Page 89 of Those That Defy the Realm

“Bree?” Ty turns to look at the figure jogging to catch us up.

“You didn’t think I’d just gone home to wait, did you?” The air forms puffs of condensation with her words.

“You know it’s not safe,” Ty says.

“Duh! My best friend gets kidnapped in front of my eyes, and you think I don’t realise the danger?” Her sassy tone almost reaches the levels Antares can.

“I thought Rory told you to go home.”

“Yeah, and I ignored her. I can help you.”

“Bree, I say this because I care, but you don’t know what you're up against.”

“So we’re not about to hunt down a blood thirsty vampire pack that has stolen my best friend the moment she finds out that she is descended from vampires and could be turned herself? I’m sorry, what am I missing?”

Antares sniggers and I shoot him a glare.

“We don’t have time for this,” I growl in frustration.

“Bree—”

“No, Ty. Don’t Bree me. I’m about as full Fae as you can get these days, I’m almost as strong as you lot are. Stronger maybe with how many hours a day I work out. I may lack the fangs, but I am really fucking agile and know how to land a punch. Now, my best friend is missing so where are we headed first to look for her?”

Ty backs down, clearly seeing that the female knows her own mind and isn’t budging on joining our party. “Fine, but if you get hurt, you’re explaining it to Rory.”

“Deal,” she says, straightening to her full height.

“Let’s go,” I demand and start walking again.

The first three bars we try are fruitless. We don’t come across any of the West Scotian pack. Their numbers might not be huge, from Antares’s estimates it there to be around twenty-five to thirty members, but clearly none of them are out tonight.

“This is useless, we need a new plan,” I say, running hand through my hair and tugging at the roots.

“Let’s try the casino,” Antares replies. “I’m pretty sure Fillias has shares in it, or gets backhanded some of the cash somehow. Anyways, he spends a lot of time there.”

“Why didn’t we try that to begin with?” I lament

“Because I thought we ideally wanted a grunt, not Fillias himself. If he gets tipped off we’re here, before we’re certain he has Claire, we’ll have another big problem on our hands. And we won’t have a hope of finding your mate.”

The plan had been to find one of the lower down members and force them to tell us where the pack hang out is, and gauge if they’d picked up any rogues recently. Despite the amount of run-ins Antares has had with the pack, the location of where they live is a deeply hidden secret.

“I think we’re out of options,” Ty says.

“How recognizable are you guys to this gang?” Bree chimes in.

“I’ve met Fillias a few times, when I was working for Adicious,” Ty replies.

“Antares used to get beaten up by them every other week, so I’d say very,” I inform her. “And I live here so I have no doubt that they keep tabs on me even though I want nothing to do with them and keep out of their main territory.”

“Great, okay. That’s not much to work with.” She ponders, almost to herself as her hand comes to her chin in thought.

“If Fillias is there, he’ll have four or five others with him,” Antares adds.

“Gods, so we’ll be outnumbered and instantly recognisable. I see why this was plan B,” Bree puffs.

“We can’t just stand here for the rest of the night, it’ll be closing in an hour.” Impatience gnaws at my bones.

Okay, new plan.” Bree claps her hands together. “Let's forget the stealth option. I say we just walk in there like we’re there to play the tables, we seek out the pack and ruffle some feathers.”