Soar (The Empire Chronicles #1) Read online

  Thanks to a pair of tinted glasses and a hood, I had no idea who the person in front of me was, but my skin crawled as the figure stepped closer. The figure was large, so I assumed it was a male, but I had no clue.

  “Casey Bates,” the mystery figure asked in a deep voice. Definitely male.

  My chest tightened. How did he know my name?

  “Are you Casey?” he asked again.

  “Maybe.” I took a deep breath. Eric would be back in soon.

  He chuckled. I wouldn’t have expected someone like that to even know how to laugh. “I’ll take that as a yes. Not that I didn’t know already.”

  “What do you want with her?” I grabbed hold of the counter. My heart was beating a million miles a minute.

  “Nothing sinister, I assure you.”

  Where was Eric? Surely dumping trash couldn’t take that long. That is unless there was a wolf out there again. “Do you want to order something?”

  He laughed again. “It says a lot about your strength that you’re still the polite barista.”

  “Sir, if you’re not going to order something, I need to ask you to leave.” I tried to still my shaking body. Something about this guy gave me the creeps. The fact that I couldn’t see his eyes made it so much worse.

  “Ask me to leave?”

  “Yes. If you read that sign, we have the right to refuse service.”

  “Maybe it’s time we both stop playing games, Casey.”

  “Who are you?” A strange sense of familiarity hit me.

  “She misses you.”

  Those were the only words I needed to hear. “Where is she? What did you do to her?”

  “Calm down, Casey. Vera is doing just fine.”

  “Can I see her?” Those three words may have been the most stupid I’d ever uttered, but I missed my sister more than anything. I didn’t know what kind of trouble she was in, but I knew I’d never stop trying to find her. This was the closest I’d ever come.

  “Yes.” He didn’t hesitate with his answer, and that terrified me.

  “When?”

  “Now. I’ll take you to her.”

  “Why?” I still remembered the day Vera disappeared like it was yesterday and not years ago. After a two month investigation, the police closed the file. They said she probably ran off with her boyfriend, but I knew better. She would never leave without saying goodbye to me. I knew in my heart she was still alive out there somewhere.

  “Because she wants to see you.” He stepped closer to the counter.

  “Why now?” I knew the timing couldn’t be a coincidence. Why wait so long?

  “Two reasons.”

  “Which are?”

  “You’ve grown up, and you’re in danger.”

  “I’m in danger? Why do people keep telling me that?”

  “Because it’s true.” He rested his gloved hands right in front of me.

  “Who am I in danger from?”

  “I’ll tell you if you come with me.” His voice was slightly scratchy and it made him sound even more frightening.

  I felt like I was in one of those after school specials. The ones where they dramatize an abduction, and you watch, telling yourself you’d never be stupid enough to fall for the trick. “Can’t you just tell me what I need to know?”

  I heard a crash and Eric limped into the room. “Run, Bates!”

  “What? Are you okay?” I gaped at him, he was covered in blood.

  “Run!”

  Instinct kicked in, and I listened. I headed to the door, but the faceless guy blocked me. “No need to run, Casey. We can walk.” He grabbed my arm.

  “Let go of me.”

  “Not going to happen.” He gripped my arm tighter.

  “Run,” Eric hissed. I turned around in time to watch Eric punch the guy. The man stumbled back, releasing my arm in the process.

  “Run!” Eric didn’t need to say it again.

  I hit the pavement and didn’t look back. My initial thought was to go home, but that was the first place anyone would look for me. I didn’t want to lead anyone to Remy either. I once again went with instinct and headed to Toby’s building.

  The doorman opened the door, recognizing me. “Are you here to see Mr. Welsh?”

  “Yes.” I tried to calm my breathing.

  “I’m afraid he’s not in right now. He’s been out all day.”

  I glanced outside, praying no one had followed me.

  “Are you in some trouble, Miss?”

  I nodded. “I need to see him.”

  His demeanor suddenly changed, he straightened and looked me right in the eye. “Who’s after you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  He pulled out his phone and called someone. “I need back up. The girl’s here and she’s being followed. That’s fine, send someone.”

  He pocketed his phone. “You’re safe.”

  I nodded, hoping he was right.

  His words were proved wrong moments later when the glass in the front door shattered into pieces and scattered on the floor in front of us.

  “Get down!” the doorman yelled, stepping in front of me.

  “She’s with us,” the creepy guy from Coffee Heaven spat. He strode into the lobby, walking right over the glass shards. He wasn’t wearing his hood or glasses anymore, and I wanted to vomit. Deep inside, I knew it was him, but seeing his face just proved he did know where my sister was. Standing in front of me was her boyfriend, Murphy, the one she met because I dated his younger brother. I still hadn’t forgiven myself for introducing them.

  “She’s not with you.” Toby stormed into the lobby, only it didn’t really look like Toby. His eyes were completely black, and he had large brown wings extending out of his shirtless back. I knew with complete certainty this wasn’t his first time saving me. I also knew he wasn’t human, and that was almost as scary as my sister’s ex-boyfriend.

  “Taking up with Pterons already?” Murphy seethed.

