My Sister Is A Werewolf

CHAPTER 23

Jensen wheeled into Elizabeth’s driveway, the tires skidding as he braked sharply to a stop. He jammed the gearshift into Park, and jumped out of the truck without bothering to turn off the ignition.

Again, even though it wasn’t possible, he sensed that she was here-or had been here. How she could have beaten him was a mystery. Even with the time wasted, while his grandfather grilled him about how an injured woman could have escaped from his second-floor window.

Which was a mystery, he had to admit. Although there were a lot of implausible, mysterious things about her. But she had escaped. And she had been here.

He paused at the fact that he kept thinking had been. She had to be here-where else would she go?

He ran up to the house, not bothering to knock.

“Elizabeth?”

He checked the kitchen, then bounded up the stairs. Before he even checked the second bedroom, he knew the house was empty. Again, he didn’t question how, he didn’t waste his time.

He raced back downstairs, heading to the only other place she could be. The barn.

But he hadn’t even stepped into the old building before he realized she was not there, either.

Shit. Where was she? He knew she’d been there. Her smell still hung faintly in the air.

Again he wondered how the hell he knew these things, but he also had the very unnerving feeling that he didn’t have time to question them.

Elizabeth was in terrible trouble. Images of that beast from last night flashed in his mind.

He ran back to his truck, ramming the gearshift into reverse, a spray of gravel flying as he whipped the truck around and raced to the only other place he could think to look for her. Leo’s.

Jensen strode into the bar, scanning the room for long, dark hair and pale eyes. She wasn’t there. Again, that certainty filled him. Along with complete fear. He needed to protect her, and he didn’t even know where to find her.

“Jensen?”

He turned to see Christian approaching him.

“Hey. Have you seen Elizabeth tonight?” He knew the answer already, but he had to ask. Her trail couldn’t just disappear.

“No.” Christian immediately looked very concerned. “Why? What happened?”

Jensen tried to find the best way to start. Given what he’d already experienced of Christian’s temper, he decided it wasn’t wise to mention the shooting. In fact, he had no idea where to start. Jumping out his bedroom window didn’t sound particularly great, either.

“Hey, Jensen, where’s Elizabeth?” Sebastian strolled up, only to stop a few feet from him, eyes widening as if he’d just witnessed something shocking about Jensen’s appearance.

He suspected he looked pretty damned frazzled. He sure as hell felt frazzled. Hell, he was scared. Bone-deep scared, and he couldn’t even say why, exactly.

“What’s going on?” Sebastian frowned.

“I can’t find Elizabeth. She disappeared from my house and when I went to hers, she was missing. And I have a really, really bad feeling about it.”

“That’s not good,” Sebastian stated, looking worried himself.

“No, it’s not,” Christian agreed. “Did she say anything to you before she disappeared?”

“No. She didn’t. Do you have any idea where she might have gone?” Jensen again got a strange vibe, but this time not from the brothers. He glanced at the door in time to see three large biker-types walk through the door. He instantly recognized them from the other night. Jensen noticed that Christian and Sebastian also watched them as they approached the bar.

“Interesting,” Sebastian said.

“Do you know them?” Jensen asked.

“No,” Sebastian said. “But I’m willing to bet they might know Elizabeth.”

Jensen frowned, wondering why that would be the case. But at this point, he was willing to go with any idea the strange brothers had.

Still, he couldn’t help asking, “Why do you think they would know her?”

But the brothers didn’t answer; instead, Christian headed back to the bar to take their drink orders. Jensen walked to the bar, too, but took a bar stool one seat down from the biker guys. The one closest to Jensen was liberally tattooed in an image of a full moon with clouds and a moonlit landscape.

For some reason, Jensen found the image enthralling.

“Stop staring at him,” Sebastian hissed as he took the stool beside Jensen.

Jensen started, but did as Sebastian said, realizing it was probably a very bad idea to stare at a guy like that.

Christian returned to the bikers, placing mugs of beer in front of them. The men just nodded their thanks.

“Chatty,” Sebastian commented quietly.

Jensen nodded. Yeah, they needed to be a lot more forthcoming if they had any hope of getting any information. He frowned. As if these guys would know anything about Elizabeth.

“Why, again, do we think these people know Elizabeth?” Jensen was really wondering about these brothers.

“Because they are-wearing-biker clothes. And Elizabeth-used to-travel with a biker-crowd.”

Jensen stared at Sebastian. That was the most ridiculous and far-out explanation he’d ever heard. Something was definitely not right here.

“There have to be hundreds of thousands of bikers roaming the U.S. Why do you think these three might know her? And even if they do, know her whereabouts?”

Sebastian cast a quick look over at the couples. “There aren’t many roaming around quite like these guys.”

Before Jensen could ask what that meant, Christian returned to the trio.

“How are the beers?”

Again, the men offered noncommittal replies.

“So, are you just traveling through?” Christian kept his tone conversational as he wiped down the bar.

“Yeah,” the one with the tattoo said, then took a long swallow of his beer.

“That’s good.” Christian nodded, obviously trying to think of a new angle to get these guys to talk.

“We don’t get a lot of your type-this time of year.”

One of the men, Jensen wasn’t sure who, grunted.

“This is a waste of time,” Jensen muttered to Sebastian.

Sebastian didn’t answer; instead, his expression was far away, as if he was concentrating very hard on something. Just as Jensen decided to repeat himself, Sebastian glanced at him.

