In Spirit and Truth (In Spiritu Et Veritate Series)

by Reed, Zoe

“Oh, but you do. It’s rather endearing.” She rolled over so she was sitting on top of me and pulled the blankets away to plant kisses all over my face.

  The last kiss landed on my lips, lingering long enough for me to slide my hands up Kyla’s thighs, stopping at her waist. She pulled back, staring into my eyes with a subtle hunger I hadn’t seen before, and then returned to the kiss. At first the desire with which Kyla kissed me was surprising, but before long I gave in and felt her lips part to give access to my roaming tongue.

  Sliding my hands up Kyla’s shirt, I lightly caressed every inch of her skin, delicately dragging my fingertips down her stomach and running them along the edge of her pants, causing her bite down on my bottom lip. Pulling my lips away from hers, I kissed down her jaw line to the nape of her neck, gently grazing her skin with my teeth before lustfully sucking and kissing above her collarbone. Had I had any control over what I was thinking rather than feeling, I would have worried I was pushing things too fast. Control when it came to Kyla, however, wasn’t something I even remotely wanted to think about.

  “Hey guys are–” Luna burst in to my room, stopping in her tracks when she saw us and laughed. “Oh, sorry, I should really start knocking. I’ll just um,” she started backing toward the door while Kyla rolled off me and cleared her throat uncomfortably.

  “Forget it,” I told my sister, sitting up and sighing, aggravated. “Moment’s gone.”

  “Sorry,” Luna said again, smiling a truly apologetically smile. “But we have to go into town. You know, patrols?”

  I nodded and waved at her to go away. “Sorry about that, she’s really used to just walking right in.” Jumping off the bed I rummaged through a drawer until I found some clothes I was satisfied with.

  Kyla followed my lead, and with a chuckle began to rummage and pull clothes out of her backpack. “It’s okay, I was starting to lose track of time anyway.”

  I smiled, a faint blush coloring my cheeks, as I would have sworn there was a slight hint of playful suggestiveness in Kyla’s voice. However, unsure of it I let it be, and once Kyla had finished changing led the way out of the room, where Luna was patiently waiting for us.

  Luna put her hand on my arm and slowed me, and with a smug grin whispered so Kyla couldn’t hear. “Hey, did you guys…”

  “You’re so nosy.” I gave her a scowl to let her know it was none of her business, but couldn’t help but chuckle at her straightforward curiosity. “No, we didn’t. No thanks to you.”

  She stuck her tongue out at me before dashing off ahead of Kyla. When we got out to the car Luna, along with Julian, Niko and Sky were waiting for us. It didn’t take long for us to get into town, and when we did we split into three groups. Luna went with Sky, Niko with Julian, and me with Kyla. Starting at the north end of town I led Kyla through the streets, pointing out places we hadn’t yet explored. We slowly but surely made our way toward the center of town, walking down every street we passed on the way.

  A couple hours and miles later my stomach growled loudly. If it weren’t for how distracted I got talking to Kyla I probably would have eaten the second we arrived in town.

  “Hey, there’s a coffee shop down this street, you hungry?” I asked her.

  “Starving,” Kyla smiled and followed me toward a main road.

  It took us a few minutes to get to the shop, but when we entered the fresh smell of coffee and pastries caused my stomach to growl even louder. Kyla made her way to the corner of the shop to save us a table while I stood in line. It only took a minute for me to get our coffee and pastries, but when I finally got them to the table Kyla looked even more famished than I felt.

  After we had hungrily shoved down a few pastries and finished our coffee we got up from the table to continue our search. As we exited the shop the smell hit me almost the second I opened the door. The small brick of werewolf scent that blew in with the breeze made my hair stand on end. It wasn’t Jonathan, and it wasn’t his father. It was their errand boy, Charles.

  “What’s wrong?” Kyla asked, noticing the look on my face and worriedly touching my arm.

  I grabbed her hand and started following the smell as intensively as I could. It was fresh. He had to have passed by while we were inside, meaning we were being watched again. “Gleeson.”

  “Werewolf?” Kyla asked as quietly as she could through a shocked voice, almost jogging to keep up with me.

