Meiling and Gedeon utilized the shrubbery and foliage from the trees to help hide their approach to Chaban’s home. They kept away from the main road. It wouldn’t do to have someone passing by unexpectedly spot them. Anyone on the Lospostos property was most likely a shifter, with a shifter’s enhanced sense of smell. Meiling and Gedeon were using a special scent blocker to prevent shifters from discovering them as they made their approach.
The sound of a weeping child caught at Gedeon’s heart. He hadn’t recognized he had a heart until Meiling came along. She’d softened him in ways he wasn’t certain were all that good. He had been numb before—closed off. Being around Meiling had changed him in unexpected ways. The more he was with her, the more he obsessed over her—and the more he found himself caring about how some of their cases could affect her. She had a much more tender heart than he did. He couldn’t imagine what the sound of that crying child was doing to her.
He signaled to Meiling to move around to the other side of the house. As they did, the sound of the child’s crying became louder.
“I want my daddy,” she said clearly.
The window was open, and blinds fluttered with the breeze. The blinds were wooden and had been pulled open, so when Gedeon peered into the room, he could see Chaban holding a camera out in front of a very small female child. The little girl flung herself onto an unmade bed facedown so that only a tangle of dark hair showed against the white sheet.
Chaban swore at the child. “Stop being a little monster. If you want to eat, you’d better cooperate. Your father wants to see a picture of you.”
The child kicked her feet and any reply she made was muffled by the pillow and sheets she had buried her face into.
Chaban stalked across the room and dragged Lilith’s head up by her hair, making her wail louder. He snapped several pictures of her and then dropped her head back onto the pillow.
“You dad doesn’t want you back. That’s why you’re still here,” he said cruelly. “You’re never going home. No one wants you because you’re an entitled little brat.”
Chaban stalked out and kicked the door closed behind him. The sound was loud, but more important, he had kicked the thick wooden door so hard, when it hit the frame, it shook the entire house. The child jerked in fear and pressed her hands over her ears, sobbing louder.
Meiling moved up to the side of the house in stealthy silence. The blinds swayed with the wind as she examined the window for alarms. Finding none on the window, which Gedeon found quite shocking, Meiling slid through the window.
“Lilith.” She whispered the child’s name. “Lilith, don’t stop crying or act startled. Your father sent me to bring you home. The bad man is just outside the door. He can’t know I’m here yet. My partner will make sure he can’t get to you again.”
Lilith flipped over onto her back and sat up, her eyes wild as she looked around the room. Gedeon, watching from the window, could see the leopard staring out from the child’s eyes. There was no question that Fredrick Atwater’s daughter was a shifter, and she had a leopard already looking out for her.
Meiling looked soft and gentle as she slowly approached Lilith, extending one hand toward her. “Honey, you should be able to hear lies. When you listen to people, you know if they are good people or bad, right? Lola wasn’t a good person, was she?”
Lilith shook her head. “I told Daddy, but he wouldn’t listen. Lola said I was bad for telling him. She called me a brat too.”
“You’re not a brat, Lilith. You were trying to save your daddy. That makes you smart and courageous. I’m sorry she and her friends have been so mean to you.”
“They said my daddy doesn’t want me back.”
“You know that isn’t true. You could hear their lies, couldn’t you?” Meiling insisted softly. She was close to the child now. Sitting on the edge of the bed with her. Not yet touching her. Not forcing acceptance from the little girl.
Gedeon could see the leopard in the child yielding to Meiling’s sovereignty. There was no demand in Meiling. No impatience. She listened attentively to everything the child had to say, leaning toward her with a little half-smile on her face and nodding as though everything Lilith had to say was invaluable. It wasn’t very long before the child crawled into Meiling’s lap and wound her arms around his partner’s neck. For some reason the sight of that caused a curious melting sensation in the region of his heart.
Meiling signaled him, a small movement of her fingers as she flung herself somersaulting backward over the side of the bed, Lilith in her arms, tucked in tight against her body to protect the child. Simultaneously, Gedeon dove through the window, his speed making him a blur as Georgi Chaban slammed open the door to the bedroom, using his fist and a boot. He had a gun out and shot into the room without actually seeing a target. The door crashed into the wall and started to bounce closed.