Weddings Bells Times Four (25 page)

A black smoldering spot of grass still threw off heat and the stench of burning skin filled the air. “Dred?”

He shook his head. “It’s not her. I can’t pick up her scent. It’s like she’s disappeared, but Terk is gone. Whoever did this is not from this world.” Dred looked up at Lucas and he nodded.

“It’s time to call my brother.” Lucas vanished once more and Edward turned around, heading straight toward Governor Broward’s room. It was time to set his plan into motion.

“Dred, you’re with me. Rock, I want you to find Avril and start planning our wedding. When she comes back, I don’t want to wait. I want to surprise her. We’ll have the coronation and wedding all on the same day. A day around her and only her. Oh, and Beth wants the theme she was talking about, that Charles Dickens one. Inform my mother that she is in charge of the wedding dress.”

Rock nodded and took off. “You really believe we’ll get her back?” Dred snarled, but kept up his pace next to him.

Edward stopped, his hands in fists at his side. “I have to believe we’ll get her back, because if I don’t…Lucas isn’t the only one with shadows, Dred. Only you and your brother are keeping me from tearing this place apart.” He turned and grasped Dred’s shoulder. “We’re going to have to reach out to Lucas and surround him. He does not have us as an anchor. All he has is her and with her being hurt, gone…We better hope we find her soon.”

Turning the corner, Edward ran smack into Governor Broward. He stumbled back, but Dred caught him, growling at the man.

The man winked and drew up. “I’ve come to file a complaint! I demand to know why you are treating my son with such disrespect. He’s been at your side for over one hundred years, but never once has he turned on you like these other men. I demand his punishment be lifted.”

Cracking his neck, Edward leaned against the wall as a crowd started to gather around them. “You do know what has happened, don’t you?”

The man waved his hand. “Our Queen’s vanishing has nothing to do with my family. Hell, maybe my son can help find her. He knows every inch of this castle.”

“You are causing a scene, Broward. I suggest you back down and go to your room. When you are calmer, we will talk.” Edward stepped aside to go around him, but the man grabbed onto him and spun him around.

Gasps filled the hallway and Edward had to keep the grin back as Dred seemed to attack the man. “Escort him out of the castle. You have one month to get yourself together. I suggest you take this time to pull yourself together. Now get out of here,” Edward snapped and stepped back as Dred escorted the man off his property. Their plan now was in effect. Edward watched those around them as his people slowly walked away from the scene.

Not one person stood out, but he knew word would get back to the group who had taken their woman about the Governor. Hopefully he’d be able to help them. He turned and moved toward the throne room wanting to see what was going on with Lucas.

“Little Witch, I swear I’m going to tie you to my side from now on,” Edward whispered, tears filled his eyes and a knot formed in his throat. “Come home to us, Beth.” The doors opened and he stepped in to see Lucas pacing back and forth.

“Konrad, I’ve never asked for help, but I need it now. I don’t know how long I can last without her here.” Lucas looked up and stared at him. “Thank you Konrad. I’ll keep the line open.”

“What did you find out?” Edward came to his side. “We’re here to help. I know we are not your mates, but we must stick together. The three of us can help you through this time, till we find he,r and we will.”

“I have to leave. The other contact I told you about refuses to link with me.” Lucas turned and started to pace. Papers flew off his desk and curtains blew around the windows. The chairs and tables shook.

“There is only one reason why Nail won’t speak to me and I plan to find out. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone, but if you hear anything, you’ll be able to reach me through our tie,” he said as Dred and Rock came into the room.

“Take Rock with you. It will help having one of us with you. The tie you created for all of us will help ease the shadows.” Edward stepped in front of him and placed both of his hands on his shoulders. “I’d go myself, but we can’t leave…”

“Don’t. I know you would come and that this is tearing you up, just as it is me. We’ll find those who did this and I promise you, they will pay for this,” Lucas said and turned to Rock. “Do you want to do this? It will be different traveling to another world.”

The wolf stepped forward and bowed to Lucas. “It would be my honor to travel with you. Please let me help any way I can. It’s what she would want, all of us working together.”

