Chapter Sixty-Two – The lost patient

“What do you mean I can’t see her?!” Henry shouted at the receptionist. After leaving the Andvari property rather reluctantly he’d gone straight the hospital in the city. It was a two-hour drive, and when he finally arrived the person at the reception refused to let him to see his daughter. His own flesh and blood, the one who needed him more than ever before.

“She’s in a fragile state, we had to sedate her for her own safety. She’s at a locked unit. I’m sorry you weren’t informed before” The woman kept saying, but all he heard was she needs you.

“I’m seeing her right this instant!” Henry hissed, his face turning red.

“I’m sorry – but the answer is no. I have to ask you to leave, you’re disrupting our patients”

“Like hell” Henry muttered and continued to walk into the hospital, ignoring the woman calling his name. He didn’t care. Didn’t hear. All he knew was that he had to find his daughter and bring her home. Keep her safe and out of harm’s way. If he’d done that to begin with, she wouldn’t even be in the hospital. She shouldn’t have been there that night. Is fucked up the entire plan.

“Sir! Sir!” The woman kept calling after him, but he didn’t listen. Didn’t care. She could call security, he didn’t care. Wouldn’t leave before he got what he came for.

“You have to stop” A guard stepped into his patch, blocking his way. They were the same height, but that’s where the similarity stopped. The guard had a darker skin tone, which was enough to make him seethe. His shoulder was wide, and his head clean shaven, the light reflecting.

“Move” Henry said sternly, this man was beyond him by many measures, he wouldn’t let someone like him get in his way.

“No” The man answered with a deep voice.

“Sir!” Another woman came running up to him, dressed in dark clothing and her ginger hair tied into a braid. His contact.

“Penny, what are you doing here?” He turned his attention to the young woman.

“She’s not here” Penny informed him, sending his rage to new heights.

“How do you know?” He growled.

“Let’s talk outside” Penny laid a gentle hand on his arm, flashing the guard an apologetic smile and mumbling something about a loss, before guiding him out to a dark sedan waiting.

“Penny” Henry warned, but she ignored him. She’d had to deal men worse than him on occasions. He was a Labrador in comparison, all bark, no bite.

“She was never here” Penny informed before opening the door, urging him to get inside. The conversation they were about to have was better held in private than out in the streets.

“How do you know?” Henry asked once the doors shut behind him.

Penny had joined him in the backseat, while a man and a woman was seated in the front. The woman was behind the wheel, while the man kept tapping away at a tablet.

“Surveillance. She’s not here. Never was.” The man answered. Henry had been fooled by that enchantingly calm voice, the thought alone made him growl.

“Then she has to be there” Or had been. This wild goose chase gave them more than enough time to move her.

“We got the footage from outside her building. Do you recognize this person?” The man gave him a tablet, showing him a footage of the curb outside Ariel’s apartment, where a dark car was parked. He couldn’t see the driver. But the girl who helped Ariel inside, she knew her.

“Katlyn” He answered. That little bitch was one of them, no doubt.

“We also have this” The man took the tablet back and rewind the movie to where Ariel had first entered the building that night, closely followed by a white owl.

“Judging by the wounds of Christine’s body, she’s a shifter. We need to find her. She attacked one of our own” The man kept talking, eyes fixed on the tablet, and not noticing how Henry’s face turned redder and his hands curled into fists.

“She could’ve killed my daughter. For my concern she’s collateral” Henry whispered through gritted teeth. The woman was still alive, but it would be a long recovery. Broken ribs were nasty alone, combined with a punctured lung and tore muscles she was lucky to be alive. It would only last until Henry got his hands on her.

“What about the coffee shop?” Penny asked as the other woman set the car in motion.

“Hang on” The man answered, finding some new files.

“You know this woman sir?” Penny took the tablet and showed the still image from the coffee shop a few days before. They had tracked all her movement the past week, mapping out everyone she had been in contact with, everyone who could be a potential threat.

The coffee shop had installed some decent security, the image on the screen in color, making it easy to single out Ariel in the photo. But the woman she was with, he hadn’t seen her in a long, long time.

“She’s supposed to be dead” Henry whispered. She was the reason the darned wolfs had come to town in the first place, and her death had been a small justice. But she wasn’t dead.

“Name?” The man asked, already ready with his phone.

“Talia. Talia Bell. Related to Kristoffer and Adeline Bell, her grandparents. They live in France” Henry answered angry. The other man tapped away at his phone, scrolling through some news before coming to a stop. “Huh” The man said before handing the phone to Penny, who read the news.

“What?” Henry barked, still annoyed. Annoyed at the man who worried about the woman Christine, at the nurse who refused him to see his daughter, annoyed at the woman who had sent him there in the first place. Everything was falling apart before he could even set it in motions. All because of Ariel. Stupid, reckless girl.

“Adeline Bell is dead. Found killed in her home. They suspect her husband” Penny explained flatly.

“Let me see” Henry snapped the phone out of her hands before she could say a word, scanning through the short notice in the paper three times.

“It doesn’t say where he is” Henry finally said. He’d always suspected the Bell family to be more than what met the eye, but he’d never expected the old man to kill his wife. Yet alone for the grandchild to be alive.

“My guess is on the run” Penny shrugged.

“We need to act” Henry demanded.

“You can’t rush this” The man objected but shut his mouth when he met Henry’s glare.

“We don’t have a choice” The woman driving added.

“We need a plan” The man argued, focusing on the driver instead of Henry.

“Then we make one, we have to gather the rest, and then drive back. That gives us a few hours” She glared at him, knuckles whitening as the tightened the grip on the wheel. None of the others dared to argue with her, and it made Henry smile. Finally, someone who understood that with these kinds of primal species one simply couldn’t wait.

And they had his daughter. Kidnapping. It was reason enough. They had to save the people abducted. He could feel a new plan form in his head as the drive continued in silence.