39. CATALINA

THIRTY-NINE

catalina

I tapped my fingertips against the sofa cushion. They were taking forever to get back. Asher and Tobias headed out to fetch more blood—whatever that entailed. According to what Asher had said, they were going through them too quickly. As for Ren, I had no idea where he was, and I didn’t ask questions about him. Jax was absent, as he’d recently been.

I’d been waiting in their living room for almost an hour now, and the curiosity was close to driving me insane. I’d talked myself out of marching upstairs more than a few times, but incessant questions kept rounding my thoughts: Once I told them . . . what if they didn’t tell me what it was Calliope wanted? Or why it was important enough for her to threaten me?

It wasn’t like I’d give Calliope anything anyway. I wasn’t going to betray them; I just wanted answers . . .

I was already on my feet and climbing up to the second floor. I shouldn’t do this, but if I didn’t look myself, I doubted they would share everything.

Licking my lips, I shoved open Jax’s door. If he caught me, he’d be so angry, so I needed to search quickly. Once they all got back, I would tell them everything she’d said when she cornered me.

I stepped into the bedroom and flipped the switch. Jax’s room was down the hall on the second floor. I’d thought Tobias’s bedroom was bland, but he had nothing on Jax. The comforter was an onyx color and he had exactly one pillow on it. Oh, and it was about half the size of Asher’s.

There was a dresser on the farthest side of the room and... that was it. Even so, I quickly swept over the room and even peeked in the bathroom to check if there was anything, but no. Jax was either minimalistic or had some other secret space where he put everything. He didn’t even have a closet or wardrobe like Asher.

After turning off the light switch, I peeked out the door. Clear. The door snicked shut and I made my way to Tobias’s room. My steps padded down the hall and I was again engulfed in Tobias’s comforting sweet scent. The light was already on, so I quietly closed the door. My eyes stuttered over the vase on top of the long dresser I’d grabbed a shirt from.

I hadn’t noticed it before, but I guess I was too busy looking for a shirt to bother looking up. Then once I’d gotten the clothing, I’d been staring at the picture of the woman in his dresser.

I neared the dresser it rested on. It seemed harmless. The black surface reflected the light. I leaned close to study the lid covering the top. Just as Calliope described, there were little engravings that looked like thorns, but the lighting was too low for me to get a good look.

I reached for it and hugged it to my chest. It kind of looked like an urn... but that didn’t make sense. I reached down and tugged at the knob, but it didn’t budge.

I better stop less I free some sort of curse or something. I wasn’t even sure if curses existed, but I wouldn’t be surprised, considering vampires did.

The back of my shirt was suddenly bunched and I was jerked back. I stumbled and fell to my knees. A painful sting radiated up my legs, but I worked to keep hold of the vase thing. I tugged against the hold and my shirt rode up farther.

“What are you doing with that?” Jax hissed.