Page 19 of Forever Found

“I’ll come, too,” Lyndsey added. “Let me get my shoes and a jacket.”

When she returned to the living room, she also had her camera strapped over her shoulder. David was waiting, holding open the door for her. He gave her a stern look when he saw the camera.

She shrugged. “It’s what I do.”

He sighed.

Justin dropped a set of cages at the door.

David carried the birdcages out to the Silverado, then set them in the flatbed. “You can ride with me,” he said to Lyndsey. Justin loaded several cages into Solis’s SUV, which he had borrowed since he’d left his at home.

“Okay.” She trailed him to his truck, then climbed in.

They followed Justin as he pulled out of the driveway. Along the way, they passed several vehicles, all seeming to head the same direction they were. “There’s a lot of people out this morning.”

“Word has spread, and people are coming out to help.”

“That’s nice.”

When they arrived, Lyndsey looked around in awe. Solis’s place was an animal refuge made up of oversized pens to separate and protect the animals, yet not to confine them. It was a bigger operation than Lyndsey had imagined. Solis took in injured and stranded animals of all sorts.

David parked his truck, climbed out, and grabbed the cages from the bed. “What happened?” he asked Solis.

Smoothing her riot of red hair back with both hands, she took a huge breath. “The pens were opened. Someone did this intentionally,” she said, her voice flustered, angry, and hurt.

“I may have a suspect on that.” David nodded at Val, who had just walked up. “I’ll explain when we’re finished.”

Did he mean the demon?

With a nod, Val grabbed a cage.

“I’m most worried about the big cats,” Solis explained. “There’s a jaguar—not native to the area—but someone got it as a kitten and couldn’t keep it when she got too big. And then there’s a mountain lion. I’ve already lost four animals to the two cats. They’re in panic mode.” She dipped her head at Val. “I have tranquilizers if we need them.”

“Good,” Val said.

She glanced at the group, then drew David and Val aside. Lyndsey strained to hear as Solis spoke. “What if you approached them by air? Maybe you could herd them back into a secure area, and we would handle it on land from there?”

David nodded his agreement. He turned to Lyndsey. “I’ll be back shortly. While I’m gone, you stay with the group, understand? Don’t go off by yourself.”

“All right.” She touched his shoulder, wanting to tell him to be careful, but she held back. They didn’t have any sort of real relationship, but she knew she was growing closer to him already, that the bond between them was strengthening.

Along with the other volunteers, she watched the two men head to the backyard. David opened wings that were suddenly visible to her—he possessed the ability to hide them—and took off in flight. She had been watching David, so she missed seeing Val change into his dragon form. The next thing she knew, Val and David were doing air acrobatics over the animal compound. They circled several times. David pointed, shouting at Val. They worked well as a team, flying low and chasing the jaguar across the vast yard, right toward Solis and the enclosures.

David could follow the jaguar right to the ground, then run along after it. His wings acted like a broom, pushing it into the penned area. Solis shut the gate. “One more to go,” she shouted.

* * *

David took off again to meet up with Val in the air. The mountain lion would be more difficult to spot than the jaguar; its coloring would blend in with the terrain. But with the snow on the ground, it was easy to follow the animal tracks. He signaled Val to crisscross over the area. There was only a small section of woods. Perhaps the cat had hidden there.

He dropped to the ground, going on foot into the trees and brush. Val would continue searching above. When there were open spots, David flew through the trees until they were too close together to navigate, then he’d walk again.

He approached the center of the thatch of trees, and that was when David spotted him—the demon Caleb sitting on a large slab of granite, the mountain lion at his side. He stroked the big cat from its ears to its shoulders. “Lose something?” Caleb sneered.

“Go back to Hell,” David said.

“You know, I’ve been trying to do just that. Unlike most people, it suits me.” His gaze darkened even more. “But thanks to you, I got sent to Purgatory instead.”

David folded his wings against his back. “Anything I can do to help expedite your return trip?”