Chapter Twenty - One Jalisa
Chapter Twenty-One
Jalisa
Ivan was missing. And not because he’d left me five days ago.
It seemed everyone knew how to get in touch with him but me, and no one was talking.
I would be leaving the human realm with a lot less friends.
I had stubbornly waited to go home so that he’d have time to come to his senses.
There was no way I would believe he’d completely forget me that quickly, despite Pierce’s warning.
We were stronger together. He was an idiot for leaving.
Had he learned nothing from my mistake when I left?
I didn’t know whether to be sad or angry at him.
However, right now, I was worried. Because if Marcus was calling me to say his brother was reporting Ivan missing, something was very wrong.
We knew we had targets on our backs, and now Ivan was out there on his own.
We were only lucky that Marcus’ brother, Harris, had eyes on him and that the restaurant Ivan was working at called him when Ivan didn’t show up for work.
Knowing all that we did, we didn’t take that lightly.
Harris immediately sent someone to Ivan’s place and verified that Ivan hadn’t just taken off.
He then had one of his witches take an item from Ivan’s place to magically locate him.
They found nothing. Either Ivan was under a cloaking spell, or he was no longer in the human realm. I refused to believe any other option. If he were dead, even with our bond muted, I would have felt that. However, I felt a tightness in my chest from missing the bond. No, Ivan was alive.
“I need you to unmute the bond,” I told Billie as soon as I received the news that evening.
She nodded, waving her hand for me to sit down on her living room couch. “Do you think that will help you locate him?”
I took a seat, anxiousness clawing at my insides. “It should. We’re bonded. I should know wherever he is.”
One of her mates, a light brown eyed vampire with short curly hair named Tyson, walked into the space.
He looked at us with empathetic eyes. I’d come to like him the most in the pack.
He wasn’t what I expected at all from a vampire, with his friendly nature despite the dynamic personalities around him.
“When Billie went missing, Lila did a locator spell, but we didn’t have any luck until we all held on to something of Billie’s,” he explained.
“We then knew exactly where she was even though she was under a cloaking spell. I’d like to think it was mostly due to the fact that I was bonded to her.
None of the others were at that time.” He looked over to Billie with a sheepish grin, and she winked back at him.
I shifted in my seat, ready to get to action. “That’s good to know. So, Billie, you can unmute the bond, and then we can do a locator spell. Ivan has a shirt he left me. He said in one of his letters to me that it was in exchange for the one of mine he took.”
Billie tapped her chin. “Let’s do the spells in the guest house. You were both there for almost a month, it’ll have his essence, which helps.”
The three of us then gathered in the tiny space, Tyson there for morale support.
In no time, Billie was able to undo the muting.
I’d wondered if Ivan had considered that I would do such a thing.
He thought he was doing me a favor by muting our bond, or more realistically, dampening it.
However, he didn’t consider that I would undo it.
Or did he think that I would abide by his wishes?
Until this moment, I had. Despite my anger about his actions, I also understood his logic.
There was a not so deep part of me that didn’t want to face the pain of having a mate who, through no fault of his own, didn’t want me.
Although I felt the absence of him, it would be so much worse if we were still bonded.
He had spared me, and he wouldn’t even remember it.
As soon as the bond came back, I felt like a weight had been lifted off me, but also, I noticed what I couldn’t determine before. Just as Harris’ people had said, Ivan was not here. I didn’t feel his presence in this realm. “He’s really gone,” I whispered more to myself than the others.
“Don’t freak out yet,” Tyson stated, leaning against the kitchen counter. “I almost crashed out when Billie went missing, but you have to focus. At least you don’t feel him in pain. That could mean he’s not hurt. The fact that you feel able to breathe better means he’s still alive.”
Billie nodded beside me in encouragement. She placed a hand on Ivan’s shirt that I was clutching and began to chant her location spell, her other free hand hovering over her tablet that showed a detailed map.
Unfortunately, her locator spell did not work as fast as the unmuting. I growled in frustration. “It’s not working, what’s going on? Should we get Lila and have her do the spell?”
Billie frowned, shaking her head. “No. I’m actually better at spells than Lila. I think this means that Ivan isn’t here. As in he’s not in the human realm. Like you thought.”
