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Kandi stalks back and forth but gives us concerned looks.
“She’s home?” I ask.
Kandi puts her hand to her headset, murmurs something, waits a moment, and then looks back at me and shakes her head.
“I have to call it in.” Kandi says quietly to me.
“You can’t!” Trin blurts out. “What about their mission? They need to do this. It’s important! Neither of you knows what it’s like. What we have to do…just to survive!”
I glance at her in surprise. I had no idea she knew so much about it. Darion hadn’t told me that much until a week ago. I push the anger back down inside me. It’s not going to help me now.
I peer up at Kandi and reluctantly shake my head. “No, Trin’s right. They need tonight to prepare. We can keep looking. Just for a few more hours.” My voice is thin and desperate. I want to call them. I know I should, but this is their important moment. I can’t distract them from it. Lives depend on them. So many.
Trin reaches out and grips my hand, squeezing hard. “We’ll find her.”
I pant and stand up. “We’ll keep looking. Just a few more hours.” I sound confident, in charge, determined. Which is good because I don’t feel any such emotion.
Trin looks at me and when she steps into the light, I see the nightmares and the horror back in her eyes. “What if someone took her?” Trin sputters out, gulping for air.
“We don’t know that!” I growl at her. “She could just be at a friend’s house.”
“We’ve checked. Twice.” Kandi offers and shakes her head.
I glare at Kandi. “She might be at the mall or some other place. We need to be sure.”
“We can’t wait too long,” Trin says, and oh, I know she’s right. But if I sound an alarm prematurely…decades of work. No, I just need to be certain. Trin is right, just a little bit longer before I call them.
But she couldn’t have been taken. Surely, lightning wouldn’t strike twice?
The idea sends ice through my blood.
I slump in defeat. My breath comes out in pants, half from running and the other from resisting the urge to start crying.
It’s late or early now. The night is bitterly cold, and my breath is coming out in clouds of white mist. We haven’t seen any sign of Elise. She’s just gone. We’ve talked to hundreds of people. No one has seen her. No one even remembers her.
She’s gone.
Vanished, and now I’m convinced. I don’t know what to do about it. Oh, I know what to do. I just don’t want to ruin this for them, but I will. For Elise.
Call your alphas.I reach for my phone, find Darion’s number, and hold the phone to my ear. I turn when I hear a thump. At this hour, with hardly any traffic, the sound is loud and out of place. The hairs on my neck lift. I turn to find Kandi laying face first on the asphalt.
“Kandi?” I ask and take a few steps towards her, hesitating while I look around.
My instincts scream at me, an icy feeling of being watched. I crouch and rock on the balls of my feet.
Wait, where is Trinity?
“Trin!” I scream and whirl around. I can’t see her. Fear rushes up at me, and I stand there poised. I have a choice. I can chase after Trin or stay and get Kandi help. I’ve made this choice a thousand times in my mind, but standing here now, I can’t…I just can’t. My eyes look into the dark, and my feet step back towards Kandi. It hurts to make that choice, but Kandi and the guys, they are my family now, and she needs me.
It’s just Kandi and me in the dark alley, but it feels wrong, ominous. I slam my phone back in my pocket and crouch beside my friend. Her chest rises and falls. And the relief makes me dizzy.
I roll Kandi onto her back and check her head. There’s blood running down her face. She looks perfectly fine. Just asleep on her face in the middle of the street. I drag her to the side of the road.
A noise alerts me to movement behind me. Thank god, Trin is back. “Hey, Trin, give me a hand, will you?”
The hand that lands on my shoulder is heavy and belongs to a man. I stare at the fingers and look down at Kandi. I feel a moment of regret that I’ve brought this to her.
“If you behave, we’ll leave your friend alive.”
