“Oh, you know the circus?” His voice twanged. “This here is a kind of special type of circus.”
Nox nodded, wiping drool from Violet’s mouth.
“That’s something we would be interested in,” Nox said.
“Yes, I used to train animals myself.”
Nox looked at her out of the corner of his eye. She didn’t know why she had said what she did, but it came out like water pouring over a cliff.
“Oh?” Archie said, exposing tobacco-stained teeth.
“Yes,” Kelli said. “I’m sure I could help you out with a thing or two.”
Kelli felt daring but terrified at the same time. She could feel Nox’s disapproval, but there was no time to consider the direction they were moving. It was as fast as an arrow going for a moving target, and they had to follow it.
“That is intriguing.” Archie raised his brows. “I could certainly use an animal tamer.”
Nox moved his hand to Kelli’s back, rubbing it up and down with concern. Her face blushed, but she tried to hide it with enthusiasm.
“Maybe you can show us a thing or two?” Kelli said.
Archie suddenly frowned, then looked Nox and Violet over before shaking his head. “It’s top secret, so I can only take you,” Archie said.
There was no time to hesitate. Kelli desperately wanted to help Nox find his brother and sister-in-law, and apparently, it was going to come down to her going away with the very man who had taken them.
“Now you got to understand,” Archie started, looking between Kelli and Nox, “that I got to have some time to train you into my system. It could be a couple days. You both okay with that?”
“That works fine,” Kelli said, handing Violet to Nox.
Nox was dumbfounded, taking the little girl in his arms, who was still spellbound by the new setting. Kelli leaned into Nox’s cheek for a kiss, then whispered stealthily.
“I’ve got this. It’s okay.”
She wasn’t a shifter, but she had grown close enough to Nox to know that he wasn’t happy. She wasn’t happy either, but that was the way that the river had flowed.
“Let’s get going,” Archie said, motioning to her with his head.
She walked away from Nox and Violet, her heart beating in her chest like a drum. She had started to sweat when Archie handed her a piece of fabric and told her to wrap it around her eyes.
“Whatever for?” she asked, pretending to giggle.
He looked at her, solemn and even a bit threatening.
“I said this place was top secret,” he said. “Put that on and give me your phone.”
The cordiality that he had expressed earlier had utterly vanished. Kelli handed him her phone, trying to shield the shaking.
He took it, then guided her into a van. The van looked dark and menacing, but she climbed in anyway, hoping that she would emerge from it.
FIFTEEN
NOX
Nox had never been so shocked and furious in his life. He felt like his skin was made of lava, hot with fear and the desire for violence. He stood there, holding Violet, who was happily ignorant of what was going on, watching his mate walk into the arms of the man who had kidnapped his brother and wife. It made his hands tremble in ways that weren’t positive.
“Fuck,” he muttered to himself.
Violet looked at him as if she knew he had cursed.