Aiden came back from the ticket counter at the airport and rejoined his group. The human woman who had "helped" him was quite the crumpet, and she'd smelled wonderful, though nowhere near as good as his Grace.
He'd turned on the natural charm that came so easy for him, and managed to get absolutely no information whatsoever from her. With a bit of a bruised ego, he'd resorted to mind manipulation without a speck of guilt.
No one who fit Grace's description had bought a ticket today that the woman had seen, and her name wasn't anywhere in the system as a passenger.
Aiden didn't know what else to do or where else to look.
Before coming to the airport, they'd gone back to the abandoned building where he'd first met her. Almost immediately, the wolves had picked up Grace's scent again and followed it into a trash bin.
Aiden's heart had been in his throat as he'd thrown open the lid, terrified that he was about to find her cold, beaten body lying amongst the rubbish. He dug around a bit, just to be sure, but she wasn't in there. Thank the gods.
Slamming the lid closed, he'd turned back to his friends in relief, but that relief was quickly followed by frustration.
She'd obviously given the humans the slip. Why? And more importantly, where the bloody hell had she gone?
Surprisingly, or maybe not, they'd found it was actually rather easy to track her from there. All they had to do was follow the aromatic stench of rotten food.
They'd followed her to an apartment. An acquaintance of hers? Someone else she'd made a deal with? Aiden's mind had spun in circles, trying to stay a step ahead of her.
At the apartment, Marc picked up the scent of the strange wolf again.
Once more, panic flooded through Aiden. Ignoring the advice of the wolves that they should scope it out first, he busted into the apartment.
What he'd found there did not sit well with him at all.
The place had been completely turned inside out. Even the furniture had been shredded.
"Demons?" Cedric had asked.
"It appears so," Aiden agreed. "And I think I know just what they were looking for."
Again, there was no sign of Grace, or the box she'd taken with her.
Back outside, they'd circled the building, and found her scent again (clean this time) in the alley alongside the building. There was another female with her, and the strange wolf was there too.
Aiden had struggled to remain calm when they'd lost her scent again a few blocks away at the stoplight. The other trails disappeared also, which meant they all must've gotten into another vehicle, and he had no more ideas as to where they'd taken her.
His Grace was gone.
At an utter loss, they'd stood around like a bunch of tourists until Aiden happened to overhear a human male across the street ringing someone up on his phone just as a couple of policemen walked away. He couldn't understand much, as the bloke was speaking Chinese, but he did pick out a few words including "giant", "taxi", and "airport".
A giant stole his taxi and it was found at the airport?
Sounded about right. And in any case, it was the only clue he had at the moment, so he was willing to check it out.
Now here they were at the closest international airport. His hope was that Grace and the others had come here, although he didn't know how she would manage to get on a plane with no money and no ID.
Or did she actually have those things? All part of her evil plan?
Since they'd arrived, he'd used his vampire influence to read the minds of over ten people so far, too impatient to try to charm them, and no one remembered seeing his Grace.
Again, he didn't know what else to do, where else to look.
Why the bloody hell had he not fed from her when he'd had the chance? But he knew why. It was because he'd been afraid of finding out the truth. Of finding out that he was going to be a one female kind of vampire from now on.
What's so bloody wrong with that? he asked himself. Other than the fact that his fated mate to be was a lying, scheming minx?
"We could stay with ye here, help ye look for yer lassie," Cedric offered. "But my opinion, 'n' ye can take it or leave it, is for ye to get back home 'n' tell Nikulas whit's going on whit ye. Maybe his Emma 'n' her sister will know how tae get out th' demon."
"And what about Grace?" Aiden asked. "I can't leave here without her."
Cedric looked down at him and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "She seems tae be a fiesty lass, I'm willin' to bet she's on a plane 'erself, 'n' we missed her somehow."
Just then, Lucian walked briskly towards them.
"I found her," he announced to the group.
Aiden's heart resumed beating for the first time since they'd lost her trail. "Where?"
Lucian pointed back the way he had come, where a sign notified travelers as to the location of the restrooms. "Over there. She's 'ere...somewhere."
Aiden grabbed him by the face and planted a solid kiss right on his lips. "You've always been my favorite bloke, Lucian," he grinned happily at the grumpy werewolf, and kissed him again.
"Och, stop it, ye crazy creature." Lucian shoved him away, then turned and stalked away again.
"We still dinna know where she went," Cedric pointed out.
"But at least she's safe," Aiden finished. "Alright, then. Let's go home. Once I get to my computer, there's nowhere in the world she can hide. I will find her."
Bypassing security thanks to a subtle suggestion given to the security guards, Aiden and the wolves received more than a few interested looks from the female travelers especially, but he ignored them all. There was only one female he was eager to get his hands on, and when he did, he wasn't wasting any more time. She may be a lying, scheming minx, but she was his lying, scheming minx.
And at least he'd never be bored.
Duncan, on the other hand, was having a hard time keeping up with the group while flirting with every cute skirt that walked by.
Cedric rolled his eyes and finally told him, "Just catch up w' us at gate fourteen at nine-thirty, ye horny jimmy."
"Aye!" Duncan agreed, and pulled an about-face to catch up to one of the girls.
