“But…my sister left her mates and got really sick really fast.”
“That’s because she went over into your world and stayed there. She crossed into another dimension; she was way too far away from them. I’ll weaken slowly, it’ll take days before I’m too weak to function, especially because we’re only going a few hours drive from here.”
They reached Mackenzie’s car, which was still parked near the women’s quarters.
“Will the Sentinels let you leave?” Karlie asked as she climbed in.
“Yes, because I’ll tell them I’m going to go pick up the attorney for Ajax and Barron.”
Mackenzie spotted Vita frantically waving at them and running towards them.
“What is going on?” Vita was breathless as she reached the car door.
“No time to talk,” Mackenzie said, putting the car in reverse. “Ajax and Barron have been arrested, and we have to go to San Francisco to get someone to help us prove their innocence.”
“Are you crazy?” Vita squawked.
“You wouldn’t be the first person to ask me that question. Hey, why are you getting in?” Mackenzie demanded as Vita flung the back door open. “By the way, I’m cursed. This is not going to be the safest ride.”
“I know, I know, I was there when Barron and Ajax told Mackenzie about it,” Vita said impatiently “I’m going anyway. Hey, I’ve had bad luck all my life. How much worse could it get?” She slid in and slammed the door.
“Probably not the best time to be asking that question,” Karlie pointed out.
“The Sentinels won’t let you leave,” Mackenzie protested. “I’ve got a reason to leave, and Karlie isn’t required to stay here because she’s not from here. You’ve got no excuse.”
“I’ll lie on the floor and pull this blanket over me. You might need me. Safety in numbers.” Vita’s voice was muffled as she pulled the blanket over her.
Mackenzie didn’t have time to argue. “Fine, but if things get too curse-y, I’m leaving you guys behind where it’s safe.”
The Sentinels let them leave without too much argument, and Mackenzie drove towards San Francisco as fast as she could.
“Something’s bothering me about that anonymous witness, but I don’t know what,” Karlie said.
“The fact that they’re a lying sack of horse manure?” Mackenzie’s hands tightened on the wheel as she drove.
“Whoa. Slow down, you almost went off the road. Yeah, yeah, I know they’re lying, but something more than that is bothering me. It’ll come to me. In the meantime, I’m going to call Fabian.”
She dialed him and he answered quickly. “We need to meet with Tristan tonight. It’s urgent. And I have something he’ll want,” she said.
“Lucky him,” Fabian said. He named an address, and Karlie recited it to Mackenzie.
“Why does everyone assume I’m offering sex?” Karlie asked after she hung up.
“Because you’re hot, and it’s wishful thinking?” Mackenzie suggested.
“Hmph. Wish my former fiancée had thought that.” Karlie settled back in her seat with a sigh.
Mackenzie laughed, but then quickly grew serious again.
“Karlie and Vita, you have to promise me something.”
“Not until you say what it is,” Karlie said.
“I don’t know that I’m going to make it. If anything happens to me, tell Barron and Ajax that I want them to be happy. I want the curse lifted off them, and I want them to pick a new mate.”
“No!” Karlie said, appalled. “How about, nothing’s going to happen to you?”
“Maybe slow down a little bit,” Vita said from the back seat. “Especially going around those curves.”
“That’s my dying wish, so if you don’t tell them that, I’ll haunt you,” Mackenzie vowed.
“Yeah, but you only get to make a dying wish if you’re actually dying, so chill,” Karlie said firmly.
“Easy for you to say. You’re not cursed.”
Chapter Twelve
A short while later, they stopped to fill up on gas. Karlie and Mackenzie went inside the station to pay, and when they came out, Vita was staring at the back tire. “Is that looking kind of flat?” she asked.
The tire was indeed going flat, and sinking fast.
“Also, why are you covered in soda?” Vita wondered.
“Somebody tripped and spilled it on me. Damn it! We don’t have time for this!” Mackenzie groaned.
A man who’d been filling up his tank walked over to look. “I got a kit in my car,” he said. “I’ll patch that right up for you. Won’t take five minutes.”
