It took a couple hours, but the three teams Frey sent out finally had the city safe again. Lorenzo drove around, helping secure the alive Unholy in the transport, while Dane worked with the city sanitation manager to gather the bodies of those slain. Coming from California where there were few Unholy, it had surprised Kai to find out all dead Unholy were taken to surrounding funeral homes for cremation. It didn’t surprise him the Stone Clan paid for disposal anonymously.
Kai was tired and covered in blood. He and the others were in serious need of showers. Except Kai didn’t have a home to go back to. Well, he did. It just wasn’t livable. He had only taken a cursory glance around before being called to Frey’s home. Maybe it was salvageable.
“You all are welcome to stay at my home, but I understand if you’d prefer a hotel,” Frey offered.
“We already have rooms reserved, but after a shower I wouldn’t mind hanging out at your place,” Dominic said. The other New Orleans crew agreed.
“Malakai?”
“I’m going to run home first, and take a look around. But I’ll take you up on a spare bed.”
“Sounds good. I’ll meet you all there.”
After dropping off Dominic and the others who’d ridden with him at the hotel, he took a deep breath and drove home. His anger stirred when he had to put in the numeric code to open the gate. Fat lotta good it did keeping unwanted guests out. His eyes burned when the house came into view. It wasn’t completely destroyed, but he didn’t know enough about architecture to know if it could be salvaged using what remained, or if it would need to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch.
The brunt of the destruction was to the garage and living areas in the house. The bedrooms on the west side were still relatively intact. Kai needed to call Sixx and let him know about the house as well as the Veyron. The Jeep had been parked far enough away that it only received cosmetic damage by falling debris. He made his way to the back of the house and cringed. The once-lush landscaping now lay under fallen stone pieces and scraps of wood. The swimming pool was filled with detritus as well.
Kai continued around to the side where the bedrooms were. He opened his senses to make sure he was alone before removing his shirt and phasing. Using his massive wings, Kai launched himself to the window of the master bedroom. Or where the window had been. All the glass had been blown out in the blast. Since he wasn’t sure how sound the structure was, he retracted his wings to slide through the window frame but was ready to dive back out in case of collapse. Luckily, the floor held his weight. Kai moved carefully but quickly, gathering all of his and Josie’s clothes. He wasn’t as worried about his things as he was her pretty dresses and matching shoes.
After tossing the bags out the window, Kai climbed through the frame and dropped to the ground, landing silently on his feet. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and took photos of the destruction so he could email them to Sixx. Taking one last look around, Kai grabbed the bags and tossed them in the Jeep and headed back to Frey’s. Normally, Kai loved the early morning, but with everything going on, all he could enjoy was knowing his mate was safe.
He reached out to tell her good morning, but before he spoke, he felt her fear.
Josie? Sunshine, what’s wrong?
Oh, god. Malakai, I love you.
Josie? Josie! Sunshine?
“I found him,” Hagen said when Drago disconnected his phone. “Craven is in Mississippi.”
It was about damn time. Hagen had been searching for the scientist for two months. “Great job. Where in Mississippi?”
“Just north of New Biloxi, which is on the coast. Are you going to send a team after him?”
“No. I’m going after him myself. I’m leaving Rennick in charge of the Unholy and their attacks. I’m sending Trexon to Florida to search for any Greeks who weren’t captured. Without Arden to direct the Goyles in New Jacksonville, they were holed up in their hotel rooms running up room service charges instead of finding more women for Mr. Collins. I paid Craven for more serum. I need that as well as him to create more Unholy, but we also need our income stream from the trafficking business to continue paying for our venture.”
“What would you like me to do?” Hagen asked.
“You’re coming with me. Pack quickly. We need to clear out of the apartment and head to the warehouse. Once we’ve located Craven, we’ll find a new place to stay for the duration of our plan.”
“Yes, Sir.” Hagen rushed to his bedroom while Drago gathered his own clothes. He hated to abandon the apartment, but with Julian’s new hacker, it was only a matter of time until he found Drago there.
Once they had their clothes together, Drago helped Hagen with the electronics. He had already double-checked they were leaving no identifying information lying around.
The Reborn Drago had sent downtown with the Unholy were texting reports to Drago with the number of Gargoyles fighting them as well as photos of the males. Drago had the Stone Clan scattered. He knew blowing up their homes would have them ready for revenge, but Drago would soon have the number of his own army needed to go up against them. He didn’t have time to track down the scientist, but Drago didn’t trust anyone else to retrieve the man.
Moving the
