Page 39 of Wake the Dream

Chapter 10

Kieran

Pembroke and Osgoodstood in the doorway, like twin bowling pins with matching grimaces. Kieran hadn’t wanted to call in backup; it made his presence that much more conspicuous.

Still, the moment he noticed Illaria missing, he’d panicked. It hadn’t taken him long to realize he couldn’t find her anywhere. He checked outside to see if she’d made it out to the car and found no trace of her there.

Trepidation had set in, his heart thumping distressingly against his ribs and pulse echoing in his ears.

He made the call, using the pretense of drugs as cover, especially once he’d seen actual pills exchange hands. He’d made the call, knowing he couldn’t let it slide as an officer of the law, and then concealed the real reason for his concern.

Kieran hadn’t expected backup to take him seriously and storm the premises twenty minutes after he’d hung up.

They never would again, he knew, turning to face their scrutiny. Not when they saw him in this getup and nearly fell over in gales of laughter.

Still, the leather pants didn’t keep him from doing his job and doing it well. He processed the humans selling ecstasy and interviewed several other patrons who were unsurprisingly closed-lipped on a number of matters. He did it among the screeching hoots of his fellow cops and his rising terror when no one could find his fairy.

Finally, when he completed the last interview, he decided it was well past time to lose his shit.

“What’s the matter, Shanahan? You misplace your feather boa somewhere?” Pembroke snickered and he and a lower-ranking officer fist-bumped each other.

“No, something infinitely more precious,” Kieran muttered. “And it’s time to find her.”

She couldn’t have gotten far in those shoes.

He searched the room again before stepping over the slight barrier between two rooms, his sixth sense screaming at him that he’d missed something.

But what?

“Illaria!”

His call echoed in the cavernous room, bouncing back at him by way of the tunnel. It extended away from the main area of the underground club and Kieran stifled a swell of claustrophobia when it seemed like the dirt was closing in on him.

He heard nothing, smelled nothing to draw him in any particular direction, and had taken four steps toward the tunnel when something stopped him. A nebulous feeling urging him to turn around. Okay, he could work with that.

Closing his eyes, he placed his hands against cool earth. Searching for discrepancies when his gut told him to probe further.

“Illaria, where are you?”

He walked the length of the room, keeping his palm flat on the wall and stopping only when his fingers slid through the dirt. Okay, something definitely crazy going on here. His sixth sense stilled inside of him. A psychological bull’s-eye.

Calling for assistance, Kieran put his fist through the dirt, surprised when it slid through easily.

Two uniformed officers joined him and together they cleared enough space for him to see the small room on the other side. To see Illaria strapped to a chair and screaming her head off.

Sound returned to him in a snap and he knew something magical had kept him from hearing her before.

“Oh, thank God!”

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