“Thank you,” Mackenzie said gratefully. “You’re a lifesaver.”
“See? That was actually lucky!” Karlie pointed out. “And anyone can get a flat.”
They were on the road again within minutes, and were on time to their meeting with Fabian. He was waiting in front of an all-night coffee shop on the outskirts of San Francisco.
What was with the half unbuttoned shirt which had apparently escaped from the disco area, and the heavy chain gold necklaces? To say nothing of the cologne that made her eyes water.
“Is that him? Mr. man cleavage?” Mackenzie muttered, as she climbed out of the car and leaned on it. She wasn’t feeling too hot. “I don’t think he’s wearing enough cologne. Someone in China might not be able to smell him from here.”
“Tell me about it,” Karlie sighed.
“Hey, gorgeous. Where’s the wolf?” Fabian asked.
“Long story,” Karlie said. “We need you to take us to your friend Tristan.”
Fabian glanced around again, furtively this time, then back at them. “You’re looking at him.”
“What? Why didn’t you just say that in the first place? Why all this runaround?” Karlie spluttered.
“Hey, the Lookback Mirror is valuable. Lotta people would love to get their hands on it. I had to do some checking around first, make sure you weren’t working for any of my rivals. You checked out okay. You’re that girl who can cross over from Earth, and your wolf friend Barron has a good rep.” He looked Karlie up and down speculatively. “So, are we going back to my place? What are your friends going to do tonight while you and I—?”
“For the love of God!” Karlie exploded. “I am not trading sexual favors for the Lookback Mirror! Although I’m flattered you think they’re worth that much. I am offering to draw you a perfect Ley Line map of Northern California. I saw the one that Cornelius had, and if that’s the best that the Mages here have to work with, I can do much better.”
“I’m listening. Those maps aren’t the most accurate.. Although I’m telling you, you don’t know what you’re missing.”
“I will try to live with the disappointment,” Karlie said. “I grew up on Earth, on a spot where multiple ley lines crossed. Because of that, I can see ley lines that nobody else can see. I never needed the Breach. I could cross over from my world to yours before the breach even opened, and back again, safely, and I can bring over people from one side to the other. Everyone in my family can.”
His eyes opened wide. “Say, a map like that would be very valuable.”
“You said that using the Lookback Mirror is a huge energy drain, right?” she said.
“Knocks me on my ass for weeks. So, if you change your mind about, you know, we’d have to look at the mirror after—”
“I swear. To. God.” Karlie snapped. “Give it up. I can take you to the areas where the most ley lines cross, so you can draw on that energy. There’s one near here. Half an hour drive south.”
“How long will it take you to draw that map up?” Mackenzie asked her.
“Well, I’d already gotten started on it for the people back in my world. I mean, it’ll take a while, maybe a month or two, to finish it. It’s fine. I like it here. Also, curses. Curses are bad, they must be removed.”
“I appreciate it.” Mackenzie felt a wave of lightheadedness wash over her, and leaned on the car again, trying to disguis
e her weakness.
“You all right?” Karlie asked.
She was too far away from her mates. She felt the strong pull, the desperate urge to turn around and drive back. She wanted to be near her wolves. Needed it.
She fought it off. “I’m great. Listen. The first thing I want you to do with the Lookback Mirror is prove Ajax and Barron’s innocence. If that’s all that Fabian has the strength for, that’s fine.”
“No way! Ie’ve got to get that curse lifted,” Karlie protested. “That comes first. You’re pale as a ghost right now.”
“It’s not the curse, it’s the separation. I’m pretty sure, anyway. I’ll be fine once we’re back on the festival grounds.” She hoped she’d get her strength back. Right now she felt as if she’d lose a fight with a kitten.
“If you can take me to a major intersection of multiple ley lines, I can draw on that energy and do multiple searches for you,” Fabian said. “The mirror stores the images, so if you need to show them to the Mages to prove your case, we can do that.” He glanced at Vita, squinting at her sunflower necklace. “How much for that necklace?”
