Her refusal to sing was for the same reason—to keep anyone from knowing who she was before. She'd reportedly passed from this world alone, unmarried and still virgin.
Griffin told me once, when he'd been drinking, that her first experience with sex was when Saxom raped her. I cursed him again, for perhaps the thousandth time.
More than grateful when the last of the mourners had come and gone, I turned to Joey, who'd gone pale.
"Where do you suppose she is?" I asked. Yes, I knew she was gone, I just had no idea where.
"I don't know," he wiped tears away with trembling fingers. "I just sent mindspeech to Adam, giving him the news. He caused this."
I cursed—fluently—in Latin. It was my native language, after all, and as a former centurion for the Roman Legion, I could do it with unparalleled vehemence.
Franklin—my child, lay in a coffin feet away, the love of my life had disappeared and I wanted—more than anything—to strangle Adam Chessman at that moment.
"She is draining her shields to keep us from knowing where she is, and that is a very dangerous thing," Pheligar appeared beside us. I wondered that he'd come to Joey and me instead of to Adam, but he answered my mental question quickly.
"Do not think for a moment that you can hide your feelings for her from a Larentii," he huffed. I noticed, then, that his skin appeared more gray than blue. He was terrified for some reason, and I had no explanation for it.
Any color left in Joey's face drained away at that moment—my secret had been revealed to him at last. How could he not have known? How?
Franklin knew, but I'd confided in him long ago. He knew I drank more heavily after seeing her—whenever I was invited for a visit. I'd spent twenty Christmases with her and Adam, always receiving lovely gifts and warm kisses on my cheek.
That was nice but never what I truly wanted.
"Fuck," I breathed in irritation.
Franklin had requested cremation after the funeral, therefore no graveside service was scheduled. He wanted his ashes scattered on the garden behind the manor house in Kent, and that would take place soon.
It could be put on hold, however, while I went in search of Kiarra.
"We will begin our search now," Pheligar declared. "Use every bit of knowledge you have. She is alone, virtually powerless and in more danger than she realizes."
He disappeared after that, while Joey wrapped his arms about my waist and wept.
"Child, it will be all right," I soothed, cradling his head against my chest. I only hoped that my words would prove to be truth instead of the hollow promise they seemed.
* * *
Adam's Journal
I stood on the sidewalk while Justin and Mack looked to me for comfort and support. At that moment, I began to realize what Kiarra was to all of us. A rock. A comfort. Someone who watched over all of us like a guardian angel.
I was a fool.
Stop behaving like a fool and look for her! Pheligar's voice echoed in my mind. She is not responding to my mindspeech. We will have words, vampire, if any harm comes to her.
It wasn't the first time he'd threatened me, but it hadn't happened in a very long time. He hadn't called me vampire in a long time, either. I learned early on that from him, it was a derogatory remark.
It hit me then—because my heart squeezed in my chest. She had no power, was alone and pregnant and running from my temper. I'd allowed my foolishness to shove aside my love for her, thinking that it was my right to know everything, no matter how painful it might be for her to reveal those things.
If I'd just waited for her to tell me—she said she would—I could have held and comforted her through the terrible memories. I hadn't acted as a husband and a mate, I'd been a belligerent, overbearing fool.
"Son, we have to look for your mother," I said to Justin, but I included Mack as I pulled both of them close.
"Where would she go?" Mack's voice wobbled. Yes, he'd been abandoned by one mother already. With everything else that had happened to him, this could destroy the young werewolf.
As it would destroy me.
"Let's go back to Merrill's," I said, my voice nearly as unsteady as Mack's. "She doesn't have the power to fold space, so she can only travel by normal means. I hope she hasn't gone far."
I folded the three of us back to Merrill's brownstone and found Merrill and Joey there ahead of us. I will never forget the look he leveled against me as he held Joey close—Joey wept openly and refused to look at me.
Lion and Dragon appeared quickly—Lion was more worried than I'd ever seen and Dragon looked ready to kill.
