**Deacon''s POV**


    The man sitting in the chair in front of me grins at me with bloodied teeth as my knuckles throb. I had lost my temper and hit him. I''d let him get to me and he knows it.


    *Just


    tell me where you think she is?" I say again.


    "No idea. They made sure we didn''t know anything useful for this very situation. You canpel me all you like, you''ll not get information I don''t have," heughs.


    One of his eyes is swollen closed and blood trickles from his head. Axel had to take Mason out of the room before he killed this guy, especially after he had called Harper a pretty little thing. He is giving off some serious predator vibes, and it''s making it increasingly harder not to kill him myself, but he''s our only lead right


    now.


    "What''s your name?" I ask, deciding to try a different approach. If he can''t tell me where Harper is, he can at least expose himself and his faction.


    "John Morrison," he responds, sounding bored.


    "How long have you been in the human realm, John?"


    "All my life."


    "And how old are you?" I ask. He looks to be in his mid-thirties.


    26."


    "Wow, it looks like you had a tough paper round, John, I thought you were older than me,” Josie says as she enters the dining room where John is secured. She must have been listening to us from the kitchen. John''s eyes light up at the sight of Josie and I clench my fists, stopping myself from punching him again. "I see where the girl gets her good looks from," John says, leering at my bond as his eyes travel up and down her body appreciatively.


    "I know what you are trying to do here, John," Josie says with a knowing smile.


    "Oh... and what might that be?" John smiles back.


    "You are trying to goad my bonds into killing you, which either means you do have some useful information that you''d rather die than tell us, or you are scared and want to end this quickly," Josle says and the smile on John''s face drops, his expression going hard.


    "Which is it? Are you scared or is there something you don''t want us to find out?" I ask with a smirk.


    "Both," John says, unable to lie to me because of thepulsion I have him under.


    "Good, now let''s start again, shall we? What is it you don''t want us to know?" I ask and John begins to tell us everything he''d been holding back.


    Mason and Axee into the room to listen as John exins how he was only 16 when Cornellus came out to the humans. Both of John''s parents were Greys and loyal supporters of Cornelius. They had been captured on the day Cornelius died. John and a group of teen Greys that had yet to awaken their gifts had gone into hiding here in the human realm. In the recent years they have been seeking out Grey children born here, recruiting them to increase their numbers. Their n is to gather enough that they can storm the prison in our realm to rescue their parents.


    Chapter0249


    The news is notpletely unexpected, but it''s still an unpleasant revtion. We knew there were still Greys out there that supported Cornelius'' cause, but we had no idea had been an actively recruiting and growing group. As no other Spark bonded group has been activated since ours this is our issue to deal with again. I guess it''s still the same threat, which makes It our responsibility to eliminate it, but this still feels unfair. We have a family to focus on now. Our group should be free of all this and able to enjoy our lives. Haven''t we given enough already? If they didn''t have our daughter, I might have suggested we let the military take the lead on this one.


    "How did your group take our daughter?" I ask.


    "She and one of our newest recruits came to convince some of our younger members toe with them. They were trying to take our kids, so we took them and questioned the girl for your location. She forgot to mention that there would be so many of you," he grumbles and Mason sorts augh.


    "I bet she forgot to mention we are the Spark bonded group that took out Cornelius too, didn''t she?" Mason asks, pride flowing freely through the bond for Harper,


    "Yes," John sighs, "It seems we underestimated her."


    "You must have some idea where they are holding her. You might not know the exact location, but you know the usual ces, right?" ask.


    "No," John shakes his head, "We purposely keep information like that separate from the team on the streets for exactly this reason. We work as two separate units, live separately, and onlymunicate through phone calls and the asional meet-up at random disused buildings throughout the realm. You''ll never find them."


    "Where was the meet-up to interrogate our daughter?" Josie asks.


    "An old abandoned diplomatic hotel in the Philippines, but they moved her and her friend before my team left, he exins, and a pit of dread forms in my stomach. The human realm is massive, and we have absolutely no idea where to even start looking for our daughter.


    The room falls into silence as we process the news, all of us struggling to wrap our heads around the gravity of the task ahead of us. Luke and Theo port in, followed by over twenty of our closest family members, and more begin to follow. Our friends and military teams, all of them ready and willing to help us search for Harper. We are not alone in this mission, we have an array at our backs, ready to help us bring our baby girl back.


    Chapter 025)