The courtyard had turned into chaos all over again, only this time it wasn't the Umbras causing it. Derek tore through the crowd with his bare chest marked with dirt and blood from the fight, his suit jacket and shirt lost somewhere, his trousers the only thing on him.
He shoved past gammas and Lunas alike, his voice tearing out of him raw and desperate.
"Kira!" he roared, voice cutting across the noise. "Kira!"
No one answered him, just the low murmur of a hundred shaken people trying to make sense of an attack that had ended as strangely as it began.
He reached for the mind-link again, throwing everything he had into it, calling her name down that link that had never once failed him, but it came back hollow.
He stayed calm, focusing on the link and urging Leo to focus on Kira's scent, but even with that, he couldn't pick up her scent or a pulse of hers. His heart began to pound heavily against his ribcage.
