Freedom for an Angel

Chapter Five

I started investigations about some missing "persons," that was an excuse at first, but Leon and his buddies kept their ears open in every bars, pubs, gentlemen's clubs and country clubs. We have a lot of ears open, as well as eyes. My brother owns some very popular bars so he hears a lot.

Because of my pi work, l've met many good cops and know the police commissioner personally. Both owe me favors, so all of them are keeping an ear to the ground and informing me on any and all rumors they hear. For months nothing came about, everyone was getting discouraged, man hours were running low as well. Ghosts seeing anything in or around their graveyards, the goblins and trolls under the bridges to the private clubs of the high-maintenance vampires, nobody heard a thing. The deeper I looked I started to notice odd kidnappings and murders all around the city and in other cities. These cases have stumped everyone.

Some people were let go, others were not. Word of what was causing these kidnappings was getting around. Nothing was good. I asked a cop friend to put a file of everything the police were investigating in our city and one for cases in other cities. Together, we keep track of missing people and murders. While I kept an eye on things, I slowly began to find suspects. My brother and a werecat started stalking some of them around town and for a while it was working, but their scent was starting to stick to everything so they had to back off before getting caught or worse.

I finally found a connection between everyone. They are going after my family, my friends and specifically my kind.

Supernaturals.

Many were sold for slaughter for sport or forced into slavery. The ones who escaped sent me detailed letters of their horrors. I like horror, but even this made me shudder with fear and rage. Getting ahold of those records of the murdered and getting access to see the bodies was hard. I promised to get those bastards that did this. My kind is not entirely of this world, but this doesn't mean we can allow this to continue. We have ways of getting back home to our homes in another world, but it takes time. Not the point.

My office is buried in paperwork and boards to help keep track of everything. It looks like one of those cop episodes that are trying to track the time lines of a serial killer's murders and personal life moments. I'm currently staring at said wall when my phone started ringing. I picked it up while moving to sit at my desk. "Hello Truth Found In a Storm Of Lies. How can I help you?" " Hey Storm, it's Shane. How's the search going?" I sighed deeply before responding "It's not. I have no leads. The pattern is all over the place and the victims are all killed differently and nothing but being a supernatural connects them." "Wow sounds frustrating and bizarre. What about rank back home? Do the family members have any ideas?" I was silent about that, trying to rack my brain on rank and family members.

Thinking about that, I realized the earliest victims had families and had some rank within their packs, clans or covens, prides and families for some, but they slowly changed to people who had one or two people missing them. Then the last few orphans that couldn't rank yet. Those were just kidnappings right now. The reason why we know these people are missing is all supernaturals have to check in with their royals so everyone is safe, as we don't trust most humans as their history is not kind or most truthful about some events.

"Storm? Storm! You there hello." Shane called from his side of the phone. Snapping me out of my chaotic train of thought. "Sorry Shane, you sent me onto a train of thought that might lead somewhere so I almost had it. Hopefully." I sighed out that last word at the same time, my stomach growled and he laughed. "What, are you hungry for? We'll have lunch. I'll buy it so you can get a thinking break." I laughed, agreeing to lunch, told him to come over to the office while I figure out what even sounds good for lunch and to finish some paper work on some other cases.

I opened my laptop to email my findings to the correct clients, then filed everything away. I was just looking deeper into the victims' lives when Shane came slanting in waiting for me to notice him. I wrapped up my work by switching my brain over to food options. Tempest and Vitani were already arguing about what to eat. Tempest wanted Chinese, Vitani wanted seafood.

So I thought of a compromise; Sushi. It's Asian and has seafood in it. Both loved the idea. I looked up into Shane's golden eyes smiling, suggesting sushi to this very hungry and yummy looking man. Us three were positive. One of us is his mate. Just no idea who or if it was even true. But we do know that we are crushing hard on him. Both of them were blushing, which caused me to blush and Shane chuckled at me. I narrowed my eyes at him very suspiciously and asked what he was chuckling at. His chuckling turned to full-on laughter. What he says makes me turn tomatoe red in the face. "Watching you argue amongst yourself is funny and looks to be serious because you've been blushing since I came in. So I'm guessing I'm involved." I smiled evilly as Tempest was already giving me ideas on what to say to rile this wise ass up.

So I say "Well, at least I can admit that i find you attractive, then you'll even think about having naughty thoughts about even one of us who is potentially your partner. If your not careful you might chase us away." I smiled sweetly, putting my chin on top of my hands and watching his reactions intently. Boy Tempest was right. You could see the wheels turning in his mind and it was glorious. His face turned to different shades of red, then faded to a very light pink, almost peach-like. He sat in deep thought. Being nice, I changed it over to food instead and asked if he was ready to go eat.

He chuckled and said yes. I close everything down and put up all my research and notes under lock and key. He watched silently, understanding my actions. Humans aren't known for respecting privacy and locked doors. Even a high end area like this neighborhood. Besides, there are some bad supernaturals that are obviously causing us trouble anyway. Turning everything off, I turned to Shane, saying "I have chosen Asian food, hope you like it. If not, you'll be eating alone," jokingly. He catches on and acts all wounded and hurt.

We laughed and chatted, having a great time. As we headed back to my office, I was getting a bad feeling and Tempest, the most calm and tame out of us three, was getting agitated and wrathful, almost forcing us to switch. Worse part is, she didn't understand where these feelings were coming from or why she was even feeling them. She was doing her best not to force it, but we were both losing the fight, so I backed down and let the switch happen. Glad I wasn't driving because it was bad. My last words to Shane were "Tempest is coming, Stay by her side. Something's wrong."