The shift from man to cat wasn't as painful as it had been the first time, but it wasn't entirely pleasant either. You could hear your bones cracking and joints popping as they reformed, feel your skeleton elongating into the sleek feline form. The more you fought it, the more it hurt. If you could simply relax and let the change happen, it went faster and hurt a lot less. Thian had learned that well after his first few times. They'd been... unpleasant.
Sniffing the air once he was in his leopard form, he glanced around once more, ensuring privacy before he darted off, making his way into the tree line once he assured himself that no one happened to be looking out a window in the direction he was heading. Once safely surrounded by foliage, he slowed, letting his senses spread out further.
In leopard form, his hearing, sight, and smell were more advanced, allowing him to search far beyond the location he was at without needing to travel much. As he turned to get a good 360 degree vantage point, he froze. Shifters. The trail was older, likely a few weeks, but at some point, they'd been here. Now, if the Mayor had nothing to do with the women going missing, why would the rogue pack be sniffing around his residence?
More determined to do a deeper inspection, he returned to the house, shifting on the balcony once more. He'd learned to materialize clothing on himself after he'd shifted by manipulating the atoms around himself, but anything extra needed to be portable. That meant he had to be able to put it on the necklace, usually. As metal didn't shift, if he wore the necklace when he shifted, the leopard wore it as well. When he shifted back into human form, whatever he needed was still firmly affixed to his person.
Unlocking the doors, he slipped inside, locking them behind him once more. Grabbing his cell phone, he carefully made his way into the hallway before he paused, listening to the ambient noises in the home. Once assured that everyone appeared to be sleeping, he headed to the office he'd been ushered into earlier. He'd start there.
Of course, he didn't expect anything incriminating to be out in plain view. He'd learned from the Mayor that his daughter did all the accounting and paperwork. If the daughter wasn't dirty, which Thian wasn't discounting just yet, then it'd make sense that the Mayor would have a separate set of books somewhere out of her normal reach.
Thankfully, while the daughter seemed more tech savvy, he'd noticed earlier that the Mayor seemed to prefer pen and paper. There hadn't even been a computer in the room, which meant the daughter likely brought her own laptop in. That made things easier. Searching for paper copies was infinitely easier than searching for digital tracks. He could do it, of course, it would just waste precious time. Scanning the room, he began with the file cabinets, checking for hidden panels and envelopes taped to the underside of drawers. When that didn't provide anything, he went over the rest of the room quickly. Nothing stood out.
Each cat tended to have a special talent that the others didn't. Most found them by accident. He'd realized his when he'd been locked out of his apartment. Trying to figure out how to break into his own damn residence with as little damage as possible, he'd been focusing on the windows when he'd realized he could feel... something.
A tiny electrical current running along the frame, zinging up his arms. Not knowing what the hell he was doing, he mentally probed at it, trying to figure out what it was. Somehow, his poking at it snapped the line. Right after that, he realized the current was gone. He'd disarmed the security system on the window, and it hadn't gone off. No one was any the wiser. He'd tested it again, this time, envisioning reconnecting it. The current came back online, again, without a single noise, no alarm, nothing.
After some research, he'd learned that ability was called electrokinesis... the ability to manipulate electrical currents and pulses with your mind. As he'd fine-tuned it with practice, it'd come in handy on some of their less than legal jobs they did. Tonight, it was going to prove its worth again. Moving his hand over the assorted shelves and pictures in frames, he grinned when he caught the pulse hidden behind one of the larger photos. And there it was.
Chapter Three Hundred Eighty-Nine
Turned out, tech-adverse dad was only pretending to keep from arousing suspicion. Once he'd unlocked the electronic safe behind the photo, he'd found paperwork for mobile banks under a separate name. Large deposits had been made frequently, but he couldn't be sure if the dates matched up with the disappearances. He'd bet his Night Rod they would, though. Taking photos of each sheet and sending it on to the crew, he carefully stashed them back in the order he'd found them in, then re-engaged the alarm.
Slipping from the room, he was heading back to his own when the click of a door unlocking stopped him in his tracks. Going still for a moment, he moved into the shadows by the wall, careful to avoid making a sound. The housekeeper left after dinner. The wife had passed years ago.
It was just father and daughter in the home now, and he wasn't ready to take bets yet on who'd been sneaking out. Either way, they'd soon regret it. He wasn't going
