I slow my thought processes down and go over each meeting. The Elders had told me that Cate was killed by injections. She had seen others in cells but was unable to hear them. The Vampires had offered us little information. The Lycans had provided us with the same information everyone else had but had no real leads. Garron had witnessed the creatures and the cloaked Vampire attacking his wife but that was it.
The attacks between all those meetings didn’t really give us much. Just warnings and doom endings. The Vampire in charge had captured me to give me warning and offering me a place with him but why? Why would he have done that? And when I had declined, why didn’t he just kill me right then?
Once we got back on track, we were attacked once again by the seelie court. The queen had informed us that the cloaked man was a Vampire. She had offered us the locations of her missing Fae just like everyone else. Oh, and there was that pesky ‘I will start killing if mine are not returned’ threat.
Her words, however, kept playing over and over in my head. Not her ‘I will kill them all’ speech but her sincere ‘you’re looking but not seeing’ speech. I had listened to her the first time around and found the shifters. Maybe I was doing the same thing as I had been doing with the shifters. Looking but not seeing. But what was I not seeing. I pause, mentally going through it all again. What am I not seeing?
My mind starts spinning and tries racing through it all to find an answer. An almost panic starts up inside me, needing answers, wanting to see what I’m not seeing. This panic is making my head spin and throwing my concentration off.
Come on grandmother, give me something. You told Dagna I was meant to do this, but why? Her encouraging words whisper through my mind. You are a strong girl, Harmony. Always trust your instincts. My grandmother was my strong hold in my childhood. Why should it be any different now? She may not be here with me in person, but she was still here in spirit. She never left my side.
I stop and try centering myself again. I quit concentrating on the events of the past few days. Instead I listen to the quiet. Feel the calm that seeps off the water. I take deep, soothing breaths, telling my mind to concentrate only on that which is important.
I take my thoughts in one at a time. I picture the map in my mind. Is there a connection? A pattern? I see the dots all over the world, the dots on almost every continent, more on some versus single dots on the others.
Then I run through everything once more, taking it all in one item at a time. There has to be something. Something I’m looking at but not truly seeing.
After doing this for several minutes, I scream in frustration. There’s nothing. I’m not missing anything because none of it makes sense. The only similarity is the fact that every group of Shadows has someone missing. That’s it, nothing else.
Coy looks over at me so does everyone else. I just shake my head in frustration, throwing my hands up over my face. A part of me feels like giving up. Then there’s the part that keeps screaming at me to look. Open up your mind and look.
Look at what? No matter how much I went over it, it all still came out the same. Useless. The map crept back into my mind, the dots all over the place. Except-
I jump up and start running to the SUV. Danika had taken the map back to the SUV earlier, probably expecting the rest of us to follow her. But no one did. We had all felt the impact of not seeing a red carpet laid out before us, leading the way to the hidden fortress. She had come back after some time and seeing us all defeated, did the same.
I keep running, everyone yelling after me as I push through the woods. This could be it. This could be what I was missing. What we could had easily have missed.
I reach the SUV and yank the door open, accidentally breaking it off its hinges. I could care less. I grab the map and spread it out across the hood.
“What the hell?” Ethan emerges from the trees first. His hands spread out wide in astonishment as he looks at the door on the ground.
Danika comes up behind him and gawks at the door, as does everyone else. Danika looks up and sees the map spread out on the hood. “Was this really necessary, Racquel?” Her hand gesturing to the door.
“Never mind that, look at this.”
She starts to protest my ‘never mind’ comment, when the rest of my sentence catches up to her. She bounds past Ethan and joins me to look at the map. Everyone else circles around us, looking at the map too.
I can see Danika’s hope vanishing. Her hopeful face replaced with one of confusion. “What is it?”
“Look at it. What do you notice?”
“Other than the fact that the world is covered in different colored dots looking more like a Christmas tree than a map, not a whole lot.”
I look at Ethan sternly. “Look again.”
They continue looking at the map. I’m bouncing on my feet hoping I’m right.
“Just tell us already.” Jared releases his frustration, slamming his hands on the hood of the car putting two small dents in the hood.
“I’m so glad I added the extra insurance,” Danika says, shaking her head at the dents. Then she looks up at me. “What is it, Racquel?”
I point at the map. “The dots are everywhere right?” Everyone looks at me like I’m stark naked standing on a glacier petting a penguin. I continue on. “But they’re not everywhere.”
Everyone is still looking at me with dumbfounded looks on their faces. Ethan is the first to get what I’ve realized. “Oh my god, I was right. How could we have not seen this before?”
“It’s just like with the shifters. We were looking but not seeing.”
The others look between each other and then back at the map. They each have a quizzical look on their face as they try to figure it out.
I roll my eyes and explain what we’re talking about before they fry some brain cells. “There are dots all over the map except for here, here, and here.” I point at the only places there are no dots: Greenland, Antarctica, and Canada.
“So these could be the next hits?” Jared asks, brows pinched together in confusion.
“No. I’m saying that this is where they could be.” I keep it together, although I would love to slap the stupid out of them.
