Seated beside him, Roland’s wife Sarah leaned across him to take the crayon Adira handed her.
Richart d’Alen?on claimed the chair on Sarah’s other side after seating his wife Jenna beside him. Jenna’s son John sank down beside her. If Aidan wasn’t mistaken, John was a gifted one who was studying medicine at Duke University. He and his mother looked like brother and sister now that Jenna had transformed, something that always seemed to amuse Jenna.
Seconds Sheldon and Tracy sat beside John. Richart’s twin, étienne, and his wife Krysta chose the seats on the other side of the two. Then Krysta’s brother Sean, and Nicole, his Second, took two of the last three seats on that side.
On the opposite side of the table, Zach lounged at Seth’s elbow, the only man present who didn’t wear a shirt. Shirts tended to get in the way of the huge dark wings he often bore, which were absent tonight, tucked away so he could lean back in his chair.
For the first time, Aidan found himself wondering if perhaps Seth had wings. Seth and Zach had both been Others, after all. So if Zach had wings, wouldn’t it stand to reason that Seth did, too?
Or was Zach simply a shape-shifter who enjoyed manifesting wings?
Either way, if Seth had wings, Aidan had never seen them.
Lisette d’Alen?on leaned into Zach’s side and whispered something in his ear that made him smile and curl an arm around her. Though Aidan knew she had long been burdened with the guilt of accidentally transforming her brothers, he couldn’t help but think how nice it must have been to have two loving members of her family with her for two centuries.
Ethan and his wife Heather sat beside Lisette.
Aidan took the empty chair next to them, returning the smile Heather gave him. She was the youngest immortal present, only turned the previous year.
Brodie sat with Ed, Ethan and Heather’s Second, on Aidan’s right. Then Bastien, Melanie, and their Second, Tanner, took the remaining chairs.
“Thank you all for coming,” Seth said as soon as everyone was seated and conversations trailed away. “Chris has a matter he would like to discuss with us before you begin your hunt.”
Everyone looked to Chris.
Leaning forward, Chris braced his elbows on the table. “Some of you may not know that the network provides our employees with free day care. We maintain over two dozen day care facilities in the area, all of which are distanced from network headquarters to ensure no children will be harmed if the network is attacked.”
Dread seeped into Aidan as he listened. This was definitely going to be about Veronica. And Chris’s grim expression squashed any hope Aidan had clung to that she had been found safe and well.
“A few days ago,” Chris continued, “I received a call from one of the day care managers who was concerned because a network employee had failed to pick up her son on schedule. When I did a quick check, I discovered the gifted one had called in sick and hadn’t made it to work but wasn’t at her home. Nor did she see any of our doctors. Further investigation confirmed she was missing.”
Rising, he bent and removed a stack of manila file folders from his briefcase, then circled the table, handing a folder to each immortal and Second he passed. “I spoke with Seth and Aidan about it. Both believed her absence might be related to her ties to the network.”
Ethan cursed. “Don’t tell me another mercenary group found out about us.”
Chris shook his head. Distributing the last file, he retook his seat. “Not as far as we know. Personally, I think the fact that she’s a gifted one was the lure. So I had my team check on every gifted one in North Carolina to see if hers was an isolated case.”
“Was it?” Heather asked beside Aidan.
“No. Five other female gifted ones have gone missing during the past month.”
Aidan stared at Chris as curses filled the air. Five more female gifted ones were missing?
“How did you not know they were missing before?” he asked.
Meeting his gaze, Chris folded his arms across his chest. “There were plausible explanations for every absence. Illness. A death in the family. Vacation time.”
Chris’s countenance confirmed that he thought Aidan was responsible. He actually believed Aidan had abducted those women. Seth didn’t, too, did he?
Aidan glanced at Seth but could glean nothing from his expression.
Unsettled, he opened the folder in front of him. Veronica’s smiling face stared back at him from a photo that had probably been taken for her ID badge. He flipped the page. Dawn graced the next page. Dawn, whom Veronica had said gushed over him for days after he changed her flat tire.
He turned the page. Kimberly, who had also sung his praises to Veronica after he had changed a flat tire for her.
He turned another page. Sofia, whom he’d bumped into at the grocery store.
A chill slithered through him.
Roland frowned, fingering the edges of his file folder. “You said you talked with Seth and Aidan. Why Aidan?”
Aidan returned his attention to Chris and felt his hackles rise.
“Because,” Chris said, directing an accusing glare at Aidan, “he’s the only thing all six women have in common.”
Shock tripped through him. What?
“Oh no,” Heather whispered as she touched his arm. “You knew some of them?”
Chris removed a laptop from his briefcase and opened it on the table.
Several men and women shifted their chairs so they could better see the screen.
The security footage from the day care center began to play.
Aidan paid little attention as his heart thudded in his chest.
“Veronica Becker?” Roland said suddenly, sitting straighter. “One of the missing gifted ones is Veronica Becker?”
“Yes,” Chris confirmed.
Veronica. Dawn. Kimberly. Sofia. Aidan turned the page. Nia. He turned another. Tiana.
All of the six missing women were gifted ones he had arranged chance encounters with prior to meeting Dana.
“You knew Veronica?” Roland asked him.
His heart thudding in his chest, Aidan didn’t answer.
He had met dozens of female gifted ones in the past couple of years. But none of the women he had chatted with a year and a half ago, or a year ago, or even six months ago were missing. Only six of the last seven gifted ones were.
Chris turned his laptop around and typed on the keyboard. “We have video footage of Aidan meeting with three of the women shortly before they disappeared. As far as we can tell, he was the last one to see them all.”
The last six gifted ones he had seen before meeting Dana had been taken.
Would Dana be the seventh?
Fear pounding through him, Aidan wanted to teleport to her shop and see with his own two eyes if she was okay, but she didn’t know he could teleport and would expect him to arrive in a car.
Swearing, he leapt up—knocking his chair over in his haste—and raced out of the house.