Stay (21 page)

I wished I’d been allowed to wear pants. That way I’d have had my phone on me. I was relying on Toby to tell me if we heard any news from my mom’s clan or Jared and Vera. I couldn’t stomach the thought of anyone else getting hurt.

A line formed and looped its way around the room. I looked for a cause for it. Was there food or cocktails I wasn’t aware of? Then it hit me. They were lined up in my direction. They were lined up to meet me.

I swallowed hard again and waited. I shook hands with everyone who came before me. Some said nothing, a few bowed, and others took my hand and whispered words meant to console me. I smiled at everyone, exchanging polite words when required. Finally only a few people remained.

A woman that looked to be in her forties with shoulder length dirty blonde hair came my way. “You’re looking good, Casey.”

I wracked my brain trying to remember if I’d ever met her. I settled on polite. “Thank you.”

“You don’t remember me, do you?”

“No, sorry.” I went with honesty.

“If you want my opinion, you picked the right man. This one deserves you.”

“I beg your pardon?” What was she talking about?

“This one seems like a good one, but don’t let him talk you into playing kinky games on the phone. I hear he’s into that kind of stuff.” She laughed, but it sounded more like a cackle as she pulled out a vial of a bluish-green liquid.

Before I could process what she was doing or saying, Toby flew through the air knocking over the woman. The vial flew from her hand, smashing into pieces as it hit the stone floor. Thick black smoke billowed up from the liquid as several Pteron guards ran over to her.

My heart was beating a mile a minute.

“Let go of me you idiots!” The woman screamed to the two Pterons who held her.

Toby glared at her. “Let go of you? You nearly killed the future queen.”

I wrapped my arms around myself, still trying to make sense of what had just happened.

Toby walked over and put an arm around me. “It’s Tiffany. It has to be. Somehow she’s changed her appearance.”

I looked at her; there was nothing familiar about her face. She looked nothing like the college student I knew. “How do you know it’s her?”

“It’s what she said. The kinky games. Only a handful of people would know that.”

“Uh…” Considering everything that admission shouldn’t have freaked me out, but it did.

“Oh. Wait. No.” He shook his head. “Let me rephrase that. Only a few people would say I liked that kind of stuff. It’s just some stupid thing that happened a while back. I promise it was nothing, but only Allie and her friends were there. Everything clicked.”

“Look at this!” A Pteron guard called and Toby and I hurried over. The liquid was gone, and in its place was a hole in the floor.

“Oh my god.” I put a hand to my chest. “If you hadn’t jumped in when you did…”

“But I did.” Toby pulled me tighter against him. “You’re okay.”

I walked back to Tiffany. I still couldn’t believe it was the same person.

“Are we sure it’s her?” Georgina stepped toward the woman. “Are we sure this is the same witch?”

The woman laughed. “Oh, Georgina. How nice to see you again.”

“It’s you?” Georgina’s eyes bugged out. “You dated Robert before he married Helen.”

“I guess what they say about you is true, you never forget a face.”

“So all this was what? Jealousy? You couldn’t let Robert have happiness?” Georgina said the words through gritted teeth.

“None of you deserve happiness or the throne,” the woman spat out.

Georgina moved forward in a blur and punched her. “I will get you back. I will make sure every moment of your life is served in repayment for the lives you stole from me. You are a black hearted woman, and you don’t deserve to have air to breath.”

“Then kill me.” The woman, who I still couldn’t think of as Tiffany, laughed. “Just get it over with.”

“Death would be far too kind of a punishment for you.” Georgina looked at the men holding her. “Take her to the private prison. Angola would be too easy on her.” The men turned and headed to the door.

We all watched as the woman was dragged out in chains.

“My mom. We have to call and find out what happened.” I dialed her, but I only got her voicemail.

Before I could panic, I tried another number. Eric’s.

“Casey?” He picked up on the first ring.

“How is everyone?”

“We’re fine. Gareth’s men took care of the enemy before they even got to shore. Tiffany wasn’t with them.”

“I know.”

“What do you mean?” He sounded panicked.

“She was here.”

“Are you okay?” It wasn’t Eric yelling on the other end of the phone.

