Chapter 6

Bramble's eyes narrowed. "Do you believe that Bree could be turned like that? That she could become a dark entity? Even on a temporary basis?"

Kinkly shook her head immediately, her wings flicking off deep orange dust. "No, I don't. Her heart is too big."

I agreed with Kinkly, though I kept my mouth shut. Something about the whole meeting with Bramble was setting off soft alarm bells in my head. Distant, but there.

"Neither do I," Bramble said. "But Evangeline doesn't know that."

"It keeps coming back to Evangeline. What do we know about that woman?" I asked. The fear that was buried within the tale was that perhaps Evangeline wasn't bad but becoming a vampire had made her so. But like Kinkly, I believed in Bree. She had a heart of gold, her soul was too bright, and I believed with every fiber of my being that nothing could turn her dark. Not even becoming a vampire.

Bramble nodded. "Yes. I agree. We need to find out if there is more to her story."

"Robert took us to his wife's grave," Sarge said.

Shit. I did not want Bramble knowing more than we had already given her. Call it a hunch, but she was not giving us all her secrets either. "But there was nothing there."

Sarge dropped his eyes and sighed. "Yeah. Hoped that Robert had something but nope."

At least he went along with me on the lie.

Bramble looked around the room, "Robert. I—we—need you whole. It won't last, but we need to know what you can tell us about your wife."

"Robert is gone," I said. "He disappeared at the graveyard."

Bramble flicked her wand. "Well, it is a good thing that Bree had his old journal."

A book appeared in the air—the Book of Curses and Black Spells of Savannah—and rolled over and over before us, floating to a stop in front of Bramble.

"That's not Robert's journal," Penny and Celia said at the same time. Penny motioned for Celia to speak, and she stepped forward. "That's a book of spells, curses, the darkest…"

"Hidden that way," Bramble said. "I overheard Louis speaking about it. Evangeline told him that Robert had kept a journal, hidden, and in it, Evangeline had hidden the spell. Here." She tapped her wand against the book, and the outer cover sloughed off like dead skin. Underneath was a plain brown journal. Still floating the book in the air, Bramble flipped through the pages.

"Here. Crash, you read it, or someone will accuse me of reading it incorrectly."

More than a few grumbles rumbled through the room, I wasn't sure if in agreement or denial. But I held my hand out and took the book. Anything to help Bree.

Anything.

I began to read.

"Evangeline and I have arrived at the docks of Savannah. After our last case in Salem—truly, casting out the spirits of three demons from young women was taxing beyond measure—I am hopeful that the warmer temperatures and more pleasant climate will be a boon to my Eva. With the amount of money that we are being offered, I think we can finally take the time to start a family. I believe this could be our last job fending off the darkness of the world."

I paused and everyone motioned for me to go on. "That entry is dated a day before the yellow fever plague—the first attempt at the spell—broke out in Savannah. There is nothing after that."

"Go to the beginning," Penny said. "The start is what we have to understand, if we are to understand Evangeline."

They were right. I flipped back to the beginning. "It's dated one year exactly before the final entry."

"Fitting." Celia nodded. "Go on."

Robert's words bit into me as I read them out loud. "I have met the woman I am going to marry today. I was chasing down a rogue spirit, and it led me into the abandoned Church of Holy Trinity. I heard screams from the graveyard and found a single hand reaching out of a fresh grave. I grasped it and pulled a woman from a sure death. Her name is Evangeline…"

I looked up. "No last name?"

"None," Bramble said. "Keep reading. The picture will become clearer."

I had a feeling I wasn't going to like what she was getting at. "Evangeline has reluctantly agreed to help me with my next case. I believe she is a sentinel like me. Her connection to the dead is uncanny, and her ability to speak with spirits very strong. As much as I wish I could say I am not falling in love with her, that is not the case. She has captivated me."

The next entry was dated less than a month later. "Evangeline has agreed to marry me, and I am overjoyed! We wed tomorrow."

"That seems quick," Sarge rumbled. "Even for back then."

Another few pages ahead… "We are headed off to take our first case as a married couple. Evangeline is feeling a pull to a town called Savannah, and we have an offer for work there. We are considering it."

