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were, her death most likely would be neither.
     
    Victor went to check on his sleeping child. He pushed quietly into her room only to find an empty bed. He passed into the adjoining room, certain he would find her curled up with Drake, but the boy was sprawled face down in the blankets alone. Victor extended his senses throughout the mansion but could not sense Ryan anywhere. He felt the stirrings of unease. He sat down on the edge of the bed and placed his hand gently on Drake. The small boy opened his eyes sleepily.
    “Where’s your mother?” Victor asked softly.
    Drake rolled over so he could look up at his grandfather. He yawned and brushed his dark hair from his eyes. “She went for a walk.” It seemed he sensed Victor’s concern and sat upright, his eyes darkening. “Is Ryan okay?”
    Victor smiled. It was one of Drake’s peculiarities that he referred to Ryan by her name, not “mom” or “mama” or “mother.” He did the same with Victor. Ryan speculated it was because Drake had acquired language in a very unique way, not simply by repetition, trial-and-error and mimicry as did most children, but through direct mental contact with Ryan. He had absorbed her language schema before he had ever spoken a word. And although Ryan now referred to Victor as “father,” she also still called him “Victor” out of habit, as she had done for centuries prior to learning that he was in reality her parent.
    It did not bother Ryan in the least, and in fact, she thought it probably brought Drake a measure of protection. Although many knew that she had a son, there was no sense in inviting trouble.
    “I’m sure she’s fine,” Victor said. He lifted the covers and motioned for the boy to lie back down, which Drake did. “You go back to sleep.”
    Victor left the room, but Drake did not go back to sleep. He stared into the darkness, occasionally chewing his lower lip. He more than anyone knew that Ryan was not fine.
     
    Victor caught Edward in the hallway. “Have you seen Ryan?”
    Edward identified and shared Victor’s concern. “I thought she was sleeping in her room.”
    Victor shook his head. “Drake said she went for a walk.”
    Edward’s response was brisk. “I will check the gardens. Dr. Ryerson is still in her lab, perhaps you should check there.”
    Victor nodded in agreement, but he was not optimistic. He did not sense Ryan anywhere, but that was not as meaningful as it would have been under normal circumstances. Prior to these recent events he could sense his child hundreds of miles away, but right now he was not certain he could sense her in the next room.
    Moments later, Edward returned to the hallway as did Victor with Susan in tow. Edward shook his head in response to the unasked question.
    “I will access the security cameras.”
    Victor nodded grimly. Initially, he had thought the idea of security cameras ludicrous. No technological gadget had even close to the sensory abilities of their Kind. But Edward had been disturbed by the ease with which Madelyn and her men had infiltrated their compound when Susan and Drake had been kidnapped. And although security cameras would not have prevented the abduction, they would have at least recorded it.
    Edward entered the control room and skillfully manipulated the system. The only one who was perhaps more skilled with the technology was Jason, but he was asleep right now. Victor stood back from the screens. Although he was anxious to see what, if anything, was recorded, the video playback at thirty frames per second was too slow for his preternatural eyes. Additionally, although the resolution was relatively high definition, the picture would appear to him as little more than dots, like an impressionist painting up close. Edward seemed to have found some visual work-around and quickly found what he was looking for.
    “It looks like Ryan left about an hour ago,” he said examining the footage. He switched camera views. “She was on foot and nothing