“A human woman was just kidnapped,” Caine gritted out before he stepped into the darkness and began looking for tire tracks, clues, anything that would help him find her kidnappers.
“Emma? Who took her?” Laird’s brow creased with a frown as he brushed past Landon and Kaitlyn.
“A man with a graying beard and spiky hair.” Caine kicked at the offending snow that had begun to cover the tire tracks. In a matter of minutes, he’d lose the scent altogether. Ignoring the cold flakes landing in his hair, he glanced up at Laird, his stomach knotting with guilt. “I saw him drag her toward this exit. I couldn’t get to her in time.”
“Everyone spread out and scent the entire area,” Landon commanded in a hard tone. He walked up to Caine and put a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll find her.”
Caine’s jaw tensed and he gave Landon a curt nod before he turned back to the task of cataloging the scents around him. Emma was scared tonight. He’s seen the fear in her eyes and heard the frustration in her voice. Whom had she come to the club to meet?
After several minutes, Laird and Roman approached Caine. “We only detect one fresh, distinct scent,” Laird said as he inhaled the frigid air. “There’s a human male’s scent and Emma’s earthy one.”
Landon snorted and Kaitlyn put her hand on her mate’s arm. “What is it?”
“The scents are all muddled.” He rubbed his neck and shook his head. “I can’t put my finger on it. Something smells ‘off.’” He looked at Caine. “You got them all?”
Why did Emma’s scent smell so distinct and different from the human male’s to him? Caine wondered, even as he nodded to Landon. “I would recognize the man’s scent again if I smelled him.” Whereas I could pick Emma out of a crowd of five hundred people in two seconds flat. The fire alarm had stopped a few minutes before and he saw red lights flashing around the corner of the building. The fire trucks had finally arrived. Caine turned away to head back inside the club. The moment he walked over the threshold, he saw one of the bartenders lifting Emma’s jacket from the chair where she’d left it.
“I’ll take that,” Caine called out, approaching the man.
The guy eyed the coat, then frowned. “It looks a bit small for you.”
Caine’s gut tightened. Emma’s coat might help him find her. “It’s my girlfriend’s. She sent me back inside to get it once the alarm stopped.”
The dark-headed bartender nodded and handed him the jacket. “That’s one less thing to go into lost and found.”
Caine gripped the coat tight at the same time Laird and the others walked back inside. “That hers?” Laird asked while Caine felt inside the pocket and pulled out a plastic box with the days of the week marked on the outside and loads of pills in the separate compartments.
He nodded and frowned at the meds, then shoved the box back into her pocket and felt around once more. When his fingers brushed against a set of keys, he pulled them out and held them in front of him. “These might help me find out where she lives.”
Ten minutes later, Laird stood watch while Caine shoved Emma’s car key in her car’s passenger-side door. The crowd had dispersed and the fire trucks had driven off, leaving the street strangely quiet, while the heavy snow continued to coat their hair and clothes.
“How is this going to help you find her house again?” Laird asked over his shoulder.
“Registration,” Caine said. Pulling the glove box open, he rifled through the paperwork inside, then held the paper aloft. “Bingo.”
A light came on above them, and a guy walked of out the apartment above the café, carrying a trash bag. “Hey!” he yelled down into the parking lot. It was the guy from the café, the owner. “That’s not your car.”
Caine and Laird took off the moment he went back inside, threatening to call the police.
“Damn, Caine, your woman lives in the boonies, doesn’t she?” Roman commented from the backseat after Laird pulled down the long gravel driveway, then cut the engine in front of a small house ensconced deep in the forest near the Greenwood Lake area.
“Apparently she likes her privacy,” Caine mused while Landon and Kaitlyn drove up behind them in Landon’s truck.
Kaitlyn hopped out and was walking toward the house before Landon had shut off the engine. She’d removed her blond wig, and had pulled her red hair up in a clip. Caine tensed when she quickly withdrew her gun from the holder at her waist and motioned for Landon, her expression suddenly concerned.