  “Pterons?” I said the strange term slowly, surprised I even had the capacity to speak. I heard shouting from outside, and I wondered if it was the police.

  “She’s with me. Get the fuck out of here.” Toby strode over to Murphy with the most menacing expression I’d ever seen.

  Murphy sneered. “What do you want with her? She’s of no use to you.”

  “But she’s of use to you?” Toby asked in a strained voice. It was like he was struggling to hold on.

  “Lots of use. So if you don’t mind, I’ll be taking what’s mine.”

  “Like hell you are.” Toby’s fist made contact with Murphy’s face and he flew into the pile of glass by the door. The temperature seemed to rise and there was a slight haziness. When I blinked my eyes, instead of Murphy, I saw a large grizzly bear.

  I stepped back as far as I could until my back made contact with the wall.

  “Get her out of here, Cody!” Toby tossed the doorman a set of keys.

  “To the estate?”

  “Yes.”

  I barely registered what was happening when Cody grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the lobby.

  “Let go of me!” I fought against his arms, but it did nothing.

  “Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  Like I was going to believe a word he said. He was listening to a man with wings, and he didn’t even bat an eye when another man turned into a bear.

  “I don’t want to restrain you, but I will if that’s what it takes to get your cooperation.” He towed me toward a silver Acura SUV. Over my shoulder, I watched Toby lunge at a bear that had been a man moments earlier.

  Restrain me? I did the sane thing and started to scream.

  The screaming didn’t last long. A hand clamped down over my mouth and within seconds, I was on the floor of the backseat with my arms tied. How had he moved so fast? And why was no one noticing the manhandling?

  Damn it. He tied my legs, and put tape over my mouth before slamming the door and going around to the front.

  I tried to
scream, but nothing came out around the tape.

  “I know it doesn’t seem that way, but you’re with the good guys.” Cody pulled out onto the street. “I don’t know what those bears wanted with you, but it can’t be good. Risking an open attack on a Pteron isn’t something shifters like that do.”

  Shifters? Is that what that bear was? Like a wearwolf, but a bear? And there was that Pteron word again.

  “Toby wants you out of harm’s way, so I’ll take you somewhere safe. You can thank me later.”

  Thank him? More like kick him in the balls.

  I continued struggling, unwilling to go down without a fight. A few minutes later, Cody’s cell phone rang. “She’s fine. Maybe uncomfortable, but fine.” He turned to look at me. “I had no choice. She screamed. She would have brought more danger upon herself. I’ll make sure she knows that. See you then.”

  “Toby says he’s sorry it had to come to this. He wishes he could have protected you better.”

  I struggled to talk again.

  “If I take off that tape, will you be good?”

  I nodded. I’d agree to anything to get that tape off.

  He reached back and pulled off the tape in one quick motion. It hurt, but the relief was instant. I took in a large breath before speaking. “Who the hell are you people?”

  “I’m not sure where to start.”

  “Start at the beginning.”

  “Has Toby told you anything?” He sped up.

  “Just that I was in danger and he was dangerous.”

  “You didn’t notice anything different about him?”

  “I thought he was a crime boss.” That was the only thing I’d come up with. I knew he was into something weird, but I thought mafia, not wings.

  “I’m really not supposed to talk about this stuff with a human, but I guess the cat is out of the bag now. Nothing I say is going to be worse than what you saw.” He paused before continuing. “Toby’s a ranking Pteron. He runs New York for the king.”

  I laughed. “The king?”

  “Yes. The King of The Society.”

  “What’s a Pteron?”

  “You saw his wings.”

  “So he’s a fallen angel or something?”

  Cody laughed. “We’re not angels.”

  “We? You have wings too?”

  “Yes.” He tossed some weird plastic mask on the chair next to him. He turned around, and I gasped. It was a completely different person looking back at me. Young and with a shock of red hair, Cody didn’t resemble the quiet, middle aged doorman I’d seen over the past few days.

  “If you’re not angels, then what are you?”

  “We’re bird shifters. Toby and I are tied to hawks.”

  “Yeah…right.”

  “I’m telling you the truth.”

  “And the bears?”

  “What about them?” He continued driving quickly. The late hour left the streets mostly empty.

  “Who are they?”

  “Their official name is Urusus, but we don’t call them that. The name sounds too distinguished for them. You can ask your boss about it though.”

  “My boss? You mean Marv?”

  He made a sharp turn, and my head smashed into the seat in front of me. “Ouch.”

  He slowed down and then the car stopped. I tensed as I waited for the door to open.

  “Marv and his nephew.” He picked up the conversation like we hadn’t stopped it. He scooped me off the floor and buckled me into a seat. “Sorry about that. Toby’s going to kill me when he sees your head.”

  I could feel the blood before it flowed down my face enough to see it. Cody took a cloth out of his pocket and dabbed my forehead. “We’ll be there in a few hours. You might as well try to rest. I have a feeling it’s going to be a crazy night.”

  He closed my door and immediately locked it once he was back in the driver’s seat. Even though I was still tied up, I could at least look out the window.

  “Any other questions?”

  “What does Toby want from me?” We were on some sort of interstate. From what I could tell, we were heading west of the city.

