by Liza Street
Not thinking about anything, just needing comfort, Laura went straight to Dristan. He gave her a surprised look, his blue eyes widening, before opening his arms and enveloping her in a hug.
“We’ll find him,” he murmured.
Laura nodded against his shirt. She needed him right now, and she didn’t care that people were giving them strange looks, that her mom looked livid and her dad confused. She didn’t care that Marlana was glaring. She eased out of the hug and took Dristan’s hand. “Pair up with me?”
“Sure.”
If Dristan was bothered by the reactions of their pride, he didn’t show it.
When he and Laura reached Marlana, Laura spoke up. “I’d like to try something different for our search, if that would be okay?”
Marlana looked at her dubiously.
“I think Juan might have gone to see one of his human friends,” Laura explained.
“You can find this human?” Marlana asked.
“Yes.” Laura hoped with all her heart that Juan had gone to see his crush. It was the best explanation for why he’d leave a pride lockdown.
“Then do it,” Marlana said.
Once the last pair had been given their instructions, Marlana addressed the pride. “Keep your cell phones on. Do not leave your partner for anything. Check in via text every hour. Call my cell if you have information to share. Be back before dusk. Now go.”
Laura tugged on Dristan’s hand, eager to get started.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
Laura froze. She didn’t know anything about Juan’s human crush. A name. He’d told her the name.
“Bella’s coming,” Dristan breathed in her ear.
Laura’s mom. Laura didn’t need this right now—or ever. With her brown hair up in a bun and a travel coffee mug in one hand, Bella Vidal approached and touched Laura’s shoulder. “A moment, please, Laura.”
Dristan stepped away, appearing to almost melt into the background. How did he do that? Maybe he could teach Laura so she could escape from shitty situations like this one.
Frowning, Laura followed her mom outside to stand on the wide porch. “What is it?”
Laura’s mom closed her eyes momentarily, as if gathering her thoughts. When she opened them, she gestured to Laura. “I couldn’t help but notice…”
“Notice my outfit?” Laura asked.
“No,” her mom snapped. “I couldn’t help but notice how…close you were with the Rhees boy.”
Laura remembered what Dristan had said that night, in the parking lot in front of Hart’s. He’d been shocked at the idea that Laura’s parents or the alpha had a place in his or Laura’s bedrooms. Laura hadn’t thought it was true at the time, but now she was starting to see what he’d meant. Expectations were one thing, but butting into Laura’s business like this—no. She wasn’t going to stand for it, especially not when there were much bigger issues to contend with.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Laura asked.
Her mom flinched. “No.”
“You’re worried about ‘the Rhees boy,’ who happens to be a twenty-nine-year-old man, when Juan is missing and there are vampires in our territory?”
“You have no idea what I’m worried about,” her mom said.
Laura took a deep breath. There were so many things wrong with this situation, she didn’t know where to begin. In the end, it looked like the same story as it had been when Marlana told Laura she had to choose between becoming an Exchange and becoming a Guardian—Bella Vidal did not have Laura’s back.
“Forget this,” Laura said. “Dristan’s a great guy, I have to search for Juan, and maybe you should get your priorities straight and do the same.”
Her mom held a hand up, and Laura wondered, idly, if she’d slap her. It had never happened before, but then again, Laura had never talked back like this before.
“I can’t wait until you have a daughter,” her mom said, lowering her hand, “and then you’ll know what it’s like to worry about the poor choices of your children.”
With that, her mom strode away and joined Laura’s dad inside their Explorer. The engine roared to a start, and they drove off.
With her heart pounding too fast, Laura went back inside to find Dristan.
He was waiting for her on the low step that led into the kitchen. “Everything all right?” he asked.
“You know it’s not,” she muttered, “but thanks for asking.”
Twelve
Dristan knew he wasn’t imagining this new distance between him and Laura. She seemed lost in thought as she stared out the window.
“Talk to me,” he said.
“I can’t. There’s too much going on. We need to find Juan.” Her voice sounded thick with emotion.
He wouldn’t push her, not with her brother missing, but a part of him couldn’t help but wonder if his fears would come true—that she’d go back to how things had been now that she’d “scratched her itch” with him.
She reached over and took his hand, and he felt immediately better. There really was too much going on—she wasn’t going to drop him again.
“You said you wanted to check with his human friend?” Dristan asked.
“Yes. I don’t know her last name, though.”
“Ohhh,” he said, drawing out the sound. The friend was a “her.” That was why Laura hadn’t said who the friend was to Marlana. Juan had a human girlfriend. Always risky, and Marlana—actually, most of the pride—would not have been happy.
“Don’t pretend to know what you’re talking about,” Laura said. “Have you ever dated—really dated—a human? As in gotten close, been emotionally vulnerable?”
“No. Have you?”
“There was never any need,” she said. “Everyone pushed me at Mateo.”
Dristan had never really appreciated how hard that must have been for Laura, and probably Mateo, too. Their entire relationship, if one could even call it a relationship, they’d been constantly breaking up. The break-ups were never explosive or dramatic, and there’d been so many of them that they stopped being a surprise.
