Chapter 276: Please, Please come back to us

Bad timing, really.

For whoever was standing there, hiding from her and thinking she hadn’t noticed them yet.

Theo stood up slowly, water running down her body. Her red hair clung to her face, and her eyes bore no expression. Then, she cracked her neck once and turned to the direction she believed they were hiding.

"You have two options," She said, lightening suddenly blaring down on her body to reveal an even darker expression now, with her claws and canines already extended, "Either you turn around and leave and I’ll pretend you were never here...or you come on out and I’ll make sure I rip out your heads,"

The leaves ruffled roughly, and now she could feel a murderous gaze on her face. Seems like she had pissed them off, which was good. Looks like they would choose the second option.

As they both stepped out in front of her, Seraphina was already snarling aggressively inside of her, begging to be let out so she could kill them herself.

Her wolf need not worry. They would all have their turn.

"I heard you both disappeared when the east fell. Abandoned the army. Cain would be so disappointed,"

"Cain is dead," Jarred growled.

His eye patch was gone, and what was left in place of his eye was a rather irritating sight of curled up flesh.

"Yeah, courtesy of his sons." She stepped forward, "You know...the two men you both helped him torture. "

"We were following orders," Rex said.

"You sure you were just following orders and a twisted part of you wasn’t happy dragging them down to that disgusting, eerie lab?"

"Shut up!!" Jarred growled again, his claws also extending.

"Alright then. I’ll shut up." Theo said, and took a step back as though she was surrendering, "But there is someone else who would definitely not shut up,"

Her bones cracked, clothes tore into shreds in an instant, skin transformed into thick white and silver fur and the next second, Seraphina was pouncing on both of them.

.

.

.

They searched the cottage first.

Every room. Every cupboard.

Every ridiculous corner Theo might have hidden herself in.

Zeke even checked behind the curtains, and Sylas watched him do it.

"She’s not behind the curtains." He said.

"Shut up."

"Zeke."

"I said shut up!" His voice echoed through the room, but then he immediately looked away, breathing hard, "Sorry." He muttered.

Sylas didn’t respond.

"I’m sorry." Zeke rubbed his face, "I just—" He couldn’t finish.

Sylas approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder while Zeke stared at the floor, "What if something terrible happened to her?"

The question was so quiet that Sylas almost wished he hadn’t heard it.

"What if that is why we cannot feel her?"

Sylas had no answer...again. He was a man who could calculate a thousand possible outcomes before most people finished asking a question. He could find a weakness in an enemy’s defenses, predict their next move, and destroy them before they realized he had been watching.

But he couldn’t find the woman he loved. He couldn’t even feel her. And every passing second made the terror inside him worse.

Sylas removed his hand from Zeke’s shoulder and turned toward the door, "Come."

"Where?"

"We search the surrounding area. I’ll use the shadows again. You follow her scent."

Zeke nodded immediately, and they stepped outside.

Sylas spread his shadows across the clearing. They rushed through the trees, along the stream, and into the surrounding forest.

Zeke shifted halfway, his senses sharpening as he searched for Theo’s scent. He soon found traces of her everywhere.

Her scent lingered near the cottage.

On the grass.

Along the path leading to the stream...but it ended near the trees.

"Here." He called.

Sylas appeared beside him, "What?"

"Her scent." He crouched, pressing his fingers against the ground, "She came this way."

Sylas sent his shadows ahead immediately, but they returned seconds later.

Nothing.

Zeke followed the scent deeper into the forest, but the goddamn rain was a fucking nuisance tonight. She was already proving hard enough to find for goodness sake.

It didn’t take long before the scent disappeared completely.

"No, no no," He yelled, and turned in a circle, searching desperately. "She was here. She was fucking here!" His voice cracked through the trees, "THEO!"

The forest swallowed his shout.

"HELLCAT!!"

Still nothing.

He slammed his fist against a tree, and the whole thing fell to the ground a second later. "Fuck!"

Sylas caught his wrist before he could strike the next tree, "Stop."

"Don’t tell me to stop!" Zeke jerked his hand away.

"You’re bleeding."

"I DON’T CARE!" The words tore out of him, and then he stared at his brother, his eyes burning. "I don’t care about my fucking hand, Sylas! I don’t care about anything except finding her!"

Sylas said nothing.

