On the drive over to the estate where Jeris and Cerise were putting up a ward, I called and filled in Scott.

  Scott said, “Aria, are you sure about this?”

  I replied, “Of course, if we don’t find him, we don’t get paid.”

  Scott snickered, “Seriously.”

  I said, “I’m not sure we can trust the cops on this. Most of them yes, but it’s bound to leak to the one or two bad ones on the mob payroll. Would you mind getting the FBI involved, or maybe the Marshall service. I wouldn’t bet on him living for ten minutes if he’s put in general lockup, not if organized crime is involved. We’re also very sure about it, to answer your question, there’s no way Hannah wouldn’t have sniffed out a lie, the guy is clean, and their kid is missing. Just… hold off until we have them both in hand, if the cops get wind of what we’re up to, it will get back to whoever is holding them.”

  It was a weird thing, it was usually a struggle not to use deadly force against a skip, because they were crazy and violent for the most part. I’d never felt protective about a skip target before, but after seeing that house, and the love, insane worry, and desperate hope in Rachel’s eyes, I really wanted to save him.

  I tried to steel myself, he was probably dead already, and we’d know soon enough. I also needed to bury my compassion, to stay frosty, emotions kill in my line of work.

  Scott said, “Alright, I’ll hold off, but call me as soon as you have him in custody. I’ll get the FBI to look at the case, and I’ll get some Marshalls to put him in protective custody. Don’t turn him over to anyone else.”

  “Will do. We’ll take him back to our building. Got to go, we’re here.”

  He said goodbye, and we hung up.

  Lisa stopped the car, and we got out.

  “You okay?”

  I shrugged, “Fine. Let’s just get it done.”

  We walked up to the house, the only songs I heard were Jeris and Cerise. The family must be out for the day, which made sense. They couldn’t be in the house while the wards went up. We waited another ten minutes, until I felt Jeris’s magic finish the wards. It was still strange at times to feel magic so clearly now when I’d been blind to it most my life.

  We walked in and I led us right to them, following their song. They were of course, in the exact center of the house, which turned out to be a study. The place was pretty nice, wood furniture and floor, with several book cases filled with books and knickknacks.

  “What’s going on?” Cerise asked.

  I took out the bags, and I held them toward Jeris.

  “We need to locate these people, if they’re still alive.”

  I gave them a short version of our morning, too impatient to go into details.

  Jeris did them one at a time. A mage’s spell for scrying was a lot longer and more involved than what I could do, but it didn’t take too long, a couple of minutes or so.

  “They’re both alive, although your skip looks pretty beat up. The kid is tied up and blindfolded, but otherwise looks unharmed. They’re in the basement of a house across town. There are six men there, well-armed. I can’t tell if they’re human or not.”

  I was both surprised and relieved… and confused. I’d been hopeful, but them being alive didn’t really make a lot of sense to me.

  Cerise asked, “Do you two want help?”

  Lisa asked, “How long until the next job?”

  Cerise answered, “Not until after lunch.”

  Lisa shrugged, “We can handle it, but if you want to come, more the merrier.”

  Jeris said, “I’d love to do something besides wards, and people that kidnap children deserve to die, but I need to rest. Wards take a lot out of me, plus the scrying.”

  His comment hung there for a moment.

  Cerise smirked, “You can wait in the car, while the women take care of business.”

  Jeris chuckled, “Fine, let’s go. But let’s call it taking the lookout position.”

  We headed back to the cars, and then started across town.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  We passed under Galen, and I felt his insanely powerful magical aura. I was thankful for the necklace, but it was obvious he was looking for something. He was flying in tight circles, and slowly moving across the city in a search pattern.

  I’d have to try and contact Theo later, could he have left some kind of detection spell in the city, was he back because of my use of magic the other day? It seemed like a farfetched idea, both because it was three days ago so why did it take so long for him to get here, and because I hadn’t felt any kind of air detection ward over the city.

  Still, it seemed very unlikely he was back here for anything else. I pushed that all down in my mind, I needed to deal with the skip, and the local mob first, then I could worry about Galen being here. As long as I didn’t use magic it shouldn’t be an issue.

  We pulled over to the side of the road. It was a nice middle-upper class neighborhood, with large four and five-bedroom houses, bright green laws all perfectly landscaped. Our target house was a light gray, or dark tan, and about five houses down. I heard eight songs, two of them mages, the other six were human. Four were upstairs, and two were down in the basement.

  I passed the information on, and asked, “What’s the plan? It shouldn’t be hard to take them out, not for three of us, but we’ll be walking into a hostage situation by the time we take out the four and get to the basement.”

  Lisa said, “I’ll go in through a basement window, while you two breach from the front and back doors. I’ll take the two in the basement, while you make sure those four go down before retreating to the basement.”

  Cerise said, “I’ll take the back door, and stick in the kitchen to guard the stairs down to the basement.”

  I nodded, “I’ll go through the front loud, and drive them your way. They’re humans, but they’re not stupid, and probably have silver loads, so be careful.”

  That went for me too, now that I was a shifter. Of course, silver bullets being deadly to me was nothing really new, they were deadly to me before that as well, when I was just a siren without healing. Getting shot was bad, and anyone getting hit in the brain pan was death.