Caine and Landon reached her side at the same time. “Do you see it?” Kaitlyn whispered, pointing toward the dark house.
Landon’s body stiffened. “Velius,” he said in a clipped tone. Stepping in front of Kaitlyn, he approached the house with a guarded stance. When he was within twenty feet, he called over his shoulder, “The house is empty. I don’t sense any heartbeats.”
Why were the panthers at Emma’s house? Caine’s chest constricted as he entered the house behind Kaitlyn and Landon, Roman and Laird following in his wake.
The moment they stepped inside, Kaitlyn gave a low whistle. “There are handprints everywhere, like they searched every nook and cranny.”
Landon snorted. “They were a lot neater here than at my office.” He gestured to Caine, Laird and Roman. “See what scents you can pick up, if any. Right now I only smell one human. A woman.”
Roman sniffed the air and walked into the living room, then stepped briefly down the hall before coming back. “I smell one human, as well, and residual earthy scents.” He tilted his head to the side. “The human’s scent is laced with several man-made chemicals.”
Kaitlyn came out of the kitchen holding a few medicine bottles. “You’re smelling her meds.” She glanced at the name on the labels. “According to these, her name is Mary Gray and she has a heart condition among other things.”
That explained the jam-packed pillbox in Emma’s pocket. Must be her aunt’s, Caine thought. He walked down the hall to peer into the two bedrooms. One room appeared to be someone else’s and the second definitely had to be Emma’s with an old desktop computer and a stack of schoolbooks. He definitely picked up two scents. Why didn’t they smell Emma’s like he did? “This doesn’t make any sense.” His chest tensed as he stood in the doorway to Emma’s room.
“Whoa!” Kaitlyn brushed past him and walked into Emma’s room. “This room explodes with handprints.” She moved to the bathroom and Caine heard her opening cabinets and pulling back the shower curtain. Something wary settled in his stomach when Kaitlyn came back out and she looked at her mate standing behind Caine.
“She’s a panther.”
“You’re wrong!” Caine snarled even as his inner wolf acknowledged the fact Emma had smelled distinctly unique from any human he’d come across.
“That’s what I smelled in the alley. That faint scent I couldn’t place,” Landon said in a low tone. “It has been a long time since I’ve smelled a Velius and her scent was so faint I thought I’d imagined it.”
Caine felt as if someone had slammed a hot poker deep inside his chest. He suppressed the sense of betrayal that threatened within him. A panther? “There’s some explanation,” he said in a curt tone.
“It’s all right here,” Landon said as he moved to stand beside his mate in the bedroom.
Caine wanted to explore Emma’s room, to see what kind of books she liked to read, what she was studying, to check out her taste in music. He didn’t want to have to look at her room like this…as if she were a criminal to be analyzed. Kaitlyn approached him and put her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry, Caine, but I just checked out her most private toiletries to be sure before I said anything. They were covered in her sparkling handprints.” She gestured toward the room. “Her keyboard, her books, her pillow and sheets, her hairbrush, her toothbrush. Everything carries these sparkles. No other room in the house has this much residue.”
“But we smelled her earthy scent,” Laird started to say, when Caine cut him off by speaking in his head. Don’t say anything.
Caine knew what that question meant. Landon would want them to hunt her. “Neither of us thought to. She was human.”
“Who happened to smell of the earth?” Landon challenged.
Why aren’t you telling him? Laird spoke to Caine in his mind.
Caine’s mental reply was terse, not meant to be argued with. Something’s not right. I need to do some digging. “We were unaware of the Velius’ existence until recently when you killed that one to protect Kaitlyn’s mom.” He paused and glanced at Laird and Roman before he returned his attention to Landon. “Since the Velius were created and set free before our time, we didn’t know that’s what they smelled like.”
“Now you do,” Landon said. “Though I’m partially to blame for not cluing all of you in on their scent markers. It hadn’t occurred to me to do so, because all the panthers we’ve run across have masked their scent. Hers was so faint and slightly different than I remembered that I almost missed it.”
