Caging the Bengal Tiger (11 page)

"Don't people sleep around here," he mumbled and walked to the door. "Abby, is something wrong honey?" he asked, allowing her entrance.

"No. I was going through some of my sister's things and I found something that I believe Lacey should have. May I talk with her?" Abby looked around the room till she spotted her in the cage.

"What did you do now?" she laughed and shook her head. "Maya always told Lacey her mouth was going to get her into trouble."

Isaac nodded. "Go ahead back, but she is not allowed out of the cage until her time is not up. She's lucky I like you or I wouldn't allow this," he winked at her and Lacey had to hold back the growl, but Isaac knew she didn't like his teasing when he looked right at her, lifting his eyebrow, daring her to say anything.

Before Lacey opened her mouth, she turned to smile at Abby. "What do you have? You should have let one of us help you, Abby," she reached out and squeezed Abby's arm when she sat down next to the cage.

"I'm fine. If anything, this is helping me, but I didn't know if I should give this to you or not? I didn't want to hurt you, but reading my sister’s last entry, I think you should have it. But..." She held the book away from the cage. "Before you go off half-cocked, you will let us help you. I'd clobber my sister if she was here. The risks she took to get some of this information had my stomach doing cartwheels.

Anyway, you know Agatha and I both can't thank you enough for what you've done for us. We've always considered you our blood sister and Agatha was bound and determined to help you." She pushed an old notebook through the bars, there were newspaper clippings hanging out the side of some of the pages.

Flipping open the first page, Lacey read the paragraph written in Agatha's writing.
"After years of searching, digging through all the old case files, I finally found what I was looking for. Betsy Samuel is alive, but where to find her? She is as elusive as her older sister Lacey."

"No, this can't be right. I heard father order her death before I left," Lacey wiped the tears away.

"In the book, there are pictures, Lacey. She looks just like you, but her hair is short and there is a scar across her face, her eyes..." Abby shook her head. "Now that we have three people, we will find. It's good we are here to start our search again. I think that is why my sister was so restless. She wanted to get back here to start that search." Abby looked up at Isaac. "I'll leave you now. Behave." She winked at Lacey and left.

Turning back to the book, Lacey's hand shook as she flipped the page and stared the Polaroid picture of her. "Betsy," she whispered. "I didn't know," she cried.

***

Opening the cage, Isaac pulled out a weeping Lacey. She clung to the book Abby had given her, crying “I didn't know, I didn't know” over and over again not even realizing he'd taken her out of the cage and was holding her in his arms. "Shh, Lacey stop. You're going to make yourself sick." He tried to edge the notebook away from her, but her growls stopped him.

"What's wrong?" Dan and Anthony came running in the room and knelt in front of them, touching her, trying to comfort her.

"I left her. How could I have done that?" She looked up at him. "Promise me we'll find her, please. I’ll do anything you say, just find my sister." Lacey held up the book and pointed to a picture that could have been Lacey's twin if weren't for the short hair and the scar.

But what really caught his attention were her eyes, they were the eyes of a person who had seen too much. "Lacey, you know we'll help you search. I won't stop till we know, I promise, but you need to sleep now. We can look through the book tomorrow night. Now, give me the book, baby, so we can sleep."

At first she growled and gripped the book tighter, but he waited, knowing she had to trust him. Her gaze dropped from his. "I failed her, Isaac." She handed him the book and crawled off his lap, curling up in a ball on the bed, the blanket from the cage tightly wrapped around her. "I failed her and my Mom. I should have gone back and helped her."

Carefully he placed the book by the nightstand knowing Lacey needed to see it. "Lady Cat, I want you to drink this. Anthony made a juice smoothie. It will help, and then we'll go to sleep." Isaac once more picked her up as Anthony held the glass out to her.

He knew Anthony had added
bronea
to it to help her sleep. She would need to tonight. "Drink, Lady Cat, tomorrow we'll go meet Dan's family. Rest assured we will find your little sister." She drank down the juice, wrinkling her nose.

"That tasted like crap. Maybe next time add some berries. You know I don't know how Maya is doing it.” She went to crawl into the bed, but he held onto her, standing as Anthony flipped back the covers.

"Doing what?" he asked, climbing into the bed and laying down with her on top of him. Anthony and Dan lay down next to him, both of them resting their hands on her back, rubbing her down.

"Maya has known for months that her sisters are out there at the hands of that asshole. I don't know how she doesn't go crazy worrying about them. Right now, all I want to do is hunt and if my father was still alive..." she kissed his chest. "I'm sorry to say this, but I don't even know if I would have stopped for you, Isaac. It hurts so much. I feel like I failed my Mom worst of all. I ran and kept running not wanting to look back." Her body shook on top of him and her small sobs were driving them crazy.

"Shhh, baby, you were a child. What could you have done to help her against so many? We'll search until we find her. Don't you think your Mother wouldn’t have left if she didn't know we were going to help? It will work out, you'll see." Her breathing evened out, and the small little cries slowly stopped as their woman finally feel into an exhausted sleep.

"
I think this might be the perfect job for Lark. He's been away from the family too long. He and his kith can stay here while we search. Dan, you have contacts with the humans. Maybe you can copy the picture and notes and see if her sister has come up in the system at all?”
Isaac kissed the top of Lacey's head when she stirred in his arms with a little cry. At once she settled when the three of them touched her.

"
She's right though. I don't know how Maya does it. Maybe I'll bring along her sister's information too when I hit the station. I can have my old partner keep track of the information in case anything pops up. You know he might be a good person to use to bridge their world and yours, well ours,"
Dan said as he rolled over looking at the ceiling. "
I know one thing. I do not like seeing our woman crying. I would have been right by her side if her father was still alive. Are all of her father's men dead?"
Dan turned to look at him.

