Search (The Empire Chronicles #2) (22 page)

She shook her head. “Not by a long shot. Once I found out what he was really like, it was too late. You can’t just leave a clan.” She glanced over her shoulder.

“Why’d you go?”

She didn’t answer. She just ran a hand through my tangled hair.

I tried another conversation. “Fin’s here too.”

She looked away. “Yeah. If it makes you feel any better, I kicked him in the balls for you.”

“Really?” I wasn’t actually surprised. Vera was like that.

“Of course. He hurt my baby sister.”

“I’m not such a baby anymore.”

She reached around and untied the jacket. She leaned in to whisper. “Don’t try to run. I’ll get you out of here, but you have to do it carefully.”

I nodded. I’d take her word for it. Besides, in a cave that small, I wasn’t sure how I’d fight.

“Here. Change into these. That dress doesn’t look too hot.” Her expression said more. It would be easier to escape if I wasn’t in a long dress.

The bridesmaid dress was in shambles, so I accepted the clothes Vera held out. “What is this?” I took the top.

“Don’t complain. Just put it on.” She stepped forward like she was going to hug me but stopped herself. I made the move myself. Her arms wrapped around me, and the tears started. The tears were of relief of finding her but also the realization that finding her wasn’t going to miraculously change everything. Everything wasn’t just going to be okay.

Vera waited while I slipped into a pair of barely there jean shorts and a blue corset style top. “Do you really wear this stuff?”

“Bears aren’t worried about covering up. It works.” She was wearing short shorts herself, along with a tight, low-cut tank top.

I changed, uncomfortable about the amount of cleavage that spilled out of the top. Vera was more blessed in that department. I couldn’t imagine what she looked like in it. She must have had all the guys drooling over her. That wouldn’t have been very different from what it was like back home. Vera was always the kind of girl who got lots of attention from the opposite sex. She didn’t sleep around, but she definitely flirted a lot.

She suddenly hugged me again. “Casey, I’m going to do everything possible to get you out of here. I’ll find help.” Something in her tone scared me more than I already was. She’d dropped her calm façade. Vera wasn’t the type to get frightened, and that wasn’t good news for me. “You have to get out of here. We’re running out of time.”

“Find Toby Blackwell. He’s the Pteron leader of New York. If you can’t find him, get Jared Florence. He’s in charge of security for The Society.”

“You’ve been busy, little sister.”

“Yeah, well. What can I say?”

“Can you hold on? Can you be strong? I promise I’m going to come back for you.” Silent tears spilled down her face. “If I’d only known… I never knew.”

I knew she had so much to tell me, but I also knew our time alone was limited.

She stepped away from me, trying to blink away the few tears she’d spilled.

“Reunion’s over,” Murphy called. “And Casey, looking good.”

I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Don’t worry about that, sweetheart. We’ve seen a lot more than that around here.”

“I’m sorry I have to do this.” Vera held out a rope and gestured to my wrists. They were still sore from earlier, but I nodded. Fighting wasn’t going to do anything. I couldn’t take on a group of bears, especially not in a cave. Vera tied my hands.

“Let’s go,” Murphy bellowed. He pushed me out of the little enclave we were in and further down a passageway that narrowed to the point that I could barely stand upright. The cave was only lit by flickering torches placed on the cave walls.

“Oh, we forgot this.” Murphy pulled the rough sack down over my face again. I sighed. At least Vera was with me.

“Sleep well.” Murphy’s voice came from right next to me. In the next second, I felt a sharp sting in my arm.

Sleep well? What was he talking about? I struggled against him as he picked me up. He didn’t try to restrain me. Instead, he dropped me. My head smacked into the hard floor. Vera gasped, but Murphy must have held her back because she never made contact with me.

“If you’re going to fight me, have it your way.” He spit on me. “Put her in that room,” he ordered.

What felt like two sets of arms grabbed me before I fell hard against the cave ground again. Every inch of my body hurt.

“Don’t mess her up too badly. She might not be useful to the boss if she isn’t alive.”

My heart sunk just as I slipped out of consciousness.

