by T K Eldridge
Tasha got the coffee and the mugs while Sid led Mira to a chair. “Mrs. Langlois, please sit and we’ll explain.”
“Ms., not Mrs.,” Mira said. “I don’t have a husband. I don’t know who fathered Ethan.” Mira bowed her head, arms wound around her body in a protective stance.
I sat next to her without touching. “May I call you Mira?” When she nodded, I continued. “Mira, I understand it might be painful, but we need to know about Ethan. There is no judgment here, no criticism, just a need for information so we can save your boy. Okay?” I slid a mug of coffee in front of her and she wrapped both hands around it before the words started to spill out.
Sid and Tasha settled at the table and I saw Sid pull out a pad to take notes.
“About four years ago, I was working at The Bard and Board, you know the place?” Mira said.
I nodded, “The pub over on Seventh? Yeah, they have excellent ale on tap and a Shepherd’s pie that is better than my Grandma’s, but don’t tell her I said that.”
She chuckled a little. “Yeah, that’s the place. I loved my job and I was good at it. I acted as hostess during meal rushes and then waitressed the rest of the evening. I wasn’t old enough to drink, but I had a fake ID that allowed me to work. The owner of the pub is a cousin, so he let me work as long as I kept my mouth shut and did a good job.”
“How old are you, Mira? Are you the twenty-one on your driver’s license?” Sid asked.
“I am now, yes,” Mira said.
“So you were seventeen when you started working at the pub?” Tasha asked.
“Yes. It was a month before my eighteenth birthday when I left the pub just after closing. I was living in a studio apartment over the garage next to the pub. It was part of my salary. I opened the door and was grabbed. I never saw the guy’s face. He…” Mira stopped, took a swallow of her coffee, then continued. “He took what he wanted, then said “If you catch a child from me, I’ll take care of you both, but you’ll never know who I am.”
Sid sucked in a breath, “Wow.”
“Yep. I don’t know who he is. When I found out I was pregnant, I kept working until I had to stop. The last day on the job, I entered my apartment to find an envelope on the table. When I opened it, the deed to this house was in it, along with keys, as well as a new car, the title, and keys. Another envelope was full of cash. Underneath those, an engraved ivory box with a gold signet ring. The note in the box said “for my son, when he’s ready to meet” and I put that in a safety deposit box. I could feel the power in it and didn’t want that anywhere near my baby.”
“Do you think he’s the one that took Ethan?” Tasha asked.
“No. He’s dropped off cash, gifts, notes. He likes that Ethan has started reading already.”
“And you’ve never seen his face, have no idea what his name is?” Sid said.
“Not a clue. I do suspect that he is nobility or even lesser royalty. The flavor of power in the carved box and the design on the ring reminded me of something I saw as a child. I was born in the Court of Light and lived there until my parents decided it was safer for me over here. I was twelve when I moved in with my cousin and went to school here.”
“You’ve adapted well. I’ve never been through the veil, but I have heard how different it is,” I said.
“Well, over here there aren’t people actively trying to kill you simply because of who your parents are,” Mira said.
Sid and I looked at each other, and I snorted laughter. “I think it depends, but for the most part, you’re correct. It’s not socially acceptable on this side to kill people with the laissez faire mindset of the Fae Courts.”
“So, tell us what happened when Ethan was taken?” Sid said.
Mira rubbed her hands over her face, then back through her hair. “I had put him down for a nap around one in the afternoon, after his lunch. I cleaned up the kitchen and took my laptop and books out onto the porch to get some studying done. I’m taking online courses towards a bachelor’s degree in pharmacology.” She got to her feet and started pacing. “I got caught up in my studies and lost track of time. Before I knew it, two hours had passed. Ethan normally only slept an hour, maybe an hour and a half. I got up and went to check on him, and his bed was empty. The windows were still locked, the back door was locked…the only way into the house was past me on the porch.”
“Unless they used magic,” Tasha said.
