Cursed In Love (The Adams' Witch Book 2) (15 page)

Footsteps thudded down the stairs. “She’s not up there, but the bathroom window is open. You didn’t leave the bathroom window open, did you, Mark?”

“Hell no. My parents would kill me. You know how expensive it is to heat these old houses.”

I stood, my heart in my throat. Naturals. Taken. Courtney. Trish. All of those things ran through my head at once.

Mark rolled his eyes. “Well, she’s got to be here somewhere. Let’s all look.”

I walked around the first floor searching in every nook and cranny that I could find. I even asked the people milling around if they’d seen Jennie. A few of them told me they saw her go upstairs. After my search downstairs was done, I ran up and found Mark and Ty in the hallway. When they saw me, they shook their heads in unison.

My head pounded, and the floor started to tilt under me. Where the hell was she? Where could she possibly have gone? I wasn’t away from her for more than five minutes when we cleaned up the kitchen.

Mark’s face turned hard. “What are you freaking out for? She probably just left this lame ass,” he said, pointing toward his friend.

I shook my head. “No. She wouldn’t do that. Are you sure you searched everywhere?”

“I’m telling you. We searched everywhere.”

My breath started coming in short gasps. Jennie was a Natural. She could’ve been taken. Travis. He was afraid of this.

I slipped my phone from my pocket and started typing out a text. My fingers were too shaky to do it right, so I ended up just calling him instead. As the line rang, I closed my eyes. The last thing I wanted to do was relay this type of news to Travis. And worse, what if she was around? What if she’d just gotten some air? She’d kill me.

The phone went to voicemail. I looked at Mark and Ty. “We should check outside.”

A quick check with everyone at the party again and they said they hadn’t seen her. I threw open the back door, stepped outside, and screamed her name. No response.

Mark chuckled. “Let’s not freak out here.” He tried to act nonchalant, but I could tell by his posture he was a little unsure of this, too. I bet it wasn’t everyday that some girl went missing at his house. It wasn’t as if it was a daily occurrence in Adams except…except recently.

“Did you try calling her?” Ty asked.

Duh. Dumbass. I whipped my phone back out and called Jennie. The phone rang and rang and eventually, that went to voicemail, too. I shook my head when I lowered the phone.

“What should we do?” I asked.

Mark sniffed. “I’d wait it out. I’m sure she’ll be back.”

Ty shrugged.

I didn’t like the idea of waiting it out because if my worst fears were confirmed, we’d be giving up precious time. I ran my hand down my face and pressed Travis’s name again.

Right when it went to voicemail, a screaming engine sounded from the front of the house. I knew that sound. I’d been on that same bike and loved the way it roared underneath me. I spun on my heels and ran through the house and opened the front door and fell right into Travis.

He looked relieved for a split second and then his hands squeezed tight around my shoulders. “Jennie?”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Travis pulled me into him and hugged me with the entire force of his strength. I couldn’t breathe, but I didn’t tell him that. It was comforting. I knew Mark and Ty thought I was freaking for no reason, but I was assured in Travis’s touch that this was what I’d expected. It wasn’t good.

He pulled away, the edge of his eyes watery. I hugged my arms around myself. “How’d you know?”

He pulled me into him again and whispered in my ear. “I put a tracking spell on the bracelet Jennie wore here and it got snuffed out.”

“Snuffed out?”

“It stopped working by a magickal force.”

“Could it have been Jennie?”

Travis shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think I also would’ve gotten a text or a phone call cursing me out if she’d noticed the spell.”

He let me go again and pinned Ty and Mark with his stare. “Whose house is this?”

Mark’s cockiness was all but gone. He looked perplexed and maybe a little annoyed. “Mine.”

Through an ultimate stare down, I pulled Travis closer to them. “This is Travis, Jennie’s brother. He’s worried about her. Can he look through the house?”

Ty held his hand out and Travis shook it. From the brief disfigurement on Ty’s face, I guessed Travis shook his hand a little too hard. “Of course, man. Let me show you where we think she was last.”

