Page 37 of Little Wing (Shades of Fairhaven #1)

“ T hank you, officer,” Mateo said, shaking the uniformed man’s hand as he handed him a business card. “If you need any additional information from us, please don’t hesitate to call. If it’s not me, then my partner, Silas, will be available to step in and help.”

The officer looked past my brother and gave a quick incline of his chin before walking out to the squad car where the man who attacked Lotus was stuffed into the back seat. The last few hours seemed like a blur.

When I heard the yelling, I ran out of my office past Quinn only to find Lotus pinned against the wall. Watching that scene, I felt so fucking helpless. I gritted my teeth at the fresh memory of her terrified expression—the pleading in her eyes as she was slammed against the wall.

My fists clenched. I was furious with myself for not rushing out faster, for not protecting her from him. Had it not been for Mateo, I didn’t even want to think of the damage that could have occurred. Not to Little Wing, but to the woman I was having a hard time reaching now .

I looked down at my phone again to see if Lotus responded to any of the twenty texts I fired off. But there was no response. She wasn’t even reading them.

Mateo grabbed me by the elbow and spun me around towards the office while Quinn and a handful of the remaining volunteers worked to push the tables and chairs back to their normal spots.

So little was moved or damaged, yet the energy in that part of the community center made my chest ache.

It was thick with anger and sadness—how the hell was I supposed to purge a feeling from a space?

“Any word from Lotus?” Mateo asked, shutting the door behind us. “Because dude—that was insane.”

I leaned against the wall with my arms crossed before glancing at the hand he was rubbing gingerly. “How’s your hand?”

“It’ll be fine. It’s already healing quickly, but…

is it true?” he sighed and brushed his uninjured hand through his messy hair.

Once he moved to his side of the office and sat down at his desk, his fingers skated across the keyboard in quick strokes until his concentrated expression turned to one of pure exasperation.

“What?” I mumbled.

“Holy shit.” Mateo leaned back, the leather of his chair squeaking as he pointed his finger at the screen.

My stomach turned; the AB negative I consumed suddenly threatened to come back up like battery acid on my tongue.

Part of me hoped that whatever was said out there was a complete misunderstanding, but if Mateo was able to find something that quickly, then I worried how much I didn’t know about the woman with whom I was so enthralled.

“What does it say?” I finally asked, stepping closer to his desk. I didn’t know if I could stomach seeing the words myself .

Mateo sighed and leaned forward as he began to read. “Local author and her daughter were both found submerged inside a vehicle that had fallen into a lake. Both women appeared to be deceased before the car plummeted into the body of water. Both were apparently mutilated and drained of blood.”

I leaned against the desk and rested my face in the palm of my hand. What the fuck…

“After long conversations between the FBI and local police precincts, the suspected murderer has been identified as Luca Everett.” Mattie shook his head and clicked around the page. His silence forced me to turn towards him. What else did he see?

“How is Lotus part of this?” I asked, gripping the edge of the desk tightly.

“That was the local human newspaper—here, hold on.” He clicked around more, hit a few more keys and then forcefully blew out air. “Okay… now I see what they’re talking about.”

“What?”

Not wanting to wait another minute, I forcibly yanked the screen in my direction where I found the headline that left my brother rubbing the side of his face.

There were no pictures, but the publication appeared to be from some vampiric paper I wasn’t familiar with.

Luca Everett was written about in detail.

His description, his true age, origin, and the fact that he had a sister.

I shook my head, the dread settling in the pit of my stomach as I read Lotus’ name on the screen.

But as I continued reading, the rage inside me only continued to bubble up and boil over.

Lotus was never around the victims; she couldn’t have been.

Only because she was related to Luca, the enraged vampires also put a huge target on her.

Of course—if they found her, then they would also find Luca.

“Basically, guilty by association. Can you believe this shit?” Mateo scoffed and got up from his chair. “Sounds to me like vampires were pissed about this incident and wanted to take it into their own hands so the treaties wouldn’t be threatened by one vamp’s crime.”

With an event this big in the vampiric community, I was shocked that I didn't know anything about it.

Mateo and I were still overseas while the treaties were being discussed.

We were still living with Elias and news of the outside communities rarely sounded through the halls of our home.

We set up Little Wing to combat so much of this and still felt so blindsided by something that swept the US community into a frenzy that stretched past state lines.

“You need to find her, Silas,” my brother confirmed the thoughts running through my head. “If some guy can just step in like that and grab her—”

“I know.”

I didn’t want to think about what could have happened. Still feeling frustrated with how I reacted, I pulled my phone out again and dialed Lotus’ number. When there was no answer, I sent her a few more texts.

Lotus, can we please talk?

Can you let me know you're safe?

Lotus?

When no responses came through, I began dialing the only other numbers I could think of. Kait and Reina.

“Reina—” I growled when the automated message played, cutting me off. After waiting to speak, I exhaled slowly. “Reina, it’s Silas. If you’ve heard from Lotus, please let me know. Or ask her to get back to me please. This is important.”

The entire situation was a clusterfuck. I was blindsided by information that apparently everyone else knew, I was sleeping with the woman that other vampires would happily tear apart if they were given the chance.

Despite the cruel words that were printed about her, all that I wanted was to find her and protect her from anyone threatening to harm her.

But the only way I could even consider that was if I knew where I could find her.

Until then, I had no clue what else to do other than to keep Little Wing running.

With today’s events having occurred during one of our busiest times, I needed to remain collected enough to assure our guests that Little Wing had things under control and that they were in fact not in any danger at all.

How I wanted to believe those words myself.