I groaned before turning the water off, exiting the shower. Wiping the moisture from the mirror, I stared at my pale eyes and stringy hair. Exhaling slowly, I opened the makeup bag and started applying cosmetics to cover the bruises on my cheeks that hadn’t healed. I’d need to check in with Bali and see what was up with that, since my body should have been healing already.
Once I had my face on, I peered down at the marking that started beneath one breast, slowly drifting down the side to my hip, where it moved toward my belly. Glaring at the thin black marks, I trailed my fingertips over them until a knock at the door caused a soft cry to escape my lips as I jumped.
“Everything okay in there? I got coffee on, and an omelet started,” Noah called through the door. “It’s filled with meat, just how you like it.”
I rolled my eyes at my startled response. “I’ll be out in a moment.” I glanced at the tight tank top I wouldn’t have typically chosen for myself. I preferred baggy clothes, but I hadn’t bought any before leaving.
I hadn’t purchased many clothes at all, but mostly because they ended up destroyed from hunting. I owned only a few pairs of jeans, camisole tops, and army fatigues. Grabbing the green army jacket, I slid it over my arms and gave my ragged appearance a once over before adjusting the jeans that hugged my hips.
Stepping from the bathroom, I smiled at Noah, who gazed at the outfit. “I’m guessing Kaderyn helped my dad shop for clothing?”
“Nope,” she called from the other room. “Noah did that because he said you’d need something to wear when you came home. We all know you suck at buying things for yourself, even though there’s such a thing as online shopping!”
“Yeah, I’m aware!” I shot back, grumbling as I exited the bedroom to find the den filled with people. Bali looked at my face, covered in makeup, and grimaced.
“Add more cover-up. You look like a battered woman, babe,” he stated, standing from the small couch he dwarfed with his form. Kind blue eyes with thick black lashes batted innocently when I growled at his words. “Here,” he said, handing me some pills. “These will help with the healing. I fear Ezekiel’s formula doesn’t go with your specific genetic make-up, but then nothing really does. Take two now and two in a couple of hours. It should remove the bruising on your face, but not the deep tissue wounds. Those look angry today, but angry means it’s healing. I’m guessing the amount of damage you took has something to do with the slow healing process.” He dropped four blue pills into my hand and smiled gently. “I saved five of the dying, but the rest…” his smile faded as he shook his head. “We have twenty-nine dead, Xariana. I wish I could have saved more, but the damage was substantial from the bombs that went off in the courtyard.”
“It didn’t look like a bomb in the videos. It looked like the cars exploded and then folded into themselves. We’ll have to wait for the forensic team to look closer at the scraps left from the detonations,” I muttered, eyeing the omelet as my mouth salivated at the smell inside the room.
Accepting a glass of water from Noah, I downed the tablets and headed toward the table, only for Bali to stop me.
“You need to wait at least an hour before eating, I’m afraid,” he informed, dashing my hopes of a home-cooked meal. Groaning, I turned, glaring at him. “I must insist unless you wish to vomit them and the meal up, Xariana. They’re rather touchy with food in your stomach. You may have coffee, though.”
Grumbling beneath my breath, I headed for the coffeepot, finding it empty. Sighing, I turned to see Noah holding out a cup with cream already in the mug. Smiling at him, he grinned back.
“I wasn’t trying you without some caffeine in your blood,” he stated, sipping from his mug.
“What would I do without you?” I muttered.
“What you’ve been doing without him for the last five months,” Micah snorted, causing my stomach to twist into a knot. “Where have you been?” he continued, as if he had any right to ask me.
“Hunting,” I snapped at him over the rim of the mug. “Not that it’s any of your business, now is it? I’m sure my whereabouts were the last thing that worried you, what with the new baby and wife to keep you happy.” I slipped out before noticing the uncomfortable silence that followed my statement.
“Okay,” Noah slowly stated, and my attention moved back to him. “I have the funeral rites planned to be held at the mansion. I hope that is okay? I figured that you’d want it to be performed there, because it’s where we usually hold them. I asked Kaderyn to find you something to wear since you don’t own a dress and will need one for tonight.”
“That’s fine,” I quipped, sipping the magical beans that turned me from a she-demon to human-ish. “It’s where my father would have had the ceremony, so we will too. Plus, the cemetery is there. I’ll grab the keys, and we can get some volunteers to move the caskets and things needed up to the mansion.” It fucking hurt to say it out loud, knowing that we had lost a lot of good people last night.
My stomach growled, and with a longing look, I eyed the omelet before allowing Noah to drag me out of the apartment. Twenty minutes later, we were reviewing what little info we’d discovered during the night, which wasn’t shit. If the Underworld was chattering, they were doing it silently.
Studying the images on the screen, I frowned. Doing a headcount, I deepened the crease in my forehead before standing up to walk closer. Turning, I moved back, grabbing the page of names I was about to call out over the air, ending the hunter’s service to the guild.
“Son of a bitch,” I snapped. “How the hell did we miss that?” I demanded crossly, kicking myself for not catching it sooner.
“What do you see?” Noah asked, coming up behind me to look at what I’d discovered.
“Twenty-nine people died, and five survived. There are seven women we have not found. Look at this,” I stated, clicking the frame to the image right before the first explosion happened. “It was a distraction. They took those women when the cars detonated, but we missed it last night. Forty-two people were in the courtyard. They took them just before the first explosion, and then took my father before the last one occurred. It’s a sleight of hand. First, draw the eye away from the purpose, and then remove them when the focus was elsewhere.”
“Holy shit,” he muttered beside me crossly. “No one even fucking guessed they were gone. How is that possible?”
“Easily,” I mumbled, focusing on the scene in case we’d missed something else. “They’re women that wouldn’t have been missed until we did a headcount. None of the girls have family here. They’re all orphans, varying in ages.”
“Okay, so they took women. Why?” Micah asked, fixated on the crumpled form of his wife on the computer.
I switched the images, frowning as I studied a photo of Micah beside Meredith, lifting her into his arms. It shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did, but learning the two had married and were expecting a child felt like I’d been socked in the gut. Through everything that had happened, I’d never seen that shit coming. It meant they had been fooling around for months while I’d been looking the other way. And the entire time, I’d been oblivious to the fact that they’d been together.