“Gareth?”

“Yes. Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, but can I talk to my mom?”

“Of course.” There was a rustling.

“Honey?”

“Mom, I just wanted to tell you I love you.”

She sniffled. “I love you too.”

“Toby saved me.”

“I find new reasons to like that boy all the time.”

I smiled. “I need to go, but I promise I’ll see you soon. Have you heard from Vera?”

“I assume she’d call you first.”

“Maybe…”

“Do you want me to come tomorrow? If I leave now I can get there.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Your coronation. We just heard the news.”

“My coronation. Right.” I’d nearly forgotten about it with all the commotion. “That’s all right. Toby’s with me.”

“I’m proud of you.”

“That means more to me than you could know.”

“Good night, honey.”

“Good night.” I hung up. Every conversation with my mom was far too short.

Toby pulled me into his arms. “There’s never a dull moment in our lives, is there?”

I shook my head. “But right now I’m just so grateful to have a life.”

“Me too, and I’m grateful to have you in it.”

I liked flying with Vera. That was becoming abundantly clear. It was a long flight, one I’d never subject a human too, but Vera wasn’t human. Part of me hated that—hated that she was so much more complicated because of that, but the other part of me loved it. I loved that I didn’t have to worry about her nearly as much. She was spirited, spunky, and completely unafraid to speak her mind. All of that and an amazing body. Being with her was torture. She was the best thing I could never have.

“I could do this every day!” She yelled over the wind even though she didn’t have to. I would have heard her even if she’d whispered the words.

“I get to do it every day.”

“Gee, thanks for rubbing it in.”

“What he means is he’ll take you flying every day,” Owen butted in. He was good at that. He had no right to talk. He was king of keeping girls at bay. He’d only let a handful of girls get under his skin, and after one broke his heart, he never gave any others much attention. Maybe one day that would change, but currently he just needed to get off my back. He knew that my touching Vera was out of the question. At least touching her more than I had already. I started thinking about our kiss and my body heated. I needed to stop that line of thought. I was flying. Couldn’t I keep it together? Of course it was hard to do that with her body pressed against mine. Damn it. She could probably feel exactly what I was thinking about.

“I warned you about getting a hard on while we fly.”

Yeah, she’d noticed. “It’s your fault.”

“My fault?”

“Yes, you keep rubbing your ass against me.”

“I’m not rubbing anything. I’m being held by you hundreds of feet in the air. Trust me when I say turning you on isn’t on my to-do list.”

Owen started laughing. I hoped he was enjoying this. That would make one of us.

“Just stop moving,” I said through gritted teeth.

“I wasn’t moving, but okay.”

“We’re getting close.” Thankfully. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take.

“I won’t make the dirty comment I want to.”

“Man, she’s like the female version of you.” Owen laughed again.

“Do you think they’re really at Cade’s?” I asked to change the subject.

“Let’s hope so. We’ve come this far already.” Vera shifted again. Great.

“They’re in California. There’s nothing else that note could have meant. I just mean how deep in hiding.” Would they be at his house or somewhere much more secretive?

“There’s only one way we’re going to find out.”

“I’ve never been to the Daly estate, have you?” Owen asked.

“When would I have ever done that?”

“I don’t know. Just asking.”

“The Laurent’s hate the Daly’s,” I explained for the benefit of Vera.

“Or they did. Levi obviously is friendly with Cade,” Owen added.

“Or he knew the Daly’s estate would be the last place anyone would look for him.” I wasn’t sure friend was the term Levi would use. “Or maybe a little of both.” Even I had to admit that Cade was growing on me. At least when he kept his distance, and he usually did considering he had his own kingdom to take care of.

We landed inside the gate of the Daly’s sprawling estate on the outskirts of LA. Within seconds five guards surrounded us. “State your business or prepare for immediate removal,” one particularly large guard addressed us.

“Chill out. We’re here on royal business.”

“Dressed like that?” Another one asked.

“How are we supposed to be dressed to fly?”

“Don’t mess with me.” The guard straightened up. “State your business.”

“We’re here to see Cade. It’s urgent.”

