Page 26 of Blood Bearon
He shrugged, focused on the map.
“Khove?”
“Huh? What?” Oh right. She couldn’t see him. “Things are fine. They have no leads either.”
“We need to find him, Khove. Before he endangers anyone else. We got lucky nobody was seriously hurt last night. That will change if he’s allowed to continue.”
“I’m working on it,” he growled, irritated at his Queen for telling him something he already knew. Stopping Korred’s attacks on Plymouth Falls washisresponsibility. It weighed down on him with every passing hour as the night drew nearer. Nobody in their right mind thought the Traitor was through. He would strike again, and again, until he was either caught, or House Ursa caved to his pressure.
The latter would never happen while anyone loyal to the throne still drew breath, which meant that the humans would continue to be in danger. He had to stop him. Somehow.
“Do you have a list of our largest assets in Plymouth Falls?” he asked.
“Of course.” His Queen sounded somewhat bothered, as if he should have known better than to ask.
“Well give me the top ten that haven’t been hit yet. Those will be our best bets,” he muttered, already looking over the map. “Maybe if I cross-reference those with where he’s already hit, we’ll be able to see some sort of pattern emerge. Have you done that?” he asked, in case it would save him time.
“Not yet, no. We’re focused on the Manor, truthfully. Korred was in charge of our magical defenses for so long, we have no idea what sorts of back doors he may have worked into them. Kasperi and Amber are working themselves to exhaustion trying to take down and re-cast the defensive spells, but there are a lot of them, and well, they’re still new.”
His Queen sounded worried. Khove didn’t like that. She was never scared.
“The list, my Queen,” he said formally. “Do you have it ready?”
There was a bit of silence and the sound of papers rustling. Khove needed to keep his liege focused. She was probably feeling helpless. The Magi Kasperi and his mate would be in charge of the magic defense of Ursidae Manor, while the Captain Kirell would be in command of the physical ones. All of which meant that his Queen was probably feeling helpless and trapped, unable to do more than watch.
Kaelyn was a wonderful Queen and ruler of Ursa, and to see her feel so impotent hurt Khove more than he would ever let on. If he could help even the slightest by keeping her distracted, then so be it.
“Right. Got your highlighter ready?”
“Yes.”
He listened to her read off the addresses and business names of various companies within Plymouth Falls. As she did, he tracked them down on the map and put an orange circle around them.
“That’s the ten largest that remain intact,” Kaelyn said as he circled the last one.
Khove nodded to himself. “Thank you, my Queen.”
“Queen?”
His head came up sharply at the sound of Rachel’s voice. The tall blonde officer stood in the doorway, staring at him, her strangely blue eyes not wavering.
He coughed, reaching out and hitting the end-call button on his phone. Kaelyn would understand, once she was done laughing at him, knowing full well he’d have to come up with some intricate explanation for what he’d said.
“Who was that on the phone?” Rachel asked, stepping fully into the room and letting the door close behind her. “YourQueen?”
“What’s up?” he asked with a tight smile.
“Why did you call her that?” she asked, coming to face him across the table, palms flat on the surface.
“Umm, because it’s her preferred title?” He forced a laugh, then cut it off abruptly when he realized how awkward it sounded. “Silly, right? I know. It sounds ridiculous, but I mean, she’s the boss, so I have to play along, right?” He smiled.
Rachel lifted a single eyebrow, clearly beyond skeptical about his excuse. “Right. Whatever. Your silly naming titles don’t matter, Baron von Ursa,” she smirked. “All I care about is finding this asshole.”
He nodded, not bothering to conceal his relief. “Right. Well, here are the biggest properties and businesses we have within Plymouth Falls that didn’t get hit.” Khove gestured at the map for her to see.
“Well, here’s the complete list of places thatdid,” she said, opening the folder she’d placed on the table.
Together, they spent a few minutes marking the attacked locations out in black pen. There were six of them, all told. Once they were done, Khove stepped back, looking at the map. He walked around the table slowly.