“So be it. My brother is meeting us on the planet where I believe she might be. We’re going into a deep jungle. It’s the only place to get into the city without being noticed. This planet has a mix people that come there so we will not stick out too bad, but your skin color…That should do it.”

“Pink?” Rock looked at him and Lucas shrugged as his skin also turned pink.

“There is a race that is close to humans and their skin is pink. Many of them travel to this worl. It will give us some kind of cover.” Lucas nodded to Edward and placed his hand on Rock’s shoulder. Both men vanished from the room.

“I’ll never get used to that. My brother is much braver than me,” Dred shook his head and sat down, looking up at Edward. “What do we do now?”

“You’re wrong, Dred. You’d be there too if need be and all we can do now is wait.” Edward plopped down next to him, looking around the room and wishing like hell he could give their woman a normal life, a life without the dangers of being a ruler.

***

Beth felt like a pin cushion and she hurt. She had two bullet wounds. The last bullet had hit right before Terk had picked her up ,one in her shoulder and one in her side. Beth shivered and looked around the cave she was in.

The only plus was that it was warm and her wounds seemed to be healing slowly. She knew that she’d passed out, but woke up once seeing someone…She lifted her skirt and tears formed in her eyes. He’d bit her in her thigh. “What else?”

No, she’d know if he done something to her, but Beth needed to feed badly with the amount of blood she’d lost. She had no idea where she was and how much time had passed. Once more she scanned her surroundings, but nothing was familiar. Even the air seemed to be different.

With her wounds mostly healed, Beth said a few words of a spell for clean clothes, but nothing happened. “Well, this really sucks,” the pink shirt she wore had blood stains all over it and her skirt was a total lost. “God, I stink….”

“I’m so going to kill someone,” she mumbled and tried to stand, falling twice when the pain shot through her, but finally Beth managed to get to her feet with the help of the wall. Inching forward, she made her way towards the light and out of the damp cave, but what greeted her scared the living crap out of her. “Not on Earth, not good,” she mumbled and tried to swallow the lump in her throat.

What appeared to be grass was blue, most of the plants around her were red and Beth was in what looked like the middle of the jungle. She jumped as she heard the snap of branches off to her right. “
Edward, Lucas…Dred, Rock now would be a real good time to come to the rescue please. I’m not really this brave.”
She tried to send to this message to them, but there was no connection. Leaves parted and some kind of strange cat came out of the jungle, staring right at her. At least she thought it was a cat.

It had four black eyes, two horns on the top of its head, and strips like a zebra, but when it opened its mouth, she just about fainted. Not only did the thing have fangs, but it had a forked tongue like a snake’s, and Beth hated snakes. “Nice animal…You don’t want to eat me…” Her voice squeaked as she stepped back, twisting her ankle. “Damn it,” she cried and hugged the wall trying to get through the pain.

As if it understood her words, the creature lay down and watched her. It was the size of a lion so she knew it could easily kill her. But right now, Beth had a bigger problem. Her legs were shaking so badly, and she knew her ankle would now swell. She was so weak that she had no choice to slowly slide to the ground.

“I give up…I can’t do this anymore.” Big fat sobs racked her body as Beth waited to be killed. Her hands covered her face and she was scared half out of her mind. She pulled her legs up ignoring the pain in her ankle and rested her head on her knees. “Edward, Lucas, Dred, Rock…” She pictured each one of her men, wishing they were before her.

Beth loved her other men, but Edward was her rock. He was the one who held everyone together and right now she craved his arms around her.

Out of the corner of her eye, Beth watched as the creature inched its way closer to her. Its clawed paws were bigger than her hand and pulled its body forward till it was lying next to her. “I don’t know what you want. If you’re going to eat me, I wish you would get it over with already.”

The strange creature nudged her leg with its big head. Slowly so Beth wouldn’t scare the animal, she brushed her tears away and lowered her hand down onto its head. “Please, all I want to do is go home.”

Its tongue ran across her arm, making her jump and shiver. Never once did it lunge. It just waited. She lowered her hand back down and ran her fingers through the soft fur. “I wish I knew more about you. I need to find water and food, but the thought of going out there…”She rubbed her cheek on her knee, trying to curl up, so cold.

