by Kristie Cook
She gave me a pointed look. “I was locked up at the safe house for months, and we’ve been on all kinds of exciting adventures since the day I got out, but none of them have included a stop at the AT&T store. Remember?”
“So Rina gave you fighting leathers and weapons, but no phone?”
The vampire shrugged. “Smart phones don’t seem to be at the top of her list of necessities.”
She had a point. But what the hell were we supposed to do now?
Chapter 11
I glanced over my shoulder at the police station.
“I’m not going back in there,” Vanessa declared, and I couldn’t blame her. Not quite what I wanted to do, either.
So we stood in the middle of the sidewalk in some tiny South Carolina town near the Georgia border and probably near the ocean, but other than that, I didn’t know where exactly. I pushed my hand through my hair as I turned in a circle, hoping to find an answer. Also hoping to see Sasha patiently waiting for us. I didn’t see the lykora, though, and the police station’s sign gave me a county name, but it meant little since I wasn’t exactly an expert on South Carolina’s counties.
“Well, I guess we find our way to Rincon, Georgia,” I said.
“Where?”
“Rincon? Tristan sent a text with an address where we’re supposed to meet him.”
“So everyone survived in one piece?”
I frowned. “I don’t know. Tristan did, apparently, but I didn’t catch the time or who we’d be meeting, so I don’t know about the rest. We may have even missed them by now, since they don’t know we couldn’t exactly get there.” I glanced around our surroundings again, still hoping to catch a glimpse of Sasha. I hated leaving the area without her, but I didn’t sense her nearby. The last time I saw her, we were half a mile above the ocean. She could have been anywhere now, but since she wasn’t here, I could only hope she was with Tristan and the others. “We need to find a map and get directions, then figure out how we’re going to get there. We’ll probably have to run.”
“You shouldn’t say such things too loudly,” a warm male voice said from behind me. Pastor McCorkle had just stepped off the last stair to the police station. He seemed to have completely recovered from his earlier shyness. “Rincon’s a good ways from here—not running distance for normal people. It’s on my way to Atlanta, though, so I could give y’all a ride if you need it.”
Vanessa and I exchanged a look.
“Ditch the slimeball,” she silently said, then she took off in a run, leaving me there with the pastor.
What the hell? Sure the dude was a little on the smarmy side—a little too much like a politician, and after what Rina and Mom had told us, the less contact we had with politicians, the better. But his thoughts seemed harmless enough, although as a pastor, he probably shouldn’t have been thinking about Vanessa and me in that way, even if it was a private fantasy he didn’t plan to act on. Besides, he’d bailed us out of jail and offered us a ride when probably everyone else in this town would have nothing to do with us. So why did she tell me to ditch him and then went and ditched me? I had half a mind to take the ride, ditching her ass because she didn’t have the address. Although, Rincon probably wasn’t too big for her to find us.
I opened my mouth to accept the ride, hoping it would piss Vanessa off because I didn’t follow her, when she came around the corner on a motorcycle.
“Hop on, little sis,” she said with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.
Relieved that I wouldn’t have to be cooped up in a car with this guy, I gave the pastor the best smile I could conjure. “Looks like we have a ride, Pastor McCorkle.”
“Rick,” he corrected. “Please, call me Rick.”
I didn’t know if we’d ever see him again to call him anything, but I went along with it. “Right, Rick. If you could just tell us which road to take to Rincon, we’ll be fine.”
His brows pushed together as his gaze swept over Vanessa on the bike. “Where did you get that?”
“Oh, it’s an Amadis thing,” she said with a winning smile. “We keep transportation in odd places so none of us ever get stranded.”
He stared at her for a moment longer and then seemed to buy the lie because he gladly gave us directions and went on his way. I couldn’t help the urge to wipe my hand on my pants after shaking his.
“Do I want to know where you got this?” I asked as I climbed onto the back.
“Probably not. But if so, there’s another one there if you want to ride your own. I wasn’t sure if you knew how.”
