“You’re my soul-pledged, and I’m lucky to have you. I’ve never regretted our decision to bond, and I absolutely don’t regret it now.”
“You don’t?”
“Not even a little bit. Let’s not add to our worries for the moment. We need to concentrate on finding him before we worry about anything else.” He was right, of course, but I was raw and felt like my heart was bleeding with worry. Raph started playing with the hair at my nape, trying to soothe and calm me. Or rather, soothe both of us. “We’re going to go in there, figure out who took him, and we’re going to save him. That’s what we concentrate on right now. Got it?”
I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. Raph was right of course, but it was easier said than done. “Yeah.”
He kept his hand on me until I parked the car at Laz’s house, and we both got out.
We rushed inside, using Grady’s key, so we didn’t disturb anything with our magic. The first thing I noticed as Raph was opening the door was that the protection wards we’d placed around the house were broken. It made me grimace because we should’ve been strengthening them every time we came home, but we’d let it fall behind. I could tell that Alaric had been strengthening them, but he wasn’t knowledgeable enough to know to do it more often. That was absolutely on us. They could be hurting Laz… and I was never going to forgive myself.
It still would’ve taken a strong witch to break the wards, even if they weren’t fully charged.
We cleared the first floor, then made our way to the second floor, clearing all the rooms and leaving Laz’s bedroom for last. A quick check showed no one inside, and as we crossed the threshold, a strangled sound came out of Raph’s throat.
I followed his line of sight and gasped.
Blood. There was blood on the carpet.
Rushing over, I dropped to my knees and nearly choked on air. The bracelet Raph had given Laz was lying on the ground, sliced in half, and covered in blood. Laz’s blood. Lots of Laz’s blood.
Oh gods.
Closing my eyes, I tried to pick up any magical essence. It took a minute and a ton of concentration, but eventually, I felt it. Mixed inside the blood, whatever had caused the injury, it was magical. It was faint, having faded because he knew how to cover his tracks, but it was there.
I lifted a shaking hand to my mouth and glanced up at Raph, who was searching the attached bathroom.
When he met my eyes, he gasped, “What?”
“Dallan Addington,” I whispered.
Raph’s eyes went wide before he started shaking his head. “No.”
“I-I sense him.”
“No. No, Isiah.”
Tears filled my eyes, and my chin quivered. “It’s him, Raph. It’s Dallan.”
“No, that can’t… you can’t… no. That man doesn’t have him. He didn’t take him. No.” Raph was shaking his head, panic written all over his face as he backed away from me, and his eyes turned glassy.
“Raphael.”
“No!” he yelled, his eyes darting all over the room. “He can’t have Lazarus! He can’t.”
I stood and took a step toward Raph as tears began to trail down my cheeks. “I’m sorry, babe.”
“No, don’t say that!”
“Raph,” I whispered and stepped closer to him. He backed up but bumped into the dresser, so I was able to get close. “Raphael.”
He shook his head and finally met my eyes. “He can’t… he can’t have him, Izzy. He can’t.”
“I know. I… we’ll get him back.”
“He’s going to hurt him.”
I held in a whine. “I know.”
Raph sucked in a shaky breath that ended on a sob. “He’s going to hurt my-my… he’s going to hurt Laz. He’s going to make him suffer, he’s going to—”
“Shh.” I pulled Raph’s head down to my shoulder, wrapping my arms around him, and he sobbed into me, clinging to me.
Raph didn’t cry often at all, so when he did, it gutted me. But nothing could gut me more than knowing that Laz was in the hands of that monster.
When Raph calmed a little, I wiped my tears and pulled out my cell, calling my boss. When she answered, I said, “Dallan Addington’s behind Lazarus Callanan’s disappearance.”
She sucked in a deep breath. “Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“Your backup should be there shortly. I’ll send out another team to help. Let me know what you need to get him this time.”
“Will do.”
Before I could hang up, she asked, “How’s Raph?” When I didn’t answer right away, she sighed. “That good, huh? Shit. Okay, I’m on my way.”
“You’re coming into the field?”
“Yes.”
After a beat, I said, “Thanks. See you soon.” We hung up, and I kissed the side of Raph’s head, saying, “Let’s see if we can set up a tracking spell. I don’t think there’s enough left, but we’ll try, and we’ll search for clues. Dallan does everything for a reason, and he’ll want you to know he has Laz. I’m sure he left us a clue somewhere just to taunt us.”
Raph moved away from me and began pacing the room for a few minutes. He stopped in the middle, squeezed his eyes shut, and yelled, “Motherfucking shit!” Fire sprang up on his hands and arms, and since I knew he needed to get it out, I didn’t bother to stop him. He was keeping his fire contained enough so he wouldn’t catch anything aflame.
Leaving him to it, I bent back down and tried to examine the magical essence, praying we had enough to track this bloody asshole.
After a few minutes, Raph walked over and placed his hand on my shoulder, letting our magics combine to better my spell.
Our emotions were in turmoil, but we both pushed them aside and focused on finding Laz. We couldn’t let that bastard win, not again.
Chapter 18
Lazarus
As much as I wanted to go back to sleep after Raph left, I couldn’t relax without him here and decided to get up. I’d been planning on opening my shop late today, but since Raph couldn’t stay later, there was really no point. May as well get a whole day in.
As I dragged my naked ass out of bed, I groaned. I hadn’t realized how sore my muscles were from the pounding Raph had given me, and the one I’d returned. A smile spread over my lips as I walked into my bathroom. After relieving myself, I brushed my teeth, but I heard a noise downstairs. Maybe Raph had forgotten something.
“Raph?” I yelled. He didn’t have a key, but I knew for a fact that he could get in without one. Although… his magic was fire-based, so was he about to burn down my front door or melt the lock or something? Shit. “Raph!” I yelled again before spitting out my toothpaste and quickly rinsing my mouth. “I’m coming, hold on!” I rushed out to my room to grab a pair of boxers in case Izzy was with him and added, “Don’t burn my door down!”
As I pulled my boxers out of the drawer, the sound of footsteps met my ears, and I huffed and rolled my eyes.
“Raph, I—”
“Not Raphael,” a very large, very muscular man said.