Chapter Twelve
Sirius
"What d'you think caused that?" I asked Remus as we came to what appeared to be chaos. Out in the street cars were stopped far and wide, police cars' and an ambulance's lights flashing. Police were everywhere, talking to various people and writing down important stuff, or so I assumed. We were close enough to overhear a police talking to a family of four: two kids and the parents.
"An animal maybe?" Remus said, but I shushed him as we came within earshot of the family and the officer.
"—ran out of nowhere!" the man was exclaiming to the officer. "There was nothing I could do! By the time I noticed, it was too late."
"Mhmm," the cop was saying, "and what did he look like?"
"No, not he, she. She…she had blonde hair—"
"Golden," the wife cut in. "A dark, golden blonde color."
"Dark blonde?" I told Remus. "Isn't that, oh, I don't know, sorta shiny when you add the word golden in front of it?"
"Yeah," he said, rolling his eyes at me, "something like that, Padfoot."
"That could be—"
"Nike, I know. Be quiet, I want to hear more."
"I was gonna say some girl that I wish I could meet—"
"Shut-up!" Remus hissed. "And quite frankly, I can't see you with a muggle girl. Ever."
"Yeah, whatever," the husband said. "Dark golden, blonde-ish hair, and it was straight and long. She had the strangest green eyes…they were so bright, like acid. But there were rings of blue and specks of dark brown. She seemed to be maybe…sixteen? Seventeen?"
Remus and I each let out the breath we were holding. The girl was starting to sound way too much like Nike. But Nike wasn't sixteen or seventeen. She was going to be fourteen soon…
…but then no one had eyes anywhere close to Nike's.
"Oh gods," Remus breathed. "But remember, Nike looks older than she is! It could have been her! It had to have been her; the description is just too perfect!"
"Okay," the cop said, writing it all down. "Did you see anything else?"
"Well, when she leapt off the hood and took off running, she seemed unnaturally tall for a girl. But I could be wrong," the woman said.
"I'll write it down. Alright, thanks folks. Can you stay right here for a moment while I check out the scene? Thanks," he said before he received a reply.
"Excuse me," I said, walking over to the family. "This girl…did she look strong? Did she have a slight build? Maybe broad shouldered?"
The man met my eyes, confused, but nodded. "Yes. She was curvy too, you know, with a small waist and—"
"Who are you?" the woman cut off her husband, casting a quick glare at him.
"She's his girlfriend and my sister," Remus lied quickly. "Now which way did she run off, as you say she did? Do you know why she ran?"
One of the kids, one who seemed about seven, pointed in the direction. "She ran that way," he said. "I don't know why. She looked over her shoulder and took off."
"Thanks," I said, and Remus and I headed over in the direction that the kid's finger had indicated.
"She got ran over and then ran away," Remus said, a crease in his brow. "Why would she do that?"
"Animal instincts?" I offered, non-jokingly. It was possible. She'd spent all her life except for the past year in the wilderness, after all.
"Yeah…maybe. But…I think she was running from a danger, not the mess she'd caused. Nike's not one to run away from the wrong that she's done."
"You're right," I agreed, reluctantly. "But that only leaves one other option. And I hate it."
"Me too," he said darkly. "It's as we feared." His eyes widened as he looked down at his shoes. "Oh Merlin! It's…it's a blood-trail!"
"Nike's blood?"
"I think so. Who else's could it be?" I didn't have anything to say to that, so we followed it in silence. When it came to an end, nothing was there.
"D'you think they killed her?" I asked, looking around, anger and fear quickly building up inside me.
"I don't know. But she's not here." He went over to a dumpster and peeked inside it. "Nor here. If they killed her, they took her body and stashed it somewhere else. But if not…" He shuddered. "We need to find where they took her either way. How are we going to do that?"
I shrugged meekly, then I had a brilliant idea. Or at least I thought it was pretty damn brilliant! "Cover me, okay?"
"What?" he asked, confused.
"Just do as I say," I snapped, and I concentrated on shifting. In a second, I was the other me, and…god-damn-it my tail itched! I growled and started trying to bite my tail, chasing it in circles, around and around and around and arou—
"Sirius!" Remus snapped. I froze, my mouth poised open, centimeters away from the end of my tail. "Do whatever you were going to do and do it now. The cops are headed this way."
I let out a growl and immediately could smell her. Those bastards were going to pay for what they had done to her, and by the time I was through with them, they were going to wish they were dead.
