Wyvern and Company (22 page)

"I will send someone now," Glendes said.

"Do so. The continued survival of Grey House depends upon
it."

"Are you threatening me?" Glendes rose from his
seat.

"Only a wizard would interpret his salvation as a threat,"
Kalenegar snapped. "In the future, Grey House will be saved from its own
foolishness, if you deliver those boxes as requested."

"Who is behind this request?" Glendes demanded.

"The Mighty. Ask no more questions, I have already
answered too many." Kalenegar disappeared, leaving Glendes to sag onto his
chair in surprise.

Chapter 12
 

Justin's Journal

Mack and I learned that night how to check bank accounts for
charges. Joey had Mom's account information but so far, nothing had shown up on
any of them. Dad, Lion, Lynx and Dragon disappeared two hours earlier and hadn't
reported anything yet.

Joey had information on three of Mom's bank accounts that he
checked, so Mack and I stared at the amounts she'd given in the past to
charities. Sure, that money would have bought fancy cars and huge houses, but I
realized how foolish that might seem to those who were starving or fighting for
their lives.

I realized, too, that we'd never wanted for anything. Joey
began to talk, then, as he navigated from one account to another. "She
earned this by putting her life in danger. I don't think she's gone to save a
single world classified as
Not Worth Saving
since she got pregnant with
you. Something worries me about the fact that she got pregnant again now, but
it's not my place to make conjectures."

Mack and I occupied the barstools on either side of Joey's,
scanning charges just as he was, but we kept finding the same thing—nothing new
had been recorded. "Did she have any cash with her?" Mack thought to
ask. "Or a cell phone?"

"I have her cell phone, because Fresno PD still has mine,"
I pulled it from my pocket and dumped it on the island. "She never
bothered to get another one."

"I don't know about cash," Joey shrugged. "Probably,
but who knows how much? Fuck. It's late and she's out there by herself. I've
sent mindspeech several times and she won't reply. I'm guessing the others are
doing the same, but she's not talking to us."

"I hope she can take care of herself," Mack said.

"Before her power was muted, I'd have said she was more
than capable of protecting herself and anybody with her. She's been in terrible
situations with the Ra'Ak and always won. Now, she may as well be human."

Joey's words chilled me to the marrow of my bones. "I
wish I knew how to fly already," I said. "I could fly over the city
and look for her."

"You can't shield yourself," Joey pointed out. "It
would be too dangerous. People would see you and you could be killed, since
they wouldn't know you had no intention of harming them. That won't keep Dragon
from doing fly-bys, though. He can shield himself and you can bet he'll try
everything he can think of, because he'll be married to your sister someday."

He didn't add what he was thinking—
if she and Mom survived
.
I knew it anyway, without his verbal confirmation.

"If she could fold space, I'd look for her at her beach
offworld," Joey mumbled as he navigated the bank accounts another time.

"Wait, what's that?" I pointed to his laptop
screen—something new had popped up.

"Fuck," Joey breathed. "That charge was made
three hours ago and it's just now showing up." It was a charge from a
rental car agency, more than ten miles from the church. Joey sent mindspeech to
everybody right then, and I figured there would be a convergence at the
business where Mom had rented an SUV.

"Three hours," Mack shook his head. "She could
have driven out of the state by now."

"This late at night, it's more than possible, since the
traffic wouldn't be as bad as it is during the day," Joey acknowledged. "And
New Jersey is just across the river."

"Why would she go to New Jersey?" I asked.

"She could have gone somewhere else," Joey pointed
out, "but New Jersey is the quickest way to get out of New York from here."

"Maybe she went in another direction," I said.

"Anything is possible—she's not that fond of the Northeast,"
Joey confirmed.

* * *

Adam's Journal

My fears were rising. Yes, I'd sent mental apologies. Many
times, in fact, in the three plus hours I spent searching for her. Joey sent
mindspeech, closely followed by a message from Justin, giving me the location
of the car rental agency Kiarra found.

I folded there immediately. Dragon and Lion arrived seconds
after I did, and Merrill drove up minutes later. Shamelessly, I placed
compulsion on the clerk behind the desk, ordering him to provide as much
information as possible. That's how we discovered that Kiarra's rental had GPS
tracking.

