Rose

Chapter 17. A plan comes together

Daryn’s pov

The pain that suddenly lanced through me was like being shot! My vision went black, and my hearing buzzed and I went very, very dizzy.

I grabbed my chest just above my heart and ended up toppling face first into the dinning table, I heard the c***k of the table as it broke under my weight, the crash of the plates and silverware as they hit the ground and the tinkle of glass as the water jugs followed.

The pain was unimaginable, a searing, burning, white hot spike. The bite mark on my shoulder burned like a fire brand.

Rose! Rose was in trouble! Rose was hurt! The mate mark was telling me her pain, she was the one that experienced the pain, and the marks were sharing it with me.

I managed to roll onto my hands and knees, my head hanging low while I waited for my vision to clear, I was breathing hard to bring the pain under control, I could feel hands de tangling the tablecloth from me. Hands were picking pieces of china and glass from my clothes.

“Rose!” I croaked, “Rose!” Strong hands lifted me back to my feet, held me by my biceps while I swayed and finally got my balance back.

In front of me, holding my right arm was Tol, he was looking at Pops who was holding me up on my left. Both of them were looking very worried. Tol’s face was crumpled in a deep frown, his eyebrows almost drawn together into one line, his mouth a tight little pucker of worry. Pops looked even more worried, his face was pale, his eyes darting between my face and Tol’s and an unseen communication seemed to pass between he two men, they simultaneously hauled me off to Pop’s office.

Once I am sat on the couch in Pop’s office, I can hear them talking. I sit with my head in my hands, fingers knotted in my hair. The pain is now a deep throb. I am breathing though it.

“Well,” Tol says conversationally to Pop “We know the mate link works.”

Pop snorts, “Not they way to want it tested though!”

Both men humm and agreement and I feel them both turn to look at me;

“Explain” Pops says

“I don’t know, I just suddenly felt like I got shot or something!” I say, rubbing the point on my chest where the pain had stabbed through me. “Shot, yes not stabbed, a sudden white-hot pain, I couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe, I thought I was going to pass out!”

 “You did” Tol says flatly, his voice has no inflections to it at all. I look up at him quickly. “Is Rose dead?” he asks in the same toneless voice.

I know she isn’t dead, the mark still burns in my skin, if she were dead then her mark on my skin would have faded as her life left her. I still have the mark, I wordlessly pull my shirt down to show Tol and Pop the mark. It looks red and angry, like a fresh sore, not like the tattoo silver scar it had been this morning.

Tol turns to Pops, “Can distance do this?”

Pops shakes his head, “No this is a mate in pain, in trouble, but as the scar is there, she isn’t dead.”

“Yet” Tol adds quietly.

We all fall silent as we think about that last little word. Not helpful Tol!

Ma peeks into the room, I can see her feet as she walks across the carpet. Behind her the ever-present, dainty, ghost like movements of Rebekka, the faithful handmaiden, who has self-appointed as Mom’s shadow.

 Pops give Ma the run down on the story so far, her gasp in horror is not helping either.

“Can you talk to her?” she asks me? I shake my head. Rose isn’t a wolf; I can’t mind like to her and talk to her like a normal couple could.

“What about you?” I look up, Ma is talking to Tol, who is looking a little taken aback at Ma’s sharp tone of voice.

He frowns “What?”

“Wolves can mind link mates, children and close family, You are Rose’s father aren’t you? I mean you made her a vampire? Can’t you link to her?”

Tol shakes his head a little; “No we can’t do that. In fact, I have little to no connection with her in that sense other than a vague feeling of concern that there is something obviously wrong. Nothing more than a human parent might get with their child. I’m Sorry!” He hangs his head in front of Ma, as though, somehow, he has let her down by not having a telepathic link with his turn.

 “Well?” Ma asks the room in general “How do we find her?”

I am now so deeply in despair I can’t think I want to howl, my mate, my soul’s other half, my beautiful Rose is hurt, afraid maybe and I cannot find her and help her.

I have no idea what to do and the heavy silence tells me the rest of them are pulling a blank too.

Stop Dar, Think! I take a deep breath, letting it out slowly, another, and a third. Right let us think about this! Thinking is my strong point… so THINK!!!!

I can’t communicate with her, but the mate mark tells me she isn’t dead. Wait…..

The Mate Mark!! Yes!! this might be it – well, it might be something anyway. The mate mark should let me know when my mate is near, perhaps if I can figure out where she is I can home in on her using the mark? Maybe??

Where is she likely to be? North America is not a small place to start a hunt.

Tol will know where her flat is

“Tol!” he jumps, his head snapping round to me as I grab him, shaking him like a rag toy.

“Son,” Pops says quietly but using his Alpha voice “Put Ptolemy down before his teeth rattle out of his head!” I can’t disobey that voice, it commands me to act.

I release Tol, setting him back on his feet. He dusts himself down and straightens his clothes. It does finally creep into my brain he could have quite literally killed me, ripping me apart for what I just did. An ancient vampire filled with the most powerful blood available. I’m lucky to still be standing here.

Tol smiles weakly, “Yes?” he asks.

“Where were Edward and Rose going? What was their address? We know where they were going? We know roughly what time I felt her get hurt. If we know he address we can work out if they got there, or were still on the road? We can see what area we start the search in!”

“You might want to breath in at some point!” Tol says coldly “But yes this is a good idea, the address was in Rideout.”

Rideout was a midsize city, it has started off as a prospecting town while the west was won. People would arrive there, rest and then literally Ride Out. And so the town got it’s name. After a while the railroad got there, then the industry started, warehouses and wood mills filled the outskirts of the town. And then the boom went bust, the town became emptier and emptier as the young people left, businesses closed down, no new ones replaced them, Rideout was dying.

It was the internet boom that saved Rideout, people started up businesses again, the factories became hotspots for the yuppie development and Rideout was back up on it’s feet, the hip young things all wanted to be out there, it was close to the ocean, just an hour or two’s drive, hiking was great in the area it became the up and coming place to be, property was cheap but space was starting to be in demand. And as luck would have it Rideout is on the edge of Carl’s territory.

“I wonder if Carl will lend us the chopper?” Pop mused out loud.