Page 73 of Kiss of a Hellish Prince
“There you go, little red raven.” Tab smiled at her. “Now, can you please tell me what you and Vivi were doing before she was taken?”
“Yeah,” Evie said, her voice still shaking a little but stronger than it was before. “She and I were in here doing research. She wanted to find out who her father was.”
“What?” I had no idea she had been looking for our father. It hadn’t even occurred to me to do that.
“Yeah, she didn’t want you to know until she found something. But we thought it might be pretty easy since she is an adroit, and Tori’s blood was stronger than many full-blooded demons. We figured he had to be pretty powerful. That, and your hair.”
“What about my hair?” I asked.
“Red hair in Elysian is almost always a sign of fae, but your blood didn’t show fae, only demon. There aren’t many powerful male demons with dark red hair. We thought maybe we could find your father and figure out what other things you and Vivi may have inherited from him,” Evie explained.
“That was brilliant of you both,” Tab said with a smile.
Evie frowned and looked down at Tab.
“I realize I look like a child, but I am also an adroit. Please try to remember I am smarter than you, and I do not appreciate being patronized.”
“My bad.” Tab lifted his hands in surrender. “I apologize, little raven. It won’t happen again. Can you tell us what happened next?”
“We were looking through some books about the Folkvang, and Vivi said she found something. Then her phone went off. She got a text and said she had to see something, and she would be right back. She left, and when she didn’t come back, I went looking for her. I shouldn’t have let her go by herself, but I didn’t think she was leaving.” Evie’s voice started wavering again.
Murmur and Tab both reached out, but she batted their hands away.
“I couldn’t find her anywhere. I tried calling her, but the phone went straight to voice mail. I checked outside to see if maybe she went out to get a little sunshine, but when I got there, there was nothing, but some fresh blood on the concrete.
I clenched my hands together to stop the shaking. I had to take slow deep breaths to stop myself from crumbling on the floor. My baby sister was taken, and she was hurt. I had to stay strong to get her back.
“Is there anything else you can think of?” Tab asked gently.
Evie shook her head.
“Okay, thank you for your help.” Tab turned to Rune. “Now what do we do?”
Rune still looked upset that Tab had inserted himself into demon business, but he nodded.
I had a feeling he and I would be a having a conversation later about Tab, but that was future Tori’s problem. Present Tori needed her baby sister back safely.
“We check the security feed,” Rune said. “There is a camera by the front door.”
Rune led us down the hall past the gym to a section I had never seen before. He opened the door to a tiny room that was probably at one time a generous-sized closet. He eyed Tab for a minute before letting us all in.
The room would have been cramped with just two people; six was ridiculous. There was a desk covered in computer equipment, several monitors mounted to the walls.
It took a few minutes of Rune tapping away on the keyboard to get the right feed on the screen.
The camera was mounted just above the door, showing anyone who walked up or drove up to the front.
I held Sarah’s hand, interlocking our fingers together, needing something to hold on to while we watched the screen.
We saw a big white work van pull up. The logo on the side read West Valley Painters. Then we saw Vivi open the front door and walk out.
Sarah’s fingers tightened around mine, I squeezed right back. We would lend each other strength to get through this.
The van window rolled down. Whoever was in the passenger side was careful not to let their face be seen by the camera.
Vivi talked to that person for several minutes. She knew who they were. She looked casual, comfortable even.
Why didn’t this video have sound?!