“There’s something really weird going on here,” said Sheila. While we gave her our full attention, she explained the basics of what Kayleigh said. Then she continued, “The part I really don’t understand is Kayleigh says there’s some medical aspect to it all. There’s a doctor and he subjected Kayleigh to some sort of procedure with her bone marrow.”
“Bone marrow?” I repeated. I looked at Eliza, but her face appeared blank.
“Yes, they’ve been putting her under and pulling bone marrow from her hip bones, her breast bone, and her shoulder blades. About ten times a day—that’s why she has the IV and that’s why she has the bandages.”
“What the hell? Why would anyone want her bone marrow?”
No one had an answer for me.
“Let’s think about this,” Eliza spoke, the gears of her mind almost visibly turning. “What do any of us know about bone marrow?”
Ian and Dave both shrugged. Sheila shook her head in bewilderment.
“No, seriously. Even the most basic information. What do we know about bone marrow?” Eliza prompted.
“You use it to treat things like leukemia, right?” I hazarded. “Because it has lots of stem cells or something?”
“You have to match to be a donor. Like with blood types, but I think it’s more complicated,” contributed Ian.
“Okay.” Eliza turned to Ian. “You and Dave go to the business center here in the Bellagio and research bone marrow on the internet. That’s your way of being helpful.”
“Okay.” Ian stood up and stretched, then extended a hand to pull Dave to his feet. “We can do that. I’m not sure what we’re looking for, though.”
“Sheila, you get some more rest. You look exhausted, and we may need your talents later,” Eliza said, continuing to direct. “I’ll stay here with the non-Weres and we’ll wait for word from Tim.” She omitted the obvious: Carson and I might need her protection.
Chapter Eighteen
Dave and Ian left quickly, apparently grateful to have a productive task. Sheila crashed in the other suite, and Carson fell asleep on a mat of blankets I’d set up next to one of the beds. I returned to the living room and found Eliza watching a re-run of a cooking show.
Noting my surprise, she quirked a shoulder. “There’s nothing on. This seemed mindless and non-violent, anyway. Feel free to change the channel.”
“This is fine,” I said, settling next to her on the couch.
We spent the next half an hour watching chefs struggle with strange ingredients. Or, at least, we divided our time equally between watching the TV, glancing at the clock, and staring at the phone as if willing it to ring with news of Kayleigh’s whereabouts. As the crowning dishes graced the judge’s table, Eliza straightened and strode toward the door.
The knock came just as she reached for the handle, and Dave nearly fell forward into the room. He held a sheaf of pages in his hand and started talking almost immediately.
“Well, I’m not sure how much good any of this—” He broke off in mid-sentence and looked around. “Where’s Ian?”
“What do you mean? He was with you,” Eliza said.
“But…” Dave’s head swung from Eliza to me and back again. “He left about ten minutes ago to come back here.”
After a split second, Eliza whirled and pointed at me. “Wake Sheila up. Lock the door after me and don’t let anyone in. No one besides me.” She grabbed Dave by the arm and pulled him out the door with a curt command.
I stood and watched as the door closed behind them before dutifully locking it with the double-bolt and swinging across the metal arm. I performed all these actions without thought—without allowing myself to think. Then, I went into Sheila’s room.
“Sheila?” I spoke softly but she nonetheless woke up with a start.
“What’s going on? Did Tim find Kayleigh?”
“No. Dave came back without Ian. Something’s wrong.” Panic started to mount as I uttered the words.
Sheila was fully alert by this point, eyes wide, and she swung her feet over the side of the bed.
“Where’s Ian?” she said.
I shook my head. “Dave thought he came back here, but he didn’t. Eliza went with him to look.”
“Maybe he went to play slots?” Sheila offered, but we both knew he hadn’t.
“Shit. That damn kid. Erin’s going to—” I cleared my throat. “Sheila, can we go sit next to Carson?”
She nodded and grabbed my hand, squeezing it tightly.
