Lilly rubbed her temples. "You boys are making my head hurt." She didn't know if it was the programming or what, but her head was hurting her and it wasn't a good thing, at all. "How about we just sit here for a few, and then we will pick the topic back up when the headache has subsided just a bit?"
"Close your eyes, Lilly," Artaxias told her. His hand slipped to her neck and he rubbed at the tight muscles. "Take a deep breath and let it out nice and slow. We've got you babe, we're right here." A blanket settled over her a moment later and was tucked around her tight.
Lilly leaned heavily into Artaxias and felt Gavriel shifting so that he could hold her tighter as well. Sighing, she closed her eyes and yawned, a feeling of rightness settling over her. "Thank you," she whispered very, very quietly to them before she drifted off and into sleep.
Chapter Eleven
"We've got another body," Ax told her. They were in her work space at HQ. "I want you to stay here, love. This one-" He let out a breath. "This one is bad, Lilly. From what we've heard back from the site, there's an even larger tattoo. So I don't want you to get near it until we break down the tattoo into its parts." He moved closer to her and touched her cheek. "Tonight, though, tonight we will mate. Gav got in the last of the blood work and you are free and clear, love."
That had Lilly smiling and leaning into Ax's touch. "Good. I'm so very glad. Not about the body, of course." She shook her head. "But about us. About us all mating and finally coming together. Go. Do what you need to do. I'm just going to sit here and finish with my reports and orders for more materials. I promise I will stay right here." She teased him with a smile.
"Okay then. Gavriel will be by in a little bit. He's stuck in a meeting right now, but he will come and grab you when he's done and take you home. Apparently he has some cockamamie plan to make a meal. Will you please try to keep him from burning down my kitchen? I spent an obscene amount of money getting it just right and I'd hate to have to kill him."
Laughter erupted from her lips, but Lilly nodded. "I will do my utmost to ensure that your kitchen remains standing after the force of nature that is Gavriel. I promise." She just hoped that between her and Gav, they would be able to keep it clean and, well, fire-free.
"I don't care if it's clean, love. I can clean it. I just want it still standing and not in ashes," he told her with a smile. Leaning in, he kissed her softly, sucking on her lip gently before pulling back. "I will be back late, so don't hold the meal for me."
Lilly nodded and leaned into Artaxias. Her hand cupped his cheek and she breathed him in. "I will be in your bed waiting for you." Her fingers touched his lips and she nodded, smiled, and added, "Now get out of here, Ax. Go and do what you do best. I will keep Gav in line. Promise."
"You'd better," he said. Sighing, he leaned in and kissed her again. "I love you, Lilly. Be careful, darling," he said quietly. Stepping back, he let his fingers slide down her cheek slowly. "Do not leave this building without Gavriel. I hope they won't come looking for you, Lil. But we both know you haven't exactly been reporting in. They might just change their tactics to find out why."
"I will wait right here for him. Go," she whispered with a smile and shake of her head. "Go before I have to kick you." She would never kick him, they both knew that. When he left her, she couldn't stop smiling. She was happy. So very, very happy. Sighing, she looked back at her computer screen and began to work.
* * * *
"Yeah," Artaxias said into the car interior after hitting the "accept" button for the phone built into the truck steering wheel.
"Have you talked to Lilly in the last while?" Gavriel's voice filled the interior of the truck.
"Not since I left to go out to the crime scene." He glanced at the dashboard. "It's been about four hours. Why? What did you do to my kitchen?" he asked, naturally suspicious.
"I'm still at the office."
"What? Why?" Ax leaned forward slightly starting to get a bad feeling.
"Because I came to grab Lilly to go home two hours ago, and one of the techs said they saw her heading out. They asked where she was off to and she told them she needed some coffee, that her brain wasn't playing nice with her workload."
"Okay, sounds feasible to me. It's in the building and perfectly safe. So she went to the cafeteria and you missed her. What's the big deal?" That bad feeling he had was growing with the silence that came over the line. "Gavriel. Tell me Lilly is still in the building."
The heavy sigh had his fingers clenching the steering wheel. "She vanished. She was in the cafeteria and then, as she left, she managed to avoid every camera in this place and vanished. We just got through a floor-by-floor, room-by-room search, and she's fucking gone."
"Son of a bitch, Gav! How the fuck did you lose her? That place is plastered with cameras. You can't sneeze without it ending up on at least six different monitor systems."
"I don't know," Gavriel said slowly. "She was there, and then she blinked, turned, and poof. It's like she vanished from thin air. Yes, impossible inside the building, but I'm telling you. I had Mark scour the footage top to bottom, and there isn't even a shadow out of place. We don't know how she did it or who did it to her, but she's gone. The captain wants to know, though, have you had a taste of her blood yet?"
Artaxias was silent as he raked his mind. He'd always been so fucking careful with her. "No," he whispered softly. "You know me, Gav, we were being careful about her disease and ensuring she was cured before we went anywhere with it. I couldn't break her trust like that anyway."
"Shit, all right." There was some rustling and a muffled conversation. "Get back here, you still know this place better than anyone else. Maybe you can figure out how she got out and we can figure out where she went."
"I'm fifteen minutes out," Ax told him and floored it. "And I'll be the one coming in hot."
"See you then," Gav murmured before the line went dead.
* * * *
Tied to a chair. That was how she came to. She began to wiggle in the chair. Fucking bastards even put tape over her mouth. How dare they? Her mind was fuzzy, thoughts were completely scattered, but she knew she needed to get out of there. She knew she had to get free. Somehow and someway, she had to be free.
She saw the shadows, felt them pressing in on her more and more and felt her fear climbing higher and higher. She had to force herself to calm her breathing. It wouldn't do for her to start to panic because she could only breath through her nose. Oh God, not helping!
She was not ashamed to admit she was crying. In her mind, she kept screaming for Artaxias to find her, begging him to find her.
* * * *
"This is where I lose her scent," Ansell said, looking over to him.
Sighing, Artaxias scrubbed his hands through his hair. "I thought so, thanks for confirming it. Are you able to stick close? May need you before this is over."
"Yeah, not a problem. Lacey and Zhubin are suiting up and bringing me some toys. You've got us and the other agents as long as you need us," the Luhpyne said, slapping his shoulder.
"What now?" Gav asked, moving up as Ansell stepped away to talk to someone.
"Absolute quiet," Artaxias told him. "And a little bit of space. I'm going to try something I haven't done in more years than I care to comment on. But, if it works, we'll know exactly where she is." If it worked.
"All right." Gav frowned at him and then moved away to stand with the others.
Letting out a breath, Ax shut his eyes and pictured Lilly. His hope, if he still remembered how the ability worked, was to locate her through the small bond they had. Not one of blood, which would be so much better, but one of love and respect. He knew her, inside and out. He'd been in her head often enough and knew that if he could find the right frequency that was all her, he could trace right to her. Unfortunately he'd be going in blind and would only be able to stay long enough for a location before popping back to the agency.
"Come on, Lil, where are you, love?" he whispered under his breath. Pushing out all sounds, all scents, he focused on her face. On her smile, her laugh, the way she poked him when she was teasing him. The way she looked when she first woke up and the lazy smile that curled her lips.