Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

“ T he vampire has your daughter?” I asked.

Cassia pulled off her glasses and sat back. The circles under her eyes were dark, and her shoulders slumped. “She’s been gone for two days. We’ve…we’ve tried many things to find her. Now, with the blessings of the Moon Rabbit, we will bring her home. We still have time.” That last was said in a whisper.

“And you think she’s only been bitten once?” Lula asked.

“Yes,” Variance said.

Lu’s judgmental silence told me just how much she believed that.

“We can heal her and nullify the vampire bite,” Cassia said. “But we’ll need Dominick’s blood.”

“Magical healing, for vampire bites. Why haven’t I heard of that?” Lu said, locked in a staring contest with Variance.

“You aren’t a part of the coven,” he replied.

“What about Variance?” Abbi said. “Shouldn’t Variance get healed too?”

He jerked and his eyes flooded deep red again.

“No,” Lula said. “He’s beyond magical healing. Even with Dominick’s blood. Aren’t you?”

“They held me for three months,” he said in an implacable tone. “There is no return for me.”

“You want us to get his blood,” Lula said.

“I want him dead.”

“We want Rhianna home,” Cassia cut in. “No one kills him until we have her back. You understand that, Variance. That is the only way to save your daughter. We bring Rhianna home and heal her. That is how you save her. That is what matters.”

He didn’t respond, still caught in the staring contest.

“What is our part in this?” I asked. “What is our payment?”

“You help us get Rhianna home,” Cassia said. “You help us get Dominick’s blood. We know who has the spellbook of the gods. We know who has hidden it.”

It wasn’t that easy. Nothing about that damn book was this easy.

“That is our offer,” she said. “We can tell you where the book is and how to retrieve it. In exchange, you will help us save our child.”

Easy enough terms for me to agree to. Hell, I’d rescue the girl even if we weren’t being paid. But Lula? Lula had been restless lately. Making deals without me. Pulling away and following her own compass.

It bothered me. No, it scared the crap out of me.

If Lula couldn’t see the human side of this, if the need for revenge caught her by the throat, and she followed the urge to kill Dominick, or hell, Variance—there would be no reasoning with her, no bargaining.

There would be nothing I could do to stop her.

Lu hadn’t immediately gone on the attack, hadn’t drawn a weapon on Variance.

She was still talking, which meant she could rein in the urge to kill. That was something.

“The full moon is tomorrow,” Cassia said. “We will need your answer by then. If you cannot agree to our terms, then we will do this without you.”

There was a shift in the air. Nothing I could put my thumb on, but I knew every witch in the bar was ready to call upon magic to protect, fight, or run.

We were in their territory. No matter how welcoming they had been, this was not our place of power.

“Your terms are…difficult,” Lula said.

“I agree,” Variance said.

“Good,” Cassia said.

“I agree that the terms are difficult,” Variance clarified.

That got a slash of a smile out of Lula. She relaxed. Not completely, but enough.

“You may not think killing Dominick is our goal,” he said, “but it is very much my goal, Mother.”

Cassia shook her head. “First, the child. First, the child comes home.”

He didn’t reply. Cassia pushed her chair back and stood. “Contact us. Before the full moon. If you want a room—”

“We don’t,” Lula said. “We’ll let you know.”

She didn’t look at me, didn’t have to. If Lula said we were done, we were done. I stood and snapped my fingers for Lorde. She chomped on the bone, pushed up, and walked over to us.

Lula and Lorde crossed the room and were out the door. I followed a little more slowly behind them, and was halfway to the door before I realized Abbi wasn’t following us.

I turned. “Abbi?”

She was still sitting at the table. She waved at me. “Bye, Brogan. I’m staying with the witches.”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “You’re coming with us.”

She gave me a frank look.

“No,” she said. “I am staying here. I agreed to the terms already. I can help Rhianna. I’m going to do that no matter what anyone says. I’m powerful. With the full moon, I’m even more powerful. Bright like the sun.”

I hesitated. Abbi was a deity. The witches loved her and practically fell over themselves to please her.

She had Hado to keep her safe or to come get us so we could keep her safe. But I still felt like I was leaving a child behind in a dangerous place.

Her eyes were moonlight silver and the power in them was ancient. “ Go ,” I heard her say in my mind. “ Lula needs you .”

I shook my head, but did as Abbi asked, following Lula into the night.

The air was heavy with stale heat that hadn’t moved since June. I scanned the parking lot but didn’t see Lu or Lorde. They might already be in the truck.

She could be gone, making deals with monsters, with hunters. Killing a vampire.

