Warrior (Relentless #4)(56)

I turned to the troll. “How long do we have?”

“Elders meet now. I come find Sara to see if we find little ones before.”

Roland looked at us in confusion. “Before what?”

Sara’s voice was barely a whisper. “A rampage. The elders are going to rampage.”

Roland turned to me. “That does not sound good.”

I laughed harshly. “There is a reason why no one – not even a vampire – tangles with trolls. If you mess with one troll, you get the whole clan, and if you harm one of their young, you die. And if a young troll goes missing, the clan rises up to find them – or who took them. Trolls are even better trackers than crocotta, and once they are worked up into a rage, they will kill anyone who has come into contact with their missing children. And during a rampage, trolls do not distinguish between the innocent and the guilty.”

Sara and Roland paled. Even the troll looked scared, which didn’t bode well for us.

When the doorbell rang, I answered it, knowing it had to be Chris. “Just in time for the real fun,” I quipped as he stepped inside.

“Fun?” He grinned and walked past me.

And then he saw the troll.

“What…what…?” he uttered, his face draining of color.

“Here, you need this more than I do.” Roland handed Chris a glass of whiskey, which Chris downed in one gulp.

“Nikolas, why is there a troll here?” Chris asked without taking his eyes off Sara’s friend.

“Chris, meet Remy, Sara’s partner in crime,” I said wryly.

“Huh?”

I filled him in on Sara’s troll friend and what the two of them had been up to. Before he could recover from his shock, I brought him up to speed on everything else that had happened in the last hour.

“This is some kind of joke, right?”

“God, I wish it was.” We followed the others into the living room, and I went to stand by the window. I would not have been surprised to see a hoard of trolls descending upon us.

Chris sat on the couch and smirked at me. “Your little orphan is just full of surprises. Never a dull moment.”

“I’m nobody’s little orphan,” retorted Sara, who sat near the fireplace with the troll beside her. No matter how many times I saw them together, I still couldn’t believe my eyes.

Chris chuckled. “So, what’s the plan?”

“We’ve got to find them,” Sara answered.

No one spoke, and her eyes misted. I could handle anything but her tears.

“They’re only babies,” she said. “God knows what those people will do to them.”

“Can’t he track them?” Roland asked, pointing at the troll, who shook his head sadly.

“Only elders know tracking. If I close, I find them.”

That was all well and good, but we had to get close to them first. I didn’t want to bring up the fact that those trolls could be in the next state by now. Anyone who would risk their lives to steal young trolls was not going to stay around their territory. If it were me, I’d be on a plane to some place on the far side of the planet.

“I’m calling Malloy.” Sara pulled out her phone. “If anyone has heard about this, it’s him.”

“Who is Malloy?” How many damn people were messed up in this?

Sara ignored me, so Roland answered. “Buyer.”

Buyer? I frowned at him, and he made a face. “Don’t ask.”

Oh, I’d ask all right. When this was over – if we made it out alive – Sara and I were going to a long and very overdue talk.

I took out my own phone and called Erik. I gave him a brief overview and told him to recall his guys from Boston. Chris gave me a questioning look when I hung up.

“I called in Erik’s team. It has to be a big player to risk the trolls’ wrath. I guess we know who sent the witch, too. It had to be someone with a lot of power and influence to get one of them.”

A soft gasp drew my attention to Sara, who had suddenly gone pale. “This is all my fault. I’m so sorry, Remy.”

“It my fault, too,” he told her quietly.

“I promise we’ll get them back.” She hugged him – and he hugged her back, making me question everything I’d ever heard about the notoriously hostile race. Before today, I’d never even seen a troll in person. Tristan had some dealings with them, but that was before my time. How the hell had Sara not only met one but befriended him as well? Watching them together, it was obvious they had been close friends a long time. Chris was right. My little orphan was full of surprises. Thank God, there was no way she could top this one.

Movement in the hallway drew my attention. Peter entered the living room and came up short. “Am I delirious, or do I really see a troll over there?”

“Pete, meet Remy,” Roland said. “He and Sara have been trading his bile for stuff on the black market. Someone tracked them down and kidnapped three of his little cousins, and unless we find them ASAP, we’re all going to be killed in a really horrible way by a mob of angry trolls.” He looked at me. “That sound right?”

“Pretty much.”

“Oh.” Peter lost some of the color he’d regained and sank down to sit on the floor.

Chris came over to stand by me. “What’s the plan?” he asked in a low voice.