Emma’s not part of this, Caine wanted to yell, even though he couldn’t deny her smell or the electric shock that happened between them whenever they touched. It was something he definitely couldn’t explain. He’d never experienced that before with anyone, human or Lupreda. “Fill us in on what we need to know about these panthers.”
Landon rolled his head from shoulder to shoulder before he spoke. “They can’t shift without a specialized injection straight into their system, and they can only stay in their panther form until the injection wears off. Usually after a couple of hours. They’re powerful beasts and would be more-than-worthy adversaries, but the Lupreda who created them to hunt for prey wanted to ensure equal footing. The Velius’ black coats radiate iridescence and their eyes give off a glow in the absence of light, taking away the panthers’ best hunting advantage in the dark—the element of surprise.”
While they were in the club earlier, Emma’s hair had sparkled and her eyes had flashed in the dim light, attracting him like a jacked-up wolf on his first full-mooned run of the month. Caine’s heart sank. There was no denying that she was Velius. Why wasn’t she masking her scent? He had scented Emma, but he wanted to find her first, to give her a chance to explain what she was and why she was pretending to be human.
“Is there anything else we should know?” Caine’s tone held a sharp edge. Frustration warred within him. He wanted to believe she was special. He wanted answers, damn it!
“They don’t heal as quickly as we do.” Landon’s features turned to stone and his body tensed. “Maybe this whole thing is some kind of setup. A cat-and-mouse game the Velius are playing with the Lupreda. Panthers are known for their ambush hunting style.”
Caine didn’t like Landon assuming Emma had played them. She was truly upset at the café and the club. He tensed and started to challenge Landon when Kaitlyn brushed past them both. “Let’s check out the rest of the house. Maybe we’ll find more answers.”
Caine moved to follow Landon and Roman down the hall when Laird spoke to him mentally once more. You know I trust you, but holding back could put our pack in jeopardy.
Pausing, Caine narrowed his gaze on Laird. Spoken like Landon’s true Second, he said before he turned away.
Laird’s hand landed hard on his shoulder, stopping him. I’ll heed your judgment on this one. You have twenty-four hours to find her on your own.
Caine didn’t speak nor did he look Laird’s way. The respect his pack mate paid him was enough. He grunted his appreciation and Laird’s hand fell away.
When Caine and Laird walked into the other bedroom, Kaitlyn held up several clear packets full of hundreds of white pills. A couple empty brown medicine bottles and a stack of pretyped labels were in her other hand. It appeared she’d pulled them from a box she’d set on the bed.
She glanced at the writing on the labels. “It says these are prescription vitamins for Emma Gray, but I’ll bet you money this is how the panthers are masking their scent.” Setting the packets on the bed, she took a pill out of one of the sleeves and handed it to Landon. “Want to pulverize this so I can see if my theory is true?”
Landon crushed the pill between his fingers, then murmured, “Son of a bitch,” as he spread it across his open palm.
Kaitlyn nodded. “That’s what I thought. The meds might be suppressing their scent, but they’re also causing them to leave behind the sparkling handprint residue. At least we have one answer.” She met Caine’s gaze. “There was only one area of this room that had the iridescent handprints.” She paused and pointed to the bottom nightstand drawer. “The person had this box with the medicine hidden under stacks of magazines and newspapers. I think the human woman must’ve been giving them to Emma.” She frowned for a second. “Humans are helping the panthers?”
“Members of the mafia were working with them in the pulser gun-running case a few months ago,” Landon reminded her with a shrug.
She shook her head. “This feels different to me. This is a home. There aren’t any stolen pulser guns here, nothing malicious or illegal that I can see.”
Landon scowled. “The damned pills give them too much stealthy power.”
Caine shook his head. He needed answers and Emma was the only one who could give them to him.
Roman walked into the room holding a piece of paper. “This was on the floor behind the front door.”
Caine read the note and ground his teeth. Crushing the paper into a tight ball, he tossed it to Landon. “She told me her aunt had been taken. We need to find her. Not only did they kidnap her aunt, but they’ve taken her, as well.”
