Catalyst

Chapter Twenty-Three

With almost no money left, and no idea where Lissa had gone, they had no real choice except to go home. James was miserable, and she knew he was tormented with thoughts of his sister, chained up somewhere, starving, or being tortured by shifters who hadn't been with Cicero for the battle at the field. There had to be at least a dozen of his soldiers left, given the amount Kalairn said Cicero had under his control, but there was no idea among the three where they might be keeping Kara. Elliott promised to go back to where he had first seen the army, but he had very verbal doubts they would have stayed in the same place for so long.

It was hard for Phoebe to accept that after everything that had happened—all the traveling, learning to shift, the battles, the victory—their mission was still not over. They had beaten the bad guy, but their goal was as lost to them now as before. Elliott said the easiest thing to do would be to follow his sister's trail, but there was only a small chance Kara would be alive if, no when, they found her.

If she was tied up somewhere alone it was only a matter of days before she died, waiting for someone to rescue her, and if she was being held captive, news of Cicero's death would reach the remaining hunters any minute, either by Lissa, or when they figured it out for themselves after their leader and comrades did not return from the fight. There would be no reason to keep her alive then. They wanted dragons dead before anything else.

Once James had recovered enough to stand, and with Elliott's help and a stolen car, the three headed back to the motel room. The Elemental immediately left to follow his sister's energy, taking the car with him and promising to contact them as soon as he had any information. James wasn't happy about leaving the job entirely up to a being that spent most of his time as a twelve-year-old sun bather, but tagging along wouldn't help any.

Phoebe and James grabbed their remaining clothes and found the mall where they had abandoned Bruce's car. It was right where they had left it, the doors unlocked and the keys under the seat. It was unbelievable that no one had tried to steal it.

In the motel bathroom Phoebe had covered most of James' wounds from the fight, but he still looked beat up, his face and neck bruised with an obvious purple tint, deep scratches still fresh and bright with blood. Shifting would be pretty painful for him, otherwise she might have suggested shifting into their dragon forms and flying home to get there faster. She had the horrible thought that if they didn't find Kara in time he might never let himself shift again. Failing to get the truth from Cicero was eating at him. Glancing at his face as she started Bruce's car, she could see it was a possibility.

If he couldn't find Kara, couldn't save her, he would see it as his fault, and that guilt would demand some kind of punishment. There were some problems even wise-cracks and a positive attitude couldn't solve.

Holding in a sigh, she drove them back home as well as she could, getting lost only once on the unfamiliar roads out of New Jersey. The car smelled like Bruce's shop. The incense and the smoke must have clung to his clothes each time he was in the car. She hoped the scent might make James feel better, but from the harsh way he clenched his hands on his knees in the passenger seat, it probably only reminded him of what he'd already lost.

Most of the drive was silent. She put her hand on his so that he would stop death-gripping his jeans, and he muttered "thanks," but that might have been the only sentient word he spoke the entire time.

She pulled the car into James' driveway; his father's busted jeep sat on crooked wheels in front of the small garage. The sun was setting and the orange glow glinted off of the rusty hubcaps.

"Elliott won't let us down," she said, trying to comfort him. James made no move to get out of the car, just sat there staring at his house, with all the windows dark, and she could see in his face that he dreaded stepping through the door. Finding his sister gone all over again. He failed to return the conquering hero, with his beloved little sister in tow.