Jace

by Alisa Woods

  He broke his inspection of her to glance at his older brother. “I might actually have something on the Agent Smith front. When I was at the base, I saw someone I’m pretty sure was him. I don’t know what he was doing there, but I don’t believe in that kind of coincidence. We already know he’s working for some part of the government, and now with military shifters disappearing? I don’t like it, Jaxson. Not at all.”

  “Agreed,” Jaxson said. “It’s just as well you got out of there.”

  “Wait a minute, who is this Agent Smith person?” Piper asked. Was that who Jace tried to go back for? And why didn’t he bring it up sooner?

  “He’s the bad guy responsible for the other shifters who were kidnaped, including Cassie,” Jace explained.

  Piper nodded, forgiving him for the moment—at least they were after the same bad guys. Piper turned back to Olivia. “All right, what do I have to do for this spell? I don’t know anything about this Agent Smith, I just want to find my brother. But it sounds like, if we can do that, we might find any other shifters involved in this thing. Because I can’t believe it’s just my brother. There has to be more to it than that.”

  Jace stepped forward. “I agree,” he said softly, but full of meaning. “If we work together, we’ll have a much better chance of solving this whole thing. Including finding Noah.”

  So maybe that was it. He came after her because he believed she had vital information that could help him and the rest of his brothers find the missing shifters and this Agent Smith character. It wasn’t that he was worried about her or any such nonsense.

  “Understood.” She was a little disappointed it wasn’t more than that, but that helped focus her back on her mission: finding Noah.

  Jaxson tugged on Jace’s arm, pulling him back to give Piper and Olivia room. Olivia produced a small baggie filled with whitish powder from the pocket of her jeans. She poured it out into the palm of her hand and waved her other hand over it. She said some strange words in a hesitating kind of way, like she didn’t quite know what they were. Great. A beginner half-witch. But the spell must be working because a whitish cloud started to swirl above the tiny pile of powder. Blue sparks shot through the cloud, forming a little torrent of magic.

  “Are you ready?” Olivia looked her in the eyes, little more uncertainty there than Piper wanted to see.

  “Um… sure.” Piper braced herself, but the last thing she expected was for Olivia to blow the small cloud into her face. The world went blurry at the edges, and Piper tried not to panic. She clutched at the table top next to her, bracing herself as her vision wobbled. All the shifters in the room seemed to blur like she was seeing them from underwater.

  Olivia’s voice boomed, suddenly loud like she was in a giant hall. “Focus on your brother, Noah, and some particularly poignant memory that you have. The stronger, the better.”

  A dozen memories flashed through Piper’s head, mostly text conversations that were particularly funny or sad. There was something about communicating by typed words on her phone that allowed her and Noah to share things they never could face-to-face. In fact, there was literally no one else on earth she would say those things to, even in a text. But even as strong as those memories were, they still wobbled away from her, like her mind was searching for something more tangible. Something in person.

  Her thoughts suddenly zoomed all the way back to the day their mother died. Piper’s mind snapped to the on-base housing that was more like a prison. Her mother had always stayed in the house. The Colonel liked it that way and forbade her from showing her beautiful face outside its four walls. There was something about the mating bond that held her captive. The one time Piper had tried to get her mother to leave—for some school function or play date or normal thing of childhood she couldn’t even recall now—her mother had something akin to a panic attack. Piper never asked again. That was when her mother’s slow descent started. Piper could see it in retrospect, but at the time, she just thought her mom was sick a lot.

  Then that day came when Piper came home late from school. Even before she was halfway across the living room, she knew something had gone terribly wrong. Noah stormed out of the kitchen, eyes red, face streaked with tears, so angry-looking that Piper thought he might explode. Or shift. Something. But Noah kept his rage locked inside, even then, just as they had all learned to do.

  “What happened?” she remembered asking. Noah just shook his head, the rage making his whole body vibrate. It wasn’t until Piper stumbled into the kitchen herself that she understood. Her mother was sprawled out on the kitchen floor. A bottle of pills had spilled across the kitchen table, and a bottle of whiskey had smashed into the floor, spilling its amber liquid into a thin lake that stretched across the span of the kitchen.

  Piper remembered that she screamed. She didn’t remember actually doing it, but her throat was sore for days afterward. There was no sense in calling 911 because it was obvious her mother was dead.

  Noah had been the first to discover her body.

  “Oh my God, Piper, I’m so sorry.” Olivia’s voice resonated through the vision like a sonic boom and wiped it away.

  Piper’s body was rigid—bound up from the vision—but with Olivia’s words, everything drained from her. The room spun, still blurry at the edges, and she almost went down.

  Suddenly, Jace was holding her up, his dark, concerned eyes peering down at her and his strong arms keeping her upright. She allowed herself to sag into him—it was either that or end up on the floor—and as her head thumped against his chest, she said, “Please tell me that worked. I don’t think I can do it again.”

  His arms were tight around her, holding her up, but he twisted toward Olivia.

  “I’ve got him!” she said triumphantly.

