by Nicole Hall
The guilt on his face clinched it, and her heart crumpled. They’d been best friends for almost a decade. Even though they hadn’t spoken much in the last few years, mostly because Dru had been borderline avoiding him, she’d still counted him as trustworthy. This stalker routine raised a lot of red flags.
She pointed at Oren. “You, stay here.” Then at Nick. “You, we’re having a much-needed conversation.” She stomped across the street toward the woods that grew almost to the sidewalk. A low voice muttered something she couldn’t catch, couldn’t even tell which sneaky male had said it, but she didn’t care.
Dru stepped through the brush and under the shade of the trees. The quaint white house remained in view, but the wild soothed her. Nick picked his way past the thick bushes to join her behind the first trees.
“Was it necessary to hike into the wilderness to have a conversation?”
Dru’s emotions were all over the place, but a strange foreign calm helped her sort through them. “Did Oren call you?”
Nick snorted. “No.”
“Did you follow us?”
Guilt again. “Sort of.”
His short responses made her suspicious. Nick loved the sound of his own voice. “Why? And a full answer this time, please.”
Nick sighed. “I want to tell you, Dru, but I can’t.”
She shook her head. “That’s bullshit. All you have to do is open your mouth and talk. We’ve always been able to tell each other everything, and now suddenly you’re speechless?”
He sent her a pointed look. “You know as well as I do that we’ve never told each other everything.”
Dru gasped as the truth hit her. “This isn’t about a deteriorating friendship; this is about magic. You know about my magic.”
Nick didn’t outwardly respond, but she read the truth on his face.
“And you? Another magic-user I didn’t know about?”
“I wanted to tell you, Dru.” He reached out a pleading hand, but she smacked it away.
“Tell me now.”
He grimaced. “I still can’t.”
Hurt threatened to choke her. She turned away to stare back toward civilization. Her eyes met Oren’s, watching them by the car with his arms crossed. “Oren knows, doesn’t he?”
“Yes, and he should be able to answer any questions you have. I told him the day we went to get pizza, but he’d already figured out I wasn’t a normal human.”
“So you are human at least,” she muttered, returning her attention to the quiet sounds of the forest. “Was our whole friendship a lie?”
“No.” Nick stepped in front of her and grasped her shoulders. “No, Dru. I love you like my own sister. Everything I’ve done has been to protect you.”
Dru met his eyes, letting him see how much he’d shaken her. “Who’s going to protect me from you?”
He released her and stepped back, a sad smile on his face. “Oren. I may have lost your trust, but don’t take out my transgressions on him.”
Dru shook her head, surprised he had an answer. “That’s going to depend on what he has to say.”
10
OREN
Oren didn’t know why he’d kept Nick’s secret. He’d shared the relevant information Nick had given him, but he’d kept the man’s name out of it. Admittedly, the relationship between him and Dru made him somewhat uneasy, but he wouldn’t get in the way of her best friend. That said, he wouldn’t be too put out if Dru decided that Nick couldn’t be trusted.
He’d hoped they’d find Brianne at this house, but that wasn’t going to be the case. She’d been here, once, but not for a long while. Her scent had faded and contained an undertone of sadness and desperation. He’d be surprised if the parents knew where she was.
If they’d found her, he might have been able to talk Dru into staying somewhere safe while he traveled back to Aecantha. The bond with Dru had shocked him, but knowing Keris, she’d planned it from the beginning. Somehow. What were the chances that the only known dryad in Terra would be his mate? The dryad she’d sent him to find? He intended to unravel that particular knot.
Nick gripped her shoulders, and Oren tensed, prepared to rush to her rescue, but then he released her and backed away. As far as Oren was concerned, the man deserved any ire she directed at him. He remembered the joy on her face when she’d seen him on the doorstep. That joy had been replaced by anger and hurt, though this time he sensed it inside her. A primal urge to rip her away from the man causing her pain made him brace himself against the car. Dru could handle this herself.
