Shadow Watcher (Darkness #6)(41)

I felt pride well up through my link with Stefan. Yup, I was back.

“What should we do with him—”

Charles was cut off by a harried shifter bursting through the door in sweats. His gaze swept the room until he honed in on Tim. “Jim was taken down at the south end. It smelled like their kind.” No one had to question which kind “their kind” was, even though he didn’t flick his eyes at Stefan or anyone else.

“Is he dead?” Tim asked, standing up in a rush.

“Yes. And there was blood left behind, along with Jonas’ scent.”

Tim’s expression found Stefan, who was now standing with a blank face. Cold washed through my body. “Did someone go look for him?” I asked with a calm voice. There was no need to freak out yet.

Al, the shifter who had discovered the body, looked at me with a grim face. “The blood dripped along drag marks and went deep into the trees. Then the impression of footfall became heavier and the drag marks vanished. He was carried at the end. I doubt he was conscious.”

Now it was time to freak out.

I ran out the door and around the building, Stefan and Charles right behind me, a pack of shifters following them. With Al’s lead, we found the spot in question and I let my magic blanket the area, reading the traces of the invisibility spell as well as a binding spell. The magic work wasn’t intricate, but it was worked with a practiced hand.

“Why would they take Jonas but leave a shifter?” I asked with a flat voice, pushing through the trees with Stefan beside me.

“Do you feel anything?” Stefan asked.

“Just remnants of magic. It’s already vanishing back into nature. No one’s around. They took off.”

“Jonas?”

I shook my head. If he wasn’t working magic, I wouldn’t find him.

Stefan stepped in front, eyes to the ground. He kept moving at a quick pace, using his eyes, his magic, and sense of smell to track. In a hundred yards we reached a small dirt road with fresh spots of blood, a large area of flattened grass where a body had probably been thrown on the ground, and tire tracks.

Someone had taken Jonas. We had their shifter, so they took my bodyguard and then left their man behind when they realized we had him, too. “And they are all going to die,” I said with clenched teeth, finishing my thought.

Stefan turned toward me with a mask of rage taking over his expression. His eyes burned and his body was flexed, an alpha ready to take on an army. “Yes, they will. C’mon, we have work to do.”

Pushing down the well of emotion, and strapping on rage like Stefan, I gave a quick glance at the grim-faced and equally pissed Charles before I followed Stefan back into the trees. They’d declared war by trying to kill me, and just put a time stamp on it by taking Jonas--it was time to respond. And I’d make sure our answer was gruesome. No one messed with my family and walked away. I’d make sure of that.