“I had the house warded. It would have had to be something that could negate Fae magic. Most witch magic can’t negate Fae,” Mira said.
“Ours can,” I said. “Sid and I are twins. Our mother is a witch with fae blood and our father is a shifter with mythic in his bloodline.”
“Is there anyone else like you two out there? Because you two are about as rare as a black unicorn,” Mira said.
“No others that we know of,” Sid told her.
“Do you have a small toy that Ethan played with often, that we could take with us? There’s a spell we want to try that might help us locate him,” I said.
“Of course, give me a minute. I’ll go get something for you,” Mira said and left the room.
Sid, Tasha, and I looked at each other, but stayed silent. When Mira returned, I rose from my seat and pulled out an evidence bag. I wrote Ethan’s name, the date, and the case number on the bag, then held it open for her to put the toy into. A plastic policeman figure, about five inches tall, settled into the bag.
“This was one of his favorites. The policeman and the fireman. He often slept with them under his pillow,” Mira said. “I haven’t been able to find the fireman. I hope he has it with him.” Her voice caught and she pressed her fingers to her lips.
I rested a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll do our best, Ms. Langlois, to bring Ethan home to you.”
She lifted her hand to rest over mine and I swear my heart stuttered. Now was not the time to be getting all squishy over a girl. We had to find her son and the other missing kids first.
I handed her one of my business cards, one that I had written my cell number on the back of, and told her, “Call me if you think of anything or need something from us. We’ll stay in touch.”
As we left, I listened for the door to be locked up behind us. I wanted Mira to be safe, even if I couldn’t stay here with her to guarantee that safety.
Chapter Two
Sid
Sin was acting strange, but after talking to Mira Langlois and hearing her story, I could feel the weirdness in this case getting to me, too. Tasha made some notes while Sin drove us to the Simmons home, about twenty minutes from the Langlois house. David Simmons, the father of ten year old Daren, was at work. He was a doctor at the county hospital and had been called in for an emergency with one of his patients. Karen met with us, her demeanor a lot less calm than Mira’s had been.
Tasha got her settled down and talking, but she wouldn’t speak with Sin in the room, so he and I went out on the patio and watched through the french doors.
“So, brother-mine. What got you all twisted up at Ms. Langlois’ house?”
“Not now, Sid,” Sin said.
“Yes, now,” I said. “I need to know if you’re up for this or if your head isn’t in the game.” I could see his frustration growing, and heard it in his voice.
“I’m fine, Sid. Just got a lot on my mind. I’m in the game. Back. Off.”
I watched Sin take a deep breath, scrub his hands through his hair, and square his shoulders. His focus was back.
Tasha stood and gestured to us. We stepped back into the house and silently followed Tasha past a sobbing Karen Simmons and out to the car.
Tasha didn’t say a word until the car started up. “Karen Simmons had a one-night stand with a man she describes as ‘an exceedingly handsome Fae man’ forty weeks before Daren was born. David is not aware that Daren is not his child.”
“Well, that explains the hysterics,” I said. “She’s as terrified that Daren won’t be returned as she is that David will learn that Daren
is not his child.”
Tasha pulled out a couple of photos and handed them back to me. “Add these to the file?”
I looked at the two photos. One showed the family in a formal setting, the other a school photo of Daren. David looked enough like Karen that he might be considered her sibling, so Daren’s looks didn’t speak to a different father. “She’s been lucky,” I said as I slid the photos into the file folder.
“How much do you want to bet Samantha Landis shares the same father as Ethan Langlois and Daren Simmons?” Sin said.
“I’m not betting on that one,” I said.
Tasha made a snorting sound. “You think maybe the father is collecting his children?”
“I would think that, except for what Mira Langlois said,” Sin said. “She said the magic ring was left for when the child was ready to meet their father. He wouldn’t want to raise a three-year-old.”
“Karen didn’t give you enough information to find out who the man is?” I asked Tasha.
