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He nodded, too choked up to say anything to her. He watched with growing discomfort as she, Poppy, and James left the room together. His own heart seemed to pull against his chest, trying to make him follow Hannah. What if she got hurt? What if she was kidnapped? What if she died? What if—
"Don't concentrate so much on that." Sarah's voice startled him—he hadn't realized that she was still in the room. "I'm sorry to say that pretty soon, their little expidenture will be the least of your worries. You have some preparing to do yourself."
Thea's Point of View
"Thea! Thea!"
Thea Harman turned toward the voice that was frantically calling her name. It was Oakley Star, one of the head healers in the San Francisco Daybreak center. Lord Thierry had assigned Thea, along with her soulmate Eric Ross, to travel from center to center checking up on how they were doing.
"Yes, Oakley?"
She was not unduly worried. Oakley often managed to work herself into an extreme frenzy over things like shortages on chicken broth.
"Thea! We have visitors!"
"Oh?"
"Yes! And well, they asked to speak to the head of the center, and normally that would be me…but since Lord Thierry sent you, you have higher authority, and so they must mean you. Only I don't think they know that you're here and so—,"
"Oakley!" Thea said with just a hint of impatience coloring her voice. She had only been at the center for a grand total of seven hours, and already she was exhausted from the girl. "Focus, please. Who are the visitors, and do you know why they're here?"
"Well, actually they said they were here to investigate the abduction of one of our members-Phillip North."
"Wait—someone's been kidnapped?" Thea demanded.
"Well, yes. Yesterday, and—,"
"And you didn't think you should mention that to me?"
"Well, yes. But…yes. But…"
Thea sighed wearily and reminded herself that no good would come from becoming angry at Oakley. She was as goodhearted as a puppy, and certainly hadn't meant to withhold the information. "Don't worry about it Oakley. I'll handle it."
"Oh, thank God, Thea. You're a lifesaver." In one fluid movement the girl bounded up to her and hugged her. Thea didn't have the time to return it, and before she could say anything
Oakley was already around the corner and down the hall. Shaking her head with partial amusement, she headed for the lobby. For the umpteenth time that day, she wished Eric was by her side…but he had had to stay behind at the last Center, trying to help an outbreak of patients whom had survived throughout a particularly nasty shape-shifter attack, just a little north of her current center. It hurt to be away from him, especially now that she was finally allowed to be with him, but she concentrated on all the help he was giving, being there.
Still lost in thoughts about him, she opened the lobby door.
"Thea?"
Huh? Thea recognized that voice…it was…"Poppy!"
What in the world was she doing there? And with James, Quinn, Rashel, a girl she didn't know, oh, and Hannah? Lady Hannah? How in the world had she gotten Thierry to agree to let her out of his overly protective clutches?
"Thea! I didn't know you worked here!"
"I don't—Thierry has me touring all of them, just checking to make sure they're doing well. But, why are you here? I haven't seen you in months, in seems. When was the last time? Oh, right—Thierry's house in Vegas, right before we all met Hannah. But that was forever ago. How are you doing?"
She saw Poppy's face give a slight twitch, and then she made the mental connection. One Phillip North abducted, one Poppy North here to save him. "Oh Poppy…that must be hard."
Poppy gave a strangled nod, but then took a deep breath, as if trying to shoo away horrible thoughts. "It is, but I am going to save him, so it'll be alright."
"If there's anything I can do—say the word."
"Right…well, I was wondering if there's been any recent…disappearances. Besides Phil, of course. Someone who might have been working here, but abruptly quit?"
She caught her drift immediately. "I understand. We'll have to go talk to Oakley on that." She opened the door leading into the hallways and spotted the girl only a few doors down. She called her over and explained the situation, having to recapture her attention multiple times during her monologue. When she finally finished explaining, she was mentally exhausted.
"No." Oakley said simply.
"What?" She asked, forgetting where the conversation had left off.
"No—no one has quit or left. At least not recently…oh! Who are these people?" The rest of the group had followed Thea into the hall, looking at Oakley expectantly. Poppy jumped in.
"Hi! I'm Poppy North. Phil was my twin-brother, and these are some of my friends who agreed to come help me find him. We're not sure how powerfully guarded he is, or even where he is, so we decided to start here. This is James, my soulmate." Upon uttering that word, Thea saw Poppy break into a little bit of an involuntary smile. "That's Rashel and Quinn—they're soulmated, too. That's Hannah."