More pages. "Another offer from Savannah. The money continues to be increased. I feel…uneasy about it. But Evangeline insists this is the right move."

I skimmed much of the journal and then handed it to Penny, who did the same. "They hunted down demons, wayward ghosts that couldn't pass over, anything dark that needed dealing with. They were some of the first sentinels. Prior to that time period, there was no name or calling per se. Just individuals who tried to fight to keep the dark at bay."

Celia peered over her friend's shoulder. "They came to Savannah at the request of Roderick's brother, Joseph, whom you've all met and is now mercifully dead."

Bramble nodded. "That's someone else who can help us. Roderick."

"We've already…" I said.

"But you are not me." Bramble smiled and pulled a cell phone from her pocket.

A moment later, the phone was ringing. Roderick picked up, and his voice rolled through the line. "Hello?"

"Roderick," Bramble all but purred.

"I don't know where they took her," he said quickly. "I've already told you everything I know, which is not much. Evangeline…ensnared me, and I had no choice but to help her."

Bramble floated the phone to the middle of the room, amplifying the speaker so we could all hear him clearly.

"I believe you. But there is something else. Fill us in on what happened when Robert and Evangeline came to Savannah all those years ago, or I will blow a hole in your roof and let the sun bake you to a crisp."

Well, that was one way to ensure someone helped you. Though I wondered if he would be honest with her? Would he tell me more when I connected with him later? I did not know how well he could lie.

Roderick was quiet for a beat. "Us?"

"We are looking for Bree," I said. "All of us."

Roderick sighed. "Then you and whoever you have with you will all die."

"Answer the question," Bramble said. "That roof of yours is an easy break."

"Fine. I tried to send them away. I told them there was no need for their services. I was still willing to pay them their fee, for the trouble in coming all that way. I…don't know if they knew what my brother was truly up to. I myself was not entirely sure, but was in my own way doing what I could to stop it. They arrived just a day before the yellow-fever plague broke out. Of course, it was no yellow fever, as you all know. It was the first wave of vampires that Joseph tried to raise. The first time the spell was used. With incredible intent, I might add."

"Was he successful?" Suzy asked from the safety of where she sat in the curve of Eric's arm. "Because many, many people died during that time period. My mother was alive then. She said it was awful, dead bodies floating down the river and out to the ocean…it was a common occurrence."

Roderick sighed before he answered. "Yes and no. He was able to raise some vampires, but they were mindless. More like zombies that had a taste for flesh than vampires. Joseph wanted minions who could think. He wanted more vampires like himself. That was not what he got."

Eric cleared his throat. "But why not just make vampires then? Why this spell if it doesn't do what they wanted in the first place?"

Roderick answered him. "Because making a vampire is no small thing. It takes time, patience, years of blood exchanges, and even then…there's a ninety percent chance that you wouldn't survive. Joseph didn't want to wait. It is what keeps us from overrunning the world. He didn't want to take the chance that all that time and effort would not work out in the end."

Bramble nodded, her eyes thoughtful. "Correct. Some humans are more prone to becoming vampires because they already have a connection to the spirit world, or the dead. I believe that is why Evangeline was able to be turned so quickly. Because of her work in the shadows and her experience of being sucked into a grave."

"I would agree with that connection," Roderick said. "We are always drawn to those who are closest to that point of crossing over. It can make the turn…very quick."

Kinkly gasped. "Like Bree. Bree could be turned into a vampire easier than most, couldn't she?"

Roderick's voice was sad. "Yes, like Bree. Evangeline was dragged into hell once through the grave, and Robert pulled her out. Not quite the same as you, Crash, but close. He pulled her from a portal in the grave. So, her soul had the smell of death on it already—a taint, if you will. Not to mention all the work they'd done together after that. She'd been bitten once by a vampire, before she met Robert, but nothing came of it. Yet it was an opening to her blood and soul."

I thought back to the moment Joseph had bitten Bree at the old fort. The parallels between Bree and Evangeline's stories were uncanny. But I had to believe that if, and it was a large if, Bree was turned into a vampire, her heart would prevail. That she would not fall to the darkness the way Evangeline had.

