Page 15 of Captive Beta
Easier than dealing with phones, and hands-free contact is convenient when your hands are otherwise occupied, by —for example— banging heads together. Though, I should probably not say that aloud right now, the other two are much too on edge to joke like that.
“Any news from Timothy?” I lengthen the strap on Vera’s bag and sling it around my shoulder.
“Just to keep him updated if she comes back or if we encounter more trouble. They didn’t take everyone with them on the mission, so we can call backup from the house if we need to.” Miles is still pale, looking worried.
I’ll have to make sure that he won’t get in trouble when we get back. It’s not his fault that this happened. This is just how Vera is.
Even I can’t keep my eyes on her all the time and I’m the one who taught her how to slip away…
“Okay. Let’s see if we can find her. I don’t think she’s coming back here any time soon if she hasn’t returned yet.” I look to Jorge. “Where were you standing when she disappeared?”
He swallows, pointing to some restaurants to our left. “We were walking there.”
I create a mental line from there, past where she dropped her bag off, and follow the trail further. “That means she probably went in the direction of those buildings. Let’s start there.”
I open a map on my phone to orient myself better and the direction she probably went in is mostly towards the back of the stores and restaurants, some storage and residential buildings. Nothing too interesting.
Jorge and Miles follow me quietly and I take some deep breaths, focusing my attention on finding Vera and not give into my instinct to first protect Jorge before I do anything else. He’s so distressed that it’s setting off all my protective instincts.
I understand that we can’t choose who we scent match with, but I think Jorge would have been much happier if the rest of us were a little less… If we lived less on the edge of life and the edge of the law. It’s not like he’s new to this world, he’s lived in it for years and years. But every time he’s confronted with the more violent and dangerous side of things, he doesn’t deal well with it.
As we step onto the side street, everything becomes much quieter and I stop, taking in our surroundings and catching a sliver of Vera’s scent. She was here, she left her mark, though she made sure it wasn’t too strong.
“Caleb.” Miles’ voice is hard, dark, making me turn to him. He points to the back of a car where a small heart symbol sticker is stuck to the corner of the back window.
My heart sinks and Jorge lets out a pained sound when he too notices what Miles spotted. The Hearts are in this area.
That doesn’t mean that Vera is going after them for sure, but with our shitty luck, that’s exactly what she’s doing.
“Let’s keep moving.” My heart races and I make my way to the other end of the building.
The street that goes between the high buildings is full of cars and trashcans and other things, easy to hide behind, but it also reeks, so following Vera’s pheromones won’t be easy.
“How are we going to find her?” Jorge stops next to me, looking around with a wild gaze.
“Smell the air. Ignore the stench of the trash cans, try finding Vera’s pheromones. She left us a trail to follow. It won’t stay for long, but if we keep moving, we’ll be able to follow it before it disappears.”
He pulls a face, but seems to try, before shaking his head. “I’ll just trust that you can find it.”
“That’s fine too. You keep an eye on our surroundings.”
“That, I can do.” He covers his nose and mouth with his arm. “What was she doing coming here?”
“I have no idea, but I suspect we’ll find out once we get to her.” I glance at Miles, who’s now fully focused on his job, protecting us. I won’t have to explain much to him, Derrick has trained him well enough for that.
We follow the scent trail for three more blocks before Jorge grabs my arm, stopping me, his body full of tension. “This scent… I smelled it too when Vera disappeared.”
I take slow and long breaths, filtering out Vera’s pheromones —which are as familiar to me as my own— until I notice a different sweet scent, burnt caramel.
The protective rumble in my chest is instinctual.
A pack member!
Vera found a new pack member, and they’re in trouble.
No wonder Vera went after them. Another pack member…
Now we know what we’re looking for, I want to follow the trail even faster, but the tension in Miles’ voice stops me dead in my tracks.