Once we'd done a search, however, we learned the locating
device had been disabled rather quickly. The last known location on the car she'd
rented was in Newark. The device hadn't functioned past that.

"Do you think she's heading south?" Merrill asked.

"Possibly. You know how much she loves the beach,"
Lion replied. I noticed they'd spoken to each other, leaving me out of the
conversation. I forced myself to swallow my anger—and my pride. I had twenty
years with her. Lion had known her for several thousand years.

"There's beach all the way down the Eastern Seaboard,"
Merrill pointed out. "I'll head toward Newark and the last place she was
seen. It's my guess she didn't disable the tracking device by herself. Someone
did that for her, I think."

It was time to suck up my pride even further. "I'll take
you there faster than you can drive," I offered. "After dropping off
your vehicle."

"Good," Merrill nodded. "I appreciate that."

Five minutes later, after a hasty trip to Merrill's parking
garage, we were in Newark, outside an independently owned auto repair shop.

Ancient, peeling blue paint spelled out "Mel's Auto and
Body" in script on a rusting metal sign, which hung precariously over a
building dating back to the sixties. The structure had never been aesthetically
pleasing, even when it was new.

We discovered that Mel's grandson ran the business now, and
looked more than capable of disabling the tracking system on a rental vehicle
for the proper amount of cash.

"You will tell me everything I wish to know,"
Merrill growled, gripping the young man's shirt collar in a tight fist and
leveling the intensity of compulsion only a King Vampire could deliver.

He wet himself—Merrill and I smelled it, although it wasn't
immediately apparent through dark jeans covered in grease and oil. "Y-yes,
sir," he quavered, attempting to nod, although Merrill's grip was too
strong for him to achieve any sort of head movement.

"A woman, blonde, asked you to disable the on-board
tracking system on a rental vehicle, didn't she?" Merrill demanded.

"Yes. Pretty woman. Offered me six hundred. I did it for
five."

"Did you put your hands on her?" Merrill hissed.

"N-no. Wanted to, she moved away."

"I want to kill you for that," Merrill grinned
nastily. "Shall I kill you?"

"Please, no," he whispered.

"If you had touched her without her consent, I would
have."

I think I realized then how big a fool I'd been. Merrill loved
Kiarra. Likely had known of her for years uncounted, through Griffin. It made
me wonder why Griffin had never introduced them—surely he knew of Merrill's
feelings.

Merrill knew, just as I did, of Saxom's rape. Saxom had been
warped—twisted in some way, and he'd brought irreparable harm to my wife.

Another thought hit me—what if she didn't want me anymore?

Merrill could step into my position and I'd have to abide by
her decision—she was First and could ask Pheligar to mute or destroy our M'Fiyah.

That terrified me.

My cell phone rang, pulling me away from my morbid thoughts.
It was Martin Walters, telling me that the east side of Fresno was on
fire—Randall Pierce had made bail and this was his first act after his release.

The strawberry farm was safe, as was the old house on Hornet.

I couldn't think of a better way, however, of telling anyone
who might be interested just where the power lay inside the city. That alone
would signal any powerful enemy as to where we lived and how well our property
was shielded.

On it
, Lion sent to me, allowing me to sag in relief.

"Someone is on the way," I informed Martin over the
phone.

"Thank you," Martin sounded just as relieved. "The
shapeshifter went with me last night—a couple of my wolves would have bought it
without Darzi," Martin reported.

"We have trouble here, too," I said, without going
into detail. I figured Mack would fill his father in soon, if he hadn't done it
already.

"Mack needs to be home in two days for the full moon,"
Martin said, jolting me back to reality. Mack was werewolf, and since his wolf
had manifested, he'd be forced to change. It would also mark the first run with
his father's pack, and that was always a rite of passage for any werewolf.

"I'll make sure he's there," I promised. "One
way or another."

"Thank you," Martin said. "It's an important
night for him—he'll run with me and his sister for the first time. I figure it
was easier for the wolf to manifest the first time, as that blasted party was near
the full moon. His wolf answered when it was necessary."

"I wasn't even thinking of that," I sighed. "I
was more worried about the boy and the fact he almost died at the hands of
humans."

