Looking for Lucy Jo (8 page)

‘What do you mean?’ asked Barber.

‘I don’t know what it is, but I can feel something and I just know that it’s not her. Dad, Declan, Arabella you’ve got to believe me. Lucy Jo is alive. I just know it.’

‘Then who is the little lassie?’ asked Theodore.

Arabella and Declan looked at each other sadly.

‘I wish we knew.’ replied Arabella.

‘Let’s go and find out. Maybe there’s something we can do. Maybe we can help her?’ said Emma.

Arabella shook her head. ‘I’m afraid that’s impossible, Emma. She’s dead. We can’t bring her back to life. That’s just… impossible.’

‘But… But…’

‘There are no buts, I’m afraid,’ said Declan. ‘I wish there were. If only I could somehow pass on my ability to arise from the dead, but I can’t. I’m sorry.’

‘Are we… are we… absolutely certain that the little girl isn’t my Lu…Lu…Lucy Jo?’ Patrick could barely utter the words.

‘If Lana has a feeling then I trust her one hundred percent. And you should, too,’ replied Declan.

‘But… perhaps we should go to the…’ Emma swallowed loudly. ‘The morgue. So Dad can see for himself?’

‘No need, we have someone working there who will send us a picture as soon as the body arrives. Let’s just sit tight and wait,’ Arabella said quietly, looking at her watch. ‘The doctor should be here shortly. Theo, could you please carry Sonia through into one of the bedrooms?’

Nodding, he bent down and picked her up as if she weighed nothing at all, before walking down a bright corridor adjacent to the kitchen.

Patrick didn’t say a word, he just sat with his face in his hands. It broke Emma’s heart looking at him. Standing, she approached him and put her arms around his shoulders.

‘Don’t worry, Dad. Lucy Jo is going to be fine. We’re going to find her.’

He nodded sadly and hugged her back before Lana walked over and hugged them too.

oOo

The little girl who had died was a seven year old Bulgarian child who had wandered off from her parents in a nearby town and walked down to the beach. Her parents were beside themselves with worry until the scream of a passer-by had alerted them to her lifeless body, floating on the water’s edge. All life had disappeared from her previously bright blue eyes, and her scraggly blonde hair had wrapped itself around her neck. Her sobbing father and wailing mother had carried her away from the waves and laid her carefully on the sand, hoping against hope that she wasn’t dead, just unconscious. Sadly that simply wasn’t the case. The little girl had drowned. It had only taken a matter of minutes.

It had taken him a few days to convince her, but eventually Eleanor had given in and allowed Diarmuid and his classmates to board the plane with her and the other supernaturals. Destination: Algarve.

Diarmuid was determined to be there for his girl, Emma Jane, and to help in the search for her kidnapped little sister.

Although the mood was rather sombre during the flight, the group had tried to cheer themselves up, playing tricks on each other, taking advantage of being surrounded solely by other supernaturals and using their powers for fun.

Eleanor had turned a blind eye, instead concentrating on the large file she had created over the past few days. In it were details of every unusual occurrence that had happened in the Algarve region and beyond since Lucy Jo’s disappearance. She had fought the likes of Sthenelaus for hundreds of years, but never before had anyone made such a personal attack on any of her students or her students’ families. Anger grew in the pit of her stomach and she felt the stress rise until she wanted to scream.

Are you alright, Eleanor?

The voice hadn’t spoken aloud, the words simply popping into her head. Turning, Eleanor watched Ava, who stood and left the others. Walking towards her Guardian, Ava practised her power.

You look troubled.

Eleanor smiled and nodded sadly. ‘You’re quite right, my dear.’

‘Anything I can do to help?’ Ava asked, aloud this time.

‘You’re already doing it, by being here. I had wanted to avoid bringing any of my students towards any sign of danger, but I think in this case it was probably a good idea. That poor little girl,’ she said looking out of the window.

Ava placed her hand momentarily on Eleanor’s before she turned away, going back to her seat.

‘These students are pretty special,’ Beau Madigan said from the seat opposite Eleanor.

‘Your daughter among them,’ she smiled back as they both looked over at the fifteen year old with a mass of red curls at the other end of the plane. She was sitting next to Cassie, who also had a mass of curls, but hers were blonde. She was tall and strong, quite different to Daisy’s more petite frame. Even though there was a year between them, the two had bonded over their ability to move exceedingly quickly. Eleanor and Beau watched as they talked quietly, looking very serious.

‘Yes,’ Beau muttered. ‘She has grown into a remarkable young woman.’

He fidgeted slightly with his fingers and sighed.

