Popping between the seats with his front paws perched on the console, Chewy Huffed, “I knew I should've voted tacos. It would have been the perfect last meal.”
“Shut up, Chewy,” I warned, jerking the wheel to the right and hitting Y'all Come Back Lane, the bumpy, rutted, gravel road leading to Hoopingarner House.
Missing the turn into the driveway, I whipped Fancy onto the front lawn and gunned it as Zelda yelled, “If I die, I will haunt your curvy ass forever and three days!”
Front wheels on the white rock driveway and the back still on the lawn, I slammed both feet on the brake and literally pushed with such force that my ass came off the seat. Rocks whizzed in every direction, clumps of dirt and grass rained down on Fancy’s hood, but none of it mattered…
Everything was wrong.
Well, more messed up than the fact that my Mate was missing, it was two weeks until my Mating Ceremony, and my best friend was plotting my murder.
Looking one way then the other, and even turning in my seat to see if I missed something, I looked at Zelda, “Where are the fire trucks?”
Opening her mouth to clap back at me with what I knew was about to be a smartass comment, her expression turned from anger to confusion as she did exactly what I had done. Looking out her window, then out mine, then over the seat and out the back window, she shrugged. “No clue?”
“Where are the firefighters? The EMTs?” The looky-loos trying to film the blaze for social media?” Maeve added, also blessedly intrigued instead of pissed at me.
“Where is Kai?” I whispered, just barely keeping the fear from my tone.
Opening the preternatural senses I had thanks to my illustrious heredity and the Dragon Queen with whom I shared my soul, I found only silence. Rubbing up against Zelda’s Witchy Magic and Maeve’s Dragony goodness, I asked, “Anybody got anything?”
“No,” Maeve cautiously replied.
Turning her head and looking me right in the eye, Zelda slowly shook her head. “Nothing but silence.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Reaching for the handle of the door, I stopped short when Zelda’s fingers touched the wrist of my other hand. Gaze darting to my bestie, I had to hold back a gasp when I saw the haunted look in her eyes. Then she spoke, and I was more confused than ever. “No, I mean silence.”
“No.” A single, sharp shake of her head, and she went on, “You’re not listening. There is nothing.” Taking her hand off my wrist and raising the other, she bounced them in the air in time with every syllable coming from her mouth, “There. Is. Nothing. It is completely silent. No little critters. No bugs. Not even one of those nasty cicadas that continually attack every time I set foot in Texas.” Motioning one way, then the other, talking with her hands more than usual, she leaned forward and emphasized, “Nothing. You get it?”
Unable to respond, I looked through the windshield. I knew I was in the right place. Smoke still curled from broken windows. The front doors hung open. The house creaked and swayed with every little breeze.
Plop… Plop… Plink… Plop… Plop… Plink…
Water dripped from at least four places inside the house and more than I could count outside. The firefighters had been here because it dadgum sure hadn’t rained and the Hoopingarner House was still smoldering....
But there were no voices. No footsteps.
“No Kai,” I breathed a split-second before my heart skipped a beat and I couldn’t catch my breath.
For the first time in my five-hundred-and-sixty-five years, I froze. Where was my Mate? What had happened? Was Barney really sick enough to escape from jail and kidnap Kai just to punish me for not letting him sacrifice Maisie? How was I…?
The sound of tires careening over gravel had me out of the car, doing a spinning about-face, getting ready to let the fireballs fly. Then I saw the fender of Theresa’s Pepto Bismal Pink Harley Soft Tail and dropped my hands.
Sliding to a stop right beside me, she was off the motorcycle and standing in front of me in two seconds. “Maisie showed up at Marvelous Martha’s and wanted to come.”
“She what?” I spat.
“Don’t worry,” she assured, hanging the helmet she’d just taken off on the handlebars of her Harley. “I dealt with it.” Raising her eyebrows and opening her eyes wide, she gave me a pointed look. “I almost had to handcuff her to the brass rail of the bar to stop her, but in the end, she agreed to stay put.”
“How did she even know?”
“She said she could feel that you were upset and came running. She couldn’t find a babysitter, so she had all three babies in tow.”
“Thank the Goddess you stopped her. I love my nieces, but what hell would we do with three babies here?” Hand outstretched, my index finger pointing at what was left of Hoopingarner House.
“She just wants to help,” Maeve interjected from the back of Fancy.
