Page 55 of Mystic Mate

“I do. It was right there,” he said, pointing to the bedside table. He walked into the bath. He could feel that she and the key had both been there. “They were in here—she and the key. Knowing Salem, she put it in whatever she was going to pull on when she got out of the shower. She rarely lets the damn thing out of her sight.”

“So, she might have it and they might not know she has it…”

“It’s hard to miss, but she does have it. They won’t be able to use it without her, and that might be why they took her.”

Jinx burst into the room. “No,” she wailed, spotting the blood.

“Jinx, get one of our medics. I need to know if they can tell what kind of animal lost that blood.”

“Yes, Alpha,” she said, sprinting back out the door.

Fear never gave way to panic, and even that had subsided when one of their medical people took a sample of the blood, shook it up in a vial and turned to Cullen with a smile. “It’s not hers. The blood isn’t from a wolf. I’ll need to do more testing to determine what it’s from, but it isn’t Salem’s.”

Cullen could feel the tension beginning to drain from his body. Apparently, Salem had inflicted some damage.

“Is there anyone you can trust at the SPU or the Bureau?” asked Colby.

“I doubt it, but I think I know how to see if they might know.”

“What are you thinking?”

“Warrick, Dani’s mate. Dani is Salem’s best friend. The weak link at the SPU is a guy named Chris Reeves. I’m going to ask our dragon friend if he might pay him a little visit.”

Colby chuckled. “That is very much in Warrick’s wheelhouse.”

Cullen pulled out his phone and filled Warrick in on what had happened and asked for his help. Assuring Cullen he would get the information, Warrick ended the call.

Shaw returned. “The badger shifter is nowhere to be seen. I’ve got the pack looking for them. So far there’s no trace beyond the fact that they used the side entrance. Are you certain he was a badger-shifter?”

Cullen and Colby exchanged glances. “That’s what he told us,” said Cullen. “Why do you ask?”

Shaw held up a large feather. “We found two of these. Jinx is running a check on what the feather might belong to.”

“I don’t think there’s a bird alive that could pick up an adult woman,” scoffed Colby.

“The key word being alive,” said Jinx as she joined them. “But having lived is another story. Haast’s Eagle—the largest eagle that ever lived. The purebreds went extinct around the fourteen hundreds. They could carry up to five hundred pounds or more.”

Cullen nodded. “Take the feather down to the lab. Have them compare it with the blood.”

Jinx ran to do as he asked.

“At least we know how he got her out of here,” said Colby.

“But he’s injured, so he can’t go far…”

Before he could speculate further, the phone rang. “Warrick, you’re on speaker.”

“Reeves can’t be certain, but he’s fairly sure they are in one of three places. He said they’d been monitoring the Celestial Key’s activity—do you people have any idea how dangerous those things are? Frankly, the Phantom Fire got rid of as many of them as we could find, but there was always a suspicion we didn’t get them all.”

“Warrick, you and your dragon brethren can rant and castigate the rest of us at a later date, but for now we need to focus. What did he say?”

“Right. Sorry. He had the coordinates of three sites where they might have taken her. I’m sending them now. No one in the Fire is close, but Falkor’s sister is mate to Cooper McKinley up in Denali. I’m sure they’ll help.”

“Appreciated. Looking at the sites, the furthest one north is closer to Denali than to us. If they could cover that one, we can handle the other two.”

After ending the call, Cullen managed to pinpoint the locations on a map on Salem’s computer.

“That one,” said Colby, “is on Kodiak. I’ll mobilize my people. If she’s anywhere on the island, we’ll find her.”

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