doors. We entered the building and made our way to the unit in question with no trouble.

  A similar red smear marked the apartment door, though this time it was harder to see, hidden in the bottom-right corner near the hinge. I wouldn’t have seen it at all if I hadn’t been looking for it.

  Andy started to knock, but I stopped him with a hand on his arm. “You’re wearing the watch I gave you?”

  He pushed up his sleeve, revealing the silver watch. “The runes are warm.”

  “Good, then it’s working. That will defeat some glamour, but a determined sidhe could fool the runes, so don’t let your guard down. Did you do what I told you to with your clothes?”

  Andy pressed his lips together. “Yes.”

  Peasblossom snickered. “So your underwear is backwards?”

  “Peasblossom, hush,” I snapped.

  Andy ignored her and knocked.

  The door opened a solid two minutes later, and a cloud of marijuana rolled over us like a cushy welcome mat. A girl with bottle-blonde hair stood in the doorway, a pale green shirt hugging her slender body and a gold chain holding a delicate cross around her neck. She hooked her thumb into the pocket of her jeans—on the third try—and smiled at Andy. “Can I help you?�
��

  Andy waved at the herbal fog, fighting in vain to brush it away. “Is Simon home?”

  The girl smiled and half melted against the doorframe. “Oh, are you friends of Simon’s? That’s so nice. I’m so glad he has friends.”

  I resisted the urge to cover my face, though I rubbed my neck to disguise pushing Peasblossom farther under my hair and away from the fragrant smoke.

  “Pete, come here. These are friends of Simon’s.”

  A boy shuffled into the short hallway, his brown hair sticking up in true porcupine fashion. His heavy lids matched the thicker trail of smoke that followed him like a cartoon scent trail.

  “Cool,” he drawled. “Simon’s a cool dude.”

  “Yes, cool,” I said. “Does he live here?”

  The girl nodded an affirmation, then kept on nodding. “We let him live here in his own room and everything. He’s not here now, though.” She leaned forward, pressing a palm against Andy’s chest and speaking in a stage whisper. “He’s homeless, you know. We have to…do our best to help those…less fortunate.” She made a face and swallowed.

  Cotton mouth, I guessed.

  “Where’s Simon’s room?” Andy asked, taking the girl’s hand off him and putting it on the doorframe.

  She pointed down the hall behind her. “First room on your left.”

  Peasblossom shoved against my fingers as I followed Andy, leaving the two high-as-a-kite teenagers behind.

  “Stop it,” I hissed.

  Andy opened the door to Simon’s room, and I hurried inside, closing it behind us to shut out the suffocating aroma of pot before it could follow us.

  “Hey,” Peasblossom said. “That smelled good.”

  “Don’t inhale.” I wrinkled my nose. Ugh, too late. This room reeked of pot too.