Free Familiar Desires: 5 (Protective Affairs) by Rebecca Airies Page B

Familiar branch of shifters and aren’t
human. Our grandfather scandalized most of the family when he married a human.”
Kane grinned.
    Alana wasn’t so sure of that. The woman who’d been all over
Kane hadn’t gotten the time of the business lunch by accident and the note had
been written by someone who knew them extremely well. She wasn’t going to lob
that bombshell without some kind of proof. That kind of proof would either be
impossible or all too clear very soon. They wouldn’t be hiding their
relationship with her and she knew she’d see or hear something about it soon.
    Their food arrived and they ate in silence. The mood wasn’t
as stressed as she’d thought it would be. In fact, it felt kind of nice, but
still very weird. There had been a time not too long ago when she’d wondered if
she’d ever be able to even sit down and talk civilly with them, much less have
a meal without wanting to hurt them.
    She saw Will Emerson, a member of the Shifter Council, at
one of the tables near hers and the feeling that this was some kind of
arrangement rose and hovered in her mind when she noticed a member of Wizard Council
sitting opposite him. The elders would certainly know about the spell and when
she’d refused to go back into town, at least one of them would have been
notified. It seemed a little coincidental and she wasn’t simply going to take
it as a fluke meeting.
    “Are they here simply by chance?” Alana nodded toward the
two men a few tables over.
    Kane and Michael looked over to the table and back to her.
They didn’t say anything for a long moment. That more than anything else told
her that her suspicion was correct. There was something more going on here than
a simple breakfast. One Wizard Council member and one Shifter Council member
having a meal together. As if that happened often unless it was official
business or the two happened to be wizard and Familiar to each other. She didn’t
know of anyone on the Councils who was bound together.
    “What’s going on? I don’t like being kept in the dark or
being played for a fool.” She put down her fork and glared at them.
    “We’re not playing you for a fool. We arranged to meet them
here yes, but you did need to get some food in you to counteract the coffee.
That came first. There’s more that you should know. We weren’t told everything,
but the little we’re aware of is bad.” Michael reached over and ran his fingers
over the back of her hand.
    Her mood sobered as she listened to him. “This isn’t any of
our normal enemies, is it?”
    “Probably not. No bodies. No demands. There hasn’t been an
active group of our enemies within a hundred miles of us for ten years.”
Michael shook his head.
    Crap. That meant it probably involved someone from inside
the community. Suspecting it might be someone from the area was one thing, but
she’d hoped it wouldn’t be that complicated. It made it much harder to catch
them and even more difficult to be sure they caught everyone involved.
    “Finish eating. They’ll be over here soon enough.” Kane
gestured to her plate. “Then I have a feeling we’re in for a long day.”
    He was probably right about that. Depending on what she
learned, the planned visit to a few of the kidnap sites might be delayed.
Someone working from within Devoe would mean a lot of time spent looking into
the victims’ lifestyle to discover how they were connected or alike. They had
no information on where or who was taking them.
    Human scent had been picked up at one of the crime scenes,
but the trace didn’t belong to anyone known to the investigators. If what she
now suspected was true, someone was picking the people out to be kidnapped and
giving their names or locations over to another group. Since they had no idea
who was doing the actual grab or where they were taken, they’d have to focus on
those within the shifters and witches unless they found other information.
    Alana picked up her fork and finished the