Yes, that look was directed at me and I imagined he'd have taken me by the throat and unleashed his wrath if Mack and Justin hadn't been with me.
"Where do we look first?" Lynx appeared and brought all of us back to the present. I was grateful for his interruption, as things had gone decidedly tense in Merrill's kitchen. I was Fourth and a former vampire, but I couldn't fight the Second and Third among the Saa Thalarr and hope to come away alive and whole afterward.
"She needs transportation if she wants to leave us this badly," Merrill looked pale as he made that announcement. "I suggest we begin by checking cab companies, rental car agencies and her credit-card usage."
Joey nodded and pulled away from Merrill, wiping tears as he moved aside. "I'll get my laptop," he said. "We can make the kitchen our command center. Justin, you and Mack can help. Get your tablets and we'll find out what we can. The rest of you—start folding to likely places. Figure out where she could have walked by now and go there, first."
"I'll go out in the Range Rover," Merrill said and strode toward the front door. "Joseph, send mindspeech if you get any information."
"I will," he agreed. "Immediately."
He didn't include me in his brief nod. I wanted to curse, but I deserved what I was getting. Justin and Mack raced toward their shared bedroom to bring their tablets and I was grateful Joey included them in the search. Being busy was so much better than sitting and worrying.
* * *
Justin's Journal
"Has this ever happened before?" Mack whispered as we trotted down the hallway toward our bedroom.
"No," I said. I wanted to shiver—Mom and Dad had a few disagreements in the past, but those usually blew over pretty quick and they'd never seemed serious anyway. Things were now deadly serious—we'd seen the looks on Dragon's and Lion's faces, Uncle Merrill was ready to throttle somebody, Joey had been crying and Dad suddenly looked lost.
* * *
Larentii Archives
"Can you tell me anything?" Pheligar begged Somagar, eldest of the Wise Ones as Nefrigar stood by, listening.
"I ask you this—why did you wait so long to come to me?" Somagar, so ancient he appeared more light than physical body, answered with a question of his own. "You made a mistake in waiting. Find her quickly, Liaison, as the continuation of the Wise Ones depends upon this."
"Are you telling me that my child will," Pheligar began, a hope in his eyes that Nefrigar had never seen before.
"I tell you nothing—find the woman first, then I may tell you what you wish to know," Somagar rumbled, his hand held aloft to stave off Pheligar's question. "You were foolish to mute the M'Fiyah. Now the future dangles by a fragile strand. Find her before the enemy does."
* * *
Grey House
"What is this?" Glendes Grey looked up from the paperwork on his desk as several small boxes were laid before him. He blinked—he never expected to see the one standing in his study. It had been so long, after all, since anyone had seen Kalenegar of the Larentii. He was almost a myth, even to many of his own race.
"This is the order you will fill for Kiarra of the Saa Thalarr," Kalenegar rumbled. "These are gifts, made by your own wizards—in the future. See that they are delivered to her mate, Adam Chessman, very soon. Names are inscribed on the bottom of each box. Do not forget, or you will face the wrath of the Larentii."
"I will send someo
ne now," Glendes said.
"Do so. The continued survival of Grey House depends upon it."
"Are you threatening me?" Glendes rose from his seat.
"Only a wizard would interpret his salvation as a threat," Kalenegar snapped. "In the future, Grey House will be saved from its own foolishness, if you deliver those boxes as requested."
"Who is behind this request?" Glendes demanded.
"The Mighty. Ask no more questions, I have already answered too many." Kalenegar disappeared, leaving Glendes to sag onto his chair in surprise.
Chapter 12
Justin's Journal
Mack and I learned that night how to check bank accounts for charges. Joey had Mom's account information but so far, nothing had shown up on any of them. Dad, Lion, Lynx and Dragon disappeared two hours earlier and hadn't reported anything yet.
