Anthony checked on Kaia, asleep for the night in his bed. Sebastian and Torin had been trying to be discreet with the wolves they knew were embezzling, but after another twenty thousand dollars went mysteriously missing, they decided to clean house once and for all.
They fired everyone in one fell swoop and decided they’d deal with whatever happened after that. Except it left Anthony more nervous than ever about Kaia’s guards. He wouldn’t feel completely safe having her here until she was vampire, and in less than two weeks she’d either be one, or she’d be dead.
He tried to purge that thought from his mind. He had power, real power, and he’d use every bit of it to keep her from slipping away from him.
He sat next to her on the bed as she slept, her eyes moving rapidly beneath her lids. She was deep in a dream state, so he was startled when she started mumbling.
He leaned closer and whispered, “What was that, my sweet?”
“Waleska. Pine Bark Drive.”
He froze. She’d had premonitions in her sleep before, but it was when she was deathly sick. Could she be having another one now? “What’s there, my sweet?”
She mumbled something incomprehensible and he remembered he needed to be more specific with his questions. “What’s in Waleska, on Pine Bark Drive?”
“Penny.”
“Vince’s girlfriend?”
Kaia stirred more fully and opened her eyes. “Hi baby.”
“My sweet. Were you dreaming?”
She frowned. “I don’t remember. Why?”
He shook his head. “No reason. You should go back to sleep. I just wanted to say goodnight again.” In another two days she’d quit her job and then she could stay up as late as she wanted. Until then she wanted to live a normal, human life, and he’d help make sure she did.
“I love you, Anthony. No matter what happens, I love you.”
He lowered his head and touched his forehead to hers. “Am I that transparent?” He was just as nervous as she was about her turning. She could die, and he could be the one to kill her.
“I’m worried too, but I want this. I want to be with you.”
He smiled and pulled back enough to be able to look her in the eyes. “I love you, Kaia. With all my heart. I am yours, and you are mine.”
He gave her a chaste kiss, then tucked her in and let her go back to sleep.
As soon as he shut his bedroom door behind himself, leaving Frederick and Dylan to guard her for the night, he texted both Vince and Suzanne. ‘This might be a false alarm, but have either of you seen Penny?’
**
Vince frowned at the strange message from Anthony on his phone. He texted Penny, and when he got no response, he texted Anthony back. ‘I haven’t heard from her for a few days. Why?’
Suzanne replied to them all. ‘What’s happened? I got a partial text from her a couple hours ago and she’s not home now.’
Anthony didn’t waste time responding. ‘A premonition. Meet me in my office.’
Vince’s heart beat like crazy as he ran down to the club. Suzanne looked like she’d just barely beat him there. “What’s going on?”
Anthony was on his phone, sitting behind his desk staring at them as they entered his office. “Yes. She said the same thing.” He nodded, then said, “Thank you Echo.”
He put his phone down and frowned. “There have been two separate premonitions this evening about Penny being in the small town of Waleska, Georgia.”
Vince asked in confusion, “What does that mean? Is she in trouble, or just visiting friends?”
Anthony’s face was devoid of emotion as he said, “Echo doesn’t usually have premonitions about happy things. And Kaia, well, I’m still learning what her premonitions mean.”
“Kaia has premonitions?”
Anthony carefully said, “She’s not aware that she does. It’s infrequent and either when she’s sick or in the middle of sleep.”
“You trust them though?”
“So far they’ve been highly detailed and highly accurate. And Echo has always had trustworthy visions. She agrees that something’s wrong with Penny tonight.”
Suzanne looked ready to go bust some balls.
“So what do we do?”
**
Anthony went back downstairs to ask Frederick if he wanted to join Suzanne and Vince to find Penny. Frederick was coyote and the pack should be there for each other. He heard movement in the bedroom and found Kaia just slipping back under the covers.
“My sweet, you should be sleeping.”
“I wanted some water. What’s wrong?”
He sat down next to her and smirked. “How is it you can always tell when something’s wrong?”
“Because I know you.”
He helped tuck her back in again. “Vince’s girlfriend is missing. He’s going with Suzanne and Frederick and some others to try to find her.”
Her eyes went wide. “You should go, too.”
“This is shifter business. Vampires shouldn’t interfere with that.”
“But Vince is your friend.”
How he’d accumulated another friend, he wasn’t sure. Or if Vince even thought of him as one.
“You don’t have to interfere, but you could go and make sure nothing bad happens to anyone, right?”
He had a feeling he’d regret this, but he said, “For you.”
“For your friends.”
He smiled at her tenacity as she pushed him away. “Go. And call Benicio. Take him with.”
“Why Benicio?”
“They’re friends, too.”
“How do you know so much?”
With a coy smile she said, “I pay attention. Now go find her.” He chuckled when she patted him on the behind as he left her side.
**
Vince anxiously waited in front of the buildings where everyone was gathering. Zach, Sebastian, Torin, Suzanne, Ed, Penny’s parents, and others were here looking just as worried as he was.
And up the driveway came Min-chul.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
He flicked a look at Ed before he said, “Zach and your mother both told me your girlfriend was missing. I was nearby for some business so I came as quickly as I could.”
“You bastard! This has something to do with your family finding out about me?”
