Finding The Lost Mystic Islan - Liberty Parker
Prologue
Vaughn
“Any luck on finding that missing lion cub?” my coworker and best friend in the entire universe, Shyla, asks me. Taking some time to take my first sip of coffee before answering, I hold up my finger in the air, indicating she needs to give me a minute. She knows how much this cup of brew means to me and is also highly aware that if I don’t get the much-needed caffeine, the world will crumble down around me. And trust me, no one wants to be around me when that happens. I’m known to be a royal pain in the ass if I don’t get to down at least two cups first thing in the morning.
“Ah,” I sigh out as my throat is coated with the warm sustenance. “No,” I answer with a shake of my head to emphasize the word. I’m stumped with this case. I’ve been working on it for three long, agonizing months with no leads. I’d have better luck fighting an invisible wall and winning than I am with locating this missing cub.
“Have you tried reaching out to Siberious?” she inquires. Siberious is a white tiger shifter that lives with the humans instead of with us on Mystic Island.
“I went to see him the other day, only he wasn’t home and he’s not answering his phone. I’m assuming he’s put himself in the mix of things and is doing some sort of undercover operation,” I tell her as I lift my cup back to my lips.
“Sounds like him.” She sighs. “When will he ever learn that he needs to let others know what he’s up to and where he’s going? One day, he’s gonna go missing for real and we won’t know it. He’s such a stubborn ass.”
“That he is, my friend,” I spout out with a giggle lodged in the back of my throat.
“Do you think we’ll ever be able locate all of these babies and save them from their fate?” she asks with tears evident in her voice. Being a social worker is hard, but doing what we do is more trying on our emotions than anyone would ever guess. See, we’re contracted out from our government. We are seen as your normal, everyday run-of-the-mill social workers when we’re anything but. We’re specifically here with the invitation from the human’s government to find our kind—meaning supernatural beings, specifically missing children. We have a group of rogues who’ve decided that we are the dominant species and should be ruling over the humans. They see them as weak and feel they should be nothing more than common household pets. Slaves if you will. That’s a disgusting word, and I hate using it, but it’s the best descriptive word I can use so that others will understand their way of thinking. A shiver rolls through me when I think about the world that they are determined to bring into existence.
“That’s the hope, but I have my doubts,” I admit with hesitation. I want to see these things through rose-colored glasses. Unfortunately, that isn’t realistic. We have to be aware that a few may fall through the cracks. We’re only a handful of individuals who’ve been tasked with finding these lost children against a sea of sharks who’ve made it their life’s mission to breed as many shifter children as they can. “We’ll need our own army of assistants if we are to ever have half a chance at rescuing them all.” Not only do we get the lost kids, we also do ‘normal’ social work shit, like place orphaned shifters with families on the island so they can be taught the ways of our world.
“That’s a pipe dream, isn’t it?” she asks as she stands up from the chair across from me and starts making her way out of the break room.
“Yeah, and unfortunately, that particular pipe is leading us down into the sewer lines.” I rush out my answer as her shoulders slump and her head hangs down in defeat. “All we can do is our best.”
“But are we making a difference?” She calls out the question over her shoulder as she continues to make her way out of the room.
“I’d like to think we are,” I mumble into my mug. We’ve only rescued a handful of the children that we are aware of. The others seem to have vanished into the thin, blue sky. It’s as if their existence is nothing more than rumors, only the birth records from the human hospitals show that they