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Shiloh disappeared froet to her The police report said three of the girl’s friends had watched as she was yanked into a dark car, maybe a Lincoln or a Park Avenue The car squealed off before the friends could do anything Shiloh had been kidnapped In New Orleans In Leo’s main power base

Quickly, I minimized the screen and opened a different file, one provided by NOPD, listing all the witch children who disappeared in their city, kidnapped and never found Shiloh E Stone was on the list I co to the dates other witch young had vanished Three others had gonein the same month "Oh crap," I whispered I knehat this case was about, now As with s va event buried beneath the weight of tile thread that tied the disconnected parts together Shiloh Everhart Stone

I opened more of my own files and discovered that the policeuson; he had filed the report as a runaway, not as a kidnapping Shiloh was a witch kid He hadn’t cared about a nonhuman child who disappeared, had, in fact, hated theuson, just before an ancient va with his blood I hadn’t tried to stop the vahter in Leo’s city, in Leo’s territory, likely to the va witch children to the pink blood-dia-chained--scions who never found sanity Evangelina had known that She had claiotiate peace between vamps and witches, and compensation to the witches for the loss of their children, not that there could ever be sufficient coone there to kill the man she held responsible for her child’s death Leo Pellissier

Evan hadn’t known about Shiloh running away and being kidnapped, which elina had kept it all secret until she spelled her sisters to enact vengeance on Leo Shiloh had run away froelina killed Marvin by accident, later? Or had Shiloh seen Evil Evie kill her father and then run away? Crap I’d never had a faator, I knew that family secrets were the very worst They destroyed so , as if, after decades in the grave, the dead reached out to shatter the living

Molly had never told elina had likely not told her sisters Probably because she had killed her husband I called Evan and left the info about Shiloh on his voice mail He needed to know They all did But for some reason, I didn’t mention what I feared had happened to Marvin Stone Coward I was a coward

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Eat Hu at the coelina knew that Leo’s now-true-dead scions killed Shiloh The witch was trying to get back at Leo for the decades of h to try to kill him in open confrontation She had appeared in New Orleans, allied with the wolves, tried to help thee of thorns that let the wolves in Unrelated, but associated, I took a gig in ot out of jail, they had followed eance Evangelina--who had been kicked out of New Orleans by Leo--found out that weres had followed me to Asheville and lured them to her home, her place of power And there she created a spell or upped the power on an existing one, with their two-natured blood The spell was intended to kill Leo, as dead and undead--one of the two-natured It all made sense

I dialed Bruiser When he picked up, before he could say ested to Leo that Lincoln Shaddock was ready to be master of his own city" When he didn’t answer, I said, "Was it you?"

"Yes" He sounded bewildered, and just a tad defensive "I recoo to the Appalachians and meet with Lincoln Amy Lynn Brown had coood call Why do you ask?"

Instead of answering, I asked a question "And Leo was going?"

"At first, yes Then he changed his mind Why Do You ask?"

I closed elina had you spelled and open to suggestion She set this whole thing in place, to get Leo here, in her hoave her power to draw on And she thought you could force the issue" The reed to the parley was because of the location of her coven, though he never knew that

I heard Bruiser’s slow intake of breath I alh the airwaves My cell beeped It was Molly’s nuet back to you" I cut Bruiser off and said, "Hi"

"I’m sorry," Molly said Before I could reply she went on "For not believing you aboutFor not standing up to Big Evan when he was an ass about you"