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182 pages

English

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Description

Sometimes the worst monsters are where we least expected them.Still looking for answers to all those who disappeared in the Leftovers, Lyra, Dorian and their rogue team are drawn into a new mission: working with the Florida Bureau to investigate human trafficking in the Leftovers. This time they won't be facing monsters or Immortals, but human criminals.Should be a piece of cake compared to facing down the Immortal Council. Right? Except that Lyra and the shadowy outfit luring teenagers in with promises of supernatural secrets might not be all talk.Kane hasn't gotten any peace since the meld. Through their unexplainable mind connection, Roxy managed to rescue him from an unfamiliar plane, but his recovery only raises more questions. Why did he get drawn into the Pocket Space? What are these strange dreams he's having? And why has it been so easy to get used to a certain brash yet beautiful human girl talking to him in his head?More than anything, he wants to return to the Pocket Space to help the children he couldn't protect from mysterious foes. But first, he needs answers about something even more mysterious: his own past.As Kane and Roxy try to navigate their connection and Lara and Fallon race to save kidnapped children, their searches start to point toward the same place. These criminals might be more connected to them than they realize. And even ordinary humans might not be so ordinary anymore.

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Publié par	Distributed by eBookpartnership
Date de parution	18 novembre 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9798986473123
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

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Copyright © 2022
All rights reserved.
Hot Pancakes Ltd
www.hotpcakes.com
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
1 Lyra
2 Roxy
3 Lyra
4 Roxy
5 Lyra
6 Lyra
7 Roxy
8 Lyra
9 Lyra
10 Lyra
11 Kane
12 Roxy
13 Lyra
14 Lyra
15 Kane
16 Roxy
17 Lyra
18 Lyra
19 Kane
20 Roxy
21 Roxy
22 Roxy
23 Lyra
24 Kane
25 Lyra
26 Roxy
27 Lyra
28 Roxy
29 Lyra
30 Roxy
31 Roxy
32 Kane
33 Lyra
34 Roxy
35 Kane
36 Lyra
37 Roxy
38 Lyra
39 Kane
1
Lyra
M iami’s muggy air was a shock after leaving the frigid snow in Chicago. When the pilot opened the door of our private plane, sunshine greeted us with blinding intensity, even in March. I squinted against the glare.
“I already saw a mosquito,” Bryce said in disbelief. “Bloody bloodsuckers.”
His Scottish brogue made me laugh. Nicholas Bryce, my co-captain in our new business, had a certain way with words, and they were usually blunt.
“I resent that remark,” Dorian said. My husband was, of course, a bloodsucker himself.
Bryce elbowed Dorian. “And make sure you tell us if that human makeup smudges,” he reminded him.
We all disembarked with our bags and the rest of our team in tow. The vampires, whose skin tones were far different than those of humans—because of the dancing shadows beneath the surface—sported full makeup to cover up the anomaly.
It wasn’t just Callanish and monsters we would be dealing with this time, so we would all have to be extra careful not to reveal to the public, or anyone else sensitive for that matter, that a group of vampires was in their midst.
Cam, Bryce’s young nephew who had a penchant for religiously sticking to the rules, followed immediately behind Dorian. His furry companion, a squirrel-like critter from our first mission, quietly poked its head out of his backpack.
The redheaded ex-soldier had left his life in Scotland to join our ranks, and he’d proven himself very useful on our adventure through the Pocket Space. He’d slowly started to loosen up over time. He used to button his shirts up to the top in a rigid style, but now the collar of his uniform shirt hung slightly open.
Behind Cam, Sike laughed with Chandry. They were both vampires, and fairly unusual, as neither had been trained as a warrior like many of their kind’s survivors. Sike looked more like a human than a darkness-draining vampire with the bright Florida sun hitting his olive complexion.
Chandry was as bubbly as ever as she commented on the sprawling airstrip around us. She wanted more experience in the Mortal Plane, and so, Arlonne agreed to Chandry joining our team for the moment. Her acrobatic and healing skills would likely come in handy for this mission. She was also excellent with sensing the gates, but with the nature of this particular mission, I wasn’t sure that would be necessary.
Cam had to file a special vampire license for Chandry before our mission, making her our newest addition to Callanish. Humans still thought vampires were under strict government regulation.
The Bureau and the government had worked together to issue a few licenses for vampires to move around freely if any unfamiliar Bureau members caught them. My own husband was one of these licensed vampires; he’d obtained the highest level of permission to be allowed to work with Callanish.
The largest stipulation for vampires required them to stick to The Bureau’s human members at all times. So our plan was to continue using makeup to camouflage the vampires’ skin, although we also planned to limit the view of our vampire members through accommodation by the local Bureau office, just in case.
It was a bit annoying that the vampires couldn’t use their skills in front of random people. The restriction would be something the vampires had to keep in mind constantly, but I hoped everything would go well. We were still brainstorming ideas to address this frustrating problem. I hated that it was an issue in the first place, since vampires were the only reason that we’d saved the universe months ago.
