Chapter 4
With the pedal to the metal, as my dad used to say, I hoped, prayed, and made promises to every deity I knew. I promised to be good from this day forward. I even pleaded with the Powers That Be, especially the crazy, rainbow-haired deity Omnipotent Being, Fate, for my Mate to be okay.
I had to find Kai. There was just no other option.
Lips curled inward, my jaw clenched tight, and my tongue stuck out the side of my mouth, I gripped the steering wheel so tightly that I knew my palms bore the indentations of the stitches of my faux dragon scale cover.
Jerking the wheel to the left, then to the right while speeding up instead of slowing down, my beautiful SVU, known as Fancy, and I took a right onto Elephant Trunk Drive on two wheels.
“Are you tryin’ to kill us?” Maeve screeched all the way from the third seat.
“No.”
“Slow the hell do….ahhhhhhhhhh!”
Taking the next turn like I was riding the rails and hitting the straightaways like greased lightning, I just knew my foot, right along with the gas pedal, was going to go through Fancy’s floorboard.
The thought of having to ‘Fred Flintstone’ it all the way to Hoopingarner House was not an option, but neither was slowing down.
Tires squealing as I whipped us to the left to avoid running over Rhonda Rhino and her four girls picking blackberries on the side of the road, I jerked the steering wheel in the opposite direction to avoid what was left of a hundred-year-old concrete embankment.
One more quick turn of the wheel, and we went down one side of the drainage ditch, back up the other, hit the lip of sand, dirt, and weeds, and went airborne for three-point-two seconds.
“What the helllllllll?” Maeve screamed.
“Aroooooooo!” Otis howled. “Slow down!”
Ignoring them all, I stuck my head out the window and yelled, “Sorry, Rhonda! Got an emergency! Free coffee for a month if you keep this between us.”
I didn’t know if she was giving me a thumbs up or the middle finger; however, she did show up at the shop every day for the next thirty days without fail.
Eyes sliding to the side, I caught sight of my dear friend, Zelda, and for the briefest of moments thought about slowing down just a tad.
Then visions, more like nightmares, flashed to life in my brain.
I saw my gorgeous Mate hanging from a ceiling, shackled with iron, and being tortured.
Just the thought had me grinding out through gritted teeth, “Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down!”
“Let her down! Let her down!” Zelda replied with a shriek, white-knuckling the grab bar.
“No can do, my… OH SHIT! There’s Mona!”
Taking my left hand off the wheel to point at the long gray tail running like a bat out of hell right in front of us, Fancy lurched to the left, then back to the right when I overcorrected.
Hitting yet another ditch, Fancy dipped and swerved and weaved on and off the road while all the unfurry people in the vehicle screamed in horror.
“Oh, shut up!” I snarled. “I’m not gonna kill you. I just don’t have time.”
Catching up to the female Wolfhound, I rolled down my window and the one behind me for Arthur to translate, just as Zelda got her hysteria under control. “You are aware the speed limit is thirty-five, right?”
“And you’re aware that my fiancé is missing, right?”
“That wasn't an answer,” she sassed. “And it’s impolite to answer a question with a question.”
“It was the only answer you're getting, Miss Manners,” I grumbled.
Popping between the seats with his front paws perched on the console, Chewy Huffed, “I knew I should've voted tacos. It would have been the perfect last meal.”
“Shut up, Chewy,” I warned, jerking the wheel to the right and hitting Y'all Come Back Lane, the bumpy, rutted, gravel road leading to Hoopingarner House.
Missing the turn into the driveway, I whipped Fancy onto the front lawn and gunned it as Zelda yelled, “If I die, I will haunt your curvy ass forever and three days!”
Front wheels on the white rock driveway and the back still on the lawn, I slammed both feet on the brake and literally pushed with such force that my ass came off the seat. Rocks whizzed in every direction, clumps of dirt and grass rained down on Fancy’s hood, but none of it mattered…
Everything was wrong.
Well, more messed up than the fact that my Mate was missing, it was two weeks until my Mating Ceremony, and my best friend was plotting my murder.
Looking one way then the other, and even turning in my seat to see if I missed something, I looked at Zelda, “Where are the fire trucks?”
Opening her mouth to clap back at me with what I knew was about to be a smartass comment, her expression turned from anger to confusion as she did exactly what I had done. Looking out her window, then out mine, then over the seat and out the back window, she shrugged. “No clue?”
“Where are the firefighters? The EMTs?” The looky-loos trying to film the blaze for social media?” Maeve added, also blessedly intrigued instead of pissed at me.
