by Abby Blake
“How long have you known her?”
“Three years,” Eric said with a low growl. “Three years that I should have spent coaxing her into my arms. Instead I tried to give her space, to give her a chance to know her own mind. She’s only twenty-seven. In shifter terms she’s still very young.”
“But she’s a human,” Darian said with a frown. “I thought bear-shifter mates were other bear-shifters.”
“Not always,” Eric said with a sad smile. “It’s harder to tell when they’re still human, but I’ve always known Hannah was mine. From the moment I met her I’ve felt the connection.” He cut off, looking embarrassed to have expressed his inner thoughts in such a sappy way.
“So, you what? Slapped the salami for three years while you waited for your bride to grow up?”
“Enough,” West said angrily. “Go report our findings to Ronan. I’ll meet you back at the motel.” Darian nodded stiffly, opened a bounce tunnel, and left quickly. He was usually pretty laid-back, but the past six months he’d been different. Uptight, angry, less predictable. It had the potential to make him dangerous to work with, so the conflict with West’s cousin was even more annoying. At least by being the senior partner on this mission, West had final say on what they did and when they did it. He turned to his cousin. “We’ll find her. I can’t promise to bring her back to you. There’s more going on than I can explain, but I’ll figure it out.” He stepped closer, placing his hand on his cousin’s shoulder. “I need to know everything you know about Hannah Long.”
Chapter Two
Hannah pulled her car into the parking spot furthest away from the front door of the bar and grill. It wasn’t exactly a place she would have hung out with friends, but she hoped like hell to talk the owner into giving her a job. She hurried across the parking lot and stepped into the lunchtime rush.
“Just take a seat anywhere, honey. I’ll be with you in a second,” the waitress said with a pleasant smile as she balanced several plates full of food.
Hannah stayed out of her way, but didn’t take a seat. “Actually,” she said as the waitress finished delivering the meals and turned her attention to Hannah, “I was hoping to speak to someone about getting some work.”
“Do you have any waitressing experience?”
“Yes,” Hannah said, hoping the woman wouldn‘t ask for references. She’d done some bartending and waitressing to get herself through college. Hopefully it wasn’t a skill she’d forgotten. In fact after several hectic years working at St. Alfred’s hospital, she might even be better at it. How ironic? All those years training to be a nurse, just so she could end up a better waitress.
“Job pays minimum wage plus tips.” Hannah nodded her understanding, her heart pounding harder now than it had her first time performing CPR on an actual patient. It would almost be funny if she weren’t so desperate to replenish her fast-dwindling cash. Four weeks on the road had only proven she hadn’t saved enough money to survive any length of time without working—even when she slept in her car.
But she couldn’t apply for nursing work without supplying her registration details and employment history and that just made her easier to find. The worst part was that she didn’t even know who she was running from. Only that she had to run. Even the internal realization that she was probably suffering some sort of paranoid medical condition hadn’t been enough to have her running back home to get some help.
“I can’t guarantee how long the job will last,” the woman said with an apologetic smile. “My niece left town unexpectedly a few weeks ago. If she comes home, I want her to know she’s still welcome.”
Hannah nodded her understanding. It must have been nice for the woman’s niece to know that her life would still be there if she came home. It wasn’t a feeling Hannah ever expected to have again.
The woman glanced at Hannah’s comfortable shoes and smiled.
“Can you start right now?”
“Yes,” Hannah said nervously.
“Excellent. Grab an apron and jump on in. It’s only the two of us for the lunch shift, so just serve whoever needs serving. Give me or Leo—he’s the cook—a holler if you’ve got any questions.”
“Will do,” Hannah said, nodding. “Thanks…um…”
“Ida,” she said with a soft laugh. “Sorry, sugar. It’s been a busy day. What should I call you?”
“Annie,” Hannah said, hoping like hell the name was close enough to the one she’d used for the last twenty years that she’d remember to respond.
“Okay, Annie. Let’s get this crowd fed.”
* * * *
Eric couldn’t concentrate. Every time he tried to focus on the budget report in front of him the numbers would blur, and he’d find himself wondering where on earth his mate had disappeared to. It didn’t matter that he was a doctor and West the trained soldier. It simply didn’t feel right waiting for someone else to find and protect his mate.
He grabbed the phone and dialed the number his cousin had left with him.
“West,” he said urgently as soon as his cousin answered. “Why did it take you so long to come looking for Hannah? She’s a registered nurse. She should have been easy to find.”
West hesitated, and Eric got the impression that he was conferring with someone silently. He seemed to breathe out a sigh of relief and then said in a calm voice, “I’ve been given permission to bring you in on the details.” Eric started to thank him, but West cut him off, his voice very serious. “This is only happening because she’s your mate. Do you understand me? Everything, everything I tell you is classified information. Spill one word to anyone and we will have a serious problem.”
“I understand,” Eric said, as both relief that he would know what was going on and terror for his mate ran through him simultaneously.
“Are you still alone in your office?”
“Yes.”
“One of my squadmates, Alex, will be there in a few minutes.” And then West seemed to relax just a little. He sounded more his normal self when he added, “You might want to grab some antacids before he gets there. Slip travel is quite unpleasant.”
