Page 5 of Monsters in Love

Another message chimes through with text this time.

Karis!!! Found the picture from Parents’ Day! Adding it to the church family directory, so if you hate it, speak now or forever hold your peace!

A picture arrives next, and what I see there steals my breath. Three people stand together, an older couple who frame a young woman. Based on their respective coloring and physical traits, the couple is not biologically related to the younger female, and yet this Mom refers to this moment as being from “Parents Day” and will submit the image among a family directory.

Tag’s voice interrupts my reverie. “Is everything all right, sir?”

It takes strength of will to tear my gaze from the female to meet my second’s. “Whoever took Adalyn also took this young lady. I am positive.” I hold the image out to Tag, who studies it. “The poachers had a very successful moment indeed.”

An urge to punch Tag in the face ripples over me when it seems like he is taking a little too long studying the woman named Karis. I shake my head to clear it. “They must be celebrating their victory right now.”

Tag scoffs. “Let them celebrate. They will have their guard down. When we find them, they will regret the day they ever touched these females.”

“Indeed,” I say. The promise of blood rang in my ears.

I swipe at the image. The picture shifts as if on a carousel and I’m startled to see that there is an image of Adalyn. There is a stricken look on her face as she sees a male I recognize too well.

I shove the phone at Tag. “I know where they are. I’d suspected who might have taken her, based on the pheromones, but now I know.”

A violent snarl rips from Tag’s mouth when he sees who has Adalyn.

I take the phone from him and tuck it into my breast pocket. I place the other personal items found around the scene into the bag, which I sling over my arm. Karis will want these.

“We’re on the move,” I tell the forensic lead investigator, trusting them to wrap things up discreetly here as I head toward the nearest transport portal. Tag falls in line beside me.

“At most they have a thirty-minute lead,” Tag says. “Realistically, closer to about fifteen minutes.”

“We all know what can happen and how quickly they can disappear in that hellhole, even within one minute.” We need to get them back. Fast. “Contact your team, and tell them to meet us at the Minotaur’s Labyrinth.”

Karis

The covering over my head is scratchy and smells. It reeks of the sweat and tears from previous prisoners. Or maybe I’m projecting.

I try not to think of just how many heads this cloth has covered.

I still can’t speak. Whatever muscle stunner my abductors used on me affected my tongue as well. Just as well, I talk way too much when I’m nervous.

Right now, I’m plenty nervous.

I don’t know why they bother with a head covering since they did something to my eyes, so I can just barely see anything past a black haze. It’s as if I’m trying to see through a tinted car window.

It does nothing to curtail the sounds I’ve heard, though. It’s what I expect from people who have been kidnapped. A lot of crying, a lot of whispers, all kinds of torment.

And the worst part is that they all sound female. I can’t pinpoint Adalyn’s voice though, so I have to hope that she is the one that huddles close to me.

I wish I could speak to her. The way others are crying and whining, I should be able to verbalize something however, my body is still frozen.

“Karis, is this you?” Adalyn’s soft voice carries through my hood.

Well, that answers my question on her location. I can’t respond, so I try my best to nudge her shoulder.

“I hope it’s you. Don’t be afraid help is coming. I know it is.”

I don’t know what to believe, since the very idea of being kidnapped is unreal to me. It’s all supposed to have been a cautionary tale, something out of urban legends. It’s not supposed to have happened in the middle of the day with plenty of onlookers around.

The heavy, plodding steps of boots cut through the sounds of despair. My heart races, knowing that they belong to our captors.

“Someone is coming,’’ Adalyn says.

---