Unknown
“What in the actual hell are you doing, Kodi?” Bruce hissed as the black haired woman yanked open the back door and dumped the limp body into the back seat. “You aren’t supposed to bring the body with you!”
“Its not a body, you moron. I told you, she’s not dead.”
“And why is that, Kodi? You told me you had this, easy peasy.”
“I don’t know! Something’s wrong!” She snapped, slamming the back door and jumping into the front. “Something happened, when I threw the knives at her. I got three good, easy shots, dead on. Quiet kill, right to the throat, just like we talked about.” She pulled one of the knives out of her pocket and ran her finger over the razor sharp blade carefully, without cutting herself. “But they went off course, like something was there, just batting them out of the air.”
“So what?” The man slapped the steering wheel impatiently. "How did she end up unconscious? Why didn’t you just slit her throat, or break her neck?”
“I said I don’t know!” the woman screamed, and kicked the dash with her heel.
“Hey! You break my car, and I will break your neck!” The man pointed a threatening finger at her. She rolled her eyes at him and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Kodi, we can’t afford to screw this up.”
“Shut up Bruce! I know, okay!”
“So where are we taking her?”
“Let's just take her back to the hotel. I need time to think.”
“Bad idea, girl.”
“Just drive, Bruce!”
Byron
Wyatt tried three times to call Bella on the new phone we had picked out for her. After the third try, he switched numbers and called Daphne. “Daphne! What’s wrong? Where’s Bella? She’s not picking up her phone!”
“Relax, bro, she’s just gone to the bathroom. She probably doesn’t want to pick up and have you hear a toilet flush or something.”
“This isn’t a joke, Daff. Somethings wrong. I feel it. Byron feels it. Go check on her.” Wyatt growled into the phone.
“Okay, okay. I’ll go check on her.” Daphne cut the call, and Wyatt resumed his nervous pacing across the office. We had both felt it, at the same time, this feeling of dread and doom, like she was calling out to us, even though she was too far away for a mind-link. I wanted to jump straight in the car and head for the mall, but Wyatt insisted we needed to know what was going on first.
Two long agonizing minutes passed before the phone rang again, the ringtone making both of us jump. Wyatt switched it to speakerphone. “I can’t find her Wyatt! She’s not here!” The panic in her voice was real. “Her purse is here, by the sink, but she’s gone. And... there’s a scent in here. Its not a wolf, Wyatt, its something else. I think it’s a bear.”
“Follow the scent, Daphne!” I yelled from across the room.
“I already did,” she said quietly, too quietly. “It leads out the back door... and then it disappears.”
Wyatt swore and slammed the phone down on his desk. I ran my hands through my hair and whimpered. “This can’t be happening.”
“Who would want to take Bella? And a bear? Why? None of this makes sense.”
“White Pines?” I suggested.
Wyatt scoffed and waved them away. “White Pines is too disorganized and incompetent. And why would they go through this much trouble for a slave girl that they almost killed already.” He shook his head, “No, it has to be someone much more powerful.” He looked at me with worried blue eyes that mirrored my own. “Someone from her past. Someone who knows who she is.”
I winced and picked up my keys. “I don’t care who the fuck it is. When I find them, they’ll wish they’d never been born.” I headed for the door. “Lets go, before the trail gets cold.”
Bella
I opened my eyes and blinked in confusion at my unfamiliar surroundings. This wasn’t my room. The ceiling was water-stained, and an ugly light fixture hung from the center. I turned my head and tried to move my arms, but hot burning pain shot from my wrists up my arms. I looked down and saw that silver laced ropes were burning into the skin of my wrists, leaving them red, raw and angry. I struggled to sit up.
“Hey, your fucking princess is awake.” I found a man sitting in a chair by the window, nursing a beer and glowering at me.
A woman came out of the bathroom, a towel in her hands. “Keep your voice down Bruce.” I studied her more carefully this time. She was tall and slender, but her bare arms had well defined muscles under the sleeves of her t-shirt. Her inky black hair had been tied back in a pony tail, leaving her oval face looking younger and more innocent than it had looked in the bathroom at the mall. I was tied up to the headboard of a bed in some cheap, sleezy hotel. The air smelled of stale cigarette smoke, and a very musky animal scent that I didn’t recognize, but it definitely wasn’t wolf.
“Well princess,” the woman sat on the opposite bed from me. “What are we going to do with you now?”
“Who are you?” I growled. “What do you want?”
“Who I am is not important.” She shrugged. “I was hired to kill you.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Then how come I’m not dead?”
She snorted, a short derisive laugh. “Good question. I was hoping you could tell me that. What the fuck happened in the bathroom? What did you do? Is it a spell? An enchantment? Or do you have powers?”
“What?” I grimaced as I had accidently pulled at my bonds and made the silver burn into my skin even more. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Really? Well lets see about that, shall we? Are you watching Bruce?”
“Watching what?” The man by the window grumbled.
Then, almost quicker than the eye could see, she flicked her hand and flung another knife at me. Again I felt the light dim and the air shimmered around me, and the knife clamored harmlessly against the wall behind me.
“I’d like to say she’s just a bad throw,” the man said thoughtfully, rubbing his head, “But Kodi never misses.”
I bowed my head and took a deep breath, trying to fight against the vertigo that wanted to pull me down through the bed, through the floor, into the ground.
“Well, whatever it is,” the woman, Kodi relaxed back on the bed, “It takes a hell of a lot out of you.”
“That’s... that’s never happened before.” I whispered.
“What, nobody has ever tried to kill you before?”
I shook my head, “No.” I looked down at the tell-tale scars on my owns. “I’ve been hurt plenty of times.”
Kodi frowned at me. “Then maybe it's me. Bruce, you do it.”
“Do what?” the man asked stupidly.
“Kill her.”
The man, who was clearly human, blanched. “Ah hell Kodi, you know I can’t do that.”
“Alright you pansy ass... just... I don’t know, punch her or something.”
“This is stupid,” the man grumbled, but he did get up from his chair, and moved around the cramped hotel room towards the bed where I was bound. I cringed and braced myself as he raised his hand and made as if to slap me. His arm swung, and I ducked me head, and waited... for a blow that never came.
I peeked up, and saw the man, with his arm arrested in mid air, trembling, as though an invisible hand had grabbed his wrist and held him locked in its grip. His face was sweating, and his breath came in a gasp as he finally broke away and lowered his hand with a string of curses.
“Told you,” the woman on the bed said smugly. “You can’t do it.”