I did, but that was beside the point. If she’d stolen the motorcycle, which she must have, we certainly would not steal another one.
She revved the engine, and we took off, hopefully putting this place behind us forever.
I can’t believe you picked me up on a stolen vehicle in front of a police station, I said, mind-talking instead of yelling over the rumble of the engine. We’re going to end up back in jail.
“I didn’t really steal it. I left a contact number on the other one.”
A bogus number. You don’t have a phone, remember?
“Tristan does. I left his number.”
What? Now he’ll end up in jail!
“Nah. Nobody will mess with him, especially when he offers up the cash to more than pay for the bike. And they’ll get the bike, too. I mean, you guys are good for it, right?”
That’s not the point. We’ll be lucky to even get that far. The owner just has to send the cops out to look for us, and we’ll be right back where we were.
“Give me a little credit. The bikes were under a tarp in the lot of an abandoned building. Nobody’s going to miss it. We’ll get to this place Tristan said to meet him at, and we’ll pay someone to bring the bike back. No one’ll ever know.”
Sheesh. This reminded me of the plane we’d taken to get out of Australia. In fact, the situation wasn’t really much different, so why did this feel so wrong when that hadn’t? Probably because it was Vanessa doing the stealing rather than Tristan.
She raced along the roads Pastor Rick told us to use, and I prayed we wouldn’t get caught. I also formulated a plan for how to return the motorcycle and remunerate the owner, enough so they wouldn’t press charges, which was the last thing we needed. Rina certainly wouldn’t be impressed, and that thought made me feel even worse. By the time we arrived in Rincon, guilt had almost overridden my primary emotion of anger.
We pulled into a gravel parking lot of what looked to be a biker bar, and I had to wonder if I’d remembered the address correctly. I climbed off the back of the “borrowed” bike, and my eyes scanned over the dozens of motorcycles outside the squat, concrete building. Was this really the place? It wouldn’t have been too surprising, knowing Tristan. One of his “guys” probably owned the place. Still, not feeling too good about walking in blind, I opened my mind to those inside. The building was larger than it looked from the outside and was filled with . . . shifter signatures. All Amadis and all wolves. But no Tristan. I reached my mind out to the surrounding area, and still no Tristan, Char, or Sheree, but I did find Blossom and Jax, about half a mile away.
Blossom, we’re here, I said, and I could practically hear her squeal of joy.
“On our way,” she replied, relief heavy in her mental voice.
I turned to watch for them, feeling their mind signatures coming closer, and finally they came into sight. Jax sauntered toward us in his black leather pants and black t-shirt as he held his jacket over a shoulder. Although Blossom had the standard leather jacket and combat boots, for some reason they hadn’t given her pants and a bustier like they had to the rest of us girls. Rather, she wore a black smock that reached a few inches above her knees and black tights. She broke into a sprint for us and threw her arms around my neck as she nearly knocked me over in a hug.
She immediately spouted off like a geyser. “I was so worried about you, but we didn’t know what to do after everything Ms. Katerina had told us about being cooperative,
so we hoped you’d get out, and everything would be okay, but Tristan said to come here, and we’d get you out if we had to, but it looks like you’re fine, and I’ve probably driven Jax up the wall—”
“She’s been yabberin’ away like a macaw on speed,” Jax said, but he didn’t sound mad or even annoyed. In fact, I sensed a bit of awe and appreciation in his voice as he spoke of the witch. “We’ve all been worried as hell, princess.”
“I’ve been worried as hell, too,” I said, giving them each a hug, and then I glanced around. “Where are Tristan and the others?”
“They’re not here yet,” Blossom said, and I didn’t see Sasha with them, either. I hoped to God that meant Tristan had her. Blossom opened her mouth to launch into another monologue, but I stopped her.
“Can I use your phone?”
She lifted her brows. “It fried in the swamp, where we appeared.”
“Then how’d you talk to Tristan?”