“No, I think we are on the right track.”

Jensen frowned. “Why would you think that?” Boy, these guys were nuts.

“Because Christian is making them nervous.”

Jensen glanced back over to the bikers. One sipped his beer, the other two stared straight ahead, looking far more bored than nervous.

“Yeah, they look really shaken,” Jensen stated dryly.

“Shh,” Sebastian hissed, giving him a look like he was the one who crazy.

What the hell were these brothers seeing that he wasn’t? Jensen wondered. This was the biggest dead-end he’d ever seen. And even if he could see what the brothers saw in these bikers, Jensen knew they just needed to search. He knew deep in the pit of his stomach that Elizabeth was in real danger.

He frowned at his own train of thought. How did he know that? After all, Elizabeth had a track record of running away. And he had just revealed how he’d failed Katie. Elizabeth knew he’d never told that to anyone but her. That was enough to get her panicked. She might have just run from him. Period.

He considered that for a moment, then shook his head. No. She was in trouble, and she needed him. Now.

“I’m just going to go look for her,” Jensen said suddenly, standing. But Sebastian caught his shoulder, his grip tight.

“No. We don’t know where to look. There’s no point going without a plan.”

Jensen gaped at him. “This is the plan?” Then he realized his voice was getting a little too loud. He lowered it to hiss, “Question random bikers?”

“Trust me. It’s a better plan than you know. And eventually, you will know why.” Sebastian glanced at the wall behind the bar.

Jensen followed his gaze and he realized that Sebastian was looking at a calendar. What the hell was going on here?

Christian appeared, placing two beers on the bar in front of them.

“These guys are uncomfortable,” he murmured.

“I know,” Sebastian agreed.

Again Jensen looked over at the group. What the hell were they seeing, because he just saw a group relaxing with their drinks.

This time, he couldn’t stop from saying what he’d been thinking. “Are you two totally nuts?”

“Shh,” Sebastian hissed again, flashing a subtle look toward the bikers.

“I’m sorry,” Jensen said quietly, but not keeping the irritation out of his voice. “But I don’t follow this line of thought at all. Why would they know her?”

The brothers looked at each other, then back to him.

“You are just going to have to trust us on this one. But we want to find Elizabeth as badly as you do.”

“Then let’s go look for her, and stop wasting time with this ridiculous plan.”

“All right,” Christian said, keeping his voice low and calm.

Sebastian’s head snapped toward Christian. “You’re kidding, right? The ridiculous plan would be to just go out and search.”

Jensen glared at Sebastian.

“Give me a few more minutes with these guys, and if I get nothing, we’ll come up with a new plan.”

Jensen started to hesitate, finding no reason to waste any more time with this strategy. But arguing wouldn’t do any good. Plus, Christian had such a reasonable way of talking that it almost seemed silly to disagree with him. Almost.

But Jensen felt himself nodding.

Christian nodded in return, then headed down the bar to the bikers.

Jensen sat down again, staring at the beer in front of him. He almost wanted to take a drink, but he knew this wasn’t the time to start drinking. Elizabeth needed him clear and levelheaded.

Sebastian didn’t have the same thoughts. He sat back down and downed half of it.

“Can I get you anything?” Jensen heard Christian ask the bikers.

One of the men asked for another beer, the other two said they were fine. Christian strode away to get the order. When he returned, setting the beer in front of the men, he lingered.

“You know, I just have to ask, because we do have a regular here like you folks. Elizabeth is her name. You wouldn’t happen to know her, would you?” Again, Christian kept his tone casual as if the answer didn’t much matter to him. Certainly the bikers wouldn’t know the woman in question was someone as close to Christian as his sister.

The one with the moon tattoo shook his head, not even giving the idea a thought. “Nope. Never heard of her.”

He clearly was not interested in small talk.

Jensen started to stand again, and again Sebastian caught his arm to get him to remain seated.

“He knows her.”

Jensen frowned at Sebastian. “He said he didn’t.”

“He’s lying.”

Jensen’s frown deepened, but he remained on the bar stool.

“That’s right. She usually goes by Lizzie, actually,” Christian added.

Sebastian chuckled quietly. “Oh, that got their attention.”

Jensen watched the bikers, seeing nothing that indicated they were anything but bored with Christian’s comments.

“She actually hasn’t been here in a while-”

“You know,” the one with the tattoos said suddenly. “I’m not really sure why you are talking to us.”

Christian shrugged, still remaining calm. “Just that she was like you. You know.”

“Well, we don’t know her.” And for the first time, Jensen also seemed to sense they were lying. The brothers were right.

“Sorry to bother you,” Christian said. “I just thought maybe-well, you never know. It is a small world, as they say.”

The tattooed man reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a black wallet. He tossed down a fifty-more than enough to cover their bill. Then he stood, and the other two followed suit.

“We don’t know her,” the man stated, then strode toward the exit, the other two close behind.

The brothers and Jensen watched them leave and as soon as the door slammed shut behind them, Christian stated, “I’m going to tell Jolee that we are leaving.”

“I’ll ask Mina to help her with the bar.”

Jensen frowned, not understanding anything that was going on-even though he did know they needed to follow those men. But he accepted it. Hell, he hadn’t understood anything since they got here.

And at least they were doing something, even if it was just going on a wild-goose chase.