  I added over the comms, “We should probably use the new rubber bullets, I assume they’re safe on humans?”

  Tony replied over the comms, “I think so.”

  Lisa smirked, “Couldn’t think of a better bunch of people to test it on.”

  “Jeris, as soon as we breech, call the police. We need them involved, but not soon enough to tip off our targets. Someone needs to take out the trash after we put them down, and humans aren’t in our bailiwick.”

  “Understood.”

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  We weren’t subtle and didn’t try to sneak, it was too open, but we were all fast. I was at the front door in just a few seconds, but I waited for my count to reach ten before kicking in the door. At the same time, I heard Lisa dive into the basement through a window, shattering the glass, while Cerise breeched the back door a lot more quietly.

  “Freeze!” I demanded.

  There were two men in the living room, who both went for their guns. I shot them both before they even got close to drawing on me, and smirked as they fell to the ground, they lost control of their muscles as they shook and screamed, then fell unconscious. At the same time, I heard two shots from the basement.

  I also scented piss.

  Tony so deserved a raise, or maybe a blow job, but now wasn’t the time to even think about that. Yes, his bullet invention turned me on, I wasn’t seriously considering a blow job for a work bonus, it was just one of those random appealing thoughts.

  I moved quickly in a crouch around the corner to the open dining room, just in time to see the two men run toward the back of the house. The one was behind the other, and I didn’t have a clear shot at both. I dodged slightly as the one in the back shot two rounds in my direction, but his aim was for shit and I didn’t even have to dodge, it’d just been reflex. I shot him in the back, and a moment later the second one was shot by Cerise.

  Cerise sighed, “Not fair, you took three.”

  I laughed, “Restrain them.”

  I went back to the living room, and removed their weapons and zip tied them, while Cerise did the same for the other two.

  “Clear upstairs,” I said over the comms.

  Lisa said, “Down here too, I’m coming up with David and his son, new plan, he needs medical attention badly.”

  I frowned, as a water dragon I should be able to heal him, but I couldn’t risk it. Of course, that wasn’t the only side of myself that could help. When they came up, Lisa had him in her arms, and the young boy followed with a scared but determined look on his face. His song was in bad shape, and he wasn’t conscious.

  I sang, and my siren song reached out into the mage’s body, adjusting some of his notes, promoting health and healing. I couldn’t do much, only increase his natural healing speed, and more importantly, stabilize him so he’d make it to the hospital.

  When I finished, I blushed at the way Cerise was looking at me.

  She grinned, “That was beautiful boss.”

  I smiled, “Thanks. Hospital?”

  Lisa nodded, “Faster than waiting for EMS, and you can keep him stable better anyway,” she turned to Cerise, “You and Jeris stay here, and turn these goons over to the cops. We’ll get him to the hospital, it will also prevent a confrontation, the cops would want to take Mr. Stanton off our hands.”

  We headed outside, and got them both buckled in. The kid looked worried, and I smiled at him reassuringly, “He’ll be fine.”

  I pulled out my phone and made two quick calls on the way. One to Rachel, to let her know what hospital to go to, and that her son was fine. The second to Agent Scott Javier, to get the ball rolling on the FBI and Marshalls.

  We passed under the air dragon again, I still had no clue how to deal with it, except to not use magic and hope he went away. Which, was a horrible plan. I also didn’t feel safe contacting Theo through the amulet, not until we were back under our wards anyway.

  Lisa drove quickly to the hospital, and it wasn’t long before she pulled up to the ER entrance, where the ambulances came in.

  A security guard came out, while we were getting him out of the car and into a wheelchair.

  “You can’t use this entrance.”

  I flashed my badge, “This man is in my custody, and needs medical attention now.”

  He really didn’t look good, multiple contusions, cuts, abrasions, and there was a lot of swelling on his face. He’d been put through the ringer. I wondered why they were alive, but in the end, it didn’t matter what the mob’s reasons had been, that was up to the FBI to figure out. I just needed to worry about keeping him safe and turning him over to the Marshalls when they arrived.

  I’d just have to be glad they hadn’t killed him, for whatever reason.

  The security guard grunted, “This way.”

  He led us into the ER, and over to a small walled room, instead of one of the open rooms that were just draped for privacy.

  “Is he dangerous?”

  “No,” I said, “But there are dangerous people that really don’t want him talking.”

  A doctor came in, “You can’t be in here.”

  Lisa growled, “Fix him, now. I’ll wait in the waiting room with Carson, and to meet his mother, you stay here,” she said to me.

  I nodded, and then stood against the wall.

  The doctor acted put upon, but I let it go since he called in a nurse, and he started to examine David.

  It was going to be a long day…

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  It wasn’t that bad, a Marshall showed up about two hours later, and officially took custody off my hands. My fears that a cop would show up and start a pissing contest went unrealized. I’d already done my reports on the phone app, so I’d even put the time to good use. Rachel had arrived long before then, and had her son back, and her husband too, sort of. She’d been very grateful, so much so that she even managed a genuine smile in my direction. Hopefully it would work out, but our part in it was done, and we headed back to the office.

