The Syndicater (Dark Verse #6)

33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Zephyr, Tenebrae City

Something was not right.

Zephyr got up with a sudden heaviness in her chest, her heart beating too fast. It was a gut feeling, a feeling she didn't get often, but when she did, she knew not to ignore it. The Last time that she had, her sister had died and Morana had been shot.

Quickly getting out of bed, she picked up her phone from the floor of the room where it had fallen the night before and picked it up.

3 missed calls.

Her mother had called her three times.

Zephyr immediately called back, her heart in her throat, pacing the room. Her movements must have alerted him because her husband turned on the bed, suddenly awake when he saw her like that, one side of his face creasing with concern.

"What's going on?" he grumbled out.

The phone line wasn't picked up. She rang again. "My mother called. Three times. Something is wrong."

No one picked up this time either.

She dialed her father's number. Same.

Zephyr began to panic, not able to explain what was happening to her as she stood, knowing, just knowing in her heart that something bad had happened.

Alpha immediately picked up his phone and she saw him dial Victor. He put him on speaker.

"Alpha." Victor said on the line.

"Vic, go to Zephyr's parent's place," Alpha instructed. "They're not answering."

"On it," Victor said immediately. "I'll update you when I get there."

Thar would take about twenty minutes. Alpha came around the side of the bed to her, grabbing a hold of her shoulders and rubbing them, trying to ease the tension she could feel gathering there.

"Let's go down," he suggested after a few minutes of Zephyr just frowning at his chest. "We can wait in company."

Alpha didn't like company. For him to be suggesting it, he had to be worried too.

She nodded, quickly dressing as did he, and going down to the gazebo where Dante and Amara were sitting, discussing something. Their faces looked the same grim, and Zephyr didn't know what was going on.

"What happened?" Alpha asked, seeing their looks.

"Morana went to meet the Shadow Man alone," Amara informed them, her tone severe. "She told me to let others know if she didn't respond in an hour. I didn't wait. It's going to be an hour in a few minutes."

"Have you told Tristan yet?" Zephyr asked, adding another concern on top of her own. Morana was smart, but what the hell had she been thinking about going out alone to meet the man, especially after the bullet she'd taken not that long ago?

Amara shook her head. "Not yet. If she answers, she can tell him herself. He's had a rough night."

Yeah. Rough was an understatement for the night they'd all had, listening to a girl who never spoke more than a few words go on a rampage, admitting her past, that she was not only the Shadow Man's lover but his wife, and most of all admitting to killing Hector brutally and enjoying it. Zephyr didn't fault her for that. In fact, she was grateful to the girl because if she had had the chance, Zephyr would have done it, too.

Amara looked at her phone as her timer rang and called Morana.

The phone was out of reach.

They all exchanged heavy looks, knowing this did not bode well for any of them. And it all happened just as Tristan and Luna walked from the lake, his arm around her and hers around him, last night somehow having brought them closer.

They looked up at the group, their matching small smiles falling off their faces as they came to them. Tristan's eyes immediately scanned the space. "Where's Morana?"

Amara swallowed. "She went to meet the Shadow Man."

Tristan's whole body stilled, his eyes blazing. "Alone?"

Amara nodded. "And she's not available on her phone now. She told me to call and check on her, and I'm worried, Tristan."

The man moved swiftly, pacing as he took his own phone out and dialed his girl. It went unreachable. He gripped his phone so hard it almost splintered in his hand.

Luna looked at him, before leveling Amara with a look, her stance slightly protective. "When did you speak to her?"

"An hour ago."

Luna nodded, looking around at them all, before reaching into her jacket pocket and taking out a small phone. Quietly, she pressed a button and then waited.

Zephyr watched as, within a minute, her phone rang.

She looked around at all of them, before picking up the call. "Hi," she said softly into the phone, and it hit Zephyr. She'd just called the Shadow Man. Holy shit.

"Can I put you on speaker?" she asked, and Zephyr saw everyone's faces wear different expressions of shock, same as hers, as Luna pressed a button and suddenly, static filled the space.

No one said a word, Tristan glaring at the phone but waiting for his sister to do whatever she was doing.

Luna bit her lip, and spoke. "Is Morana with you?"

And for the first time, they all heard his natural, very hot voice.

"No."

The Shadow Man was real. Wow.

"When did she leave?" Luna asked him, her voice different, darker, more tender as she spoke to him.

"About fifteen minutes ago," the hot voice said. "What's going on?"

"She's unreachable, asshole," Tristan grit out, and there was silence on the line for a long minute, before words came.

"I'm your only hope of finding her, Predator." Zephyr realized, hearing him speak, how different his tone had been with Luna. It had been softer for her. His words to Tristan were delivered in the tone that sent a shiver down her spine.

Tristan's jaw clenched. "Fuck off."

Luna admonished him. "Tristan. He's not your enemy. We talked about this."

Dante stepped up, taking over when Tristan didn't make a move to say anything.

"Dante speaking," he said on the phone. "I think I recognize your voice, Blackthorne."

Zephyr gasped, remembering the hot, intense guy from the party who had flirted and focused only on Luna. Holy shit, he was the Shadow Man?

Before things could spin out of control, Luna took control again. "Please find her for me."

There was silence for a beat. "For you, anything, flamma. "

Swoon.

Zephyr saw as Luna blushed at the words, her eyes flitting around to everyone and how they had all witnessed him talk to her. Zephyr was happy for her. She deserved love and care and clearly, he was giving it to her.

He was still on the speaker when Alpha's phone rang, Victor's name flashing on it making her heart drop.

Alpha put his on speaker too. "What's happening, Victor?"

Victor was silent for a beat. "Her mother… killed him."

Zephyr felt a wave of dizziness come over her, her knees trembling as suddenly, Amara steadied her, wrapping her arm around her shoulder. Her husband looked at her with so much turmoil in one eye.

Everyone heard the words, letting them sink in, before Alpha cleared his throat. "Tell me."

Victor's voice was low. "She found a file in his old stuff. It's bad, Alpha."

"How bad?"

"Bad enough that he adopted Zenith because The Syndicate asked him to keep an eye on her after she escaped."

The words fell like bullets to her heart. No. No. It couldn't be true. Not her gentle, sweet, kind papa. Not him. Not her sister.

She heard a noise and realized it was coming from her mouth, hiccups in her throat and so much shivering she couldn't stop. Her husband grabbed her close, pulling her into his wide chest and she remembered what he'd said about his attack, the man keeping the girl, the man he had heard before talking to Hector. It had been her father. She'd had her father over so many times for dinner and he'd just sat there, knowing what he had to her husband. Hell, he'd lived his life knowing what had been done to her sister.

Zephyr broke down, it was everything, all at once, too soon.

Alpha rubbed her back, his face in her hair, kissing her over and over on the head to soothe her. But she could feel a chasm in her heart as the world she knew went upside down again.

"What about my…?" she couldn't get the words out between her hiccups.

"She's been arrested," Victor said. "I'm trying to get things ironed out here. I'm so fucking sorry, Zee."

Zephyr listened to the words, going numb as everything settled around her, her past turned to dust, the only solid thing the arms that held her silently locked in.

Zephyr let herself break.