The Fire and the Sky (Book 3 of the Starborn Series)

Chapter Fifty-Two

It was late when Dom and Lety arrived back at the farmhouse.

They came from the south, traveling across the fields that stretched out behind the modest homestead. Dom had already drawn up his glamor, while Lety padded along at his side in lupine form. Had anyone been watching they would have assumed they were witnessing a man and his abnormally large dog walking through the middle of nowhere in the dead of night. It was a little weird, but not as weird as the truth.

When the pair made it to the gate that separated the fields from the yard, they were surprised to see the kitchen light still blazing. They gave one another uneasy looks—it was awfully late, and they had expected everyone to be fast asleep.

"Maybe someone needed a midnight snack?" Dom offered.

Lety puffed a breath out her canine lips and sniffed the air. Her ears flattened back.

"Or maybe not." Dom broke into a run.

Across the yard and up the back steps, they slammed into the door and found it locked. Dom raised his fist to knock, only to have the door swing open before he could.

May stood, a silhouette framed in a rectangle of warm light. It took a moment for Dom's eyes to adjust, but when they did he was taken aback by what he saw. May's shoulders were tense and hunched high. Her eyes were red and lined by dark shadows. Her expression was murderous.

"Oh," she breathed, her face softening only a touch. "It's just you." She turned and stalked back into the house.

"Maybes?" Dom called uneasily after her. "Is everything okay?"

Lety trotted into the kitchen, her nose trained close to the ground. She sniffed around a chaotic tableau—a tipped kitchen chair surrounded by lengths of rope. A steak knife lay discarded in the middle of the floor, droplets of blood had dried on the linoleum and between the teeth of the blade. Dom took it all in with a rapidly expanding sense of dread.

"What happened here?"

May didn't answer. Dom followed Lety into the living room and there they found May, kneeling in the middle of the floor. Around her were the many maps and blueprints they had reviewed with the rest of WIND. Lety crept carefully through the mess and sniffed at May.

"Stop it," May growled, though her voice lacked any real conviction. Lety's nose trained in on May's left hand and gave it a couple tender licks.

Sighing, May sat back on her haunches. "I'm fine. It's just a few knicks. Can you transform back? I need to talk to you."

Lety looked at Dom, her brows twitching. With a throaty sound not unlike her human grumble, she trotted out of the room to change back into her human form in private. Dom replaced her at May's side and took her hand in his. She didn't look at him, keeping her eyes focused on the blueprint of Sovereign University's research labs that lay in front of her instead.

"May, what happened?" Dom turned her delicate wrist, surveying the angry red rope burns that encircled it with concern. Small cuts sliced into the flesh of her fingertips and palm. His mind went back to the knife.

"The Loyals came and took Em. WIND got their kid back and bailed." May nodded her head in the direction of the kitchen. "They left me tied up on a fucking chair then took off."

Dom wasn't sure he was following. "Who did? The Loyals?"

"No, Connor."

"Why the fuck would he do that?" Lety said, pulling her shirt over her head as she marched back into the room.

May rubbed her tired eyes and groaned. "Because he's out. They all are. They got what they wanted and now I'm on my own to get Em back."

"No, you're not," Dom said. He tugged softly at her shoulder, twisting her so she had no choice but to face him. "We're going to help. Right, Lety?"