We had no sooner started across the room than a quiet knock sounded on the front door of the suite. Heart racing, I peered through the peephole, saw Eliza, turned the locks, and opened the door. She stormed into the room, Dave pulled along in her wake. I shivered, rubbing my forearms, and took an involuntary step back at the look in her eyes.
“Ian’s been taken,” she said flatly and crossed to pick up her cell phone.
“No,” I cried. “What happened?”
“It’s my fault,” Dave said, sliding down the wall to sit heaped on the floor. “It’s all my fault. Dammit! It’s my fault.”
“What’s your fault?” I knelt beside him. “What happened?”
“He was coming back here to update you, and they grabbed him. Shit, they grabbed him and they took him and this was not supposed to happen. It’s my fault.”
“Dave.” I gave him a little shake to stop him. “It’s not your fault. We thought we were safe in the hotel, that Ian would be safe. Goddammit, maybe it’s my fault. Maybe someone was following us, earlier.”
Dave didn’t listen to me, but buried his face in his hands, muttering under his breath.
“Okay. No more talk about fault. We need to focus on getting Ian back.” Eliza’s voice cut through Dave’s rambling. “Tim’s on his way back. Dave, you stay here, right here in this room, and protect Julie, Sheila, and Carson.” Eliza crossed the room, fixing her eyes on Dave, pulling him to his feet with the fierce power of her will. I had to avert my gaze from the expression on his face.
“Dave, under no circumstances are you or any of the others to leave this room. If someone besides me or Tim tries to get in, you call the police.” Eliza’s voice acted as an anodyne, and I found myself straightening my shoulders.
“The police?” I repeated, startled.
“The police. Call 911. This is not a time to worry about pack law—this is a time to survive. If it comes to that, we’ll deal with the aftermath later. Tim called in an emergency council team, too.” Eliza held our gazes until Dave, Sheila, and I all nodded.
“This time it’s different,” she continued grimly. “This time, we’ve got a scent trail and we’re going to follow it. We’re going to get Ian back.”
I nodded, not trusting my voice.
“Okay,” she said, then opened the door and left.
Released from the spell cast by Eliza’s intensity, Dave fell back against the wall, eyes closed. His voice was hoarse as he repeated, “It’s my fault. This was not supposed to happen.”
“Dave.” I nearly shouted at him. “Of course, it’s not your fault. Of course, it wasn’t supposed to happen. You heard Eliza; we’re going to get him back.”
He looked at me, seemingly without comprehension, and then my words sank in.
“Yes,” he said. “Yes. We’ll get him back. Of course, we’ll get him back. I’ll get him back.” He set his jaw and stared at me.
“Okay. Okay, now,” I said in a soothing voice, as if to a wild animal. I backed away a step, disconcerted by the fervor in his voice.
Sheila moved to stand beside me and held out a hand to Dave. “Come on, Dave, let’s sit down for a minute. Eliza and Tim know what they’re doing.” She shot a quick glance at me and suggested, “Jules, why don’t you go check on Carson?”
I escaped the room gratefully, feeling the tension defuse as Dave sank into the couch.
Carson was fine, still sleeping, and I tried to calm my own breathing by watching him for a few minutes. I leaned over to soak up his
baby scent, to give him a kiss, and to make sure his little pin was still affixed securely to his pants. Taking one more deep breath, I rubbed my hands on my jeans to wipe off the sweat and walked toward the living room.
Dave spoke into his cell phone.
“No,” he said. “No, this was not the way—I’m telling you—No, I was going to—Yes. Yes, tonight. I can, if you—Okay then.” He put down his phone and caught sight of me.
“Eavesdrop much, human?” He nearly snarled.
“Calm down, Dave.” I held up my hands and met his eyes as calmly as possible, though much of me wanted to turn and flee.
“We’re going to find him.” I repeated several times, and Dave gave a huge sigh. He rolled his shoulders and some of the tension left my own body in return.
“He’s my best friend,” Dave said, with tone of compounded misery and stress.
“I know.”
“I’d do anything for him,” he continued, half to himself.
“I know.”
“I’m going to get him back.”
“Yes, we’re going to get him back.” I nodded in agreement.