‘Beau,’ said Eleanor, ‘don’t blame yourself for what happened. It is done now, and you are back together, where you belong. It was a tough year for both of you. Don’t forget that. We all deal with grief in different ways. Besides, that year alone,’ she said, nodding her head towards the back of the plane, ‘has made her a much stronger Watcher. She’s special, Daisy is. But I think you knew that already.’

Beau’s smile belied the pain he still felt at the loss of his wife, Esther, but smile he did. He was determined to give his only daughter a better life, and that began with Praxos.

‘Thank you, Eleanor. For everything.’

‘You know you really must stop thanking me,’ she laughed. ‘You do it almost every day.’

Beau’s smile reached his eyes this time. ‘I don’t think I’ll ever stop.’

Undoing her seatbelt, Eleanor stood and patted him on the shoulder before turning her attention to the group of supernaturals she’d gathered together to help in the hunt for Lucy Jo. They were silently sitting at the other end of the plane, a couple of them clearly uncomfortable in the air.

Eleanor approached and took a seat next to a very attractive man with chiselled features. He smiled warmly at her.

‘Glad you came?’ she asked.

‘I’m glad you asked me to come,’ he replied cheekily.

‘I knew a man of your skills would come in very handy.’

‘Is that the only reason you invited me along?’

Eleanor blushed slightly. ‘You already know the answer to that question, Giovanni.’

‘I’m sorry I can only stay for a couple of days, but I will do everything I can to help.’

‘I know, and for that I am exceedingly grateful.’

She and the leader of the London Werewolves had become close since his assistance with finding the Temporal Stone, several months earlier, much to the amusement of her students, who often made silly quips about her being a dog lover. But Eleanor took it all in her stride. She knew everyone was delighted with the pairing, especially her.

Giovanni wasn’t a shy man and he took her hand in his and smiled, before closing his eyes. ‘Why don’t you try and get some shuteye before we land?’ he whispered.

She thought for a second and then followed suit.

oOo

‘Diarmuid!’ screeched Emma Jane as she ran down the steps by the pool and straight into his open arms. They ignored the other teenagers’ stupid comments and kissed each other, laughing. ‘I didn’t know you were coming. I didn’t know you were all coming,’ she said as Lana joined them, hugging each and every one of them—except for Liam, of course. That would be too weird after they’d broken up before the summer. Plus, she didn’t think Ava would appreciate it. Maybe Barber wouldn’t, either.

Liam whistled appreciatively as they all followed them up the steps and out onto the terrace where they stood for a moment eyeing the view.

‘It’s quite special, isn’t it?’ asked Emma.

‘You can say that again, Em,’ Imran laughed as Nisha grabbed his hand.

‘Hey… you two finally got together huh?’ Lana laughed, pointing, making them both blush.

‘Yeah,’ Nisha said quietly. ‘A few weeks ago.’

‘Perfect couple,’ Emma added before they all followed her indoors, where Arabella, Eleanor, Declan, Beau, Patrick and all the other supernaturals were filling each other in. Even Theodore had stuck around to lend a hand, much to Eleanor’s delight.

‘Theo, it’s been so long,’ she said as they hugged. ‘I’d forgotten you’d moved to Portugal after Inverness.’

‘I needed some sun, lassie,’ he chuckled, before they all headed downstairs to what had become the hub for the search for Lucy Jo.

‘You kids hang out for a while. Help yourselves to anything in the kitchen,’ Arabella said.

‘Except the beer,’ Declan added, looking specifically at Liam and Rupert, who put his hand to his forehead in a salute.

‘Shouldn’t we come and give you a hand?’ asked Emma, who was practically glued to Diarmuid’s side.

‘No need, not just yet, Emma,’ Eleanor replied. ‘Let us get settled. Don’t worry, we’ll call you when we need you. If you go out, please stay close.’

The teenagers all nodded as the adults left them to it.

‘This is wicked,’ Rupert said, falling onto the large sofa.

Emma gave him a dirty look.

‘Oh man, Emma. I’m sorry,’ he muttered, sitting upright. ‘For a second there, I forgot why we’re here. Sorry, girls.’

‘That’s okay, Rupert,’ Lana replied.

‘What news has there been so far?’ asked Elliot, who had stayed pretty quiet throughout the whole journey.

‘We had an awful scare this morning. A little girl turned up dead. But it wasn’t Lucy Jo, thank God. I mean, it’s so sad for her and her family… erm, y…you know what I mean,’ Emma stuttered.

‘It’s okay, sis. We know.’

‘That’s it? Nothing else?’ asked Rupert.

Both girls shook their heads.

‘No visions, nothing?’ asked Cassie.

‘Nothing,’ Emma sighed.

‘Oh man,’ Rupert mumbled.

