Chapter 3

It had been a long-ass week, and I was so looking forward to having the weekend off. It had only been a couple of months since we started the whole five-work-days-a-week thing, and I had to say I could really get used to it. Two whole days off every week was wonderful.

Cos wrapped his arms around me from behind and nuzzled the side of my neck, making me squirm from his ticklish scruff.

“Goddess, what are you doing?” I asked with a laugh, unable to get away since I was pressed against the kitchen counter. Although I was probably unwilling to move, anyway. I kinda liked having him there, even with the tickles.

“Hugging you.”

With a roll of my eyes, I snorted. “You know what I mean.”

“I’m nuzzling my mate and covering him with my scent.”

“Lovely. I totally want to stink like you.”

He froze and gave the spot where my shoulder met my neck a small nip, tickling me further. “I don’t stink.”

“Uh-huh. That’s what you think.”

He let out a small chuckle and rested his forehead against my shoulder. “I really hope that after all these years, you don’t think I stink.”

I snorted, set my plate on the counter, and turned in his arms. I started scratching under his chin as I lifted his face so he’d meet my eyes. “I was teasing. You know I like it.”

He sent me a soft smile, then leaned in to kiss me. He kept it chaste, probably because we were in the kitchen and our family was right there, but I made him give me a second kiss and then a third before I let him pull away and straighten.

After another sweet smile sent my way, he said, “Finish making your plate so we can sit on the couch and cuddle.”

“I was trying to finish, but someone had to interrupt me.”

He pecked my forehead and backed up, raising his hands in the air. “So sorry. I know you must be starving after only getting one snack in after breakfast.”

I flipped him off, making him laugh, before I turned around to finish piling food on my plate as high as it would go.

Cos and I met in the living room and squished together on the couch, and I wasn’t even a little bit surprised when Poppy hopped on my lap, and Mango curled around the back of the couch and placed her paw on Cosmo’s shoulder. Dorito was being spoiled and cuddled by Logan, Teo was playing and giggling away with Licorice, and Elzanna had Tater Tot’s full attention, signing away to him.

We didn’t usually eat in here, but it was a Saturday afternoon and no one had work or school today or tomorrow, so we were having a big family movie marathon today—at least until the kids got bored and wanted to do something else. I predicted we’d get through two movies before Teo declared being done. Maybe only one and a half.

Haiden started the movie the kids had picked out, and I ate all of my food, then sat there, trying to decide if I should lick the plate or not. If I did, I knew I’d be teased mercilessly, but honestly, it might be worth it. How was River such a good cook?

Cos leaned in and whispered into my ear. “You know, you can just get more food. You don’t have to lick your plate.”

I turned to him with a raised brow. “So you’re a mind reader now?”

He grinned and kissed my temple, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. “No. I just know you.”

I sighed and decided that the teasing wouldn’t be worth it after all and set my plate on top of Cosmo’s on the end table. I had to lean over my mate to reach it, and Cos pulled me into his chest the second I let go of the plate. I made an oomph noise, then stifled a laugh so I wouldn’t disturb anyone else.

After wiggling around, I ended up with my back against Cosmo’s chest, sort of sideways on the couch so I had to turn my head to the side to watch the movie. But that was fine because Cos had his arms around me, and his warmth was something I was ready to sink into. He was so cozy and the absolute best pillow in the world.

I snagged a blanket off the back of the couch, wrapped it around the both of us, and kissed his palm as I settled in.

It was so warm and comfortable that I must’ve dozed off because Cos shook me awake a while later. I blinked and glanced around, trying to remember where I was for a few seconds. Then I frowned when I realized the kids were no longer in the family room, and I had no idea what time it was. The sun was still streaming through the windows, so it couldn’t have been that late, but still, it felt like I’d taken a long nap.

“Sorry,” I murmured. “Didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

“No need to apologize, baby,” Cos whispered and kissed my hair. “I would’ve let you sleep on me all day if I could, but I think you need to see this.”

“Holy shit!” Charlie said, snagging my attention. “Guys, holy shit, look at this. Everyone, get in here!” He yelled the last part toward the kitchen where I assumed some of the pride were hanging out.

I stretched, rubbed my eyes, and sat up so I could fully face the holoscreen. The second I took it in, I blanched. What the actual hell?

