Distinctly Defiant

Chapter 14 ~ Missing

 Chapter 14 ~ Missing

“Having problems with the target?” Tobias asked. Everett flinched and turned towards his brother. “It was easy to see. Anyone not drunk you have noticed it from a mile away.” Judging by his easy smile it didn’t seem that he suspected something was really wrong.

“Speaking of Miles, where is he?” Everett inquired as he looked around.

Tobias shrugged. “He was making a fuss so I dropped him off back at the tavern.”

Everett rolled his eyes. “You don’t think he’s drunk enough already?”

“What’s it matter to me? In the end he’ll be the one paying for it with a massive headache the next morning.” Tobias didn’t look particularly concerned. “So did our interrupting you two mess everything up? I can’t imagine that her trust in you is as solid now?”

Everett scowled. “Well it certainly didn’t help the situation.”

Tobias chuckled. “Sorry about that. I tried to get him to continue on. But you know how he is once he’s drunk that much; it makes it hard to get him to listen to reason.”

Everett sighed but then a troubling thought occurred to him. “Where are the rest of the guys? They’re not around, are they?”

His brother shook his head. “That’s absurd. Griffin would never let that happen. You know as well as I how he gets when there’s a target. He’s probably back in the inn of a town further past this one plotting and trying to determine every possible outcome.”

“So what are you doing here then?” Everett asked. “It could have gone much worse when she realized I was related to you. She accused me of helping her only to get a reward later on. When I get back to the inn I’ll have to convince her more that that’s not what I’m doing.

“Not that far off,” Tobias laughed.

“Maybe not but she was already angry at me before she found out that I was lying to her. So you and Miles just made everything worse.”

Tobias frowned. “What’s going on?”

“Not important. I’m handing it.” He didn’t want to admit to his brother anything about what happened.

“Fine,” Tobias replied. “Since she’s annoyed with you and needs some time to cool off why don’t you spend some time with us? We can go join Miles at the tavern? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind the company.”

“Sure, I don’t see the harm in that.”

Tobias grinned and started walking in the direction of the tavern, which wasn’t very far away from where they had been. On the way he informed Everett of what had happened in the time since he’d seen them last.

“We did a few jobs, silver werewolves though,” Tobias stated.

His group typically aimed to get golden werewolves but since they were rare they sometimes had to make do with silver werewolves and sometimes they settled for normal coloured werewolves. There was no shortage of silver wolves, unlike golden but it was harder to encounter one since they stayed together in packs far away from human civilization.

“Where did you find them? Did you get the location of other silver werewolves from them?” Everett asked curiously. “I’m guessing you found this one somewhere near other humans? Do you know why that was?"

Tobias shook his head. “Sadly this was a lone wolf. He gave up pretty easily. No will to live, those ones.” Without the support of people who knew about their secret lone werewolves didn’t mind it as much as they died. Although they had encountered lone wolves where they chose to be alone and were determined to live. But they were not the norm.

His brother pushed open the door, revealing the darkly lit interior of the tavern. Near the bar, at a round, wooden table Miles was slumped in his chair with his face resting on the surface of the table. As they watched a man came up and steal Miles’ coin purse.

Tobias quickly went over. “You wanna return that? Before I make you?”

The old man didn’t look pleased that he was caught but tossed the bag on the table and left the tavern. Judging by the state of his tattered clothes he was a beggar and in opportune times branched out into thievery.

“People these days,” Everett chuckled as he sat down beside Miles and waved down the bartender another round of ale. Tobias sat on Miles’ right side and nudged him awake.

“What?” Miles groaned as he raised his head and stared at them confused. “What’s going on?” he mumbled looking around as if there was some task he was expected to be doing but he couldn’t remember.

“We thought you might want some company?” Tobias sighed. He patted his brother on the shoulder, embarrassed enough for the both of them.

Three mugs were set in front of them and Tobias got out some coins to pay for them. Miles regarded the mug apprehensively before making his decision and chugging the ale.

Tobias and Everett exchanged amused looks before starting to drink theirs, although much slower than their brother. Miles tiredly stretched, but only managed to lose his balance and fall off his stool.

His twin made no move to help, only sat by and watched as he finished his drink. When he had finished he smiled apologetically at Everett. He went to help Miles up.

“Sorry, but I have to take the burden back to the inn. Guess we’re staying here after all. There’s no way he’ll be able to ride a horse if he couldn’t even manage to stay on his stool.”

Everett gulped down the rest of his bitter ale and went to help carry some of Miles’ weight. Both of them threw one of their brother’s arms over their shoulders and helped walk-more like drag-Miles to the inn.

By now night had fallen and Tobias was yawning as he bought a room for him and his twin took the key from the innkeeper. Everett dropped his brothers at their room, which was just a few doors down from his and then went to his and Vivienne’s room and tried the door.

Locked. Everett frowned and went to the innkeeper for an extra key. He unlocked the room and entered only to see it was empty. His eyes went first to the perfectly made bed, no one had slept there recently.

The first thought that went through his mind was that Vivienne had abandoned him.  But then he saw that her things were still placed with his. She wouldn’t have left her bag if she had decided to leave without him.

That only meant one thing, that something was wrong.

Everett went over to his brothers’ room and knocked, impatiently waiting for Tobias to open the door. Tobias seemed irritated but grew concerned when he saw Everett’s expression.

“Something’s wrong,” Everett explained. “Vivienne’s missing.”

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Now i know that this is the shortest chapter i've ever wrote for this series but i couldn't help it. I just couldnt think of much more to add to this because it was more of a filler chapter. I apologose and i promise that the next chapter will be of normal length.