Midnight Hour (Shadow Falls: After Dark #4)(47)

like a mother. Moving to the window, he looked down to the dark parking lot. No one was on the ground. The perp was either a vampire, or a …

Right then he felt it. A minuscule sting hit his arm. He felt it pop.

An orb. An orb left by a shape-shifter who’d just morphed.

He considered changing and giving flight, but to chase what? He couldn’t see anything in the dark sky.

Instead, he ran to see who he’d left bleeding—and kicked—in the other dark room.

As he went, he saw bloody footprints. One pair belonging to him, one not.

He snagged his phone and dialed Burnett. The call was answered before it rang. “We got a problem at the hospital! Sixth floor.” He never

heard Burnett speak. Hanging up, he pushed open the door, not knowing if the guy he’d left was trouble. Or if he owed someone an apology for

kicking the shit out of him.

Perry pushed open the door. The figure lay still on the floor.

Perry ran his hand on the side of the wall, looking for a light switch.

He found it. Light chased away the darkness.

Looking down at the unconscious heap on the floor, Perry’s breath caught at the official black FRU suit. Agent Farrell. He knelt, felt for a

pulse, and whispered, “I’m sorry.”

*

Miranda sat on the bed, her knees pulled up to her chest, her heart gripping. Ignoring the arguing adults. She’d started having the oh-shit

feeling five minutes ago, but hadn’t said anything. Then Burnett had stormed into the room, his demeanor and aura told Miranda that her oh-

shit premonition hadn’t been a ruse.

Tabitha was missing.

“We’ve searched the hospital,” Burnett said. “She’s not here.”

“I don’t understand,” Miranda’s father screamed at Burnett. “She went down for an MRI. How could she be missing?”

“We’re trying to figure that out, Mr. Kane,” Burnett said.

“Are you saying someone took her?” Mary Esther asked. She stared at the vampire as if he’d done something wrong, her panic palpable in her

expression.

Burnett’s empathy-filled gaze met Miranda’s briefly, before focusing on Tabitha’s mother. “We’re investigating it.”

Raw panic pulled at Miranda’s mind.

“No you’re not investigating, you’re here talking to us,” her father snapped. “Go find my daughter!”

Burnett didn’t flinch. “I understand you’re upset.”

Miranda looked back down at her phone. It had dinged with a text thirty seconds after Tabitha had been wheeled away. The message hadn’t made

sense.

He’s innocent. Don’t have a choice. Sorry.

Was her sister saying …

The door swung open. Perry, followed by Shawn, walked into the room. Miranda’s gaze shot from one guy to the other and her heart did a

complete stop, drop, and roll.

Blood.

Both were covered in it.

Both sported black eyes. What the hell had happened?

Burnett’s gaze, bright probably from the blood, went to Perry first. “And?”

“He’s going to be fine,” Perry said.

Burnett looked at Shawn.

“She’s in surgery.”

“Who’s fine? Who’s in surgery?” Miranda asked.

“What does this have to do with my daughter?” Mary Esther asked.

“We’ve had a couple of incidents,” Burnett said.

“What incidents?” Miranda asked.

“Agent Farrell, who went with Tabitha, was found injured.”

Her father, her mom, and Mary Esther all started talking at once. At first their angry words were directed at Burnett, then to each other.

“Quiet.” Burnett’s stern but considerate plea went ignored. Voices bounced off the white walls.

“Stop,” Miranda said, but her voice got lost in the sea of sound.

“Silence!” Miranda lost her cool. The mind-numbing chatter stopped like magic. Completely stopped. Like real … magic. One second she was

grateful, the next she saw that their mouths were still moving. Moving, but not a sound leaked out.

Crap! Had she done that? She shot a look at the only spell-wielding person in the room, Shawn. He understood her unasked question and shook his

head.

Then she felt it. The tingle on the tip of her pinky.

She’d done it. Mother crackers, she’d done it. But could she undo it?

She shot up a prayer to everything holy to make it so.

“I’m fixing it,” she muttered.

Their mouths stopped moving. Her father’s and her mom’s wide-eyed, oh-you-are-so-grounded stares shifted to her. Mary Esther’s look was more

glare than stare.

“But let … let him talk.” Her backbone weak, she twitched her finger. Relief hit when she heard them gasp. She hadn’t rendered them mute

for forever. But witch’s hell, she really needed to stop doing shit like that when she wasn’t sure she could undo it.

Mind to pinky spells were difficult to do, but more difficult to undo.

“You did that?” Pride rang in her mom’s voice.

“You twit!” Mary Esther screeched.