“What is this?” I asked out loud, putting my feet on the floor and scooting to the edge of my seat.

“I don’t know,” Charlie said. “It interrupted our movie, and no matter what I switch my HID to, it comes up. It’s literally everywhere, like it’s taken over the HID system or something.”

I blinked. They… they hacked the HID system? Which… I mean, we did that with the Cloaked Freeway, but this was… this was something totally different.

Before I could ask anything else, the person on the screen wearing a red cloak started to speak, and I flinched. I knew that voice, and a sliver of fear curled around my heart.

The Supreme Rose.

Oh my goddess.

I shivered, and Cosmo’s warm palm rubbed my back as we both stared at the screen.

“I am the Supreme Rose, leader of the Red Cloth,” the evil prickhole said. They had the hood up so it was impossible to make out their features. All I could see were the whites of their eyes in what looked like a depthless black. If they were trying to look creepy and scare the shit out of people, they were doing a hell of a job.

The Supreme Rose continued, “You’ve probably heard about our organization through the lies from the US government. They’ve told you that we’re terrorists, that we’ve come to hurt people, that we kill indiscriminately. But this is simply not true. We’re humans who fight for our rights. We fight with the knowledge that we are the superior beings of this world, that magi and shifters have no right to stand beside us. That humans must stand beside other humans.

“We need to come together and fix our United States of America. Our government has made a huge error with this Equality Act nonsense. Why are they letting the monsters of this world dictate how our civilization runs? Why let these beasts have any say when that’s all they are—beasts? How can they possibly understand the plight of our people? They aren’t human. We are far too different.

“But I’m not surprised by the beasts’ actions. They want to be like us. They want to live our lives, work our jobs, take our women because they envy us and our ways. But these are things we cannot allow. We cannot let them take these things from us. We cannot let them steal our jobs and our women. We cannot let them destroy what it means to be a citizen of the United States of America. We need to stand up for our rights. My fellow humans, hear me and join us. Help us fight these vile pretenders and set our government back to rights.”

“Vile pretenders? They’re the vile ones,” Charlie said. “People can’t possibly be falling for this shit, right?”

Ash murmured, “You’d be surprised.”

The Supreme Rose said, “I’m here today to ask you, my fellow humans, for your help in our fight against the monsters who want to steal our lives from under our feet.”

As they continued their rant, the camera view expanded, showing off more people in the background. The Supreme Rose’s followers were wearing black cloaks with a stripe of red starting at their shoulder, moving across their chest, and ending at their opposite hip. Most of them had their hoods down, not even hiding their faces, like they were proud to be there and were showing off the fact that they were witches and part of the Red Cloth.

I examined each and every one of their faces, and when I reached the man standing at the Supreme Rose’s right shoulder, I jumped to my feet and raced closer to the holoscreen.

“Anderson,” I hissed, and my magic seemed to almost jolt at the sight of him. “What the crap? He’s been hiding for years, and now he’s just showing his face on everyone’s HIDs?” What the hell was he up to?

Cos walked up and placed his hand on the back of my neck, offering comfort as a myriad of emotions rushed through me. Surprise, panic, fear, anticipation, and I didn’t even know what else.

I asked, “Is this live? Where are they? Can we find out and raid that place? Even if they’re not there anymore, we should still?—”

“Harriet’s on it,” Cos said quietly. “I called her right after I woke you up. She was up in her room, but she’s talking to Director Dipshit now.”

I’d been so focused on the holoscreen that I hadn’t even noticed him making a call.

Jude said, “I talked to Renata, and her hackers are on it as well. They think it’s live.” He gestured to the screen. “At the very least, it was recorded today. That article they have on the holoscreen in the background was published this morning.”

After examining the holoscreen in the background, I ran a hand through my hair, then gripped it in both hands and pulled in frustration. “Shit. We have to find them. We need to stop them.” Dropping my hands, I waved frantically at the screen. “Do you hear what they’re saying? They’re recruiting. They want more humans to join them. Even if most people think they’re completely out of their minds—which I think most will—this is still going to make the violence against us even worse. Fuck.” I turned to face my mate. “What do we do, Cos? How do we stop this?”

“I don’t think there’s any way for us to stop it. But… we can be prepared to attack once we have a location, if you want to go in to HQ. We’re not working today, but I highly doubt the NHSO will mind if we go in for this.”