Penny's cane shook, thumping the floor lightly. "I could use some whiskey after this story."

I suspected we all could, and more than a single shot.

"Go on," I said to Roderick. "What happened after they arrived in Savannah?"

"The shortest version is that Evangeline took ill shortly after their arrival here. I believe that Joseph slipped something into her tea, most likely some of his blood. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late."

"Joseph had a local witch help him cast the spell, and then he turned her into a vampire. And as a young vampire, she was incapable of throwing off her maker's control. She attacked her husband, Robert, and as he was bleeding out from his wounds, he staked her. They died together, at least that was what I understood. When I saw him last year, with Bree in the hotel, I was shocked. I knew who he was then. I assumed that he must have been cursed because Evangeline's blood had mingled with his. Now…I wonder if he was kept alive…in a sense…because he failed to kill her. As a sentinel, he was the one who should have stopped her."

Suzy sucked in a shuddering breath. "Gods, that is terrible. I feel so bad for Robert. That must have broken his heart and soul."

She might as well have not spoken, because Roderick just kept going with his story. "Back then, no one realized Robert wasn't fully dead. His friends who had come with him to face Joseph and try to save Evangeline buried him. There was nothing from him, all those years."

"He woke up when Bree first entered the Hollows and her magic touched on his grave," Sarge said quietly.

Roderick cleared his voice, though there was a slight tremor in it with his next question. "I don't know what else to tell you. Is that sufficient to keep you from blasting me?"

"How about letting us know why you think Evangeline is such an evil bitch now if she was such a good person before?" Eammon grumbled.

I winced. Eammon was not known for beating around the bush, but that was a bit much even for him. Roderick sighed. I could almost hear him shaking his head.

"I don't know. I didn't know her long. Truly, I'd only met her for a few minutes before she bound me to help her. As Bramble said, there is a fog that covers a vampire in the early days, but that lifts. If it lifted…why did Evangeline stay vicious? Did someone force her to be this way? I can't answer that."

"Not all vampires go bad," Bramble insisted. "Roderick here is a good example. He's actively fighting against the spell, even against his own brother when he could. There's another vampire I would trust. He does not wish for this spell to be spread around the world. But he is far away, and of no use to us here."

"Can I go now?" Roderick asked. "I am spent. Being controlled by another vampire is exhausting."

A moment of silence fell in the room. Would I become a monster if I was forced into vampirism? Would any of us? What would we do to save someone we loved? How far would I go?

I knew the answer about myself. I was already a monster. Even though I'd had little choice in the matter, I'd worked with the Dark Council. I'd done things I was not proud of. Hurt people I didn't want to.

Even killed at times.

"Did she have a family home?" Bramble asked, snapping me out of my self-reflection. "A place where she would always feel safe? Louis can give me nothing apparently. A place where she'd feel hidden from the world and from any searching for her?"

Roderick groaned. "I do not know, Bramble."

She snapped her fingers, and the phone clicked off and floated back to her. "Ever since I found out Evangeline was behind all of this, I've been looking into her. There were three places she loved more than any in the world. Her ancestral family home, which Robert briefly speaks about. The land that she and Robert planned to build on once they had completed their travels, and where they spent their honeymoon."

I looked around the room. "We could break into three teams. Check them all out at once."

Bramble glanced at me. "If we knew where they were."

Eammon grunted. "We have the name of the church where Robert first found her. That's a starting point."

"Keep the journal," Bramble said. "Perhaps I missed something."

Penny glared at her. "Anything else?"

"Remy. You need to be wary of him," Bramble said. "I am running out of time here. I must go soon, Louis is expecting me and I must keep up pretenses. But Remy will not hesitate to kill, not at this point in the game. And believe me when I say that both Evangeline and Remy are playing games, though I am not sure they are actively working toward the same goal." The frustration was evident in her voice and the pinching of her brows.

I held the journal a little tighter. "You seem to know an awful lot about Remy."

If I'd thought her brows were pinched before… "He is the father of my child. A decision I regret. But he does not remember, and it is for the best, both for her safety and mine. I share this with you, so you understand my…position."

"Holy shit," Corb breathed out from his corner of the room.

Celia gasped. "I have a great-grandchild?"

