Page 95 of The Magic of Revenge
"He's in there. Oh gods, he couldn't find her," Miranda sobbed and I caught her just as her knees gave out.
Bagheera and Faris finally appeared, the small mouse on Bagheera's back looking like he'd been windblown on the ride over. Then Kai was towering above me as I sat on the sidewalk with a shaking Miranda. Faris handed him some shorts and he slipped them on quickly as Bram ran up.
"What's going on?" Kai barked, ready to receive orders.
"Khol's inside. The storm is already doing its job. The fire is slowly burning out." Bram explained, his body coiled tight and ready for action. I looked up at him and lifted a brow, silently askingdid they find the girl?He shook his head. Fuck.
A few minutes later while we waited for the rain to tame the flames, Fischer rolled up in the SUV, hopping out and jogging over to us. "I'm gonna head in there, if anyone is still inside I'll be able to sense them. Kai, you should come too. Let's go." Fish took off for the house without waiting for anyone to move, so Kai shifted and tore after him.
"I'm going in too. I can spray down any of the remaining flames," I said, hugging Miranda quickly and then hopping up.
"Be careful," she called out as I entered the house.
Smoke was thick and it burned my eyes, but I created a barrier of water beneath my feet and around me so that I wouldn't get burned by any wayward flames. I let water fly out of my palms and doused several small fires that were still going. Moving from room to room downstairs, I focused on putting out flames and kept an eye out for the girl. Movement overhead told me the guys were hard at work, too.
‘Cam, there’s nobody up here. The roof is gone from the back of the house. The rain is doing its job, keep it up. Kohl is heading your way,’Fischer informed me via his telepathic abilities.
When Khol appeared through the smoke, I waved him over. His clothing was singed and his hair spiked up like he’d run his hands through it a hundred times. Shit, he probably had.
"Annie isn't here, Cam. Gods damn it!" he roared, kicking an end table that was three quarters of the way destroyed.
"Fuck. You think Asrael is behind this?" I asked, but I already knew the answer. Of course he was.
"I'm going to gut him like I should have done years ago," Khol vowed, his horns elongating and corkscrewing in a truly terrifying look. His body seemed to vibrate with fury and I swear his form grew an extra three inches. Scary fucker.
"The house is a lost cause—let's get out of here before it collapses. We can go over plans outside where we can actually fucking breathe." I stepped over the table he'd kicked but stopped when I saw a sketchbook. The top of it looked a bit singed, but it might be salvageable for Annie. I had no question that we would get her back, but when we did, everything she owned would be gone. The least I could do was save one of her drawing books, so I tucked it under my arm to keep it from further damage.
Bagheera and Fischer raced past us, headed for the exit. Seeing their urgency, we ran after them, just in time too because one side of the house collapsed as we burst out into the night.
"Fuck, that was close," Kai panted, having returned to his mage form. We all gathered around on the sidewalk.
“What do you know, Sir?” Fischer asked Khol. Old habits died hard. I saw that Khol had put away his demon features. That was probably good; the town would be scared shitless if they saw him like he'd been inside.
“I got a call from one of the agents I’d assigned here earlier. Saige had told me about the file you found.” He looked at Kai. “Someone got the drop on my team. I still don’t know all the details on that. I immediately jumped here and the house was burning. The first thing I did was check Annie’s room but it was empty. Being able to jump allowed me to evade the flames, thank fuck. The heat was unbearable. When I popped into Miranda’s bedroom, I found her face down on the floor. The smoke was too thick and unforgiving for her to make it out on her own.” Khol was furious; I knew firsthand that the man did not fucking appreciate failure.
“I grabbed her and got us both outside. When she realized her daughter wasn’t with us, she tried to run back inside. That obviously wasn’t happening, so I tried to restrain her and she kneed me in the balls.”
Kai’s eyes nearly bugged out at that and he shot a glance over to Bram who had the same stunned expression.Miranda is a beast.
“That was when I got Miranda to call you guys. It was fucking mayhem and the fire was spreading so quickly that it’s a miracle I was even able to get to her in time. Another minute or two up there and she wouldn’t be over there glaring at me right now. That’s pretty much it,” he sighed. "I'm going to talk to her before she kills me with her eye daggers."
Faris and Bram joined us as Khol pulled Miranda into his arms. She didn't go willingly. She fought him like a wildcat, trying to escape him and run for the house. Taking the brunt of her rage, he allowed her to hit him, her small fists pummelling his chest until she just... ran out of steam. When she broke down sobbing, he scooped her up and walked down the street with her. First responders ran after him, yelling about needing to ask questions, but when he turned around and full out growled at them, they backed the fuck off.
"I didn't sense anyone," Fish said, his face red. Whether that was from the heat or feeling murderous, I couldn't be sure. Probably both.
"Has anyone heard from Goldie or Sloane?" Bram asked and we all checked our phones. Nobody had any messages or calls.
"Hopefully, they're getting some rest," Fischer said, his eyes fixed on the smoking house.
"Let's talk to the officers over there. We'll see what they know, tell them what we know and then head home. There's not much else we can do tonight." It pissed me off, this feeling of hopelessness. The fact that Asrael had once again tried to murder someone's parent so he could kidnap their child. It might have worked too if it hadn't been for the team Khol had assigned to watch her house. They must’ve sprung to action at the first spark, otherwise, the house would already be a pile of ash, but unfortunately, someone had managed to get past them to grab the girl.
Over the next hour, I contributed to the firefighting efforts so it didn’t spread to neighboring homes, while the guys talked with the other agents and personnel. They made a point not to say anything about Asrael while they canvassed the scene. That was basic Spy 101. With the web of treachery becoming more tangled, knowing who to trust with what information was nearly impossible. Miranda would have to decide what route she wanted to take, it was her daughter. I knew Khol would guide her and do everything in his power to get Annie back. It was obvious to anyone with eyes the way he looked at Miranda.
I fired off a text to Sloane telling him we were heading back. I'd save the details for a face to face talk. Saige was going to be devastated. Annie was kind of like her niece and I knew how much she loved her. Khol called and said Miranda was going to be staying with him in the apartment above the shop. He didn't want her out of his sight until we had more details about what had gone down. It was pure luck that the WISP agents had just gotten to town to apprehend Laurie when the fire had started. I spoke with their team lead and she assured me they'd be by as soon as possible to take Laurie into custody.
There wasn't much else to do after that, so the five of us piled into the SUV and took off for the cottage.
"I have a bad feeling," Kai and Bram both said at the same time, and the air in the vehicle shifted.
