Vindicator

Chapter 49

Karma ignored Tiffany, feeling confident in her barrier for now. She dove into the she-wolf's recent memories instead, trying to track down where she put her phone. After determining its whereabouts, she grabbed it and a hoody before leading Theo to the door of the cabin.

"Don't run, or I'm going to have to knock you out. We need to stick together, okay?" She instructed, letting go of his wrist to slide her hand into his.

He grunted a response, which was good enough for Karma. She opened the door and crept outside with him, finding the daylight was dimmed with the device on her eyes. She ripped it off and took a look around to see they were in a deserted section of woods.

Glancing over to Theo, she saw he still had his eyes squeezed shut. She figured he must have damaged them temporarily, so he probably couldn't see yet. Tugging on his wrist, she lead him away from the cabin towards what she hoped was safety.

The two trudged through the woods for several minutes in complete silence, with the occasional grunt from Theo when he'd trip over something his wolf instincts didn't pick up. Eventually, though, he couldn't take it anymore.

"Why aren't you just magicking us back to the castle, if you're the Spectre?!" He snapped.

"Because I'm busy magicking myself into Tiffany's body" she retorted.

"Doesn't take magic to do that, half of the males in the pack have been in he—ow!" He cried when Karma smacked him in the back of the head.

"Stop being an idiot" she muttered.

Tiffany let out an indignant sound, and threw more anger into her attacks on the barrier.

"Whatever...What's the plan, then?" Theo demanded.

"Try to figure out where we are, and get someone to come pick us up" she replied with a lazy shrug.

"What?! That's your plan?!" He yelled.

"Or get caught before we can find out where we are, because Theo keeps yelling and giving our location away. That sounds fun too" she retorted.

Theo let out a strangled, frustrated sound that amused his sister.

"Lighten up. Worst case, I drop Tiffany's body and return to mine, then I can magic us away. Her memories will be useful, though, so I don't want to give her up if I can help it" Karma explained.

"Whatever" Theo replied again, allowing the two to return to silence.

With their excellent noses, the two were able to sniff out a trail that seemed to lead towards human territory. They stuck to it, stopping periodically for a drink from a stream or to catch something to eat. Theo's eyesight was coming back in blotchy pieces at a time, so he was mostly relying on holding hands with Karma and letting her lead.

After several hours of travelling, Tiffany's phone began to buzz. The two stopped so Karma could answer it. Tiffany had exhausted herself trying to break through Karma's barrier; but, at the realization that her phone was ringing, she started up again.

"Daddy! It's me! Save me!" Tiffany shrieked, even though her message never made it out of her head.

"Hello?" Karma answered the phone, wincing a little from Tiffany's sudden uproar.

"I'm sending someone to the cabin, he should be there in about an hour. Let him in when he arrives" Tiffany's father said gruffly.

"Why are you sending someone else?" She asked in her best petulant-Tiffany act.

"I told you, if the Royals don't give in, then we have to torture the Prince more" he snapped.

"I know you told me" Karma whined back. "I just don't understand how this man is going to do better than me."

"It may be against his will when you're having your way with him, but it'll be a different level entirely when it's this guy" her father said with a disturbing laugh. "Just wait and see...You wouldn't want to sleep with him, either. And the worse it is for Theo, the worse it'll be for his mate, according to your gramps. So be a good girl and let him in, got it?"

"Yes, daddy" she said, still sounding like she was pouting. Internally, though, her stomach was flopping at what Theo almost had to endure.

Tiffany's father didn't even bid his daughter goodbye, and just hung up on her. Karma turned to look at Theo, who'd overheard the conversation and was a bit pale.

"They we're sending a man to rape me" he said in disbelief.

Karma nodded, reaching out to take his hand again and give it a squeeze. "You're safe now" she promised him.

"I'll be safe when that piece of shit Prince accepts my rejection!" He snapped, stomping off ahead of Karma.

Sighing, and feeling a bit guilty, Karma followed after him. He wasn't entirely wrong to blame the Prince; however, it was his own fault people knew that they were mated. Reminding herself of this, her guilt faded a bit and she half-jogged to catch up with him.

"We should be getting close, but we also only have an hour before they realize you're gone" she said, slipping her hand into his. "So we should be sure to stick together."

"Sure" he muttered, but let her hold onto his hand.

Despite thinking they were close, it took them nearly three more hours to finally reach the outskirts of a human town. After the second hour, Karma was listening intently for any additional sounds and had become quite jumpy. So, when they finally stumbled upon the first house, Karma nearly jumped for joy.

"Oh thank the Goddess" she breathed, peeking at the house from behind a shrub.

"You're telling me...Now what?" Theo demanded.

In their entire journey from the cabin in the woods to this human house, Theo had been trudging along in the nude. Despite how much Chance's near-nudity had flustered Karma before, she was unbothered by her brother's complete nudity up until this point. Now that they were planning to enter a human town during supper time, Karma began to kick herself for not finding some clothes for Theo before they left.

"I may have to leave you here to get you some clothes" she told him.

"Why?" He demanded, frowning. "Nobody will complain about seeing this" he added, motioning up and down to his muscular body with a smirk.

Karma rolled her eyes. "Just stay here, keep an ear and nose out for Tiffany's cronies, and I'll be right back." She ordered before heading off to the house.

"They're not my cronies" Tiffany snapped.

"I have better words for the whole lot of you, but I'm trying to be pleasant" Karma snapped back at her, slipping into the human's home. To be safe, she cut her mindlink with Tiffany temporarily to keep her focus.

She was able to find some overalls and a plaid shirt that looked like they belonged to a farmer; however, she was worried they'd be too small. As a drastic measure, she snagged a white sheet before zipping outside without incident.

When she returned to the bushes to find Theo, though, she began to swear like a sailor. She was gone no more than five minutes, so how was it that he was gone?!