Landon read the note, then narrowed his gaze on Caine. “This could be an elaborate trap. The Velius’ actions so far have been conniving and deadly. We need to proceed with caution.”
“She’s guilty until proven innocent. Is that it?” Caine’s jaw felt like metal that had been heated then cooled too quickly. He was ready to snap.
“Have you forgotten the three zerkers they tortured and killed? I will not lose any more wolves, Caine.” Alpha fury vibrated off Landon as he clenched his hand into a fist.
“I’m not volunteering anyone but me,” Caine shot back, his neck hairs bristling.
“Nothing is open at this hour,” Kaitlyn cut in with a calm tone. “Why don’t we start with the pharmacy listed on these labels first thing in the morning.” She turned to Caine with a meaningful look. “Maybe we can find out who’s supplying the panthers this medicine and backtrack to other connections from there.”
Caine gave her a curt nod, then left the room.
When Laird pulled up outside Caine’s apartment over an hour later, he spoke in a low tone after Caine slid out of the car. “Twenty-four hours is all I can promise.”
“Understood.” Caine grabbed Emma’s coat and shut the door behind him. Worry for her cramped his stomach as he climbed the stairs to his apartment three at a time. After he’d let himself in the door, he settled on the sofa and inhaled her coat’s collar. Fresh soap and shampoo scents coated the material, but her earthy, forestlike smell still lingered faintly. It wasn’t enough to scent her, though. He was relieved he’d already set her unique markers to memory earlier.
Unfortunately the snow still falling steadily outside confused his senses, making it impossible to try and find her right now. Not to mention New York was wall-to-wall people and buildings. He could search for a couple weeks before he found her…and that was if her captors kept her in one place. But he would find her. He just hoped like hell he wasn’t too late to help her. If he was, no one involved would be breathing when he left the place. He clenched his fists tightly around Emma’s coat.
Caine heard a cracking sound and his fingers eased up on the thick material. Sliding his hand into the inside coat pocket, he pulled out a pair of gloves and what used to be a pill bottle before he’d crushed it. As he tossed the gloves to the couch, a couple of the bottle’s hard plastic pieces fell away from the label. Caine frowned when he saw b
lack writing on the backside of the paper. Thumbing back the label, he memorized the phone number and stood, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket.
Punching in a number and an extension he’d seen Landon use before for the police precinct, he waited until a woman answered, then said, “Hi, Sandra. This is Caine Grennard. I’m working with Landon Rourke and Kaitlyn McKinney on a case and I’m wondering if you could do me a favor. I need to have a phone number traced. Can you do that for me?”
“I’m not supposed to but…because Landon helped out my little brother, I help him whenever I can. What’s the number?”
Caine rattled off the number and waited for her to punch it in. “Hmm, there seems to be a block on it, but I might be able to get past it if you can get them to answer it and stay on, even for a few seconds.”
“I love today’s technology,” Caine said with a feral smile. “Wait a few seconds for me to call from my cell and then lock on to the number.”
“She’s coming around. I sense her consciousness. Go ahead and take her blood quickly,” a woman said.
The smell of rubbing alcohol preceded a small, sharp pain at the crook of her arm. Emma winced. Her body felt as if someone had laid a heavy lead cape across it. She was so tired. She tried to open her eyes, but they only rolled in her head. She caught a glimpse of a spotlight above her before her eyelids closed against the stark brightness.
There was something she was supposed to remember. What was it? She struggled to organize her fuzzy thoughts. Something important. Someone could get hurt. Her aunt! Emma moaned and flailed her arms, knocking the spotlight out of her eyes. “The pills,” she groaned.
“I know you haven’t taken your pills,” the same woman replied.
“No,” Emma croaked. “My aunt’s pills. In my jacket. Take them to her!”
“She must be talking about Margaret,” a man said. He moved closer. “Is Margaret sick?”
Scions: Revelation Page 6