Blood of a Werewolf (16 page)

Devon went to the airline’s site and found a couple of possibilities. After some debate on whether to take a red-eye flight or a morning flight it, Devon was out-voted three to one for the morning flight. He also booked a hotel and reserved a car with a few keystrokes and the input of a credit card.
 

Next he did a Google search for Terrence Paine and found a hit for him in Cape Cottage, a few miles south of Portland on the Casco Bay. There was a huge home there the Paines had lived in for generations.
 
“Well, that should be easy enough to find.”
 

Darby stood up and said, “I’m going to call Allison and see if she can take over this week and also if she can check in on Harry. Devon, can you take care of the pizza guy if he comes while I’m talking?”

“Sure – no problem.”

Rowan got up and said to Blake, “I think I forgot something out in the backyard.”
 

Darby sat on the bed and dialed Allison.
 
She thought she heard an odd sound out back and all of sudden a black and white streak went shooting by on the floor, making quite a thumping sound, along with just about tearing the kitty door off the back door.
 
Darby froze –
Danger
was the word that jumped into her brain; she dropped the phone as she heard the doorbell ring and someone knocked.
 
She ran for the hallway as Devon started to open the door.
 
As the door opened, he turned back to see Darby in a panic running down the hallway, saying ‘Danger’ with her mind.

Nothing registered. Devon looked down just in time to see the fur ball go flying out the front door.
 
The word
Danger
popped into his mind and then as Blake was standing up, Devon realized just what Darby was saying.
 
It made sense all of a sudden and he crouched into a position a panther might take if danger were to knock at his front door.

The door swung all the way open to reveal a nervous, teenage boy with terrible acne, about to drop the pizza boxes in his hands.
 
He said, “Pizza?” while nervously looking at Devon.
 
There was no doubt he was a real pizza guy. He had a goofy looking pizza on his hat that wiggled to and fro on a wire like a halo.
 
Devon relaxed out of his panther stance and stood up.
 
A bit embarrassed, Devon pulled out his wallet and paid the kid, tipping him very well.
 
The kid looked at him as if he were a Klingon from
Star Trek
, but he took the money, handed over the pizzas, and turned to leave, shaking his head in disbelief, the pizza on his hat wobbling back and forth.

Devon looked at Darby, Darby looked at him, and Blake broke the silence with, “What the heck was that all about?”
 

“I don’t know, but it was very clear when Harry went shooting down the hall that he was trying to relay some kind of danger.”
 

Blake agreed, “Yeah, that’s what I saw too.”
 

Devon nodded.
 

Darby asked, “Where’s Rowan?”

Blake answered, “She said she thought she had left something in the backyard earlier.”
 

Darby’s eyes widened. “That’s the direction Harry was coming from when he came shooting through the back kitty door.”
 
Before she could finish what she was saying, Blake’s six foot four inch profile blurred past her inhumanly fast.
 
Devon was right behind him and Darby brought up the rear.
 
They looked around the backyard, but there was nothing to see. No Rowan.
 

Darby said, “Devon, check the front yard, Blake check next door, I’ll check the garage.”
 
The guys were gone like lightning.
 
Darby called out for Rowan as she looked in the garage to find nothing but their cars.
 
She turned around and headed back to the back yard and she saw something that sparkled on the ground.
 
It was her mother’s silver charm bracelet.
 
It never left Rowan’s wrist and the clasp was bent backward like it had been pulled off with great force.
 
She held it in her hand and tried to focus.
 
She tried to concentrate on Rowan, her long, pretty, wavy, blonde hair and eyes so blue they reminded her of the Caribbean sea.
 
There was nothing. She couldn’t see Rowan. She couldn’t feel Rowan –
what was wrong?
 
Was she unconscious?
 
Where was she?

Tears started to well up in her eyes when Devon returned.
 
He said, “I ran for a couple of blocks in all directions, and there is no sign of her.
 
Can you sense her, like when you were little girls and she fell out of the tree? Can you see where she is?”
 
She shook her head. That was when the tears came and she held out the bracelet.
 

Devon asked, “Is it hers?” She nodded and put her head to his chest and burst into tears.
 
“Oh my God, Devon, what’s happened to her?”
 
He held her close and didn’t know what to say.
 

“I don’t know, Love, but I swear, we will find her, somehow.”
 

“What good are these stupid powers if I can’t keep my little sister safe?” she cried.
 
He stroked her hair with one hand, and held her close with the other. That’s when he saw Blake come around the corner, looking like the wind had been knocked out of him.
 
His face was white and his eyes were tearing as he handed a piece of plain computer paper over to them.
 
In what looked like chicken scratch the letter read:
 

We’ve got your little blonde neighbor.
 
If you ever want to see her alive again, I suggest you turn yourselves over to us peacefully. Paine.

“Oh no,” Darby said.
 
She released Devon and ran to Blake and tried to comfort him.
 
He looked lost, helpless, and scared.
 
Darby felt the same, but she felt, too, that she needed to be the big sister for him.
 
So she held him and he seemed to be appreciative of this.
 
With her head on his chest, she looked at Devon and thought to him –
What do we do, Devon? What do we do?

“We give them what they want,” Devon said.

