The elder immortal nodded. “Let’s arm up.”
It only took them a few seconds to don weapons-laden coats and tell Eliana and Dana where they were going. Then Aidan clamped a hand on Nick’s shoulder.
Everything around him blurred and went dark. A feeling of weightlessness engulfed him. When his surroundings brightened again, he and Aidan stood in a nearly empty parking garage.
Bright golden light from the setting sun bathed them from the west.
Aidan drew Nick back into the shade of an outdoor stairwell. “Do you see her car?”
“Yes.” Shrugging off his hold, Nick hurried over to Kayla’s car.
It was empty, the doors locked.
Could her appointment have simply run long?
That might explain why Kayla hadn’t responded to his text. She couldn’t very well do so while the dentist was working on her teeth. But why wasn’t Oliver responding?
His skin began to prickle beneath the sun’s light.
One of the doors to the building swung open. A slender brunette stepped out.
His heart leapt, then sank when he realized it wasn’t Kayla.
Aidan joined him. “Go check the dentist’s office.”
Nick forced himself to walk at a normal human’s pace, nodding to the woman when he passed her. Once inside, he didn’t see any surveillance cameras but kept his pace to that of a mortal just in case.
The door to her dentist’s office was locked. He peered through the tall vertical window beside it. Darkness shrouded the interior. And his preternaturally enhanced vision caught no movement within. His hearing picked up no heartbeats.
Swearing, he returned to the parking garage.
Aidan waited beside Kayla’s car, his expression grim.
“They aren’t inside.”
Nodding, Aidan sank to his haunches. “I found this.”
Nick crouched beside him and studied the pavement to which the elder pointed. His heart sank. “Blood?”
Aidan nodded. “Not a lot of it. But it’s relatively fresh. There’s more on the passenger side.”
Nick touched a finger to it, brought it to his nose, and inhaled. Oil. Brake fluid. Transmission fluid. And… “This is Kayla’s.”
“I’m guessing the other is Oliver’s.”
Nick rounded the car and checked it out. “Yes.” His skin again prickled as sunlight bombarded him. Ignoring it, he drew out his cell phone and sent Kayla another text: Call me ASAP.
A chime drew his attention to a trash can by the stairwell.
Nick quickly crossed to it and found Kayla’s purse inside, underneath a bag containing complimentary toothpaste, dental floss, and a toothbrush. As he yanked the purse out, fear inundated him. What had happened?
“Over here,” Aidan murmured.
Nick rejoined him, the purse clutched in his hand.
“Is that hers?” Aidan asked, eyeing it.
Nick nodded. The prickling in his skin became a burn as his skin began to pinken.
Aidan rested a hand on his shoulder. Nick’s skin healed within seconds.
“I can heal the damage in real time,” Aidan murmured absently, keeping one hand on his shoulder as he pointed to a spot near the blood. “There’s something there. Close to the blood. A scent that’s different. Not like the usual ones cars leave behind on pavement. But not like the blood either. Do you smell it?”
Nick drew in a deep breath. “No.” But Aidan was an ancient with senses heightened more than Nick’s. “Where is it?”
Aidan crouched, keeping his hand on Nick’s shoulder and drawing him down with him. He pointed, his finger hovering an inch or so above the pavement. “There.”
Nick started to touch it, but Aidan stopped him. “Just sniff it. If it’s what I think it is, I want Henderson’s forensic team to see if they can collect a sample and trace it.”
Right. Nick leaned down and sniffed without touching the pavement, then sat back on his heels. “It’s familiar.”
“You’ve smelled it before?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
He searched his memories, trying to pinpoint where and when he’d encountered that particular scent. It had happened recently. On a hunt maybe?
No.
When it came to him, he spat an epithet and met Aidan’s gaze. “It’s the sedative the men who attacked me used.”
Which meant those bastards had Kayla and Oliver.
And Nick had no idea who the hell they were or how to find them.
Chapter Thirteen
Seth abruptly appeared beside Nick, summoned telepathically by Aidan, no doubt.
Nick rose and stared up at him, panic making his heart race.
Seth’s brow furrowed. “What’s wrong?”
“They have Kayla and Oliver.”
His frown deepened. “Who does?”
“Whoever sent those men to attack me.” Nick quickly filled Seth in.
The Immortal Guardians leader vanished, then reappeared with Henderson, head of the Midwest division of the network. “Bring him up to speed.” He vanished again.
Henderson eyed them expectantly.
Aidan did the talking this time, one hand still clasping Nick’s shoulder while Nick’s stomach twisted itself into knots.
Seth reappeared, his hand on the shoulder of a tall, imposing immortal with obsidian skin.
Imhotep, an Egyptian immortal so ancient he even predated Aidan.
Seth addressed Imhotep. “Nick’s mortal girlfriend and his Second have been taken. This is her car. Tell me what you can.”
Nodding, the silent immortal touched the car.
Henderson drew out a cell phone and began to make some calls, but Nick kept his gaze on the ancient Egyptian.
Imhotep backed away a few steps, then turned in a slow circle. “They weren’t followed,” he murmured. “The ones who took them arrived after they did, then waited until the woman and the Second returned to their vehicle. They shot the Second with a tranquilizer dart. He drew his weapon but lost consciousness before he could fire it. They tranqed the woman next, then loaded both into a van. They tossed the woman’s purse into the rubbish bin and confiscated the Second’s phone and disabled the GPS. Then they restrained them both and left.”
Seth looked toward the street, packed with rush hour traffic. “Can you tell us where they took them?”
The ancient warrior eyed the bumper-to-bumper cars. “I’ll try.” In the next instant, he darted off in a blur of preternatural speed the drivers wouldn’t even notice.
Seth caught Nick’s gaze. “Imhotep has strong postcognitive abilities that allow him to see events that transpired in the past.”
Nick motioned to the garage around him. “So he actually saw what happened here?”
Seth nodded. “As clearly as though he replayed a scene on a DVD.”
Hope rose. “So he can just follow them and tell us where they are?”
“Ideally, yes. But there are limits to his ability. Had this happened early on a Sunday morning with less traffic to muddy the waters, I would have more confidence. But the more time that passes and the more activity that takes place in the interim, the more difficult it becomes for him to follow the clues. It’s sort of like trying to gather evidence at a crime scene after a crowd tramps through it.”