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.She has become the only family I have.MarisaWhen he finished the letter his expression was a contradiction.His dark brown eyes softened, but his jaw locked in place.“Are you okay?” I asked as my phone beeped with a text message.I ignored it as I waited for him to answer me.He did after a few seconds.“She wants me to find her.” He turned to face me, the letter still poised in his hands and a small smile formed on his lips.I nodded, reaching out to squeeze his leg.“Of course she does, you’re her brother.”He closed his eyes and breathed deeply.“But she doesn’t want me to hurt the werewolf.” Despite the fact that we now knew the name of the person keeping the siblings apart, Adrian refused to use it.My guess would be because, it would be too personal to say her name and right now he wanted to hate her.“Let’s just find them.”He nodded, folded the letter up carefully and stuck it between the seats.With a quick look in my direction he turned on the car and backed out of the lot.I unwrapped his sandwich and handed it to him.“She sounds mature for her age,” I observed, after I swallowed a bite of dark meat from my chicken.He nodded his mouth full of bun and meat.“She’d be fifteen now, right?”“Yes.I hope this werewolf has taken good care of her.”I leaned my bare feet up onto the dash, my flip-flops lay discarded on the car floor.“I know you don’t want to hear this, but by what your sister herself said in that letter and by the sound of the few words I heard, she does love Marisa.”His eyes flashed yellow, his face turned hard.“You’re right.I don’t want to hear it.”I gulped; the coldness in his tone was so unlike him.I picked nervously at the bright, red, peeling nail polish on my pinky toe.It was the second time he had snapped at me within twenty four hours.He was lucky I was so understanding, or that ass-kicking I had joked about with Nate would definitely become a reality.“Are you going to check your phone?”Oh right; I forgot I had a text.I leaned over and pulled my phone out of my bag.It was from Nate.Finished my meeting can leave soon.Where am I headed?I read the text out loud to Adrian.“Portland, I guess.But he doesn’t need to come.”“I know, but he wants to help.”He shrugged, popping the last of his sandwich into this mouth.Ignoring him, I texted Nate back.Heading to Portland.Got word that’s where they are headed.How far out r u? he asked.“How long do you think it will take to get there?”Adrian shrugged.“About three hours.”I typed in Adrian’s answer and waited for a response.K, I’ll be there ASAPI was about to type in a response when my phone beeped again.Can’t wait to see u.I miss the taste of your lips.I sucked in a breath, feeling my cheeks heat and my stomach flutter.I missed him so much it hurt.“What?”I covered my phone with my hand and dropped my legs from the dash, slipping my feet into my sandals.“Nothing,” I responded while I typed in a message.I miss you too.His only response was- lolI grinned and put my phone back into my bag.I was still smiling when I noticed Adrian watching me.“What?”He simply shook his head and looked back to the road ahead of him.While he fell silent, I closed my eyes and pictured vivid blue eyes, messy pale blond hair and the scent of leather and pine.My heart ached at the need to be near him, to feel his strong arms wrap around my back as he nuzzled my neck and to have his warmth seep into me.With these images in my mind, I couldn’t wait to see the real thing and I was thankful that I wouldn’t have to wait much longer.Chapter EightA Surprising Turn of EventsWhen we finally arrived in Portland there seemed to be a nervous energy pulsing in the car.“Are you alright?” I asked.Adrian had been silent for the last hour and his only responses to my attempts at conversation were grunts and nods.“Where do you think the high school is?” he asked, ignoring my question.“I’m not sure, but I can pull up a map of the city.”He pulled over to the side of the road while I took out my phone and found the map.“These are all the high schools.” I explained pointing at my phone.“Three are in this area and one is closest to a lake.”He was quiet as he thought this through.“They could be near any one of them.It’s easier to hide in the busy district, but the water from the lake would help to wash the scent away.”“I don’t know the kind of person this werewolf is.” I turned my head at the sound of a growl coming out of Adrian.“I know she has your sister, but Marisa says she loves her so she can’t be as bad as Charlotte.” When he only stared at me, his eyes washed with a mix of anger and confusion, I went on.“When Charlotte kidnapped us she hid us on an island so she could hide our scents.Just like you guys did with your hideout.You stayed near water.So I think we should check the surrounding area of the school by the lake.”He nodded his head and turned on the ignition.The car purred to life before he merged with the rest of the traffic.A few minutes later my phone beeped.It was a text from Nate, saying he was at the airport waiting for his plane.“Nate’s at the airport.He’ll text me when he lands.”Adrian only nodded, focussed on the road ahead.Since he refused to speak, or look at me, I took the time to study him.His facial features were hard and there were lines around his eyes that weren’t there the last time I saw him.He had aged in the six months he’d been searching.He lived with the evil Charlotte and her minions for ten years, but when I met him, he was cheerful and kind.I rarely saw him frown.What had happened to make him this grumpy, focussed man next to me? When he was living with Charlotte he escaped by working out every day.Was that the reason he had retreated to this dark mood, where he hardly smiled? Or was it the fact that his sister had been so close to him for months, but still out of reach.Would he go back to his old self when we found her? I really hope so.I missed the friend I had met six months ago and although I had seen glimpses of him over the last few days, it wasn’t the same.He was still a brooding, grumpy guy who hardly spoke.I couldn’t look at his sullen face any longer, it was depressing.I turned away and watched the scenery pass by.Because of a rainstorm we had driven through earlier our windows were closed.But the sun was out once again and as I leaned my head on the glass I was vaguely aware of the pedestrians ambling around the residential streets.My focus was ahead of us and from the corner of my eye I saw a long brown braid.I sat up and turned my head.Adrian was going too fast so I had to turn around, but I saw a girl walking towards a small apartment building with a box in her hand.Her braid was loose and strands were falling over her eyes.“That’s the werewolf,” I said quietly, hoping that she wouldn’t hear, although we were now at the other end of the street.Adrian spun to face me.His eyes were wide and yellow [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]