“No. I won’t let you go there to be killed. Chances are he’ll kill her either way and I’m not going to lose all three of you in one fell swoop.
 
No. There’s got to be a better way.
 
I say we hop on a plane, surprise him as originally planned.
 
My guess is they are going to fly her there; I say we beat them there.
 
We leave tonight on the red eye and we take Paine prisoner and turn this blackmail around on him.
 
We force him to understand what your father explained to us. If while he’s tied up he refuses to budge on his plan, we take him out and wait for the thugs to show up with Rowan.
 
Then we knock them out and take her back.
 
They can’t kill her yet; they need her alive to lure you two or you’d never go to him.”

“She’s right, Devon.
 
He knows we’d never turn ourselves in if she weren’t alive.
 
I think she may just have the best plan – we leave now; who knows, the thugs may try to take her on the same red eye – wouldn’t that be stupid of them. I’m not going to risk her life, Devon; she means too much to me. Whether you go now or not, I’m out of here and on that red eye. If there is the slightest chance she’s on that plane, I’m going.”
 
Blake pulled away from Darby, kissed her on the forehead, and said, “I’ll let you know as soon as I know anything.”
 

“Now just hold up a minute, you are not going anywhere without us,” Devon said. “I’m totally behind our original plan and the original plan said we stick together.
 
We all go on the red eye, but we grab what we can to protect ourselves first.
 
Darby, grab those protection pouches you made and anything else you can think of that we might need.
 
Throw them all into a bag along with some necessities for the next day or two.
 
Blake, grab some clothes and some cash out of the safe in the basement, and I’ll do the same.
 
Make sure you both have your cell phones and I will meet you in the car.”

No more than ten minutes passed before all three of them were in the car for the thirty-five minute drive to the airport.
 
They had lucked out in standby and all three of them were able to board the red eye flight.
 
Darby tried to focus on her sister, as she knew Blake was trying to do.
 
So far, nothing – she must still be unconscious.
 
Though everyone was exhausted, not one of them could sleep.
 
Blake had checked the plane many times to see if Rowan was stashed somewhere, but to no avail.
 
The chances were slim that she would have been on their flight.
 
Darby hoped that it meant they were taking a later flight.
 
Devon had told her that chances were almost impossible for the thugs to get an unconscious passenger on board without questions.
 
It was more likely that they were on a private charter.
 
Either way, the three were making good time and they hoped they would beat Rowan and the thugs back to Maine.

On their layover in Chicago, Darby called Allison back and explained why the phone had gone dead.
 
She told her there was an emergency and that she had to fly to the east coast during the night.
 
She’d be back as soon as she could.
 
She also asked her to check on Harry, making sure he was home safe and sound and fed.
 
She ended the conversation just as they were about to get on the plane with, “Thanks again, Allison!
 
But for your own safety, don’t say a word about my whereabouts, no matter who asks.”
 
Allison had questioned this, but it was clear that she accepted it as the conversation came to an end.

A couple of more hours on the plane from Chicago and finally they were pulling into Portland, Maine at 10:10 A.M. With no baggage checked, they whizzed through the airport to the car rental and were on the road to Cape Cottage by 10:45 A.M.

Chapter 12

On the road to Cape Cottage, Blake sat in the backseat with Darby.
 

“I know we’ve never practiced this, but I want you to try and visualize this before we get there.
 
In the past, when you’ve used your power, it was a bubble or wall to protect you.
 
What I would like you to try to do is to visualize the bubble or wall around the bad guy.
 
As sort of a cocoon, if you will, that way he cannot escape.
 
I think this may be useful in a couple of scenarios.
 
Since we still can’t sense Rowan, we have to assume she’s unconscious, either by injury or by drugs.
 
If she’s hurt and can’t defend herself, then you can keep an impenetrable bubble around her to prevent anything else from hurting her.

“Another scenario might be if you could keep Paine in a bubble, he can’t hurt anyone. Devon and I can take care of any thugs that may appear by surprise.
 
You can continue this bubble until we finish talking with him.
 
If he refuses to see reason, Devon and I will be on either side of the bubble as you relax it and we will take care of him. Then we look for Rowan.

“So the way you visualized before will be the same, except that you will send the bubble where you want it, like sending a thought to Devon.
 
Do you think you can visualize that?”
 

“I think so – good thinking, Blake, very good thinking.”
 

“Just visualize Devon being hurt like you did before, and then add your sister.
 
If you have to, try to remember me telling you I was coming for them and you.”

Devon looked in the rear view mirror and said to Darby, “Be careful though, Love. You know what happened last time. We don’t want to lose you in the fight.”

“I’ll be careful, I promise.
 
I just wish I could sense her,” Darby answered sadly.

Blake said, “Well, I’ve been thinking about that too and maybe it is wishful thinking, but I feel that if they had knocked her out by hurting her, she would have awakened by now and we would have felt her.
 
I’m hoping that they used some kind of a sedative or Chloroform on her.
 
At least that way she’s not hurt, just unconscious.
 
That is the only way I am dealing with her not being here. I just keep telling myself, she’s just sleeping somewhere. Otherwise, I think I would be jumping out of my skin about now.”