I waited downstairs with Mark. People at the party noticed something weird was up and gathered up their belongings. Mark frowned but showed them all out except for one girl I recognized. She was in my Science class and from the looks of her, definitely a little tipsy. Mark strode up to her and threw his arm around her shoulders. “You hanging out?” he asked.

She nodded, her eyes glassy.

“Cool. I’ll just be a minute, babe. Make yourself comfortable.”

Ugh. I wanted to puke. He casually walked back up to me. “Unless you want to stay…”

“Are you shitting me? My friend is missing.”

“She probably just passed out somewhere.”

“She barely had anything to drink.” And not to mention the fact that we knew her spelled bracelet had been snuffed out. My fingers started to tremble. I rubbed them together in front of me. I wished Travis would come down. I wished he’d come down and tell me that Jennie was okay, that maybe she did just pass out upstairs somewhere where Ty and Mark hadn’t looked. Or maybe she was playing a joke on her brother to get back at him for being overbearing. At this point, we’d both forgive her as long as she was safe.

Mark frowned at my fingers. “You’re really scared, aren’t you?”

He took my hands in his and started rubbing them. I pulled them away in disgust. “Don’t touch me.”

Feet thudded hard against the wooden staircase. Travis was the first one down. He cocked an eyebrow at Mark. “I’d listen to her unless you want to lose your fucking limbs.”

Mark jerked away. Silently, he went back to the girl on the couch who now slept.

“C’mon,” Travis said. “We’re leaving.”

He followed my gaze to the couch and swore under his breath. He took three long strides to the center of the room, peered over her body, and slipped her cell phone from her pocket.

“What are you doing?” Mark asked.

Travis ignored him and scrolled through the phone and then pressed down on the screen before putting it to his ear. “Yeah, Mom? You have a young daughter with brown hair and a green hoodie?” He paused. “Right. Great. She’s passed out at the party she went to today. You should probably pick her up.” There was a tinny voice over the speaker that I heard from across the room and then Travis handed the phone to Mark. “Tell the mom your address so she can pick her daughter up.”

Travis turned and made his way back toward me. Mark shot daggers into his back, but brought the phone to his ear anyway. “Mrs. Simms, hi. It’s Mark Davidson. Yes, I think Meghan had a little too much to drink here. You know where the house is at, don’t you?”

Travis took me by the shoulders and steered me out of the house. “There was nothing up there. Gone. Just like Courtney and the others. Not a trace of anything. I couldn’t even detect a hint of magick anywhere, but it’s got to be other Naturals. There’s no other explanation.”

He handed me the extra helmet, and I did my best to hurry up and put it on. He briefly looked it over and then we both got on the bike. “We’re going to my parents’ house.”

He started the engine, and I wrapped my arms around him. His back, abs, everything about him was tight. As he wound the bike through the narrow roads, he never once relaxed. By the time we got back to Jennie’s house, he was off the bike in a flash.

“I’m so sorry,” I said.

He undid the strap on my helmet and pulled it off. I didn’t bother worrying about how terrible my hair looked. He frowned. “I couldn’t hear you.”

My eyes burned. “I said I’m sorry. I was supposed to be helping you watch her. All she did was go to the bathroom. I didn’t know—”

My voice broke and Travis’s face crumpled. He wound his arms around me and nuzzled my cheek. “I know, Sarah. Ty told me everything. I don’t blame you.” He pulled away and wiped his thumbs across my cheeks, catching the tears that had escaped. “I absolutely do not blame you. There’s nothing you could’ve done.”

“If I was like you…”

He shook his head furiously. “Even if I had been there, short of me following her into the bathroom, what could I have done?” He brushed the hair away from my face. “We’re going to go into my parents’ house and I need you to be strong, okay? My mom’s a little dramatic and if she sees you crying, she’ll think the worst. Can you do that for me?”

I took a deep breath and wiped at my cheeks and below my eyes. Though my heart was still thudding in my chest, and tears were still hot in my eyes, I smiled at him. “I can do that.”

He stared at me for a second and then leaned over and kissed my cheek. “I’m so glad you’re safe. I was worried it was both of you.”

He squeezed my hand, and I followed him into his parents’ house.

