Excerpt Continued…
Heat stored from the day’s sun radiated from the wall, easing the tense chill in his muscles. Standing straight, he shifted away from the small comfort. He couldn’t afford to relax.
Impatiently waiting for the sobs to end, he ran his foot over the recycled plastic lawn and smiled in satisfaction at the fake grass, knowing from long years of experience it wouldn’t mark his passage. Especially since the night wasn’t cold enough for frost.
Good. A frost-covered lawn might leave a trail he couldn’t conceal. As always, the success of this mission depended on him leaving no trace, no sign of entry into the house.
Long minutes turned to hours. Killing time by mentally going over his route, he shifted the slight weight under his left arm, to his right.
When the only sound disturbing the still night-air, came from the occasional chirp of some insect, it was time. Repositioning his bundle, he freed his hands to pull on black leather gloves. Stepping away from his post, he walked calmly toward the patio door.
The careless owners thought they were safe in their expensive, two-hundred-year-old home on the hill. Everything on the house was original, including the ancient security system.
Lucky me.
For this task, he needed both hands, so he set his burden on the ground. Using a dull knife to carefully scrape the plastic sheath from a dangling wire, he smiled in satisfaction. There wasn’t a mark to indicate tampering. The casing could have simply decayed with age. Touching the exposed copper wire to a convenient metal pipe, he silently shorted out the alarm system.
In the morning, it would be too late for the owners to reconsider miserly habits. With the damage already done, any money spent on updated technology would be a wasted effort.
Cheap bastards.
He slipped inside within moments of picking the lock on the door, then inched his way through the sleeping household until he found what he wanted—a room where even the dappled grays of scattered moonlight, couldn’t hide the expensive décor.
Recognizing the artist of the mural on one wall, he wondered why someone would spend so much money on a painting they couldn’t sell. Slowly surveying the room, he shook his head at the loving attention to every tiny detail.
They should have spent their money modernizing the security system.
His gaze came to rest on the expensive crib and the dark-haired child sleeping beneath a patterned quilt. Crossing the rare wood floor, he peered down.
Stupid humans.
Laying his bundle beside the baby, he carefully peeled the blanket from the sleeping child and smiled in grim satisfaction. Good. The coloring matched perfectly, and the child wasn’t wearing one of those sleeper shirts or pajamas, just a diaper.
Quickly arranging things to his satisfaction, he took more care when he picked up the bundle this time. Sparing a last glance at the quiet child in the crib, he put one foot silently in front of the other.
Stepping off the porch steps, he disappeared within seconds into the black void of a spring night.
Chapter One
Fairy Changeling found in crib of healthy human child. Ailing Fae baby close to death. Parents want their healthy human child returned!
Luke eyed the vid-monitor in growing disbelief. The scrolling message at the bottom said it all. This was the second suspected Changeling swap in the same number of months.
He didn’t believe the baby left in the human household was Fae. Fairies had nothing to do with this. Healing any and all things was so ingrained in the Fae psyche, a sick baby would seriously trigger their compulsion to cure.
Not that it mattered what the Fae did, or didn’t do. With the world press presenting this baby as a Changeling child, the actual origin was a moot point. The resulting public outcry from these incidents could devastate the paranormal community. Public officials would gleefully use the human sub-species as a scapegoat until they found the real kidnapper.
If they even bothered to look.
