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She stalked off, and we just stood there staring at Murphy. I’m sure Owen was feeling just as messed up as I was.

“They’re not dead, and there are no other Ursus here.” Vera’s voice had us both turning around. She was just buttoning her shorts. “If you hadn’t knocked Murphy out we may have had a better idea of where they are, but honestly, I doubt he knew. He was probably hoping to rile you up enough to get answers, and he totally deserved what you did.” She pointed to where his bloody body lay in the sand. “And why he thought he could take on all of us is beyond me. His ego must be even more inflated than I thought.”

“I didn’t see bodies, but how are you so sure?” I tried to stay calm as I discussed the possibility of Levi’s death, but I couldn’t.

“Allie and Levi were here, but there’s no trace of remains. Trust me on this. Obviously someone might have taken them, but there’s just as good a chance they got away.”

“Then where are they? Do you think they’ll just go back to New Orleans?” Owen voiced the same questions I had.

“Unless he took them into hiding. You keep saying how he’d do anything to protect Allie. Wouldn’t that include hiding out and letting people think they’re dead?” Vera said everything so simply, and she was making good points, but it wasn’t as easy for me to accept. She was further removed. She didn’t know Levi. But that just made it more important to listen to her. She was probably the most reasonable of all of us.

“What do you suggest we do?” I turned to Vera. If she was the most reasonable, then she was the most likely to come up with a sound plan.

“Me? You’re willing to listen to me?”

“Yes.” At least this once.

Owen nodded his agreement as well. He hadn’t said anything since the Murphy confrontation, and if I didn’t already have too much to worry about I probably would have been concerned with that.

“Let’s assume I’m right. Let’s assume he took Allie into hiding.”

I nodded, waiting for her to continue.

“You guys know Levi really well, right?”

“Yes. Better than anyone.”

“And he knows you just as well?” she continued.

“Yes, but what does that matter?”

“You said you’d listen.” She put a hand on her hip.

“We’re listening. Just keep going.”

“If I wasn’t here, would you have assumed he went into hiding?”

“Yes.” Owen answered first. “Once the shock wore off that is. Levi would have found a way to protect Allie.”

“Ok, so let’s run with that.” She paused. “Building off that, he’d have expected you two to have found this.” She gestured behind her to what was the house.

“Considering I’m the only one who knew they were here, yes. That makes the most sense.”

“Well, clearly you weren’t the only one,” she raised an eyebrow, “but you are the only ones he generally confides in.”

“Just spit it out. What are you circling?”

She sighed. “Fine. Bottom line, he’d expect you to go along with his plan. You work for him. You’d do whatever he asked.”

“Technically, yes.”

“Then continue with his plan. Assume he knew trouble was coming and got away in time. What would he have done? What was he expecting the enemy to think?”

I thought over everything she’d said. “You’re right. He would have wanted the enemy to think he was dead. He’d want them to think they’d won.”

Vera nodded. “All Tiffany wants is for Casey to take over as queen, let’s let her think she won this battle. It might make her sloppy. Murphy seemed to think he’d succeeded, and look at how sloppy he was.”

Owen jumped in. “And she wouldn’t look for him. They’d be safer wherever they are in hiding.”

“Exactly.” She smiled. “I knew you guys were smart enough to handle this.”

“But won’t they already know there aren’t any bodies?” Owen asked.

Vera shook her head. “Murphy was probably in charge here. We’ll just have to wake him up enough to tell the powers that be that the mission was a success, unless he contacted them already.”

“Again with the mission….” I ribbed.

“Shut up. We need to be serious. Do you think you can wake him up?”

“I can try.” I bent down and slapped Murphy in the face. He didn’t move. I tried it again, this time shaking his body. “Okay, time for a plan B.”

Owen seemed to consider it. “How do you think he was communicating with his people? Cell phones don’t work, right?”

“I have an idea, but you guys might not like it.” Vera flipped her hair off her shoulder in a surprisingly feminine gesture.

“What is it?”

“We send the message ourselves.”

“What?” I shook my head. “No way. We can’t scare everyone like that.”