From the moment we stepped into the Shaw house, everything was chaotic. Not that I’d ever been to Jennie’s house for a long period of time to understand what was normal, but there were three times as many people hanging around than there usually was. Her parents were there, of course. Then there were others that were introduced to me as cousins or uncles and aunts. There were even a few family friends. All were talking about the best way to proceed. Ideas were being thrown out, everything from spells to contacting the local police, which Travis shut down fast as a waste of time.

“The local police are a bunch of idiots. They haven’t found Courtney yet, so they won’t have a clue of where to start looking for Jen.”

Seeing his tense shoulders made me want to soothe him, but I had no idea how much his family knew about us, or if I really knew that much more myself, so I didn’t dare try. We sat on the same sofa, only inches apart, but in my mind, we may as well have been in different countries. I felt hopeless. What could I do to help this family when I was just normal and they were something extraordinary? Sure, I’d done two or three spells before, but it wasn’t as if I was some sort of prodigy. And the one protection spell I’d done when Andrew broke into the house? I wasn’t even sure it had worked.

Before long, Jennie’s father decided the best course of action was to send out a search party in the area surrounding Mark’s house. He split the family into four different groups, who would each search different points of the compass. All they needed was the address, which I could help with. Travis had been so distraught driving, he couldn’t produce it right away. When he looked at me, I brought out my phone, “His name is Mark Davidson. I’ll do a quick Google search for the address.” A few taps later, I had it. “232 Woodberry Lane.”

Travis’s face softened in an instant and he bent over to kiss my forehead. My face heated, and I looked around to see if anyone noticed. No one was even paying attention. They were all standing and gathering jackets and boots. I stood after Travis and he looked back at me, his eyebrows raised. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“With you?” I wanted it to sound more like a statement but it came out like a question.

He put his hands on my shoulders. “You’re staying here. This house is fully protected, you will be safer here than any other place.”

A rock formed in my gut. I was supposed to be watching Jennie when she went missing. This was partly my fault no matter what Travis said. I needed to be out there helping. At the very least, I wouldn’t be sitting around here thinking and worrying about both Jennie and Travis. “I want to come.”

“No.”

“Travis, I can’t just stay here.”

He looked toward his mom who was still standing in the middle of the room. A small smile parted her lips. “Go ahead, Travis. Sarah and I will stay and keep each other company.”

Travis didn’t waste any time hightailing it out of the house. I tried to reach for him, but there was only air where he once was. I bit my lip. Mrs. Shaw came over to rub my back. The whole scene was so backward. Shouldn’t I be the one making sure she didn’t crumble and fall apart?

“I’m fine,” I said.

She looked at me doubtfully. “We’re all worried. While we wait for them to return, you and I can make some food because I’m sure when they all come back safe and sound, everyone will be famished.”

She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. I knew as well as she did that she was faking it. The door slammed with the rest of the family leaving. Reluctantly, I followed Mrs. Shaw into the kitchen. “What do you think? Dessert? I’m sure chocolate will make everyone feel better after all this is over with.”

She pulled out a brownie mix, eggs and oil, and we went to work making the dessert. She was so into it and I just knew she was imagining Jennie eating the brownies when she got home. It helped me get into it too, actually. When we put the brownies in the oven, Mrs. Shaw decided she was going to make up a batch of chocolate chip cookies. “They’re Jennie’s favorite.”

I smiled at her and then yawned.

She patted my hand. “I can do this by myself, Sarah. Why don’t you get some sleep? You must be exhausted. Just take the sofa, there’s a throw blanket along the back.”

I nodded. I’d probably do anything she suggested at this point just to appease her. I walked back to the couch, grabbed the blanket, and wrapped myself in it.

Sometime later, I awoke to a crushed sensation. My head was squished firmly between two hard surfaces and I was being jostled. My eyes flew open, and I looked up at Travis’s chin. Groggy and not wanting to relinquish the safe sensation, I stayed put. Travis didn’t notice my eyes were open until he set me down on something soft.

“You’re awake?” He smiled. Like mother like son, though, it didn’t reach his ears either.

“Jennie?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Not a trace.”