Therian Prisoner(54)

Raising his hand to his mouth, he pressed his finger against his tongue. The drop was hardly enough to taste, but the faint signals he received were telling. He looked at Payne and said, “She’s not a raptor. This is something far more dangerous.”

Tension accented the sharp angles in Payne’s features and made his golden eyes shimmer. “I know what you’re implying and it can’t be. I watched the life fade from her eyes. I was not mistaken.”

Twice in Ian’s past he’d been confronted by enemies he’d believed dead, so he was not so easily convinced. Still, rather than arguing with his friend, he turned from the window and said, “We often wondered if she had reproduced. Perhaps we have our answer.”

“Who are you talking about?” Kyle looked at Payne then back at Ian. “If this wasn’t a raptor, then what was she?”

Before Ian could decide how much of what Payne had suffered needed to be shared, Payne began, “I encountered a female named Zophia in the old country. I thought she was a Therian raptor. She could manifest wings like Ian. But she was…something else. Something truly evil.”

“Zophia vowed to destroy you,” Ian reminded Payne. “There is no way she would have waited this long to lash out at you again.”

“I agree, which brings us back to her daughter or another creature fathered by the same demon who spawned Zophia.”

“Demon? You mean that in the literal sense?” Kyle sounded as skeptical as he looked.

Ian laughed. “The Abolitionists consider us demons. Why do you sound surprised?”

“I’m not surprised, just confused. What would a demon want with Carly Ides?”

“That is the question,” Payne agreed. “Who, or what, took her is less important than why. If we can uncover a motivation, our chances of locating the doctor increase.”

“The most obvious conclusion is that she’s working for the backers.” Ian motioned them out of the blustery room. “I’ve learned all I can here. Tell Holt he’s free to repair the damage.”

“I’ll take care of it. Holt’s out searching with Landon.” Kyle closed the door so the wind didn’t cool the rest of the house. They descended the stairs and sat down around the kitchen table. “Even if she is working with the backers, how would she have learned the location of our safe house? There is nothing tying this property to the rebels.”

“Maybe not, but Holt is Therian,” Ian pointed out. “That might have been enough of a clue for her to check it out.”

“And if she approached from the air, who knows how many windows she looked in before she found what she was looking for.” Payne was starting to sound bored which likely meant his mind had drifted on ahead. They were both men of action. Analyzing possibilities and conjecture were better left to those with calmer dispositions.

“Has Osric been found?” The prospect of interrogating the traitor filled Ian with dark purpose. There was nothing he hated more than anyone amoral enough to betray his own people. “The backers might have gained information about us from the useless bastard, but we could learn about them from him as well.”

Kyle shrugged. “What could he tell us that we haven’t already learned from Carly? She was remarkably helpful.”

“Which means you should trust a small fraction of what she told you,” Ian persisted.

“I’m not a fool, Ian. We knew there was a motive behind everything she revealed, but one of her ‘useless’ revelations led you and Payne to Devon.”

After a tense pause, Ian asked, “Is what Devon told me true?” He’d seen too many people destroyed by rumors and gossip. The fastest way to defuse such situations was to go right to the source. “Did you accept a contract from Lokesh?”

“I didn’t accept anything.” Frustration and pain made Kyle’s tone brittle. This was obviously not the first time he’d defended his actions. “Lokesh approached me with a proposition. I presented the offer to Devon and she flipped out. There was no way I could have known she’d be kidnapped as a result of the fight.”

“We were ready to go to war when Osric started brokering similar ‘propositions’. Why was Devon’s future less important than—”

“Oh for gods’ sake!” Kyle stood so fast his chair toppled over. “I screwed up! All right? How many times do I have to say it? An alliance with Lokesh would have strengthened the rebel position within my network. Devon wasn’t the only one who’d just lost their father. I was overwhelmed and I saw the advantages of taking the easy way out. Unlike Osric, I would not have forced anything on anyone.”