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beacon that he wears on his watch. We had GPS tracking them.”
    Hope gave me energy to sit up in my chair. “They must be taking him to the same place as Aurora.”
    “ Probably,” Dennis said. “Unfortunately, they shot his handler and dumped him on the side of the road, but we were able to talk to him before he died.”
    “ Oh,” I said. “I’m sorry he’s gone,” I mumbled, but I wasn’t really. All I could focus on was Aurora. My lack of empathy surprised me. “What did we find out?”
    “ They dumped off him almost twenty hours into the trip, near Kingman, Arizona.”
    I pulled out my phone and popped open the map application. I searched the map until it showed up on my screen . It was way up in the northwestern part Arizona. “They were on their way back here.”
    “ We think so,” Dennis said.
    I stood so fast the chair flew out behind me. “Okay. She’s here. What do we do to find them?”
    “ We’re doing everything we can,” Dennis said. “Before he died, his handler told us they were human. They’re probably using humans to do their dirty work so our seers can’t sense the Shyama presence.”
    “ That’s good, right?” I asked. “Because humans leave a trail.”
    “ Precisely,” Dennis said. “We’ll find them.”
    I tore my hands through my hair, floundering at my uselessness. “I need to do something. I can’t just sit here.” I stared at my feet. “Aurora is in the city. They could be doing things to her while I sit here doing nothing.”
    “ Well...” Carmen glanced at Konstantin. “We can drive around the city. See if any of us pick up on anything.”
    “ That’s a long shot,” Konstantin responded.
    She picked up the car keys. “We can’t just sit here. He can’t, at least.”
    My nerves tightened. I was so ready to get out of this house and find her.
    “You could do research,” Dennis said. “It would probably be more productive then sitting around here.”
    I put my hand on the wall and pushed against the wood until my fingers turned white. “Research?” I asked through clenched teeth. “And how, exactly, will that find her?”
    “ The handler overheard the captors say something interesting. It’s worth exploring.”
    “ Which is?” Carmen had dropped the keys back in her purse.
    “ He called the Shyama ‘rock demons,’” Dennis said. He pushed himself away from the table. “Could be nothing. Could be something.”
    “ Rock demons?” Konstantin frowned. “I’ve heard that somewhere before. I just need to remember where.”
    Carmen picked up her purse. “That’s weird and broad, but we should check it out.”
    I pushed away from the wall. Carmen watched me with strained , bright aqua eyes. “I can’t sit here and research demonology.” My voice was loud enough to carry to the others, but I was talking only to her, pleading with her to understand that I needed to get out of here.
    “ All right,” she said slowly. “Why don’t we split up? Maybe Gavyn and I can drive around while you guys research?”
    Dennis agreed.
    I was out the door seconds later, letting the dry air wrap around me. Carmen paused behind me while she dug around in her purse.
    The porch lights of the neighborhood were twinkling off, replaced by the lit squares of windows as the homes came to life.
    Aurora was out there somewhere. I would find her.

CHA PTER 6
    AURORA
    I woke up to the murmur of voices. Pain and soreness swept through my body which brought me reluctantly to the here and now.
    Oh crap.
    I shot up to a sitting position in bed. Everything hurt and felt stiff, like I’d been asleep for a decade instead of just a few hours. I smelled horrible. I touched my face, feeling the swollen, hot flesh. Those bastards. It was getting infected.
    I didn’t have too much time to think about it because heavy, loud footsteps thundered down the hall. Sounded like Mr. X.
    I cringed back into my mattress , trying to look as pitiful as I could, which didn’t require much