“Miss?” the guy called out. The guy didn’t sound like any Jackal I’d met either. No one in our world called anyone ‘miss’.
Hailey turned around with an amused expression.
“Are you really leaving already?” He watched her with a forlorn look.
“Yeah, we’re headed out.” She pointed toward the door.
“I was working up the nerve to come over, but I didn’t get much time.” He shoved his hands in his back pockets.
“Oh, yeah, well. Sorry about that.” Hailey shrugged and turned around.
“Could I get another chance then?” He called to her back. “Dinner maybe?”
Hailey ran her teeth over her bottom lip before turning around again. “Probably not, but thanks.”
“Seriously?” His mouth fell open.
“Yeah… I’m not interested, but you know it’s flattering.” Hailey shifted her weight from foot to foot.
“You already know you’re not interested before we even get a chance to talk?”
“Yeah… sorry.” Hailey crossed her arms.
“Why?” The Jackal pressed.
“Willy, she said no.” Amber used a warning tone.
“But she’s being rude.” He glared at his sister.
Jim was in Willy’s face in a second. “Did you just call my niece rude?”
“Yes.” Willy glared at Jim.
“Apologize. No one is going to talk to her that way. She isn’t interested. She made her feelings clear. End of story.”
“But she made her decision without giving me a chance.” Willy tried to step around Jim.
“Does that matter?” Jim blocked him in his path. “She’s given her answer.”
I had to hold myself back. I was used to jumping in to defend my sister, but she could take care of it herself.
Hailey pushed Jim out of the way. “I can handle this.” Hailey turned to Willy and held a hand out in front of her. “I don’t want to go on a date with you. Got it?”
Willy frowned. “Is there a reason why you’re so rude?”
Hailey chortled. “You haven’t seen rude yet.”
Willy made a move toward her, and Hailey stepped back. “Take one step closer to me and you’ll be sorry.”
“Why will I be sorry?” He stepped closer.
In a blur she knocked him through the air and pushed her black boot into his chest, pinning him to the ground. “Were you saying something?”
I laughed. That was Hailey for you.
“I didn’t think so.” She released him and yanked open the door while Amber stared at her with her mouth hanging open. I followed right behind her.
“Your dad taught you well,” Jim caught up with Hailey outside.
“I taught myself well. My dad would have preferred if I spent my life in a little glass bottle.” Hailey sighed.
“He’s that protective?” Jim asked.
“Yes.” Hailey tied her long red hair up in a messy bun with the hair tie she always seemed to have around her wrist. “It’s ridiculous. Owen gets to do everything.”
“But he’s letting you do this,” Jim said as if to himself.
“He kind of had to.” Hailey waited beside Jim’s car.
“He trusts you, he’s just protective.” I joined her by the car. “He means well.”
“At least your brother isn’t overly protective,” Jonathan added.
I’d nearly forgotten he was with us. “I’m protective, but I’ve learned to temper it.”
Hailey laughed. “You mean hide it?”
“I’m not that bad. I let you have your own fight back there.”
“Because you had to. You’re protective behind my back.”
“I am. But that’s natural.” She would always be my little sister no matter how old she got. She was tough, and she could take on nearly any opponent in a fight, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t worry about her.
Jim unlocked the car and got into the driver’s seat.
I got into the back seat this time. I wasn’t leaving Hailey to sit in the back with Jonathan. She gave me a little smile before she slipped into the passenger seat. She’d proven her point. I was being protective.
“Who was that guy?” I’d never met a Jackal that aggressive before. Generally they were the calm and collected one in a room full of shifters. Stereotypes are often wrong, but he was the exact opposite of what I’d have expected.
“Willy is a piece of work, but Hailey put him in his place.” Jim started the car and slowly backed out of the alley.
“And he’s really a Jackal? Nothing else mixed in?” I still couldn’t quite believe it.
“There’s always something else mixed in,” Jonathan pulled out a pack of gum and put a piece in his mouth. He held out the pack to me.
I shook my head to say no thanks. “What about you? Do you have things mixed in?” Jim hadn’t told us what Jonathan was yet, and I hadn’t picked up on any recognizable traits yet that gave him away.
“I’m a mutt.” He put the pack of gum back in his pocket.
“A mutt consisting of what?” I liked to know who, or often more importantly what, I was dealing with.
“Many things.” He smiled.
“You don’t even want to go down that line of questioning.” Jim pulled to a stop at a traffic light. “It will take you hours.”
“We don’t have hours.” We had no time as far as I was concerned. I wanted to find Daisy, and I wanted to find her immediately. I refused to give up hope.
Jim drove back in the direction of his house. He caught Jonathan’s eye in the rearview mirror. “You think they’ll be willing to help?”
“The Dryads?” Jonathan stretched out his legs in the small space in front of him. “Sure. You have plenty to give them.”
“I hope they know who’s behind the rosimo.” Jim turned onto a smaller road and headed away from the city.
“If they don’t know, they will be able to point us in the direction of someone who does. They make it a point to stay aware of what’s being grown.” Jonathan watched out the window.
“I thought you were confident.” I leaned forward toward the front.
“I am.”