  I just nodded and continued following the scent. It led us so far toward the eastern part of town that what was considered downtown started to turn into farmland. I stopped suddenly, and felt Kyla bump into my back at the unexpected braking. Something wasn’t right. Another scent met Charles Gleeson’s. Jonathan. Both trails continued forward where they met two more.

  “Oh no,” I murmured. One of the scents was undoubtedly Luther’s. The other was one I’d grown familiar with over the past weeks. Kyla stood there, unsure of what to do and gave me a worried and questioning look. “Julian,” I answered with one word.

  “Camille!” Niko came running from south of us, waving his hands to get our attention.

  I halfway met him and grabbed him by the shirt collar, pulling him forcefully to me. “Niko what happened? Where’s Julian?”

  He looked frantic, breathing fast and heavy as he struggled to catch his breath. “I–there was a werewolf. Julian was following me but I turned and he wasn’t there anymore. I followed his scent here.”

  I threw my hand to my forehead in disbelief and went back to where I first smelled Julian, but the trail only led me a few feet to the edge of a dirt road, where the dirt was kicked up from a car speeding off. We had to have only missed them by seconds.

  I kicked at the dirt furiously. “They drove off!” There was no way for us to follow now. Pulling out my cell phone I punched in Luna’s number. “Hey, they took Julian. Meet us on the east side of town, West Silveria and Colorado.”

  Niko had stopped next to me to check it out and ran his hands through his wavy blonde hair, quietly swearing to himself. “I don’t know how I lost him. He was right there.”

  Kyla obviously didn’t know what to do or how to make herself useful, so she patted Niko on the shoulder to try and make him feel better. Each of us sat in the dirt and waited until Sky and Luna pulled up in the car a few minutes later.

  “What happened?” Sky asked, jumping out of the car and running to us.

  Both Kyla and I looked down, leaving Niko to explain again. “I lost him, and they took him.”

  “Julian?” Luna clarified as she too got out of the car.

  All three of us nodded, to which Sky sighed heavily, “Get in.”

  Once we all hopped in the car Sky sped off toward our house. Arriving minutes later we found my dad in the kitchen, surprised to see us.

  “Back so soon.” He looked over our shoulders and his expression grew worried. “Without Julian?”

  “They got him. We would have followed but they were in a car,” Sky told him, looking anywhere but our father’s eyes.

  He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration and then slammed his fist on the counter, cracking one of the large ceramic tiles. “Fuck!”

  Every one of us flinched, but I was the first to recover and speak. “Do you want us to search? See if we can find him?”

  “He’s already as good as dead,” he growled through clenched teeth. “We’ve done enough messing around. Monday I want you to bring Jonathan to me. Make a goddamned scene if you have to. I want that kid.” As each of us nodded he rubbed his anxiety-creased forehead. “I have to go call Eli. He won’t be happy about this.”

  The five of us stood there, frozen, unmoving until Niko lumbered away. After a while Kyla and I were the only ones remaining in the kitchen.

  “We can’t just leave it like this,” Kyla stated, sitting at the table. “We’ve at least got to look for them.”

  I collapsed in a chair next to her and laid my forehead on the table. “Where are we supposed to look, Kyla?” I asked grumpily, lifting my hea
d. “We don’t know shit about anything.”

  She furrowed her eyebrows at me. “Don’t get mad at me. I’m just trying to help.”

  Turning the side of my mouth up in a small, apologetic smile, I put my hand on hers. “I’m sorry. It’s just, I feel the same way you do, but there really is nothing we can do until we see Jonathan at school on Monday. I feel completely useless.”

  We sat there for a few minutes in silence. I was sure that Kyla was trying to think of what to say, but I didn’t feel much like talking. I felt like a failure. Granted I hadn’t been the one who was partnered up with Julian, but we’d had so many chances to grab Jonathan at school. Even if we made a scene and got people asking questions, at least we would have prevented this.

  “Well, we should at least get your mind off it. I’m hungry again.” Kyla sat there waiting for me to say something. “Let’s cook something yummy?”

