Emma ran out into the hall outside of her and Nik's apartment, with Nikulas right on her heels.
"Em? Emma? Where the fuck are you going? What's wrong, sweetheart?"
She wrapped her arms protectively around her middle, looking frantically up and down the hall.
What the hell was that?
"Emma! Talk to me!" Nik planted himself in front of her and gripped her upper arms in his strong hands.
Her eyes flew to his as another shock wave rolled through her. He was completely vamped out, and if she didn't know him as well as she did, she'd be terrified.
A low growl rose up in his throat as he frantically searched her face, then twisted around searching for someone, or something, to fight for her.
"I don't know," she told him, bending over as another wave hit her. "I don't know, Nik! I just have this strange...pull inside of me. Like something is calling me. Like I need to go somewhere."
"You're not going fucking anywhere!" he bellowed. "Until you tell me what the fuck this is!"
"I don't know!" she yelled back.
Just then, the door to the stairwell flew open. Emma found herself thrown back against the wall as her overprotective mate shoved her behind him and spun around, dropping into a fighting crouch directly in front of her to guard her from this new threat.
Keira ran down the hall towards them, Luukas less than a second behind her.
"Emma!" she cried. "Are you all right?"
Emma ducked under Nikulas' arm and flew to her sister. They clasped hands when they reached each other, and then both fell to their knees with a cry as their mates roared with alarm.
Fangs bared and eyes glowing with anger, they paced around the girls like wild animals, their frustration at being unable to fight this invisible thing obvious.
Unable to release her sister's hands even if she wanted to, Emma had no choice but to let the vision roll through her like a freight train.
A girl appeared, with mahogany hair and light green eyes, and she was in trouble. Emma could feel her fear and determination, but could do nothing but watch helplessly as the girl ran towards a giant soccer ball sculpture. An athletic-looking man was following her, and she barely caught a glimpse of his face before they both disappeared through a door and down a ladder that led somewhere underneath the sculpture.
Aiden!
The vision faded away like fog, and Emma blinked her eyes to find her sister's face mere inches from her own. They were still on their knees, and their hands were still clasped.
"Do you know them?" her sister asked, ignoring the guys prowling around them, desperate by now to find something, anything, to kill.
Glancing up at them, Emma sincerely hoped no one wandered into this hallway until they could get the guys calmed down.
"Yes," Emma breathed. "The guy, it was Aiden. As we told you, he's been missing since we found you and Luukas. Leeha took him. He called Nik yesterday though, and told him he'd just...woken up in China, with no idea of how he'd gotten there. I don't know who the girl was though. Do you?"
Keira shook her head. "No. No idea."
Emma stared at her sister. "What the hell was that, Keira?"
"I'm not really sure."
Releasing her sister's hands, she reached back to touch Nik's leg as he passed behind her. Immediately, he dropped down and wrapped her into his arms as his brother pulled Keira up off of the floor to do the same.
"Are you ok?" he whispered in her ear.
She turned to look into his glowing blue eyes and gave him a small smile. "Yeah. I'm fine. It was some sort of vision, or something. I saw Aiden!"
He pulled back to search her face. "Aiden? Are you sure?"
She nodded.
"Where the fuck is he? What was he doing?"
"He was with a woman. A pretty woman."
Nik rolled his eyes, his fangs receding. "Of course."
"They were running towards a soccer ball," she continued.
Standing up, Nik planted his hands low on his hips and stared down at her in disbelief. "You mean to tell me that while we've been here losing our minds worrying about that damned Brit, he's been doing nothing but picking up chicks and playing games?" As an afterthought, he reached down and grabbed her under her arms and hoisted her easily to her feet. "Seriously?"
Keira and Luuk came over then. "Emma," her sister said. "That girl? I think she's in trouble."
"How do you know?" she asked.
Keira took Luukas' hand, as if preparing him. "I think that was a call for help. A magical call. I think she may be connected to us somehow. And I think we need to go find her..."
"NO," Luukas immediately intercepted.
"Luukas, please, hear me out," her sister pled softly.
He crossed his arms over his broad chest and clenched his jaw, but after a moment, gave her a nod to continue.
"What makes you think she's in trouble?" Nik asked before she could say anything more. "She's just playing soccer with Aiden."
"No, it was more than that," Emma said. "She was running towards a huge, soccer ball sculpture, in the middle of a park or something. Aiden was following her, and they both went through this secret hatch-like part of the ball and down into some kind of underground shelter or something."
Luukas and Nik exchanged looks.
"A soccer ball sculpture?" Luuk asked. When Keira nodded in confirmation, he added, "That's in China. In Dalian."
"Yes." Keira glanced up at him. "Aiden told Nik he was there when he called, but who is that he's with? And who are they hiding from? We need to help them!"
Emma watched as her sister and her mate locked eyes, both of their faces locked into a stubborn impasse, as they communicated silently with each other.
Luukas broke first, his face crumbling as his arms dropped to his sides and opened in supplication. "I can't go with you, Keira. I just...can't. And Nik needs to stay here to help me keep looking for the others. Please don't ask me to go by yourself. I don't..." He gritted his teeth and glanced at Emma and Nik, a look of embarrassment flashing across his face before he turned his back to them.
Knowing he didn't like to show his weaknesses in front of her, Emma grabbed Nik's arm and pulled him away a few paces.
Keira wrapped her arms around his waist and Emma heard him say, "I don't think I could do it. I would truly go mad. You can't leave me, witch. Not yet. I can't do it."
"Shhh," Keira told him. "It's all right. We'll think of something."
Out of earshot, Emma didn't hear anything more, and she was glad. She'd never known Luukas as he was before he'd been captured, but from what Nikulas had told her, he'd been lethal, logical, and confident. A total bad ass. And yet fair when it came to his colony.
Nothing like the broken male he was now.
However, here and there they saw flashes of the male he once was, and remained hopeful that, with time, he would become something resembling the vampire he had been once again.
But it still broke her heart. She didn't know how Keira remained so strong and optimistic with him.
Pulling Nik into their apartment, but leaving the door open for her sister and brother-in-law, she went to the kitchen to get a drink while he sat at the counter.
"Do you think that girl is in trouble?" Nik asked.
Taking a sip of her orange juice, she shrugged. "She was running from something, and it wasn't Aiden. And I trust Keira."
She watched Nik's brain go into vamp hyper speed, and knew he was thinking of possible plans to help them and discarding them just as fast.
His blue eyes locked onto hers a moment later, and he smiled.
He'd thought of a solution. “What?" she asked.
"The wolves," he told her.
"What about them?"
He narrowed his eyes, running them from the top of her strawberry-blonde head to her feet and back up again. "They owe me a fucking favor."
Emma smiled back, a look of understanding dawning across her face. "Yes, yes they do."
Smacking his palms on the counter, Nik got up and strode over to the door. "Luuk! Get in here! I know what we're gonna do."
He returned to the kitchen, and they waited for Luuk and Keira to join them.
As he strolled into the kitchen, the master vampire was considerably calmer now, although he still kept a firm grip on Keira's hand, keeping her close to his side. He cocked his head and raised an eyebrow at Nik in silent question.
Nik smiled. "We'll send in the wolves to help them."
Luukas nodded in agreement. "But will they agree to help?"
"They will," Nik told him confidently. "They owe me one hell of a fucking favor." He raised his hand, palm facing out, to Emma as she opened her mouth to speak. "And NO. You are NOT going with them. No way in hell. Don't even fucking ask."
She snapped her mouth closed and rolled her eyes at her sister, who tried to repress her grin.
Overbearing males, you had to love them.