That was also the night that Morgan had found Sophia. Not that the Hunter had immediately known what she’d found in that walk-in cooler in the back of Rodolfo’s greenhouse. Morgan had assumed Sophia was a statue, an intricately carved piece of art, and while she may have thought it was odd to keep such a piece in cold storage, she hadn’t made the connection until Travis had told her about the way dragon shifters heal when gravely wounded.
Her eyes focused on the words Kane had pointed out and Sophia felt a twinge of grief mingling with her anger and feelings of betrayal. Deceased. Nate was gone. He may have been what led to her capture, may have even benefitted from it, but he’d been sweet to her and she’d thought herself in love…
Shaking off those thoughts with the conviction that she’d process her emotions later, she quickly exited Nate’s file and scrolled back up to the first entry on the page. This was about finding those who hurt her that were still out there and bringing them to justice. She needed to focus.
File after file, she pulled up, stared at the provided image, and then discarded. The sun continued its trek across the sky, more food and drink was brought in, low conversation buzzed around her. A few of the faces she recognized, only to discover they, like Nate, were dead. Two recently given over to Destin Jourdain for punishment for the death of his witches, one killed by Archer Langley for the kidnapping and forced Turning of the alpha’s now-deceased wife.
Sophia had openly winced at that one but then couldn’t help but chuckle when Jamie glanced over Sophia’s shoulder, saw the vampire in question, and gave the image on the screen the middle finger with a snarled, “Sadistic bastard. I’m glad he’s dead.”
Sophia was just beginning to think that all of her tormentors had been killed before her waking and that this was a useless time suck when she opened the file for a vampire named Kevin Thompson. She remembered him, remembered how he’d been tearing at her thigh with his teeth, her blood smeared all over his face and splattered in his blond hair. And Kevin Thompson’s status was listed as ‘Suspected rogue, currently at large’.
“Him,” she said, turning the laptop so everyone could see. “He’s one of the ones who –” her voice broke, and she stopped to clear it, finishing with. “He’s one of them.”
Sophia was suddenly surrounded by fierce faces, her brother’s eyes shifting to that of his dragon, the scent of sulfur thick in the air.
“I’ve been running facial recognition on this guy for Kane,” Jamie offered.
“That slippery little bastard’s been avoiding me, but I’ll get him for you,” Kane added. “We’ll stake him out right here if you want and let you burn him to ash.”
“I want to help with the hunt.”
That statement didn’t do anything to ease her brother, in fact, he seemed dangerously close to a shift as he narrowed those reptilian eyes on her. “No way in hell.”
Her own eyes narrowed in return as she stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest. “I have the right. Don’t try to stop me.”
Travis levered himself up and began pacing the clearing as snarled curses fell from his lips. Finally, he turned back and pointed at her. “Fine. Let’s say I forget the fact that we’re talking about a rogue vampire on the run who’s most likely desperate and will do anything to avoid capture and stupidly, I agree to let you help search for him. Let’s even suppose you find him, then what? What’s the plan, Sophia? You have no fight training – have you ever even held a gun?”
“I’m a dragon, Travis.”
Her annoyingly overprotective brother slapped his hand on his forehead. “Oh, I see,” he sarcastically declared. “So, if you find him on Bourbon Street the plan is to release your dragon so everyone can witness your badassery? Oh, my God, what a great plan.”
Sophia’s lips twisted with chagrin as she attempted to come up with a rebuttal only to hear Morgan state, “I’ll teach her.”
Both Sophia and Travis shot the Born Hunter matching looks of wide-eyed surprise. Morgan simply shrugged. “I’m about to open a school to train new Hunters, if I can’t teach one, I shouldn’t be teaching any.”
Travis sputtered. “She’s my sister.”
If Morgan was at all worried that she was upsetting her mate, she didn’t show it. Her face was calmness itself as she pointed out, “She’s also a dragon. One who lost five years of her life thanks in part to this asshole. She deserves vengeance.”
Okay. Sophia officially had a girl-crush.
Jamie nodded vigorously, in full agreement with Morgan. “We can both teach her.”
Kane chose that moment to stand and add his two-cents. “While I’m all for the woman power thing, I feel I should point out that Kevin Thompson is my responsibility and currently tops my list for an ass-kicking. I can’t stop the hunt to wait for you to be ready, Sophia. If I find him, I’m taking him down.”
Sophia frowned at Kane’s statement, but couldn’t argue the logic. “Fine, but I’m still going to train with Morgan and Jamie,” she said with a pointed look at her brother before turning back to Kane. “And whoever finds him first, he’s mine to punish.”
Kane’s eyes narrowed slightly in consideration before he nodded sharply. “Agreed.”
As they all stood up to take their leave, Sophia and Jamie were discussing a training schedule, but Morgan’s eyes were on her mate. Even if she hadn’t seen the stiff posture, the clenched jawline, and that little vein in his temple rocking its own beat, she would have known they were going to have words once they were alone.
And sure enough, as soon as they stepped foot in the house on stilts that he’d built as his sanctuary, Travis pulled her into their bedroom and shut the door.
“She’s my sister,” he practically hissed as Morgan made herself comfortable on their bed.
Pacing down at the end, Travis’s arms were flailing wildly about. “Do you have any idea how hard it was? She disappeared without a trace. Five years, Morgan. Five. Years. No body,” he said ticking the point off on his finger. “No clues, no leads, no suspects. Nothing to follow up on except a hunch. Do you know how many times I gave up hope? How much I grieved thinking her dead?”
Morgan’s heart clenched for him. She felt his pain, but… “You can’t wrap her up in bubble wrap and hide her away from the world, Travis.”
