Page 10 of Bishop's Flight
“Cool.” Lee tucked Lucas’s laptop under his arm. “How much time are we working with here?”
“Four days.” Brigid never took her eyes off the books. “This kid is obsessed with Japanese animation.”
“His mom’s Japanese, right?”
“I believe Miss Wong is Chinese,” Carwyn said. “Lots of kids love manga.”
Brigid scanned his books. “He also loves chess.”
Lee leaned against the doorjamb. “So the life of the party for a high school kid, huh?”
“It’s hard to tell.” Carwyn noticed most of Lucas’s clothes were casual. He wore very few dress clothes except for three obvious suits that hung in garment bags and had probably been purchased by his adoptive mothers for formal events. He stepped out of the closet. “Brigid, do we know if there’s a vampire-friendly school in the area?”
“No, I checked. Not enough permanent residents. The few immortal families in the area tend to use private tutors.”
Carwyn nodded. “The little girl has a private tutor, yes?”
Lee pointed at the wall. “The kid’s got stuff from a high school here though.”
“It could be they gave him the choice when he was old enough to be trusted.” Carwyn was guessing isolation wouldn’t be something the average teenage boy would choose.
Lee wandered over to a corkboard filled with notes, a couple of pictures, and some papers that appeared to be school certificates. “Captain of the chess club. Awards for math league. Looks like he was active. He probably wouldn’t have been popular, but—”
“He might’ve had a core group of friends at the school who’d know more about his life,” Brigid said. “We might need you to go to the school and find out.”
Lee blinked. “You want a thirty-year-old man to hang around a high school and talk to kids who don’t know me about their missing friend who hasn’t officially been reported missing? Do you know teenagers? Or cops?”
“Right. Feck.” Brigid frowned. “Focus on the computer, I’ll figure out how to contact his friends. He’s fifteen and probably lives on his phone. Text messages, location trackers, anything that might be backed up to the network or the server or the…” She waved a hand. “Clouds or something.”
Lee smiled indulgently. “You’re so funny when you try to speak technology.” He turned to go. “I’ll crack it. Is it really that important though? They know who took the kid, right?”
“We know who took the lad,” Carwyn said, “but finding out where he was taken might give us a clue to where he is, and in order to know where he was taken, we need to track his movements, and in order to do that—”
“Got it.” Lee waved at Carwyn. “I’ll get on it, boss.”
Lee left the room, and Brigid sat on the edge of the bed, flipping through a notebook that looked like it was full of sketches like the posters on his walls.
Carwyn turned in a circle, staring at the jumbled detritus of an active teenager.
Proof of life.
Lucas O’Hara’s proof of life was all around him. Despite being raised by two vampires, he’d had a full and active childhood. There were pictures and notebooks, evidence of friends and school activities.
And this seemingly happy, active child had been caught in the cross fire of a simmering battle he had nothing to do with.
“Lee’s right,” Brigid muttered.
“About your ignorance of technology? Yes, but don’t take it personally. I still find automobiles jarring at times.” He walked to Lucas’s desk and sat in the chair, which groaned under his weight.
“No. We know who took the boy, and we know what to do to get him back.” She kept her voice low. “Should we be pressuring Agnes and Rose to leave their city and get their kid back?”
Carwyn turned. “Do you actually think that Zasha Sokholov will leave that child alive, no matter what the boy’s mothers choose?”
Brigid’s face was stone. “No.”
It was a truth that no one wanted to say aloud. Unless they found Lucas, the boy would die. Handing over the city would mean nothing. The moment Zasha Sokholov obtained control, Agnes, Rose, and their children would be fair game.
“This vampire does not play by any accepted rules of engagement. They backed human hunts in Northern California. They encouraged Lee’s abuse in New Orleans and attempted to undermine Marie-Hélène’s rule. They’ve attacked vampire rulers across the United States and overseas and broken taboo after taboo. They don’t respect aegis of territorial loyalty.”