“Then why are you asking Jonathan for reassurance?”
“Because you can never have too much reassurance.” Jim slowed down as the road narrowed.
“If you say so.” I could barely sit still as we made the drive back to his house. I itched to get moving, even if I wasn’t entirely sure where we were moving toward. I looked out the window and wondered where Daisy was. Did she feel anything anymore? Did she remember me? I wasn’t sure how things worked as an Allure. Did memories disappear, or did they dull? I hoped she was safe, but safe was a relative term.
I closed my eyes and pictured her in the only way I was willing to. Her big brown eyes were full of light and excitement that matched the smile on her face. I refused to imagine her as an Allure, because it couldn’t happen. I wasn’t giving up on her. I opened my eyes.
Hailey turned toward the back. “You holding up back there?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.” I shook my thoughts of Daisy away. I had to stay focused.
Hailey patted my leg. “We’re going to get her back for you.”
“I know.”
We fell back into silence until Jim pulled back into his driveway. I still didn’t quite understand why we’d picked up Jonathan only to come back to Jim’s house, but I assumed there had to be a reason.
I didn’t voice my concerns as we all filed out of the car.
“You painted.” Jonathan pointed to the house.
Jim shook his head. “No I haven’t.”
“It looks different than the last time I saw it.” Jonathan took a step toward the front of Jim’s unique house.
“You haven’t seen it in years. Your memory isn’t as good as it used to be.”
“Are you calling me old?” Jonathan raised an eyebrow.
“You decide.” Jim walked around to a gate on the side of th
e house. He opened it and led the way through his backyard toward the woods. Jonathan followed closely behind, and Hailey and I kept a small distance behind them.
Hailey caught up with Jim. “All right, I have to ask you something.”
“Yes?” Jim slowed down and let Jonathan continue on ahead.
“Why do we need Jonathan?” she whispered.
“What do you mean?”
“We’re back behind your house. Couldn’t we have saved a lot of time by coming back here ourselves?” She voiced the very same question I had.
Jim didn’t respond at first. He appeared to be mulling it over before he finally answered. “Yes and no.”
“Uh?” Hailey and I exchanged looks.
“Jonathan has a knack for finding Dryad hideouts.”
“But you said we needed him for information.” Those had been his exact words.
“We do. Information on how to find these creatures.”
“I’m lost.”
“Jonathan has a gift for finding their tracks. They are known to be quite clever at covering up their paths, and it might have taken me days to find them on my own.”
“Ok, so we do need him.” Hailey nodded.
“Like I said, yes and no. No we didn’t need him to find them, but yes we needed him to find them in a timely fashion.”
“We need him then.” Wasting time wasn’t an option.
We followed Jim and Jonathan as we walked deeper into the woods. There was no path so to speak, but the ground was worn where we walked. I assumed it wasn’t Jim’s first time walking this direction in the woods. Jonathan seemed to know the route as well.
If I hadn’t been worried sick about Daisy, I might have been able to enjoy the natural beauty of the woods. The old growth trees were thick, and the only sounds were our feet and a few birds singing. None of us said anything, which made the journey seem that much more intense.
We continued through the forest, stopping every so often when Jonathan would point out a spot and Jim would fall to his knees and dig through the dirt. Neither Hailey nor I said anything at first, but eventually Hailey broke the silence. “Are you sure we’re going to find Dryads back here?”
“Doubting us already?” Jim stood up from his most recently stopping spot.
“Not doubting as much as questioning.”
“What’s the difference?” Jim brushed dirt off the knees of his khaki pants.
“I’m not entirely sure,” Hailey admitted.
I laughed silently.
“I can tell you the difference.” Jim brushed off his hands.
“I’m all ears.” Hailey tilted her head to the side.
“Doubting is negative. It means you’ve lost faith. But questioning is altogether different. It means you’re thinking through the situation and making sure you agree with the steps being taken. Questioning is the sign of genus.”
I laughed out loud this time. I couldn’t help it.
Hailey glared. “Well then, it’s a good thing I was questioning then.”
Jim grinned before continuing on through the forest.
Jim and Jonathan repeated the same process over and over. After each stop, Jim returned to his feet and continued walking as though nothing had happened. Hailey and I exchanged looks each time but continued to follow them.
We’d already stopped a half dozen times before we reached a fallen tree stump. “There. This is it.” Jonathan had made the claim many times already, so we weren’t expecting much when Jim fell to his knees next to the stump.
We waited as patiently as we could, but we were definitely doing more doubting.
“This is it!” Jim pounded on the stump. “We’re in business.”
“This is what exactly?” I peered down at what appeared to be a completely mundane tree trunk.
“The North Dryads have been here.” Jonathan kneeled down beside Jim. “I knew we’d find them eventually.”
“The North Dryads?” I asked. “I met Dryads in the Glamour Realm with the Allures, but I have no clue if they were the North kind.”
“You’ve been in the Glamour Realm?” Jim’s eyes widened. I was pretty sure I’d been living his fantasies.
“Yes, but it wasn’t under the best circumstances.” I thought back on our time there. We’d been so hopeful that Violet knew how to help us, but she only led us to the Elders. And the Elders took away everything.
