Page 24 of Darius

No one answered. Something was wrong. The man who carried her felt and smelled like a stranger. He was soft where Darius was hard. Mara flailed an arm out, striking flesh.

“Fucking bitch!”

Mara grabbed for anything as she tumbled downward. With a loud creak, she hit a lumpy mattress and bounced upward a scant inch. The metal coils poked her. Those prickles of pain dispersed a bit of the fog rolling through her mind. Her fingers latched onto the fabric under her.

Gasping for breath, Mara struggled to hoist up her heavy eyelids. Why couldn’t she wake up? After a mammoth effort, she peered through a small slit. She saw the back of a blurry figure disappear through a doorway. The click of a lock echoed in the silent room. Her heart pounded as she processed her surroundings.

She wasn’t in her apartment. Dingy, gray walls wrapped closely around the bed where her abductor had dropped her. What was this place? The room looked like a cell. Was she in jail? What had happened?

She tried to move, but her body felt as if her limbs were encased in cement. Terror filled her mind. What was she going to do? Mara could hear her breath coming in quick, gasping pants. The edges of her vision turned black. She was hyperventilating.

Mara concentrated on calming her breathing. If she panicked, she couldn’t figure out how to get out of here. A flicker of contact brushed over her mind. Darius! Everything came through as a mumble—an incomprehensible jigsaw of sounds, but she felt him. Instantly her fright lessened, not vanishing but easing as hope built. Darius would help her.

Her finger popped up from the surface of the bed. She’d moved. Whatever they had given her was losing effectiveness. Lying on the bed, Mara sent Darius message after message, telling him every detail she could.

Chapter

Nine

Darius’s hands froze suddenly and hovered over his keyboard. He felt a growing wrongness weaving into his mind. He rested his palms on the desk to devote his full attention to this concerning sensation, but as he analyzed the feeling closer, the sense of anxiousness and dread only grew in intensity.

An empty space grew inside his mind. A hole that had previously been occupied by…

Mara!

As soon as he spotted the gap, Darius’s mind and body catapulted into action. He jolted upright in his chair as he attempted to trace the faint trails of her presence. All miscellaneous thoughts vanished from his mind as fear and rage bubbled up inside him.

She’s gone!

He grabbed his phone and dialed her number. Regardless of their connection, Mara should have hers. The device rang straight to voicemail. She’d either powered off or had rejected his call.

Darius stood up abruptly and paced across his carpet. His mind raced wildly as scenes of loss played out in rapid-fire succession, threatening to overwhelm him. He could withstand any foe without flinching. Losing Mara or having someone harm her threatened his control.

Stop! He admonished himself, balling his hands into tight fists as he struggled to focus. His brain immediately launched into the sequence he’d relied on for so many years.

Concentrate. Think. Plan. Act.

This process of gathering his thoughts had served him well. His routine would do so now. Mara depended on his thoroughness, on him. He traced back in his memory, recreating the timeline when he’d last sensed her. A sensation of wetness coated his skin, but she didn’t seem threatened by that. A brief rainstorm, perhaps?

He reached out to Bram and the members of his clan. Something has happened to Mara. I don’t know what exactly, but I can’t feel her connection any longer. Bram? Could you hack the cameras in her bank building and the surrounding area? This may seem weird but check the weather.

The computer expert’s calm presence flooded his mind as Bram responded, Will do. Come to my office. I’ll find her.

As Darius headed for the door, Alaric broke into his mind as well. Our clan leaders will meet you there. This is an “all-hands-on-deck” situation. We will leave no stone unturned.

“Stones are the least of their problems if anyone has harmed her,” Darius said under his breath as he made his way to Bram’s office. If someone had succeeded in abducting her, he would tear more than one arm from their body. He slammed the door shut behind him, and the doorframe cracked.

By the time that Marcus, Donovan, Alaric, and Titus had gathered, Darius paced rings around Bram’s office. The large screen attached to the wall showed a looped video of people spilling out of the bank branch where Mara worked. Drenched hair and papers held over heads explained the sprinkler problem. After a delay, Mara exited calmly with her backpack. Twenty minutes later, she passed the front of the building again as she headed for the employee parking lot.

“I don’t have her at your gate, Darius. Do you have any idea where she would go?” Bram asked.

“Check the street cameras in the area. That will help us determine which direction she heads,” Marcus said.

Darius shook his head. His Little girl’s bottom was toast when he found her. If he got her back. He should’ve kept better tabs on her. Darius continued to send messages.

Little girl. I love you. Whatever scared you, let me help. I need to make sure you’re okay. Answer me, Mara.

“East. I’ve got her two blocks from the bank,” Bram said five minutes later.