Deuce (Swamp Desires Book 1) (11 page)

Well, this just keeps getting better and better by the minute. I lay in bed for hours until whatever spell was holding me down finally lifts. I jump out of bed and run to the deck. Signs of a struggle are evident. There are droplets of blood on the floor. I reach down and run my finger over the blood to see if I can scent who the blood belongs to. As soon as I bring me hand to my nose to smell the blood on my finger, I instantly know who the blood belongs to. My heart falls to the floor.

I search the bushes next to the boat and everywhere around it. She is nowhere in sight. I can smell about five other scents. Two of them male and the rest are female. Black magic is still pungent on the air around the houseboat, especially around the front door. She is gone, and I couldn’t stop them. What a fucking failure I am. I cannot even save the love of my life. I do the only thing I know to do; I run back inside and text my brothers and tell them to hurry. I explain in short detail what has happened. Within ten minutes, they show up on the deck of Adele’s houseboat, backpacks on their backs and ready to go.

I am beyond pissed. My hands keep switching between human hands and alligator claws. I want blood for whoever took my girl. If a hair on her pretty little head is out of place, I will fucking rip them to shreds and eat them alive, piece by fucking piece. Oh God, please let nothing bad happen to her. She is my heart and soul. She keeps my beast at bay. With her gone, I will go mad. The beast wants out. He wants justice for what has happened, for taking what is his. I pace back and forth on the deck. My brothers are quiet for a while. They are scenting the area, each one paying close attention to the bushes and the surrounding area, trying to pick up scents and maybe a trail. Hopefully, they cannot travel by magic very far.

Pierre goes inside and makes a fresh pot of coffee. He searches the fridge for ingredients to make us all something to eat. I have to eat to calm the beast, otherwise he will tear at my skin until I let him out. Food helps us think clearer. It helps us calm our beasts long enough for us to come up with a plan. I look over to Alexandre, and he has a look of utter shock on his face. What the hell, dude? I know that look; it is the look of scenting your mate. Oh, for fuck’s sake. One of her captors must be his mate. But I thought it was one of the missing women. Maybe she is missing and is being held captive and forced to use her powers against others. 

“Zander, what do you smell?” I ask.

“I do not know if you will believe me or not, brother, but one of the female scents is very familiar to me. It calls to my beast. But there is an underlying scent mixed with hers. It is dark and evil, it is like she is being controlled by whatever this dark spirit or magic is. She is scared. Man, this is nuts,” he says.

“Oh crap. This is not what we need right now. You think she is being controlled? The things she is doing are against her will?” I ask.

“I believe it with all my heart and soul, man. Her scent in innately good and pure, not evil.”

“Hey, come on in, guys. Breakfast is ready. We have lots to discuss, but not on empty stomachs,” Pierre says.

We all head into the houseboat to fuel our stomachs. I grab coffee first. What a way to wake up this morning. This is not how I wanted to wake up this morning. I planned on loving my girl some more this morning. All I want now is to get my girl
back
.

“We need to wait till nightfall to go searching for Adele, Deuce. We cannot be in our gator forms during the day. We have already cancelled the swamp tours for tonight. If we are seen during the day, it will cause an uproar and panic. I am sorry, but we have to wait till nightfall. I do not believe that they have taken her far from here. Magic does not let you travel long distances in the form of smoke. I overheard what Zander was telling you. This does not make things any easier. They will not have any of the witches guarding Adele, Zander. Your witch will be moved to a different place; this I can assure you.”

“Man, how the hell did you become the wise one?” Sebastien asks Pierre.

“I am not sure, Sebastien. I guess I am the one of reason this time. I know if I was in Deuce and Zander’s shoes right now, I would be going nuts, just as they are. This is not easy on any of us. For we can all feel each other’s pain. We have always been able to know if one of us was hurt or not,” Pierre replies.

“Listen, I know we have to wait till nightfall. But I think we need to call in Jos and Dean. We may need their tigers on this. Between the six of us, together we are bound to find Adele. Us in the water and them on land. We can cover so much more ground that way,” I say.

“Don’t worry; I have already contacted them. They will be here at dusk,” Pierre states.

“Thank God you are the levelheaded one this morning, because it is taking every bit of control I have to stay calm and not destroy stuff right now. This is killing me. Did you notice the blood on the deck? It’s her blood. They have hurt her in some way. My gut is telling me that it is only the beginning of what they have in store for my Adele. We have come together as one. She has agreed to be mine forever, and I hers for all time. Please help me stay calm, because I am falling apart at the fucking seams here!” I yell.

“Deuce, you need to take deep breaths. I know this is not easy for you or your beast. But, for her, you need to stay calm. We will get her back. In the process, we will tear apart the ones responsible for taking her, except for the female who Zander scented. If she is even with Adele. Zander, they will not have her in the same place as Adele. They have to know that people will come looking for Adele. If they have been watching her like the letters say, then they know she is not alone anymore.”

Zander goes back to the house to get the maps we have of the area. When he returns, we go over the maps while we are waiting for dusk to come. I think we might have figured out the best course of action, but I want to go over it with Jos and Dean. We all decide to take a nap to rest up; we will need all of our strength. I do not think I will be sleeping much until I have her back in my arms. But, I still try to lie down in her bed to rest.

As soon as my head hits the pillow, I am encased in her cinnamon and honeysuckle scent. I can still smell our lovemaking on the sheets. The way her body responded to my kisses and touch. No resistance at all from her. She knew and knows that we are meant for each other. When our bodies joined as one last night, it was the most magical thing I have ever experienced in my hundred years. I felt the ground shake at our joining, the electricity sparking between us was blinding for a few moments.

I cannot help but look at things so differently now. How can one person have such an impact on me? Everything about her seeps deep inside my soul and has attached itself to me for all time. Eventually, I fall asleep curled up to her pillow, taking her scent deep into me to help keep me calm and relaxed.