  I gave a small smile and meandered over to rummage through the cupboards. Anything with sugar in it would succeed in lifting my spirits. It worked every time. “Cookies?”

  Kyla seemed to think about it, and then bit her lip as she raised an eyebrow expectantly. “You remember what happened last time we made cookies?”

  “How could I forget? I still have no idea how you felt about it though.” Making a thoughtful face I leaned against the counter and studied Kyla’s expression. I had never seen her blush so much since we’d met. Her cheeks turned tomato red and she avoided eye contact at all costs. “You’re blushing. Is that a good blush or a bad blush?”

  “I liked it and that’s all you need know.” She stood and opened a cupboard door to bury her face in it and avoid having to give more of an answer.

  But I knew she was hiding something, and now I was dying to find out. “You liked it, but you’re still blushing. You don’t blush when I kiss you now.” Kyla pretended not to hear me, so I walked over and put my hands on her hips, forcefully turning her around so she had to look at me. “What was different?”

  “I…” Kyla dragged out the ‘I’ for a few seconds and then before turning around quickly muttered, “Had to touch myself.”

  I scoffed in disbelief, thinking I had heard wrong. “Wait, what? When?”

  “Oh my God this is so embarrassing,” she groaned without looking at me. “That night, after you left,” she admitted with her face still buried in the cupboard.

  “Really?” I was still surprised. I didn’t think I could have had that kind of effect on her, especially before we’d gotten together. Even though I was surprised, however, I was far from disappointed.

  “Yes. Can we drop it now?” She walked past me and grabbed a cup to fill with water at the sink, busying herself in her embarrassment.

  I still couldn’t stop smiling. The thought of her doing that because of me was not only flattering, but also unconventionally enthralling. I made my way to Kyla and lifted her onto the counter, placing myself between her legs.

  “You want me,” I teased in a singing voice, maybe a little bit too pleased with myself.

  She studied my face for a second and then punched me in the arm. “You’re turned on aren’t you?”

  After a shrug I rubbed the spot where Kyla had hit me. “That hurt. And I can’t help it! Can you blame me?”

  “Hm, I guess not. I’m just so sexy,” she teased and wrapped her legs around me, pulling me into a kiss.

  Whistling loudly, Luna came into the kitchen to get something to eat while pretending she didn’t see us. So I ignored her and silently shook my head at Kyla, telling her to do the same. My sister made her way casually past us; her only acknowledgement of us was lifting her foot to kick me in the butt. Moments later she walked by to leave with a box of granola, and I lifted my own foot, tripping her and causing her to fall face first to the floor. Neither I nor Kyla could hold back laughter as Luna sighed in what seemed to be defeat. I was mistaken, and she got up, striding back to me and pouring half the box of granola on my head.

  I stood there shocked as Kyla burst into uncontrollable laughter. “You think that’s funny?” I asked her as I took the box from Luna and poured granola all over her straight brown hair.

  Now was Luna’s turn to laugh as she fell back onto the floor, grasping her stomach and rolling. Kyla and I both looked at each other, raising an eyebrow at each other before turning our mischievous looks toward Luna. Realizing the looks she was receiving, she stopped laughing, staring at us for a split second before taking off out the front door. I took off after her, closely followed by Kyla who’d jumped off the counter to sprint after us.

  “You go that way, I’ll go this way.” Kyla pointed in each direction around the house and we both ran in separate directions to cut Luna off.

  I caught up to my twin first, tackling her to the ground and shaking the granola out of my hair and all over her. When Kyla came rounding the corner about ten seconds later, I saw what had been taking her so long. She came sprinting, dragging the hose behind her, and when she got within spraying distance of us soaked us both to the bone. She let out an exaggerated, evil muah-ha-ha laugh, but then seeing two soaked girls running after her dropped the hose and took off running in the other direction. I caught up to her without difficulty and dragged her back to where Luna was waiting with the hose, holding her tight while Luna streamed water in our direction.

  “Camille! Luna!” my dad called for us from the other side of the house, cutting off all of our laughter.

  Entering the house dripping wet, each of us grabbed towels out of the hall closet before meeting my dad in the living room. He shot us a questioning glance when he noticed we were soaked, but deliberately disregarded it.