“It’s going to be short term. We just have to get the word out there.”

“We should have someone call it in to Georgina.” Someone working with the boss was watching her. There was no question about that. “I’m not doing it myself. She’d probably have me killed since she hates me already.”

“Fine. I’ll make contact with someone. I’ll also have someone come pick up that son of a bitch. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Owen took off before I could even respond.

“But we’re really going to be searching for them. I’m not giving up. If they’re in trouble we can’t just go home.” I balled my hand into a fist.

“Of course we will. This is all just to buy us time. It also buys Levi time,” Vera quickly reassured me.

“But all of this means lying to Casey. Even if it’s indirectly, she’s going to find out.” I looked at Vera. “Are you okay with it?”

“This is to protect her too. We need to get Levi back and lure Tiffany out. How long would it take them to get Casey ready?”

“A few days at least. Georgina is going to want to do everything right.”

“Then we have a few days to find them, and hopefully Tiffany and everyone she’s working with show their face during this.”

“Okay, but do you have any idea where we start our search? Did they leave any clues?”

She smiled. “I think so, although you guys are going to have to tell me yourself. Let’s wait for Owen.”

“Just show me.”

“I’m waiting for him.”

I waited impatiently for Owen to return. A few minutes later he landed. “What’s going on?”

“She found something.”

“What?”

“Show us,” I demanded. “Don’t hold anything back.”

“Is that the way to treat your leader?” she teased.

“You’re only in charge temporarily.”

“Temporarily? Ok, I’ll take that for now. Be right back.” She dashed back over to the remains of the house and returned with a black suitcase. “Does this mean anything to you?”

Waiting around for Tiffany to attack us didn’t sound like a particularly good idea, but I wasn’t sure how much trouble I’d stir up by arguing with Gareth. Insisting I leave was essentially telling him that I didn’t think he could keep me safe, and considering all his talk about welcoming me home, I didn’t think that would go over well. That didn’t mean I was going to sit back and do nothing though.

Gareth was a natural born leader, and that leadership extended to military endeavors. As soon as he finished talking, he’d gone to get his men ready. We started to follow Gareth when Daria and Maddock stopped us. No one said anything until Gareth disappeared back up the path.

“Let Gareth do what he does best. There are more important things for you to be doing.” Maddock gave us his trademark glare.

“Ok, what could be more important than preparing to fight Tiffany?” Eric asked. I was seeing such a different side of him. It was a much less annoying side.

Maddock looked right at me. “Casey needs to leave. You all said it yourselves.”

“Is Gareth going to be okay with that plan?” I asked.

“Gareth is a good leader, but he doesn’t know what’s best for you,” Daria lowered her voice to a near whisper.

“What are you suggesting?” Toby leaned in closer to her.

“Use Gareth’s plan as cover. Tiffany is going to see the preparations, and we can get you out.”

“You plan to help her leave without Gareth knowing?”

“We’ve done it before,” Maddock said flatly.

I felt a pang in my chest. Would this start their exile again? “Are you sure you want to do this?”

The twins looked at each other. “Yes,” they answered in unison.

“As I said, Gareth means well, but he’s underestimating Tiffany’s power. She’s not working with witches and Ursus alone. Who knows who she’ll bring with her?”

“So what’s the plan?” Hailey shifted her weight. “What, where, when, how?”

“You seem way too excited about this.” Eric nudged her with his shoulder.

“Just go along with it until I give you the signal, we need to get things ready.” Maddock explained.

Daria shook her head. “No. I’m giving the signal.”

“Why? This was my plan.”

She scowled at her brother. “Fine, but don’t screw this up.”

There was something enjoyable and comical about watching the twins. I still couldn’t believe their real age.

“What should we do while we wait?” I asked. I wasn’t very good at just standing around.

“I’m sure you can think of something.” Daria winked.

“But be ready when we come for you.” Maddock didn’t wink, but if I wasn’t imagining things, I did see a little smile.

I nodded. “We will be.”

“Eric, let’s go check on the preparations,” Hailey said quietly.

“Why just us?”

She nudged him.

