Finding Fae

Nando

Something was wrong. I knew it as soon as the charm around my neck started to burn a little. It made no sense, though. I set a barrier spell, like the one at the club. If it had gone off, I would have known. How was it possible for Fae to be in danger without that barrier being breached? I looked around the cafeteria, looking for the others and found Blaine and Zane frozen, much like I had been only a few seconds before.

I wasn’t a fighter. I didn’t have that kind of heart beating in my chest, which was why I was eternally grateful those two were included in Fae’s Spirit Bonds. Even Ben, who was more of a sneak than a fighter was an improvement over me. I was all soft and cared more for plants and the medicines they made than anything else.

We locked eyes across the crowded room and we knew. Something was wrong. The twins immediately dumped their trays of food in the trash as I jammed my sandwich back into the bag and the three of us made a quick exit. Ben joined us as we left the school building, holding up his keys with a serious expression on his face, which was very unlike him.

“Could it be something like she stubbed a toe or something?” he asked as we all got into his car.

“No,” I shook my head. “I made this for big things, like she’s unconscious or seriously hurt.”

“Is the barrier still up?” Zane asked.

“Yes, which makes no sense,” I frowned as Ben sped out of the parking lot, squealing his tires in the process. “If someone came to the cellar with the intent of hurting her or taking her away from there, it would have gone off. If it was tampered with, I would have felt it.”

“Did you bar Malachi?” Zane growled.

“I barred everyone, including us,” I answered. “If anyone had the intent to do harm, the barrier would react.”

Zane never did like Malachi much, but ever since Fae moved here, he hated him even more. I don’t know why for sure, but I’ve noticed the way Zane looks at Fae, even if no one else has. He’s got more than friendship on his mind when he looks at her. At first, it was innocent enough, but lately it’s started to feel darker and more like obsession. It’s why I restricted the barrier the way I did. Zane was a good guy. I had no doubts about that at all. But, being a Morphi meant he had stronger than usual animal instincts. If his animal said that Fae was his, then there is no telling what could happen if he lost control.

The truth was that, while he had Awakened at an early age, we were all still pretty young. Teenagers with hormones mixed with animal instinct doesn’t always make a good combination. Even Blaine, the more mellowed of the two, was a concern. Ben, as promiscuous as he is, could potentially be a threat. Once I noticed all three of my friends had to deal with animals on the inside, I altered the charms I made.

“What if someone came in not intending to hurt her until afterwards?” Blaine asked.

“It would have gone off regardless,” I shook my head. Again, the precautions I took to prevent any of them from actually hurting Fae. Not that I told anyone about what I did or why. I trusted them, of course, but I was taught to be prepared for the worst while you hope for the best.

“How is it possible that she’s in danger without being in danger?” Ben growled as he pushed his old car harder.

“I think she’s in danger, but I’m not sure how,” I frowned. “The way I did this... It’s not perfect. She could be injured accidentally, like falling and hitting her head or cutting herself while chopping vegetables.”

“There are no vegetables down there, Nando,” Zane pointed out.

“You get the point,” I sighed. “It could be that no one has passed the barrier at all and she’s just hurt by bad luck and poor timing.”

“How much are you willing to bet on that?” Blaine asked and I sighed, not having an answer I liked.

We got to the old winery from the sixties that never made it to opening day and made our way to the cellar where Fae was hiding. The barrier was intact and functioning perfectly, giving me a bit of relief that this was all just bad luck. Once we got down there, though, that hope was shattered into pieces.

-----

Blaine

Zane was acting strange lately. He was quieter than usual and snapped at everyone about anything, except Fae. He never so much as teased her anymore. I know he’s the serious brother, but this is taking it to a new level. He nearly ripped me a new one when I suggested he take the week off from the rotation of staying with Fae during the nights.

I love my brother and I know he wouldn’t do anything to hurt Fae, but I’m glad that Nando had altered the barrier charms the way he did. Zane had impeccable control when it came to his animal, but now that we were eighteen, parts of his nature that didn’t come with his early Awakening were now kicking in. I wasn’t the only one that noticed it. Our mother was also a Morphi. A huge lynx cat. She kept looking at him like she wanted to say something, but wasn’t entirely sure if she was right or not.

