Darkest Wolf

XXV

Tyler's POV

Jade had tears in her eyes when she saw her mother for the first time in months. Thalia held her daughter's face in her hands as if she were a small porcelain doll who may break if jostled improperly and then Mike, Jac, Maldeo and I all watched with an ache in our hearts as Thalia leaned close to put a gentle kiss on Jade's forehead.

The bond between wolf and pup fulfilled as they were finally reunited.

It hurt so bad to watch.

I had to turn back to Fern and pretend to have any interest in the antique comb she was showcasing. Maldeo was doing the same. I'm sure this is his first time away from his own mother in a very long time.

Jac walked over and pushed the comb to the side. Her eyes full of determination just as any Alpha's should.

"When was the last time you saw Eve?"

"Oh," Fern thought out loud as she set the comb back in it's case," The last time I saw her... it must have been two days ago. You lot were well on your way by the time Jade here called her mum."

"She can't be too far away then."

"I beg to bloody well differ! That hound left a trail of destruction behind her just about to the rising sun. She could be anywhere by now."

"Why did you stop following the trail then?"

"We didn't stop following it," Jade chimed in from her safe croon of her mother's arm. "It stopped existing."

"Pardon?"

Jac looked between the wolf and the hybrid. She didn't understand exactly what they meant when they said stopped existing but I do. Eve stopped being angry. She stopped her emotions which would cause so much death and despair and that was a great thing. If she knew what she had done it would kill her.

But that begs the question of what made her stop? Something must have been in her way that she very much did not want to destroy but what could it possibly be?

"We need to get to finding her. Now that Mike's here he can use his senses to know how close she is."

"Not exactly how it works, Tyler."

Mike gave me a strained look. He was getting old. We all are. The original group of terrible decisions, of fighting destinies. Nova and me, Tyler and Lacey, Kian and Holly, November and Lucas. All of us.

We aren't the spring chickens we used to be and our abilities show it. It's up to the younger ones now.

"We should have brought Ethan."

Maldeo perked up from his spot leaning on the couch while Jac turned around violently.

"Ethan can't be anywhere near her. You know what they could do if they so much as touch."

"Ethan is her twin and knows her better than anyone on this earth. Like it or not, Jac, they have a connection unlike anything I've ever seen and he could have used it to figure out where she's hiding."

"And why can't you?"

I glared at the young wolf. She wants so badly to be an Alpha but she's just a child. Barely old enough to drink in the human town and she thinks she can rule already.

"Mike," I spoke to him without taking my eyes off Jac to prove a point," When Jac snuck out to get drunk by the stream with a group of future Alphas when she was 16, could you sense her there?"

"No, I could not. A father can't sense his daughter. He has to use other things to track her down. Like her perfume scattered throughout the forest."

Jac blushed angrily when I brought up her mis performances while Mike gave her a knowing look. The information wasn't meant for me but I took it anyway.

"What was Eve wearing when she left?"

"I don't know."

Jade walked over to stand by us.

"She was in a long skirt and a flower shirt. We got it from Fern's closet."

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed in an old number that I wasn't sure would still work.

Here's to hope.

_

"Dante!"

The old vampire smiled at me when I walked up to him and embraced me in a tight hug. We hadn't seen each other since we were both young- him 87 and me only 16- but it seemed like it was just yesterday when we last went on our late night prowls. 

"You don't call for two decades and here you are asking me to track down a girl! Tyler you sly dog, I can't believe you didn't invite me to the christening."

"The birth of my children was a little... unconventional."

"You'll have to explain whatever it is you mean by that later. Who is this?"

He turned to Jac and Mike, waiting for an introduction. I rubbed the back of my neck in embarrassment. I'm not the young, free willed hybrid I used to be. For the first time in a long time it's embarrassing to be a part of a pack.

"This is Alpha Michael Stone and his daughter Jacqueline Stone of the Jade Forest pack," I turned him to the rest of the party before he could question Jac's femininity. " This is Maldeo Nielson, future Alpha of the Hvid Skoken pack and my sister, Thalia, her daughter Jade, and Jade's friend Fern."

"Fern, she is like you?"

I nodded and he "ah-ed" quietly. I had met Dante in Detroit what felt like a lifetime ago during my original pursuit of knowledge as to my father. If it weren't for him I would have died along the way long ago. Now here he is traveling Europe, cutting his little tour short just to help me with my Eve.

"Fern is a different story that I'm sure you can hear later. Right now we have to find Eve."

"Eve," he whispered, eyes blood red. Fern's eyes mirrored his, for fear or for tracking I do not know. Hybrid eyes do both. "Do you have anything of hers?"

I handed him one of her old tee shirts from her bedroom. The scent was faded from us using it to track her but it was still there enough for a vampire to use. It's useless to me now.

He took a deep sniff of the shirt but pulled back coughing.

"Tyler, do you know what this is? This is darkness."

I nodded.

He understood.

"Your daughter- she is the one from the prophecy?"

"We need to find her before she does something. You have to help us Dante, please."

He started to back away. In a panic I grabbed his wrist. My eyes changed as I begged him to stay.

"She's my baby girl. Please help me bring her home."

Fern stepped forward and looked him in the face. Her eyes still a rusty red as she did. I can't tell you what she did but she did something wonderful that made him stay then backed away and stood next to Jade, arm around my niece's waist and cheek on her shoulder.

He took another smell of the shirt then turned eastward and started walking. 

He would take us to my daughter.