Wrath and Clemecia drew together. They made drawing after drawing and he checked his watch, but forty-five minutes passed and Serenity and Anna hadn’t returned.

Strange.

Maybe they’d just gotten to talking.

“You know what the best part of the hospital is?” Clemecia asked as she finished her picture.

“The delicious food?” Wrath wiggled his eyebrows, and Clemecia laughed.

“The button,” she said, and pointed to a little button next to her bed.

“The call button?”

“Yeah! I can press it, and no matter what time of day it is, a nurse will come help me.”

“I hope you’re not abusing your newfound power.”

“Not at all, but my mom gets tired, and if I call a nurse while she’s sleeping, they’ll help me with things. One of them even brought me some chocolate milk.”

“Sounds like she’s a real keeper,” Wrath said seriously. Clemecia chuckled and they went back to drawing. Another fifteen minutes passed. The nurse came to check on Clemecia and take her vitals, and just as she was finishing up, Anna returned with food from the cafeteria.

“Sorry it took so long, sweetie,” she said. “I stopped to pray.”

“It’s all right, mama. Where’s Serenity?”

“Who? Your teacher? I haven’t seen her, honey.” Anna cocked her head to the side, and then seemed to notice Wrath for the first time. They’d never met. “Hello,” she said. “You must be Clemecia’s friend from art class. John Smith? Is that right? She told me about you.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Wrath said. He stood and looked past Anna to the doorway. “You said you didn’t see Serenity?”

“No,” Anna looked flustered. “Was I supposed to have? I must have missed her. It’s pretty crazy downstairs. There’s a big rush for lunch and apparently, some of the conference attendees wandered over to the gift shop to buy stuff. Who knows what they’re thinking? There were a half dozen of them just hanging out near the chapel when I left. Like they don’t have anything better to do.” She shook her head. “The security should kick them out. This is a hospital: not a playground.”

Wrath’s throat went dry.

Magic users in the hospital?

And they were near the chapel?

Serenity was careful. She was always careful, but if someone was looking for a fallen angel, she had “catch me” written all over her. She was pale and beautiful with long, soft hair, and her lips were always red.

Always.

An ordinary person might not notice her, but if a magic user even caught a glimpse of her scars, they would know.

Especially if it was an overeager, young, new magic user who wanted to show off their new “skills.”

“Where is the chapel?” Wrath said. “Please. I need to find Serenity.”

He must have had an edge of worry, of fear, in his voice, because Anna quickly gave him directions and didn’t say anything when he darted out of the room. He ran down the stairs because he didn’t have time to wait for the elevator.

Time.

It was such a silly thing.

It was so precious, so valuable, and then it was gone.

He raced downstairs, taking care not to run into any of the doctors he passed on the way. One of them yelled at him to slow down, but he didn’t. He had to get to Serenity.

There was no doubt in his mind she had been grabbed, taken. There was no time for second-guessing himself. There was no time for coming up with a plan. He had to move, and he had to move now.

She was in danger, and he had promised to keep her safe.

He reached the first floor and headed toward the cafeteria. That was where she had been going. Chances were that the chapel was nearby. He found it quickly, and darted inside, but she was nowhere to be seen. They had taken her, though. He was certain of it.

Wrath turned to leave the chapel. If this was where they had grabbed her, they would want to take her somewhere quiet, somewhere no one else could find her. They wouldn’t need to leave the building, and with so many people around, they wouldn’t be able to, so he needed to find an empty room.

More specifically, he needed to find a locked room.

He looked around, and he spotted a bracelet on the ground. It was Serenity’s. He picked it up and put it in his pocket. So they had grabbed her here. There was no longer any doubt. He grabbed a passing doctor.

“Alert security,” he said. “A woman has been taken. Serenity Miller. 5 foot six. 145 pounds. Possibly by a group of people. We’ll need to review security tapes.”

The doctor just stared at him, and Wrath growled.

“Hurry!” He said. “Have them lock down the hospital. Nobody leaves until we’ve found her.” He took off down the hall, trying each door he passed to see if any were locked or marked as private. The first few were empty exam rooms, along with a couple of closets, but then he turned down a hallway that was almost completely empty, and he realized he’d found it.

He’d found her.

There was a door at the end of the hallway with two people standing outside of it. They weren’t nurses or doctors. They had “nerd” written all over their faces, and he knew immediately they were convention attendees. They were looking at each other, and around the hallway, but didn’t pay him much attention until he got closer.

They glared at him. Were they trying to scare him away? Were they trying to keep him from entering the room they were guarding? What is it they were trying to do?

No matter what their motivations were, they weren’t good. He’d been hunting fuckers like them for centuries.

They’d only recently left their mother’s basements.

“Move,” he said. He’d try this the easy way first. Neither one of them moved. They also didn’t speak. “Get out of the fucking way,” he repeated, and they braced themselves, like they were preparing for a fight.

Just then, the loudspeakers sounded.

ATTENTION. ATTENTION. SECURITY ALERT.

Wrath didn’t wait to hear the rest of the message. He took advantage of the guards being distracted, and he punched them each in the face.