I took a breath. “Yeah. Yeah, okay. Let’s do that. I mean…” I trailed off and met his gaze. “Is that okay? Do you mind? I can go in by myself.” I turned to Jude. “Assuming you’ll come with me?” I’d need my magic and my dyad, if I wanted to have any chance against a member of the Red Cloth, let alone Anderson himself.

Jude waved me away, speaking on his HID, and I knew it was a you’re ridiculous, of course I’m freaking coming with you kind of wave.

With a nod, I faced Cos again. “Okay. Jude and I can go, and you guys can?—”

“Come with you.” Cosmo’s voice was firm, brokering no argument.

I took a breath and nodded. Normally, I’d probably argue with him, but the truth was, I was going to need all the help I could get. “Okay. Than?—”

“Don’t you dare say thank you.” He huffed and scratched his cheek, shaking his head in exasperation. “Let’s get going.”

He turned to go, but I grabbed his wrist to stop him, saying, “Hey.”

He looked over his shoulder, examined my face, and huffed. “Don’t you dare thank me, Madeo.”

“I’m not. I…” I shook my head and shrugged. “I just wanted to say… I love you.”

His entire demeanor changed, softening considerably. “I love you, too, baby.” He repositioned our hands so he could push his fingers between mine, then kissed my temple and tugged me along toward the car.

The rest of our pride, who were a part of the TRD, followed behind us, and even though I didn’t want them in danger, I was relieved they were with us and had my back—as always.

Ash called Simon on the way, and the alpha shifter didn’t hesitate to join us at HQ with the rest of his TRD pride mates. They all looked as worried and disgusted as we were.

After everyone geared up, our two teams, along with a few others who’d trickled in, went to the large conference room to rewatch the Supreme Rose’s vid. It was determined that the vid had been live, but it was no longer streaming, so we were watching a recording, looking for clues about where they could be and anything else we thought might help us, including ID-ing the witches whose faces were shown.

I was aware that the vid might’ve been recorded in a city on the other side of the country, but I was really hoping they were close by so we could investigate the building ourselves. I mean, really, I was hoping they were still there so we could attack them and be done with this disgusting terrorist group, but I’d take anything I could get.

So I could kill Anderson and fulfill the promise I’d made him.

“I’m going to kill you, Bobby Anderson. And I’m going to make it hurt. I promise you this.”

Those words haunted me. How could I have been so stupid as to promise him that, even when I thought I was dying?

And yet, I yearned to make my promise come true, and I honestly didn’t know how I felt about that. I wanted him dead, but wanting to murder someone wasn’t exactly a nice feeling or a good trait. I was surprised Cos hadn’t tried talking me down yet.

But… that promise I’d made… I’d made it when I was desperate, when I thought I was going to die. I never actually believed I’d live and have to fulfill it.

As much as I hated the man and had wanted him dead since our time together at the compound, I’d never thought I’d actually be the one who had to do it.

And not only that. I wanted to. Fiercely.

What the hell did that say about me?

“There are two copters on the roof, ready to take us to the location when they finally find this place,” Harriet said, interrupting my thoughts, thank the goddess. “Everyone’s ready, even in other cities around the country, so no matter where they are, we’ll get them this time.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. I wished I shared her enthusiasm.

We were there for over two hours with no word about the location, and I was getting more and more antsy. The yearning I felt to wrap my hands around Anderson’s throat and squeeze as tight as I possibly could grew with every passing minute.

Was this my magic reacting to that promise? Could this be the consequence of not fulfilling it yet?

If it was turning me murderous against him, what else would it do? What if I became a danger to those around me? To my family?

It… it wouldn’t do that, right? It couldn’t. No way.

My magic was me. It was a part of me, and there was no way in a million hells that I’d ever in a billion years hurt my family. No fucking way.

After what felt like an eternity, Cos took a call and almost immediately yelled out to everyone, “We’re moving out! Get to the copters!” He stayed on the phone as we all followed the order.

Everyone was a flurry of movement, but I managed to catch up to my mate as he finished his phone call.

