10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I needed another emergency like I needed lip fillers – which is to say not at all. My lips are perfectly kissable as they are, and I'm all about natural beauty.

‘What do you mean, missing?' I asked, trying to hold onto my calm.

‘She didn't come home from her shift at the hospital last night,' Marissa explained. ‘She was supposed to meet us for afternoon tea. When she didn't show, we asked around the mansion. No one has seen her today.'

I turned to Greg. ‘Take the master key and check her room.'

Seren's skin warmed. ‘I used my own master key,' she mumbled. She lifted one of her heavy goth boots to show me her ‘key'.

Wonderful: she'd kicked down Daniella's door and now I'd need a joiner to hang a new one. I hadn't found a joiner in the Other yet, so I just had a Common one. He was going to start wondering what the hell was going on that meant doors were always being smashed to pieces. Due to werewolf strength, doors weren't damaged a little but a lot.

‘And?' Greg asked Seren impatiently.

‘She wasn't there, but her room was as neat as it always is. She just didn't come home.'

I looked at David. He and Daniella had a thing; it was obvious he was listening to our conversation because, although he was sitting at the console, his fists were opening and closing rhythmically.

I went over to him and dropped a hand on his shoulder. ‘Hey,' I said softly. He jerked like I'd shouted boo. ‘Sorry to startle you,' I offered weakly. ‘She'll be okay. We'll find her.'

When he turned and met my eyes, I was shocked at the depths of the despair in his gaze. ‘How?' he asked brokenly. ‘How will we find her? This is all my fault.' He shook his head. ‘She asked me out to dinner but I said no and she took a locum shift instead. If I'd said yes…'

‘Hey,' I said firmly. ‘You can't think that way. Besides, we don't even know for sure that anything is wrong. Maybe she slept over at a friend's house.'

Marissa shook her head. ‘We rang her phone but it went straight to voicemail, so we think it's been switched off. We rang it a few times and when that didn't work, we rang the hospital. Apparently she clocked off as normal. She just didn't make it home.'

‘What about her car?' I asked. ‘Is it still in the hospital car park?'

Marissa blinked. ‘I didn't think to ask.'

‘Okay,' I said firmly. ‘Let's go to the hospital and see if we can find it. Seren, Marissa, David, with me. The rest of you keep planning tonight's activities.'

‘You're not cancelling the raid?' David asked with surprise.

I grimaced. I didn't want him to think I wasn't cancelling because I didn't care about Daniella; of course I did. She was a lovely woman. ‘No, I'm not cancelling yet. We don't know if anything sinister has happened to Daniella, and the plan is already in motion.'

We'd already given the green light for the dwarves to start digging, and we'd already paid an arm and leg for them and the site entrance to be painted with runes that would help them evade detection.

The wheels were in motion and the heist was going ahead, regardless of what was happening to Daniella. Too often I had prioritised other matters over the orb, but with Rain's death I had recognised its importance. I needed to get that orb back, to restore the Connection between the seat of power and the Great Pack; only then could I access the Great Pack without it costing a wolf's soul. Not to mention, I totally wanted to be an airbender . Though hopefully not the last one.

Seren kicked the tyres of Daniella's car. ‘Fuck!' she swore. I had to agree. With the car still in the car park, it seemed more than likely that Daniella hadn't left work alone. The question was, had she met a friend or had she been taken against her will?

I looked around to identify the security cameras then crouched down against the side of the car in their blind spot. I shifted instantly onto four legs and let Esme take the reins. She sniffed around the car; the scent of Daniella was on the vehicle so we used it to track her.

We followed one of her scent trails to the hospital doors and another one back; those must have been made when she went to and from work. The one going back to her car stopped abruptly at the road.

What really caught our attention, though, were the small drips of blood. We were in a hospital car park and the blood was human, so it could well have been a few drips from an injured person – but they lay exactly at the last spot where we could scent Daniella.

She drew blood from her attacker, Esme said with grim satisfaction.

I'd reached the same conclusion. She isn't missing, then. She's been taken, kidnapped. But why? Why would anyone want to take my mild-mannered nurse?

Yes. We'll get her back. Esme's quiet certainty comforted me. Daniella had done so much to help so many, and she was a constant smiling presence in the pack. I couldn't even begin to understand anyone's motivation in taking her.

Then a thought crossed my mind and made me go cold. What if it was someone from Rain's pack taking revenge for Daniella supposedly abandoning them?

If it is, we will find them and crush them. You do not harm our pack.

I nodded, wordlessly agreeing. But the truth was, someone already had.