What a strange, fucked-up situation.
“Well, let’s head into town and find out who this friend is,” Dristan said.
“Yeah.”
He drove because the roads could be icy and he didn’t trust her Acura. Laura punched the power button on the radio, and classic rock started blaring. When Laura didn’t turn it down, Dristan shook his head. Seemed like she didn’t want to talk. Not about last night, not about Juan, not about whatever her mother had said to her outside.
Dark clouds had gathered overhead, so Dristan turned on his headlights. While he was at it, he switched off the radio; he wasn’t in the mood for screaming guitars. Not when Laura was so quiet. Not when fucking bloodsuckers were threatening their territory and their pride.
The town of Belnedge was quiet, none of the shops on Main Street were open yet. Dristan’s deli, on one of the side streets, wouldn’t open until lunch. They passed a police cruiser, and Dristan wondered whether the local law enforcement would ever become aware of the vampires in their midst.
Supernatural secrets were being threatened because of these bloodsuckers.
Their pride was threatened, too. He grimaced. They had to find Juan. Looking over at Laura, he asked, “How do we find the girlfriend?”
She stared out the window. “Madison in math class, that’s all I know.”
“Is there school today?”
“It’s only six; it won’t have started yet.”
“Well, do you have a plan? Come on, Laura—I get that you’re shutting me out because of last night and everyone’s fucking ‘expectations,’ but I’m trying to help you find your brother. At least share the details related to finding him.”
“You think—you think I’m holding back because of you?” she said, raising her voice. Finally looking directly at him.
Well, no, now that she said it like that. “Not exactly. I just—”
“
Look, I don’t know what to do. All I know is Madison from math class. That’s all he told me. We don’t have his cell phone, so we can’t call her.”
“What about his laptop?” Dristan asked.
“That’s…a very good idea. Thank you. Let’s go to my parents’ house.”
Twenty minutes of a quiet car ride later, they arrived at the Vidal house. Like Marlana’s estate, it was on the outskirts of town on a large piece of land, with plenty of room and privacy for the family to shift and explore the woods surrounding it. Dristan hadn’t spent much time here—in fact, he’d never been inside the house.
Laura unlocked the door and waved him in after her without ceremony. “Juan’s room is this way.”
Dristan followed her down a hall. He was tempted to look at some of the canvas-printed family photographs parading down the long hallway, but maybe he could look at Laura’s childhood photos later.
“Okay,” Laura said, opening a door.
The room smelled like Juan—teenage boy and Juan’s unique scent. To Dristan, Juan had a little of that burnt scent of electronics, but it could’ve been because Dristan never saw him without some kind of phone or gaming device in his hand.
Laura hurried over to the desk. “Here’s his laptop.”
Juan’s room wasn’t overly tidy or messy. Dristan walked in after Laura, thinking the room looked a lot like Dristan’s looked when he had been a teenager. Sports posters, a few dirty clothes in a pile by the closet, a backpack dropped at the foot of the bed with its contents spilling out.
Laura sat at the chair in front of the desk and powered on the computer. “Password,” she said, groaning.
Dristan didn’t need to think about it. “Try ‘Madison.’”
She started typing. “Please, he wouldn’t choose something that obv—oh. It worked.”
“He’s fourteen and in love,” Dristan said. “Of course he’d choose something that obvious.”
Laura opened the internet browser and went straight to FriendZone, the social site teenagers had recently been drawn to. “He’s already logged in,” Laura said. “And there she is at the top of his feed—Madison Walters.”
“Where’s your parents’ phone book?” Dristan asked. “Let’s see if she’s listed. Small town like Belnedge, it won’t matter that her last name is common.”
“Wait. Shit. She’s sending him a message.”
Dristan came behind Laura and stared over her shoulder.
MadMadLove: Where are you? I’m worried.
MadMadLove: You there?
“What should I do?” Laura asked.
“Write her back. Ask her for any info,” Dristan said.
Laura typed. This is Juan’s sister, Laura. We can’t find Juan. Do you know where he is?
MadMadLove: He was supposed to come by last night.
Laura wrote, Please call me. Here’s my phone number.
A second later, Laura’s cell phone rang. She put it on speaker. “Hello?”
“Hi. Um, this is Madison.” The voice sounded breathless and teary, and very quiet. “I can’t talk long because my parents will kill me if they find out.”
“Okay,” Laura said. “Tell me what was supposed to happen last night.”
“Juan was supposed to meet me at my window,” Madison whispered. “We weren’t going to, you know, do anything. Just hang out. He said he’d have to sneak away but it wouldn’t be a problem. Was it a problem? What happened to him?”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Laura said. “Look, you have no reason to trust me, but can you tell me where you live? Even which part of town, if you don’t want to give me your address? I want to track down the route Juan might have used.”
“I live on Pine Ridge Road, near the Skillet Trail.”
“Thank you,” Laura said.
“One thing,” Madison said. “Will you text me when you find out where he is? Or have him text me? I’m worried. Just…keep me posted?”
“Of course.”
Laura ended the call and looked at Dristan. “I guess we know where to go next,” she said.
“Pine Ridge Road.” It wasn’t too far away.