A few moments later a fire demon stepped into his office, and then Eric got to experience firsthand the nauseating side effects of slip travel.
* * * *
West hid his grin as his rather green-looking cousin stepped into the room. Alex guided Eric none too gently onto the sofa, pushed him down, and handed him a bowl of salt-encrusted crackers. It was obvious that the last thing Eric wanted to do was eat, but Ronan’s quiet “it helps” was enough to get him to do as they suggested.
They gave Eric a few minutes to compose himself before beginning the mission briefing. West glanced around the room as most of his squadmates and several of Ronan’s operatives took their seats at the large table.
From the outside, this building looked like any of the other family homes in the small town of Sugarvale, but that’s where the similarity stopped. Inside was set up as headquarters for both PUP Squad Alpha and Deeks Security. This room alone contained just about every high-tech gadget West could ever want. Even Wilson looked impressed, and when it came to tech stuff, Wilson, being a self-proclaimed technogeek, was notoriously hard to please.
There were several operatives missing—Jason was still on emergency family leave, and it looked like Nathan and Alex were protecting their wives while Brody and Ronan attended the meeting—but the most notable absence was Darian. Considering the conflict he and Eric had earlier, it was probably a good thing, but it did make West wonder about the warlock’s state of mind. He’d had every right to be annoyed at Eric’s careless words, but he’d reacted way out of proportion to the provocation. Many of their coworkers had noticed Darian’s changed behavior, but so far none had been able to learn the reason for it.
“Eric,” Ronan said, indicating West’s cousin, but addressing the men at the table, “is the mate of one of the women we’ve been searching for. Until four weeks ago, she was working as a nurse under the nam
e of Hannah Long. She disappeared sometime between then and now. We’re not sure of the exact timing, but our biggest concern is that she might go back to using her original name.”
“Her original…?” Eric asked in a worried voice from his position on the sofa. It was clear that he wanted answers, but he was at least aware enough to realize he was only here as a courtesy, not as an active participant. Fortunately Ronan took pity on the guy and explained.
“Hannah was born Annie Franklin. Her family was taken into the Witness Protection Program after her father testified against a mobster he’d seen kill somebody.” Ronan glanced at Benjamin, perhaps confirming that Eric had been cleared to hear the details. “The family doesn’t seem to have had any problems once their names were changed. Our big concern is that with her father having passed away several years ago, Hannah would have reason to believe it’s safe to revert to her birth name. The trouble is that the assassinations targeted women all with the same birthday. They’ll be looking for the name on the birth certificate.”
West could see the fear for Hannah written very clearly on his cousin’s face.
“We have to find her,” Eric said in a moment of obviously sheer panic. He had to realize that was why they were all here. The squad had been looking for Annie Franklin and several other women since learning of the link between them and the pixie assassinations of three humans just over a month ago.
“We will find her,” Ronan said in a voice that wasn’t nearly as gruff as it once was. Apparently finding a mate of his own had softened the battle-hardened soldier just a little. He nodded at West and then waited for his report.
“Hannah’s bank records show that she withdrew all but a few dollars of her savings. She sold her car to a secondhand dealer not far from her home. Nothing in her history indicates an ability or willingness to steal a car, so we’re currently trying to trace all cash sales for that same day.”
“Does she have anywhere to go? Maybe family to contact?”
“None that we can trace,” West said, feeling the familiar frustration weave through him once more. Tracking down a human woman should not have been this hard. Even knowing that Hannah was destined to be a bear-shifter’s mate didn’t explain her ability to anticipate a pixie assassination attempt. “Eric,” he said, turning to his cousin, “is there anywhere you can think that she would go?”
“No,” he said, looking as frustrated as West felt.
* * * *
Hannah smiled as she headed to table twelve. Jed Mathewson was an old grump, but over the past week he’d been her most consistent customer. He also seemed to appreciate her sunny disposition even though he always responded with a dour expression.
“What can I get for you today, Mr. Mathewson?”
“Just coffee,” he said in his usual gruff voice. The first time he’d grumbled those words she’d made the mistake of ordering for him “just coffee.” He hadn’t been impressed.
“Coffee?” she asked, smiling at the harrumph that came from the old man. “I believe Ida made one of her famous blueberry pies this morning. I reckon it’d go down mighty nice with a cup of Leo’s famous coffee.”
“Blueberry, huh?” Jed said as if he were ruminating on whether to order the pie or not. “Maybe I should try a slice, so, you know, I can make sure Ida isn’t losing her touch. She’s getting old, you know.”
Considering Ida was probably a good twenty years younger than Jed Mathewson, Hannah was pretty sure her boss would be unimpressed by that accusation. Hannah nodded, grabbed the menu that Jed always insisted upon but never actually used, and headed back to the kitchen.
She stepped around the corner without looking and almost ran over the young girl standing in her path. Immediately her heart leapt into her throat. Hannah backed away, her fingers shaking so hard that she dropped the menu to the floor.