"Yes." Bramble closed her eyes and nodded, a single tear squeaking out. "I am fighting for a world that will be safe for her. Do you understand? I've left her somewhere safe, in hiding with someone I trust to protect her."

She opened her eyes, and there was again that feeling of pressure against my skin.

What she said cast Bramble's motives in a better light, and while I didn't fully trust her, I could see that she was being honest about wanting to help. Her child's life and future would depend on it.

"So how do we stop the spell once we find Bree?" Sarge asked.

Bramble tipped her head to the ceiling for a moment before looking around at each of us. "I need you to understand something. Penny is correct. There is no stopping the spell. It has been put into play. The ingredients are—nearly all—inside of Bree. Nearly."

She tapped her wand again, a nervous tick maybe, and the sparks flew through the air, landing on everyone.

Her words seemed to carry more weight and with difficulty, I reached for the demon blade and took a step back.

"She is spelling you all," Nancy whispered. "To believe what she's saying. Not saying she's lying, just…pushing."

"When she dies, whether it be by Evangeline's hand or a natural death fifty years from now, the spell will activate. Our only hope is that they believe they need me to be there, and that I can help," Bramble said.

If there'd been silence before, it was nothing compared to the fear-laced quiet that clung to the room.

"No," Celia whispered. "That cannot be. There must be a way to?—"

"Of all the people in this room, you and Penny understand spell work the best. There is no stopping a spell that has been invoked—you can change the intent, yes. But in essence, she is a cauldron with a half-mixed spell inside. And I can assure you that Evangeline understands this and has fully invoked the spell by now—she will have had Bree recite the spell to her, no doubt using some sort of leverage. Remy is the one factor I cannot predict. I don't know what he gains by helping Evangeline."

Anger and fear laced themselves around my heart. "And you won't stop him, because you love him still."

Her eyes flashed with a fire so reminiscent of Bree's that I held my breath to keep from gasping. "I would kill him myself, Fae King, but killing him will not stop the spell. We deal with it now, or we deal with it perhaps at a time when we don't know it's happening. No matter how we look at this, Bree will die. The best I can do is help her not be taken over."

I stood and my magic wrapped around me, the power of the fae of earth and storms, of fire and wind, of every element that I could take hold of. Everyone stepped back except for Bramble. "I will find her, and we will save her. Bree will not die."

There was no other option for me. Bree held a piece of my soul—she'd risked everything to bring me back from hell. And I would do anything to save her, no matter the cost. The world be damned, it was Bree I was fighting for.

Bramble's eyes darkened, and as her anger rose, a thunderstorm unleashed on the room, magic snapping between us. Wind swirled and danced, and my friends flattened themselves to the walls to get as far from us as they could.

But I refused to back down from the witch in front of me.

She lifted a hand, her wand crackling with magic, sparks flying about the room once more, settling on the others. Bouncing off my skin. "Fae King, I fight for Bree. I fight for my daughter. There can be no other answer but to try and control the spell to Bree's benefit. I believe…" Her face paled and the storm died as if it had never been. "I must go, Louis is looking for me, and he cannot find me here. I will be in touch."

She spun and left, not out the front door, but by striding across the room and leaping through the window. One moment she was there, and the next an orange tabby cat bounded across the lawn. A shapeshifter too? She was a powerful one, Bramble.

That was not what caught my eye though, I wished it was all I saw.

A young girl raced up the street, long dark ponytail bobbing, eyes wide and face tear-streaked—she was the one who held my attention. I ran to the door and flung it open as Charlotte reached for the knob. The sight of her fear seared into me. Tears streamed down her face and burn marks on the bottom edge of her dress smelled of fire and magic.

She grabbed at my hands. "He took them! I tried to stop him, but I couldn't!"

I caught her as she fell forward. "Are you injured? Where is your mother?"

"I'm not hurt, and my mom is at work. But he took them!" Charlotte sobbed into my shoulder. I shut the door with my foot, lifted her in my arms and brought her to the couch, where Penny wrapped her up in a blanket and held her tight. Smoothing her hair with her own shaking hands.

"Hush child, what happened? Go slow, you are safe here. You are safe."