They stood too far away for him to hear their conversation, and he let out a relieved breath when Dru turned and began walking back to him. As they got closer, the sense of unease increased, tangled together with his complicated emotions for Dru and her complicated emotions for her sister. What a mess.
Oren maintained his relaxed posture even though Dru approached him with clenched fists. “Get it all worked out?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “Because Nick has a right to his secrets too.”
Dru released an annoyed breath. “There’s too many secrets going around.”
“In that, we agree.”
Nick chimed up from several feet away, as if he were ready to make a quick escape. “Tell her all of it.”
Dru stayed uncharacteristically silent while Oren explained, and he couldn’t miss the flash of pain that sliced through her and into him when he got to the part about Nick working for Hollis. Her face revealed nothing, but the truth ripped a bit of Dru’s faith away from her.
As much as he wanted to, Oren couldn’t fix this. His words trailed off, and they stood in the quiet. Wind rustled the trees, and Dru stared down at her feet. He felt her struggle to push past the betrayal and focus on the intervening years of friendship. She wanted to believe that Nick cared about her.
Dru finally came to a decision and looked up at the other man. “Why are you here?”
Nick didn’t try to joke his way around her softly spoken question. He must have known this was his only chance at forgiveness. “I thought Oren had told you everything, and I wanted to help.”
“How could you possibly help?”
“I don’t know, but I want to try.”
Dru shook her head, but Oren knew she’d accept his help. She loved him, broken trust and all. “Fine. All those skills you’ve perfected over the years might come in handy.”
“Skills?” Oren asked.
She sent Oren a quick smile that he felt all the way to his toes. “Lockpicking. Sleight of hand. Stuff like that. He wanted to be a spy when he grew up.”
Nick scoffed. “I was already grown when I met you. I just acted young.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, and that time with the rum—”
He moved quick and slapped a hand over her mouth. Oren decided to give Nick ten seconds before ripping his arm off. “You promised never to talk about that.”
Dru lifted a brow, and Nick removed his hand. “Yep, and grown-ass adults don’t have stories they need to keep hidden.”
Her barb made contact, and Nick winced. Oren smiled. He liked this spikier side to Dru, and not entirely because it created distance between her and Nick. The easy return to their banter didn’t fool him. Oren sensed the anxiety under Dru’s sassy façade.
He pushed away from the car and nodded at the house. “We should talk to the parents.”
“Not Brianne?” Dru’s hopeful tone tore at Oren.
“I don’t think so, kalia, but let’s go knock on the door and find out.”
They didn’t make it to the door. Before they’d taken more than a few steps up the path, an older man in jeans and a sweater came out to greet them.
“Hello, can I help you?” He’d been speaking to Oren, but his mouth dropped open at the sight of Dru. “Bri?”
Sympathy softened Dru’s face. “No, sir. I’m sorry. I’m Dru, Brianne’s biological sister. We’re searching for her.”
He shook his head, appearing much paler all of a sudden. “Of course. I’m sorry. Of course, you’re not Bri.” He chuckled to himself, but the sound was sad. “She’d never voluntarily wear pink.”
Dru glanced down at her pink tank top, then sent Oren a confused look. He shrugged. Scent only gave him so much about a person.
“Come inside, then. She’s not here, but you’ll have questions.” The man turned and shuffled back into the house, leaving the door open for them.
Dru moved forward, but Oren put out an arm stopping her. The man seemed harmless, but he wasn’t taking any chances. The house opened into a formal parlor kept painstakingly clean. Music echoed above them, but the words were too garbled to make out. Oren expected the man to escort them into the obvious area for receiving guests, but he stopped at the base of the stairs.
“Jenny,” he shouted. “We have company.”
Somewhere above them, the music—singing, Oren realized—stopped, then light footsteps marked her progress to the landing. Jenny had a sleek bob of silver-blonde hair and an abundance of laugh lines. Her face reflected polite curiosity until Dru came into her view. She gasped and her hand came up to her throat.
