Warrior

Chapter 8-1

Chapter 8

I took half a dozen strides toward the coffee shop before I realized what I was doing. I should have turned around and gone back, but I kept walking. Once I sensed Sara, the invisible cord that stretched between us drew me to her. I knew entering the shop was a bad idea before my hand touched the door, but that didn’t stop me. Ignoring everyone else in the shop, I settled in a chair that gave me a clear view of Sara on the far side of the room.

Neither Sara nor Samson seemed aware of my presence as she finished writing and handed the notepad to him. He smiled broadly, and there was no mistaking the adoration in his eyes as he said something that made her blush prettily and look down at her lap.

My fingers clenched the arms of the leather chair as I watched him flirt openly with her, and I knew I’d be across the room in seconds if he touched her. Coming here had been a mistake, but I couldn’t leave if my life depended on it.

Sara said something. Then her shoulders stiffened and she stared out the window at the street. I wondered again if she could sense me as I did her, and I felt a thrill of satisfaction when her head turned and her gaze swept the room as if she was looking for someone.

Her companion shifted, and my eyes narrowed on him as his hand moved toward her arm to get her attention. My Mori pressed forward, and I fought the urge to leave the chair.

And then I felt her gaze on me, and I forgot about the other male as I met her indignant stare. Her chin lifted defiantly and her lips pressed together, telling me she was not happy with me being there. My pulse quickened in response. God, even when she was angry, she was beautiful.

She stared at me until Samson spoke to her. I felt the loss of her gaze when she turned it toward him. They talked, and she kept her face turned away from me, although he looked my way several times.

I waited for her to look at me again, but she seemed determined to ignore me. It didn’t bother me at first, but the longer they sat there talking as if I wasn’t in the room, the darker my mood got. By the time they got up and walked out without a glance in my direction, I was ready to bite the head off the first person who looked at me wrong.

After a minute, I went outside and strode to my bike. Straddling it, I gripped the handlebars, trying to rein in the storm brewing inside of me.

“Khristu!” I swore loudly as I fought my angry demon. I wasn’t happy either, but there was nothing I could do about it right now. I should have stayed away. I’d seen a few newly bonded males lose it because they couldn’t control their demons. I would not do that to her.

I was still there five minutes later when Chris called to tell me Sara had just gotten home. Knowing she was no longer with Samson eased my agitation a little, but I still wanted to pummel something. I started my bike and headed out of town. One of Erik’s guys had set up a punching bag in the basement of the safe house, and I had a feeling he was going to need to replace it after I was done with it.

* * *Maxwell’s northern wolves arrived in Portland Saturday night, and by Monday there had been two confrontations between the new wolves and our warriors. The additional wolves sent the vampires into hiding, and the city was quiet for the next few days.

Chris and I continued to watch Sara, who stayed closed to school and home. There was no sign of Samson, but I noticed her werewolf friends were sticking closer to her than usual. She didn’t look too happy about their constant presence, and I wondered what was up with the three of them. They had been acting strange since they walked out of the mall on Sunday with Sara covered in what appeared to be orange drink. I’d been tempted to ask what happened, but the scowl on her face had warned me against it.

On Tuesday, Sara’s uncle left on a trip. I didn’t like the idea of her alone in the building, but it wasn’t as if her uncle could have protected her from a vampire. Between Chris and me and the werewolves, we’d keep her safe.

I was halfway to New Hastings Wednesday afternoon when Chris called.

“Are you on your way here?” he asked.

I chuckled. “You in a hurry to get back to the city?”

“No.” He let out a groan. “Sara gave me the slip at school and took off.”

My stomach lurched, and I hit the gas, making the bike leap forward. “Goddamn it, Chris! She’s an untrained orphan. How the hell did she get away from you again?”

“I was waiting for her in front of the school like I do every day, and she must have gone out the back,” he said apologetically. “Her friend Roland is gone too. Peter swears he has no idea where they went.”

I sped around an eighteen wheeler. “How long?”

“About twenty minutes. I’m riding around now, looking for her. She couldn’t have gone far without a bike or car.”

“Are you sure she didn’t go home?” I asked, though I knew better. Sara, what the hell are you up to?

“I knocked and there was no answer, so I went inside. She’s not there.”

I let out a few choice expletives.

“Listen, she probably just wanted some space,” he said in a conciliatory voice. “You know she’s not happy with us hanging around all the time. Peter said Roland went after her, and I doubt they’ll find much trouble here in the middle of the afternoon.”

“You forget that trouble seems to have a way of finding them,” I ground out. “Keep looking for her. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

When I got to town, I rode straight for the waterfront. The first thing I saw was Peter sitting in a car outside her building. He paled when I pulled up beside him.

“I don’t know where she is, so please don’t yell at me,” he blurted out before I could speak. “Roland figured she was up to something, and he said he was going to follow her. He told me to wait here for him.”

“Where would she go around here?”

He shrugged. “There aren’t a lot of places Sara would go. She likes to go down to the wharves, but she doesn’t need to sneak away to do that. I checked, and they’re not down there. And neither of them is answering their phones.”

