Search (The Empire Chronicles #2) (21 page)

“Good idea. Now hold still.”

I gritted my teeth as he put tape over my mouth. Was I really going down this easily? Where was the fight in me? I had to try once more. For all I knew, they’d hurt Tiffany anyway.

I went to kick Murphy, but my legs were thrown out from under me, and I ended up on my back. Murphy hovered over me. “I thought you were going to make this easy.”

Tiffany shrieked as the bear twisted her arm.

My whole body shuddered. I needed to stop making things worse. I nodded, hoping Murphy understood that I was agreeing. He held out a heavy fabric jacket I couldn’t place for a moment. Then the reality hit me.

He saw the understanding cross my face as he tied me into a straight jacket. “I wouldn’t want you transforming on me, now would I.”

My fear climbed exponentially. A straight jacket? I’d be helpless. I took one more look at Tiffany. She was whimpering through the hand that covered her mouth. I had to stop thinking of myself. I nodded.

“Good. We’ll let Goldilocks go as soon as you’re on the plane.”

I hoped he’d be true to his word, but I didn’t have any other choice. And a plane? I was going to be on a plane with these crazies. I couldn’t fathom what they were going to do with me. The only thing keeping me sane was the hope that I’d be seeing Vera soon.

I stumbled around as Murphy and two bears led me toward a waiting boat. Murphy pushed me in, and the boat left the shore immediately. I kept expecting Toby to find me before we arrived at the plane. I’d taken for granted the comfort and security he gave me with his presence, and his absence left me terrified and ready to curl up into a ball. It’s not like I couldn’t take care of myself, but being alone with a bunch of terrifying men, let alone bears, wasn’t something I was ever going to be comfortable with.

The only peace of mind I had was that maybe now that they had me they’d leave my friends alone. I kept picturing Tiffany’s bloody arm. I clenched my eyes shut. I refused to let something like that, or worse, ever happen again.

My anger burned, and I felt the transformation starting. I was sure my eyes had changed, and my wings begged to come out. Agony like I’d never felt before hit me as my wings fought for release. The pain was almost too much to handle. My back felt both on fire and bruised.

We reached the plane, and Murphy picked me up and carried me inside. I could barely breathe, and the demeaning treatment only made it worse. He strapped me into a seat and sat directly across from me right as we took off.

“Are you comfortable?” Murphy laughed, watching me with amusement.

His laugh made me angrier, only making the sensation worse. Finally, I figured out what to do. I closed my eyes. I had to calm myself. I tried to take a deep breath, but the tape was in my way. I thought happy thoughts of growing up with Vera and of Toby at the waterfall. Eventually, my body stopped fighting. Hailey had been right. Controlling your emotions was one of the hardest, yet most important parts of being a Pteron.

The grizzly came after me, showing his teeth as his large body lunged toward mine. I jumped to the side at the last second, letting his heavy, furry body collide with the pavement rather than me. I moved to attack him when a large claw grabbed me from behind. I turned just in time to hit the black bear hard enough to send him flying. He fell in a heap, making a satisfying sound in the process.

I glanced around for Casey again. I never should have let her out of my sight. Everything had been so peaceful one minute, and then the next, the lights were out and at least fifty bears were attacking us. Owen immediately led the few humans to safety. The bears had the numbers, but we had the strength.

The area around the landing strip had quieted down. The only bears in sight were crumpled up on the ground. The Laurent’s men were already handling the mess.

I searched for Casey again. She had to be somewhere. She was stronger than the bears now, and she wouldn’t have been taken without a serious struggle. She was fine. She had to be fine. I searched around for Jared. Maybe he’d taken her somewhere safe to hide. I found Cade first.

I nearly knocked him over in my hurry to get to him. “Have you seen Casey?”

“No… but you’re not the first one to ask me that question.” His light brown hair was a mess from the wind. I’d never seen the guy look so out of sorts.

“What do you mean? Who else asked you?”

“Jared.” He stuffed a hand in the pocket of his slacks. “He was hoping you had her.”

My heart sunk. If Jared didn’t have her, I knew we were in trouble. “I wish I did.” I glanced around the darkness. She had to be somewhere.

Hailey ran up to us, out of breath. “Have you seen Casey?”

