My thoughts turn back to the tracking spell that Cam made for us. I am officially desperate enough to try anything. I can’t leave Kiara there anymore.
Ryann- The tracking spell you gave us. How well do you need to know the person you’re tracking? Is it based on how long you’ve known them? How much time you’ve spent together? How much the time is valued?Cam- Well, it is based more on the emotional connection between two people. So usually people who have strong emotional connections ARE people who have spent a lot of time together, but there’s no requirement. As long as both parties are emotionally close the spell should be able to latch onto that.Ryann- So what if theoretically the two people had never met in person, but there was a strong emotional attachment regardless?Cam- You mean yourself, don’t you? Look, I can’t guarantee that the spell will work for you. I mean, with all the effort you’ve put in I’m fairly sure that your emotional attachment is close enoIt’s another long night of watching Kiara sleep. It’s boring, but also kind of soothing because at least if she’s asleep I know that no one is hurting her or traumatising her any more than they already have. I sort of zone in and out. Sometimes watching her and sometimes properly sleeping myself in blissful blackness. I wake up properly and I can immediately tell that it is WAY too early to be up. With a groan I roll away from Bellamy and grab my phone. Ugh, it’s not even five am yet. This is disgusting. But I went to bed so early there is no way I am going to get back to sleep. Bellamy hasn’t woken up and is still sleeping heavily. I think he didn’t sleep as much as I did yesterday so he probably needs it more than I did. I decide to use the time to sneak downstairs and look at some of the emails from Shifters asking for assistance. I haven’t gotten to spend a lot of time on them the past couple of days. I get out of bed, careful not to disturb Bellamy and I stop to pull on a pair
The drive back to my old home is quiet. We’re all kind of anxious. Bellamy, Darrien, Megan and I all ride together. Apparently some of the others are going to meet us there. No one even bothered arguing that Megan or I shouldn’t come this time. I have to use the spell and Megan used the same argument as last time. I think with all the security coming with us, with the team is probably the safest place either of us could possibly be. We pull up to park and unsurprisingly, there is a large group of Shifters all sitting around while Maggie moves between them all offering what looks like cake and cookies. It seems she has already distributed cups of tea to everyone as well. I hop out of the car and she beams at me. “Ryann! It’s lovely to see you. I hear you’re going on a bit of a magical scavenger hunt looking for that missing girl. I’m sure you’ll do well, but there’s no harm in making sure that everyone is well fed before you go.” She cheerfully offering me the plate. I take a co
Anyone who believes that using a tracking spell is easy would be very wrong. Not that the spell isn’t doing it’s job, it is. I can pretty constantly feel a prickling sensation in my fingers when we’re going the right way. The problem is that I can’t seem to keep us on track. At first going north was helping, I could feel the sensation in my fingertips getting stronger, then all of a sudden it was going away. The road that we were driving down which I THOUGHT was going straight north must have a subtle curve to it somewhere because we’re all of a sudden getting further away, even though we haven’t turned at all. At least not intentionally. We try all sorts of tricks to keep on track. The one that seems to work the best is pausing at every intersection and letting me choose which turn to take. But even that has problems. If the place I’m aiming for is directly between two roads for example, then no matter which one I choose we still end up going the wrong way. By mid afternoon we paus
I barely notice as I scratch my legs up on a rather ugly spiked plant as I cut through someone’s backyard. I’ve never had a tattoo but my hand feels how I imagine getting a tattoo feels. Thousands of needles jamming into my hand over and over.I’ll have to ask someone sometime how it feels to know if my comparison is accurate or not. But either way the feeling is very unpleasant. Still, I am weirdly enjoying the pain, because the more pain the closer we must be to finding Kiara. All of a sudden the pain in my hand starts to fade a little. I slide to a stop, almost toppling over and turn back around. My hand is instantly burning again. “This one. I think it’s this house.” I declare. Instantly Bellamy and the team surge into action. Moving to approach the front and back doors simultaneously. I can tell that Bellamy doesn’t want me here, but there’s nowhere else for me to go. We left the cars several streets back. Aaron hangs back from the group staying with myself and Megan. I giv
Look, I’m no fighter and the Shifters move way faster than I can even properly process in this stressful situation. I watched the Shifter woman leap towards the redhead (I have got to learn these people’s names!) and the next thing I know, both women are screaming and the living room is lit up with blue flames that are steadily growing. I watch as Shaun and Darrien leap at the Shifter woman and help her tear off her burning shirt. Bellamy takes the chance to shift and a few moments later his large black cat form is launching towards the Witch in an attempt to knock her down. He pulls back at the last second as flames light up in front of him, spreading and essentially splitting the room in half with us on one side and the Witch on the other. She’s completely trapped, both by us and the fire which is steadily going out of control. There is smoke in the air making it hard to see what’s going on and the smoke in the air is making it difficult to breathe. My throat is so dry and my lung
Darrien is the closest to her and he sees her at the same time I do. He takes a step towards her and she whimpers in fear. He freezes and backs away slowly, trying not to startle her. I gesture for everyone else to stay back and take a few steps closer. I stop a good metre away from the little table and then slowly lower myself to the floor. Kneeling down so that I can see her properly. Kiara is covered in soot and I can see little trails of tears smudging around on her face. She is still crying and whimpering. I am careful to keep my voice gentle and calm. “Kiara?” I call her name. She doesn’t answer or look up, but her whimpering quiets a little and I can see her tensing up like she’s listening carefully. “Kiara sweetheart. You’re safe now. You can come out. We can get some something to eat, you can have a nice bath and some clean clothes. How does that sound?” I try to sound soothing. Her crying stops and she looks up at me with wide, teary, red-rimmed eyes. She doesn’t
As we step outside, I’m confused to find that I actually have no idea where we are. I really was just running and following the tracking spell. I don’t know how far I ran. It’s a good thing the others are here to bring back the cars because I would be wandering all night trying to find my way back. I’m also fairly sure that I left my phone in the car when I jumped out in a hurry. Kiara clutches my hand tightly as the cars pull up on the street in front of us. “Megan, Darrien. You stay here and speak to the police when they arrive. Direct further questions to me. Shaun, you stay with them too.” Bellamy directs as Shaun hops out the car. At Megan’s insistence he stays a good couple of metres away from us.“Yes Alpha Kane.” He responds cheerfully. Aaron and Rio also climb out of the vehicles. Rio stops to chat with one of the other Shifters whose name I still don’t know. Aaron immediately approaches me. Actually a better way to phrase it is that he storms over. He looks almost angry. Or
When we pull up to the house, there’s a police car waiting. There are two cops standing by it, one looks bored and irritated and the other has a fake ‘customer service’ type smile plastered on his face that I know well from experience. Yeah neither of these guys want to be here. They’re probably pissed that we made them come down here. Not to mention uncomfortable being in the Shifter compound. Non-Shifters aren’t invited here often, although I suppose that isn’t exactly true anymore with all our new friends stopping by regularly. Standing beside them looking awkward and uncomfortable is Alex. I bet they’ve been taking their impatience out on him. I narrow my eyes at them and prepare myself. One snotty comment and I am going to tear into them, it’s been a long night. Bellamy parks the car and I wait for him to get out. He speaks with the police briefly and Alex escorts them inside the house. Bellamy returns and opens the door next to Kiara. “Hey, can I help you get inside? The police