Piercing My Heart

38

I chuckled as Z struggled to stab the egg with her fork. She eventually gave up and picked it up to eat. Duomo then came down with a nervous aura. Here we go...

Z was throwing a big fit since she didn't want to go to school. I didn't want to be apart from her if I'm being honest. Mila stepped in and negotiated with our daughter. If she didn't like the school, then we'd home school her until she was ready.

I felt my heart break when Duomo took her to school. Mila and I couldn't actually take her since we had to remain anonymous. We didn't want to draw unwanted attention to our daughter. To the outsider, it'd look like Z had parents who constantly worked and didn't spend time with her.

Dante and Enzo had called us to the study since Duomo had heard of unexplainable natural occurrences in Italy. We've heard about these occurrences occurring over Europe, but this was the first we've heard about it happening in Italy. It had to be the work of witches.

I had a feeling this was in opposition to my marriage with Mila. Some people across every species weren't thrilled with our union since that meant no more war between wolves and vamps. It severely hampered their agenda to annihilate either of our races. Also, they weren't happy that Zena was a royal vampire/ wolf hybrid. What they didn't know was that Zena was also part witch, but they didn't need to know that.

X

It's been a month and Zena absolutely adores school. It took me a while to get used to not having her around 24/7. What did make my day is listening to the things she excelled in. I loved to hear about her artistic accomplishments.

Z was the only person in the villa to be successful. We haven't found the witch and it's driving us crazy. I know Mila is going mental, so I want to help her relax. She's been craving intimacy with me, but I had to keep denying her to go on investigations. I heard her in the study with Zena. I smiled at her affection with our daughter. She truly was a great mother.

"Ma petite chou!" I kissed Z's cheeks. "Mind if I talk to mummy for a minute? Promise to take you to the beach later."

I knew that'd work. Z loves the beach and building sandcastles. She ran off, probably to harass Duomo. She loved that guy so much. And thankfully, he allows her to be all over him.

"I've never understood why your term of endearment for her is little cabbage." Mila teased me.

"I don't know. It's a French thing I guess." I hugged her from behind. "Now, I need private time with you." I began kissing her neck.

"And what do you need this private time for?" She teased me.

"To do you." I smirked and pushed her onto the desk.

Mila yanked me down and attached her lips to mine. We haven't had sex in a while, so I know she wants this as much as me. I wanted to frustrate her, so I kept nipping at her neck. I unzipped and pulled down her jeans. She was so wet, which was such a turn on. Things were getting heated and I was about to enter her when I heard a distressed howl. We stopped since I recognized it to be Duomo.

I quickly departed from Mila and ran to find Duomo. I entered the forest and saw him shift back into his human form. He looked like he was on the brink of death. I smelt the Wolfsbane around him. This was a planned attack. I assisted him to the med bay.

They were trying to apply the oxygen mask, but he kept resisting it for some reason. He appeared to be having a silent conversation with Mila since she stopped us from covering his mouth with the mask.

"Z-Z." He was having difficulty breathing.

"What is it Domenico?! You need the mask and surgery stat so-" Domenico then cut Mila off.

"Zena."

The moment he said my daughter's name, I sped out the room. I didn't wait for anyone and tried to pick up her scent. I began panicking because I couldn't trace her. The witch had wafted her scent all around Italy, so I couldn't pinpoint where my daughter was. I heard wolves in the distance. We were trying to find my daughter, but we weren't making any progress. I was fearing the worst. Where is she?! She's not even old enough to trigger her wolf, so Mila can't even communicate with her!

I called my brother because I desperately needed his help. When he picked up, I began telling him what happened. He wasn't able to get a word through because of my hysterical delivery. Alec told me not to move and to give him my location. I sped to the train station to see I was in Rome. Alec met me an hour later with Sophie. The others were sent to the villa in Amalfi.

"I'm so sorry." Sophie immediately wrapped me up in a hug.

"This is all my fault. If I didn't ask her to leave the room, then she'd still be in Mila's arms." I cried into Sophie's arms.

"I swear to you that we will not stop searching until we find her." Alec firmly told me.

"What if-"

"No!" Sophie sternly told me. "Do not think about the worst." I pulled her in for a hug. "We need to focus on finding your daughter."

"We need to head back to Amalfi and speak with the others." Alec told me.

I nodded and we ran back to Amalfi. We entered to see all the pack members there. Alec began speaking to Dante and Enzo about his strategic plan. My eyes found Mila's helpless form. My heart broke seeing my wife so hurt. I decided to take her to our room to rest. I figured she wouldn't be able to sleep so I used a sleeping spell to lull her to sleep. I wrapped my arms around my sleeping wife. I pressed a gentle kiss to the back of her neck. I promise I'll return Zena to you, my love.

I made sure Mila ate properly before she participated in any plans to find Zena. With Domenico out of surgery, he was able to explain what happened. Apparently, the witch lured them into the forest. She then partnered with rogue wolves to ambush them, so that she could steal our daughter. I began thinking of any covens that had a personal vendetta against me. I couldn't think of one off the top of my head, so they probably kidnapped our daughter because she's powerful. They were probably going to endlessly torture her and run many tests that would help further the survival of their kind.

Domenico did something that I have to applaud for him being a genius. He had scratched the witch to get some of her blood so that I could run a tracking spell on her. I was able to perform the spell, but I was shocked that she had spread our daughter's location all throughout Italy. I had the amount of spots cut down to a little over a hundred. We should be able to search all these places considering the amount of people looking for Zena.

I know we'd be able to find her by searching all these locations, but I really want to reduce the amount of wasted time. I tried to think where the witch would hide. Mila saw me and said a question that probed my mind. A place old Italian covens used to occupy was Sardinia because of its remoteness and natural minerals.

Mila and I sailed to Sardinia to begin our search there. We opted not to reveal our hunch of Z's location because we wanted everyone to scour the other places just in case we were wrong. I felt the uneasiness in Mila's aura, so I tried to offer her as much comfort as possible.

We arrived and I told Mila to focus her senses to try and catch our daughter's scent. We were able to track her to a small house. I wanted to formulate a plan, but Mila kicked the door down before I had time to react.