Jonas (Darkness #7)(3)

No one ever knew Jonas had endured worse. He’d been too embarrassed to say anything.

“That’s all for today. Tomorrow maybe you’ll come to your senses.”

It took Jonas a moment to realize the light pain had stopped. He looked around in confusion, only catching the female wiping off her whip at the far wall and hanging it up carefully. He glanced down at his chest. He had two gashes, and a great many welts.

The pain of his memories was what lingered, however. Physical pain would diminish in time. His past wouldn’t. And hadn’t.

Chapter Two

“Where the hell is Jonas?” I roared. Panic threatened to overcome me. I stared at the collected group of Watch members all gathered around the large oval table in the strategy room. Stefan and Jameson stood at the head of the room, quietly watching me. Charles stood in the back corner, his eyes grim, his face a mask of rage. Paulie stood at my back, hands at his sides, just watching. He could look terrifying just doing that.

“My family member has been taken. I do not care that he is not blood—he is mine. I want him back. What are we doing to find him?” I demanded.

Yes, Stefan was supposed to lead these types of meetings. This was his territory. But when the guy we caught said we shouldn’t be too hard on him, because then his guys would kill Jonas, I’d gone a little berserk.

“We know that they are English. We know that they think shifters are lowly mongrels, and we know they think humans are even worse than that—that captive really does hate humans.” I paced the front of the room. I could get away with not being composed—I was more dangerous in this state of mind and everyone knew it. They also appreciated it, being a warrior race. “This means they will treat humans like you guys used to treat humans. They will use their pheromones, take them as blood donors and playthings, then kill them or just dump them off somewhere. So we are looking for an area steeped in ghost stories. An area where people, especially street people—“ I gave a poignant glance back at Paulie, “will warn others to stay away from. A place that people get picked up, and then turn up a few days later talking about being used for sex and loving it. Something like that. People do not like when days go missing—they’ll tell their friends. People also do not like when someone talks about paranormal activity—those who hear the stories will think the storytellers are nut jobs. All of this will be circling around the town. All we have to do is listen.”

“The problem is, we don’t know which town,” Stefan said in a harsh voice. He did not like that one of his people was in enemy hands. Killing boiled in his dark eyes. “I put in requests immediately after he was taken to speak to the territories around this one. They’ve ignored me so far, however, and if I just show up, they’ll take it as an act of war.”

“Why?” I asked with my hands on my hips.

“Because they know I am outgrowing my post here. I’ve gotten more than a few challenges in my day to break off sections of my already larger-than-most territory. The territory leaders don’t trust me. They know I can gain an even larger territory if I truly desired. They’ll assume I want to carve out a bigger territory, and they will act defensively.”

“God your people are paranoid. And asinine. And no, I don’t need you comparing yourselves to humans—we are, too. I get it.” I turned to Paulie. “That leaves your network of criminals.”

“They’re already on it. I’m working with Tim’s people—he’s got a pretty good network himself,” Paulie answered in his rough gravel. He was new to this life, and the Mansion, and his magic, but he was already an active member of the Watch and extremely useful. His network of street people, all in their own gangs and only moonlighting for him because of the money and because he had no affiliation with anyone, were turning out to be damned useful.

“I’ll get Birdie and her witches to start spreading out,” I said. “They need to make friends with the New Age people in other cities, anyway.”

“It amazes me how useful humans are becoming,” Jameson reflected as he surveyed Paulie and me hashing out a rough plan. “It opens up a whole network of information. Just think if they could all use their magic, too.”

“That’s what Cato is planning,” I muttered. Then snapped my fingers. “Why haven’t I called him?”

“Dominicous is meeting with him in person,” Charles reminded. Charles had lost his sense of humor when we’d realized Jonas had been taken. They didn’t get along all that well, but it was clear that Charles thought of him as a brother. His eyes were grim and his body rigid. Flashes of light gold flared in his tattoos. He was ready to battle.

We all were. Jonas may be widely feared, but he was also widely respected. And he was ours. End of story.

“Oh yeah.” I rubbed my temples. “He and Toa took that English guy and the shifter to Cato. Okay, then let’s get people out there.” I touched everyone with a glare. “Secure our territory, and get the eyes and ears out. He can withstand a lot of pain, as we know, but this is still going to suck for him. We want to get him out of harm’s way as fast as possible.”

I got a chorus of, “Yes, Mage,” before I turned my eyes to the guy that would actually organize things. Stefan caught the glance and imperceptibly nodded. He and Jameson advanced to the map as worry started to fog over me again.