Vanishing into thin air was one of the few things Becky had yet to see anyone do. And yet, as her colleagues continued to search the area around the theater, it seemed as if that was precisely what Paul had done.
Every single member of the Melbourne team was called out, armed to the teeth, methodically crawling there way from building to building, checking every room, every cellar, every attic, every square inch for any sign of Paul at all. But now, hours after they’d started, there was not so much as a hair from the top of his head to be found.
About an hour ago, she’d decided to expand the search. Some of the area they were covering was residential. Luckily, she had a Guardian on her team capable of running interference, and by now, any civilian they’d come into contact with thought they were participants in a special boot camp for people interested in joining the armed forces. It was nice to have someone like Tanner on the team who was so very capable of making things up as he went along and convincing the listener it was the God’s honest truth.
The radius was about three miles out from the theater now, and Becky had the teammates calling out addresses and building descriptions as locations were cleared. She was aware it was possible that whoever—or whatever—had taken Paul may have transported him a great distance by now, but with eyes and ears on airports, train stations, bus terminals, and every port on the continent, she was hopeful she’d catch anyone trying to smuggle him out. Right now, all she could do was continue her methodical search one building at a time.
She was familiar with this area of town. In fact, she’d grown up not too far away from here, though that was a hundred years ago, and things were much different now. This place used to be full of life. Now, it was a former shell of itself with buildings crumbling to the ground where they stood.
One such building, the old asylum, was just over the hill on her left. She remembered her mother telling her not to go near it when she was younger. While it was easy to imagine mothers saying the same thing now, back then, it had been for different reasons. The people kept within those walls had been “very sick” according to her mother, and it was possible some of them were dangerous. The guards did a good job of keeping them behind the high fence, but her mother had been a worrier, one of the reasons she’d never Transformed herself, and had nearly passed out the day Becky told her she was ready to take her destiny into her own hands. If her mother knew she was contemplating going in there to look for Paul, she’d faint for sure. Of course, she’d passed away long ago.
It was no longer crazy people that caused the warnings from cautious parents. Rather, the building was beyond dilapidated having had no one to care for it for at least three decades. Becky had only seen pictures of it online, since it was set off of the road, and the high fences around it hadn’t yet tumbled to the ground, but the graffiti covered walls and ramshackled state of what remained standing was anything but inviting. She highly doubted anyone would bother to drag Paul in there.
Yet, it was a possibility.
She turned and looked at Patsy who was beside her. “We should probably head up to Larundel,” she said, her voice anything but enthusiastic.
“If he’s in there, it was likely spooks that carried him there.” Her lips were pursed, but she seemed to agree.
“Don’t tell me someone who can take out Vampires with the flick of her wrist is scared of ghosts.” Teasing Patsy was easy, even in a time like this when joking had mostly been set aside.
“I didn’t say I was scared,” the smaller woman pointed out. “I’ll go. I just… don’t think he’s in there.”
“I hope you’re wrong,” Becky replied, taking a deep breath. Over her IAC, she called, “Patsy and I are headed to Larundel.”
Almost immediately, Jeb’s familiar voice replied, “It’s clear. Steph and I cleared it about twenty minutes ago.”
Becky was puzzled. “You did?” She couldn’t remember ordering him to do such a thing, nor hearing him call out that Paul wasn’t there.
“Yes,” Steph replied. “We cleared it. It’s all rundown anyway. Doesn’t look like anyone’s been there for years.”
Glancing up the hill to the wrought iron gates, partially hidden in the shade of a large tree, Becky debated whether or not to go check for herself. It was a large building, and it was possible that something had been missed. But the walls looked even higher than she remembered them from when she was a child and an ominous feeling radiated through the night. There were plenty of other buildings to check. “Affirmative.” With a sigh, she turned to look at Patsy, who shrugged, clearly pleased not to have to go in there, and they moved on.
* * *
“I don’t understand.” Perses stood next to Asteria, his arms folded, his bottom lip protruding. “Why not let them come in? There was only two of them. It would’ve been short work for us.”
“And then what? Have the rest of their team realize their last known location was at our doorstep? Don’t be ridiculous. We’d have all of LIGHTS here within a matter of hours. And we’re simply not ready for that.” She loved Perses with all of her heart, but often times his density was more than a little annoying.
“So the time isn’t precisely now,” he muttered turning around on the heel of his black boot and taking a few paces away.
“The time is now to organize an uprising. The time is not now to invite disaster upon ourselves.”
He spun to face her. “And when, exactly, do you propose we order the attacks? If we wait much longer, they will have figured out what we are planning. That girl… she’s ruining everything.”
