Strings of Fate

191- Technology and teamwork It's another long night of watching Kiara sleep. It’s boring, but also kind of soothing because at least if she’s asleep | know that no one is hurting her or traumatising her any more than they already have. | sort of zone in and out. Sometimes watching her and sometimes properly sleeping myself in blissful blackness. | wake up properly and | can immediately tell that it is WAY too early to be up. With a groan | roll away from Bellamy and grab my phone. Ugh, it’s not even five am yet. This is disgusting. But | went to bed so early there is no way | am going to get back to sleep. Bellamy hasn't woken up and is still sleeping heavily. | think he didn’t sleep as much as | did yesterday so he probably needs it more than I did. | decide to use the tto sneak downstairs and look at sof the emails from Shifters asking for assistance. | haven't gotten to spend a lot of ton them the past couple of days. | get out of bed, careful not to disturb Bellamy and | stop to pull on a pair of socks before heading downstairs because my feet are kind of cold and | haven't replaced my unicorn slippers since the incident at my old place where | got blood on them. | creep down the stairs and | stop off in the kitchen to make myself a hot chocolate before heading to make myself comfortable in Bellamy’s office.

1 answer a few emails, sticking to the ones I'm comfortable answering without asking Bellamy for further information and | write draft responses for a couple to confirm with Bellamy later before | send them. It’s just after six am when Bellamy comes downstairs looking for me. He findsin his office and greetswith a k*ss on the top of my head.

“Morning love. Did you sleep well?” He asks, his voice still rough from sleep.

“Yeah, Kiara was resting most of the night so | was able to get at least a little bit of proper sleep. How about you?” | return the question. Bellamy smiles sweetly.

“| always sleep well when you're with me.” He answers. He leans over my shoulder to see what I'm doing and | show him the emails that | wrote. With a few adjustments | send them off and conclude I've been productive enough for it being so early in the morning. Bellamy and | work together to make breakfast, it’s late enough now that Megan and Darrien will probably be up soon. We make more food than | would have guessed four people can eat, but | guess three of those people are Shifters with extra fast metabolisms so it makes sense. Darrien appears in the kitchen about forty seconds after | start frying bacon. No surprise there. Megan joins us not long after. We discuss our plans to try the tracking spell today and Darrien updates us on the arrangements he made to get a team with us for tracking and hopefully finding and rescuing Kiara. We're expecting a visit from Alex any tnow. He stayed up late working on Cheryl's computer and phone so we figure he will turn up when he is ready and then we can continue to plan from there. Once we've spoken to Alex I'm going to try to speak to Kiara, then | can use the tracking spell and we will just have to hope for the best.

Megan and Darrien are just washing up the dishes from breakfast when Alex knocks at the front door. | let him in and he settles at the dining room table with Cheryl's laptop and phone in front of him.

“So, | didn’t really find much in her phone. | suspect she must have a second disposable one somewhere that she dumped before we found her. All the messages and calls in this one seem to be on the up and up. Mostly just to her workplace. Her computer was a little more interesting. | managed to find a series of messages back and forth in a chat online. None of the information is particularly revealing but they do mention a date and twhich | think fairly well lines up with when Miss Gale's home/was vandalised. The chat hasn't been used in weeks so | suspect that after that day they changed to communicating with throwaway phones or magical means.” He explains. Huh, | mean | was kind i of hoping that he would find smessage with an exact address, or at least a name. But it seems that Cheryl and this other woman were fairly cautious damn them.

“Is there anything else relevant?” Bellamy asks.

191- Technology and teamwork.

“Well, aside from an attachment with a file that contains an obsessed stalker level amount of research about Miss Gale, Alpha Kane, Miss Kane and the girl Kiara, there is one other thing in the chat. It doesn’t actually tell us where to look, but when they were talking about vandalising Miss Gale’s home, the other woman wrote ‘at least it won't be a long drive to get there.”” Alex adds.

“Ah, implying that the other person lives reasonably close.” | conclude and Alex nods.

“So we should start the tracking spell from your old place.” Megan adds cheerfully. SHe seems awfully happy given we're about to attempt a rescue operation. | think maybe she is as hopeful as | am that we can finally end this. Save Kiara and get our freedom back. She isn’t enjoying being cooped up. She likes to go out a lot more than | do and | think she’s struggling with it. Not that she’s complaining. But she’s been restless. | think she wants to go for a run in her feline form, but even going out on a rescue mission is appealing to her at this point if only because it provides a chance to leave the house.

Alex confirms that he has nothing else useful to contribute and then Bellamy sends him hto sleep. He stayed up most of the night going through each and every file and message on Cheryl's devices and at this point he is practically asleep on his feet. | think if we left him unattended he would probably fall asleep on the dining room table. | suspect it’s only his anxiety around Bellamy that is keeping him from dropping off right now, Bellamy and Darrien call the team that will be going with us. | head upstairs and have a super quick shower. | don’t even wash my hair! Once I'm dressed and have my wet hair wrapped in a towel. | lay back in the bed to try and contact Kiara. | manage it faster than | ever have before. Maybe because for once, | don’t have any other thoughts in my head. All | am thinking or worrying about is Kiara. Or maybe the connection between us is getting stronger. | can only hope so, it makes it more likely the spell will succeed. Kiara seems aware that I'm watching because she is talking quietly to me, tellingabout all the strange Witchy type stuff in the basement. Or maybe she’s just been talking tothe whole tin the hopes that | might be listening. | don’t want to say too much or hold the connection too long as | always end up exhausted afterwards and | have a lot to do today if we're going to find her. Still, | want her to know we're coming. | want her thinking aboutand focussing on it, it gives the spell the best chance of working. So | push one word.

towards her.

“Today.”