I struggled to stay standing. If something happened to Casey, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I fought the despair. I couldn’t wallow. I had to find her. “No. I’m guessing you haven’t either.”

“No.” Hailey sighed. “I think Murphy got her.”

She was only stating what I already knew, but I wondered what made her so sure. “Why? What did you see?”

She crossed her arms over her now ripped bridesmaid dress. Hailey had been just as big a part of the fight as the rest of us. “I didn’t see anything, but Tiffany did.”

“Tiffany?” The human friend of Allie and Hailey? “Where is she?”

“This way.” Hailey jogged off, and I followed, vaguely aware that Cade was at my side. He seemed to always be around when the women in my life were at risk.

Hailey stopped in front of a shaking Tiffany. She was huddled in a blanket, sitting on the patio of the largest of the restaurants. “Tiff, tell Toby what you told me.”

“They took her. They just yanked her away.”

“Who’s they?”

“These huge guys. And one was a bear.” She opened the blanket. She was applying pressure to a cut on her arm. “The bear cut me.” She winced.

“Can you be more descriptive? What did they look like?” I tried to keep the frustration out of my voice, but every second we wasted meant that Casey could be moving further away from me. Just the thought had me sick.

“I couldn’t see. It was too dark.” She started to cry.

I needed to go easy on her, but I also needed information. “Did they say anything?”

“Yes. They said they’d hurt me if she didn’t go with them willingly.”

“So she just went with them? You said the guys grabbed her?” Cade jumped in.

“They grabbed her first. Then threatened her.” Tiffany shivered. “She’s going to be okay, right? I mean, she is a Pteron.”

“Casey is going to be fine,” Hailey assured her friend, but the fear in her voice was apparent. Pteron or not, she was in danger. We still didn’t know for sure what Murphy wanted with her, but it couldn’t be good.

“Where is she?” Jared came barreling over. “Where’s Casey?”

“Tiffany says she saw a couple of large bears take her.” Cade pointed at the frightened girl. “Do you think we should take her word for it?”

“Why wouldn’t you?” Tiffany blinked back tears.

“He’s just being an idiot.” Jared kneeled down in front of Tiffany. “Tell me exactly what happened.”

“It was all so crazy. We were back behind the hotel because we were looking for Toby. Out of nowhere, these guys jumped out and grabbed her. And there was a bear.”

Looking for me? A shudder ran through me. She was distracted by looking for me. If only I’d found her first.

“Did anything about the men jump out at you? Any distinguishing characteristics?” He spoke to her gently. Jared really was like night and day depending on who he was talking to.

She shook her head. “They already asked me that. I didn’t see anything.”

Jared moved to standing. “I’m going to have the entire island swept. If she’s still here, we’ll find her.”

Waiting around wasn’t an option. “We need to send someone in. You said you know where they’re keeping Vera.”

“I have it narrowed down. It’s close enough we can go in, but we have to be strategic.”

“Strategic? No. We have to save Casey.” No one was going to make me wait.

Cade gave me a hard look. “Let’s handle this reasonably. Jared will have his men sweep the island. We’ll move on from there.”

“We’ll find her.” Jared put a hand on my arm. The action was foreign and completely unlike Jared, but maybe he did care about Casey.

“Do we call Levi?” Cade asked.

“No.” Jared said immediately.

I didn’t argue. I wanted as much help as possible, but waiting for Levi would set us back. We didn’t have a moment to lose.

“Get your hands off me!” I struggled to get out of Murphy’s grasp. I was much stronger than I used to be, but with my legs tied and my arms tucked into the jacket, I was at a distinct disadvantage. After an endless flight and at least an hour drive, we turned off onto a dirt road. They’d finally pulled the tape off my mouth a few hours into the flight, and I’d kept my mouth shut in fear they’d replace it again. Discomfort is taken to a whole new level with your mouth covered. At least it was easier to breathe now. What wasn’t easier was having Murphy sitting so close to me.

He laughed. It wasn’t the sinister laugh you’d expect a villain to have, but it still made my skin crawl. He was enjoying himself. He enjoyed watching me squirm.

“What do you want from me?” My voice sounded frightened, exactly the opposite of how I wished I sounded. I still didn’t understand why they’d go through so much effort to kidnap me. They knew they’d lose men in the fight, but they did it anyway. I just wished I knew why.

