Purity (21 page)

“I’ll go with you, then,” he said.

“I… I can’t let you do that.”

“Dodgy as hell,” Joey muttered. “Amelia, come on. This is all my fault.”

Her expression softened. “It’s definitely not your fault.”

“She wouldn’t have gone to that party if I had just said no. I said yeah, and then I let her go home alone. If I had been with her—”

“Then you would have been hurt or worse,” she insisted.

“You’re acting like you know what happened. Talk to me.
Please
.”

She glanced at me. “I don’t know what I can say, Joe. But she trusts us. You know she does. Can’t you just try to trust—”

“Trust? Trust people who are only honest about the fact that they’re lying to everyone? Look at my uncle. Hasn’t he gone through enough?”

Perdy’s dad looked broken. Already ill from
Willow
’s attack, he was the lowest I had ever seen him. Guilt and frustration and pain poured off him, but how could I explain when I already knew it was something they would never believe?

“I’m sorry,” I said. “You’d never listen in any case.”

Joey turned to storm off, but Amelia got in his way, laying her hands on his chest to stop him. He seemed startled—by her strength, probably—but he didn’t push her away.

“Help me,” she said. “I need you to open your mind for a minute and understand that Perdita already knows what I’m about to tell you. Okay?”

He nodded.

“Good. You know we aren’t working on a school project. But what I’m working on could help me find Perdita. I need you to keep helping me. Even my family doesn’t trust that I can do it, but I can.”

“What are you talking about, Amelia?” he whispered. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I need you to figure it out,” she answered. “And I need you to help me find Perdita. The stuff we’ve been looking up, you don’t believe in any of it, but what if I said I could do things you don’t think are possible?”

He backed away, shaking his head. “Don’t
mess
with me, Amelia. Not today. Don’t even try.” He headed back to Perdita’s dad, who was still talking to the man who had arrived with Joey. I could only assume he was Joey’s father. Joey stood by his father and uncle, his face sullen and dark with anger.

“What are you doing?” I asked Amelia.

“Taking a chance,” was her only reply.

Byron and Ryan rejoined us. “They’re going to go straight on,” Byron informed us. “Opa reckons that road is an old one, leads one way only. They probably took the less travelled roads to stay out of sight. Didn’t bet on Perdita not giving up without a fight.” He grinned as if proud of her, but I wanted to punch him. I wanted to hit anyone at all just to see if it felt better than standing around waiting while the werewolves got further and further away.

“We need to go,” I said, my voice hoarse. My spine twitched, and I struggled to keep hold of the wolf.

“It’s important we deal with this first, and then we’ll join them before the police can start a search. We can park somewhere, go on foot. We’ll be done before they can organise anything. You heard her father; there isn’t even an official missing person report yet. They still aren’t entirely convinced that she didn’t just run away.”

“There was blood in her house. Signs of a struggle,” I protested.

“We know the significance of it. They aren’t aware, so we need to move quickly and get the girl home before anyone innocent gets involved.”

“Someone innocent is already involved,” I said.

Byron looked at me with sympathy. “I know. I’m just trying to keep it from escalating. I’m sorry you’re going through this.”

“They killed my parents.” I barely breathed out the sentence. “Now they have Perdita. It’s not me going through it.”

He laid his hand on my shoulder, but I shrugged him off. “Nathan…” He shook his head. “We’ll find her first.”

“What do we do when we find her?” Amelia asked, trembling.

“We get her out of there, by any means possible,” Ryan said, his own voice tight. “Vin could be here.”

“Why would he be here?” Amelia asked.

“Because he knew your grandfather was searching for him, perhaps. Maybe he needed more collateral. But if he’s here, then there’s a good chance my daughters are, too.” He shook from head to foot, barely able to stay in the one spot. “The time’s coming. We get Perdita. We get the girls. We get them as far away from Vin and his werewolves as possible. And then we end this. Once and for all.”

We all stared at Ryan, and I felt the same anger as his growing in my gut. We would end it. We would definitely end it.

A garda approached. “Strange how your family members seem to involve themselves in every kind of drama in this town of late.” He smirked. “Sadly, we’ve no evidence to make an arrest, but I’m sure we’ll find something eventually. So, the girl, where is she, then?”

“If we knew that, she wouldn’t be missing,” Byron said, and his expression was a challenge. The officer stared him down.

“We have plans,” Ryan said, interrupting the staring contest. “Is this going to take long?”

The garda asked us frustratingly similar questions that seemed to have little to do with Perdita’s disappearance at all. When he turned to me, I was livid over the time we had already wasted. Murderous werewolves were getting away with my mate while the patronising idiot kept me standing around for nothing.

“So let me get this straight,” he said after he had asked me variations of the same questions three times. “You were the last one to see her.”

“No, the people who abducted her were the last ones to see her.”

“No need for the attitude,” he murmured, scribbling notes in his stupid little book.

I fantasised about ripping it out of his hands and tearing it to shreds. Then moving on to his Adam’s apple… “There’s every need. You’re. Wasting. Time,” I said through clenched teeth.

Amelia laid her hand on my arm, but I moved out of her reach, unable to bear anyone’s touch.

The garda eyed me. “And you’ve had a relationship with this girl.”

“Have,” I said. “I
have
a relationship with her, which is why this is so bloody stupid. I can look for her. We can all look for her, so why are you hanging around here?
Do
something!”