I strode past cars, trucks, and a trio of Vespas, the lights from the sodium lamps antiquing each vehicle with shades of sepia.

Lorde sat next to the truck, the blackness of her fur, eyes, nose making her almost invisible. The bone in her mouth caught the light. She wagged her tail as I came close enough to scratch behind her ears.

“Good girl. Where’s Lula?”

Lorde whined, wanting in the truck so she could get back to chewing on her treat. She turned a dainty circle, inviting me to open the door for her.

We’d left the windows down, so I reached in and unlocked the door. “You seen Lula, girl?”

Lorde made a happy groaning sound and settled onto the seat. I gave her another ear scratch, then leaned back and patted the doorframe.

Options: Sit in the passenger’s seat and hope Lula showed up, or get in the driver’s seat and go look for her?

I didn’t like driving, liked it even less at night. The broken wrist wasn’t going to make it any more pleasant. But sitting in the shadows twiddling my thumbs wouldn’t solve anything either.

So, driving it was.

I walked around the truck, checking the bed—no Lula—then opened the driver’s door, feeling that uncanny tingle of someone watching me.

Light from the cab’s overhead splashed a cleaner yellow into the night. If I hadn’t been an obvious target before, I certainly was one now.

I hauled up into the driver’s seat.

We kept a spare key on a magnet under the console, so I dug that out and put it in the ignition.

“Where are you, love?” I didn’t expect her to hear me. With her speed, she could be a mile away by now.

I flicked on the headlights, and thought I heard a stirring in the branches of the tree, like a large bird or animal moving swiftly.

The passenger door flew open. I twisted, fist cocked.

“Hey, Brogan,” said Raven from the open door.

“No.”

“Yes. You and I need to talk.” He swung into the cab, shut the door, then cooed at Lorde. “Who’s this pretty girl? Aren’t you a beautiful fuzzy wuzz? Yes, you are.”

“What the hell are you doing here, in the witch’s territory?”

“Right now? Petting your dog.”

“Out.”

Raven dug around between him and Lorde, freeing the bone stuck there. “Lorde doesn’t want me to leave, do you, girl?”

Lorde tapped her tail and nosed at his shoulder. He gave her the bone and scrubbed her head, strong fingers tracking furrows through her thick fur.

“Raven,” I said, “out.”

“Or, you could start driving,” he said. “I know where Lula is.”

Trickster. He’d say anything to get what he wanted.

“I don’t believe you.”

“Where’s the trust?” He managed to sound offended. “I thought we were friends. Lorde and I are friends. Look, Lorde loves me.”

“She loves anyone who feeds her treats.”

“She doesn’t love everyone,” he said to Lorde. “Not even everyone who gives her treats.” He threw me a look. “If she thought I was a danger or a threat, you’d know it.”

“Says the trickster god. Out.”

“But I haven’t showed you where Lula is yet.”

“Too late.”

“Look, she’s right there.” He pointed past me. I couldn’t help it. I glanced out the side window.

Lula was striding our way from the edge of the parking lot, her gaze locked on me. From the set of her shoulders, she was aware the god was in the truck too.

She paused on the other side of my door. “Brogan. Raven.”

“I didn’t invite him,” I said.

“Perfect timing,” Raven said. “I need to show both of you something.”

“How about we say no? Again,” I said.

“Then you won’t have the information you need for making decisions about the witches, and the vampire, and the man who has the book.”

I closed my eyes and sighed. “This better not be bullshit, Raven.”

“Hurtful,” Raven said. “I’ll drive.”

“No!” Lu and I said simultaneously.

“I’ll drive,” Lu said.

She was a better driver than me. Plus, if she drove, I’d have a hand free to throttle the god if the chance arose.

I got out and traded places with Lu, trying to catch her hand as I stepped past her. But she was just out of my reach, already swinging up into the truck.

Raven had scooted over so he was in the center of the bench seat, and Lorde hopped down and curled into her familiar place in the footwell.

I got in.

It was a tight fit.

“Cozy,” Raven said.

“You could leave,” I said, yet again.

“Abbi’s fine, by the way,” he said. “The coven think she’s the best thing since the invention of the crock pot. She’ll be safe while we’re gone.”

“I didn’t ask about her,” I said.

He tipped his head. “Still. I’m watching her. She has my feather.”

I didn’t want that to make me feel better, but it did. “So, what’s so damn important we have to see it now?”

“Up the road,” he pointed in a generally northwest direction.

Lula shifted the truck into reverse. “How far?”

“A few miles. You’ll know when we get there.”

I hated the sound of that. But Lula didn’t even glance my way. She just put the truck in drive and followed the road.