“She only had a first name. Finn,” Tasha said.
“Well, that’s original for a Fae name. Gawds, this is ridiculous,” I said.
“Where to next?” Sin asked.
“Back to the office. We need to see what the rest of the team has learned,” Tasha said.
* * *
Sett and Ian were at their desks when we got back to the office. Tasha let the Commander know we were back and Sin tapped Sett while I grabbed a bottle of water. Ian joined us all in the conference room as we settled in.
“I ordered pizza,” Sett said. “Should be here in a few minutes. Was your morning as interesting as ours was?”
“If by interesting, you mean totally fucked up? Then yeah,” I said.
“Peyton Bridges, nine years old, has been missing for a week. Timothy Sanchez, seven, was taken the night before last. Timothy’s mother got drunk and had a one-night stand, and had Timothy. She doesn’t know who the father is. Peyton Bridges’ mother died in a car accident two years ago. Unless we get the father to agree to a DNA test, we won’t know for sure if she’s his biological child,” Ian said.
“And Samantha Landis was adopted when she was six months old. I do have her DNA on file as state adoption records include that. If we can compare the DNA of the other kids to hers…” Sett said.
“If we compare them and they all come back a sibling match, then we know what ties all the kids together. It doesn’t tell us who is taking them, though,” Sin said.
The Commander came in with a stack of pizza boxes and set them on the table. “It doesn’t tell us if the children are still alive, either.”
Well, that sobered up the group fast. I stepped out to push the cart with the drinks and paper goods into the room, then shut the door behind me. “We know that most child abductions that go longer than forty-eight hours end up with the child being murdered. Unless they go for weeks, then the child is usually taken out of the area and is never found,” I said. “Since the kids taken first haven’t turned up as dead bodies, do we still hold out hope?”
Sin grabbed a can of soda and some napkins before he sat. “Something that Mira said that has me thinking. She came over the Veil. What if these kids are being taken to the other side? That would explain why no one has seen them and why the trail has gone cold so fast.”
“Well, shit. What do we do about that?” I said.
“First off, getting across the Veil isn’t like walking into a grocery store. There are spells, charms, amulets, a risk of not ending up where you want to be, or not making it across at all,” Sett said.
“Very few are left around here that have the ability to Veil cross,” the Commander said.
“Is it a strictly Fae gift?” I asked.
“Mostly. We all started on the other side of the Veil,” Sett said.
“Uh, not exactly,” the Commander said.
“Wait, what?” Sett said as she turned to look at him in surprise.
I finished the mouthful of pizza and looked at my great-grandfather. “We were all taught that all supers came from beyond the Veil, but we didn’t even hear about Mythics or Fae until you told us after Academy training. So, what’s the real story?”
The Commander leaned back in his chair. “What I’m about to tell you doesn’t leave this room. Got it?”
“Got it,” we all said.
“The only ones that cross the Veil are Fae and Mythics. Witches and shifter are from this side of the Veil.”
“Huh?” I said, about the same time half the room said similar.
“There’s magic that originated on this side, too?” Sin said.
“Why is that so surprising to hear?” the Commander said. “Have you not looked at the world around us and seen the magic and beauty in it?”
I looked at each face around the table, then back to the Commander. “I have seen the beauty and the magic in our world, but I thought it mostly came from a buildup of magic that leaked through the Veil. That’s pretty naive of me, huh?”
“Not really. It’s what we taught all of you over the past two centuries. Witches have a long history in this world. Shifters are almost as old as the first Fae that crossed over, but the tales of their beginnings are tangled up with witches. Some of the earliest stories say that witches were ultimately responsible for the first tear in the Veil by casting a massive spell. It was designed to protect them, and ended up creating shifters.”
“Holy hell, that’s one powerful spell,” Sett said. “To create a new species…”
“From what I was told, there were thirty-three witches in the circle. About a week later, the first Fae and Mythics crossed over. A month later, the first full moon brought about the emergence of the shifters.”