“We didn’t. Jax and I were just making our way out of the swamp, thank the Angels he was with me, because he made himself a crocodile, and we clamored out of there without getting eaten by anything, and then Bree showed up out of nowhere right in front of us. She said she already talked to Tristan, and she told us all about you and Vanessa, and said Tristan, Charlotte, and Sheree—”
“They’re all okay?” I asked, having to interrupt her so she’d take a breath before she passed out from talking too much.
“Yeah, they’re all together.”
“Do they have Sasha?”
She tilted her head. “I don’t know. Bree didn’t mention Sasha, but they all appeared way down by Jacksonville, and had the pilot with them, so they had to find transportation and get him to the airport. And I guess Tristan already talked to your mom and the matriarch and told them everything that happened, too. I mean, I don’t know who knew what when, but Bree pretty much knew everything since she’d been watching us from the Otherworld, and she came to our realm to be our messenger because she saw we had no other way of communicating with each other, and we were all split up, and it was such a big mess. Anyway, the pilot’s already off to get a new Amadis jet, and Tristan, Charlotte, and Sheree are headed up this way—”
Jax put a hand on Blossom’s shoulder. “Stop a minute to breathe, woman.”
The witch inhaled a deep breath and blew it out. “Sorry, but there’s so much to tell, and I know Alexis has been scared to death, and you need to know what’s going on. So anyway, they were on their way here, but they’ve been a little delayed.”
My heart stuttered. “What’s wrong?”
“They found a newborn vamp on the side of the road,” she explained. “Charlotte couldn’t just leave him there.”
“Of course not,” I said as my heart returned to its normal rhythm, but then I realized what it meant. Hours, maybe a day or more, before they could hit the road again.
“Tristan told Bree to tell us he’d call when he had further info,” the witch added. “Or send her again, I don’t know.”
“Well, then, I guess we go in for a drink?” I asked, not knowing what else to do. Besides control my urge to punch something again. One thing after another. At least everyone was okay, but we were never going to find my son at this rate. Blossom, do you think we could try your tracking spell while we’re waiting?
Her shoulders lifted in a shrug so small only I noticed the gesture. “Maybe if there’s some place quiet here. It’s a shifter den, though, so don’t get your hopes up.”
As soon as we walked inside, the loud din of conversation fell to complete silence. Vanessa had entered first, followed by Blossom and Jax, with me trailing in behind. I could feel the animosity in the air as the shifters in the bar sniffed, sensing we were Amadis, but not wolves like them.
“Who the hell do you think you are, stealing my pack’s bike?” bellowed a female voice as a figure rushed across the room. A tall, thin woman with raven hair, obsidian eyes, a flannel top tied into a knot between her breasts, and holey jeans that hung on her narrow hips stopped in front of Vanessa, her face dangerously close to the vampire’s. She apparently didn’t know who Vanessa was. Or maybe she didn’t care. She didn’t look like she’d be scared of too much in this world. “And don’t deny it. I get a call that it’s gone. I look out the window, and there it is. And here you walk into my bar. The only people who don’t belong here.”
My team parted as I pushed my way to the front of them, knowing I needed to take responsibility for this misfortune (and planning how I’d get Vanessa back for this). More dead silence passed, followed by a loud ruckus with the scrape of bar stools against a wooden floor as everyone dropped to their knees, their heads down. The woman, who only a moment ago had been yelling at Vanessa, saw me and also went down to one knee.
“What the fuck’s goin’ on here?” a familiar voice called out as he came from what I assumed to be the kitchen behind the bar. I had to suppress a chuckle at his seemingly standard entrance when I was around. The large man, wearing a vest that showed off his burly muscles, hurried around the bar and to my group, then also dropped to a knee. “Ms. Alexis. Surprised to see you in these parts.”
“Trevor! What are you doing here?” I asked as soon as he rose and the others in the bar followed.
“Sundae,” he said, addressing the woman next to him, “you better let me handle this.”
Her dark eyes skated over each of us, and she let out a growl before striding back to the bar.