Min-chul’s expression was terse. “I don’t know. I’m here to find out.”
Vince was too worried about Penny to deal with his father right now, let alone thinking about him being here to actually help.
Zach thankfully stepped between them. “We don’t know what’s going on, Vince. All we have are a couple premonitions, and no one able to find Penny.”
When Benicio strode out the front door and headed for their group with a confused frown on his face, his worry only intensified.
Anthony joined them moments later. “We should get going. It’s going to take some time to get there. We’ll talk on the road.”
Zach said, “You’re sure she’s in Waleska?”
“Echo confirmed it.”
Penny’s mom sobbed, “What else did she confirm?”
“That she’s alive, ma’am. We need to go. Now.”
**
Anthony gestured for Benicio to join him. “Ride with me please. We’ll meet the others there.”
“Yes Master.”
Anthony mentally sighed as he made his way through the garage to his car. He actually liked and respected Benicio as a person, so the master-servant routine bothered him. Once he saw his gleaming, imperial blue BMW M5, though, his mood perked up. He didn’t get a lot of opportunities to take it for a long drive. Now that he’d agreed to go, he was looking forward to getting out.
Benicio gave him a strange look once they were settled inside, and Anthony realized he was smiling. “I enjoy driving. With my responsibilities, I don’t get a chance to go for a spin as often as I’d like.”
Benicio inclined his head and sat back for the ride.
Anthony said, “We’re going to help Vince and the others find Penny.”
“Do you know what happened to her?”
He gave him a look, then said, “I didn’t tell the others but Echo thinks Penny was kidnapped, and it has something to do with the shifters embezzling money.”
Benicio got a knowing look on his face, and a troubling feeling settled in Anthony’s gut.
“Do you know something about it?”
Benicio held his gaze a little too long. “Nothing specific, Master. The wolves−”
“Anthony.”
“Sorry?”
“Please call me Anthony. Master has never sat well with me when in the company of friends.”
Benicio stared at him for a long time, then finally smiled. “Anthony it is.”
“You were telling me about the wolves?”
“Can I be honest with you, sir? I mean, Anthony?”
He gave him a sideways glance. “I’d prefer if you were.”
“I don’t presume to know what’s best for the family, but I think the situation with the shifters, or maybe just the wolves, is getting out of control.”
He didn’t like the sound of this, and his tone betrayed his growing anger. “What do you mean?”
Benicio shifted in his seat, looking unsure of his earlier welcome. Regardless, he continued. “If I can provide a somewhat similar comparison… I wasn’t in your family yet back when Echo and the others joined, but I heard about the time some shifters attacked you and Echo, in your own home. And then the aftermath of learning about the others who were also against having vampires in the family. I believe the rumors were that you kicked some shifters out for good.”
Anthony clenched his jaw. He remembered that very well. They had religious zealots in the family and they took the opportunity to go after Echo and himself early one morning. Anthony protected Echo and got staked three times in the process. Luckily no one hit his heart, but that didn’t mean they didn’t do a lot of damage. The next night they rooted out even more shifters who basically hated what the family had become by accepting more and more vampires into the fold. They sent the bigoted shifters on their way because the family was for acceptance and refuge, no matter what your supernatural race was.
“You think the vampires are in danger again?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. What I do know is that there are a lot of shifters that don’t know how good they truly have it. I know some wolves were just fired from the wolf office, but there were already a lot of secret alliances and mistrust in the family. There’s always been a little bit of that, but in the last few months it’s exploded.”
He stared at the road while that rolled around in his head. He’d discovered the embezzlement many months ago, but it was only when Torin and Sebastian finally made amends that he felt like he could pass the problem to them to deal with. Figuring out who was benefiting from the embezzlement was like opening a can of worms, and they were still trying to get to the bottom of it.
But the vampires never wanted to be accused of interfering with wolf business. It was a delicate situation of needing to always seem neutral because they relied on shifters too much while they were vulnerable during the day. They couldn’t afford to get pulled into their petty squabbles, but this was bigger than a petty squabble.
“You think we need to clean house again?” They’d fired many wolves from their well paid jobs, but they hadn’t gone so far as to kick them out of the family, which would hurt them in many, many ways. They’d effectively be loners, forced to fend for themselves if push came to shove, and push always came to shove with supernatural creatures. All that power was hard for many to keep contained.
Benicio took his time answering, and when he did, he tiptoed around his thoughts. “I’d never presume to tell a Master how to run his family.”
Anthony sighed irritably.
Benicio more firmly said, “You need to clean house, Anthony. People rely on you. Good, honest, hard-working people. Vampire and shifter both. They look to you to keep them safe and to let them live as normal of a life as they can. Right now we’ve got too many greedy people that are threatening the safety and security of our entire community.”
“And you think it’s limited to the shifters?”
“There are vampires that’d like to be their own master, but they weren’t involved in the wolf office embezzlement, at least not that I’ve heard. And the vampires that were involved with the attempt on your life recently are all being watched pretty carefully by the rest of us. They know they can go loner if they want, but we’re all smart enough to know that’s not a good idea. They might not like having to answer to a master, but they know things could be a lot worse on their own. In my opinion, you should focus on the shifters.”
The rest of the drive wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as he’d been hoping for while the ramifications of ‘cleaning house’ ran through his head.