  Chapter Seven

  Jace held Piper close—she still seemed woozy from the seeking spell Olivia cast to find her brother, but that wasn’t the only reason he was holding her. She needed him. He felt it deep in his core, and there was no way he was letting go of that… or her. But once Olivia’s claim of having magically found Noah seemed to register, Piper gently pushed him away. She wobbled a little, but managed to stay upright on her own.

  “What did you see?” Piper asked Olivia.

  Olivia reached for Piper’s hand and squeezed it, but she quickly pulled back and crossed her arms tightly across her chest. She was locking herself in again, walling herself off from anyone and everyone who tried to help her.

  “I saw your brother in a hospital,” Olivia said. “It looked more like a military hospital, with guys in fatigues with guns. Noah was lying on a thin cot. There were others too.”

  “How many?” Jace asked.

  Piper frowned at his question, but he couldn’t figure out why.

  “About a dozen I think,” Olivia answered. “It was hard to tell. The windows around the edges of the long ward were dark, and the overhead lights were dim.”

  “It was dark outside?” Piper asked. The afternoon light shone brightly out the window of the kitchen. “Are you saying this was a vision of the future? I thought this was a seeking spell.”

  Olivia frowned. “I’m not exactly sure what I saw. Maybe the past?” She bit her lip. “But I can tell you exactly where it was.”

  “You can?” Jace asked, skeptically. “How does that work?”

  Olivia shrugged. “It’s hard to explain, but it’s like a witchy GPS. All I know is, if you give me a map, I can point to the exact location of my vision. I’m sorry, I’m still new at this.”

  “It’s better than any lead I’ve had so far.” Piper leaned forward to squeeze Olivia’s hand, then quickly retreated again.

  “I’ll pull up a map,” Jaxson said, grabbing a tablet from a nearby kitchen counter and tapping it open. “Jared, gather up a few of our pack and get them ready to head out.”

  Jace lifted his chin to catch Jared’s attention. “We won’t know the situation until we get there, but we shouldn’t need more than five or six total. Keep it s
mall.”

  Jared nodded his agreement and hustled out of the room.

  Jace looked back to Piper. Her pretty face was still pale and grim. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be okay.”

  She didn’t look okay, but his words seem to lift her a little. He didn’t know what happened in the seeking spell, but it shook her. Badly. Whatever it was just reinforced that sense he had that she was fragile right now, whether she wanted to acknowledge that or not. And that she needed his support.

  The trick would be getting her to let him.

  He smiled at her, putting all the reassurance into it that he could. It seemed to affect her: she ducked her head and braced herself against the table, making it look casual, but he could see the unsteadiness behind it. He didn’t know what it would take to break down those walls—the ones that kept everyone out—but he was surprised by his own determination to find out.

  Jerod quickly returned with three pack members in tow, and they all piled into the safehouse van. Daniel came along as well, and of course, Piper insisted on coming. That got a few frowns from the rest of the pack, but he glared them down. Asking her to stay home from the mission would just drive her away—he knew that much. And he suspected she had as much, if not more, experience with this sort of thing than they did. Olivia stayed behind; she’d already helped enough, and Jaxson wouldn’t risk her on a mission, even if they could use her help.

  Piper rode in silence, one giant ball of tension. Daniel had a permanent scowl on his face. Jace didn’t know what his take on this was, but he seemed willing to go along and see if they could actually find his brother. When they were nearly there, Daniel checked his phone—his scowl grew even deeper.

  “What’s up?” Piper asked. They were the first words she’d spoken during the trip.

  Daniel hesitated to answer, then said, “I just got an email from Noah.”

  “What?” Piper rose half out of her seat, but then slumped back down with the jostling of the van. “What does it say?”

  Daniel held up his phone and read the email aloud. “Hey, Daniel, I heard you were worried about me. Wanted to let you know I was fine. Just taking a little time to relax. I’ll be back up to speed in no time. Don’t worry about me. Stay cool, bro.”

  Daniel and Piper exchanged a look, and both of them seemed freaked out by the email, but Jace couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it. “So… what? Is he really okay?”

  Piper shook her head, and Daniel seem to agree, but he was scanning the email again.

  “He said back up to speed.” Piper’s voice was filled with dread. “That’s what we said when we were kids after…” She glanced around the crowded van. Jace was sure she didn’t want to spill whatever personal family secret this was amongst a bunch of shifters she didn’t know.

  “After something bad happened,” Jace filled in for her.

  She looked relieved and sent him a grateful look. “Yes. If he really wanted to say he was fine, he would’ve said something more like I’m dying of dysentery, but I’m sure I’ll be over it in a few months. If not, don’t get weepy at my funeral.”

  Jace only knew a little about her family and the asshole who was their father, but he could imagine the level of gallows humor was pretty intense. “So his email is code for something’s really bad. Like in Olivia’s vision with the hospital beds?”

  Piper just nodded.

  Daniel’s jaw was tight. “Should I answer this?”

  “Leave it for now.” Jace glanced up front to the driver, who gave him a nod in the rearview mirror. “We’re almost there.”