“Oh. Got it.” Understanding crossed his face. “See you guys later.”

They hurried off, leaving us alone again.

“You look so much better.” Toby took my hand. It felt so good to be alone with him. We’d had so little of that time lately.

“Glad to know I looked really bad before.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I do, I just like giving you a hard time.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Take it as a sign of my undying love.” Teasing Toby made it so much easier to escape into a fantasy world where things were easy. Where we could just be us.

“Okay, then take this as a sign of mine.” He picked me up and slung me over his shoulder.

“Where are we going?” I asked through a fit of giggles. Toby always managed to make me laugh.

“You’ll just have to wait to find out.” He continued down the hill.

“Aren’t you going to put me down?”

“Not yet.”

Finally we reached the bottom of the steep hill near the shore of the lake, and Toby set me down.

“Wow, that’s beautiful.” I looked out at the lake. The reflection of the moon off the water created a glow that was half eerie and half romantic.

“It is, isn’t it? I guess that’s why your mom suggested we check it out.”

“You think they’ll find us down here?”

“Yeah.” He sat down on the slightly damp grass and pulled me down with him. “I don’t think we’ll really get alone time for a while.”

“As great as alone time sounds, I really meant—”

“Whether they can find us when they’re ready. I know.”

“You see those fireflies?” I gestured to the tiny glowing orbs not too far from us.

“I see them.” He took my hand.

“When we were little, Vera told me they were really tiny fairies, and that if you saw them they brought good luck.”

He smiled. “That’s pretty sweet.”

“I pretended to believe her until I was ten.” I laughed. “I just loved the elaborate stories she told me about them.”

He pulled me into his arms. “It’s like little kids pretending they believe in Santa years after they’ve discovered the truth.”

“Yes, except I wasn’t worried about the presents, I just didn’t want to lose the attention she gave me.”

“You’ll get to see her again.”

I brushed my lips against his. “I know.”

“You can’t just tease me like that.” He moved his hand behind my neck. “It’s cruel.”

I smiled. “Ok, I’ll make it better.” I pressed my lips against his again, moving them slowly. He responded immediately, taking control. He moved into my mouth with lightning speed, taking each of my moans as encouragement to deepen the kiss. He tasted so good. I couldn’t get enough.

The sound of throat clearing and laughter brought me out of my Toby haze.

I looked up guiltily. “Hey guys.”

Hailey laughed. “It’s time. Maddock just came and told us, I guess we weren’t cool enough for his signal.”

“You’d think you guys were teenagers,” Eric grumbled.

“I am a teenager, just a legal one.” The amount of craziness in my life was way more than that of a typical nineteen year-old though.

Toby stood up and took my hand to pull me to standing. “And we will continue that later.”

“I’m holding you to that.”

“Is that Levi’s?” Jared yanked on my hand so he could get a better look at the suitcase I held.

“I think so.” I assumed it was. I had no idea what I was doing. I was good at pretending though. As long as I had some tiny direction to go off, I was usually pretty good at winging things. I hoped that luck continued this time. I didn’t want to see how angry Jared and Owen were going to get if my plan didn’t work. Not to mention I did want to find the king and queen. From what I understood they’d been good to Casey, and that meant they were automatically on my good side. “I found it in the ruins. It must be one of the indestructible kinds.”

Jared nodded. “Must be.” He started turning the numbers on the lock. “Do you know the code, Owen?”

“Me?” Owen put a hand to his chest. “Why would he tell me and not you?”

“You are his chief advisor. You like to make everyone think he tells you everything.”

“Yeah, well, you’re his head of security. Shouldn’t you know it?”

“There’s got to be an easier way in.” Jared started pulling and punching the suitcase.

“Give it to me.” I pulled it away from him. I looked between the two of them and shook my head. “What was the date of their wedding? The 28th?”

“Yes, but what does that matter?” Jared asked impatiently.

“I’m in charge, remember?” I was really loving that fact. I turned the small dials until they lined up with the numbers I wanted. A tiny snap was followed by the top opening.

“Their wedding date? Seriously?” Owen asked. “How’d you know?”