“But he’s not dead,” Tyson cut in, reassuringly.
I clutched Ivan’s shirt tighter, taking a deep breath to calm my nerves. His peppermint scent did actually soothe me, but only momentarily. “I think then that he’s back home.”
Tyson pushed away from the counter. “You think he went home? Without telling the others?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. That would be odd. That seems to go against whatever he’s been doing. Why move and get a job if he wasn’t planning to stay?”
“Would the others back home tell you if he was there?”
“I think so, considering the circumstances. I don’t want to take any chances to think he left of his own accord. I need to go home. Now.”
I stood up and grabbed my bag holding the items I packed. I had already intended to leave the next day, so I was ready.
“One of us can go with you,” Billie stated. “I can ask Daniel since I know how your court feels about humans.”
I placed a few items I still hadn’t packed inside my bag. Tossing them without a care. “No, it’s fine. I know exactly where I need to go and who to bring with me.”
“Will you be able to locate him there without a witch?”
I gave a curt nod. “I don’t need a witch. I have my sword.” I turned to give them both a smile that I knew looked more crazed than friendly. “Who needs magic when you can threaten people with death?”
I then took out my portal amulet to head back home. “Tell everyone I’m sorry I couldn’t give a proper goodbye, but I really appreciated getting to know you all. Humans can be quite lovely after all.”
Billie quickly walked over to me and gave me a tight hug. “Who are you going to threaten with a sword?”
I wrapped my arms around her in return. “No one special, just my parents.”
She released me, holding me back at arm’s length. “That sounds very problematic.”
I gave a nonchalant humph and placed the teleporting amulet on the ground. I then whispered the word that would open the portal. When the familiar outline of a golden door appeared, I grabbed my bag and stepped through. “See you again one day, friends.”
I heard the pair call back their goodbyes before the portal closed.
Once back in my realm, I wasted no time in asking the portal guard if I could save myself some time and use the portal to send me to Nodoor.
I didn’t have the time to travel the hours it would take to get there.
I had to pay a hefty price because it was not a scheduled portal usage, but it was worth it.
When I arrived at my parents’ house, I unlocked the door, still having my key, and left my luggage near the front of the large three-story house. Seeing both transporters in the circular driveway, I knew both my parents were home.
I stepped inside the grand foyer. The space was as I remembered.
Dark wooden flooring and white walls, gold accessories and trimming, floor-to-ceiling windows, boring scenic artwork, and a massive crystal chandelier hanging above me encasing floating orbs to light the space.
My family was quite wealthy, and they wanted you to know it.
No matter how gawdy. I thought about Pierce’s tales of my family and got upset all over again.
“Mother, Father! We need to talk!”
Seconds later, both my parents appeared.
My mother walked down the winding staircase facing the grand entryway, her hair under a satin turban.
She was dressed in a long silk nightgown with patching robe, which made me suddenly realize that it was night here.
How long had I been gone fae time? That wasn’t important now, nor did I feel the least bit guilty that I hadn’t said goodbye to them before leaving.
I’d left a notice that I was going out of town for a while but said nothing about going to the human realm.
My father soon appeared from the back of the house, still dressed for the day in a button-down shirt and dark trousers.
Both held surprised looks on their face.
“Honey!” my mother exclaimed. “Where have you been?”
When she finally made it down the stairs, she opened her arms and hugged me. I stiffened in her embrace. “This is not a social call,” I replied, stepping away from her.
My father paused, his shock turning to dismay. “Is that how you respond after being gone for four months! We were worried sick.”
I rolled my eyes. “I was gone much longer than that before.”
My mother patted my back, looking between my father and me. “We know dear, which is why we were concerned. We thought you were hiding from us again.”
“I should have stayed in hiding.”
My father released a breath of annoyance. “What’s going on now? I thought we settled things.”
“Where is he?”
My parents exchanged confused looks. “Where is who?” my father asked.
“Don’t play dumb. What did you do with Ivan?”
“We didn’t do anything with your husband. Why would we?”
“So, you don’t recall your threats?”
“That was years ago.”