I barked at Remus and took off running, noticing that along with the fresh, wild, exhilarating smell I associated with Nike was a stench of several men, all of whom would benefit from taking a shower and maybe a couple packages of deodorant.
We ran for what seemed like hours, but in all truth was probably about a mile or so. I thought we were getting closer, because the scent wasn't stale, but…it was becoming faint. I shook my head, trying to clear it. I had to focus; it was the only way we were going to get to her in time…if we weren't too late already.
I picked up my speed, running faster and faster, leaving Remus behind, knowing he would be able to find me. Soon everything was a blur and then…I slammed to a halt, and Remus, right behind me, tripped and fell.
"What the—"
I shifted back into my human form, snarling, "It's gone! Her scent is gone!" I let out a growl and went to punch the brick wall next to me, but Remus caught my fist.
"No. Just, calm down, okay? Hurting yourself is not going to help. There may be a time for violence, but that isn't now." He peered into my eyes, looking to see if I got the message.
I yanked away from him. "The hell it isn't! It's like she disappeared into thin air! One minute her scent was there, the next—poof!—it's gone!"
"Okay. Then let's go back to where you last smelled her and go from there. If we do things right the first time, no matter how long it may seem to take, we'll actually be working quicker than we would be when we rush forward and have to come back and fix our errors."
"Stop being a god-damned scholar, Remus," I snapped, stalking back to where I'd last smelt Nike. "Got it. Faint, but it's there," I muttered. I took a step forward, and then it was gone. I threw my hands up in the air, frustrated and angry, yelling, "I don't know what the hell is going on!"
Remus opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by a ringing coming from his pocket.
"And what is that?" I demanded.
Remus muttered, "Hold on," pulled something out of his pocket, flipped it open, and said, "Mum, now's really not the time—" He trailed off as I heard a voice on the other end.
"No. No, she's gone, mum. I woke up and went outside to wait for her, and I was about to set out and look for her when Sirius showed up. Farther down the street there'd been a wreck… Oh. You heard about that? Nike got hit by a car. There was a kid in the car that said she looked over her shoulder and took off running." He paused. "No. Worse. Sirius and I think she was taken by one of the local gangs. We followed her blood trail and then Sirius, erm, followed her scent, and we came across a dead end."
"Come on," I snapped, impatient. "We need to get moving."
Remus handed the object to me. "Here. My mum wants to talk to you real quick. Please listen to what she has to say." I glared at him but took the thing from him and did as he had done and held it up to my ear.
"Sirius, honey, listen to me," came Mrs. Lupin's sweet voice. "You two need to go back to the house, and you need to do it now. I swear I'm going to do everything I can to find her, but you two aren't helping anything by wandering around aimlessly. If they hear or see you two, they're either going to move her or kill her and you two, and we'll have no chance of getting her, or you, back after that. Do you understand?"
I took a deep breath, not wanting to yell at her. "But…she'll die!"
"She'll surely die if you two alert them. Head back home. Trust me. I know more about how these gangs work, Sirius. They're worse than you may think. Believe it or not, but I have some experience with them."
I took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. "Alright. Fine."
"Good boy. I'll meet you two there."
I gave the thing back to Remus and said, "Let's go."
"Gods, I can't believe she managed to convince you."
"Trust me, it's killing me." We walked quickly back to Remus' house in an uneasy silence.
"Owl James and Lily while I go call Tonks. They need to know," Remus said as we walked up his steps. "Meet me back out here."
Unable to trust my voice, I nodded and sat down on the steps, my head in my hands. Time was running out, and it was running out fast.
Taking up a pen and paper, I quickly wrote a note that explained briefly what had happened, and sent Remus' owl to find James and Lily.
A/N: Well, hope this is moving along rather well! I'm not sure if it is, so I'm hoping!
This chappy's sorta late, not because I didn't have it done, but because I was out of town for a couple days. So sorry 'bout that guys! Hope this chapter was good enough to make up for it. Freak out, Sirius! We wanna see you have a mental breakdown! Heehee! ;)
My thanks:
nacho5: Okey-dokey! Here's more! Hope ya liked it!
JennLD: Yeah…she did, unfortunately! But, she's not COMPLETELY invincible! Imagine how boring that would be! But as for Sirius and Remus saving her…yeah, haven't exactly figured that out yet! But I guess I better think of something soon!
Okay guys! Let me know what you thought! I'd love to hear it! So, please R&R and I'll get the next chappy up as soon as I can!
Until then,
Nike