We got to the cellar and any worries I had about what was going on with my brother went out the window. The place was a mess and smoke still lingered in the air like a dense fog making my nose sting and eyes water. Being a hellhound meant my senses were sharper than anyone here, including Zane and Ben, so the smoke was basically choking me.

“I don’t understand,” Nando coughed a little and waved his hand in a vain attempt to clear the air a little bit. “The barrier is intact and unaltered. No one should have gotten in to do this.”

“Well, someone got in,” Ben said as he rolled a prone body to his back.

Zane growled and tried to lunge for Malachi, but I held him back, earning a snarl in my face.

“His weapons are put away and the back of his head is a bloody mess,” I pointed out. “Whatever happened here, he had nothing to do with it.”

“He shouldn’t have been here in the first place,” he said, pushing me off. “He had to have led them right to her.”

“We don’t know that yet,” Nando said sharply. “Even if he did, he didn’t do it knowingly. He’s Bonded to her in a way none of us ever will be. It would be impossible for him to betray her like that, even with how weak the Bond is right now.”

“He was able to leave her to her fate, wasn’t he?” Zane snapped as Nando pulled a vial out of a bag he had stored here a while back.

No one said anything as Nando tried to get Malachi to wake up. After a moment, he groaned and started moving around slowly as he came around. With a gasp, he bolted upright and looked around in terror.

“Where’s Fae?” he asked.

“We could ask you that,” Zane growled and I held him back again.

“I don’t know what happened. One second we were sitting here then the next there was a bright light and everything went silent,” he said as he tried to get up, wobbling until Nando pushed him back down and pulled his eye lids open to look in his eyes better. “Then I was being pinned down and... I think I was knocked out.”

“You took a hell of a hit to the back of the head,” Nando confirmed. “You have a bit of a concussion, I’d bet. I can’t treat you here. There’s no supplies.”

“To hell with me! Where’s Fae?!” he shouted.

“Not here,” Ben said gloomily.

“And it makes no freaking sense,” Nando muttered.

“Can you track her?” Zane looked at me and I nodded as I slowly let him go.

Once outside, I let the hound take over. I smelled... nothing. Nothing at all. Not even the dirt under my feet or the wind in my face. Everything had a scent, but right now, there was nothing. I forced a sneeze or two, hoping to clear my nose, but I got nothing.

Still, a hound could hunt in more than one way. I looked around, looking for footprints in the mushy ground from the rain last night. Nothing there either. Not even the ones from us coming into the place. Shaking my head, I tweaked my ears, hearing nothing that would give me any idea which way they had to have gone. Sure, the smoke was still thick in the cellar, but there was very little ventilation down there and it was a small space. That smoke could have lingered for nearly an hour before fading away.

If I was a little bit more experienced, I would be able to trace her through something from her body, like blood or hair, but I haven’t been a hound long enough to control that kind of concentration. With a snarl and snap at the air, I went back to two legs and got dressed, stomping back into the cellar.

“Whoever did this was smart,” I growled. “There are no footprints, even from us and no scents to speak of, so I’m guessing this smoke was meant to blank out our noses.”

“Try the charm,” Ben said to Nando who pulled out his copy of her necklace and did a few fancy things to it.

He frowned and turned around a few times before bending down and picking up the broken necklace from the floor. It had obviously been snapped off her neck and thrown away, meaning these weren’t grunts. They weren’t pros, but they were skilled and far too cunning.

“I wasn’t able to get a wisp on her this morning,” Ben frowned as Zane slammed a chair into the wall, breaking it.

Once again, I was concerned about my brother’s behavior as he snarled and stormed out of the cellar.

“What’s eating his kibble?” Mal asked as he held a cloth to the back of his head.

“I can guess, but I can’t be sure,” I shook my head and left to call our mother.

-----

Ben

I knew I should have tagged her with a wisp this morning, but she was on her toes and dodged me faster than a deer. I enjoyed that it had turned into a little game to see which of us had the quicker reflexes. We were pretty evenly matched, so I had to resort to tactics to get a win. This morning, she was on alert and kept to her toes and managed to avoid getting tagged.

I could have slipped on her before she woke up, but I felt it was too creepy. Never again. She’d be swimming in wisps if we got her back.

When. I had to correct myself. Not if.

We were going to find her. Whatever this smoke has done to our noses wouldn’t last forever then Blaine could find her. Or once Malachi’s head stopped ringing, whichever came first. I was more concerned about Zane’s mental health at the moment.

