Authors: Sarah Brocious
Raina's heart leapt in her chest and she couldn’t help her smile. "Why are you telling me that? Especially after what you just tried to pull when I was waking up. Trying to make me doubt that he cared."
Elenora smiled. "I told you before, sweetheart. I'm a bitch. And I think maybe I just don't want it to be true."
Raina was speechless for a moment. She had thought earlier in the day that she couldn't be more shocked and she had been at that moment. But Elenora had just shocked her completely. She had no grand ideas about her and Elenora being friends. That would never happen! But for the first time she saw a touch of humanity in the she devil.
"You know Elenora, your dad doesn’t give you credit. If you ask me, what you did was pretty ingenious. I'm still pissed off at you of course and it's pretty hard for me to forgive you for kidnapping me. I just can't seem to hate you too much because I know this is your father's doing. You were being used." Raina drew in a breath. "If you think about it, you and I are both pawns."
Elenora spun around. "I don't need you to give me compliments or encourage me. And I am not in the same boat as you. I'm the one in control. Daddy listens to me!" There were tears in her voice and Elenora spun around again this time heading for the door. She opened it, gave Raina a cruel smile, and slammed her way out the door.
Raina rolled her eyes. Well so much for humanity. She was not surprised though. Elenora would always be Elenora.
She closed her eyes and tried to imagine herself anywhere but here. She let herself meditate on the thought that Nolan was still hers. He may not technically be her protector but he had felt when she needed him. This pleased her to no end.
She opened her eyes and lifted them toward the window. Elenora had forgotten to close the blinds. She was glad. The clouds that had hidden the moon were now rolled away and she had a beautiful view.
"It won't be long. I know it won't be long."
Chapter 10 Plans
Thanatos ran his hand over his face, feeling the stubble that was only days away from a beard. He hadn't shaved let alone slept the last three days. How could he sleep or rest or even worry about his own appearance, when he had no idea where Raina was? It killed him to think of her coming to harm. Even worse, that he was the reason she was in harm’s way.
His eyes blindly moved from face to face. Melinda's dark eyes looked back at him with concern. Jonathan was already in his head and knew the status of Thanatos depression. Arabella was sneaking shy glances at him. She was sharing in the guilt too, which added to his depression. This had not been her fault!
It was a small gathering...just the four of them in Raina’s living room. The only other ears were those of Raina’s pets, who desperately missed her. Turk was lying on the mat beside the door, his ears perking anytime a sound came from the outside. He would turn his eyes on the group rarely, not wanting to miss his master’s arrival home. Percy watched them all curiously, his long tail swishing in agitation. He didn’t like the changes in his home.
They were supposed to be planning, deciding which course to take.
Thanatos knew he was zoning out and had heard very little of the plans. He felt utterly useless.
His eyes were burning from lack of sleep and from tears he would not admit that he had cried. The protector in him felt defeated.
Elenora was not answering his calls. He had left several messages. He didn't need to speak to her or see her to know that she was involved. Heck, she’d openly admitted it to Nolan. He had at least been able to get her to promise Raina would not come to too much harm!
What he needed was to persuade information from her. He knew it was her and most definitely her father. He also knew from several conversations between Nolan Michael and himself, that leadership was involved too. This was scary stuff.
He was frustrated with the way that the planning was going. The frustration did not stem from the ideas coming from his group. Their plans were smart, albeit slow. His frustration came from the fact that he had contributed nothing. His only job was to persuade information so that all other facets of the plan could fall into place. He had succeeded in getting nothing. He was a failure.
"My sister hasn't returned my calls either," Jonathan said gently.
Thanatos head snapped up as if the words had broken some sort of trance. He gave Jonathan a nod, knowing the words were meant to appease his frazzled thoughts.
Jonathan had jumped on a plane the very evening they had found Raina missing. He was the only one who could leave. Michael and Nolan were bound to stay and continue with their training. This had not set well with Nolan. He was an even bigger mess than Thanatos. Michael was keeping him grounded and covering for him when it came to suspicions from Our Sovereignty. He was not exactly on his A game.
Thanatos had been concerned that the animosity that had always been between him and Jonathan would be distracting. He should not have been concerned. Jonathan also cared for Raina and would never allow that to take away from her rescue.
"You have to concentrate Thanatos," Melinda admonished. "I know that you're upset and I know that you're frustrated. But we really have to work together if this is to work. Elenora will call you. You know she likes to be in the middle of everything. She won't be able to resist the lure for attention. We knew from the beginning this was going to be a waiting game."
Thanatos rose to his feet and began to pace. "I've had enough waiting. I want to do something. I want to contribute something," he growled. "All this time we wait, Raina waits too. We don't know what her circumstances are. We don't know if she's safe, or comfortable, or healthy. She could be in pain or sick." He was making himself sick just thinking about it.
Jonathan also rose and he placed a hand on Thanatos shoulder in comfort. "Calm down," he said firmly but with compassion. "You don't think we all want to tear this town, this state, this country apart looking for her? We all care about her. But running about frantically? This won't work. The people that have her are smart, Thanatos and they want us in a panic. They are not going to harm her because they need her."
Thanatos’ head dropped, chin to his chest, in defeat. He knew Jonathan spoke the truth but he really wasn't in a sane frame of mind right now.
"I'm not that sane either right now," Jonathan breathed out as though they had just been having a conversation with him. He gave Thanatos a smile. "But you know who's more insane than we are right now?"
"Emily?" Thanatos said with a smirk.