“It makes sense.” Ethans’ arms are crossed over his chest. “If you were trying to hide a body, you wouldn’t dig a hole in the middle of a park. You would want to be somewhere discrete and private.”
“Yeah but I’ve read about serial killers who lived right in the middle of well-populated suburbs and buried their victims in their basements. They were hiding in plain sight. So how do we not know whoever this is, isn’t planning some big op right next door?” Coy has a point and doubt starts creeping in, overtaking what hope I had. He shrugs his shoulders when I look over at him. “Sorry, it’s just a fact.” I guess my disappointment was showing.
“I would highly doubt it in this case.” Danika is walking around the vehicle. Reaching in through the broken driver side, where the door used to be, to get her phone. “Damn. No service.” She continues to fiddle with her phone, holding it high to the sky hoping to get a bar.
“Why did you say it was highly doubtable?” I’ve walked away from the car, pacing. My body is screaming at me to take flight and go find them. The more rational part of me is staying in place and needing to narrow this down but how?
“Well with all the magic they’re using, they would have to be secluded. If there was another Witch anywhere close to someone using that much magic they would know it. Cerelia wouldn’t take that risk.” She’s still playing with her phone. Beating it against her palm, like that will make a difference.
“What could be so important that you’re willing to break your phone over?”
“I need to call the Elders.” She walks to the back of the SUV and pulls herself up to stand on top. Holding the phone high up in the sky, she curses the phone and keeps slapping it against her palm.
“For what? And you know you’re not getting a signal out here.” Ethan says, holding out his hands to help
her down. She sighs, reaching down and taking his hand.
“I know but I was hoping.” Danika jumped down from the roof landing smoothly next to Ethan. He placed his hand around her waist to steady her, although she looked steady to me.
“I need to call the Elders so we can nip this in the bud.” Danika makes one more loop around the vehicle before giving up in defeat. She puts her phone in her pocket looking down at the door on the ground. “Is this fixable?”
She seems more peppy and excited. Ethan looks at the hinges and kicks the door. “I would say it’s staying unless we got spare parts in the back.”
“Hold on, time out.” Just a minute ago we were discussing where the vamps base could be. Now we’re looking for cell service to call the Elders. Is it really necessary to call them every minute? “Where are we going and why do you need to call the Elders?”
“We need to find service so I can call the Elders. They can help us narrow down where to go.”
I feel my face scrunch up as I cross my arms over my chest. “But they’ve already tried the scrying. It didn’t work.”
Danika gets into the passenger seat. “But they may be able to use the scrying to see where it doesn’t land. For all we know it could land everywhere but one place. If it does, that place is where we need to be. Now are you going to stand there and continue to ask questions? Or can we get a move on?”
With no further protest, I hop into the driver seat. The boys all pile in the back, none too happily. Poor Coy gets stuck in between Jared and Ethan.
After driving for an hour, finally getting back to a suitable path, we find service. Granted it isn’t the best in the world. Danika still has to walk around the car, taking a step up then two back then one back up until she could hear. The lack of door makes it easy for me to hear Danika explaining everything as she stepped around.
Everyone in the car is quiet. Ethan is watching Danika pace outside the car, trying to keep what precious phone service she has available. Jared is looking at his own phone. I can’t see what he is looking at but whatever it is he has an intense look on his face. Ever since I revealed that whoever was behind all this was a Vampire, he has been particularly quiet.
I peek in the rear view mirror at Coy. Not expecting to meet his eyes but I do. Nothing is said when I meet his eyes but the message is clear. He has hope and confidence that we are on the right track. His eyes reveal his utter faith in me.
I look away from him and focus on the road ahead. My heart is pounding in my chest with anticipation. I want to know what the Elders said so much that it takes every ounce of self-discipline to stay put. I knew that if we hit a dead end here, our loved ones could be lost forever.
What would we do next? I haven’t a clue. We have done everything we could think of up to this point. Failing now would put us all over the edge of hopelessness. A place none of us needed to be.
My thoughts are interrupted by a tap on my shoulder. I glance over to see Danika holding up the phone and pointing at me. I look back at Coy before exiting the vehicle. This is it. The Elders will either tell us where to go or tell us it was a waste.
My heart picks up its pace as I step out of the car. Danika hands the phone over to me; her face holds no answer for me. It is as blank as a statue. I shakily bring the phone up to my ear. “Hello?”
“Hi Racquel, how are you dear?” Eldrida was on the other end, calm as ever asking the most ridiculous question in the world. How am I? There don’t seem to be enough words in the universe to explain how on edge I am. But I choose the best word I could think of to sum it all up.
“Smothered.”
I hear Eldrida giggle softly. Personally I didn’t think it was giggle worthy.
“Well maybe I can erase some of that for you. Danika explained to us how you think the Vampire behind all this is hiding in a place untouched by his reign of terror. I must say that was a remarkable idea. It would seem that talking with the Fae Queen has helped you open up a bit more.”
“I guess it did.” I said.
