Talen rushed out of the bedroom, his eyes an angry green lacking any gold. “What happened? How in the hell did they find us? Who the hell took them?” Raw fury coated his face.
Dage ran into the room. “Chalton put a call in to Moira from Kell. We’re trying to reach him now.”
Conn turned almost in slow motion to face his brother. “Moira cried out for help at the last second.” The terror-filled shriek filling his head had nearly dropped him to the ground.
Dage lifted an eyebrow, sliding a cell phone to his ear. “Kell. It’s Dage. Moira and Cara were just ripped out of our headquarters.” His jaw tightened as he listened. “How?” His voice dropped further. “Apparently when you called in, you were hijacked.”
Words were spoken on the other end.
“I don’t know how. But make no mistake. If we don’t find them, I’m coming after you.” He listened, then blinked hard. “Okay. You have an hour to locate them. This is witchcraft ... you figure it out.”
The phone clicked shut. “Brenna was taken last night. That’s why he called Moira.”
Conn fought the beast inside to remain calm. He needed to plan. “Okay. If they were teleported out of here, whoever was pulling strings had to be certain of their location, right?”
Dage nodded. “Without a doubt. I can only teleport to a location, so if I’m seeking someone, I have to know where they are. This new ability to teleport people against their will has to work the same way. You just can’t find people in the universe. It’s the location. Somehow, this asshole found ours.”
“Kell’s transmission.” Talen leaned down to rescue a potted fern, placing the plant on the sofa table before striding toward the door. “Let’s suit up.”
Moira stretched awake, an odd ringing in her ears. Memories crashed in and she shot to her feet. Pain slashed into her head. She closed her eyes in protest. Swaying, she pressed both palms against her temples. She would not throw up.
Silence echoed around her. The musky scent of earth filled her nostrils. Slowly, she opened her eyes.
Metal bars came into view.
And an empty room beyond.
Fuzzy. The world was fuzzy. In confusion, she surveyed the cell, glancing behind her. “Cara!” Moira darted forward, reaching the bed and the unconscious woman. She pushed hair off Cara’s forehead. The woman was too pale. The baby was too still.
They needed to get out of there. She glanced around. Metal bars evenly spaced lined the twenty-by-thirty cell containing a bed with what appeared to be an attached bath. The outside room was about the same size. The floor was concrete and a dark rock made up the walls. A basement of some sort.
She focused on the bars, seeing the subatomic particles, imagining them altering.
Nothing happened. The particles remained in solid state.
Damn it. Transporting had diminished her strength. But maybe she had enough left for an inquiry spell not requiring the manipulation of particles. A force had pulled them through. She might be able to determine who’d taken them by doing a simple analysis of the energy.
Visualizing the energy signature, she spread her palms out toward the far wall. Oxygen swirled into wind. The individual energy molecules sparked gold. She panted, fighting to keep the spell going. The effort weighed down her arms. Digging deep, struggling to keep focus, she forced the molecules into the shape of a man. His face flashed, then disappeared.
“Trevan?” Her arms dropped to her sides. Son of a bitch. She’d seen Trevan’s face.
The outside door opened. “You called my name?” The witch strolled into the room, a smile on his intelligent face.
“You heard me?” She’d barely whispered it.
“Sure. The room has microphones that transmit outside. Just in case. Very impressive spell you just managed to concoct.” He tilted his head toward Cara. “I think she’s all right. You even kept her safe through the transport. Nicely done, Seventh.”
The approval in his voice made her gag. “If you’ve harmed her, there’s not a place on earth you’ll be able to hide from Talen Kayrs.” Moira faced him squarely.
Trevan lifted a shoulder. “I’d worry more about yourself, were I you.”
“You’re right. I’ll be the one to kill you.”
He leaned against the far wall, a smile on his face, flashing an onyx ring as he gestured. “I knew you’d be the one. That you’d survive.”
His words entered her brain as if traveling through cotton.
She shook her head against the fuzziness. Cara needed help. Moira focused again on the bars, throwing all her energy into altering them.
Nothing happened.
“The revealing spell you just did will be your last. Frankly, I’m not sure how you pulled that off.” Trevan wiped invisible dirt off his black silk shirt. “The walls are phanakite.”
Dread caught her breath in her throat, but she kept her face placid. “That’s fitting.” Phanakite was a rare mineral deriving its name from the Greek word deceiver since it was often mistaken for quartz. The hard mineral also rendered quantum physics manipulation impossible. A fact her people had managed to keep secret from the rest of the world for the past thousands of years. “You planned ahead, Councilman Demidov.”
“Yes, I did.” He gave an exaggerated sigh. “Though you almost hijacked my shipment in New York. Shame on you, Seventh.”
His intelligence had turned to pure arrogance. Nobody had seen it coming.
“So it was you mining in Russia, not the demons. Then you shipped it here.” Calling him a traitor wasn’t bad enough. There had to be a more insulting word.
“Yes. You wouldn’t believe how difficult it was to get to the mineral—old Viv did a great job eons ago burying those mines. But ... I’m better than she is.” He rubbed his shoulder, the arrogance settling hard on his face. “I had hoped to use the phanakite to get cooperation from the council members. Unfortunately, you’re the first to survive the journey through dimensions.”
Pain exploded in her solar plexus. The missing council members were dead? “You killed them?”
“No.” He pushed away from the wall like a graceful puma. “Their lack of skill killed them. They could’ve survived transporting, but they didn’t.”
Fear squeezed her lungs. Oh God. “Brenna?” Moira rushed forward, wrapping her fingers around the cold metal. Her sister couldn’t be dead. Kell said someone had taken her, not that she had been transported.
Trevan’s smile belonged on an anaconda. “Sweet little Brenna. So sad.” Manicured fingers tapped in numbers on a mounted security pad. Locks disengaged with smooth rolling plunks. The door of the outside room opened, and he swept through.
The bolts reengaged ... slamming home with finality.
Every cell in Moira’s body froze. Brenna was alive. She had to be. Her disappearance didn’t match the pattern of missing Coven Nine members. Trevan was just messing with her. She called out to her mate. Conn?
No response. She wasn’t surprised. Her entire body felt like it had been short-circuited from the journey.
A groan came from behind Moira. She whirled, rushing to sit by Cara’s side.
Cara’s eyes fluttered open. “Ouch.”
“Are you all right?” Moira helped her friend to a seated position on the rough wool blanket.
“No.” Cara frowned, scooting back to rest against the mineral enriched wall. “I’m so fucking sick of people yanking me through dimensions.”
“Ah.” Moira dropped her gaze to Cara’s protruding stomach. “Not your first time, huh?”
“No.” Cara rubbed her hands along her belly. “Once with Emma and once with Dage. Those times nothing hurt.”