Joey had information on three of Mom's bank accounts that he checked, so Mack and I stared at the amounts she'd given in the past to charities. Sure, that money would have bought fancy cars and huge houses, but I realized how foolish that might seem to those who were starving or fighting for their lives.
I realized, too, that we'd never wanted for anything. Joey began to talk, then, as he navigated from one account to another. "She earned this by putting her life in danger. I don't think she's gone to save a single world classified as Not Worth Saving since she got pregnant with you. Something worries me about the fact that she got pregnant again now, but it's not my place to make conjectures."
Mack and I occupied the barstools on either side of Joey's, scanning charges just as he was, but we kept finding the same thing—nothing new had been recorded. "Did she have any cash with her?" Mack thought to ask. "Or a cell phone?"
"I have her cell phone, because Fresno PD still has mine," I pulled it from my pocket and dumped it on the island. "She never bothered to get another one."
"I don't know about cash," Joey shrugged. "Probably, but who knows how much? Fuck. It's late and she's out there by herself. I've sent mindspeech several times and she won't reply. I'm guessing the others are doing the same, but she's not talking to us."
"I hope she can take care of herself," Mack said.
"Before her power was muted, I'd have said she was more than capable of protecting herself and anybody with her. She's been in terrible situations with the Ra'Ak and always won. Now, she may as well be human."
Joey's words chilled me to the marrow of my bones. "I wish I knew how to fly already," I said. "I could fly over the city and look for her."
"You can't shield yourself," Joey pointed out. "It would be too dangerous. People would see you and you could be killed, since they wouldn't know you had no intention of harming them. That won't keep Dragon from doing fly-bys, though. He can shield himself and you can bet he'll try everything he can think of, because he'll be married to your sister someday."
He didn't add what he was thinking—if she and Mom survived. I knew it anyway, without his verbal confirmation.
"If she could fold space, I'd look for her at her beach offworld," Joey mumbled as he navigated the bank accounts another time.
"Wait, what's that?" I pointed to his laptop screen—something new had popped up.
"Fuck," Joey breathed. "That charge was made three hours ago and it's just now showing up." It was a charge from a rental car agency, more than ten miles from the church. Joey sent mindspeech to everybody right then, and I figured there would be a convergence at the business where Mom had rented an SUV.
"Three hours," Mack shook his head. "She could have driven out of the state by now."
"This late at night, it's more than possible, since the traffic wouldn't be as bad as it is during the day," Joey acknowledged. "And New Jersey is just across the river."
"Why would she go to New Jersey?" I asked.
"She could have gone somewhere else," Joey pointed out, "but New Jersey is the quickest way to get out of New York from here."
"Maybe she went in another direction," I said.
"Anything is possible—she's not that fond of the Northeast," Joey confirmed.
* * *
Adam's Journal
My fears were rising. Yes, I'd sent mental apologies. Many times, in fact, in the three plus hours I spent searching for her. Joey sent mindspeech, closely followed by a message from Justin, giving me the location of the car rental agency Kiarra found.
I folded there immediately. Dragon and Lion arrived seconds after I did, and Merrill drove up minutes later. Shamelessly, I placed compulsion on the clerk behind the desk, ordering him to provide as much information as possible. That's how we discovered that Kiarra's rental had GPS tracking.
Once we'd done a search, however, we learned the locating device had been disabled rather quickly. The last known location on the car she'd rented was in Newark. The device hadn't functioned past that.
"Do you think she's heading south?" Merrill asked.
"Possibly. You know how much she loves the beach," Lion replied. I noticed they'd spoken to each other, leaving me out of the conversation. I forced myself to swallow my anger—and my pride. I had twenty years with her. Lion had known her for several thousand years.
"There's beach all the way down the Eastern Seaboard," Merrill pointed out. "I'll head toward Newark and the last place she was seen. It's my guess she didn't disable the tracking device by herself. Someone did that for her, I think."
It was time to suck up my pride even further. "I'll take you there faster than you can drive," I offered. "After dropping off your vehicle."
