What are you doing? I cried out in my mind. Stop!
I was too horrified to shut her down; instead I watched as I stepped into the frame, happy and laughing as the child raced toward me. I bent down to embrace him, and right as he bounded into my grasp the images evaporated before me, leaving total grief in its wake. Shocking, awful misery pounded against my heart, threatening to suffocate me completely. That was totally uncalled for! I yelled, rage churning inside me. What can you possibly gain by torturing me with something like that? My wolf shifted her head to the side. She quieted completely, as if she was waiting for me. It took me a minute, but then I understood. She wasn’t trying to hurt me. She was showing me something. What happens if this doesn’t become a reality? What are you trying to tell me? She lay down and rested her head on her paws and whined. You have to tell—
“Jess,” Tyler called, charging around the corner. “Naomi and Eamon have vanished.”
20
“What do you mean vanished? How do you know?” My fingers traced to my temples and I pressed hard. We are not done here, I told my wolf. Her eyes were already closed on the subject. I actually wasn’t sure if there were words for what she has just tried to show me. The sense of loss still flowing through me was unfathomable. I knew without a doubt if my children were never born, something would change or be broken. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to find out what that something was, because whatever it was it was big and horrible.
“I know she’s gone because I just found Ray,” my brother informed me. “I climbed straight up from here. There’s a shallow butte at the top. He’s there and pissed as hell at being left. Naomi never showed. No packs, no supplies. She’s disappeared.”
“Well, she wouldn’t desert us—just like James wouldn’t leave the Pack without a damn good reason,” I said. “Something must be wrong.”
“No shit. This whole situation is wrong.”
“Tyler—”
“We don’t have time to argue about the merits of a vampire’s loyalty; we need to move. I’m done waiting.” His face was set. “And I know you are too.”
He was right. We were out of time. “Did Eamon happen to show either of you the path we need to take?” I asked. “Or give you a directional point before he took off?”
“He pointed to a vague area someplace to the right,” Tyler said. “He also said the entrance was masked to look like something else.”
“Like rocks?” I asked. “Or something completely different?”
“He didn’t specify, but if it was rocks, it wouldn’t look like something else; it would look the same,” Tyler replied. “My guess is it’s a tree or something that sticks out. That way if Selene invited some sadist over, they’d have a marker to go by. Everything around here looks the same.”
“Yeah, I’m sure she hosts a lot of get-togethers up here,” I said. “More than likely she’s too lazy to bother with trying to find it every time she comes back, so she made it easy on herself.”
“Ah, I have a little question,” Danny interrupted as he squatted down and unzipped the one pack we’d kept. “Did we already hand the spells over to Naomi? Or do we still have them?” He stared at us. “Honestly, I’m not sure I want to know the answer to that question, as they were practically our only advantage, but let’s have it, then.” He did a cursory check, but we all knew the answer.
Tyler’s face was stony. “She has them. I gave them to her before she left.” He swore and kicked a flurry of rocks over the side.
“Okay. We need to regroup,” I rallied. “Naomi didn’t leave of her own free will. Eamon must have done something to her or she’s trying to talk some sense into him. That means she still might be able to reach us, and if she does, which I’m betting on, she’ll meet us as quickly as she can. Not having the spells is not ideal, but we can’t let it stop us. We’ll find the entrance ourselves and go from there.”
“Fine with me.” Tyler immediately started for the end of the ledge. I followed and Danny picked up the pack and stepped behind me.