Vita clutched at the sunflower necklace protectively, taking a step back. “My mother gave it to me. It’s not for sale,” she said, her tone uncharacteristically sharp.
He shrugged, and turned his attention back to Karlie. “All right. You take me to the Ley Line intersection first,” Fabian said. “Just you and me.”
“No way!” Mackenzie protested. “You’re not going off alone with that shyster…”
“I know who she is. I don’t know you guys.” He shook his head. “Just you, or no deal.”
“I’ll go,” Karlie said. “It’s fine,” she added to Mackenzie. “Seriously, I weigh twice as much as he does. I could take him. And wipe that smirk off your face,” she added to Fabian. “That is not what I meant. Jeez!”
“I don’t like it.” Mackenzie swayed again and clutched at the car.
“Mackenzie, if I were to get in a fight right now, you’d be a hindrance, not a help. You need to sit down. Go inside the coffee shop, and stay safe. Maybe stay away from the window. And don’t order anything hot. Or any food. You might get food poisoning. Vita, keep an eye on her. I’ll meet you back here in an hour or two.” Mackenzie wanted to argue as Karlie walked away, but another wave of dizziness swept over her and she sagged briefly. Vita pulled her back up.
The next thing she knew, Karlie and Fabian were pulling away in their car.
“Let’s go inside and get some coffee,” Mackenzie said weakly.
“I think not.” Vita’s voice had changed suddenly.
“Excuse me?”
Through her dizziness, she heard the car door opening, and felt herself being shoved in to the passenger side. Then she felt something jab her arm. The darkness that closed in on her was almost a relief.
When she woke up, she was under a blanket, trussed hand and foot. She yanked at her bonds; they were tied to something, probably the metal under the front seats. She couldn’t sit up. She was hot and sweaty with the blanket on top of her, and she could hardly breathe. How long had she been out? What the hell had happened to Vita?
She could hear her phone ringing. She was lying on the floor of her car, in the back seat, she realized. It sounded as if her phone was in the front seat.
“Let me out!” she yelled. “What the hell are you doing?”
The car pulled over to the side of the road. “Just a minute,” a cheerful female voice said. She thought it sounded familiar, but from where.
She heard the car door open, and the sound of the phone ringing died out, and then then the door shut again.
“That’s much better.” The side door opened, and the blanket was lifted off her for a brief moment. A woman looked down at her. A wave of shock rolled over Mackenzie as she realized who it was; the same woman who had taunted her last year after Ajax dumped her. “Where’s Vita?” Mackenzie’s head was swimming.
“Where’s Vita?” The woman’s laugh was malicious, and the gleam in her eyes was crazy. She fished around for something, then came up with the sunflower necklace. She pulled it over her head – and instantly she was Vita again.
“Here’s Vita. Say bye to Vita.” She pulled the necklace off. “Caroline Thorberg. Pleased to meet you, especially because you’re going to be dead soon.” She pulled the blanket over Mackenzie’s head again.
Mackenzie felt awful. Weak, dizzy…she could sense that she was much farther away from Ajax and Barron now.
The woman got back in the driver’s seat, and the car began moving again, quickly picking up speed.
“What are you doing? You’re the woman who wanted to mate with Ajax and Barron?” she yelled from under the blanket. “Why did you push me to get together with them, if you want them?”
“Oh, they’re going to mate with me all right,” the woman crowed. “But first, they’re going to suffer the way my mother suffered. They have to know love, and lose it. I’m going to keep driving, and driving, and driving, and by the time they get out of jail tomorrow and start looking for you, you’ll be dead.”
“Are you crazy?” Mackenzie yelled. “What a stupid question, of course you’re crazy. If you kill me, they’ll hate you!”
The car jerked wildly. “Don’t you dare talk to me that way! They won’t know I killed you! I’ll tell them we both were kidnapped! And once they drink that love potion, they won’t have any choice but to bond with me. The Magnussen men owe us. I will be an Alpha’s Mate!”
“You’ll be cursed too, you nutjob!”
“No, you dumbass. My mother designed the curse before she died. They can only bond with a Thorberg.”