After a moment, I asked, “Who were you talking to? Did you call someone in the pack?”
Dave’s head came up and his eyes narrowed. “Am I not allowed to talk to my own pack, human?”
I resisted the urge to step back and instead said, lightly, “Of course you are, Dave. I just wondered.” Yeah, I wondered what Eliza would have to say about it. But I was not about to provoke our angst-ridden, anger-laden teen Were.
Changing gear, I said, “Where’s Sheila?”
“She’s scrying for Ian.” Dave jerked his head to indicate the other room.
“Oh, good idea.” I walked to the door and poked my head through quietly. Seeing Sheila utterly absorbed, I withdrew to sit on the couch. Dave paced back and forth.
Several minutes later, Sheila came back into the room.
“I saw him,” she said without preface. “He’s in the back of a car. He’s okay, not hurt. They’re moving right now; I don’t know the area well enough to know where they are.”
“Can’t you keep watching and find out where they end up?” I asked.
“It’s not like that. I can’t just keep watching like it’s a television—every moment I’m scrying drains my energy.”
“Dammit! It’s never this hard in a mystery novel. Aren’t the bad guys supposed to be really stupid? To leave all sorts of clues? To sit there and reveal all their plans while you’re scrying?” I knew I wasn’t being rational, so I ended my angry tirade with a shake of my head.
“Right. And Witches should be all powerful and Werewolves should never be taken by surprise. Yep, if you and I ruled the world, Jules, that’s how it would be.” Sheila sighed and stretched, working out knots in her neck. “Plus, the mini-bar would be free. I know it isn’t, but I think I need some chocolate anyway, what do you say?”
Sheila and I split a fancy chocolate bar and watched Dave pace until I worried about the durability of the Bellagio carpet.
It seemed like hours, but realistically only twenty minutes or so passed before another knock on the door broke the silence. I started as if it were a gunshot, and Sheila pressed my arm with a sympathetic hand.
Dave reached the door before I’d even stood up. He yanked it open, not bothering with the peephole, and said, “Tim!”
Tim strode in, took us all in with a searching glance, and said, “Eliza’s got Ian, they’re coming right up.”
“But how is that possible?” Sheila asked. “He was in a car, I saw him.”
Tim looked at Sheila and flashed an incongruous smile, before continuing. “Apparently, they dropped him off, a ways down the Strip. He made his way back here as soon as the sedative wore off, and Eliza found him coming up the front walk.”
I shook my head, bewildered. “That makes no sense. Why would they drop him off?”
Tim held out his hands and shrugged. “Sheila, tell me what you saw.”
He dropped down next to her on the couch, and they conferred in low voices. I joined Dave near the door, fidgeting. Before there was a knock, Dave moved to open the door. We both stepped back so Eliza and Ian could enter. Ian still looked a bit confused, and Eliza had one arm around his shoulders.
“Ian.” I gave him a big hug, then stepped back to examine him better. “I’m so glad you’re okay. What happened?”
“You scared us, bro.” Dave downplayed his relief.
“Yeah, scared myself, too,” Ian said. He shucked off Eliza’s guiding arm and crossed the room to drop into a chair.
“Tell us what happened,” Eliza instructed.
Turns out, Ian left the business center to bring us some of the preliminary information on bone marrow. He explained to us non-Weres that sometimes in a big crowd, he tuned out his senses so as not to be overwhelmed. In this instance, by the time he scented a fellow Were, it was too late: someone had followed him around a corner and jumped him, holding gauze to his mouth and nose. He tried to fight back, to no avail, as the Were slammed his head against a marble pillar. Ian surmised the group ushered him out by pretending he was a drunken comrade. He regained consciousness in the backseat of a car, on the floor, and someone quickly gave him a shot that knocked him out again.
He wasn’t sure how long he was unconscious, either time, but by the time he came out of it the second time, he found himself lying on the sidewalk with tourists gingerly skirting the area. He promptly threw up, confirming everyone’s assumption he was drunk, and woozily made his way back down the Strip toward the Bellagio.