“Give me your phone number,” I ordered, and he rattled off the number. I punched it into my phone and called his. “Now you have my number. Call me if she shows up.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to ride around and see if I can find her.”

I rode slowly through the streets, trying to feel her presence. With each minute that ticked by, my frustration and worry grew. Where could she have gone without a vehicle? If she was around here, I should have felt her by now. Did her disappearance have anything to do with the last time she took off, or was Chris right and she just needed to be alone?

Half an hour later, I looked at the dark sky. A storm was brewing, and a bad one by the look of it. She’s too smart to stay out in bad weather, I told myself as I turned back to the waterfront.

Peter was still in his car, and he shook his head when I pulled up. At that moment, a gust of wind hit me and it began to rain. It was growing darker by the second.

Fear started to gnaw at me. Abandoning my bike, I began to pace. Where are you, Sara?

My Mori fluttered, and I sucked in a sharp breath. I spun and looked down the waterfront at the two figures emerging from the darkness. A mixture of relief and worry-fueled anger filled me, and I strode toward them, not knowing if I was going to hug her or shout at her. Maybe both.

My nose twitched when I got within a few feet of them and picked up the strong smell of fish and brine. Then I noticed the two of them were drenched from head to toe.

“What the hell happened this time?”

Roland started to answer, but Sara cut him off. “Nothing,” she replied with a stubborn set to her jaw.

“Iisus Khristos!” I said under my breath, ready to pick her up and carry her inside whether she liked it or not. “I’ll take her from here,” I said to Roland.

Her tough stance faltered. “I don’t think so!”

Relief flashed in Roland’s eyes, even as he protested weakly. “I’m not sure that’s such a good –”

“Sara and I need to talk – just talk. And judging by the look on your face, I think you agree with me.”

He looked away, telling me all I needed to know.

“Roland?” Confusion and hurt laced Sara’s voice when she faced her friend.

“You won’t listen to me,” he replied weakly. “Maybe it will be good for someone else to…”

She stared at him for several seconds before she pushed past us. “Traitor,” she uttered without looking back.

“Sara, wait.” Roland started after her, but I put a hand on his shoulder. I expected him to push me away. Instead, he just watched her walk toward home. “She won’t forgive me for this.”

“Yes, she will.” It was easy to see how much Sara cared about her friends. She was upset right now, but she wouldn’t hold this against him.

“Maybe I should talk to her.”

“I think it would be better for everyone if I talked to her.” We followed her. “Do you want to tell me where you two went and why you came back smelling like the harbor?”

He shook his head. “You’ll have to ask Sara. If I tell you, she won’t be happy, and I’d rather have you mad at me than her.”

We reached the bottom of her steps, and he looked like he wanted to say something else. But whatever it was, he decided against it and ran to Peter’s car instead.

I ascended the steps and reached for the doorknob, expecting to find it locked. I was surprised when it opened under my hand.

Sara was in the main hallway pulling off her wet coat and shoes, and she didn’t look up when I entered. “Make yourself at home,” she called coolly over her shoulder before she disappeared up a set of stairs at the end of the hallway. A few seconds later, her three-legged Beagle emerged from the living room and followed her as if I wasn’t there.

I shot off a text to Chris to let him know Sara was home, and then I removed my leather jacket and threw it over the back of a chair in the kitchen. Water dripped from my hair onto my shoulders, so I went in search of a towel in the bathroom on the main floor.

I was rubbing my hair dry when a shower came on overhead. My hands stilled as my mind suddenly filled with an image of her standing beneath the steaming water.

My Mori fluttered in excitement. Solmi!

“Khristu!” I threw down the towel and stormed to the living room, trying to banish my wholly inappropriate thoughts. It was natural for a bonded male to be sexually attracted to his mate, but there was nothing normal about my relationship with Sara. She was young and innocent, and she deserved better than me behaving like a horny teenage boy.

I took a tour of the apartment to redirect my thoughts. It was a nice place, comfortable and simply decorated. Sara’s uncle obviously lived on the main floor where the wide doorways provided easy access for his wheelchair. Dax’s background check had revealed that Nate Grey had been in the Army until he’d been injured by a roadside bomb in Bosnia. Now he wrote military novels and was the legal guardian to his niece. From everything I’d heard and observed about him, he was a good man who cared for Sara as if she was his daughter. She might have grown up without her parents, but she had never been without a parent’s love.

Studying the titles in the bookcase in his office, I noticed we shared a similar interest in books, and I grabbed one to read while I waited for Sara. But after forty minutes had passed with no sign of her, I wondered what was taking so long. The water had stopped long ago, and I could hear no sounds of someone moving around upstairs. She wasn’t happy to have me here, but she wouldn’t…?

I laid aside the book and noiselessly went up the stairs to the third floor that had been split into an attic and a spacious loft bedroom. On the far side of the room, I saw a bed, a desk, and a closed door to what was most likely a bathroom. There was a couch and several overflowing bookcases and not much else. On the walls hung several framed photos of her friends and one of a man who had to be her father, judging by the resemblance.