“Yeah. We can start there and make our way toward Marlana’s. Juan wouldn’t have been driving, and at least it’s not that far.”
Dristan followed her out of the house, and they got into his Jeep.
Laura shook her head. “What an idiot,” she said. “He knew the vampires were around, he knew it was dangerous to leave.”
“I think we can all be idiots for love sometimes,” Dristan said, but he carefully avoided looking at Laura when he said it.
Thirteen
Laura didn’t know what to say to Dristan. She’d gone to him last night. It had been, well, amazing was the only word for it, really. Their lovemaking was explosive and wonderful and amazing. Then she’d learned some interesting things about mates in that forum—how the love was blinding, powerful, how it bordered on obsession but it was less an obsession to please oneself than to please one’s mate. It felt familiar. Problem was, Laura didn’t know if Dristan looked at her in that way or not. She could just ask him, but that conversation didn’t seem to have a place in this situation.
Looking for Juan. Her chest felt weighed down with worry for him.
Dristan walked alongside her between Madison’s house and Marlana’s property. Most of the route fell along Skillet trail, which was handy. Probably why Juan had thought it would be easy to sneak over to Madison’s.
Her fool brother. When she found him, she was going to hug him silly. Then she’d smack him upside the head.
No, no smacking. She was just going to hold him close. She blinked away tears. We’re coming, Juan.
The woods were dark around them, and she and Dristan had been hiking for hours, with frequent checkins with Marlana. If they’d just gone straight from Madison’s to Marlana’s, it would have been an easy, one-hour hike. But they were looking for Juan, or signs of where he’d been.
Dristan hadn’t spoken to her except to ask if she’d found anything. They kept close, just about ten to fifteen feet between them, to cover better ground.
Laura called Marlana’s cell again to check in. “We’re not finding anything yet,” she said.
She waited, and Marlana said, “Do you think this is really where he went?”
“I’m sure of it. The two seem pretty close, and the friend says Juan was supposed to come over. I can’t imagine him changing his plans without telling her.”
Marlana was quiet again, thinking. “It’s getting late. We’ll send some others to search with you two. They’ll be there in half an hour.”
“Okay, thanks,” Laura said.
“We’ll have company soon,” she said, turning to Dristan.
“Fine.” He reached over and touched the back of her hand. Even that tiny bit of contact was comforting. There was hope for the two of them—she’d make sure of it.
They moved through the woods, still finding no sign of Juan. It was like her brother hadn’t even passed through. She knew he hadn’t gotten lost, which meant something had happened to him.
No. She couldn’t believe it. Juan was too strong, too young. Too full of life. Whatever happened, Laura would find him and he’d be okay.
Dristan’s mood seemed to be plummeting, though. Would it be better to clear the air and get whatever it was out so she could focus on searching? She decided to look while they talked.
“What’s going on with you?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
“Dristan, don’t lie to me. There is obviously something wrong.”
He crouched at the foot of a tree, touching the bark. “If we can’t scent any signs of Juan, we should use our eyes.”
Eyesight wasn’t the strongest of a cat’s senses, but it was a good idea. “You think they have a way to mask scent?”
He nodded.
Laura walked a few steps away. Instead of using her nose, she used her eyes. “Here, a fresh track. Looks l
ike Juan’s. I can’t smell a damn thing off it, though. I can’t smell anything.”
“Tricky bastards.”
If the vampires found Juan, would they hurt him? “Dristan, I’m scared.”
“He’s going to be fine,” Dristan said. “They’ve returned everyone they’ve taken.”
Laura took a deep breath, trying not to cry. “They haven’t taken a shifter yet, though, have they?”
“Shh.”
“Don’t fucking ‘shh’ me like—”
“No, listen.”
Laura listened, while feeling her face flush. Dristan had never patronized her, and he wasn’t patronizing her now. “I don’t hear anything,” she breathed.
“Exactly. What do you smell?”
She sniffed. “Nothing.”
“Exactly.” He started stripping.
Now she understood what he was saying. They should at least be able to smell the trees, the woods, the animals within them. Instead, it was as if her nose wasn’t working at all.
The clearing where they stood was small, maybe six or seven yards in diameter, ringed by tall Ponderosa pine trees. The trail skirted along one side of the clearing. In late spring, wildflowers would grow, punching up from the wet earth in search of sunlight.
“I thought vampires slept during the day,” she said.
“My dad used to tell me stories that his grandparents told him. Stories passed down. Not all vampires sleep. Sunlight burns them, but some are awake during the day…just hiding.”
Laura’s heart thudded wildly in her chest. They were being stalked again, the vampires probably brave and coming out in the daytime because of the late hour and the cloud cover.
She didn’t say it aloud, but she was terrified. Vampires. Nobody had ever talked about them because they hadn’t been a concern. She didn’t know how to fight them, and none of her Guardian training had involved combat with them.
Dristan was already in his mountain lion form. Laura stripped and shifted, too, then moved to stand next to Dristan. What would be the safest position? The vampires weren’t giving any clues to their whereabouts—no scent, no sound. It was like fighting phantoms.