He’d been more short tempered than usual lately. I was a fox, so I could smell the pheromones whenever he was in the same room as Fae. It certainly explained why he despised Mal so much. Zane had it bad for Fae, but with her being Bonded to Mal, there was no way anything would ever happen. That’s how Soul Bonds worked. She was Mal’s and Mal was hers. Nothing could get in the way of that.

So, Zane was crotchety. But he was becoming violent, which was a major concern. Nando was smart to exclude everyone from the barrier charm, not that I doubted Zane, but sometimes, the animal got the better of us. From the look on Blaine’s face, I wasn’t the only one that had noticed the odd behavior changes after Zane blew a gasket and stormed away.

Knowing Zane, if anyone went after him, someone would get hurt and that someone wouldn’t be Zane. Regardless, Blaine left the cellar after his brother, cellphone in hand, no doubt to call whoever he needed to call about his twin running off the deep end.

“I’m curious to know what you were doing here in the first place?” I asked, turning back to Malachi.

“I felt her pain,” he answered. “I thought something had happened, so I came where I could sense her. She bit herself to get me here.”

“She had to have drawn blood for you to get a good enough lock through an incomplete Bond,” Nando winced.

“Yeah, she was taping a bandage on when I got here,” he nodded. “We fought while she yelled at me.”

“So I’m going to guess that those bruises on your face weren’t from the attack,” I smirked. “They look like dirty fighting to me.”

“You’re corrupting her in all the good ways, I think,” Mal snorted. “I wasn’t sure she would be able to get it out of her system in such a small space.”

“You let her beat you up?” Nando raised an eyebrow.

“It’s how she releases the pressure,” he shrugged. “I made a huge mess of things.”

“Understatement of the century, Romeo,” I glared at him.

“I came because I felt her pain, but I was staying because I want to fix it,” he sighed. “I was so focused on her, I didn’t notice anything until it was too late.”

“It’s not your fault,” Nando said and traded towels with him. “I don’t know how, but they got past my barrier charm and knew she had a tracking charm on her.”

“Witch?” Mal suggested.

“That would explain them finding the tracking charm, but not even a witch could break the barrier without me knowing, and it’s not broken. It’s not tampered with or altered, either,” Nando said, tossing the bloody towel away in frustration.

“She still has her bracelet,” I offered as a consolation.

“Fat help that’ll do,” Nando grumbled.

“You said that the charms on her bracelet were linked to the ones we had,” I said, getting an idea. “Can you trace that link?”

Nando frowned, his forehead creasing as he concentrated. I always knew hoe hard he was thinking by judging how deep those wrinkles got. These puppies were like canyons, he was so far gone.

“Well, this might take a while,” I sighed and sat down across the table from Malachi. “You’ve really screwed up here, man. In a major way.”

“I know,” Mal hung his head and pulled the towel away.

“I don’t think you do,” I crossed my arms. “Fae’s been seeing a demonic cat for therapy because of what you did and how you did it.”

“I thought those were extinct,” he looked surprised.

“That’s not the point,” I growled.

“I never suspected that she would be affected, okay?” he sighed and put the towel back on his head. “She never knew about the Bond like I did, she’s not Awakened, and, as much as I wanted to, I never finished the Bonding.”

“You’re an idiot, King,” I shook my head. “If it had anything to do with her age or being Awakened or not, it never would have been forged in the first place.”

“As soon as I learned that she was feeling the separations as much as I was, I came back,” he said. “I never intended to hurt her, Ben.”

“Like an idiot, I believe you,” I admitted. “That doesn’t mean I forgive you either. You weren’t here. She went through hell and there was nothing any of us could do because it was you she needed. Honestly, if I didn’t know any better, I would say the Bond between you two is a mistake. She deserves more than that.”

“She deserves better than me, so we can agree on that,” he nodded.

“I got it!” Nando exclaimed with a snap. “Ben, you idiot fox! You’re a damn genius! It might take a while, but I might be able to track the link between the charms and the bracelet.”

“How long?” I asked.

“Three days,” he frowned. “Give or take. I’m new, remember? It’s not that easy, either. But we can’t do it here. It’s too small and tainted.”

“What are we waiting for, then?” I said, standing up. “Let’s find Fae.”