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That sounded just great, but of course it was easier said than done. Story of our lives.

A few days passed and different members were sent in various directions to scope out some draak leads but still no word from Lynn.

Caleb and Christian went to Florida to check out some disturbances that fit the right MO.

Everyone was to investigate and report. No one got to engage without backup, but it still made me twitchy to split up like that.

I had Dom attempt to set up another meeting between me, Drake, and Lynn. If we could get a moment alone like last time, I should be able to handoff her eyes, hopefully without being detected.

Of course there was a good chance Drake knew we already had them. How else had Lynn gotten the intel on my father’s location if he didn’t have someone in there? In that case we might need to take more… aggressive measures if Drake became uncooperative. I would do whatever it took to get my sister’s eyes back to her.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

TIME STANDS STILL

I was a fool. A masochist. A glutton for punishment. I was the type that kept picking at a scab, keeping the wound open until it scarred, though my scars were on the inside.

Knowing all this, with a few days to kill, I found myself seeking out The Grove, yet again.

“More,” I spoke to the blood red water, before I even saw the creature emerge.

It didn’t take long to present itself. A white body, that odd, wrong, creepy as hell presence, was out of the water and nearly to me in the strangest move. It never looked like it was moving fast, but it covered ground between one blink and the next.

It paused when it reached me, and I clenched me teeth.

I felt like a junkie looking for a fix, and perhaps I was. My fix just happened to be pieces of my past, our past.

“Don’t draw it out,” I told it, my voice harsh. “I don’t have much time.”

“You know how it works here, first-born,” it breathed on me. “Time stands still.”

Wasn’t that just the brutal truth of it?

Without another word, it took me under.

I was on shit duty in Denver with Cam. It was a punishment from the Arch, but I didn’t mind it. It consisted of traveling constantly and investigating possible supernaturals that weren’t on the registry. Two things I was interested in anyway, but I’d never share with Declan that I was more than happy with the punishment. Then he’d move me for sure.

Declan, the North American Arch, had nearly as much of a problem with Cam, so here we were at some random private investigative firm checking things out.

The receptionist was human, I could tell right away. An unexceptional middle-aged woman that looked at us with wide eyes and just stared for a beat.

We were unusual—bigger than most men, our coloring similar and striking, my eyes outright strange. We wore impeccable three-piece suits and moved with proud purpose.

We were used to this reaction so we just waited for her to gather herself.

“How can I help you?” she asked eventually.

“I have an appointment with one of the P.I.s here,” Cam said, looking down at his paperwork and listing off the name.

“Oh,” the woman said. “She’s running a few minutes late. I’m terribly sorry. Just have a seat and I’ll tell you when she’s ready.”

“I also have an appointment,” I told her, and glancing down at my own paperwork, I read off the name of the second investigator listed by the agency. We had to check out both to see which one wasn’t blending in as strictly human.

“You… both have appointments?” she asked slowly. She picked up her phone. “Let me just tell my boss.”

I reached over her desk and hung her phone up. “That’s not necessary. Just point me in the right direction.”

“She won’t like—”