“Where is Kai?” I whispered, just barely keeping the fear from my tone.
Opening the preternatural senses I had thanks to my illustrious heredity and the Dragon Queen with whom I shared my soul, I found only silence. Rubbing up against Zelda’s Witchy Magic and Maeve’s Dragony goodness, I asked, “Anybody got anything?”
“No,” Maeve cautiously replied.
Turning her head and looking me right in the eye, Zelda slowly shook her head. “Nothing but silence.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Reaching for the handle of the door, I stopped short when Zelda’s fingers touched the wrist of my other hand. Gaze darting to my bestie, I had to hold back a gasp when I saw the haunted look in her eyes. Then she spoke, and I was more confused than ever. “No, I mean silence.”
“No.” A single, sharp shake of her head, and she went on, “You’re not listening.
There is nothing.” Taking her hand off my wrist and raising the other, she bounced them in the air in time with every syllable coming from her mouth, “There. Is. Nothing. It is completely silent. No little critters. No bugs. Not even one of those nasty cicadas that continually attack every time I set foot in Texas.” Motioning one way, then the other, talking with her hands more than usual, she leaned forward and emphasized, “Nothing. You get it?”
Unable to respond, I looked through the windshield. I knew I was in the right place. Smoke still curled from broken windows. The front doors hung open. The house creaked and swayed with every little breeze.
Plop… Plop… Plink… Plop… Plop… Plink…
Water dripped from at least four places inside the house and more than I could count outside. The firefighters had been here because it dadgum sure hadn’t rained and the Hoopingarner House was still smoldering....
But there were no voices. No footsteps.
“No Kai,” I breathed a split-second before my heart skipped a beat and I couldn’t catch my breath.
For the first time in my five-hundred-and-sixty-five years, I froze. Where was my Mate? What had happened? Was Barney really sick enough to escape from jail and kidnap Kai just to punish me for not letting him sacrifice Maisie? How was I…?
The sound of tires careening over gravel had me out of the car, doing a spinning about-face, getting ready to let the fireballs fly. Then I saw the fender of Theresa’s Pepto Bismal Pink Harley Soft Tail and dropped my hands.
Sliding to a stop right beside me, she was off the motorcycle and standing in front of me in two seconds. “Maisie showed up at Marvelous Martha’s and wanted to come.”
“She what?” I spat.
“Don’t worry,” she assured, hanging the helmet she’d just taken off on the handlebars of her Harley.
“I dealt with it.” Raising her eyebrows and opening her eyes wide, she gave me a pointed look.
“I almost had to handcuff her to the brass rail of the bar to stop her, but in the end, she agreed to stay put.”
“How did she even know?”
“She said she could feel that you were upset and came running. She couldn’t find a babysitter, so she had all three babies in tow.”
“Thank the Goddess you stopped her. I love my nieces, but what hell would we do with three babies here?” Hand outstretched, my index finger pointing at what was left of Hoopingarner House.
“She just wants to help,” Maeve interjected from the back of Fancy.
“And she’s tired of being out of the action,” Theresa snorted.
Touching the tip of my nose with one hand and pointing at the White Tigress with the other, I nodded. “That right there. That’s the deal. Maisie wants to have her babies and raise hell at the same time.”
“True,” Zelda agreed, coming around the front of the car.
Opening the back hatch, I let Maeve and the dogs out. The minute my sister’s feet hit the ground, she went into doctor mode and took control.
“Okay, let’s find Kai.” Pointing toward the house, she directed, “I have done enough crime scene investigation to teach a class. I’ll start collecting evidence.”
“I’ll assess the scene. They taught us all about it at the Academy, and since I’m in Dispatch, I rarely get to flex those muscles,” Theresa pitched in.
“Flex away,” I sorta-kinda cheered, getting more worried about the fate of my Mate with every passing second.
Turning to ask Zelda what she thought, I realized she was already in Witch mode. Her Magic was everywhere. Red and orange bubbles floated on the breeze. Yellow and green sparkles touched down on every surface. Violet and blue smoke wafted in, out, and around everywhere else.
There was no way I was going to bother her. Zelda could handle her shit. There was no doubt about it. I just let her do her thing, knowing she would tell me the second she found anything.
“Arthur, Otis, Chewy, let’s go find…”
“Arroooooooo! Harr-uff, roo-ruff! Harr-uff, roo-ruff! Woof! Woof! Wooooooofffff!” Mona was losing her ever-loving mind, and my boy, Arthur, was off and running.
“Wait!” I yelled, but there was no use. All three of my boys were off and running with Mona leading the way.