The second he hung up, he said, “They’re in a nearby town on the outskirts of Fairview City. They were in a warehouse, but our drones aren’t picking up any heat signatures, so we think they’ve already left the vicinity. But they’re witches, so be careful. They might be using a spell to hide themselves.”

I couldn’t believe they were actually nearby. I thought for sure that Anderson and the Supreme Rose were staying away from here for good. I figured Anderson had taken my threats seriously when he’d found out that he hadn’t actually killed me. I thought he valued his life too much to chance being anywhere near me. On top of that, Cosmo and the others theorized that they were staying away from here because Jude and I were the most powerful magi in the country, and therefore, we had a bigger chance of stopping them.

I wasn’t sure if they were right, but I had a feeling they were.

The Red Cloth hadn’t stayed out of the city entirely, but the Supreme Rose and Anderson themselves hadn’t been seen in nearly three years. It was as if they’d turned into ghosts after they’d left me bleeding out on that cold floor.

I wanted the Supreme Rose dead as much as anyone else in the TRD. But Anderson? He needed to die. He needed to be killed and never thought about again. So everywhere I’d gone since the day he’d left me for dead, anytime we’d run into a witch, I’d searched each and every face for that evil man, but it was like he’d disappeared.

“He’s back in Fairview, Mads,” Jude whispered, bumping me with his elbow. “We’re finally going to get that prickhole.”

Maybe I wasn’t the only bloodthirsty one when it came to that abusive human.

I took a breath and leaned into Jude’s arm a bit as we walked. “Yeah, we are.”

Cos told which teams to get into which copter, and we were in the air and ready to infiltrate the warehouse before I knew it. Flying there only took about twenty minutes, and the pilots were able to land on top of a building less than a mile away from the warehouse.

Cosmo and Harriet worked together to organize everyone, and I was happy that they put Jude and me in the front, leading the charge. Well, technically, Jude was leading it, but as always, I was standing there right beside him—always, always beside him. Since we’d be able to shield everyone, and we were pros at opening doors without risking ourselves because of my shield work, it made sense for us to go first. I was just glad that Cos didn’t let his concern for me cloud his judgment.

With a small wall-shield covering as many people as possible, Jude and I led the way toward the building. Ash, Logan, Wren, and two other magi from other teams had their own wall-shields up, covering the others and following my lead.

We made it to the door without coming across any traps or witch magic, which I was pretty sure was a sign that the Red Cloth members had already fled. But we still took precautions as we rushed inside.

Since the warehouse was basically one giant room, it was easy for us to see that we were alone. Well, alone except for the group of dead bodies in a pile leaned against one wall, clearly drained of blood.

I let someone else check for vitals on those poor shifters, and I walked through the building with my team, checking every nook and cranny.

We didn’t find a single living person inside.

“Dammit,” I said, my shoulders sagging after we cleared the last room. “I was really hoping…”

“Me, too,” Jude said before he motioned to the wall. “Looks like they left us a note. Let’s go see what it says.”

I’d seen writing on the wall near the dead bodies when we’d walked in, but I hadn’t read it yet because it wasn’t witch magic or any kind of threat. As we walked closer, I clenched my teeth, frustration clawing at my throat.

Written in blood were the words:

You won’t escape with your life next time. You’re mine.

I had no doubt that message was for me.

Anderson was coming for me.

But he didn’t know I planned on getting to him first.

“Anderson did that, didn’t he?” Jude asked quietly. “He’s coming after you.”

I shook my head. “No. I’m hunting him, not the other way around. He showed his face for the first time in years… we have our first lead.” Kind of. This place didn’t seem to have any important clues that I could see yet, but still. We’d get techs out here to search every inch. “Him showing up now has to be some kind of sign, right?”

Jude nodded slowly, giving me a strange look. “Okay. Just… be careful, bubba. Don’t do anything stupid.”

I rolled my eyes and snapped. “You and Cos act like I’m a child. I don’t need you two telling me to be careful. When have I ever not been careful?”

Jude let out an annoyed huff. “Whatever. I care about you and don’t want you getting hurt… so sue me.”

Great. Now I sounded like the jerkhat. “I know. Sorry.” I shoulder-bumped him. “I’m being careful.”

“I know you are. Don’t be stupid.”

“Don’t be stupid. Got it.” I rolled my eyes again, but this time, I was smiling.

He sent me a small grin back. “Good. I won’t be stupid, either.”