Everyone in the room laughed at this. They knew that Jonathan hadn't meant Emily but he might as well have. The girl was beside herself. She had managed to keep the secret from Bradley but that's all she had managed. She was calling and texting each and every one of them every hour on the hour. There was no consolation for her. They had purposely not told her about this meeting knowing she would show up and...Heaven help them!
Thanatos smiled at his own joke and gave a nod. "I would hate to be Nolan's babysitter now."
"From what I hear, Michael has his work cut out for him. It's only going to be a matter of time before we get some little nugget of information and Nolan's going to run with it. There will be no stopping him." Jonathan shook his head. "Poor guy. He's going to be a mess until we get his girl back home."
"Don't need to tell me that," Thanatos sighed. He scratched the stubble on his chin.
Melinda cleared her throat then. "Speaking of being a mess… I have a secret."
All eyes were on her now. A little suspicion and a little bit of curiosity filled each gaze.
"Well, I figure I should tell you now so that it doesn't slip out later when one of you are speaking to Nolan. It's just that Michael didn't want him getting worse. So he kind of, sort of, maybe left out some information about what's going on. Nothing to do with Raina! He just hasn't told Nolan that Raina's new friend Melinda is his wife." She bit the inside of her cheek. "And that his immortal sister happens to be involved too."
"What would be the harm in him knowing?" Jonathan asked with amusement.
"He hasn't figured it out?" Thanatos was incredulous at this news. "But I swear he knows."
Melinda shook her head. "He knows Michael has a mortal wife and an immortal sister but he just doesn't know it's me or her," she tilted her head toward Arabella.
Thanatos crossed his arms and gave a head tilt of his own. "Why doesn't he just tell him?"
Melinda worried her lip. "You guys trust us right?"
They all nodded.
"Michael is worried that since everyone believes this to be an inside job that he might think it was something we did. I mean, you have to admit this is a rather big coincidence. I'm a mortal, Raina's a mortal. Michael a healer, Nolan a healer. And we all live in the same town? Do you see where the suspicion could come in?" She looked a little uncomfortable. "It is just a coincidence, but in Nolan's frame of mind he might see it as something else. Michael says his heads messed up enough without adding all of this to it as well."
Thanatos’ green eyes opened with surprise and he looked dumbfounded. "I'm surprised that had not entered my mind. I'm usually the distrusting one."
Jonathan nodded in agreement to this. "You probably didn't question it because Raina trusted Melinda. She is very good at reading people. I swear she could read minds like I do," he laughed. "It is a big coincidence," he admitted. "But thankfully I'm a mind reader. Maybe not your little mortal brain, but I know Michael and I’ve read Arabella." He grinned. "Don't worry, you're in the clear. But it is a good idea to not bring this up to Nolan."
Melinda looked relieved. She drew in a breath and then lifted an eyebrow to Thanatos. "Speaking of revealing secrets…" She crossed her own arms. "Raina said that you and Nolan are hiding something. A big something. Maybe it's time to share with the group?"
Thanatos shook his head and his jaw clenched stubbornly. "Not my secret to share."
Melinda looked at Jonathan with accused. "You know what it is because you can read his mind."
Jonathan shrugged. "It's also not my secret to share. I made a promise to my friends and I’m gonna stick to it. Besides it's not pertinent to this situation. If it were to make a difference in our search for her, sure I'd tell. It's just information that is between Nolan Thanatos and Raina. I'm sure if ever it were needed to be revealed to the "group" Thanatos would be more than happy to.""
Thanatos scowled. "Maybe we should have told her a long time ago."
With a short laugh, Jonathan slapped Thanatos on the shoulder again. "No my friend, this is definitely something the both of you are right to keep from Raina."
Melinda frowned. "Well this is not fair. I don't think it's ever right to keep a secret."
"Well why don’t I call Nolan and tell him the little secret you and Michael are keeping." He lifted his eyebrow to her. He grinned when her face fell. "That's what I thought."
Thanatos sat back down. He was ready to focus now.
Arabella cleared her throat. She had been very quiet tonight. "Do either of you know where Richard lives?”
“Of course, he’s my father,” Jonathan chuckled.
Arabella blushed.
“What were you thinking?” Thanatos asked gently, seeing her discomfort.
She drew in a breath and shrugged. “I mean, it's not like he's going to hide her there. But maybe we could see if there's any activity going on there that might lead us to Raina. I know you said that when the time comes we will be given a clue because they definitely want Nolan to show up. This whole plan has been to draw him. I just think that they're not quite ready for him yet and that's why we haven't been given any information. If we could get information ahead of time we may be able to surprise them and in that case they won't be ready for Nolan and they can't hurt him."
Every set of eyes turned to the soft-spoken girl.
Thanatos grinned with amusement. Even on their date she hadn't said such a mouth full. In this mouthful was very smart and very good advice.
"Have you been hiding all of these ideas and that pretty little head of yours?" Jonathan laughed out loud. "That's absolutely brilliant!"
Arabella blushed and ducked her head. "I was just piecing together everything that all of you had said. I can't say that it was at all my idea."
Melinda nodded. "Arabella's an observer. That's her gift. She can retain information. I can never watch a murder mystery with her without her giving away the ending," Melinda laughed.
"Well I'm glad you're on our team," Thanatos said softly.
He liked the way her cheeks turned a little pinker at his complement. If things were different and he weren’t wild with fear, he could definitely look into getting to know this girl a lot better. His Raina knew that and that's why she had pushed him. Even if his being gone resulted in her disappearance he didn't regret meeting with Arabella. He was starting to accept Nolan's theory. That even if he had been here there would've been nothing he could have done to stop it.