But, alas, I’m just a young woman trying to keep the government happy. After all, the Department of Homeland Security was funding this particular mission.
As I moved with the rest of my team, a nervous energy fell over me. Being back in the field and doing something useful was great, but I worried about my abilities to lead us to a successful mission after the last one ended abruptly without full resolution. And this case was different than anything we’d handled in the past.
It involved humans more than it did monsters. Though, sometimes, those two could be one and the same.
A black van slowly pulled up on the tarmac. I pulled off my outer jacket, which had been necessary in Chicago but was utterly unnecessary here. I could understand why people retired down here after working their entire lives up north, though I couldn’t say I was looking forward to being out in this kind of heat for any length of time.
A handsome Bureau official emerged from the vehicle. He was tall and tan, his dark hair smoothed back with gel. He held himself with a strict military posture and gave off an air of chilly politeness that was hard to read.
I pegged him as the same age as Bryce, despite the guy’s sun-kissed glow.
Bryce and I stepped forward to greet him.
“Munroe and Bryce, good to meet you,” the man said, extending his hand for a polite handshake. His honey eyes searched us with the analytical gaze that often came with power. “I’m William Torres, your contact for the mission.”
The levity Bryce had showcased earlier dimmed slightly. His jaw tightened but he said, “Nice to meet you.”
His short, gruff response made me wonder what he thought of this man, but I merely put my hand forward and gave Torres a firm handshake. It was best to let military men know that a woman meant business from the beginning.
Immediately, Torres looked past me and nodded at our vampire companions. Cam stood next to them, looking reserved.
“I’ll take you to our Miami office,” Torres said a bit stiffly. He gestured to the sleek black van behind us that had dark tinted windows—perfectly average for any kind of business transport.
The vampires and Cam piled into the back while Bryce, Dorian, and I sat in the middle seat. The driver guided our car out of the airport, and we merged into moderate traffic. Chandry whistled as she looked out the window at all the cars.
“People sure love to eat and drive at the same time,” she marveled.
Bryce let out a humorous snort, but it wasn’t his typical boisterous laugh. He’d seemed preoccupied on the way over as well, as if he weren’t as excited about this mission as he typically would be. I didn’t know the reason, but if it continued, I’d have to pry. I cared about my team; not just as soldiers, but as human beings.
I settled into the seat, sending a silent thank you to whoever had invented air-conditioning.
The building we pulled up to was simple and unassuming, nothing like the other larger Bureau offices I had seen. As soon as we entered the office, Torres got right down to business. We settled in a boardroom with tinted windows, Torres standing up front next to a small projector screen. One of the fluorescent lights in the corner had a burned-out bulb.
Budget cuts looked like they had made their way over here… Odd. I’d always thought our partner for this mission, The Bureau—my old organization and the leading guard against all things supernatural in the Mortal Plane—had virtually unlimited funds.
I was glad Homeland Security was the one providing the funding for this, then. And maybe it was why we had been asked to help The Bureau out in the first place. Beyond the Leftovers’ issue, I speculated it was also about equipment and maybe even manpower.
Torres angled toward Bryce and me, as if the others weren’t even in the room, and his voice came out flat as he began. “We’ve called you here to help us deal with a new criminal group that has been taking advantage of the Leftovers to commit illegal activity.”
He clicked a button on his remote and glanced up at the large screen on the wall. An image appeared of a man in his forties. He clicked again, and another image popped up beside the first to show a woman around the same age. The man had piercing green eyes and a tiny burn the size of a quarter on his left cheek, and the woman had dyed blonde hair with dark roots that flanked either side of her oval face in messy waves. Neither was smiling.
“These are our current suspects,” Torres announced. “We believe they are involved in the recent kidnappings of local teenagers. The Miami police got CCTV footage of them outside a gas station near where one of the kids went missing, and a witness placed them in range of two other abductions. The witness works as a delivery man and noticed the suspects more than once when making drop-offs at convenience stores in the area. They stuck out to him for some reason, so he called in and said the guy gave him a creepy vibe.”
Bryce spoke up. “Are they random abductions, like the kids were out trying to have some fun but met trouble?”
Torres shook his head. “Unfortunately, these two individuals are very organized. They use occult websites and forums to entice their victims, and they seem to focus on teenagers. We can track at least three cases back to a particular website called Occult Geeks. It’s geared to the current trends of youth using tarot cards and astrological signs, but they also have a forum that’s very popular in Florida thanks to the Leftovers carving out a large area of the Everglades.”
I exchanged a glance with the others. What did the Leftovers have to do with teens obsessed with the Occult?
Torres gave Dorian an uncomfortable glance which set me on high alert but th