"You shouldn't encourage him like that," Aiden told Cedric with a grin.
But Cedric just shrugged. "He gets right grouchy if I dinna let him go once in a while, in case ye haven't noticed."
Aiden hadn't noticed any such thing. Duncan was, as always, a ray of bloody sunshine. No matter what was going on or what they were doing, he always had that rakish smile on his face and his eyes practically glittered with good cheer.
They arrived at their gate and found seats as far away from the windows as they could get.
Marc and Lucian sat to either side of Cedric and Aiden. They didn't speak, but would occasionally glare at each other around the heads of the others.
"Are ye going tae call Nikulas? Let him know yer comin'?" Marc asked Aiden.
He grinned at him. "What would be the fun in that?"
"So, yer just going tae surprise him?"
"Absolutely. I can't wait to see the look on his face."
"He's goin' tae be surprised all right." Lucian's tone was downright surly. "When he finds out it's no' only ye coming home to him."
"You mean Grace? Why would Nik have a problem with Grace?"
"No' Grace, ye eejit. Ye and yer demon."
Ah, yes. He'd nearly forgotten about that unfortunate bit. Nikulas, especially, was going to be gutted when he found out.
Maybe the witches would be able to help him? There had to be something they could do. Some hoax. Some spell...
A spell.
Pulling the rucksack between his legs, Aiden searched for that ancient piece of paper Grace had shown him. He found it at the bottom of the bag under Mojo's cat food.
He tossed a few pieces into his hood for Prickles, then carefully opened the paper, keeping it partially hidden from prying eyes within the bag.
He jabbed Cedric with an elbow. "Have you ever seen anything like this, mate?"
Cedric glanced over and surveyed the paper. His eyes were nearly completely white with excitement when he looked up. "Where did ye get that?"
"It belonged to Grace's family. Her parents made sure she knew where it was when they died. She showed it to me at the shelter."
"That has tae be ancient," Cedric's voice was filled with awe. He reached out a hand to touch it, but then pulled it back again. "I'm feart tae touch it."
"Can you read what it says?" Aiden asked hopefully.
"No. I cannae. But it looks like a spell o' some kind."
"Grace said the demon came out when she showed it to me the first time."
"No shite?" Cedric's eyes were wide under his heavy brows. "Well, whit did it say?"
"I don't know. Nothing of importance at any rate. At least nothing she told me."
Rubbing his chin, Cedric voiced what Aiden had been wondering. "Do ye think, if it appeared when she showed it to him, that maybe the spell can affect him some way? Maybe even send him back?"
"There's only one way to find out," Aiden said. "I happen to have two witches at my disposal. Three if I can find that flighty female of mine. We'll have the spell interpreted, and, well, have them do their witchy thing."
"What if it's no' the right spell?"
Aiden glanced over at his friend, then back at the spell. He listened for the demon inside of him to see if he had any ideas, but all was quiet. Hopefully he wouldn't choose to make an appearance stuck on an airplane halfway to Seattle.
Maybe he should've called Nik for that private jet.
"Well, mate," he finally said. "I don't really see that I have a lot of options here. I'll just have to 'put all of my chickens in one basket', as they say."
Cedric took a deep breath and patted Aiden on the knee. "Aye," he agreed solemnly.
The announcement that it was time to begin boarding came through the speakers just as Duncan came jogging up to the gate.
"I dae love traveling," he told the guys breathlessly. "The lasses cannae resist a man wi' an accent."
Aiden pointed at his own jaw just below the corner of his mouth. "You've got a bit of lipstick there...no, over a little...yes, right there."
Wiping at his mouth with his sleeve, Duncan grinned.
Aiden put the spell away and stood up, reaching back to check on Mojo. "Stay very still, Prickles, and I'll give you some more of that nasty cat food once we're on the plane. Ow! Stay still, I said." Scowling, he rubbed his hand on his jeans and tossed his rucksack over his shoulder.
"So, whose ready to go home and exercise my demon?" he asked.
Lucian shot him a look, and then got in line to board the plane. The others followed, leaving Aiden standing by himself.
"You know, you guys need to lighten up a bit. See the bright side of things," he told them as he caught up.
"There is no' a bright side to your situation," Lucian insisted.
"Sure there is!" Aiden told him. "Imagine the look on Nik's face when I let the demon loose for the first time around him." He turned to Cedric. "You must promise that you will take a video so I can watch it later. Please. Please? Promise me," he pleaded.
Cedric waved him ahead of him in line. "Och. Alright. I promise, fer th' gods sake. Now get yer arse on the plane."
They handed their boarding passes to the attendant. "You're in seat 1A," she told Aiden with a fake smile.
"Really? First class? Smashing. Thank you, mate," he told Cedric over his shoulder.
"No need tae thank me," he said. "Ye try sitting in coach in that tin can when yer six foot seven. They dinnae have any legroom. I'm nae goin' tae fly all that way wit' my knees in my chest."
"Still, thank you." Puckering up his lips, Aiden reached up for a kiss, but Cedric face palmed him, literally, and shoved him towards the air bridge.
"Get on th' plane, ye loony Brit." His tone was harsh, but he smiled back when Aiden grinned at him.