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Yeah, it was my fault. I tried to stop Mercy from leaving. I had learned from her in the past year to never stop her from doing something she had set her mind to.

She wasn’t the same girl she had been a year ago. Too many people were hurt last year, and Mercy blamed herself. She told me that after the dust settled last year, she would do whatever it took to keep the ones she loved safe. Her stubborn nature was so fucking sexy and infuriating at the same time.

Simon joined us at the kitchen island and placed his plate of eggs down, turning to Leah. “Did you get Cami admitted?” he asked her.

Leah nodded. “Yeah, I got her all checked in,” she said. “I have the best doctors at the facility working with her.”

“Good,” Ezra said as he joined us for breakfast. “Now we need to focus on getting Mercy back. You know she went back to that club, right?”

I gripped my cell phone and slammed my fist on the table. I winced at the stinging pain and outstretched my hand, feeling the muscles cramp up. I should have chased after her when she ran out of my room, but I let her go, and this morning she was gone.

Fuck!

“Caleb!” Leah yelped. “Calm the hell down. We don’t know where she went.” She glared at Ezra. “We don’t know that she went there forsure, Ezra.”

So help me, God, if she went into that fucking club without backup, I’m going to drag her ass out by her hair. That girl makes me insane.

We needed to get down there now, but if she were going under an unfamiliar face again, I couldn’t risk exposing her idiotic plan and getting her hurt. We had to come up with something better than rolling in there, powers blazing.

“Is Sarah missing, too?” Leah asked. “We need to know if we are looking for Mercy’s face or another.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know,” I said. “I’ll call Sarah when we’re done here.”

Still chewing his food, Simon said, “Well, we know Mercy’s not dead. We can all still feel her connected to us.”

“She can’t die anyway, you idiot,” Ezra said.

“Stop. You’re acting like toddlers. Go to your rooms,” Leah scolded playfully, and the two snickered at her joke. I didn’t think it was funny.

None of this was funny.

I have to find her.

_______________

I LEANED OVERBradley’s shoulder, looking at his computer while he typed.

“Can’t you just hack into her cell phone server?” I asked. “I only need to access her GPS.”

When Joel put that spell on her that shielded her blood from vampire senses, it also blocked him from casting any kind of location spell on her. Her complete presence was off the map to the supernatural world. We knew it was dangerous, but we couldn’t risk her being found by our enemy.

“Caleb, can I talk to you outside for a minute?” Lily asked, standing patiently in the corner of her office, watching us work.

I let out a frustrated sigh and followed her out. I wasn’t mad at her, just at the situation. Lily seemed uneasy about us involving Bradley. For all he knew, this was just a typical missing person situation, and we knew Bradley would return to being in the dark once we located her.

“Bradley won’t know anything,” I promised. “I only need Mercy’s location, and I’ll leave,” I explained when we stepped out onto her front porch.

Lily shook her head and fiddled with the bottom of her shirt. “The truth is, Caleb, I …wantto tell him.”

I should have seen this coming. Lily and Bradley had been dating for a while now. It was only a matter of time before she wanted him to know the real her.

“Look, Lily. You’re an adult. It’s not up to me to give you permission. The only thing I ask is that you leave as much of it out as you can. He doesn’t need to knoweverything. Maybe leave out the part about the Chosen Ones.”

She nodded. “Of course.”

When we rejoined Bradley, he looked at me with a massive grin on his face that reached his eyes. “Found her.”

My heart rate picked up. “Where?”

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