“They will never bond with you! It’s not a love potion, you idiot, it’s a mating potion! It won’t make them love you! And you think they won’t figure out what’s going on once they find out they’re mating with Caroline Thorberg?”
“They’ll never know, if I stay in Vita disguise forever. You deserve this. They desrve this. It has to happen! They lured my mother into their trap and abandoned her, and she died because of them! They’re the reason I grew up without a mother!”
“Your mother was a crazy manipulative bitch, that’s why you grew up without a mother!” Mackenzie yelled back.
The car swerved again, almost leaving the road. “Say one more word about my mother, and I’ll cut your face off!” Caroline’s voice was hoarse with rage.
“You killed the bartender so you could frame them. You made the false accusation.” Mackenzie’s head swam, and she struggled against her bonds. There were so many things wrong with Vita/Caroline’s plan, she wasn’t just furious, she was offended.
Then again, Caroline’s mother had been crazy too, if she thought that a potion could make two Alphas fall in love with her. Clearly crazy ran in the family.
The ropes holding her wrists and ankles were too tight, and she was too weak. With every passing mile that they drove, she could feel her strength fading.
Would this crazy woman be able to ruin Ajax and Barron’s lives? The thought filled her with despair. She didn’t want them to be miserable, and they certainly would be if Vita tricked them into bonding with her. If she died, she wanted them to be happy, to carry on without her and find a new mate and…
She was getting dizzy and it was hard to think. Of course Vita had drugged the beer with the love potion. It must have been a family recipe. Would Ajax and Barron figure it out before it was too late?
They drove, and drove, and she slipped in and out of consciousness.
Then, oddly, she started feeling better. Her strength was coming back. How was that possible, with Vita driving further away from Ajax and Barron? Where was this strength coming from?
Whatever, she didn’t have time to question it. She needed to move fast, before she started weakening again. She’d die before she let this psycho ruin Ajax and Barron’s lives.
She slid her hands under the seat and felt a sharp piece of metal sticking out. She began rubb
ing the rope against it frantically.
She felt stronger and stronger, and the rope frayed quickly.
She heard Vita swearing, and the car slowed to a stop. She could dimly make out bright flashing lights. Like lights from police cars. Then she heard someone rapping on the window.
“What do you want?” Caroline shouted angrily. “Let me through!”
“Roll down your window!” she heard a male voice yelling from the outside.
“I haven’t done anything! What do you want? I’m late, let me through! My daughter is sick and I have to get home!” Caroline wailed plaintively.
Mackenzie screamed at the top of her lungs “Help me! Help me!” and at the same time, ripped her hands free, threw off the blanket, and sat up.
“Shut up! Stay down!” Caroline’s voice was hoarse with rage. “ I will kill you, I’ll cut you, I’ll kill you!” She lunged over the back seat, a knife gleaming in her hand. Mackenzie just barely managed to roll out of the way before the knife stabbed into the floor next to her.
Caroline was hissing like a snake, lips peeled back from her teeth in rage.
Glass shattered, the back door opened, and Mackenzie was yanked out of Caroline’s way right before the knife plunged down.
Caroline kicked and screamed, legs flailing, as she was hauled out of the car. “No! No! You have to die! You have to dieeeeeeee!”
Someone pulled her to her feet. It was Ajax, wrapping his arms around her tightly and hugging her like he’d never let her go.
He was here. She was safe, and Ajax was here. That would explain why she was feeling strong again, but how could he be there? “You’re in jail,” she said, bewildered.
Barron was with him. A roadblock had been set up; police cars were blocking the road. It was pitch black out, and they were somewhere in the country with trees hemming in the road. The full moon hung overhead, and Ajax and Barron were there. Barron knelt down to rip the rope from her ankles, and she stumbled, and Ajax caught her.
“How are you here?” she demanded.
“Right after you left, a Truth Mage showed up – my aunt and uncle found somebody who was able to come right away, so the Sentinels let us out. When we found out that you’d left the Festival, we headed out right away, looking for you.”
Twin Alphas: Desired (A BBW Paranormal Romance) Page 8