He laughed again. “You waited all those hours to ask me?”

“I asked you in Hawaii and you gave me nothing. I figured I’d give you time to change your mind.”

He ran a hand through my hair. “So much like Vera’s. You two look so alike.”

“Is she here? Will I see her?” The only thing keeping my spirit up was that she might be there. I had to believe she was the same Vera. Maybe she left me behind, but she’d never let someone hurt me. She’d always been so protective of me, so caring. Maybe Murphy never showed her his real self. Or maybe they weren’t together anymore. Maybe she was now with the bears against her will. I really wanted to believe the latter possibility.

The car stopped short, and Murphy caught me before I could fly head first into the front seat. With my hands and legs tied, I couldn’t do anything. “We wouldn’t want to mess up that pretty face, would we?”

I cringed. He needed to stop talking about me that way. The sexual overtones made everything worse even though I didn’t think he planned to touch me like that. He was using it to intimidate me, and it was working.

Murphy pushed open the door and yanked me out behind him.

After a moment of regaining my balance, I got my first look at the forest we’d parked in. There was nothing particularly special about the place except for a large rock. I realized we were heading right for the entrance to a cave. “I hope the bear side of you comes out,” Murphy sniggered as he pushed me headfirst into a narrow cave.

My face should have smashed into the cave floor, but a pair of strong arms caught me.

“Fin?” I choked out. I shouldn’t have been surprised to see Murphy’s brother staring back at me, but I was. I’d been over Fin’s dark brown eyes and dimple for years, but seeing him again was like a splash of cold water. It reminded me of how much his rejection stung.

“Hi, Casey.” He looked anything but happy to see me. I felt exactly the same way. Just seeing him was like having a knife turn in my gut. He’d disappeared when Vera and Murphy did, but that was only after he dumped me for one of my best friends.

“You two can fuck and make up later. We need to get her ready to meet the boss.”

“The boss?” I ignored his comment but he irked me. Did he know I’d slept with Fin? Of course he did. Vera had found out and told me I’d made a mistake to give it up to a guy who didn’t love me. She said she’d made the same mistake. I was positive she wasn’t talking about Murphy. She’d had plenty of boyfriends by then.

“Yes. The boss.” Murphy pulled me from Fin and marched me further into the cave.

I’d only taken a few steps when everything went dark, and I struggled to breathe. Someone had put what felt like a burlap sack or something over my head. The fabric irritated my face and left me completely disoriented. I gripped onto Fin tighter. As much as I hated him, I needed something to hold onto. I was far more afraid than I’d been moments earlier.

The cave was nearly silent. The only sound was that of shuffling feet on the hard ground. My wings still begged to be freed, but even without the jacket, they’d have little room to spread out in the cramped cave. Despite being unable to see, I knew the passage was getting narrower. My whole body rebelled against it. Birds were meant to fly, not crawl around caves.

Fin’s hand was firm on my back, but suddenly it wasn’t there anymore. I stood motionless until someone pushed me. I fell hard on my face.

“You don’t have to be such an asshole, Murphy.”

“Vera?” I gasped out her name. I wasn’t sure if she could hear me through the bag.

Murphy snorted. “You don’t have to be a cold bitch either, but you do it anyway.”

“Get out of here, dick.”

“Just get her changed and leave her. This isn’t a reunion.” Murphy’s angry voice faded away.

“Casey.” Vera pulled me up to standing and took the sack off my head. “Are you okay?”

“I think so.” I could barely speak. I couldn’t believe my sister was actually standing in front of me. Her hazel eyes were wide and full of unshed tears.

“I’m sorry.” Her words were whispered.

“It’s okay.” It wasn’t, or not completely, but at the moment, I was just glad to see her.

“I was so blinded by Murphy. He showed me what I was, what I could be.”

“You’re a bear.” I knew it already, but I wanted to hear her say it.

“Yes. And you have wings I hear.” Her voice was light, almost teasing. It reminded me of when we were kids.

“Cool black ones.”

She smiled. “I’ll have to see them sometime, but right now, you need to get changed.”

“Are you still with Murphy?” It didn’t sound like it, but I needed to know how she could be with such a jerk.