Page 35 of Bad Moon Rising
“It’s not like any of them want it public knowledge.” He took a swig of beer. “Maybe you want to write me in on one of your adventures. You’d save me the stress of the quarterly European gathering in a few days where I have to doll up so one of the two or three available females there might find me to be a suitable mate.”
Roman had despised those events. The men in suits and the women in corseted gowns all doing polite dancing with as little touching as possible while family heads discussed power matings.
Colin said, “You have no idea how lucky you are to be able to avoid that nightmare. The posturing, the testosterone… It’s revolting, more so since not a single one of those females can actually choose who they find attractive. It’s all about males and power alliances. Mark my words, those females are far more cunning than the pawns we make them out to be. So, one of them being abducted is disturbing on multiple levels. Someone is stealing our ability to reproduce and taking the shrewdest of our kind.” He waved his cup dismissively. “Maybe you found one of the lost ones. Tell me about her. I’ll let you know if she’s one someone’s looking for.”
“She’s not that old. Maybe fifty. She’s got magic marks on her neck.”
Colin eyebrows drew low at the comment about marks. “Is she pureblood or part human or part something else?”
“Not a mix.”
Colin emptied his pint and stared. “A missing female with magic marks. She’s not one I was contacted about as missing.”
Roman’s heart raced. He knew something.
They stared at each other in silence for a few moments.
“I want to help her find her people.” He placed a small box on the table.
With eyebrows up in question at his offering, Roman opened the box for a second to flash the two white pills inside. He slid the box between them.
“I’m not saying I know who she is.” Colin fingered the lid of the box and slid it his way. “Are those what I think they are? Are they genuine?”
“I bought it off a witch in Indonesia who had access to the last of thePapaver flavoplant before it was wiped from the planet by the Council. One will knock you out for twenty-four hours. You might wake up with a hangover, but it’ll keep you from getting shot or arrested for doing something stupid on the full moon night. There’s enough in there for two full moons.” The pills were black market. Rare. The Council eradicated them two decades ago since the last thing it wanted was a drug on the open market that could be hidden in food or drink and knock lycans out at random.
“You gonna finish that?” Colin nodded at Roman’s pint.
Roman shook his head.
Colin put his hand over the box to hide it from view. “Damn shame to waste good brew.” Colin grabbed the glass and drained it. He scratched his hair under his tatty Sheffield Football Club cap. “There was a family from Scotland who dabbled in magical things. Both their daughters disappeared years ago.” He shut his eyes as if trying to remember. “They never contacted me, but I heard rumors from someone else because the girls’ parents were caught by the Council for using magic. I think they were executed and their children were never found.”
“Give me a last name.”
“Kinley.” Colin opened the box for one last look at the pills before thrusting it into his jacket pocket. “I also have an address.”
Chapter Nine
Nova bit into a chocolate cookie, its gooey center coating her tongue. She groaned in bliss. She rounded the street corner back to the flat where Roman had dropped her off over five hours ago. Since he obviously spent no time at the second floor two-room flat, she’d found little more than a single tin of old crackers and some ancient tea in the cabinets. Turned out she despised tea, especially the herbal green stuff she found. But she had discovered a wad of cash and a key to the front door in one of the drawers.
Roman told her not to go outside until he returned, which she interpreted as more of a suggestion than an order. A few hours later, afraid her stomach was going to start digesting itself, she ventured out to find food. A half hour in the small store around the corner that sold essentials and she emerged with a slew of food to sample.
A hand banded around her chest. Her grocery bag hit the ground. A large man—human based on the stench of sweat and recently consumed curry—pulled her tight to his thick chest. He plunged a needle into her thigh. She shrieked at its burn.
On instinct, she threw her head back, connecting with her would-be abductor’s nose.Crack.
He released. She whirled, swiped her bag off the ground and sprinted.Not leaving the food.
The world blurred a few yards from the front door to the apartment building.
No, no, no. Get inside.
Her knees wobbled and hit the ground.
…
Darkness. Nova couldn’t move her hands or legs. A small plastic band locked her wrists together, a zip tie. A few solid tugs at the restraints did little more than dig the ties into her skin. Her prison jerked, the movement flinging her across the empty metal floor of what she assumed to be a small truck. The driver was partitioned away by windowless metal.
Roman would be furious with her when he found out she’d been abducted. Hell, he’d be mad she left to begin with.