“Oh my.” She hurried down the stairs, her eyes locked on Dru, and Oren subtly moved himself between the two women.
The man stopped him from having to act by taking her arm as she tried to pass by him. “It’s not her.”
Jenny deflated and turned her face into the man’s shoulder, her husband if Oren had to guess. He supported her and patted her back while nodding toward the back of the house. “Let’s go into the family room.”
They marched down the hall and into an open great room attached to a bright, sunny kitchen. Groups of pictures clustered on the counter, the mantel, both end tables, even the windowsill. Most of them appeared to be family pictures with the couple and a young girl.
The man deposited his wife on the couch and fetched her a glass of water. “Please sit down. That’s Jenny, my wife. I’m Marcus. Bri—Brianne—is our daughter.”
Oren caught Dru’s hand and led her to the opposite couch, eyeing the pictures along the way. Nick sat on Dru’s other side and picked up a solo portrait of a girl who could have been Dru’s twin.
Jenny smiled up at Marcus as he handed her the water, but she simply held the glass instead of taking a drink. “Bri has been missing for almost eight years.” Her lower lip trembled, but she took a deep breath and steadied herself, staring at Dru. “I thought you were her. You look just like her.”
Oren brushed his thumb over Dru’s wrist, caught in the wave of sadness she felt for the couple. “Dru is Brianne’s sister. She was adopted as a baby and only recently found out about her sibling.”
Marcus joined his wife on the couch and squinted at Dru. “Were you twins? When we adopted Bri, the papers said she was an only child, but clearly, they were mistaken.”
Dru shook her head. “Not twins. She’s younger than me by a year or so. What do you mean missing?”
The couple shared a look, then Jenny reached over to grab two pictures frames from the side table at the far end of the room. “Growing up, Bri was often wild and outspoken, but she loved fiercely—us and anyone else around her she deemed worthy. We never let her doubt that we loved her back just as much.” She handed Dru one of the frames.
Oren leaned over to see as well. The girl in the picture had Dru’s features, but with heavy, dark eye make-up that made her eyes huge. She smirked at the camera as if she knew something the photographer didn’t. Taken together with some of the other pictures, Brianne’s clothing choices tended toward dark bases with brightly colored accessories. But like Marcus had said, never pink.
Jenny waited until Dru looked up again to continue. “Around her eighteenth birthday, something changed. Our girl turned sullen and angry overnight. She stopped coming home, stopped going to school, stopped seeing any of her friends.” She took a shuddering breath. “We knew something was wrong, but she wouldn’t talk to us. The day after she graduated, Bri disappeared.”
She held out the second frame, and Oren took this one. Same girl, vastly different attitude. Brianne stared off into the distance in the picture, her heavy make-up replaced with dark circles under her eyes. Not a bit of color broke up the baggy, black sweater and leggings she wore, and she seemed to have no idea someone was taking her picture.
Dru’s lips firmed as she stared at her sister. Oren could feel the anger building inside her, but she did a good job of keeping it from showing outwardly. She knew what had happened.
“A small backpack was missing, but she didn’t take any of her clothes or personal items. None of her friends knew where she went. The police decided she’d run away, but couldn’t give us a good reason why.” Jenny wiped away the silent tears running down her face.
Dru handed back the frames. “Have you looked for her?”
Marcus curled an arm around his wife’s shoulders. “Every day, at first. We even hired a private investigator for a while. That’s when she last contacted us. She sent us a letter, your basic USPS, telling us she loved us, but she’s fine and to stop wasting our money searching. Somehow, she knew about the PI. He never found a clue as to her disappearance.”
Jenny sighed and carefully replaced the pictures. “She doesn’t want to be found.”