“And you’ve rowed with her. You left the country to get away from her.”

“What? No!”

“You didn’t leave?”

“I didn’t… give me a break. We haven’t rowed. We got back together today.”

“Did you?” He crowded me, his voice rising with every word. “Or did she turn you down? Did you follow her home from that party and teach her a lesson, Nathan? Did you go too far? Lose that temper of yours again? Because I’ve heard stories about you. Breaking noses and hearts, eh? Did your family help you hide her body?”

Byron had his arms around me before I could connect with the policeman’s nose.

“I would never hurt her, you—”

Ryan clamped his hand over my mouth, helping Byron pull me back, whispering for me to calm the hell down before I made everything worse.

Joey’s father stormed over. “Why aren’t you arresting anyone? Who else could have taken her?” He pointed at me, his eyes narrowing. “If you’ve laid one hand on my niece, I’ll—”

“Settle down, the lot of you,” the copper said, but he didn’t exactly sound bothered.

“I have
never
hurt Perdita,” I insisted.

“If you have any evidence at all,” Byron said, his voice suspiciously calm, “or anything that suggests we’ve done something illegal, then please, go ahead and make an arrest. Question us after we’ve consulted with a solicitor, if you like. But until then, we should be free to go.” I sensed his tension, sensed his wolf coiling up as if ready to strike.

“I have a few more things I’d like to clarify.” The garda flipped through his notebook. “Perhaps a different theory is more accurate, Mr. Evans. After all, a gang of disgruntled dog fighters who had been promised money or dogs to blood might be mad enough to hurt a young girl to get to your family. What do you think?”

“I think you need to concentrate your efforts on reality rather than fantasy,” Byron replied sharply.

And so it went on.

By the time the police let us go, wolf simmered under the surface, desperate to escape. They clearly wanted to look no further than my family, and that meant it would only be us taking the time to look for Perdita properly.

We sped off as quickly as we dared, Perdita’s dad shooting daggers at us as we left. We drove in the direction the witness had mentioned and found ourselves on a small road that seemed to go on forever. We passed fields and forests, and eventually, we saw the jeep that Opa and Jeremy had taken. We parked next to it and got out of the car.

“We run on in the woods,” Byron instructed. “They can’t stay on the road after being seen, so we run as wide as we can and try to pick up any scent or any sign of an abandoned car or Perdita. We split up on my say so. Meet back here at dark. Howl if you find anything. Twice if you’re desperate. Are you all ready?”

I was more than ready, and for once, I was the first to phase. The four of us ran through the trees, and Byron let out a bark before running across the road, followed by Ryan. Amelia and I stuck close together, ready to split up if needed. They couldn’t keep Perdita hidden in the car after being seen and couldn’t move her far on foot. We still had a chance.

We ran for a long time, trying to pick up any scent of Perdita or werewolves. We hurtled past an endless number of trees, fuelled by determination, until we rushed into a clearing.

A chill ran through me, despite the sweltering day. I stopped short when I spotted an old woman sitting on the step of an old-fashioned gypsy wagon. She was warming her hands by a fire.

The caravan was painted in faded, once-garish colours, but there was no horse or car attached to it. The vehicle was planted in the middle of the clearing as if it had dropped from the sky. The old woman crooned softly and beckoned us over without looking in our direction.

I glanced at Amelia, but she was already trotting over to the woman. The scents in the air were in no way familiar to me.

“I’d say what you’re looking for passed me by a few hours since. Straight up the road, you’ll find a dirt track that at first glance appears unused. Follow it, and you’ll see what’s there. But you may be too late.” She lifted her head and looked directly at Amelia, but her eyes were sightless, a cloudy white shade. “You’ll be back to see me, little cousin. The journey never ends, you see.”

The old woman reached out her hand, and Amelia moved close enough for her to touch. I wanted to growl, but my throat had closed up as soon as the woman began to talk.

She brushed her fingers against Amelia’s fur and nodded. “I feel it cooking away. Ready to boil over, I reckon. Best run now. It’s later than I thought.”

I ran, but when I looked back, Amelia was still there, staring at the woman. I made a harsh-sounding bark, and Amelia followed me. I howled as we ran, hoping family would hear and follow.

The woman knew what we were, but she wasn’t afraid. That and the fact that she knew we were looking for something, for
someone
, had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. I tried not to think about the words
too late
.

Amelia found the dirt track first, and I saw marks from the wheels of a car—fresh ones. Encouraged, I ran faster and soon heard barking from one of our dogs. They crashed through shrubbery, followed closely by Opa and Jeremy. I let out a sound, but it didn’t matter because the stink of werewolf was strong.

We’d made it off the track and were running through some trees when Byron and Ryan caught up to us. Byron moved into the lead, and I pushed forward, but Ryan nipped at my tail to pull me back. Something inside me wanted to challenge him, both of them, but the sensible part of me knew I wasn’t ready for that.

I caught the scent of blood. Perdita’s blood. Again. I imagined them torturing her. How else was her blood everywhere? We slowed, sniffing around the area. Some of the fauna had been flattened, and I knew something had happened there.

We kept going, catching stronger trails of both Perdita’s scent and that of some werewolves. If we faced them… I only hoped I had the chance to face them.