Viper's Hope (Anguis Defenders Book 1)(72)

"Ophidian will be fine." Viper relayed the good news. "The knife grazed one of his hearts but they stopped the bleeding."

"Filius, the riot was a smokescreen. When Acris arrived at your pod, she found that someone had taken Hope."

Viper didn't hear anything after that. He didn't feel the drink fall from his hand or hear the roar of rage that ripped from his throat. Viper's vision turned red, and all sanity fled his body. Viper wanted to race to their temporary home to search for Hope, but he also wanted to go gut everyone from the mob they had incarcerated.

He should have stayed with Hope or had someone he trusted guard her when the protesters had breached the colony perimeter. Viper knew they had a traitor in their midst. Why hadn't he guarded her more carefully?

Viper's hand flexed painfully as he stared at the depression in the wall. He didn't even recall striking out.

Adder placed a hand on Viper's shoulder attempting to comfort him.

Viper growled and almost snapped at his father. Hope had been abducted, there was no solace to be had till she was found, and the assholes that stole her cold and in the ground.

"Save it for when we find the perpetrators, filius."

Adder understood Viper's aggression wasn't directed at him. At any other time Viper's outburst would've earned censure, but not today, not now.

"You've been following Wyvern, yes?" Adder asked.

"Yes, but that Purist bastard has covered his ass well. I still haven't uncovered who he's working with here." Viper wanted to bang his head on the spot in the wall his fist created a moment ago.

"We know he's behind this. The rest of the groups are nothing but loosely organized rebel-rousers." Adder practically thundered.

"All of our intel says that Wyvern reached the city yesterday, but I don't believe he's foolish enough to position himself too close to wherever they took Hope."

Viper needed to calm down and think, Hope depended on it. He considered sending troops out to search the city, but that would only drive the Purist group holding Hope deeper undercover. Maybe if they watched who left camp, they could catch the traitor and find Hope at the same time.

"We need to lock the colony down tight. I need an account of all the mercenaries on site and I need someone I can trust monitoring security."

"Where's your second, Canebrake?" Adder asked.

Viper was still pissed at the male for being the one to suggest they tie Hope down for him. Although Canebrake had kept Hope from falling in the arboretum, he still rubbed Viper the wrong way with his arrogant attitudes.

"He was at the riots when I saw him last." Viper replied. "He should be reviewing security footage now that all the rioters are detained. I still need to notify him he'll be taking over with the mercenaries since Ophidian's been injured."

The four of them quickly left the hospital wing, heading towards security where they found Canebrake reviewing security vids.

Canebrake jumped to his feet.

"Adder Rex, Prognatus Viper, Regina." Canebrake bowed.

"Pull up footage of my pod. Uxorem Hope has been abducted." Viper snarled ignoring formalities.

"I have been reviewing footage. It doesn't show anything unusual besides the mob." Canebrake stated as he sat down and switched the on-screen image from the eastern perimeter of the colony to the display outside of Viper's pod. The recorder showed the image outside his dwelling, with the mercenaries currently investigating the entry for evidence.

Canebrake backed the vid up to the point before the riot. Viper watched the image of himself dropping Hope off at their door then the screen went blank shortly after Hope went inside. The next scene they all saw was Acris approaching the pod to find the door open and Hope missing.

Someone had tampered with their security feed, again. A thunderous growl reverberated up Viper's chest, the spiked clavum on his forearms bristling. It took everything in his power to keep from shredding the vid screen.

"There's footage missing." Canebrake stated the obvious.

"We noticed." Viper snarled. "The question is who and how?" His rumbled reply echoed off the walls making Canebrake cringe.

"The recorder could've been tampered with, or the feed hacked..." Canebrake stumbled over his words seeing the level of Viper's rage.

"I'm aware of the various ways the breach could have occurred." Viper cut Canebrake off, clenching his fist to keep from losing his patience with the male. "With Ophidian injured you will take point with the mercenaries. Go take roll and lock everyone down. Boaz will monitor the colony from here on out."

"Yes Prognatus." The Canebrake shot up, bowed and quickly left the security room.

"Boaz is a good choice. He can start picking apart how the feed was tampered with." Adder nodded in approval.