Disappointment and sadness washed over him from Dru. She felt sorry for these loving parents more than for herself. Oren wanted to gather her in his arms and shield her generous heart, but he settled for kissing her hand. She sent him a grateful smile, and he forced himself to focus on doing his job.
Oren nodded at Nick. “We’re professionals at finding people. Do you think we could have a look at her room?”
Marcus nodded, and Oren was glad he’d brought Dru along. Without her, this couple would have been much more reticent. Dru’s obvious relation to Brianne opened doors for him without any effort.
The older man slowly led them upstairs and opened a door with faded paper flowers taped around the frame. “I’ll leave you here for now. Jenny’s having a hard time of it.” He took another long look at Dru then went back downstairs.
Oren suspected the neatly kept room hadn’t changed at all in the last eight years. The décor favored blacks and greens, but the art drew his attention. Renderings of mysterious dark forests covered her walls in various mediums. Dru hadn’t been the only sister to inherit art skills.
For her part, Dru marched right up to the mirror over the vanity. She traced a gash etched in the edge of the wooden frame. “This was Hollis’ doing.”
“How so?” Nick stood in the doorway with his arms crossed, and Dru spared him an arched glance.
“She likes to use mirrors to communicate, as you should probably know. I can feel the remnants of her magic here. Also, I came into my power at eighteen, and Hollis contacted me shortly thereafter. It stands to reason she’d do the same to Brianne.”
Oren nodded and took it one step further. “The magic is too old for me to see, but her scent tells me she used her power in here. Why would she run? If Hollis is able to contact you two so easily, why would Brianne think she could escape by leaving?”
Dru shook her head slowly. “She wasn’t escaping. She was protecting her parents. Hollis has a strong connection to me because I’m the vessel as well as her daughter. But Brianne’s relationship is different. If she left everything behind and started new, Hollis would only be able to find her if her mind weakened somehow. Even basic shields would work to stop Hollis’ invasions. Her parents, though…” She snorted in disgust. “Hollis wouldn’t hesitate to use them to make her daughter come to heel if she thought it would work. There’s a reason I didn’t visit my mom after I moved to the city. Bri was trying to keep them out of the power struggle.”
“Are you sure Brianne isn’t with Hollis already?” He moved closer to put his hand on her back.
She jolted as Oren’s touch snapped her out of her abstraction, then turned her back on the mi
rror. “Yes. If she had Brianne already, she’d have used her against me. As it is, her threats tell me she’s looking but hasn’t found her yet.”
Nick nodded. “I’m inclined to agree with her as I haven’t heard Hollis mention Brianne, and I definitely haven’t seen her.”
Dru cocked her head at him. “You still see Hollis? I thought she’d assigned you a job and left you here.”
“She attempts to call me back occasionally, but I usually find a way around it.”
Oren gritted his teeth. They were offering Nick a lot of information on the assumption that he was on their side. True, he’d revealed himself at the first opportunity, but it could have been a ploy to earn their trust. Or Oren could still be dealing with his possessive feelings toward Dru now that she was his mate. The uncertainty frustrated him, so he resolved to keep a close eye on Nick without alienating Dru by giving in to his doubts.
Dru flicked her eyes his way, and he knew she’d sensed some of his turmoil. He shook his head slightly, not ready to talk about it yet.
Nick took a step into the room, oblivious to the silent communication. “We need to figure out where she’d go if she was breaking all her ties here.”
“Yeah, but how? If a professional investigator couldn’t find anything, how are we supposed to?” Dru ran her fingers along the items on the desk in front of her, pausing on an iridescent shell in a pile of trinkets.
“Because you know what she was running from. They were searching blind.” Oren picked up the shell, then hesitated when he remembered Nick was watching.
Dru sighed. “I didn’t disappear. Like I said, it wouldn’t have done me any good. I went away to college and never came back. She didn’t get that far.”
She’d paused on three other charms in the pile while she talked, and Oren collected those as well. Dru sank onto the bed, and Nick crossed the room to examine a painted version of the woods.