  They piled out of the van. This dark corner of Seattle was filled with rusted out warehouses and abandoned buildings.

  Jaxson brought out the GPS and pointed down the road. “It’s about three blocks that way. I think we should send an advanced scout. Jace?”

  He nodded his agreement. “I’ll take Piper, and we’ll signal back with a text once we’ve checked out the situation. If we need to plan a larger assault, we might have to wait until dark and call up some reinforcements.” Jace reached for Piper’s hand, but she was already heading off in the direction of the warehouse or hospital or whatever this place was. He gave a small shrug to Jaxson’s questioning look and jogged after her.

  When he caught up, he said, “You know, we’ve done a few operations like this before. You might want to use some of our expertise and not just always run off by yourself. More likely to achieve success in our mission objectives that way.” He tried to keep his voice light, but in order to get her brother and the others out alive, she needed to not go off half-cocked.

  She checked her pace. “I really do appreciate your help. I’m just used to working alone.”

  It made him cringe—he had a feeling alone was what she felt most of the time. “I know. But we’re in this together now, right?”

  “Sure.” It was the most negative form of a yes that Jace had ever heard.

  He just shook his head. His GPS showed them approaching the coordinates—the target was just another rusty warehouse like all the others. Jace tugged Piper around the corner, out of view of the building. Then he peeked around and took a quick scan.

  “Not seeing any movement,” he said.

  She did a peek-check as well. “I think we need to get closer. Those low windows could give us a preview of what’s waiting inside.” She gave him the most honest look he’d ever seen from her. “We need to be careful. If they’re in hospital beds, it might be hard to move them. We need to count the guards, assess the weapons, and make a plan to take them all out at once. Give us time to move the prisoners.”

  He gave her a small smile. “You know, I could use someone like you on my other missions.” Not only was it true, it made him want to shove her up against the wall and kiss the hell out of her. Which really wasn’t appropriate at the moment. “I don’t suppose you’d consider joining the pack?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Are you kidding me? You guys don’t have near as much fun in your jobs as I do.”

  He snorted a laugh. “All right, we do this your way. I’ll take one of the near windows, you take one closer to the door. Get a peek-check, then reconvene back here. Acceptable?”

  She smirked. “I can work with that.”

  They split up, crouching low and running fast. The thrill of being on a mission with her was getting his wolf way too excited—it kept trying to claw its way up from the depths. Jace reached his window at the same time Piper reached hers, and with a coordinated signal between them, they both peek-checked at the same time, then ducked back down below the window. What he saw was not encouraging. By the frown on Piper’s face, she’d seen the same thing.

  Nothing.

  There were hospital beds inside the building all right, but no people whatsoever. Jace stood and peered in the window again; Piper did the same. Then she slammed her fist against the side of the window, making it rattle. Jace jogged over to her, pulling out his phone to text his brothers and the rest of the pack. He quickly tapped out the message: hospital here, no prisoners. Then he stowed his phone in his pocket again.

  “I’m going inside,” Piper ground out. She stormed off toward the door a dozen feet away. It was locked. She banged on it and yanked the handle, then finally whipped out some claws and sliced through the thin sheet metal with a screeching sound that echoed down the street.

  Jace rushed over to her. “Piper—” But she’d already reached through the door, unlocked it, and yanked it open, rushing inside.

  He quickly followed. She dashed along the two rows of hospital beds, stopping at each one to throw back the blankets and check for something, then moving on to the next. About halfway down the long open space, she scooped up something and froze.

  Jace finally caught up to her. “What is it?”

  She had an envelope in her hands, but she was just staring at it. “If Noah had been here, he would’ve left some clue for me. He knows I would come looking for him.”

  Jace nodd
ed. If one of his brothers were in trouble, Jace would do the same, looking for them tirelessly. And he would expect them to help by leaving clues along the way. As messed up as Piper’s family was, he had no doubt that the bond between Piper and Noah was just as strong.

  “Why don’t you open it?” he asked.

  She flipped open the flap to show him—the envelope was empty.

  “An empty envelope? What does it mean?” He frowned—it wasn’t much of a clue.

  She looked at him with one of those hard looks that he didn’t like, like she was churning through her mind whether she could trust Jace enough to tell him the truth.

  “I’m here to help you, Piper,” he said gently.

  She nodded. “It’s not what’s inside, it’s the envelope itself.” She took his hand and ran one of his fingers along the back flap. It had a slightly raised embossing. When Jace looked more closely, could see an emblem: some kind of eagle and flag, barely visible.

  “It’s some kind of official US government envelope,” Jace said, still not really understanding. “How does that help?”

  “It’s the official stationery of Senator Krepky’s office in the capitol.” Piper’s voice was flat.

  “You think one of the Senators is involved in this?” Jace suspected it was a government operation, but he couldn’t believe the politicians would get their hands muddy with any of it.

  “I’m going to find out.” Piper stuffed the envelope into her jacket pocket and turned to stride away.

  “Hang on!” Jace reached out to tug on her elbow and stop her from leaving. “We’re sticking together, remember? Let me help you with this.”