“So, it’s all the witches fault. I’ll be sure to remind you of that next time you won’t pay me overtime,” Sin said, lightening the mood with his quip to the Commander.
Laughter spread around the table and we focused on our food for a few minutes.
I looked at my notes, then set down my drink. “We need to get DNA from the parents and from the kids. All of them. We need to compare it to each other and to the parents to eliminate the suspicion that they all share the same father, that Finn guy. Or maybe Finn is a pseudonym and one of the other fathers is the guy. Who knows? We need to get that information before we can narrow our focus.”
Sin rose from the table. “I’ll go back to the Langlois house.”
“I’ll go with you,” I said. “Then we can swing by the Simmons place.”
Sin sighed, then gave me a wry grin. “Sure, sis. We can do that.”
Sett took the evidence bag that held Ethan’s toy. “While you two do that, I’ll take this to mom and we’ll get set up for the location spell. Join us at the farm after you drop the samples at the lab.”
“You got it,” I said.
* * *
I was good when we got to Mira Langlois’ house. I stayed in the SUV so Sin could go in by himself. I hoped we found Ethan soon, so Sin could get a date with Mira. He clearly liked her and it had been a while since either of us had a significant other. He came out about twenty minutes later, smiling more than a man should be who was investigating stolen children.
“I got his toothbrush and a swab from her,” Sin said as he handed me the two bags.
I put them in the evidence case and snapped it shut. “Did you get her to agree to a date or something, too? You’re grinning too much.”
“She hugged me as I was leaving. Every time we touch, something happens. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. My skin dances, my heart races, it’s like I stepped into a power circle with my shields dropped,” Sin said.
“You think she’s your Chosen?” I asked.
“I have no clue. I’m going to see what I can do to figure it out though. After we find Ethan.”
A Chosen was like a fated mate, only without Fate’s involvement. It had something to do with the vibrations between the two when they came in contact with each other. Call it symp
athetic magic or a shifter’s scent marker or some kind of bonding, but we’d both heard about it. Until Mira Langlois, we hadn’t experienced it. I still hadn’t – but I could see how much it was impacting Sin. I could almost feel how it was affecting him. The connection we shared as twins flared bright when he was around Mira. Similar to when he was excited and happy – a good play in a close football game or an anticipated gift at the holidays. No, don’t get all weird. I don’t get a flash of light when he gets off with a girlfriend or something. Well, not unless I’m in the same building and there’s less than fifty yards between us. Yeah, that’s why we never brought dates home in college.
We pulled up to the Simmons house and I tugged two swab kits and an evidence bag out of the case. “You want this one, or me?”
Sin just smiled. “I’d like some alone time.”
“Uh huh. Fine, I’ll get this one,” I said and got out of the SUV. It was only about five in the afternoon, but the house was dark. Both vehicles were in the driveway. Something was wrong. I could feel it. I slid the bags into my pocket and drew my weapon. My palm faced toward the SUV and I touched my thumb to my pinkie, sending a flash of red light towards Sin to get his attention. I heard his door open and soon he was right beside me.
“Something’s wrong. Both cars are in the drive, the lights are all off, and it’s too quiet,” I said.
Sin took a deep breath through his nostrils, a faint growl spilling from him. “I smell death.”
I tested the door knob and it turned. “Not locked,” I mouthed to Sin. We both got our weapons ready and I pushed the door open.
“SPD. Karen? David? We’re coming in,” I yelled into the house as we entered as a team. There was enough light coming through the windows to illuminate the empty living room in front of us and the dining room to the side. We made our way down the short hallway to the kitchen and office in back, and we found their bodies in the kitchen. David lay face down on the floor near the laundry alcove and the back door. Karen was seated on the floor by the stove, a revolver lying on the floor beside her. Sin and I took note of the closed and chain locked back door, then finished clearing the house. As I came down from upstairs, I called it into the Commander, and Sin gloved up and checked the two bodies.