“Sounds like an excellent plan, Judikans. Good thing you were here to make it.”

He laughed and punched my shoulder. “Shut up. Jerkhat.”

I grabbed my shoulder. “Ouch.”

With an eye-roll, he went back to searching the area for anything that could lead us to the Red Cloth or any kind of clue that would tell us their plan or where they were going.

After three hours of searching, no one found anything useful.

Not one damn thing.

The biggest clue we had was the message written in blood on the wall, but unfortunately, all that told us was that they wanted me dead. Not a lot of help there, considering they wanted every one of us dead. They wanted to drain our life forces and use it for magic to become the most powerful beings in the world.

Honestly, the thought was terrifying. Looking at how much damage they’d done over the years was bad enough. And they wanted more power? They wanted to take down the government that just freed us and gave us equal rights—legally, anyway. Socially was a totally different beast.

If the Red Cloth gained control of our government, we would be absolutely screwed. I didn’t even want to think about what our country would look like with them in charge.

They’d probably throw us in cages and line us up like cattle ready for slaughter, killing us whenever they wanted a power boost.

The Red Cloth wanted to wipe away all the progress we’d made over the last few years, and there was no way in hell we were going to let them get away with it.

I didn’t care what it took; I was going to stop those bastards before they did more permanent damage to our country.

I’d been fighting for my people my entire life. If they thought I’d stop now and run scared, they were sadly mistaken. And they’d find out just how big a mistake it was to underestimate me soon enough.

“Why can’twe find these prickholes?” I asked as I dropped a file onto my desk. “Nothing but dead ends.”

“I don’t know how they’re staying hidden,” Jude said. “Do you think they fled the area after making that vid?”

I let out a long-suffering sigh. “Honestly, I don’t know at this point. I didn’t think they’d come back here just to leave again, but maybe they did it to mess with us. I just… I have no idea.” I ran a hand over my face, groaning.

“They’ve got to be somewhere,” Cos said. “We have to keep searching.”

I glanced at my mate, who was sitting at his own desk across the office. “I’ve done nothing but search for them for two weeks. They can’t be found.” He looked like he was about to argue, but I interrupted before he could. “We stayed hidden for nine months with the Cloaked Freeway, Cos. It’s not impossible. And I hate to give them any credit at all, but they’ve learned to stay well-hidden and fly under the radar for years. I don’t see why that would change now.” Freaking unfortunately.

He seemed to deflate. “Okay, that’s true, I’ll give you that, but these guys have to murder people to get power. There’s no way they’re killing that many people without leaving a trail.”

That was… also true. I groaned again. “That’s why I’m so frustrated. I’ve looked into everything I can think of. There aren’t any communities—human, magi, or shifter—that are missing large groups of people, so I don’t know how else to track them. And all the murders where the victim was drained of blood are too spread out. I don’t know where to look more closely.”

Everyone in the office fell quiet, obviously trying to figure something out. It seemed helpless, though.

Finally, Kulani said, “What if we put all unsolved murders with bloodletting and all the missing persons’ last known location on a map and see if there’s a pattern? You said that no one community has been hit, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t spreading out their victims to a wider net so one community won’t notice. Like you said, they’re good at hiding so they probably know to widen their kill net so we have more trouble locating them. So we need to look at a wider net, too.”

Cos nodded. “Alright, that sounds like a plan. Who can work with the data and get that up on a ma?—”

“Here,” Jude said, cutting Cos off and throwing his HID screen up to the large holoscreen at the front of the office. “I got it.”

Everyone glanced at the map, and I could tell that Cos and I weren’t the only ones who were impressed.

Jude glanced around in surprise, like he thought everyone would be staring at someone else. “What?”

“How did you do that so fast?” Cos asked him.

Jude shrugged. “Uh, the data was already there. I just threw all of it into the same map. It’s what that map program was made for so it only took a couple of minutes.”

Cos slapped his shoulder, and we all turned to the holoscreen that was filled with way more tiny red dots than I wanted to think about. How the hell were there that many unsolved murders and missing persons cases in the last few months? That was… so gross. People were just so freaking gross. I hated it.

But this was my job, so I stood back and stared at the screen, praying I could see a pattern.