  As soon as I got in my office, I closed the door.

  “Theo. Can you call me? We might have a problem.”

  My father had said he’d only hear me or listen if I said his name, it would trigger the magic. That was verified as I had to pretty much fill him in on the last few day’s events after he called. He had no clue what was going on.

  Theo replied, “I don’t know how an air dragon’s magic works, only that they’re the best hunters. That was a foolish risk you took, and it probably did trip some ward he placed over the city. It would explain why he was only there for a day, to set traps. As for the three days it took him to return, he could have been tied up in Austin, he was reported in that area. I’ve heard rumors they have been trying to mate for years, and him leaving right away would have started a fight if that was true.”

  That was… interesting. It took three days because Galen was fucking the female earth dragon in Austin? Dragon courting must be dangerous. Did that mean he caught me being loud with my magic, as I struggled to break thought the ward while scrying, or would the air dragon’s magic sense even my subtler magic, like using water vapor in a fight to see?

  “So, what should I do, just lie low and never use magic again?”

  Theo grumbled, “Yes! Obviously, you can do so safely underneath your warded building, but it’s too much of a risk out in the open.”

  I sighed, “You really don’t think they’d leave me be if I promised not to breed? We’re both innocent in this, and the one to blame, my mother, is already dead.”

  Theo sighed, “I know it isn’t easy, but no. It might work for some, maybe even more than half, but as I’ve explained before, there are no dragon laws, or council, everything is done by tradition and agreement because of a turbulent and dangerous time in our history. Otherwise we do whatever the hell we want, because who’s going to stop us? I know Galen, and he’s a dick. Half-dragons are dangerous prey, at least when you’re older you will be, he won’t want to give up the thrill of that hunt. Never forget that, to him you’re a challenge he hasn’t seen in centuries, and he sees you as an abomination, something less than him. A lot of dragons will see you that way.”

  Just… fantastic, bigoted assholes.

  He paused for a moment, and then added, “My advice is lay low, he’s scanning the city for a water dragon’s magical signature or spell work, with the necklace he won’t find you, and he’ll move on in a day or two.”

  “You sound sure of that.”

  Theo said, “There’s no way a water dragon can hide from an air dragon, not without the help of a fire dragon. He’ll assume you were there, but that you’ve moved on. He’s probably also pissed that he couldn’t get away for three days, I hoped it ruined the mating for him.”

  I laughed, “What if I made myself too much trouble to bother with?”

  Theo growled, “What is that supposed to mean?”

  What did that mean? I wanted to kick his ass is what it meant, but that was ridiculous. Like a baby threatening a full-grown man.

  “I don’t know, I’m just tired of hiding, the thought of doing it for another thousand years is depressing.”

  Theo said, “Better than being dead, my daughter. Let it go, enjoy your life. At least, wait until you’re at full power before rocking the boat, but even then I’d prefer it if you didn’t. It won’t end well if you do. Nothing but misery and death lies on that path.”

  I sighed, I knew I should let it go, but it bothered me. A lot.

  There was a knock at my door, Tony’s song was right outside.

  “Alright, thanks dad.”

  Theo said, “Take care. I wish we could be closer, but it’s safer for both of us if I stay away.”

  “I understand, bye Theo.”

  We hung up.

  “Come in.”

  The door opened, and Tony slipped inside. I smiled brightly.

  “Love the new bullets.”

  Tony grinned, “Good. I’ll let you know if I figure out how to make them effective against vampires. I just read the report you filed, crazy.”

  I smirked, “So what do you need?”

  He looked good with a smile, and really was cute. I ignored the urge to give him that bonus. I wouldn’t really do that, but those are just the kinds of thoughts I needed to dismiss during my day. It wasn’t so bad with the men on the street that looked at me, but the ones I saw often that wanted me, my nature kind of worked that way.

  I wasn’t really tempted, no more than a random thought, plus Lisa would kill me, at least she would if she wasn’t here to watch. Damn, but I was more tempted to suck his dick in that moment than I was really comfortable with.

  I smiled wider at the thought of Lisa watching, perhaps announcing his work award, and shaking his hand in congratulations as I took him deep in my... damn it, down girl.

  Tony shrugged, “Nothing really.”

  I tilted my head, “Nothing?”

  Damn, had that come out too sultry?

  He cleared his throat, “Just wanted to check in, see if you needed anything. I could have called, but with the compulsion I thought in person would work, and to test it more. I’m babbling,” he blushed.

  It was cute, but I ignored his nervousness. I was excited about the whole experiment as well, even if it didn’t work out to the point where Lisa and I lured him to our bed, I was still excited about the possibilities. I’d never had all that many friends, and Tony was at least the type of person I’d like for a friend. If that’s as far as it went, I’d still be thrilled. Though, friends with benefits for my needs would be better.

  I ignored the fact I was moistening under his half shy and half confident gaze.

  “Have you had lunch? Hannah and I were stuck at the hospital.”

  It was almost one thirty.

  He shook his head, “What did you have in mind?”

  Him under my desk, or me on my knees? Bad siren…

  “Umm, let’s get Lisa, how about Italian?”