Primal Desires

Chapter 37

"There's no sign of a struggle," Pavel grumbled in confusion, after circling the area for what seemed like the hundredth time.

Receiving a text from Dimitri telling the team to stand down hadn't sat well with Pavel, and his instincts told him that something wasn't quite right. When the Guardian registered vehicle hadn't passed their standby location - which it would have if the young couple were returning home as they said - Pavel knew that they needed to act quickly.

They had raced to the location, expecting to find Belikov and Hathaway engaged in a fight with Strigoi. Only, when they arrived, the atmosphere was eerily quiet. Being late evening in the 'human' world, the lighting was incredibly dark, with the moon casting shadows all around the parking lot. Shadows in which plenty of Strigoi could be lurking – waiting, preying, watching...

There was no battle taking place. No cries of fury, no grunts of impact – just a lonely sedan parked under a street lamp, with their peers not anywhere to be seen.

Something was definitely wrong.

"Castille?" Pavel called out. "Have you got anything?"

"No, Sir," Eddie replied solemnly, standing up straight from where he had been crouched at the driver's side of the black sedan. "Nothing."

That wasn't what Pavel needed to hear. Once again, his boss's daughter was missing – a girl he himself had become quite fond of since their reconciliation – and there were no leads as to where she was; only a horrible sinking feeling that he knew exactly who had taken her.

"Dammit!" he growled, kicking the back tyre of the vehicle in frustration.

At that moment, Guardian Croft waltzed up to join his fellow crew. Already unhappy with being roped into this 'pointless suicide mission' as he called it, he was proving to be remarkably unhelpful.

"I've checked with the owner of the restaurant they went to – he recognised them," he grumbled. "Said they left and came this way."

"So where are they then?" Abe's voice joined the conversation, having snuck up on the three men with such stealth a Guardian would be impressed. "Where's my daughter?"

"I thought I told you to stay in the car, Abe?" Pavel sighed, although not surprised at his charge's actions – Abe often marched to the beat of his own drum. "It's bad enough you insisted on coming anyway."

"Pavel, you know I would have found my own way here if you forced me to stay back at court," he swiftly replied with a shrug. "At least this way I'm with you"

An exasperated sigh escaped the Guardian's lips. It was at times like these in which there was really no doubt of Rose's paternity, the both of them behaving in such strikingly similar ways. Pavel suddenly felt a wave of sympathy for Belikov - having been Abe Mazur's Guardian for decades, he knew exactly what he would be putting up with in his relationship with Rose. Although, it was all in good jest – Pavel wouldn't want to guard anybody else; he held a great deal of respect for Zmey, and their time together had built the foundations for a very strong friendship.

"So, did you find anything?" Abe asked, anxiously fiddling with the ends of his messy beard. Pavel noted that while Abe was often reserved, calm and collected – when it came to Rose, he was anything but.

"Not a thing. Their car's still here, locked – no sign of a struggle nearby."

"They've disappeared," Croft added unhelpfully, causing Abe's blood to start to boil.

"They haven't 'disappeared', Croft – they've been taken," he objected.

"There's no evidence of that."