‘I know, right? I feel so helpless. I wish there was something we could do to find her,’ Lana said quietly.

‘Have you started an actual search… you know, like a door to door?’ Daisy suggested.

‘It’s not as easy as that, unfortunately. The Algarve’s a big place, when you look at it like that. We need a starting point,’ Lana replied.

‘So what are they doing downstairs?’

‘Trying to find that starting point, I guess.’ Emma said, as she and Diarmuid sat down at the dining table.

‘Why don’t I put the kettle on while we have a brainstorm of our own?’ asked Moira, who yawned and stretched like a cat before she took off her glasses, gave them a quick wipe and went into the kitchen.

‘Sounds like a plan to me. Thanks, Moira,’ Emma smiled.

‘My pleasure, honey. Now, who wants what?’

oOo

‘…the main issue here is that since we put out a Praxos alert, we’ve been absolutely inundated with possible sightings covering the length and breadth of the Algarve and beyond. So, unless we bring in more Watchers from around Europe, we’ll never be able to look into every single sighting.’ Eleanor sighed as she placed the last of the red dots on to the map. A map that looked like a giant red dot, considering how many were actually placed on it.

Patrick nodded, as did the others. ‘But you guys are superhuman, right?’ he asked gingerly. ‘There must be something you can do with your powers to narrow down the search area? ‘

Eleanor smiled warmly as Barber opened the door and tiptoed in before she looked at the rest of the group. ‘We’ve already used some of our abilities, but it hasn’t helped enormously, I’m afraid. Giovanni sent word to the local wolves, who are still out there now. We gave them one of Lucy Jo’s teddy bears so they have a good scent to follow, but as yet, nothing.’

‘What if this guy has already taken her out of the country?’ Patrick asked.

‘We don’t think that’s the case. We are being led to believe that he is toying with us. He’s playing a game of cat and mouse. And he’s unlikely to remove the one thing we want from him,’ Declan added.

Patrick let out a deep sigh. ‘And the general search?’

‘So far it has brought us nothing,’ Arabella answered as she sat down on the armchair.

‘This guy must want something from you?’ Patrick asked.

‘So far, we’re unsure about that,’ Eleanor replied.

‘Didn’t you say something about a stone? The… Temporal Stone, or something? You mentioned he tried to steal it from you? Maybe that’s what he’s after?’ said Patrick
‘It’s a possibility, but an unlikely one. I fear he wants people, not objects.’

‘People?’

‘Maybe Barber, maybe Lana Beth, maybe even me. Who knows?’ she replied.

‘Can we send him a message?’ Barber asked.

‘Probably. What are you thinking?’ she replied.

‘We make a trade. Me for the little girl?’ Barber offered.

‘Barber, no. He’ll kill you this time.’

‘I’m prepared for that.’

Patrick put his hand on his daughter’s boyfriend’s shoulder and shook his head. ‘Thank you, Barber but nobody dies. Not on my watch. Not even a vampire.’

‘Spoken like a true copper,’ said Declan, from the corner of the room, ‘but Barber has a point. We could send out the message that we’re prepared to negotiate. It doesn’t mean we give him what he wants. We just let him think that.’

Everyone nodded.

‘Okay then, let’s do it. Start spreading the word. Prepared to negotiate. Got that?’ Eleanor asked, as people started making phone calls to their contacts on the street.

‘Now what?’ asked Arabella.

‘Now we wait.’ said Eleanor.

OoO

‘I don’t like this, I can’t understand a word they’re saying,’ grumbled the little girl as she crossed her arms and pouted.

Kimberly chuckled and stood up from the dining table where she’d been reading the newspaper. Grabbing the remote control, she flicked through the channels until she found some English cartoons playing on screen. ‘How’s that? Better?’

The girl’s eyes grew round and a large grin appeared on her face. ‘Monster High!’ she squealed. ‘That’s my favourite!’

Kimberly smiled and sat down beside her. After a couple of minutes, she was laughing with the child. ‘You’re right. This is really cool.’

‘Told you.’

Archie stood watching from the doorway when Stan suddenly appeared. ‘Why isn’t she pining for home? She’s not mentioned her mum or dad since we left the rig.’

Stanley shrugged with a smirk.

Turning to face him, Archie’s face became darker. ‘What did you do?’

‘Nothing, nothing.’

‘Stanley,’ Archie growled.

‘Nothing to hurt her, Jeeze, Archie. I just did what Dad told me to do. It’s just a temporary spell until he finds the memory clan, that’s all.’

‘A spell? There’s a witch here?’

‘Not now. She came, she did the spell, and she left.’

‘And she did nothing to hurt her?’ Archie asked, glancing at the little girl giggling in front of the TV.

‘Nothing, I swear.’