Trevor led us to a nearby table and shooed away the guys who had been sitting there. They quickly scattered and found a new table at one end of the building, near the dartboard, but their eyes never left us. Never left me, to be more specific. Booths lined the outside wall of the place, and at the other end was the only area with much light—a lamp hanging over a green felt-covered pool table. A couple of men leaned on their pool sticks as they watched us. Well, me, again. Sometimes, like with Rick, being Amadis royalty came in handy, but most of the time, I hated it.
“I banded my pack up with the Georgia one,” Trevor said in answer to my question, “and opened up a second shop here. We all gotta do what we gotta do these days. So what brings you here?”
“Long story,” I said as I sat on a stool at the bar-height table. “Tristan’s on his way, but it could be a few hours.”
Trevor’s hard gaze traveled over the others, lingering on Vanessa as a low growl rumbled in his chest. He narrowed his brown eyes at Jax. “You were the shifter in the Everglades last year. You met some of my boys.”
Jax gave a curt nod. “That be me, mate.”
Trevor turned back to me. “Did you really steal a ride from Sundae’s pack?”
“We didn’t know,” I answered before Vanessa could open her mouth. “We had to get out of that town and—”
“I’ll take care of it,” he said with a nod. “But keep an eye on these guys or Sundae will kick them out on their asses.”
“Excuse me?”
“Sundae, the leader of the Georgia pack. The woman you just met? My shop’s out back, but this place is hers. She and her pack don’ like outsiders, but since it’s you and all . . .” He shrugged, and then lumbered toward the rear of the building, where he’d come from.
Sundae came over to our table.
“Glad to have you, Ms. Alexis,” she said, her voice hard as she emphasized my name—delivering the message that the rest of my team wasn’t quite as welcomed. Her sweet name sure didn’t match the threat of the wolf simmering below her surface. “I apologize for my temper a moment ago.”
She didn’t sound at all remorseful.
“No, I’m sorry we took the bike.”
“Oh, please. If I had known it was you, I wouldn’t have acted like I had. My pack is always at your service.”
I somehow didn’t quite buy that.
“Don’t worry. We’re not planning to stay long,” I said as warmly as I could manage.
“You’re welcome as long as you need to,” she said, the edge in her v
oice softening. A little maybe. Her gaze swept over my companions. “All y’all. We’re not used to others, and everyone’s a little on edge with all the shit going down in Savannah.” Her eyes flicked to Vanessa. “And having a newly converted vamp around, especially her, makes us a little . . . prickly.”
Vanessa sat back in her stool, crossed her arms, and rolled her eyes. I glared at her. You can at least try to convince them, especially after stealing her bike.
She sighed and then put on a syrupy smile as she leaned toward Sundae. “You really have nothing to worry about. I’m matriarch-certified and everything. The motorcycle was a simple misunderstanding.”
Sundae’s dark brown eyes fell on me.
“It’s true,” I said. “Rina, um, Katerina assessed her. We’re all on the same side here.” I hoped. “And we can repay whatever you need for the bike.”
The werewolf snorted, dismissing my offer. “So then, what can I get y’all to drink? Besides blood. We ain’t that kind of dive.”
Her newly adopted tone sounded kinder, but her words still bit—she trusted Vanessa less than I did. A tap into her mind showed me Sundae would be keeping a close eye on the vampire the entire time we were here. She made that thought loud and clear, but hid anything else she may have been thinking behind a wall of mundane mind-chatter.
That was the problem with telepathy, at least my ability. People’s thoughts didn’t come conveniently—I couldn’t exactly pick out the precise thought I needed, but could only hear what ran through their minds at the moment—and often they didn’t even come coherently. When they knew about my ability, like most of the Amadis and the Daemoni did, they carefully filtered their thoughts or found ways to obscure them. Some people had become quite good at doing so, effectively shutting me out.
Jax, Blossom, and I ate a lunch of fried bar food while Vanessa watched with her nose slightly crinkled. She didn’t need blood yet, which was good. I hoped Charlotte knew where we could obtain more mage blood, since the supply Rina had given her was somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean or smattering the shores of the Outer Banks. Gross. I’d hate to be the norms on the beach today.