“So she either tried to assassinate the old woman or knock her out of the mix,” Zoe supplied. “Now she’s either wounded and recuperating or being held captive.”
“Another reason for us to trade the book,” Aric mused. “She’s going to be really upset when she finds out the truth.”
Zoe nodded grimly. “I’m really looking forward to that.” She headed toward the door.
“Where are we going now?” I asked.
Zoe was already gone and I had to scramble to keep up with her. Instead of heading to Aric’s truck, I found her circling the building.
“What are you doing?”
Zoe flashed a small smile and kept going. “I want to see the bear.”
“Are you crazy?”
“It depends on who you ask.”
“That joke is lame. I—” I cringed and lowered my shoulders as a roar assailed my ears.
Zoe kept going, not stopping until she was directly in front of Barney, who looked positively rabid with rage. He stood on two legs and extended a paw in her direction.
“Zoe!” Aric came racing around the building, skidding to a stop when he saw Barney. “Good grief. She really does have a bear for a pet.”
“He’s awesome,” Zoe announced, holding out her hand.
Suspicious, Barney merely stared at her, and showed his teeth.
Zoe was never one to back down, and that didn’t look to be changing today. “Hi, boy.” She used a soothing tone, as if talking to a small child. I had to wonder if she ever sounded like that when trying to sooth Sami as a child. “How are you, big guy?”
The bear made a huffing sound but didn’t move.
“Okay, here’s the thing.” Zoe kept both hands up and sucked in a breath. “I need to know what happened here. I’m guessing you saw some of it. I want you to show me.”
I was officially dumbfounded. “You’re going to meld minds with the bear?”
“Do you have a better idea?” Zoe never looked away from the bristling animal. “I’m going to find her,” she promised. “Actually, I’m going to find all of them. I’m going to bring your mama back to you, you just have to trust me. Do you think you can do that?”
“Zoe, if that bear swipes at you and I have to shift and fight it, I really will never let you hear the end of it,” Aric warned in a low voice.
“He’s not going to hurt me,” Zoe assured her husband. “He’s just sad. I’m going to fix that for him.” Tentatively, she placed her hand on the bear’s shoulder. “It’s okay. Just give me a little peek.”
To my utter surprise, the bear didn’t put up a fight. Instead, he watched Zoe with wide-eyed wonder. The blue pulse of magic she unleashed surprised me.
“She’s healing him,” Aric said. “He must’ve been injured in the fight.”
“He was,” Zoe confirmed. There was an edge to her voice that wasn’t there before. “It was Emma and several vampires. None of the shifters were present. They caught Mama Moon by surprise. Apparently she was drinking.”
“She likes her bourbon,” Gunner agreed.
“She put up a good fight, took out two of the vampires, but there were two others who snuck up from behind.” Zoe was grim when she turned back to us. Barney had apparently decided he trusted her because he rubbed his head against hers to cajole her to stroke his huge forehead. “I hate dirty fighters, and those two vampires are dirty. I’m totally taking them out first. As for Mama Moon, she was alive when they dragged her out, but beat up a bit. She should be fine as long as we can find her.”
“Then we should get back to the Cauldron,” said Aric. “We’ll pick up breakfast for everybody along the way. We need to iron out our plan and get some fuel.”
“What about Sami?” Zoe momentarily looked forlorn. “I was kind of hoping she would realize her mistake and come back by now.”
Aric crossed to her, giving the bear a sidelong glance before sliding a strand of her hair behind her ear. “You know how we joke that Sami gets all her bad personality traits from you?”
Zoe balked. “I wouldn’t say all.”
“All.” He smirked and moved his thumb to her cheek to swipe at some dirt. “She gets this part of her personality from you, too. She’s not going to give up until she saves Rafael. She’s strong enough that she can hide from us. All those stupid games we played with her as a kid, training her, well now they’re coming back to bite us.” He kissed Zoe’s cheek. “She’s okay. You would know if she was in real trouble. You always ride to the rescue in the nick of time. This won’t be any different. You just need to hold it together for a few more hours.”
Zoe didn’t look as if she thought that was something she could stomach. “I’m still going to kill her when we find her.”
“I’m going to help.”
She slipped into his arms, barely paying attention to the bear as he moved behind her to involve himself in the hug.
“We’re not taking that bear home,” Aric warned. “I don’t care how attached he gets to you.”
That nudged a chuckle out of Zoe. “He just wants Mama Moon. He’ll forget all about me when we get her back.”
“I hope so.”
“I know so.” Zoe pulled back and forced a smile. “Let’s get breakfast and start planning. We might not have Mama Moon, but that doesn’t mean she can’t be part of the fight once we’re all together.”
Aric was instantly suspicious. “Do I even want to know what you’re planning?”
“Let’s find out.”
Twenty-Seven
The gang was all gathered and going through weapons when we landed