  “Want from you?” Cody caught my eye in the rearview mirror. “Isn’t that obvious?”

  “Should it be?”

  “He likes you. He hasn’t shown this kind of interest since I started working with him.”

  “So he doesn’t want to kill me?”

  Cody laughed. “Kill you? Is that what you think every guy trying to get in your pants wants to do?”

  “Most guys don’t have wings and tell their friends to kidnap me.”

  “If you think this is bad, I can assure you being with the bears would be worse. I don’t know what that guy wanted with you, but it couldn’t be good.”

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “To the Blackwell country estate.”

  “The Blackwell estate?”

  “It’s Toby’s family name. He’s running it now.”

  A question nudged at the corner of my mind, even though there were probably tons of more important ones to ask. “What happened to Toby’s grandfather?”

  Cody didn’t say anything for a second. “I’ll let him tell you.”

  “Why? All he told me was that he died.”

  “Yeah. It’s Toby’s story to tell.”

  “Then it can’t be good.”

  “It’s not.” Cody turned on the radio, probably trying to signal to me that the conversation was over.

  I used the break from conversation to formulate a plan. I had no idea what messed up stuff I was dealing with, but my sister was apparently part of it. Maybe if I played my cards right, I could get to her. My gut told me Toby had been telling me the truth when he said he wasn’t dangerous to me, but that didn’t mean I was going to listen to him blindly. I’d stay alert and find a way to get to Vera. Whatever the Blackwell estate was, I hoped it wasn’t some crazy prison with a torture chamber. I’d play along if I needed to. Maybe those acting classes in high school would pay off.

  Cody’s phone rang again. He turned off the radio. “Hello. I’ll ask her.” He turned back toward me. “Are you hungry?”

  “Are you really asking me that?”

  “Toby said to make sure you ate something.”

  I laughed. It was the uncontrollable “I’m in over my head” kind of laugh.

  “Hold on. Talk to her yourself.” He must have hit the speaker button because Toby’s voice came through the receiver. “You okay, Casey?”

  “Never better.”

  “Sarcasm. That’s a good sign.” His voice was tense, but I could tell he was trying hard to put me at ease. Considering my hands were tied behind me, and I had no clue what I was in for, nothing was going to put me at ease.

  “What the hell is going on?”

  “I don’t know. All hell has broken loose here. I’ll get to you as soon as I can.”

  I needed answers. “What are you?”

  “I can’t talk much now, but I promise to tell you everything later.”

  The brush off wasn’t going to fly. “You’re a bird shifter?”

  “Well, our shifter form is a hybrid. I don’t turn into an actual hawk.”

  “You just sprout giant wings.”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Any other skills I should know about?”

  “Strength, speed, agility, sexual prowess.”

  “Toby!”

  He laughed. “I had to lighten things up. I’ll be there as soon as I can, and I’m sorry. I should have protected you.”

  “Toby.”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re not going to kill me?”

  “Of course not!”

  “I’m holding you to it!” I must have been losing my mind.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Toby

  There is something incredibly satisfying about hand to hand combat. Without weapons getting in the way, it lets adversaries fight each other the way they were meant to. Winning takes speed, strength
, agility, and brains, and it requires you to summon inner strength you may not have realized you had. That being said, there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing.

  I tossed another wolf across the otherwise deserted street. If the witches hadn’t already earned their keep for The Society, they did that night. There’s no way we could have cleaned up that kind of chaos without messing with human minds. I’m not sure what people thought was happening, but clearly the growling and screaming on the street wasn’t garnering any attention.

  “You’re actually kind of good at this,” Jared yelled from somewhere behind me. Was it possible the guy had a sense of humor?

  “Yeah. So are you.”

  He laughed. “I’m the best. Don’t pretend you didn’t know that.”

  “I figured the stories were inflated, like everything else about your breed.”

  “I’d love to hear those stories but it looks like we have more company.”

  I turned in time to watch another four bears barreling down the street. More grizzlies. Black bears were fairly easy, but the grizzlies were far worse. They had more upper body strength, and if you weren’t careful, they’d knock you over before you could react. Lucky for me, Pterons have good reflexes and I’d managed not to get knocked around too much.

  The bear who initiated the attack, and had the personal interest in Casey, disappeared sometime during the early waves of attacks when I didn’t have the time to chase after him. I’d find him eventually, but until then, I had my hands full. I was glad to have Jared and Owen there. As strong as my men were, two extra well-trained Pterons wasn’t something to scoff at.

  As the bears approached, I flew sideways to dodge the head on attack. I swiftly rammed them from the side. Jared seemed to have the same idea. The bears were more vulnerable on their sides.

  Reinforcements arrived right as the fourth round of bears and wolves appeared. I nodded in greeting to Tom and Tim. It was about time they got their asses there.

  We took down that line and another before the meek shifters realized the futility of a continued fight. The wolves retreated first, with the bears on their heels. I sent Tim and Tom after them. I’d let them take care of the low lifes.

  “Do you think our friend here is ready to talk?” Owen kicked the human body of a bear who had been there in the very beginning. He was the only one other than the ring leader who had survived from that first group.