After about four minutes of everyone analyzing the data—we had copies on our own HIDs now, too—Logan finally said, “Look at this.” Up on the large holoscreen, he drew a circle over an area on the east side of the city. “There’s a higher concentration of victims in this area, and if we pick out the center of it, we’re around the eastern business area. Maybe we can look at any abandoned buildings there. Maybe we’ll come across them.”

“Good work, Lo,” I said, already pulling up a more detailed map of that area. “Look for any buildings up for sale or recently sold, too.”

Cos handed out assignments, making everyone do research. We had to stumble upon something, right?

As Logan turned to walk away, I caught a glance of a sparkle on his temple, and a small snicker fell out of me. Lo glanced back at me with a raised brow.

I pointed. “Glitter.”

His face went through an array of emotions—surprise, annoyance, resignation, amusement. “Are you serious? How? How is there still glitter on me? It’s been weeks.”

I let out a big laugh, and a few others, who’d obviously overheard us, joined in. When Haiden and Logan had tied, we’d given them a congratulatory card… filled with a glitter bomb that exploded all over them. They both still randomly found glitter on themselves or their belongings, even though Lo was right, it really had been weeks. It was hilarious.

Still snickering, I patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry. It’ll be gone eventually.”

“Revenge is coming,” he whispered in what was probably supposed to be a threatening voice but was actually adorable on him.

I accidentally let out another chuckle, making him glare. Whoops.

He gave me the finger before turning on his heel to get back to work.

Cos shot me an amused grin, and Zara sent me an amused thumbs-up before everyone got back to it.

I used the satellites and drones to pull up a live feed of the area to see if there was anything suspicious. Chances were, I wouldn’t find anything this way, but it was all I could do from here. I was better at pointing out suspicious areas like this, while some of the others were better at the research aspect, so I wasn’t surprised by the job my mate had assigned me.

After a couple hours more of research, we had a list of three possible buildings, and I was eager as all hell to get out there and check them out.

This was it. This was the moment we’d stop the Red Cloth. It had to be.

Everyone geared up and headed out to our TRD truck. Simon’s team came along as well of course.

The first building was one that had been sold about a month ago, but as far as we could tell, no one had used it for anything since. It was the most suspicious-looking of all the buildings, so we were going there first to check it out. It was a large building that sat away from the surrounding businesses, so it seemed like the perfect spot for these people to take their victims so no one would see or hear them. It also had a large basement and many areas without windows.

This had to be it.

Simon’s team went around to the back in case we had any runners, and my team went straight up to the front door. Of course, Jude and I had everyone covered with a shield, and we did our normal entrance where I created a hole in the shield, Jude used a battering ram to bust open the door, and the second it was open, I closed the shield up tight to protect my dyad.

I manipulated my shield through the door and covered us with a larger one as soon as we were inside. Logan was staying back with Zara to guard the front entrance, just in case someone tried to leave or come up behind us, and the rest of us were searching the building.

I didn’t hear a thing as we quietly made our way through the building. Every time we came up to a door, we searched the room, and every time we didn’t find anything, my hope that we were in the right place waned.

They weren’t here.

And if I was right, they’d never been here, either.

We didn’t find any sign of bodies or blood anywhere, and from the way they’d behaved in the past, I didn’t think they cared about cleaning up after themselves or leaving a trail.

When we determined the place was empty, we moved on to the next location.

And didn’t find anyone or any evidence there, either.

Nor did we at the third location.

“Shit!” I exclaimed as we walked outside. “What the crap, Jude? Where the hell are they?”

“I don’t know,” Jude said with a sigh. “I have no idea how to find them.”

“Me, either.” Putting my hands behind my neck, I looked up at the sky for a long moment. “I have no idea what to do to stop whatever madness is coming our way.” I found my dyad’s gaze. “And I know something’s coming. I feel it in my bones.”

He grimaced. “So do I.”

That made me flinch. A part of me was hoping he’d convince me that I was being silly. That there was no way I could feel something like that. That it was all in my imagination and that of course nothing was coming for us. That was just silly talk.

But he didn’t do that. He’d agreed with me without hesitation.

Which meant… which meant something really was coming.

And that something was going to be bad.

So freaking bad.

How the hell was I supposed to keep my pride safe when I didn’t know what was coming for us?

Fuck.