He had no idea what prompted them to release him. Neither had he gotten much of a definitive look at any of our enemies. He reported the Were was blond, bearded, and not strong—maybe a crescent moon.
After hearing his story, we sat in silence for a moment. My mind whirled with unanswered questions.
“Well,” Tim said, finally, “I’m going back out and search for our famous Fish Fry, because we can’t count on our enemies suddenly releasing Kayleigh, too.”
“You,” he gestured to the rest of us, “need to check into yet another hotel.”
****
I don’t think I was the only one sorry to leave the Bellagio—and not only because Carson had been sleeping so nicely. He did, in fact, wake up while we checked out, but at least he didn’t throw one of his screaming fits. Eliza and Tim drove us around in circles for about ten minutes, before we checked into a second-rate hotel near the Strip, with three adjoining rooms to accommodate the addition of the teens to our team. They had a room in some seedy hotel, but Eliza forbid them to return to pick up their belongings. She got them each a toothbrush from the front desk and told them to consider themselves lucky. Surely, Ian, at least, did. After we’d checked in safely, Tim left to scope out red neon signs.
“I still don’t understand why they let Ian go,” I mused, dancing in place with Carson in his sling, trying to get him to fall asleep again.
“I know. Both of the pups need to calm down. I can hardly get a read on them, they’re so agitated,” said Eliza, as her cell phone rang. She crossed the room to get it and answered it quickly.
“Tim? Did you find her?” Upon hearing his answer, her mouth set into a grimly satisfied line. “Okay.” She scribbled on a piece of hotel stationery, underlined it twice with a heavy hand. “Give us twenty minutes.”
I felt adrenaline pour through my veins. Fight or flight was right. I wasn’t one hundred percent which I wanted to do, but I knew we only had one option to save Kayleigh’s life.
Eliza hung up the phone and faced the rest of us. In that moment, she was the picture of animal grace, composed and eager.
“He found her. Or, at least, he found the Fish Fry and it looks like the right place. He’s not going to get much closer until we’re all there as backup.”
“Okay.” Sheila stood and pulled her hair back into a ponytail, securing it with an elastic band from her pocket. “Let’s go.” Her voice was fi
rm.
“Julie?”
I nodded at Eliza’s prompt, not quite trusting my voice not to sound nervous. I hesitated for a moment, then looked at Ian. “Ian, will you watch Carson while we…go? I don’t want to bring him with us. I know you’ll take good care of him.”
I did think Ian would take good care of his nephew. He was a strong Were, plus I remembered that day at breakfast when the two of them happily played at the kitchen table. He might be too cool to act enthusiastic about a baby, but I trusted deep down, he had those care-taking instincts. While I swallowed hard at the thought, I knew if something happened—something dire happened—he’d take Carson back to his parents. Carson would be okay.
Panic welled up in me at the train of thought. The thought of my baby being without me—the thought of something happening…
“Jules,” Sheila said quietly, “Maybe you should stay here with Carson? We’ll be fine without you. Depending on what kind of guard is on the house, we might not be able to do anything right now anyway—we may have to wait for more council backup.”
“I’m going,” I said. “Ian?”
Ian shrugged. “Yeah, of course. I’ll watch Carson. If you’re sure we can’t go?” He’d dropped the defiant attitude and instead asked the question sincerely, his eyes trained on Eliza.
“I’m sure.”
I sat down to feed Carson quickly. He was sleepy enough I risked putting him down on the bed. Miracles upon miracles, he turned his little head to the side, closed his eyes firmly, and was fully asleep in about two seconds. It couldn’t have occurred at a better time, that was for sure. I showed Ian and Dave how to use the baby monitor, made sure Carson’s little ducky pin was still fastened on his pajamas where I’d put it earlier, and knelt to give him a kiss. I breathed in deeply, relishing the scent of my baby, and stood. I hoped no one noticed my clenched hands, nails digging into the palms.
Everything would be okay. I wasn’t going to let everyone down now.
****
When I went back into the other room, Eliza and Sheila were ready. They had changed into dark clothes, and Sheila handed Eliza a gun.
Dark Moon Wolf Page 18