“The king is not currently seeing guests.” His use of the word king pissed me off. Levi had forgiven Allie for giving away part of his kingdom, but it still annoyed me, especially at times like this.

“He’ll see us. I’m Jared Florence, head of security and this is Owen Kaye, The
king’s
chief advisor, and we demand to be seen.”

“I will see what I can do.” He didn’t make a motion to move.

“No.” Vera walked right up to him. “You will bring us to Cade now.”

“And who are you?” He asked.

I didn’t like his tone. He had no right to talk to her that way.

“My name isn’t your concern, but I assure you I’m a concern. Take us to Cade.”

He laughed. “Where’d you find this piece of work?”

I felt my blood boiling. “I’m only going to ask one more time. Take us to Cade.”

“Guys, guys. There’s no need to fight.” Cade strolled down his front porch. “We’re all on the same team here.” He was wearing nothing but a pair of linen pants.

The men backed up. “They’re okay?”

“Yes, they’re more than okay.” He took Vera’s hand and kissed it. “They are a pleasant treat.” He took her hand in his. “Let’s head inside and visit.” He winked at me. I resisted the urge to punch him. That probably wouldn’t go over well with the guards, and I was too exhausted from flying Vera for four hours across the Pacific to take on that many Pterons.

He opened the door to let us in. “Let me give you guys a tour.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but thought better of it once Cade shot me a dirty look. Maybe he did know what he was doing.

Cade led us into the expansive foyer. The ceiling was painted to look like the night sky, and the floor was made of dark marble. The Daly’s had spared no expense. “This is the main living space, and the bedrooms are upstairs. Vera if you’d like to see those, just let me know.” Cade smirked at me to let me know he was doing it to piss me off. Vera rolled her eyes.

I seriously liked that girl.

“Downstairs is where I have my offices. Maybe we should head downstairs since you said you were here on business.”

“Sounds like a great idea,” Owen replied, and we headed down the spiral staircase to the lower level of the house.

Cade whispered over my shoulder. “Is all clear?”

“Clear enough.”

“Gotcha.”

Cade walked down a long hallway and stopped in front of a door. “This is our safe room. We only use it in extreme emergencies.”

He typed in a code and a loud beep signaled the door unlocking. I didn’t wait for the door to open, I pushed past Cade. The only thing I could think about was the possibility of finding Levi.

“Can we help you?” Levi grinned as I busted into the room.

“You son of a bitch.” I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hug him or punch him when I saw him sitting there on the couch with Allie.

Before I could think long, Allie hugged me. “You found us.” The contact surprised me at first, but I was so glad to see her alive and well that I didn’t give her a hard time about it.

“We did.” I stepped back. The relief dissipated enough that I could focus on the larger questions that still hung in the air. “What the hell happened?”

Levi’s smile disappeared. “I sensed shifters approaching and had to think fast. I see you found our note. I left it in the one place I knew would survive. I knew you’d come looking for us eventually.”

“Why here?” Owen asked. “Why Cade?”

“I knew he was the last Pteron anyone would expect me to go to for help.” Levi seemed to finally notice Vera. “I figure she is trustworthy because she’s with you, but who is this girl?”

Vera put a hand on her hip. “That doesn’t matter as much as you continuing the story. How’d you know your friends would be the ones to find the clue? What if someone else found it?”

Levi looked at Vera questioningly. He wasn’t used to people talking to him that way.

I understood her impatience. “She’s the reason we even found you, so excuse her rudeness.”

“Rudeness?” Vera scowled at me.

Levi shook his head but continued. “The only people who knew where to find us were Jared and the pilot. I knew that eventually Jared would come looking if we didn’t come back or if the shifters thought they’d taken us out. I stuck around long enough to watch them torch the cottage.”

Allie tensed at his side, and he pulled her into his arms. “What I can’t figure out is why the pilot would have spilled the details. How much would they have paid him to betray the family he’s worked for his entire adult life?”

“Do we know that’s what he did?” Vera asked. “Does the pilot answer to anyone else?”

“Only to me and Jared. I think technically my dad and Jared’s dad still have authority, but they wouldn’t have asked for that information, nor would they have shared it.”