“It would have been much easier for the Jaeggi to take them by surprise,” Gunter finished.
“We need to find them,” Cameron said and led the way back to the car.
Tori followed a moment later. As much as he didn’t care for his old clan, they were still, in a sense, family. They were still his, and he was not about to let a bunch of Jaeggi assholes hurt them.
As he climbed back into the SUV, a loud whooshing or maybe a leathery flapping noise drew his attention to the sky. He looked up in time to see something large and glittery white cut through a large bank of clouds, causing them to shift and swirl. A smile teased his lips. One of the Valerii dragons. That. The world had been desperately missing that.
The return of mages to the dragon clans meant that for the first time in centuries, the skies could once again be filled with the sight of dragons soaring overhead. When he’d been in school, the image of dragons filling the skies had been used as a threat. Now, he could only see it as a beautiful promise.
He lingered for another couple of seconds, hoping to catch a flash of red for Baldewin’s dragon, but he’d had a much larger head start on them. Baldewin could be far on the other side of town by now. No matter. Baldewin was his mate. When they returned to Burkhard, he could beg Baldewin to shift so Tori could glory in the sight of his dragon without worrying about him eating a Taavi Clan member.
Back in the SUV, Cameron hurried them the rest of the way into the town and pulled over in the parking lot of a small coffee shop. There wasn’t a lot of room to work in the SUV, but Tori and Cameron didn’t need much to start the seeking spell over again. It helped that they were in the town. Tori could already feel hints of the various wards and alarms that the Jaeggi had set about the area, and he wasn’t sure if that would help or hinder his work.
“Hold up,” Alric said and quickly climbed out of the car. Tori looked out the front windshield to see Ravi jogging in their direction in his human form.
“Do you think they’ve found where the Jaeggi are hiding?”
“It’s possible. It’s not like there’s much to this town,” Tori murmured.
“And if you’ve got more than half a dozen dragons searching the area, they can make quick work of it,” Cameron added.
Ravi and Alric spoke for a moment and then approached the SUV. Gunter and Evora opened their doors to climb out.
“I think we found them,” Ravi announced a bit breathlessly.
“Where?”
“Old abandoned storefront. There’s a van parked in the back. Baldewin says it’s similar to the kind of van they used when they attempted to grab Tori.”
“Have you seen the Jaeggi? Or the kids? Do you know how many there are?” Alric asked.
Ravi was shaking his head before Alric even got all his questions out. “We can feel wards around the building, and we’re trying not to trigger any alarms before everyone can get there. We don’t know how many there are. But if they managed to easily grab three mages, we’re assuming that there are at least three of them. Probably more.”
“Are the Valerii there?”
The dragon nodded. “They had just arrived when I ran to find you.”
“Show us,” Alric ordered, and they climbed back into the SUV. Tori’s heart was pounding in his chest as they tore across town and parked on the side of the street. Fear and memories of his own kidnapping attempt left him wanting to remain in the safety of the van, but he knew that not even fear was going to keep him there. They were stealing mages, hurting his kind, draining them, and it could not be allowed to continue.
As they climbed out of the SUV, Baldewin walked over to him, a dark look cutting deep lines on his handsome face. His lover’s fierce expression made him glad his anger was not directed at him.
“I don’t like that you’re here,” he growled the moment he was at Tori’s side. “Is there any way I can get you to remain in the SUV while we deal with these Jaeggi?”
Tori placed his hand on Baldewin’s chest, covering his heart so he could feel it pounding against his fingertips. “You know I can’t do that. Alric isn’t about to make Cameron remain in the SUV.”
The consort snorted. “He knows that I’d never stay put, so he’s not wasting his breath.”
“That is sadly true,” Alric grumbled.
“My entire focus is keeping the mages safe,” Gunter promised, and it helped to erase some of the worry from Baldewin’s face.
“Besides, you will need us to pick apart these wards if you want to have the element of surprise before you strike,” Evora said in a practical tone, which silenced any further discussion of the mages remaining a safe distance away from the fight.