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I glanced at the still snoring Joshua and Ice, who had backpacks near them, too. I followed Angel out of the tent
where she paused and took a deep breath.
She stretched her arms over her head, her scoop-neck white T-shirt rising up to expose a strip of her tiny, flat
waist. She looked so perky, petite, and beautiful in the T-shirt and jeans she wore. Her small bare feet were even
cute, with bright pink polish on her toenails.
Angel gave each of our Werewolf guards a brilliant smile. I swear the males salivated as they stared at her. Or
rather they were staring at her breasts. Joshua had been crude last night, but right, about how the Werewolf
males would respond to the sight of her cleavage.
I cleared my throat, barely holding back a grin at the males who appeared almost incapacitated with lust. How
did you and the guys get your stuff here?
Angel turned her attention to me as she lowered her arms and the T-shirt slipped down over her waist. Rodán
had our backpacks sent ahead so that we could travel in our natural forms.
Don t let Olivia know that little fact because we had to carry ours. We turned away from the guards and I
waved one of the males off when he started to follow us. We re not going anywhere and there are two of us, I
said to him.
But the male whistled to someone across the camp. Lukas.
I glanced over my shoulder as I walked away. Oh goody, company.
Let s lose him. Laughter was in Angel s voice.
I grinned at her. Shouldn t be too hard.
She took three steps and shifted into a blond squirrel as she moved, her plastic bag with her toothbrush and
paste dropping to the ground.
Dopplers are amazingly fast when it comes to transformations. It s equally amazing how their bodies can shift
into animals far smaller than their human forms.
Angel the squirrel scurried up the closest tree trunk and disappeared among the branches. I dropped my own
toothbrush and paste and I laughed as I bolted from the camp and into the forest. Elves are faster than almost
any being, and even in my human form I possess the same speed as I do in my Drow form.
Werewolves are quick, but didn t stand a chance against Angel and me, especially with the head start we had.
Shouts behind me only made me smile more. Angel kept pace with me as she scampered from one tree to the
next. My long black hair whipped around my face and the cool morning breeze brushed my bare midriff. The
morning dew wet my bare feet.
The air smelled delicious of pine and loam, as well as the clean scent of last night s rainfall. I was so glad to
be able to smell again. How bizarre was that? Something was being used to mask smell and inhibit one s sense
of smell.
Angel and I made no sounds and didn t even startle wildlife as we kept our distance from a whitetail doe and
her fawn, a flock of wild turkeys, and even a lone black male bear.
I hadn t consciously planned on returning to the site of the Were kidnappings last night, but that s exactly where
we ended up. I pushed my hair away from my eyes as I came to a stop in the middle of the clearing. Angel
walked out of the forest and joined me, wearing her T-shirt and jeans again.
Every paranorm being has magic, no matter how little, and all types of beings that can shift have the gift of
being able to transform completely back to the form they were in to begin with. That is magic that I certainly
don t have.
Angel slipped her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and surveyed the area along with me. There can
only be a logical explanation for these kidnappings.
My attention was on the place where the noise emitter had been last night. It was gone. Who managed to take
that thing?
I did. Angel was digging her bare toes into the leaves and pine needles where she was standing. I isolated the
electrical frequency with rubber.
Surprise flickered through me. Rubber. Of course.
I had a couple of Weres return to camp and bring back a spare tire from one of their older SUVs. She spoke
about it casually as if coming up with the idea had been the logical thing to do. I used the tire tube to contain
the emitter and the tire itself to serve as transport by having it rolled back to camp.
I tried to picture how she d managed it. How did you get the emitter into the tube?
Cut it open, made a sort of chute on one end, then used the excess strip to scoop and push into the opening of
the tube. She shrugged. I only had it put into the tire as an extra precaution.
Fantastic. I grinned. I was going to shoot it to put it out of our misery, but unfortunately that wasn t the
rational thing to do. That, and Olivia wouldn t let me.
Angel laughed. Olivia is one tough female.
You have no idea. I turned my gaze to stare at the rock wall. Even though I didn t find anything with my
earth element I can t help but think there s something behind all of those rocks. I frowned as I met Angel s
eyes. Or beneath the bedrock. Where else could the Weres have been taken?
She looked thoughtful. A geologist who s familiar with this area could give us some information.
The geologist might be able to tell us if it s even possible that something could be here. I stretched my arms
and my legs while I spoke, trying to limber up. I d missed not stretching into my changes last night and this
morning, and my muscles felt a little tight. Any other ideas?
I heard Olivia s Beam me up, Scotty comment, Angel said with one of her brilliant smiles. Considering I
interned with NASA, you d think I would consider life out among the stars. She stared up into the sky. People
on earth are alone in this galaxy. She returned her gaze to me. But they do have us paranorms, they just don t
know it.
Olivia was kidding about the Star Trek reference. I think. I winked at Angel before walking over to the rock
wall and putting my hands on my hips. Nothing makes sense but something being behind here or below
ground.
Or both, Angel said.
Or both. I was almost absent-minded as I repeated her words and reached out to run my fingers over one of
the smoother stones at the base of the wall. They kidnapped another child, Angel, I said even though she
already knew that information. And a pregnant female. Pregnant with three babies.
Anger surged through me, somehow hotter and harsher than it had before. How in the Underworlds could the
mother and her pup have disappeared like that, with me not far away?
I gathered my earth magic, ready to release it and use the earth at our feet to move aside some of the rocks.
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