I woke up in a haze. My head throbbed, and I was barely aware of several people standing around me and chanting. I shivered, but not from the cold. I tried to sit up, but things were foggy. I couldn’t move any of my limbs.

This had to work. We had to get Casey back safe and sound, and we had to do it fast. No one argued with me when I insisted we leave Levi out of the plans. He’d asked for time off with Allie, and he was going to get it. If he had a clue what was going on, he’d be at the helm himself. All would be fine as long as I had Casey back before he discovered she was missing. If something happened to her, he’d kill me. But then again, if something happened to her, I’d want to kill me too. The girl meant a lot to me, and I swore that if we all got out of this mess, I’d make an effort to become her friend.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Toby didn’t bother to hide the skepticism in his voice. He’d used the same tone of voice every time he spoke during our trip back to New York.

I glanced at the large stone house set into a wooded lot in upstate New York. It definitely looked like the kind of place shifters would live. “Everything checked out.” My men spotted suspicious activity and possibly bears on the property only the day before.

“But it looks empty.” Cade somehow managed to tag along on this little adventure as well. I couldn’t complain. He came with plenty of reinforcements, and I wasn’t taking chances.

I stretched, trying to get rid of a crick in my neck. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been so stressed. “Maybe that’s the whole plan.”

“There’s no one here.” One of our men walked over. “We searched the whole place, it’s completely empty.”

“Maybe it was all a set up. They wanted us to think they were here.” Toby started to pace which only made things worse. “They wanted to keep us off their trail, and it worked.”

I needed to stay calm. Getting agitated or angry at each other wasn’t going to help anything. “They had to have left someone behind. The trick is finding them. It’s impossible that they disappeared without a trace.”

“I agree. We’re going to find her.” Toby seemed to relax at my words. Hopefully he understood how important maintaining our composure was. “We’re going to find her. They don’t want her dead. Otherwise they would have done it earlier. We have to stay level headed and figure out where they moved, and we have to do it now.”

He didn’t need to say any more. Needing her alive might not be an indefinite thing, and it also didn’t mean they wouldn’t hurt her.

“Let’s leave men to comb the property and head over to your grandfather’s place. I’ve heard he may have been involved in this stuff too.”

“My grandfather?” Toby groaned. “He was dealing with these idiots too?” Although frustrated, he didn’t sound surprised. Old man Blackwell wasn’t exactly known for being honorable.

“Sounds like it. Do you know anything more?”

He pulled out his phone, glanced at the screen, and answered. “Toby.” He walked off.

I resisted the urge to follow. Toby wanted to find Casey more than anyone besides me. He wouldn’t be goofing off. Still, I watched him, hoping his facial expressions would give me a hint at what was going on. He turned away, ruining any chance of that.

“What is it?” I asked when he walked back over.

He had a bewildered expression plastered on his face. “That was Tim. Rhett came in with some info.”

“What?” I hadn’t heard anything from the cousin since I interrogated him.

“I guess he heard from Vera. Casey told her to find us.”

“Where is she now?” This was it. Another lead, something to go off of.

“She’s supposed to meet us at my grandfather’s house.”

“Let’s go.” I transformed, glad to have my wings out. Toby did the same, and we left all but a handful of men to continue scouring the property. We flew the short distance to the Blackwell estate, telling the other men we brought with us to circle the house. I didn’t know what to expect when we landed, but I did a double take. “Casey?” Was Casey okay? Was she just waiting for us?

“No. That’s not Casey.” Toby walked to the porch stairs.

“Oh. Now I get it.” The gorgeous brunette walked down the steps. She might as well have been strutting down a runway. She gave us both a once over. “No wonder my sister was spending her time with you two.”

On closer inspection, I noticed the differences. Vera was a few years older, and her hair had more of a reddish highlight than the gold in Casey’s hair. She also held herself differently. She had more confidence, and she definitely wasn’t trying to hide her figure underneath her tank top and shorts. Instead of Casey’s blue eyes, Vera’s hazel ones stared back.

“Now I take it you’re Jared?” She turned toward me. Her eyes roamed up and down my bare chest. I didn’t mind the attention, although it distracted me.

“What gave me away?”

“I assumed the head of security was a crow.”

