Chapter 193

Charles

I had never thought I would raise such a stupid child. He probably had contacted the underbelly of the human world for the funds that he probably had never planned to pay back. It had likely always been the plan to leave Grace saddled with all of it on her own.

It had probably never even crossed his mind what those people would do to his family. Had he ever considered Grace as his family? Had he ever thought of Richard and Cecil as his children? I clenched my jaw. The human underbelly was nothing like the werewolf or the lycan ones. There were no set rules of engagement or limits. However, I was grateful that it seemed like these people just wanted their money and weren't looking to also hurt Cecil. For a moment, I wondered if he would have been better off with whatever obscure relative I had been able to find at the time of his parents’ death. While I knew that wasn’t true, knowing why I kept him instead of giving him over to his family, knowing what I knew now, I might have made a different decision.

Cecil and Richard wouldn’t have existed, but Grace would have been spared a lot of the heartache she had now…

Or would have just had different heartaches. That was the problem with looking back.

I sighed. Where he could have gotten this streak for greed from? Considering how I raised him, I gave him everything: love, attention, discipline…

“How many do you think there are? Branches of Blood Moon?” The man’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

“I'm starting to think that it's less unorganized group and more a collection of smaller terrorist groups under the same banner.”

He groaned. “You mean Blood Moon isn't even completely in the president's back pocket?”

Sean might know about most of them. He might even know about the majority of them that are connected to the WSU, but there was no way that he had ever truly met Astarte. There was no way she was actually working with him unless she was getting herself a chance to poison him. No. It was more likely that Sean's direct group of terrorists, the ones who had followed Ethan's father into the attack on Blood Moon, were the only people he had direct contact with and thus direct control over. The rest of them were probably just using the name because they could get away with it. What was worse was that Sean probably didn’t even care because no matter who was actually using the moniker, so long as they kept in line with what Blood Moon was supposed to do, he benefited from it.

Blood Moon had to be dealt with sooner rather than later in a way that would cut the legs from under it.

“I see movement.”

I looked up, and sure enough, I saw a familiar streak of brown fur cutting through the forest. She turned just in front of the jeep and streaked off down the street.

“Follow her at a good pace and distance and get our route to whoever can try to keep the pedestrians out of the way.”

“I still can’t tell. Where is she going?”

“It seems she knows where she's going, but she's not headed towards anywhere that makes sense.” He sounded impressed. “Most first shifters tend to be overwhelmed by all the extra sensory information they're getting, but her movements are too focused for that.”

Stormclaws were known to be excellent hunters and fiercely defensive. I wasn’t all that surprised.

“That impressive lineage I was telling you about,” I spoke into the radio. “Has anyone gotten Eason to City Hall? We need to know what the tracking tablet says.”

“Not yet.”

I narrowed my eyes, watching Grace stride ahead. “She must be tracking Cecil.”

“Really, you think so?”

“Her liking instincts have become more pronounced as of late. She's likely being drawn by their familial bond even if she doesn't necessarily understand that.”

Combined with her knowledge of the city, it was telling her the fastest way to get to where Cecil was.

The city streets blurred beneath us. Pedestrians shrieked, scattering like startled pigeons as she hurtled past. She turned left and then right before heading toward the northbound highway. She dodged traffic with an uncanny awareness, her movements swift and controlled. There were cars, but she ran along the shoulder, and we followed.

“Is this the same route the kidnapper took out of the city?”

“No, it's completely different.”

“Open a map and tell me what we’re headed toward.”

It took a moment to project it in front of me, and Grace's pace didn't slow down at all.

“There's a park, an old outpost, and a couple of old buildings out this way. Some farms and stuff like that. It looks like it might have been part of the agriculture set up for the area back in the day, or maybe a smaller old pack’s territory that had been annexed into Mooncrest.”

“Give me all the information you can on it,” I paused. “And what it’s been used for recently.”

“Charles?” Eason's voice came through the radio.

“I'm here. How are you feeling?”

“Like hell. I'm at City Hall, getting into the safe. Where's my sister?”

"Shifted and tracking Cecil, I think. Through their familial bond.”

Ethan hissed. “Shit.”

“Agreed. What's the tablet say? Is she headed in the right direction?”

A few moments passed before Ethan spoke again. “Yeah, she is.”

“She’ll probably find her first, then.”

“Moon, help whoever is on the other side.”

I couldn't agree more. George's gruff baritone came through next. "I’m taking over. I’m sending the coordinates ahead to the Enforcer units nearby to cover the area. It’s the old warehouses. Eason's going to sit down and get the stitches he refused earlier.”

I heard Ethan grumble in the background and shook my head. It was good to see that some things would never change.

“We're following her. We'll take it from here. Get some rest and keep me updated if things change.”

Grace turned off the highway into a thick grouping of trees.

“Where she’s headed?”

“Follow the highway. These jeeps aren't equipped for the terrain.” I grimaced, seeing the jagged rocky terrain through the trees. It might not be a gorge, but it could be.

Assuming that Grace would be okay, there was a good chance we'd arrive at the same time based on how far it was on the map and our speed. The urge to shift and follow her was powerful, but I resisted. Instead, I sent a safety and monitoring spell after her.

We pulled up beside the warehouses, a collection of hulking masses of rusted steel and shattered glass. It looked like no one had been there in years. The rain spattered against the metal and glass, making it harder to hear anything beyond it. I strained my senses, fanning them out and filtering through the sound of it, searching for Grace's heartbeat.

I heard nothing.

“She's not here yet.”

“How could we have beat her?” Someone asked.

I heard her paws beating against the ground from another direction somewhere further on the other side. It seemed that the highway curved around to the general entrance of the area rather than where Cecil was.

“She's probably more cognizant than I think but not nearly as cognizant as she needs to be heading into this situation, and again, she knows Mooncrest better than we do.”

I got out, and we started to fan out, searching for where Grace might be. I didn't hear the sound of her footsteps or anything else, but I felt compelled to go down the main alley and turn right. It was instinct, mostly, as the rain completely blotted out most of her scent and made a mess of trying to follow her heartbeat. As I rounded the corner, I smelled magic in the air. I could see her standing in front of one of the buildings.

Her fangs scraped against the surface of the barrier. Sparks erupted in the darkness. But the barrier held, unyielding to her raw strength. Then, she backed up a few paces before charging at it and slamming into it with a sharp sound of pain as the barrier rippled from the force of it.

Fuck. They had a barrier, and Grace was probably alerting them to our presence. I heard nothing from inside, but that didn't mean anything. Barriers like these tended to be silenced in one direction, which meant we heard nothing from the inside, but they could hear everything. If she kept up with this, they were going to start running before we could surround the area.

Hell, they might already be.

I could only hope that we had at least a little bit more time and that whoever was behind this wasn't smart enough to have put in more formal magical protections.

I raced towards her as she got up to try again. Staggering to her feet, favoring one side as if she bruised her shoulder, she shook her head as if her ears were ringing.

"Grace!" I hissed. “Stop, you—”

She snarled at me, turning with a flicker of feral rage in her eyes. With a roar that ripped through the night air, she lunged, mouth open. I grit my teeth and activated the armored bracer, lifting it as she chomped down.

“Sorry, Grace.”