Soulless (Book #2 of Hunted)

Mountain Laurels

"Okay this is super weird," Phoebe said as we pulled into the empty dirt parking lot off the trail that led down to the lake. She was right, this was extremely weird. Usually this place would be jam packed with families looking for a nice day out. It was two o' clock in the afternoon on a Saturday in the middle of summer and nobody wanted to swim. We hopped out of the car and Phoebe walked over towards the large board in front of the main trail-head that mapped out all the other trails.

"He's somewhere around here," she said pointing towards the end and to the left of the longest indicated trail right in the middle of the uncharted woodland. I sighed as I came to stand beside her, the trail was 10.8 miles long one way and I hadn't worn the proper shoes.

"So we'll be teleporting then," Phoebe said looking down at her Jimmy Choos and reaching for my arm. I took an unconscious step back. I remembered what it felt like to teleport; like my guts were being ripped in all directions and I shuddered.

"No thanks, Pheebs, I need to practice my super-speed so I'll meet you out there," I said and she nodded. I touched her shoulder and her eyes met mine.

"If you see him, don't engage until I get there. He's a warlock too, remember," I warned her seriously. She nodded again more somberly and then took a deep breath before disappearing from sight. I rubbed my eyes and then slapped myself lightly on both sides of my face saying, "You got this!" Then I took off down the 10.8 mile trail running at full human speed for a couple dozen yards before kicking it into high gear and flitting sporadically down the trail narrowly missing trees and making turns.

The forest blurred around me at first and then my eyes caught up and it felt like I was flying. It was an indescribably amazing feeling and I would've whooped with joy if not for the tears burning in the back of my throat. Moving at this speed, flying over the ground and through the trees reminded me painfully of the first time Zane showed me what it felt like to wander through Space like he could...that closeness...when he was still mine.

I branched off the indicated trail and fought my way through the foliage and into a clearing in which Phoebe appeared shortly after. I sighed and looked around.

"There's nothing here," I snapped a bit more irritably than I intended. Phoebe kicked at a clump of leaves and sucked in her cheeks before saying, "That's impossible. There has to be something here. Every other time I've scried things work out perfectly and we had a tooth." As if that made all the difference.

"Well obviously something went wrong. Maybe that wasn't his tooth I picked up, I don't know!" I said throwing my hands up into the air in frustration. Phoebe looked at me and assured, "Even if that wasn't his tooth, it was someone's and it led us here so there should be something here." I felt like crying. This was my only chance to find Clay and if he wasn't here then where the hell was he?

I watched Phoebe walk around in a circle, scanning the forest, her fingertips brushing against tree trunks my anxiety gradually rising until I was ready to jump out of my own skin.

"What are you doing?" I finally asked when I couldn't stand the silence any longer.

"There's something here," she murmured holding out her hands like a blind woman.

"Where?" I snapped tugging on the hem of my shirt. Phoebe glanced around and replied, "Everywhere...we just can't see it." She neared a pair of Mountain Laurel trees that were growing so closely together that their upper branches twined together creating a natural arch. She stuck her arm between the two trees and her hand—