"I'm grateful he didn't turn at the jail, or things could
have gone quite badly for all of us," Martin agreed. "While that
human criminal would have deserved what he got, I think Mack was too
traumatized by that point, and the wolf couldn't fight both of them."

"I understand. At least he's dealing with it now."

"Karzac helped a great deal, as did Kiarra. He felt the
loss more than Beth did, when his mother left."

"I'm afraid I have a confession to make," I
admitted. "I've really upset Kiarra, and she's gone. I know this is
upsetting both boys, as well as the others and me. It's imperative we find her,
however, because she can't use her abilities and she's defenseless and
pregnant. Things could go badly if the enemy finds her."

"That's not good," Martin mumbled. "Is there a
search ongoing? I can probably contact the Grand Master if you need wolves to help
track her. He knows he owes you—and her—for past favors."

"I'll let you know," I said. "We're checking
her credit-card charges and the like, but she's so upset with me she's foiling
our search at every turn."

"You must have really pissed her off," Martin
pointed out.

"I did. Look, we can discuss my many failings another
time. I need to get back to our search."

"Let me know if there's anything I or a good pack of
wolves can do to help," Martin said.

"I will."

Ending the call with a troubled sigh, I turned to Merrill. "Now
what?" I asked.

"Fold us back to New York. Let's have a talk with Joey,
Mack and your son. They know her well, and it's time to put our heads together."

* * *

"I say we look for a beach somewhere—she loves the ocean,"
Joey said.

I already knew that and Justin and Mack merely nodded—she and
I had taken them on trips to Morro Bay, Pismo and San Francisco too many times
to count. Kiarra always found a hotel with a view of the water, no matter what.

"Look, Dad." Justin passed the cell phone that had
been Kiarra's to me—a news alert showed that the fire raging in Fresno had been
pushed back by strong winds, and as it was blown toward already-burned ground,
it died from lack of fuel.

Trust Lion to come up with a good way to avert a crisis—Fresno
lay in a bowl, almost, surrounded by higher elevations. The winds didn't hit
often, but when they did, they could be fierce.

The alert also showed that Randall Pierce had been arrested
and held without bond—three people died in the fire he'd set. I shook my
head—arson appeared to be his preferred method of destruction, and the
authorities should have kept him in jail after the incident with Gina and her
mother.

"Creep," Mack mumbled as he stood beside me and read
the screen.

"Worse than that," Justin pointed out. "A
murdering creep and he's not even out of high school."

"It makes me wonder if these recent incidents aren't his
first," Merrill reflected. "His father may have gotten him out of
other troubles in the past."

"I'll
Look
later," I said, handing the phone
back to my son. "We have other things to attend to, first."

"Here's my question," Joey said. "How far could
Kiarra have gotten by now? We know when she was at the repair shop. Let's do
some estimates and draw a circle on the map."

Merrill found a map in a drawer, shook his head because it had
belonged to Franklin and spread it across the island in his kitchen. The repair
shop was at the center of the circle, so Joey estimated an average speed for
main roads and back roads. A large portion of the circle he drew encompassed
ocean, so Mack and Justin began mapping possible destinations on land.

"I don't think she'd stop there," I shook my head. "Atlantic
City isn't her thing, and I think she wants to get as far away from me as she
can."

You really fucked this up, didn't you?
Merrill sent.

Yes. Feeling guilty and apologetic now gets me nowhere, as
you've likely noticed
, I responded dryly.

Merrill and I had become very good friends after the events in
Corpus Christi, so I made an effort to be as honest with him as I could, given
the circumstances.
Why didn't you tell me you loved her?
I added.
You
know there is no jealousy now
.

Griffin
, Merrill responded enigmatically.
You know
he sees things. He told me that it was important that she find you, first
.

Griffin muted Kiarra's M'Fiyah with Merrill
, Pheligar
appeared and joined our mental conversation.

I
wasn't aware that you knew about his involvement
. It
was Merrill's turn to send a dry comment, only he intended it for the Larentii.

I knew quickly, but as it hadn't anything to do with me, I
let it go. I thought perhaps you asked to have her part of it muted
,
Pheligar replied, his bright blue eyes turning thoughtful.
What happens
outside the Saa Thalarr is generally none of my business, and it was my guess
that you didn't wish to hurt her with a rejection
.