"Do you think they might reopen the case?" The woman looked hopeful.
"Possibly," I nodded. Well, she was talking to the Director of the ASD, after all—and the Liaison—me. We could do some snooping, if it might reconcile some families.
"Then come back tonight after dinner—around eight bells, if that's all right."
"We'll be here," I agreed, and Norian and I left.
* * *
"Honey, you can't have a meltdown, I need you," I got Norian into a warm shower after folding us to the hotel. Norian just put his arms around me and squeezed. If I hadn't been vampire, he might have crushed a rib or two. I got him into bed for a short sleep and went out looking for something I could bring back for dinner. He was still asleep when I got back, so I left him like that for a while.
It was while we were eating cold sandwiches later that Norian told me something I should have thought out myself. "Breah-mul," he said, "the full moon here on Phinerris is tomorrow night. I'll have to make the turn, so you ought to get me somewhere so I won't give myself away."
"Honey, I forgot all about that," I admitted, chastising myself mentally. "Do you do what the werewolves do, and go out to hunt?"
"Sometimes, if I'm hungry. Usually I just wander around, or climb a tree or something. If anything threatens me, well, it could get bitten. That's why I stay away from people around that time."
"Good to know—stay away from Norian on the full moon—check," I said.
"Deah-mul, I know not to harm you," he muttered. "I don't lose all my sense."
"Also good to know," I nodded. We got ready and went back out to the wheat farm we'd visited earlier. A man answered the door, and he was around three hundred years old, if my nose was correct. He didn't smell like Norian.
Not kin, I sent to Norian, who did his best not to jerk at the sudden mindspeech. We spent a pleasant evening with the family of lion snake shapeshifters—none of whom were related to Norian. We talked about looking into the old files and trying to determine what happened to the children, just so there might be closure for the families.
They sounded hopeful. They also offered drinks and snacks, but Norian and I declined, leaving after two hours. We got all sorts of information on when the child from their family disappeared, only they made it sound as if it were their ancestors instead of immediate family. The mother seemed most hopeful. I think the father was resigned to the fact that he would never see his child again. I felt really bad for him. At least I knew where Toff was.
* * *
"That was useless," Norian was extremely disappointed, I could tell, as we got ready for bed.
"But did you see the hope in that mother's eyes—that she might see her son again someday? That gives me hope, Norian. Hope that if we do find your parents, that they'll be so glad and relieved to see you. That's what I hope for." I gave him a kiss.
"Lissa Beth, if you weren't here with me, I wouldn't have the courage to stay."
"Honey, we'll go out and check the younger child's parents tomorrow. Then you can find a place to snake around tomorrow night and if we don't find your relatives, we'll go see the last ones the following day."
"I know," Norian sat heavily on the bed.
* * *
"This is nice." I looked up at the tall, three-story, stone house. The first one we'd visited was spacious enough, but this was a manor. Like the other, it too was centuries old and built to last. The wood frames and shutters around the windows were freshly painted in a pale green, picking up a similar color in the stones. The manor was covered in a dark slate roof, with three chimneys jutting from the top. Flowers lined the perimeter of the house in wide flowerbeds, with hedged walkways to and from barns and outbuildings in the near distance. It was picturesque, no doubt about that. We knocked on the door and a woman who appeared to be another housekeeper opened it up to us.
"We were expecting you—the Silbars called us last night. Please come in," she said and motioned us inside. We were led into what looked like a library on the first floor at the back of the house, and there was a man there, waiting on us. I drew in a breath, recognizing his scent, just as my skin itched furiously and he drew a laser pistol from behind his back and fired.
Chapter 12
I had Norian turned to mist in a blink and the laser blast went right through us. I was so angry I might have taken our assailant's head off when I materialized, but I held myself back, knocking the pistol from his hand first and then tossing him into a wall and holding him there.
"You stupid ass, you almost killed your brother," I hissed in his ear—the one that wasn't making a dent in the library wall, that is.
"My brother is dead," he managed to mumble. Yeah, I had him crunched up against the wall pretty good. The painted surface was going to have an imprint of his body in it when I let him go, I think.
"You sound so f**king sure of yourself," I countered. "Where are your parents?"
"Out in the field, supervising the harvest. I took the communication last night. Do you know how many false reports we've gotten over the years? People saying they had information, only they wanted money. At first we paid. I've made sure the last few that came didn't get out of here alive." Well, that was fine and good, provided he wasn't killing the innocent. I jerked him away from the wall, practically threw him into a chair and stood in front of him with my arms crossed angrily over my chest.
"Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you might be in, if you'd harmed either of us?" I snapped at him. Good heavens, he even looked like Norian. It made me wonder what his parents looked like.
"None, if I buried the bodies in the right place." Yeah, he was about to make the turn, looked like.
"Norian, I think you're going to have to convince your brother, here, that he doesn't need to bite either of us," I said, looking from homicidal sibling to Norian and back again.
Norian was staring, unable to move. I think his mouth was open, too. I reached over and tapped the underside of his chin. He closed his mouth. "This is my brother? Reedy?" He was looking closely at his brother, as if he were looking for something familiar.
"Don't give me that," Reedy, if that was his name, hissed. Yeah, it was too close to the full moon and the snake wanted to take over.
"This is Norian Keef, Director of the ASD," I hurried to make an introduction, before things got farther into the danger zone. "And I am Lissa, Queen of Le-Ath Veronis. We don't need your money. We came to find Norian's family. Therefore, if you'll shut up and listen, maybe we can all learn a few things." Reedy was still glaring at us suspiciously. Yeah, I might, too, if two people showed up without warning and claimed to be a monarch and the head of the Alliance Security Detail.