“No,” the man says slowly, taking the picture back. He slides it into his jacket. “I’m afraid this woman is wanted for questioning.”
So they haven’t gotten her yet.
Or maybe it’s a trick to find the baby.
I shrug. “I’m just the night janitor, man. I don’t know what I could tell you. Not a teacher, you say?”
“She’s not a teacher,” the woman says, looking me up and down. Every so often, she darts a glance behind me, and I hope and pray that Daisy doesn’t wake up. I’d step on the porch and close the door behind me, but these two are professionals. They’ve managed to crowd up to the door that there’s really nowhere for me to go but back inside the cabin.
“She’s wanted for questioning,” the man says. “She’s been reported to have been in this area and may have been involved in several crimes, including kidnapping a small child.”
I gasp and place my hand on my mouth.
“You’re fucking with me,” I say.
“No,” the woman shakes her head. “Listen, if you see anything, or hear anything, please contact us immediately.” She hands me a card. It has a phone number on it, but nothing else.
“What organization are you with?” I ask, cocking my head to the side. “Who do I ask for when I call?”
“Just call the number,” the woman says. Her eyes suddenly go steely. Yeah, these aren’t feds. No fucking way. Then, I see something flash in her eyes, she peeks behind me at the table and I realize I’ve left the formula bottles out. “Do you have a baby?” She asks. The man is instantly alert and presses forward. I don’t move.
“Yeah, I wish,” I shrug, holding up my empty ring finger. I point to it. “At this rate, I’ll be a crazy cat lady forever. Nope, no baby, just a couple of little kittens.” Mocha chooses that moment to appear at my feet and meows loudly. I reach down and pick him up. Then I hold him out to the woman. “Do you want to hold him?” I ask her. “He’s very friendly.”
“Uh, no thanks,” she says, backing up for the first time. “I’ll pass.”
“Remember,” the man says, pointing to me. “If you see anything at all, call us immediately, Peggy.”
Then he leaves, and I realize that I never told him my name, so how the fuck did he know who I am?
Chapter Four
Cameron
It’s been almost a week since I heard from my sister. Nearly a week since I heard her voice, since I held her in my arms, since I tried to comfort her after the news about her husband. It’s been nearly a week and there’s still no word on whether or not she’s okay.
She has to be okay.
Still, as I make my way to the fourth stone tower, I can’t help but wonder if I’m missing something. Is there a chance she didn’t make it? Could the others in Fablestone be right? What are the chances that something has happened to her?
I can’t think that way, though. I can’t allow myself to believe that something horrible could have happened to my sister. I won’t. I won’t let myself think it.
Ellie and I have been close for…well, for forever. Growing up dragon wasn’t easy, and it was nice to have someone to talk to, especially since we were raised in the human world. Our parents thought it was important for us to be integrated with our classmates and human counterparts.
“We can’t hide away,” my father always said. “We can’t act like we’re ashamed of who we are.”
To him, dragons living in clans was distasteful and wrong. He didn’t like the idea that dragons would separate themselves from humans. My mother agreed with him. For a long time, I thought they were right. I didn’t mind living with humans or going to a human school. I didn’t often tell people I would one day be able to shapeshift. I didn’t like the idea that people might catch wind of who I was…
Of what I was.
But all of that change
d when someone hired a shifter hitman to kill a high profile target: a senator. It was a bad choice for everyone involved. The shifter did his job, all right, but he was caught, captured, and the world suddenly changed. It didn’t matter that humans killed each other all of the time. Nope. All the world saw was that this one guy who had done something wrong.
All the world saw was that he was also a wolf.
He was executed immediately and almost instantly, rules and laws were put into place to protect humans from shifters. There was lynching, and there were witch hunts, and suddenly, it really was safer for us to go away and live in clans.
My father was devastated.