“Oh, yeah, um, of course,” I stammered. Was I tongue tied? Was I really tongue tied around a girl?

“Where’s Casey?” Toby interrupted. His crazed personality was back.

“And you must be Toby.” She turned her attention to him, and I felt robbed. I needed those eyes on me. I was like a little boy or something. I needed someone to slap me.

“Yes, and I assume you’re here to help us?” There was a wariness to his voice. That snapped me back to attention. Vera had gone to the bears willingly, hadn’t she?

Vera gave him a disbelieving look. “Of course. I love my sister.”

“So do I.” Toby closed his eyes for a second. I assumed he was thinking about Casey. “But you can’t blame me for being skeptical. You disappeared on her with no warning.”

Vera’s lips twisted into a smile. “Good. You passed the test.”

“What test?” I asked. By Toby passing, did that mean I failed?

She turned to me. “You just checked me out. I’d hoped my sister had picked a guy with eyes only for her.”

“That’s great and all, but please tell us where she is.” Toby might as well have been on his knees with the way he was begging.

“I will, but can you at least get me water first?”

“Of course.” I wanted to find Casey, but that didn’t mean we had to be rude. “Do you have the key, Toby?”

“Yes.” He walked to the front door and punched in the window. “How’s that for a key?”

Vera’s jaw dropped. “Okay. So you really want to save my sister.”

“Yes.” He reached through the glass, clearly unconcerned with the cuts he was getting. He unlocked the door. “There’s water in the kitchen sink.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. I’d never seen the hawk act that way.

For Vera’s credit, she didn’t look fazed. She walked in and searched for the kitchen.

I remembered the basic layout of the place and handed her a glass. She ran the tap for a full thirty seconds before filling her cup. She smelled the water. Careful. I could appreciate that. I filled my own glass.

“Toby?” She called his name without turning around.

“Yes.”

“If you love my sister so much, why has Jared slept with her too?”

I nearly choked on my water. “How’d you know?”

“I just do.” She turned to me. “I also get the sense you hurt her.”

“Are you psychic?”

“No. I’m just good at reading people.”

“He found out she was a Pteron and treated her like crap. End of story. Come on. Let’s talk about what’s important.” Toby glared at both of us.

“Yet you don’t care what she is?” She watched Toby.

“I love her. I don’t care about anything else.”

She set aside her water and hugged him. “Then you deserve her.” She spun back to me. “And I bet you hate all other shifters then too?”

“Hate’s a strong word.” I preferred disliked the company of.

“But you think you’re better than the others, don’t you?”

“We are better…” What was her problem? Was she trying to pick a fight? That was something I’d do.

She laughed. “Yet you’re undressing me with your eyes.”

Wait. Was she trying to tell me she wasn’t human? Was she the same as Rhett? No. It couldn’t be possible. Was being attracted to a Pteron not enough? Now I found a bear hot? “I’m guessing you’re not human.”

“Not by a long shot.” Her eyes linked with mine in a heated stare.

“Oh.” Did that mean Casey was part bear too? I didn’t have time to think through that implication.

“Oh. Is that all you can say? You’re a pig, but Toby’s right. We have more important things to talk about.”

“A pig? Because I enjoy looking at attractive women?” I leaned back against the counter. Bear or not, the girl was something to look at.

“No.” She stepped closer, effectively boxing me in. “Because you like to look but think you’re too good for me. As if I’d sink as low as to sleep with someone like you.” She spun around.

I didn’t get a chance to respond. “Where is she?” Toby growled.

“They’ve got her in a cave not too far from here.”

“A cave?” I groaned. Seriously? She had to be held in a freaking cave?

Vera’s eyes twinkled. She enjoyed watching my discomfort. “Yes. They wanted to pick a place that Pterons wouldn’t have an advantage.”

Without our wings, we weren’t as useful. Closed spaces weren’t a Pteron’s best friend.

“Let’s send word to our men. We need to go.” Toby was already walking into the hall.

“Wait.” Vera exhaled loudly. “You can’t show up with an army. They’ll be expecting that.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?” Toby and I asked in unison.

“Sneak in.”

“Sneak in?” I asked incredulously. “We’re supposed to sneak into a cave?”