Then, Zeke’s voice tore, "She’s gone, and I can’t feel her, and I don’t know where she is, and I don’t know if she’s in trouble or she’s crying somewhere or if she’s hurt or if she’s—" Zeke pressed both hands against his face, "God, what if she thinks we don’t want her?"

Sylas’s expression changed. He hadn’t thought about it that way.

"The empty box..." Zeke cracked again, "What if the gifts triggered something and all those memories came back, and she remembered everything? Every time we failed her? What if she remembered dying and decided she doesn’t want to do this anymore?"

He looked at Sylas helplessly, "What if she doesn’t want us?"

Sylas grabbed the front of Zeke’s shirt aggressively, starting to pant and panic even more, "Listen to me."

Zeke stared at him.

"She is not going to disappear from our lives because she remembered the truth."

"How do you know?"

"I don’t."

The admission silenced them both.

"But I know her. And I know she loves us. And I refuse to believe that whatever she’s feeling right now means she doesn’t want us anymore."

"Then where is she?" Zeke’s lips trembled.

Sylas released him slowly, and then he shook his head.

Hours later, they had searched the forest, the stream, the road leading away from the cottage, and every nearby clearing. Even the distant ones. Sylas had started to call in favors from every side of the world, and no one dared to oppose him.

Zeke was beginning to lose his mind.

He could feel it happening.

Every minute without Theo made the fear worse, and the longer he went without feeling her through their bond, the more his imagination tortured him.

He pictured her crying alone.

He pictured her collapsing somewhere.

He pictured her being tortured by someone or something.

Then, he pictured her looking at them and seeing strangers again.

And the worst thought of all...he pictured her never coming back.

Zeke walked over to his brother, and Sylas wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close.

Neither of them pretended to be fine.

They simply stood there, holding on to each other because the person they both wanted to hold wasn’t there.

"She’s coming back," Zeke whispered.

Sylas closed his eyes and whispered back, "She has to."

"She has to, Sylas." Zeke repeated.

By the time they returned to the cottage, night had fallen deep and Charlene was standing at the entrance, her face pale with worry.

The moment she saw them walking out of the forest, she hurried forward. "Did you find her?"

Neither man answered.

"Oh, my boys." Her eyes moved between their faces, and Zeke looked away while Sylas remained perfectly still.

Charlene reached for them both, taking their hands in hers. "Come inside." She said

"We need to keep looking," Zeke muttered.

"You’ve been looking for hours."

"I don’t care."

"Zeke."

"What if she’s out there alone? What if she’s hurt?"

"I know, sweetheart."

"What if she—" His voice broke again, and Charlene pulled him into her arms.

Zeke resisted for barely a second before he folded against her, burying his face in her shoulder. "I’m scared," he whispered.

Charlene closed her eyes, and cooed, "Oh, my boy."

"I’m so fucking scared."

She held him tighter, gently patting his back.

Sylas stood beside them, staring into the darkness beyond the cottage.

He couldn’t bring himself to go inside. Because inside, everything reminded him of her now. If he looked around, he would see her, and he couldn’t bear it.

Charlene reached for him too, "Zevon." She whispered.

He looked at her, and the older woman’s heart shattered when she saw the lost expression on his face.

"She won’t let me find her." His voice was quiet. The terrified, worried, lost kind, "I can’t reach her."

Charlene’s eyes filled with tears, and she pulled him close, wrapping her arms around both brothers. Charlene held them both while the night stretched on around them.

Sylas tried their bond one more time. *Venom.*

Nothing.

*Please.* He swallowed. He wasn’t even sure whether he had meant to send it through their bond or whether it was simply a prayer he had no right to make. *Please, sweetheart. Just let me know you’re alive.*

Nothing.

Sylas bowed his head.

And for the first time since Theo had returned to them, he wished he could take back every second of the life he had fought so hard to get back.

He had finally gotten to hold her again.

He had heard her laugh.

He had watched her smile at him.

He had felt her warmth against his skin.

And now he was terrified that he had only been given those moments so the universe could take her away again.

No, he wouldn’t let it happen. Not again.

"I have to keep searching," He whispered, pulling away from the hug a bit. Zeke also followed, "Yeah,"

Meanwhile, Charlene was standing frozen, staring into the distant darkness. Her lips parted a bit, and her eyes sparkled with deep relief, "You don’t have to do that anymore," She whispered.

The boys turned around quickly, hearts leaping several feet into the air with their breaths snatched from their lungs completely.

Theo.

She was here.

Walking out of the forest.