“Kat-kat-kat…Kat-kat-kat,” came out of the its mouth. Its eyes were focused on her when it sat up and moved in front of her, blocking out the wind. Once more the tongue came out and licked her arm, before she felt the scrape of its fang against her skin.

A small dot of blood rose up and the thing licked her blood away. It was like a switch was turned on in her head at once. Beth could read the creatures thoughts and was amazed at how intelligent it was.

“You’re not going to kill me?” She cocked her head to the side. “Feed, you want me to feed from you?” Beth was shaking her head. “No. I can’t do that. I don’t want to hurt you, plus I don’t know if I can take your blood. Thank you though.” Beth relaxed and lowered her legs as her eyes closed.

With a nudge to her shoulders, Beth watched as Zeron, that’s what the animal called itself, opened up a vein in his upper leg with his fang, holding it out for her. “
Eat!”

“God, even on this world there were Alpha males,” she grumbled, but once seeing the dark liquid come out of the vein, Beth lowered her head and drank.

His blood was thicker, but tasted sweet with a hint of mint, and boy did it pack a punch. After a few swallows, Beth closed the hole feeling 100% better. “Thank you. Now if I can find my way home. Do you by any chance know how I got here?” She mumbled to herself, but the creature answered, shocking the crap out of her.

Zeron snarled and looked up at the sky. “
Ruler of people, bad…”

“Great and I bet he’s watching right now too. Or listening.” She rubbed the bite mark, worried. With a deep breath Beth stood, and brushed off her skirt. Her ankle was swollen, but she could limp “Well, let’s go explore, shall we? Or am I caged in?” Her ankle was tender, but she could make it anywhere as long as it was away from where he put her.

Turning away from her, Zeron walked into the strange forest and came back with a long stick in his mouth. “
Help walk
.
Come-home, won’t find.”

She picked up the stick and leaned on it the best she could.“Now that sounds like a plan, but I still need to get to my home, Zeron.” Beth was worried, Lucas needed her. She knew he would have the hardest time with her gone.

For the next two hours, Beth followed her new friend, her ankle now burning even with the help of the stick, but she refused to give up. She hoped that somehow her men would find her, but she didn’t know how it would. With each passing step, fresh tears rolled down her cheeks.

Up and up they moved, at one point Beth looked back over her shoulder and could see for miles, but there was nothing there but the strange forest they were trudging through. “Does anyone live on this world? People like me?” Beth asked as she moved around what looked like a boulder to stop in her tracks.

In front of them was some kind of cave. Five of the same kind of animal sat in front of the structure, watching her. “
Home.”

Behind the animals, Beth noticed a shadow and stepped back as a man dressed in only a tarp wrapped round his waist stepped out of the enclosure. He bowed. “I am called Nail.” He stood up and smiled at Zeron.

“Good work, Zeron.” He looked to the sky. “At least she’ll be safe here, where they can’t hurt her anymore.”

“Who? What are you talking about? Who could be so powerful to bring me here from a different planet? How can you speak English?” Beth said and stepped back again.

The cats parted and he held out his hand. “Please, come inside and we’ll speak. We still have to be careful. The drones come by every so often to search for me and now they’ll be looking for you.”

She moved forward a few steps when he sniffed the air and dropped his hand. “Lucas…You’re his mate?” The man snarled and Beth whimpered as she stumbled back, all of a sudden scared. She couldn’t protect herself and Beth didn’t need another man touching her.

Zeron stepped in between them and growled at the man causing him to stop. “It’s because of Lucas that I’m here!” He glared down at the cat before he stepped back. “When did he wake?”

“Lucas wouldn’t bring me here, not when he was accepted on my world. I don’t know how long I’ve been here? In my time it was two days ago, but…” Beth rubbed her arms. “I have no idea and someone…” She touched her leg and dropped what she was going to say. “I was hurt and I woke up here. I think I’ve been here a while.”

She looked up at the sky. “He needs me. The shadows were so strong in him.” She turned away from him and looked back out over the land.

“Earth time and here are different. The animals knew you had been dumped here, but that was about a week ago. In other words, you’ve been here over two weeks.” He took a deep breath. That means it wasn’t Lucas who attacked.”