Hiccupping back sobs, Charlotte spoke clearly, slowly. "The man, he came through the mirror! I…he tried to take me, but I used that spell you taught me, Penny. The one to deflect dark magic. I blasted him back and then I ran downstairs. But he followed me."

Penny gasped and clung more tightly to the little girl. "Well done, little witchling. Well done."

"No, it wasn't!" She wailed to the sky, as if her heart was breaking. "He took Bridgette! He took Feish! I couldn't stop him! I flung fire at him, and then I flung chairs, but he…he knocked me out through the window. I couldn't stop him, Penny, I tried so hard, but I couldn't stop him!"

Her sobs clutched at me—she'd fought a full-grown mage and held her own, surviving when he'd meant to take her. I dropped to my knees in front of her, already knowing the answer but needing to hear it confirmed. "Who was it who took them, Charlotte? Did you recognize him?"

Her eyes lifted to mine. "The pretty man with the accent."

Fucking Remy.

I stood. "I will go check it out. Celia, will you come with me?"

"I'll come too," Sarge said. "Maybe I can sniff something out."

"Yes," Celia said. "A good idea." Her eyes flicked to mine and away.

"What about us?" Eammon asked. "We can't be sitting here doing nothing!"

"You have the name of the church where Robert met Evangeline. See if you can find a starting point for us." What I didn't want to say was that I didn't think we'd find anything at Charlotte's house. Not if Remy had come and gone through a mirror.

I left Charlotte there with Penny and the others, knowing she would be safe at Haven House. Sarge and Celia followed me out the front door. I didn't need Celia with me, but I had more questions for her. Questions I wasn't sure anyone else would be ready to hear the answers too.

She easily matched my pace. "Ask. I can see it in your face."

Sarge glanced my way but stayed quiet.

"What are the chances that Evangeline can be stopped and Bree saved? You know magic and spells best; is what we are trying to do even possible? Or is Bramble right?"

Did Celia believe that Bree would have to die?

Celia's knowledge of the shadow world, her knowledge of magic and spells…all of that had me looking to her.

Celia stared straight ahead and then stopped. She turned to me. "Bramble was always smarter than anyone realized, Crash, brilliant even, and so very strong. I am afraid for Bree. All I can do now is hope that we will be able to find her in time. And that Bramble will indeed be able to bend the spell as she said. Or perhaps, perhaps even break it."

Sarge lifted his eyebrows. "I thought that wasn't possible."

Celia shot him a look. "I am beginning to believe that when it comes to Bree and perhaps even Bramble, the rules that we have always lived by don't quite apply. So, I hope…for both their sakes, that they can find a way to achieve the impossible."

Sarge grunted. "If Evangeline has been watching us all, then I'd lay money she will expect us to come after her. She knows we look out for each other. She will be expecting us."

My chest was squeezing hard, muscles tensing as if I were prepping for a fight. "What do you suggest?"

Celia grimaced; her hands clutched in her skirts. "I think we need Evangeline to believe you won't come for Bree. I think…that might lull her into a false sense of security. Perhaps she will make a mistake then."

"I agree," Sarge said. "It makes sense to do something unexpected."

My emotions ran hot and high, and I made myself walk forward instead of raging out loud that they were fools and obviously didn't love Bree. Because I knew that wasn't true. "We'll see if there are any clues at Charlotte's house."

I doubted there would be much to see, but I needed a few minutes to put the pieces together and come up with a plan of some sort.

Right now we had nothing, and while Roderick might have found out something he was unwilling to share with Bramble, my hope of finding Bree was dwindling. My last hail Mary was looking like it might be my only hope.

The Seer of the Fae.

"Right," Sarge said, interrupting my thoughts. "I'm sorry we don't have any better options, Crash. More than you can know. It sucks that Robert didn't finish the job and kill Evangeline all those years ago. Would have saved us a hell of a lot of trouble."

His words drove into me, pushing at me to look at what was happening in front of us. Because if my story with Bree was playing out as some sort of weird parallel with Robert and Evangeline's, I didn't like what Sarge was unintentionally implying.

Bree's death in the right way, might save us all.

And I might have to be the one to do it.