Chapter Sixteen – Evaine

“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” The panic in Jack’s voice was clear, he couldn’t mask it. Something was wrong. When Helena had taken the map out to get a reading on Evaine, using the store card to connect to her and a crystal pendulum to pinpoint her on the map, it had become obvious Eva was not going to Bolderwood.

“Yes. She’s moving, just not in the right direction. OK, I think she’s stopped. A pub, outside Nomansland. You know it?” Helena threw at him.

He tried to focus, but it was a blur. “Come on, get yourself together,” he told himself, groaning.

“I know it,” Kurt said from the front. “We took out a troll there a few months back.”

“That’s where she is.” Helena balanced the map on her thighs while Kurt turned the Land Rover around and took them back the way they’d come before turning off down a narrow road that took them through the forest.”

“Wait,” Jack said, his brain beginning to function again. “We need to be careful. What if they are watching her?”

“Jack’s right,” Liam said. “We need to think like us.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Lucas asked scathingly.

“That we are usually doing the hunting, and if we wanted to flush someone out, we would watch the route we think they will travel. If Eva is stationary, it could be they are watching to see if she has company.”

Jack nodded. “There is every chance they have been watching her since they let her go. They will know she’s been in contact with us, and this Land Rover isn’t exactly inconspicuous, is it?”

“So, suggestions?” Lucas asked.

“Steal a car,” Kurt said matter-of-factly.

“This is not the time for jokes,” Lucas muttered.

“Who’s joking? How else do you expect to remain unseen?” Kurt asked.

“The same way I make your big bear pawprints look like a fox,” Helena said, nodding. “I’ve never tried it on something this big.”

“Then let’s join forces and do it together.” Lucas held his hand out to Helena, who hesitated, her eyes narrowed as she studied the young druid.

“Why did you come with us, Lucas?” she asked.

“To help,” he said easily.

“No, honestly, why?” Helena asked.

“Helena, we have no time for this. Hold his damn hand. And make us look like a family out for a day trip.”

She huffed, but took Lucas’s hand. Together they uttered a spell. When it was done, Helena yanked her hand back from Lucas. “You didn’t need my help.”

“No, I just wanted to hold your hand,” he said, with a wink.

“Moron.”

“I am anything but a moron, and we both know it,” Lucas said silkily.

“So we’re good?” Jack asked, his temper frayed.

“Yes. We look like a family, in a red Ford Focus.” Helena angled her body away from Lucas. “Let’s go get your mate and her mother, so I don’t have to sit next to a druid any longer than I have to.”

“Great,” Jack said under his breath. He needed them to all work together if they were going to get this right.

Kurt sped up, weaving through the back roads, until he reached Nomansland, and then he slowed. The pub was up on the right. Jack slid forward in his seat to look out of the front window as they approached.

“There she is,” Kurt said. He drove straight past Eva, who watched them, totally oblivious to the passengers in the car. “We can safely say the glamor works.”

“Good. Pull over and let’s watch.”

Kurt indicated to pull off the road into a gravel area. He kept the engine running, Jack kept his hand on the door, ready to jump out and help Eva if she needed it.

“Here we go. Something is happening. She’s turning around. Damn, someone was there all along.”

“So we follow?” Kurt asked.

“Not right away. There could be a second car. Pull away. If they go in the opposite direction, we turn around and let Helena guide us. If not, we pull over, let them pass, and follow at a discreet distance.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Kurt said, and drove off, while Jack watched out of the rear window. “She’s getting in the car. They’re coming this way.”

His heart ached for Eva. He hated that she might be scared they would lose her and she would have to face whatever happened alone. If only he could tell her.

“She knows we will be there for her,” Liam said. “She knows. And you know she can handle herself.”

“Except we don’t know who we are dealing with, and neither does Eva.”

“Templars,” Lucas said.

“What?” Helena asked, disgusted. “They were wiped out.”

Lucas held his hands up. “Hey, I’m just telling you what I know.”

“And how do you know anything, Lucas?” Helena spat. “Why are you here? This is beneath you, mixing with a witch and a bunch of shifters.”

“Oh, I know. But when this goes down, I want to be there,” he said hotly.

“Why?” Jack asked, putting his hand on the back of Lucas’s seat and pulling himself forward. “Why, Lucas?”

“Because I have to do something to stand out. We don’t all have a daddy to make us shine, some of us have to rub the tarnish off ourselves.”

“You are doing this for the glory?” Jack asked.

“If that’s how you want to see it.” He turned in his seat to look at Jack. “We both want the same outcome. You want to defeat the Templars for Eva, I want to defeat them because it looks good on my resume. So what’s wrong with that?”

“He has a point,” Liam said. He put his hand on Jack’s shoulder and pulled him back. “And we need all the help we can get.”

“Liam is right,” Helena conceded. “We need Lucas.”

“Thank you. Is a little gratitude too much to ask? I made the fake stone, didn’t I? I’m already knee-deep in this shit,” Lucas asked heatedly.

“All right. Let’s focus, and get Eva and her mom out. We’ll discuss the repercussions when we fully understand them,” Jack said.

“Agreed,” Lucas said.

“Kurt, let’s back off and get some space between us and Eva. Helena, are you still able to track Eva?”

“Yes,” Helena said.

“OK, play time is over, I need you all to get your game heads on. Once we reach the location, we have to be ready for anything. Eva might have only seen three people in the warehouse, but that does not mean there aren’t more.”

He sat back and collected his temper, and shut it away in a box, which he securely locked. Staying in control was what he needed to do. They were strong, they had faced worse. He shook his head, but usually they knew exactly what they were going up against: degetty, sirens, trolls, hell, even a fairy was more predictable than this. It was the unknown that worried him; he hadn’t heard of Templars being active for centuries.

And what did they want with the Dragon’s Tear? They had gone to elaborate lengths to make Eva retrieve it. Kidnap and blackmail. He shook his head; he had a bad feeling about this.

“They’ve turned into an industrial site. The car is slowing. They’ve stopped.”

“Kurt, get us close, and then we go in on foot. Get ready, people. This is where it gets real.”

“Or unreal,” Liam said, with a grin.

“Or unreal,” Jack agreed. “No matter what, we go in and we get what we came for. Eva, her mom, and the Dragon’s Tear. Remember Eva’s description of the one she called Crosshead. He is the one who will most likely have the Dragon’s Tear. He is our priority. Do not let him leave.”

“Understood,” a chorus of voices called, and then the Land Rover stopped, and they were out, heading on foot toward the place where his mate was. As they got close, he began to pick up a sense of her. Not strong enough to pinpoint, but strong enough to know she was close.

I’m coming to get you, Jack said.

No, we’re coming to get you, his bear corrected.