“Tessa?” I pushed through the heavy door to the back. Boxes greeted me, all of them neatly stacked and stowed in alphabetical order on the shelves. Silence greeted me.
Irritation prickled my skin. Not again. I checked the small employee bathroom first. Empty. Tessa, I’m gonna skin you alive if you disappeared on me again.
Picking up my pace, I searched down each aisle but didn’t see my sister’s flowing skirt, blond hair, or hear her tinkling laugh. And Star Tattoo Guy was long gone.
Annoyance sank its teeth into me, tearing off a huge bite. The last thing I needed was my sister leaving for another impulsive trip to wherever the hell she went to this time. Our busiest hours were about to start since it was almost five.
Grumbling, I was about to head back up front when a breeze caressed my cheeks. It carried the hint of street dust. I jogged to the very back, and sure enough, the large back door, only used for deliveries, was wide open.
Of course. I sighed in relief. The shipment must be here. And to think I’d automatically assumed the worst of Tess.
Guilt niggled me again as I called, “I can take it from here!”
My sister hated doing deliveries. The boxes were dirty and heavy, and it required careful inventory to ensure everything had arrived and was catalogued and stored correctly.
But when I reached the back door, neither the hum of the delivery truck nor the bang of truck doors came. Neither did my sister’s cheerful voice.
Frowning, I peered into the alleyway. It was empty, but a flash of brown in my peripheral vision caught my attention.
Tessa’s sandal lay on the ground. It was the one she’d been wearing with her floral-print skirt.
I hurried over to it, the sense of unease returning and pulsing through me. Of its own accord, magic coursed through my veins, humming through my body as I opened myself up to the world around me while channeling the psychic portion of my power. Thankfully, it reacted normally this time, swirling and growing, unlike what had happened with Star Tattoo Guy earlier.
Reaching out with my mental power, I settled it on Tessa’s shoe.
A black cloud of fear hit me first. Then the remnant of a struggle. Tessa’s scream came next, the sharp, piercing sound cutting through my magic’s fog.
My breath caught as psychic energy poured through me, soaking into my cells and infusing my being with the horrific images pummeling my mind. I fell to the ground and groped for Tessa’s sandal.
The second my skin made contact with the leather, a flash of imagery so intense and clear entered my mind that I stopped breathing: Tessa on the ground struggling to break free, meaty arms enclosed around her, her muffled scream as she tried to call for help, then a flash of a constellation tattoo with arrows around it as the man dragged her down the alley.
I dropped her shoe. “Oh my gods!” I exclaimed as my eyes peeled open.
Panic fired through my veins, and my heart turned into a thumping beast. Because the one thing I knew in the very depths of my soul?
My sister had just been abducted, and I’d done nothing to help her.
OceanofPDF.com
Chapter 2
I frantically felt inside me for the witch-twin bond that Tessa and I shared. It hummed slightly just below my navel. It’s still there. Which meant my sister was still alive, but since our bond was so weak, that meant she was far away. I couldn’t pinpoint her location. He must have taken her somewhere. Probably through a portal.
I whipped out my phone and dialed the Supernatural Forces—our kinds’ military and police enforcement—but an automated response came. The robotic voice sounded eerily cheerful as it relayed how nobody could answer the phone at this time.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I yelled as the alley’s cold, dry air continued to swirl around me.
“I’m sorry. All recipients are busy at this time,” the robot replied. “If you would like to leave a message, a local Supernatural Forces member will return your call by the end of the business day.”
I ended the call, fury slicing through me as fear raced closely behind it.
Bolting back into the storeroom, my heart was thudding so hard I could barely breathe as I raced to the front of the store just as Nicole came through the door.
“Heya, Tala!” she called in a chipper voice. “Thanks to your help, I aced my potions exam today, and—” She stopped in her tracks, her head cocking to one side. “What’s wrong?”
I grabbed my purse from the office. “I’m sorry. I have to go. Something terrible has happened to Tessa, and I’m not getting through to anyone at the SF.”
“What’s happened this time?” Nicole asked dryly, then clamped a hand over her mouth, her cheeks brightening. “I mean, I hope she’s okay.”
I gave her an anguished look. “It’s real this time. I need you to close up tonight. Call Sajid to come in if you need help.” I flew out the front door before she could reply, the bell nearly falling from its hook in my mad-dash escape.
Outside, the cool fall breeze flowed over my cheeks as I tried ringing the SF again on my way to the portal. I hung up when I got the same automated response. “Stupid, worthless organization!”
The sidewalks were full of supernaturals in our small marketplace. I had to race around people or risk being caught in the congestion.
“Hey, watch it!” somebody called when I accidentally barreled into them.
I finally reached the glowing red portal that led to the human side of downtown Chicago. With a single leap, I was through it and landed in a back alleyway in the heart of downtown. I didn’t waste any time. Images of those meaty arms closing around my sister and her icy fear kept smashing into me.
I whipped my phone out and typed as fast as I could into my rideshare app. The smell of exhaust hung heavy in the air, and I cursed the time. Rush hour traffic had begun. It would be a nightmare to get out of the city, and my local Supernatural Forces’ office was inconveniently located five miles west of here.
Thankfully, an available car was only two blocks away. A few minutes later, the driver pulled up and I jumped in before leaning forward in my seat. “Please hurry, as fast as you can. It’s an emergency.”
The tires squealed when he pulled into the nightmare traffic that was Michigan Avenue. Cars honked as everyone whizzed by. If Tessa’s abduction had happened anywhere but inside our small supernatural marketplace, I could have called 911. Even though supernaturals normally dealt with our issues internally, an abduction would be an exception. But dammit, Star Tattoo Guy had taken my sister in the one area of limited resources. Since Chicago’s supernatural population was actually quite small, our SF office was often lacking in availability.
My knee jittered up and down as the driver wove in and out of traffic, doing his best to stick to the fast-flowing lanes. It felt like forever, though, until he finally pulled up to the curb outside of the SF office.
“Thank you! I’ll leave you a big tip!”
I didn’t wait for his reply before I leaped out and sailed toward what appeared to be a mom-and-pop barbershop. I sprinted to the front door, and a hum of magic washed over my skin when I barreled over the threshold.
The illusion of salon chairs, mirrors, and blues music disappeared as the Supernatural Forces’ office materialized in front of me. From the outside, no human would have guessed that the supposed barbershop was actually the gateway to the supernatural community’s elite law enforcement and military combined.
“May I help you?” The receptionist didn’t bother glancing up when I reached the counter. So Jeff was working today. No wonder the phone hadn’t been answered. Thankfully, only two other people sat in the waiting area.
