Page 99 of The Syndicater (Dark Verse 6)

Chapter 33

Zephyr, Tenebrae City

Something was not right.

Zephyr got up with a sudden heaviness in her chest, her heart beating too fast. It was a gut feeling, a feeling she didn't get often, but when she did, she knew not to ignore it. The Last time that she had, her sister had died and Morana had been shot.

Quickly getting out of bed, she picked up her phone from the floor of the room where it had fallen the night before and picked it up.

3 missed calls.

Her mother had called her three times.

Zephyr immediately called back, her heart in her throat, pacing the room. Her movements must have alerted him because her husband turned on the bed, suddenly awake when he saw her like that, one side of his face creasing with concern.

"What's going on?" he grumbled out.

The phone line wasn't picked up. She rang again. "My mother called. Three times. Something is wrong."

No one picked up this time either.

She dialed her father's number. Same.

Zephyr began to panic, not able to explain what was happening to her as she stood, knowing, just knowing in her heart that something bad had happened.

Alpha immediately picked up his phone and she saw him dial Victor. He put him on speaker.

"Alpha." Victor said on the line.

"Vic, go to Zephyr's parent's place," Alpha instructed. "They're not answering."

"On it," Victor said immediately. "I'll update you when I get there."

Thar would take about twenty minutes. Alpha came around the side of the bed to her, grabbing a hold of her shoulders and rubbing them, trying to ease the tension she could feel gathering there.

"Let's go down," he suggested after a few minutes of Zephyr just frowning at his chest. "We can wait in company."

Alpha didn't like company. For him to be suggesting it, he had to be worried too.

She nodded, quickly dressing as did he, and going down to the gazebo where Dante and Amara were sitting, discussing something. Their faces looked the same grim, and Zephyr didn't know what was going on.

"What happened?" Alpha asked, seeing their looks.

"Morana went to meet the Shadow Man alone," Amara informed them, her tone severe. "She told me to let others know if she didn't respond in an hour. I didn't wait. It's going to be an hour in a few minutes."

"Have you told Tristan yet?" Zephyr asked, adding another concern on top of her own. Morana was smart, but what the hellhad she been thinking about going out alone to meet the man, especially after the bullet she'd taken not that long ago?

Amara shook her head. "Not yet. If she answers, she can tell him herself. He's had a rough night."

Yeah. Rough was an understatement for the night they'd all had, listening to a girl who never spoke more than a few words go on a rampage, admitting her past, that she was not only the Shadow Man's lover but his wife, and most of all admitting to killing Hector brutally and enjoying it. Zephyr didn't fault her for that. In fact, she was grateful to the girl because if she had had the chance, Zephyr would have done it, too.

Amara looked at her phone as her timer rang and called Morana.

The phone was out of reach.

They all exchanged heavy looks, knowing this did not bode well for any of them. And it all happened just as Tristan and Luna walked from the lake, his arm around her and hers around him, last night somehow having brought them closer.

They looked up at the group, their matching small smiles falling off their faces as they came to them. Tristan's eyes immediately scanned the space. "Where's Morana?"

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