Ascension, Laura Hall [black books to read .txt] 📗

tore my gaze from the vampire.

“Connor, your contact in the FBI was very helpful. The trace on Frank’s rental car pinged earlier today. The car was found near Snoqualmie Falls, about fifty minutes from the airport.” His gaze flickered to me and away, but not before I saw the despair in them.

“Mal?” I whispered.

Pinched lips told me he’d heard me, but he kept his gaze on the Prime. “There was sign of a struggle but no body.”

“Did you sense alchemy?” asked the Omega.

Mal nodded. “Yes, but I don’t know if it was from the same source as the signature in Los Angeles. It’s like a universal, bad taste in the mouth,” he added for the benefit of the non-mages.

Matthew cleared his throat. “I have a few bears living out there. I’d be happy to give them a call to find out if they heard anything or happened to see Frank.”

“Thank you,” said the Prime, and the shifter rose and lumbered from the room.

“Do we think the Liberati suspected Frank was closing in on them and took him out?” asked Declan, shooting me an apologetic glance.

The Prime shrugged. “It’s hard to say. The morning Frank was due to arrive in Seattle, he called me but didn’t leave a message. Perhaps he caught a break in the case. Perhaps not. His file in Los Angeles didn’t yield any insights.”

I felt a pinch of grief. “He’s always been horrible at file notes,” I said absently.

“There’s something else,” said Mal, drawing our attentions back to him. “Frank had a secretary, Rosie Young. She’s disappeared as well. I was able to check the manifest for Frank’s flight, and there was an R. Young on board that morning.”

My jaw dropped. “You think Rosie’s involved? Impossible.”

Mal met my incredulous gaze. “She’s a cipher, isn’t she?”

I spluttered. “Yes, but she’s the mousiest, shyest woman on the planet. She couldn’t hurt a fly, much less overpower Dad.”

“You don’t know that,” said Adam.

“Unless she was an alchemist,” noted the Prime.

“It’s something, at least,” added Declan.

I made a noise of frustration and flopped back in my chair. “No way,” I muttered. “It’s a coincidence. She probably went to Arizona to visit her sister. She’s been talking about it for months.”

“Arizona?” asked the Prime in a chilling tone.

I frowned. “Yes. Why?”

He looked away. “No reason.”

I sent a thought toward him: an image of me strangling him with my bare hands.

One sculpted brow rose.

Mal sighed. “There isn’t much else I can do, Connor. I swept the area and didn’t pick up any scents, shifter or otherwise. Besides a small amount of blood, the car was clean of evidence. No surveillance or witnesses. Just the note.”

My head snapped up. “What note?”

“Praesent ut libero,” said the Prime softly, watching me. “Latin for—”

“I know what it means,” I interrupted, closing my stinging eyes. “Live to be free.”

“It was for you, wasn’t it?” The Prime’s voice was so gentle it nearly undid me.

“Yes.” Stiffening my spine, I looked at Mal. “Do you have it? Can I see it?”

There was a pregnant pause; my stomach bottomed out. “No, kiddo. It was scratched onto the hood of the car. With a claw, by the look of it.”

Dear God.

“So he managed to change,” murmured Adam.

“Even if it was just his hands,” said Declan, “he ought to have done some damage.”

“Indeed,” said the Prime. “I’ll be leaving shortly to determine if Frank spilled cipher blood.”

“What will that accomplish?” I asked.

He nodded toward the vamp twins. “Charles and Eve have a highly specialized familial skill. They can glean certain physical characteristics from blood samples.”

Alisande spoke up for the first time, “It’s too soon.”

I had no idea what she was talking about, until the Prime said, “You’ll be coming with me, Fiona.”

Alisande sighed. “At least bring Adam.”

“Why?” I asked.

Mal began, “Connor—”

The Prime stood, effectively silencing the room. I didn’t feel the surge of his power, but saw its immediate effect. Everyone, even Adam, went pale.

Alisande, though visibly affected, wasn’t cowed. “You haven’t told her,” she accused.

This time, I felt the burst of power as a wind that lifted my hair. Some silent command was issued, because the vamps, Declan, and the mages save for Mal rose and filed from the library. The door slammed behind them without being touched.

I looked at the Prime. His expression was impassive as always, but his eye color wavered between emerald and black.

“As Alisande pointed out, Fiona, our conversation last night was interrupted.”

“Why are you so angry?” I asked, stupefied.

“Not angry. Frustrated.”

I waved a hand. “Whatever. Why are you acting like a prick?”

“Jesus, Fiona,” Mal muttered.

A surge of adrenaline brought me to my feet. “Don’t start, Mal. It’s partly your fault I’m stuck in this mess, falling for that ‘her safety for your help’ crap. Did you know our illustrious Prime wants to use me like his personal seeing eye dog?”

The instant twist of guilt on my uncle’s face felt like a physical blow.

“You knew about this?” I whispered. “For how long?”

He sighed heavily. “Since your first Census. Frank and I knew it was only a matter of time before we had to let you go. You were always meant for great things, kiddo.”

With his words, my foundation of support was sundered.

Alone.

I’m one hundred percent alone.

The Prime’s lips thinned.

I got angry.

“Has it occurred to either of you how fucked up this is, to put this kind of pressure on me to do something I can’t even conceive of being able to do? If I can’t track the Liberati and Dad ends up dead, where do you think the guilt and responsibility lands? Right here, folks. Thanks to you.”

“Has she always been like this?” asked the Prime mutedly.

Mal snorted. “Since she could talk. I blame my brother.”

“Fuck you both,” I snapped and stormed toward the door. Two feet from it, my nose connected with the Prime’s chest. “Out of my way, your highness.”

“We’ll find him, Fiona.”

More words that were weapons. These, arrows straight to my heart. I clenched my hands, refusing to look up at him.

“You don’t know that.”

Cool fingers moved through the hair at the base of my neck. His thumbs grazed my jaw, gently tilting my face upward. My mutinous body melted, obeying a biological command for submission.

“Yes, I do. He’s alive, and we’ll find him.”

I stared into his eyes, twin pools of certainty, and opened my mouth to say something caustic. What came out instead was, “Why do you keep touching me?”

Mal cleared his throat and I jerked backward, out of the Prime’s reach. Away from his drugging touch. I put a hand to my forehead, feeling flushed and overwhelmed. The men, by some unspoken agreement, waited silently until I pulled myself together.

“Alisande saw something inside me, something that makes her think I can do this?” I asked at length. The Prime nodded. “What did she mean by ‘it’s too soon’?”

He paused, then admitted, “There’s a possibility your ability to track is linked to your lightning. She sensed the potential, but not the manifested power.”

“God, I’m a science experiment to you people.”

“What you’re saying,” Mal interjected, “is that without her lightning, the skill you want to use her for is stunted?”

“Yes.”

I took a deep breath and released it. “Then we’d better bring Adam with us.”