  “I talked to Eli. He wasn’t happy to hear about Julian. So,” he took a deep, stress-burdened breath before continuing. “He’ll be coming here himself, and he would like us to have Jonathan in our custody before he gets here. He has a few things to take care of before he leaves but he’ll be here by the end of the week.”

  “He’s coming alone?” Luna asked, surprised that he would be coming at all.

  “No,” he answered. “He’s bringing two more Pack members. The house will be a bit more crowded. Monday, I’m going to have Carter drive to your school to help with wrangling Jonathan. What time should I have him there?”

  The three of us looked at each other. “Well, Kyla has fourth period with him, so we can get him right after that? At twelve-thirty.”

  “Okay, you can go back to” – he looked us over with a slightly amused glint in his eye – “whatever you were doing.”

  As I followed Kyla out of the living room I sighed deeply. “This is going to be a busy couple of weeks.”

  “I never kidnapped anyone before.” Kyla shook her head wearily and plopped limply down on the couch.

  “I’m sure you’ll be a natural.” I jokingly nudged her with my elbow as I sat down too, trying to make her feel better.

  She giggled and rubbed her hands together wickedly. “I’ll bring the duct tape.”

  “Hey Mom, I’ll be back later.” I had meant for the statement to be a fleeting goodbye as I headed for the door, but an ‘ah-ah’ from my mom made me stop and backtrack to the kitchen.

  “Come here, sit down.” She motioned for me to sit at the island in the kitchen, and then turned back toward the stove where she was making French toast. “Where are you going?”

  I smiled at Jeremy who was sitting in a stool with a cup of coffee as I took a seat next to him. “To Camille’s house, I’ll be back later though.”

  “Camille’s house,” my mom repeated to herself as she placed a large white plate in front of me. “You’ve been going over there a lot. Are you getting your chores done?”

  “Yeah,” I said haltingly, and then knowing that I’d be caught in a lie added quietly, “Most of them.”

  “Uh huh.” After walking to the stove and grabbing the skillet she returned to the island to put a couple slices on my plate. “Kyla, we all have responsibilities and I’d really like you t
o prioritize a little.” She waited for me to nod and then turned around to return the pan to the stove and pour herself a cup of coffee. “Otherwise, Camille seems like a good kid. Am I mistaken?”

  It wasn’t normal for my mom to ask so many questions about my friends, so I shot a look at Jeremy thinking that he’d said something about Camille and me. When he threw up his hands and shook his head I shrugged the curiosity away. “Yeah, she’s a really good kid.”

  “Does she know you haven’t been getting your chores done?” she asked in a scolding voice and sat down across from me.

  “I’ll get them done, I promise.” I sighed and after checking the clock I shook my leg impatiently. “Can I go now?”

  “Take a couple bites of food first, and then you can go,” she answered, sipping her drink.

  I shoved two bites of French toast into my mouth, and without swallowing said bye and made for the door. As I left I thought I heard my mom mumble to Jeremy about teenagers, but I couldn’t hear his response since I was already halfway to the truck. Two nights ago I had talked to Camille about being trained to defend myself, and so this morning would be my first lesson.

  I was a little disappointed that Camille’s oldest brother Carter would be training me instead of her, but something was better than nothing. Ever since I’d seen how readily Jonathan had lost his temper and had come after me, I’d been scared of how helpless I was. It was obvious that there was really nothing I could do should Jonathan ever attack me when Camille wasn’t around, but having some way to try and protect myself made me feel at least a little better about it.

  Camille must have heard me pull into the driveway, because when I arrived at the werewolves’ house a couple minutes later the gorgeous blonde was coming out the front door. After I’d turned off the engine and jumped out of the car I ran up the porch steps, throwing my arms around her waist and happily giving her a kiss.

  “I missed you too,” she chuckled, picking me up and spinning me around before releasing me from the hug. Titling her head up toward the second floor of the house she yelled, “Carter, Kyla’s here!” A moment later Luna came out the door and smiled at me. “Is your name Carter?” Camille teased, but Luna didn’t seem to mind as she continued past us.