I slowly open my eyes. Somehow, I am seeing what Adele is seeing right now. I am not sure how, but I am thankful. I try to take everything in, so it will better help me to find her. I am in a dark room with no windows. I am in a cage with iron bars surrounding me. My hands and ankles are shackled to the wall with iron shackles. I can smell two guards outside the door. With many more outside the perimeter. There is no other female scents other than Adele’s. Pierre was right; the females that came with the guards to capture Adele are no longer there.

Three hooded men come into the room. They are carrying Billy clubs and bats. What the hell are they going to do with those things? The only way out of this room is through the door that is outside of the cell. I can tell that they are in a small building of sorts. On the other side of the door has to be at least fifteen men. We can handle them, not a problem. I can feel how weak Adele is. She is so tired and the iron has made her extremely weak. I can tell that it is still daylight out.

The hooded men with the weapons start hitting her with them. I feel each blow like it is my own body being beaten to a pulp. They are beating her senseless, to keep her strength down. She will be too weak to even shift if the shackles are taken off her. She closes her eyes and all I can see is black. I feel the bat making contact with her legs and knees repeatedly. One man takes a Billy club and connects with her back, her shoulders, and arms. The last hooded figure gets on top of her and starts pounding her in the face and stomach. As quickly as the beating started, it stops. She lies on the floor, badly beaten and broken.

Damn it! When I get my hands on those fuckers, they will pay! She shakes from the pain of the beating, and blood is running down her face from a gash caused by too many punches to her face with iron knuckles. She shuts down her body to rest and heal. Hopefully, she can heal enough to try to escape later on. At least that is the plan I am getting from her mind. The guards unshackle her. She is too weak to move and fight right now. Little do they know, with her supernatural powers, she heals very quickly.

“My love, listen to me. We are coming for you at dusk. Keep this link open as much as you can, so that we can find you quickly. Please don’t give up. I love you, Adele. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me and soon you will be back in my arms. Please rest and heal until we get close. I will give you a signal when we have arrived. Then you shift and take as many as you can out, and we will take care of the rest.”

“Deuce, please hurry. I am so weak from the iron. I need to rest, to heal. I will rest until I get your signal, my love. I love you, today, tomorrow, the rest of my life,” she says. Then she goes limp. She has shut down her body in order to heal.

I quickly wake. I am sweating and can feel the brunt of every beating she has received. My back, legs, and face hurt so badly. I get up to go look in the mirror. I am shocked at what I see. My face is covered in bruises. I lift my shirt and turn so that I can look at my back. It is covered in bruises as are my legs. Every injury she received, I know have. My body aches in every possible place. I need to shift soon, so that I can heal. I need to be at full strength. I walk out of her bedroom to find Dean and Jos have arrived along with Blaze, Gabriel, and Matthias.

“Oh God, Deuce, what happened to you? Why are you covered in bruises?” Joslyn asks.

“I seem to be able to receive what Adele is receiving or has just received. Every bruise is what has happened to her. I saw it in my dream. She is badly beaten, but they have taken the iron shackles off her, thinking that they are safe because she is too badly beaten to fight back. Right now she is resting to regain her strength so that she can shift to heal and fight her way out of there. I told her we were coming to her. She is to wait for my signal, then she is to shift.”

“We have come to help you, Deuce. You can use the extra men for this rescue mission. Plus, we have been ordered by yours truly to help. Not that we wouldn’t have come to help, anyway,” Blaze says.

“We are all family now. Family comes when one of their own needs help. So we are here to help as we will always be,” Matthias adds.

“Do not fret. We will get your girl back. Skylar, Rhiannon, and Sandra are at the house. They have connected with us and will help us from there. They cannot leave the babies unattended. But rest assured, they can help us from a distance, Deuce,” Gabriel explains.

“Thank you all so much. Words cannot express what this means to me,” I say. “Alexandre, when I was dreaming, I could only scent males there. The females that were with them to capture Adele are no longer there.”

“I figured as much. We will find her another day. I have a feeling that this all has to play out in order for me to have my mate. That is when I will find her. Skylar has told me so, in a dream last night. I believe her,” he responds.

“My Skylar is wiser than all of us. She can see things that we cannot, therefore she knows what the future will hold for each of us. We may not like some of the things she tells us, but she is never wrong. All things will work in the end. Each of you will find your mates and live happily ever after. But it will take some time for that to happen,” Dean says, pride for his daughter evident in his voice.

“Well shit, I know this is going to be hard on all of us, but there is a silver lining, brothers. We each will have our mates, when we are supposed to have them. Now, let’s go get Deuce’s mate,” Pierre says.

“We should stay together, but we need to shift and take to the water. We are faster that way. The rest of you follow on land along side of the bayou. Dean, Jos, and Matthias, shift into your tigers. Blaze, you have the speed of a vampire, and Gabriel, well, you are the right hand of God and have immense speed already. We have narrowed it down to three abandoned buildings on the other side of the swamp. It should take us an hour to get there. Once we are close to each building, I will know immediately which one she is in then we attack from all directions on that building. I will let her know that we have arrived through our mind link. Then once she shifts and attacks her guards, we will know where she is,” I say, assigning ‘jobs’ to each.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Sebastien says.

“Well, then what the hell are we waiting for? Let’s go, people,” Jos says.

We all follow her outside the houseboat. My brothers and I jump into the water and quickly shift. Jos, Dean, and Matthias shift into their tiger forms and we all head north. In gator form, my body has healed. I no longer have the bruises from earlier. The water feels so good against my rough, scaly exterior. I love being in my gator form. It gives me so much freedom. I have no worries in this form, or at least, I used to not have any worries in this form.