"Thierry's soulmate?" Oakley asked, eyes almost popping out of her head.
"Yep! And this is Maggie."
"Do you have a soulmate?" Oakley asked sweetly.
"Yes," she responded after a slight pause. "His name is Delos."
Again Oakley eye's shot up, in a really sort of comical way, actually. "Not the Delos—a wild power, right? Wow. I've never met a real wild power."
Rashel gave her a sort of condescending smile, almost as if she were indulging a small child. "Yes, but anyways Thea, did you find any information out?"
"I'm sorry to say no," Thea said—and she really was. She wished that she could help them, but there was nothing she could do…but still, the look on Poppy's face was enough to crush anyone's heart. She saw James stiffen at the sight of her wavering eyes and automatically crush Poppy closer to him.
"Oh. Well, if there's nothing, then…"
"Oh, wait!" Oakley chimed, her eyes straining as if just remembering something. "I actually do remember someone…his name was Ramen Hawkthorne—a shifter. He quit about two days ago, but I don't know if that would help…"
"We'll take it." Poppy said without hesitation. "Where does he live?"
"Er—15634 Sunset Boulevard, I think." She said, rattling off the numbers.
"Thank you so much! Thank you, thank you, thank you! And thank you too, Thea! I hope we see you soon! Come on guys, the sooner we get there the better!" Poppy said, renewed determination filling her voice. A hope so heady it was tangible filled the air around the small clique. It made Thea excited too…it made her want to help them.
"Wait!" She called. "Poppy! Could I—can I come?"
She almost expected a 'no', but of course Poppy just raised her eyebrows happily and gestured for her to follow them. In front of the building was a large limo with tinted windows, and they all piled in together. James and Poppy sat in the front—James driving, with Maggie, Thea, Hannah, Rashel and Quinn all spread out rather roomily in the back. The whole drive Quinn and Rashel simply lounged half on—half off of each other, looking lost in a world of their own while Thea made small talk with Maggie and Hannah. The drive wasn't long, though, and they reached a rather shabby looking building shrouded in the dimming light of the evening just around seven or so.
Rashel knocked twice on the chipped door—there was no answer. She tried the knob—it was open.
"Something about this doesn't feel right," Thea said hesitantly. Her whole body thrummed with awareness, but maybe the darkness of the setting was just making her paranoid.
"I-I agree. But I have to go in. Here—all of you just stay out here and wait for a few minutes," Poppy started.
"You are completely and utterly insane if you think I'm going to let you go into that building alone. Here, you guys stay out here and I'll go in." James countered.
"Then what was the point of us coming in the first place, though?" Hannah and Rashel demanded in unison.
"Here—let the guys, go. You girls can keep watch and—,"
"Quinn…I might just kill you if you say another word."
"Look, we don't even know if it's dangerous, actually—,"
"But it looks dangerous! This is my brother, so I should be the only one to get hurt if—,"
"I'd be hurting me if you got hurt and—,"
"Guys!" Maggie finally shouted, causing all of them to jump. "We're all going in. I've made the final decision—it's safer that way."
Thea wasn't completely sure if it was safer that way, but she wouldn't speak her opinions—they were probably wrong, anyway. She just agreed with the rest of the group and reluctantly stepped into the dark house. They went from room to room, almost completely silent, flicking on lights and expecting closets…it took them a good half hour to search the house , and at the end of the search: nothing.
"Well, that didn't do much good." Poppy stated dejectedly, as they all stood rather glumly in the living room.
"Yes, but maybe he'll come back. He could just be gone at the moment," Thea tried to cheer her up, but was broken off by the ring of Poppy's cell phone.
"Hello?" She asked. "Wait who is—Sarah? Oh, hi. Is something wrong? You had a vision of what? But that's…that's impossible. Of course they are with us! They're right…" Poppy dropped the phone.
"Guys?" She asked, her voice concealing barely hidden panic. "Guys! Where are Hannah and Maggie? Where are they?"
Thea looked around, confused…they were nowhere in sight.
Okay! There you go! Hope you liked that chapter! Please R and R!