I hear Eldrida clear her throat before continuing. “It will take us some time, not much but some, to find the untouched land. In the meantime, why don’t you see if you can come up with some information on each of the countries in question. That way when we do call you with an answer, you may have an idea of where to go in that particular country.”
My heart slows a little, my hope not fading but notched down a little. I didn’t realize how much I was expecting to get an answer right this instance. Okay, maybe I did. I just wanted to get going with this. Eldrida is right though. Even if we found the country, where in it would we go? He could be hiding anywhere within the country’s borders.
After saying my goodbyes to Eldrida, I get back in the car. Everyone is still quiet. Of course they heard the whole conversation.
“So where to now?” Danika asks.
“I’m not sure.” I take my phone out of my pocket, exit the vehicle, and walk around in the frigid air to keep my signal. I search on my phone for the nearest town with internet access so we can do the research Eldrida had asked me to look up. Finally I find what I’m looking for and get back in the vehicle. “Okay guys the closest town to us is Deline. It’s a little over three hours away.”
Ethan scrunches his brow. “Why are we going to Deline? Shouldn’t we stay here until the Elders call us back?”
“Eldrida said it may take them a while to do the scrying. She thought it would be best if we did some recon on the places we have narrowed down, and in order to do that we need the Internet or some encyclopedias.” Looking back at my phone, I read over the details of Deline.
The town isn’t that big. The only places that offer internet service are a library and a lodge. Well it’s better than I had expected. Now that I know we can get sufficient access to some type of literature or database, I was worried about actually getting there.
Reading over an article about the highways running in and out of Deline, it would appear that one was not available this time of year. In fact, there were no highways or roads of any kind in this area. There was an ice road that was open two months a year to bring in supplies to the Deline area. Of course that road was closed right now. The only other way to the small village was by plane. I double check the map. How could that be?
I look over at Danika questioningly. The road we were on wasn’t paved. It was more like a dirt path with a light coating of snow. Over the past few hours, snowflakes had started falling at a slow rate. How was there a road for snow to cover?
Danika, seeing the map on my phone, gives me a devilish little grin. “Just takes a little push and shove.”
I roll my eyes as I put the car in gear. “Oh-kay. Do I just follow the path or can I change it?”
“You can change it. All you have to do is go the direction you want and the path is cleared a half mile in front of the car. It closes up shortly after we go through.”
“That’s crazy. Are Witches the one that help the big fat man go down the chimney too?”
“You know it girl.” There’s the Danika I had first met at the gas station, the one with a little spunk and a light attitude about her. Ever since the first time we met, when I had let my anger get the best of me, she has been guarded and stiff.
Well except for when she’s explaining all the abilities Witches hold. That’s when she’s happy and open. Her adoration and pride at being a Witch is evident when she’s using or talking about her magic.
I shake my head once more and change directions. We needed to go straight south to get to Deline.
Making our way to Deline was not easy. Although our path was cleared of trees and boulders, it wasn’t cleared of the tough terrain. We had to go up the steep mountains and come down their rocky landscape on the other side.
There were times when we felt like we were dropping off the world. It felt like we were on one wild roller coaster. The guys absolutely loved it. At one point I traded spots with Ethan, after an hour of begging and pleading on his part.
Before getting to Deline, the landscape smoothed out, much to Ethan’s disappointment.
Once I thought we were close, a thought struck me. What would the towns people say if we came strolling into town IN A CAR? These people probably didn’t even own cars.
“Um, what are we going to do about the car?” Apparently my question brought as much puzzlement to everyone as it did me. I see Ethan raise his eyebrows. I can’t see Danika’s face but can almost hear the gears grinding in her head. Jared and Coy’s expression mirrors Ethan’s, although Jared never looks up from the infuriating game he has been playing for the past few hours.
He had grown tired of the ups and downs of the mountains. Leaving all the hooting to Coy and Ethan, he dragged out his phone bored from the ride. A few minutes later an annoying shrieking noise intertwines with Ethan and Coy’s own excited banter.
I look over Coy to stare at Jared’s phone. All I can see is a red bird being thrown across the screen to land on a pile of logs or bricks, inside lay little green thingies. “What are you playing?”
Jared jerks, making his finger slip on the screen, tossing the bird backwards instead of forwards. He lets out a sigh as the green thingy pops up on the screen making an irritating pig noise, proclaiming he failed that level. “Angry Birds.”
“Angry Birds? What’s the object of the game?” I ask him.
He explains the concept of the birds being thrown, sling shot style, through the air to try and kill green pigs. Not understanding what his fascination with the game can be, I just tell him to turn the volume off as I go back to holding on for dear life, while Coy continues to yell with enjoyment beside me.
“Danika can you do anything with the car? Maybe turn it into a dog sled or something?” Ethan, ever helpful, asks Danika to pull off the impossible. At least I think it’s impossible.
“Afraid not,” she answers. “The car isn’t made from a natural element, so it would be near impossible for me to do anything with it.”
Uniquely Unwelcome (The Shadow World) Page 25