"
No, and that has me worried. Over half of them got away, along with his second in command. That is another reason I want my brother here. The three of them will know what this group is up to and how to seek them out. We must be on our toes now too. It seems Koti has raised his head in Ohio. Another family of shifters was killed, this time bears."

Anthony hissed beside him. "
What the hell? Hasn't this monster killed enough? I think Maya's reasoning might be right. He might be using these people's bodies for something. You work with the gates. Do you have any idea what he's up to?"

For the past six months, Isaac knew something was changing with the gates. They were being opened too many times. With each opening to other worlds, more and more danger would be exposed to those places. Not only animals, but diseases could also transport from one world to another. They learned that the hard way with the Black Death years ago. It had taken them a good year to get a handle on that problem.

"
No, I haven't had time to really look into it. Maybe when we get things settled here I could set up a lab and go from there, but right now I'm more worried about disease spreading here on Earth. We don't need another Black Death spreading."

"What Black Death?" Dan hissed, sitting up and glaring at him, but calmed down at once when he noticed Lacey fidget and start to wake.

"
Don't do that again. She senses all of us now,
" Isaac stated.

He nodded and ran his hand over her back, at once settling her down. "
I can't believe you guys brought the Black Death here. What else don't I know? Wait, forget that. I don't want to know. But you’re right, animals we can kill, but a disease..."
he lay back down with a sigh. "
Do you have a doctor or something that can help if this does happen?"

He turned his head towards Dan. "
Why do you think I want Lark here? Before he left home, he'd been studying the human body and effects of certain plants on them. Yes, we need him here. That empty warehouse would be excellent place to set up our labs and store things. Maybe we can pull in some of your men Anthony, but I'd want to meet every one of them before we bring them here. How did it got with Jester?"
He turned to look at Anthony.

"
It didn't. I had to put him down. I did not realize he was so unstable. You’re right, I need to clean house soon."
Anthony closed his eyes, his hand resting on Lacey's thigh. "
We have too many lose ends and I don't like it. Lacey's sister, Maya, and now my house and the bears. We're going to need help. We don't have enough people here."

"I was thinking the same thing, but we can only bring so many of our men here, but there is a race that has worked well with us over the years. I'll have to speak with Talhrn about it before we go there. He has worked with the king of their race many times. Sleep, my weru's tomorrow will be a busy day,"
Isaac said, thinking of his friend.

"
You are bonded to this Hong-Danty? What does this mean?" D
an asked opening his eyes and looking at him.

"
Easy Dan, you two are my weru, part of me where Hong is… I don't know how to explain it. There is no sexual tie to him. He’s like a brother, but more. You will see when he comes here and he will come soon, especially since we have sealed the bond."
Nothing else was said as his family fell asleep around him.

"
I'm here. I told you anytime you speak of me, I'd be there. Your woman is beautiful, but hurting deeply. Her sister is close. You will find her soon. I will speak with my brother about bringing others here to help. You rest now. You have handled enough for the day."
The pure energy source known as his friend entered him and a resting calm settled over him.

"
I hate when you do that,” he
mumbled before drifting off knowing his friend had sent him to sleep.

Stretching, Lacey frowned as she remembered how they had gone to sleep together, but now the bed was empty except for her. She opened her eyes and looked around the room, but didn't see anyone. Their first night together and they leave her to wake up alone in bed. "Something is so wrong with this picture." She growled, threw the covers back and, swinging her legs off the bed, saw that Agatha's book was gone.

Her heart was in her mouth as she jumped off the bed and looked all around. "Where is it?"

Hearing the door open behind her, Lacey jumped up and glared at Anthony as he came into the room. "Where’s my book?" she snarled.

"Easy, baby. Dan is making copies of it so he can send it to his partner before we leave for his folks. He figured the sooner his partner put her information in the computers, the sooner we might hear some kind of word," he said, yanking her to his body when he got close enough.

"Let me go. I'm mad at all of you," she pouted and tried to get out of his arms. "You left me alone and it was our first night together. I guess it doesn't mean much to you, but it does to me." She dropped and spun away from him, hating the way she felt so uncertain.

"Get back here. You know it meant something to us. We just wanted to get things up and running while we were gone." He scooped her up and threw her back on the bed. "Stay there. I have plans for you," he ordered and proceeded to strip out of his clothes. "I need to bury my cock in that pussy," he snarled and pulled her legs apart, licking from her clit to her ass. "But first I want to taste you," he mumbled before sliding his tongue inside her.

"Anthony!" she moaned and grabbed onto his hair. "Please...” She cried needing him inside her.

Two fingers replaced his tongue as he sucked her little nub into his mouth, which had her jumping, but he held her down, giving her a quick hard orgasm before releasing her. He knelt in between her legs, licking his lips. "Umm, what a perfect breakfast," he said and thrust into her, stopping all words.

Where Dan had been thick, Anthony was long. Every time he thrust into her, she swore he wasn't going to fit all the way. "Big," she mumbled as he lifted her ass up, giving him a better angle, hitting that secret spot inside her every time he pushed into her.

"Look at me, Lacey. I want to see your eyes when we go over together." Anthony said, as he picked up speed. "Come baby, now," Anthony yelled, rubbing her spot once more before stiffening, releasing himself into her.

The second orgasm was stronger than the first. Her legs trembled as he lowered them to the bed trying to catch her breath.

"Morning, Lady Cat." Anthony lay down next to her and pulled her up on his body, kissing her.

Breaking the kiss, he tilted her head back and looked into her eyes. "Are you ready to meet Dan's family?"