“Brian, it’s Fane. Did you see Lilly and the girls leave today?” Fane spoke in clipped tones, holding it together by a thread.
“No Fane, I didn’t see them leave. Is something wrong?”
“I don’t know, but I think something may have happened to them. If you hear from them please call me right away.” Fane hung up before Brian could respond. His hands shook as he set the phone down on the seat next to him. He closed his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could on Jacquelyn, on her face, the sound of her voice, the color of her hair, every detail he could think of and he reached out with a push of his power. “Jacquelyn, tell me where you are.” Nothing. “Luna, please answer me, if you can’t with words give me something, a feeling, a picture in your mind, something to tell me you are still with me.” Fane was getting more and more desperate the longer he went without hearing a response from her.
He laid his head on the head rest, frustration threatening to pour out in the form of a huge black wolf. Fane just wanted something even if it was just a memory of the last thing she saw. As they got closer to town, Fane called on the wolf to use his superior hearing and heard the faint sound of sirens.
“Da, do you hear that?”
“Yes, it sounds like it’s coming from downtown,” Vasile answered
“Lilly’s book store is downtown,” Fane told his mother.
“Were they planning to go there on their way to our home?” his mother asked.
“Not that I know of, but I still haven’t been able to communicate with her. When she let me know they were on their way she did not mention stopping by the book store,” Fane told his parents.
Vasile's face looked somber when he said, “If you are unable to communicate with her it more than likely means she is not conscious.”
At the thought of his mate so helpless Fane struggled to hold onto his wolf, and his father, realizing that he was about to lose it, turned to him and placed his hand on his shoulder and let out a low growl. Fane’s wolf submitted reluctantly, but only just, by the presence of his Alpha. Finally they turned the corner and were on the street of Lilly’s book store. As they drove in front of it they didn’t see any sign of Lilly’s vehicle but could hear sirens up ahead. The further on they drove they began to see smoke and then bright orange flames surrounding an SUV that lay upside down in the ditch. As soon as Fane saw the fire, and before his mother could stop the car, he was out the door running at wolf’s speed, not caring if it drew attention, not caring if people realized that there was no way a human could run that fast. As he got closer to the vehicle he saw four figures across the ditch close to the road, as far from the burning wreck as they could get without being in the road. Four figures, two sitting up, two lying down, neither of the latter moving. Fane’s wolf pushed forward, his eyes going wolf blue, his teeth getting longer as he struggled to hold his form, running to his unconscious mate.
Chapter 4
Lilly’s phone rang as they turned off their street onto the service road, headed towards the estate Fane’s parents were renting. She answered it without looking to see who it was.
“This is Lilly.”
“Lilly, it’s Jeff from the store,” she heard her employee say and she noticed that he sounded nervous.
“Jeff, is everything okay? You sound a little tense,” Lilly told him.
“Well, there is a little problem. We have an irate customer demanding to see you, saying something about being ripped off. He won’t go into details, but he is really angry and I didn’t know if I should call the police or what so I called you.”
“If he hasn’t hurt anyone don’t call the police, we don’t need to bother them with this if I can solve it by me coming up there and talking to the man. Give me five minutes and I will be there,” Lilly told Jeff.
Lilly hung up the phone and took the first turn that would lead to her bookstore.
“Mom, what’s up? Is everything okay at the store?”
“I’m not real sure. That was Jeff, he is one of my assistant managers, and he says there is an irate customer demanding to see me. Jeff seemed pretty apprehensive about it so I think I need to stop by, but I will make it quick.”
“It’s no big thing, wolf-man can wait a few moments. I’m not going to tell him we are making a detour, let’s make him sweat a little when I don’t show up exactly at 1:00,” Jacque said with a mischievous smile.
“I don’t think you and Jen should be allowed to hang out any more, Jacque, she’s beginning to rub off on you and I can’t handle more than one evil witch at a time,” Sally said sarcastically.
Jen rolled her eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with making the man sweat a little. I mean, come on, he did fake his death and nearly drive our sweet little Jacque out of her mind. All’s fair in love and war, baby.”
“Well, there is that,” Sally conceded.
They pulled up to the curb in front of the book store and all four of them piled out of the car. It was way too hot to sit in the car even with the air on and besides that Jacque didn’t want her mom facing some lunatic by herself. Once they were in the store, Lilly started looking around, expecting to see or at least hear this so-called irate customer, but there was nothing. Everyone in the store was quiet, perusing through the store, some talking softly to one another. She walked up to one of the employees and asked where Jeff was.
“He said he had to leave, something about an emergency,” the employee named Lisa answered.
That’s weird, Lilly thought. “Well what happened to the customer who was so upset?” Lilly asked.
“What customer? There haven't been any upset customers this morning.”
Although Jacque had noticed that she hadn’t been picking up emotions lately, she could feel something wasn’t right. “Mom, I’m not really liking the sense of this whole situation. Let's go, okay?” Jacque told her mother.