Wrong Side Of Dead by Kelly Meding Read Free Book Online Page B

the three of them.”
    “All right.” Brett hesitated. “With your permission, Mr. el Chimal, I’ll check the other rooms.”
    “Feel free.”
    Brett excused himself from the room. Phin’s cell phone rang. He made no move to answer it, so I yanked it out of his back pocket. Astrid’s name was on the caller I.D.
    “This is Stone,” I said.
    “Stone?” Astrid replied. “Why—?”
    “He’s preoccupied.”
    Phin shot me a grateful smile. He was struggling to remain outwardly calm, and I could easily imagine the inferno churning beneath. Although his Clan had lived peacefully in the city for decades, they were a warrior race. Sitting still and waiting were not in his nature. He wanted his family back.
    “What’s your status?” she asked.
    “Brett Lewis just confirmed that Halfies were involved. Joseph is wounded, but we don’t know how badly.”
    “Halfies seem to be a common thread in all the disappearances, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence—”
    “That we ran into Felix and crew tonight?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I had the same thought. Has he said anything?”
    “No.” She hesitated. “We’re about to begin interrogating him.”
    A tiny part of me wanted to be there; the rest of me was glad to be far away from it. Interrogating Halfies used to be one of my favorite pastimes, but seeing the face of someone I used to consider a friend staring back at me from the other side of the table … no.
    “Who’s interrogating him?” I asked.
    “Marcus and Wyatt.”
    I flinched. “Does Kismet know?”
    “Yes. I’ve forbidden both her and Gant from watching.”
    Not a bad idea. She and Milo did not need to see their old teammate tortured for information. And if Felix did know anything about these kidnappings, Marcus wasn’t going to be kind. I’d seen the were-cat in battle, and I’d seen his jaguar form rip throats out of Halfie teenagers.
    “Has anyone else gone missing?”
    “No. Everyone connected to a member of the Watch has been taken to a safe location, and the Assembly has been informed. The Clan Elders are seeing to their people.”
    “Good.”
    “How’s Phineas?” she asked in a voice so quiet I almost didn’t hear her.
    I glanced at the man in question—glaring out the bedroom window—then slipped into the hallway. I was halfway downstairs before I replied. “He’s pretty close to the breaking point,” I whispered. “I’m damned close to snapping, myself.”
    “I know what they mean to him.”
    “Yeah, just the future of his entire race.”
    Astrid sighed, and in the sound I detected … sadness? “The Felia and the Coni are not natural allies, but we all grieved for his Clan’s destruction. We want them back, Stone. All of them.”
    “Me, too.”
    “If Felix gives us anything, we’ll let you know.”
    “Okay, thanks.”
    I turned at the bottom of the stairs and nearly crashed into Brett. He stood by the living room wall, eyes closed, one hand touching a framed photo hanging at eye level. It was a candid shot of myself holding a squirming Ava, with Phin and Aurora in the background. I remembered the day it was taken. As Ava’s godparents, Phin and I had been invited to dinner so we could perform the official “bonding” ceremony. It mostly involved making a solemn promise to protect Ava and see to her future, and drinking a cup of stinky tea.
    Looking at her apple-cheeked face, with the same dark curly hair as her mother, my stomach ached for her safety.
    “Stone?” Astrid said.
    “One sec.” I pulled the phone away from my face. “Brett?”
    His eyelids flew up, and he blinked hard, eyes dilated so wide that only a thin circle of brown lined the irises. “Someone else was here,” he said.
    My heart thudded. “With the half-Bloods?”
    “At the same time, yes.”
    “Who?”
    “His face seems familiar, but I don’t know who he is. He’s human, though.”
    Little icy fingers danced up my spine. “Are you sure?”
    “Not one hundred percent, but close.