"Good," Merrill nodded. "I appreciate that."
Five minutes later, after a hasty trip to Merrill's parking garage, we were in Newark, outside an independently owned auto repair shop.
Ancient, peeling blue paint spelled out "Mel's Auto and Body" in script on a rusting metal sign, which hung precariously over a building dating back to the sixties. The structure had never been aesthetically pleasing, even when it was new.
We discovered that Mel's grandson ran the business now, and looked more than capable of disabling the tracking system on a rental vehicle for the proper amount of cash.
"You will tell me everything I wish to know," Merrill growled, gripping the young man's shirt collar in a tight fist and leveling the intensity of compulsion only a King Vampire could deliver.
He wet himself—Merrill and I smelled it, although it wasn't immediately apparent through dark jeans covered in grease and oil. "Y-yes, sir," he quavered, attempting to nod, although Merrill's grip was too strong for him to achieve any sort of head movement.
"A woman, blonde, asked you to disable the on-board tracking system on a rental vehicle, didn't she?" Merrill demanded.
"Yes. Pretty woman. Offered me six hundred. I did it for five."
"Did you put your hands on her?" Merrill hissed.
"N-no. Wanted to, she moved away."
"I want to kill you for that," Merrill grinned nastily. "Shall I kill you?"
"Please, no," he whispered.
"If you had touched her without her consent, I would have."
I think I realized then how big a fool I'd been. Merrill loved Kiarra. Likely had known of her for years uncounted, through Griffin. It made me wonder why Griffin had never introduced them—surely he knew of Merrill's feelings.
Merrill knew, just as I did, of Saxom's rape. Saxom had been warped—twisted in some way, and he'd brought irreparable harm to my wife.
Another thought hit me—what if she didn't want me anymore?
Merrill could step into my position and I'd have to abide by her decision—she was First and could ask Pheligar to mute or destroy our M'Fiyah.
That terrified me.
My cell phone rang, pulling me away from my morbid thoughts. It was Martin Walters, telling me that the east side of Fresno was on fire—Randall Pierce had made bail and this was his first act after his release.
The strawberry farm was safe, as was the old house on Hornet.
I couldn't think of a bett
er way, however, of telling anyone who might be interested just where the power lay inside the city. That alone would signal any powerful enemy as to where we lived and how well our property was shielded.
On it, Lion sent to me, allowing me to sag in relief.
"Someone is on the way," I informed Martin over the phone.
"Thank you," Martin sounded just as relieved. "The shapeshifter went with me last night—a couple of my wolves would have bought it without Darzi," Martin reported.
"We have trouble here, too," I said, without going into detail. I figured Mack would fill his father in soon, if he hadn't done it already.
"Mack needs to be home in two days for the full moon," Martin said, jolting me back to reality. Mack was werewolf, and since his wolf had manifested, he'd be forced to change. It would also mark the first run with his father's pack, and that was always a rite of passage for any werewolf.
"I'll make sure he's there," I promised. "One way or another."
"Thank you," Martin said. "It's an important night for him—he'll run with me and his sister for the first time. I figure it was easier for the wolf to manifest the first time, as that blasted party was near the full moon. His wolf answered when it was necessary."
"I wasn't even thinking of that," I sighed. "I was more worried about the boy and the fact he almost died at the hands of humans."
"I'm grateful he didn't turn at the jail, or things could have gone quite badly for all of us," Martin agreed. "While that human criminal would have deserved what he got, I think Mack was too traumatized by that point, and the wolf couldn't fight both of them."
"I understand. At least he's dealing with it now."
"Karzac helped a great deal, as did Kiarra. He felt the loss more than Beth did, when his mother left."
"I'm afraid I have a confession to make," I admitted. "I've really upset Kiarra, and she's gone. I know this is upsetting both boys, as well as the others and me. It's imperative we find her, however, because she can't use her abilities and she's defenseless and pregnant. Things could go badly if the enemy finds her."
Wyvern and Company Page 17
