Drina raised her head, her eyes a mix of silver and bloodred. He suspected she was about to argue again, but then she spotted him and, instead, moaned, “Magnus.”

The room went silent as all eyes turned to him, and Magnus asked with concern, “What the hell happened?”

“The mailman took her. I’m sorry,” Drina moaned. “I told her to go in the kitchen. But she saved my life and he took her.”

“Took who?” Magnus asked, fear creeping up his back as he glanced around at the pitying looks he was getting from the people in the room. “Where’s Allison?”

“The mailman took Allie,” Elvi said quietly, moving to his side. “I’m sorry. We tried to stop him, but he slid the machete through the handles of the double front doors and we couldn’t get out that way. By the time we ran out the back door and around, they were gone.”

“What?” he asked with confusion and disbelief. “Why would the mailman take her?”

“Actually, it wasn’t the mailman,” Tybo explained. “He’s dead in a van down the street. We think it was Abaddon or one of his men wearing the dead mailman’s uniform. He came to the door with the mailbag and box. He looked like a mailman. Drina went to sign for the package and . . .” His gaze slid to Drina. “It sounds like he was going to cut off her head, but Allie shouted a warning and Drina ducked.”

Magnus’s eyes shifted back to the gaping wound on Drina’s head. It was a bad wound, but would heal.

“Unfortunately,” Tybo continued, “aside from shouting, Allie rushed forward, we think to help Drina, but he hit her over the head with the butt of the machete, tossed her over his shoulder, and fled.”

“But he stuck the machete through the door handles so you could not follow,” Magnus muttered what Elvi had said.

Everyone in the room nodded and Magnus stared at them with bewilderment, and then burst out furiously, “Well, why the hell are you all standing here, then? We need to be out looking for her.”

“We were going to do that, but have no idea where to start,” Victor said quietly. “He could have taken her next door, or all the way to London. We don’t have the manpower to search that big an area door to door.”

“Well, we cannot just stand here doing nothing,” he growled with outrage.

“Lucian is on the way right now with Basha and Marcus,” Victor told him. “He thinks she can narrow the search. And we expect Abaddon to call soon too. It’s not Allie he wants. It’s Liam.”

“We think he’ll call offering to make a trade,” Tybo explained. “Liam for Allie.”

“Yes. He will do that,” Magnus breathed, feeling a little hope creep in to join the fear clutching at his chest. Abaddon wouldn’t kill Allie. He’d try to use her for a trade.