“Who is this kid?” Jonathan pointed a thumb at me. “I mean you say he’s your nephew but hanging out in the glamour realm?”
Jim beamed. “My family is full of surprises.”
“Are you okay?” Jim wrinkled his brow.
“Yes, sorry. Just thinking.” Thinking back on my last hours with Daisy was dangerous. It sent me to a very dark place.
“These Dryads are friendly. I assure you.” Jim misread my apprehension.
“I don’t doubt that. The name brought back some bad memories.”
“Can’t be worse than your current situation.” Jim patted my arm.
Hailey snorted.
“What?” Jim asked her.
“Was that your attempt to comfort him? Telling him nothing could be worse than his current situation?”
“I wasn’t trying to comfort him.” Jim set his pack down on the ground beside him. “I was trying to keep him on track. That’s something completely different.”
“Got it.” Hailey nodded.
“So what now? Do we wait for the Dryads?” I hated waiting around, but we’d decided to trust Jim. That meant following his timeline.
“Do you have a better idea?” Jim raised an eyebrow.
“Not exactly.”
“They’ll come find us. I’m sure of it.” Jim opened his back pack. “That is if we use the right bait.”
“Bait? Are we talking about the same Dryads?” The Dryads I’d met were humanoid. They weren’t like animals falling for bait.
Jonathan laughed a deep laugh that shook his whole body. “This might be the most entertaining morning ever.”
I ignored him. This guy was crazier than Jim.
“Yes. How did you get their attention last time?” He opened the canteen with the juice and started pouring drops of it out on the ground around us.
“They just walked over. Almost gave us a heart attack.”
“Maybe because you were in the Glamour Realm. Here it takes some work to find them when they aren’t looking for you.”
“Ok. Whatever you say.”
“Mind telling me how you were allowed to set foot in that Realm?” Jim watched me intently.
“We went in a rather unconventional way.” I thought of the giant oak tree in Charleston. That felt like a lifetime ago.
“A way you’ll have to tell me all about.” Jim’s eyes gleamed. He really did love all this stuff.
“Help me find Daisy, and absolutely.” I was all about helping Jim out, but not until he helped me. Time was of the essence with Daisy.
“What did that juice do?” Hailey pointed to the wet areas on the ground. “It seems more like bug bait than anything else.”
“The Dryads certainly aren’t bugs.” Jim cringed. “Don’t let them hear you making that sort of comparison.
Jonathan nodded. “You’ll be sorry if they do.”
I heard the faint sound of rustling and craned my ears. I could hear from miles away, so I knew whoever was making the sound couldn’t be that close.
“Here they come.” Jim grinned. “Apple juice spiked with whiskey always does the trick.”
“I thought that was normal juice.” Hailey peered down at the liquid on the ground.
“Nope, it’s the combination that gets them coming.”
“You know they aren’t animals, right?” For the first time I really questioned Jim’s judgment. All I needed was for him to offend his so-called friends and get us in worse trouble.
“I am well aware of what they are.” Jim straightened up. “I just told your sister to watch what she said about them.”
&nbs
p; “You can’t be surprised by our questions.” Hailey put a hand on her hip. “You did spill the juice on the ground.”
“I don’t expect them to drink it off the ground.” Jim appeared affronted by the suggestion.
“Still, I’d be offended if someone did that to get my attention.” Hailey narrowed her eyes.
“But you’re not a Dryad,” Jonathan jumped in.
“No, I’m not, but I’m a living breathing being. So are these Dryads.” Hailey put a hand on her hip.
The rustling got louder. “Maybe we should save this conversation for later.” There was no point upsetting the Dryads by fighting when they showed up.
Hailey nodded. “Fine.” She tilted her head again, and I knew she was listening to the rustling now too.
I had no clue what to expect from these Dryads, but I hoped they were friendly, and that they had an interest in helping us. Or that they could be persuaded to help. I’d found in life that most people had a price, but it wasn’t always money. It was all about figuring out what they needed, and what you could possibly do to get it for them.
“All right, kids.” Jim smiled. “Things are about to get fun.”
“Fun?” Hailey laughed dryly.
“Yes, fun.” Jim grinned even bigger.
“Fun for you maybe.” Hailey shook her head.
“This will be fun. Don’t let these Dryads get to you. They are only amusing themselves.” Jim looked all around the clearing.
The rustling continued and a shrill shriek filled the air.
“He’s here!” Sky, the small female Dryad I’d met in the Glamour Realm, ran into the clearing followed by three others including Adrian, one of the male Dryads I’d met before.
Sky took my hand and kissed it. “We found you.”
“I wasn’t aware you were looking for me.” I searched the faces of the other Dryads, also dressed in the same green tunics and brown pants as the ones I’d met before, to see if I recognized them. I didn’t.
“Yes!” Sky’s eyes were bright with excitement.
I politely pulled my hand away.
“Don’t leave,” Adrian warned in a low voice.
“Are you telling me what to do?” I was still trying to accept that the Dryads were here, and they had been searching for me. It had to do with Daisy. There was no other reason.
Lost (The Allure Chronicles Book 3) Page 12