Stay

“Yes. I do.”

I looked back out at the water. “I can’t let you go alone.”

“Why don’t you leave someone here then? Someone you trust.”

I’d promised Casey I’d stay close. I couldn’t leave. She’d understand that I wanted to help find Vera, but what if she needed me? What If she got in trouble? “Let me make a call.”

“To who?” Hailey started pacing. She was so excitable.

“Just give me a sec.”

I dialed the new number Eric had given me. The one that was supposedly not tapped.

“Toby?” Eric answered on the first ring. “Is she okay?”

“I think so.”

“What do you mean by that?” He yelled loud enough that I had to pull the phone away from my ear. “She isn’t with you?”

“They wouldn’t let me go with her.”

“So? You’re a Pteron. Since when do you listen to what anyone tells you to do?”

“Casey needed this. I couldn’t mess up her chance.” I appreciated Eric’s concern, but he needed to calm down. I was already plenty worried about Casey without him making it worse.

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Where are you?” I might as well cut right to the chase. “Did you find them?”

“I got detained, but it’s all okay.”

“Detained?”

“Ran into some old friends.”

Old friends that weren’t really friends was never a good thing. “Okay… are things cool now?”

“Yes. It just slowed me down. Why? You’re not leaving her to come.”

“No. Of course not.”

“Then what do you want?” His voice relaxed slightly. Had he really worried about me ditching her?

I stamped down my growing annoyance. I needed to get to the point and get off the phone. “Do you want some help?”

“What kind of help?” he asked suspiciously.

“A kick ass Pteron.”

Hailey grinned. Everyone needed their ego stroked once in a while.

“Depends. Who is it?” The suspicion was still there.

“She’s the head advisor to the queen.”

“Hailey? I haven’t met her, but I’ve heard she’s hot.”

Hailey could hear every word and grinned even bigger. I grinned back. “Yeah, but I wouldn’t tell her that’s her reputation. She’s pretty tough.”

“Sure. But that’s fine. Give her this number and we’ll meet up.”

“Nice.” I hung up and turned to Hailey. “Ok working with a bear?”

“One that’s heard of me? Sure.” She pulled my phone from me and typed his number into her phone. “Call me as soon as you hear from Casey.”

“Same to you on Vera and Jared.”

“This is all insane, isn’t it?”

“Says the one who grew up in The Society world.”

She laughed. “It isn’t as much of an advantage as you’d think.”

“I never said it was an advantage, just that none of this should be as surprising to you.”

She shrugged. “Try to relax a little. She’ll be okay. Casey is insanely strong.”

“I know.” Casey never ceased to impress me with her strength.

Hailey shook her head. “I don’t want any details.”

“I wasn’t talking in that way, but you need to go anyway.”

She turned to leave.

“Hailey?”

She turned back. “Yeah?”

“Be careful.”

“Getting sentimental?”

“Just learning that nothing is as easy as it sounds.” And you never knew when you’d seen someone again.

“And this sounds easy?”

“Not at all, which just makes it that much worse.”

She laughed. “You be careful too.”

“I will. I mean sitting on a rock is difficult work.” I laughed. “I just hope she gets back soon.”

“She will.”

“Do you really think so?”

“No, but that seemed like the more socially acceptable answer.”

I laughed again even though the reality of her words were anything but funny. “See you around.”

“Around? Sure.” Hailey took off; disappearing into the sky like Casey’s boat had disappeared across the water.

Chapter Twelve

Vera

“We’re so screwed.” After struggling against the rocks as a bear, I’d changed back into my human form. At least we could talk that way, although I was still deciding whether that was a good thing. The small amount of light spilling in through the ceiling made the confinement a little better, but I was still ready to get out.

“You think?” He exhaled loudly. “I can’t believe we screwed that up.”

“We?” I turned to him even though I couldn’t see a thing in the pitch blackness. “You were the one who pushed her too far.”

“I was trying to distract her.”

“Distract her? You were destroying her entire self-worth.”

“Self-worth? Because I said Robert hadn’t wanted her?”

“Woman work that way. They want every guy to want them, especially the guys we want. By the way, what’s with her wanting Robert? Is she talking about the former king? He’s twice her age.”

“She’s that age too. She’s taken on the appearance of an innocent human. It’s weird.”

“Very.” I shifted uncomfortably. Being naked wasn’t feeling very natural at the moment. Despite the darkness, I felt extremely exposed.

“We have to find a way out. We have no choice.”

“No kidding. I’d rather not die today.”

“It’s bigger than us.”

“Oh? Care to fill me in?” I didn’t like being kept in the dark.

“Tiffany has plans to kill Allie and Levi and use Casey as a literal puppet to take over The Society.”

“Uh, what?” Either he’d lost his mind or things were even crazier than I thought.

“She did something to Casey’s mind. She’s in control, or can be.”

“And she’s killing Levi and Allie so Casey becomes queen….” The pieces were starting to fall into place. I finally understood why the boss wanted her so badly.

“That’s pretty much it. We can’t let that happen.”

“Obviously.”

“Any brilliant plans? Your idea to move further back into the cave served us well.”