The child tilted her head, looking at Hannah with far more scrutiny than she was used to from one so young. “Hello, Annie,” the girl said with what could only be described as a malicious grin. Hannah backed up a few more steps which almost took her back into the main part of the restaurant. “You’ve been a very hard lady to find. I had a hell of a time uncovering the new name the Witness Protection Program gave you, but then you went and ruined all my hard work by disappearing mere hours before I got there. Lucky for me the type of car salesmen willing to take cash for a car are also the type to take bribes. He sold you out for a hundred bucks. Can you believe that? He obviously knew you were in some kind of trouble, but he never even questioned why a ‘child’ would want to know where you went.” She shrugged as she moved closer. “Of course, if I’d waited just a few more weeks it’s likely you would have popped up on the tax records under your original name and I wouldn’t have had to track you halfway across the country.” She smiled smugly and tapped a finger against her chin as she looked out the window at the end of the corridor. “It was quite nice of you to find an out-of-the-way location, but if you take one more step, I’ll have to kill them, too. Can’t leave any witnesses. That would be very bad for business.”
“I don’t understand. Why me?” Hannah asked, shaking her head. This was the confrontation she’d been fleeing from, even though she’d had no idea why at the time. Right now everything urged her to run for help, but the thought of endangering anyone else was even more terrifying. “What did I do?”
It was extremely bizarre. Despite the child’s outward appearance, something inside Hannah knew—absolutely knew—that the creature in front of her was not what she seemed.
“You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Oracle should never have done what she did.” The child shrugged and moved closer. “Look, nobody else has to get hurt. You’re the only one they sent me to eliminate. If you don’t make a fuss, it’ll be over quick.”
“So I should just stand here and wait for you to kill me?”
Hannah’s would-be assassin winked and went to step closer. But then a rage the likes of nothing Hannah had ever felt before washed through her. Without understanding what she was doing or how she was doing it, Hannah somehow managed to throw the childlike creature down the hallway without actually touching her.
“What the fuck?” the thing said as she landed on her feet several yards away. “You’re supposed to be human. How the fuck did you do that?”
Hannah shook her head, honestly having no explanation for what she’d managed to do. The creature started toward her again, the smile feral, the determination to kill Hannah very clear on her childlike face. But the same thing happened again. Every time the child came at her, some unknown force threw her backward.
“Annie,” Mr. Mathewson’s gruff voice said from the doorway, “what in blazes is taking so long?” Before Hannah could stop him, Mr. Mathewson stepped into the corridor. “What the hell?” he asked in a shocked voice as the kid flew backward once more. “Crap. Goddamn pixies,” he said in a voice stronger than any she’d heard out of the old man’s mouth.
And then as if her current reality wasn’t weird enough, some sort of whirlwind, swirling, portal-type thing opened up, and the old man dragged her through.
* * * *
“The computer just flagged a hysterical nine-one-one call made from a diner in a town less than a hundred miles from here,” Wilson said rather urgently. “West, I think it’s your girl. Someone reported a waitress named Annie and another customer disappearing into thin air.”
“We need a lift,” West said, glancing around the room. Alex was still here, but the thought of putting Eric through slip travel twice in one day was enough to make West feel ill. Fortunately, Brody must have thought the same thing because he nodded to Nathan, grabbed the coordinates off Wilson, and opened a dragon jump vortex.
* * * *
Within seconds the three of them were walking in the front door of a small-town diner. Eric felt none too steady on his feet, but the thought of Hannah being in danger kept him upright and moving.
“We’re closed,” a middle-aged man, dre
ssed in what looked to be a cook’s uniform, said in an unfriendly voice. He was comforting an older woman who seemed to be in shock.
Before West or Brody could say anything Eric’s training kicked in.
“I’m a doctor. What happened?”
“She’s just stressed. We’ve been working really hard lately.”
“I am not stressed,” the woman said angrily. “I know what I saw.”
“What did you see?” Eric asked in a low-pitched, soothing tone of voice.
“I saw Annie and Jed disappear into a whirlpool.”
“I’m sorry,” the man holding her said, clearly embarrassed by the woman’s words. “The nearest lake is about fifty miles away. We don’t know what she saw, but Annie and Jed are both missing.”
“I told you, it wasn’t water. It looked like multicolored lights all going around in circles, like a twister.”
“It’s okay,” Eric said quietly, feeling very sorry for the woman. She was clearly describing a warlock’s bounce tunnel, but telling the woman she wasn’t crazy would only lead to more questions. “Sometimes when you’ve been working really hard, or you haven’t had enough sleep, the eyes can misinterpret what they see. I’ve heard descriptions similar to this before. It’s usually caused by the light-sensitive cells embedded in the retina misinterpreting the electrical signals. A good night’s sleep is often enough to correct the problem. But to be on the safe side I want you to book an appointment to have your eyes checked. Okay?”
The woman looked relieved by Eric’s reasoning. It certainly beat the “you’re losing your marbles” explanation. “But we still don’t know where Annie and Jed are.”
Eric glanced at his cousin and the dragon-shifter beside him. “My friends are off-duty police officers. Perhaps they can figure out where they went. Can you show me where you last saw them?”