CHAPTER FOUR || TOBIAS
“ S orry, there are no rooms available,” the woman behind the counter told me over an hour later, her voice cold. Her heavily made-up face was pinched tight and closed, her eyes filled with barely concealed hostility.
“You said that already. And I understand what you’re saying, but—”
“Do you?” She raised one manicured eyebrow at me, sizing me up. “You strike me as someone who might not take ‘no’ for an answer.”
I tried to pretend I hadn’t heard the unflattering—and entirely inaccurate—subtext there. I pasted on the biggest smile I could manage at that moment and tried again. “When do you think you’ll have another room?”
“Never.”
I blinked, gawking at her stupidly for a long moment, amazed at her rudeness. Had I done something to piss her off? How? I was one hundred percent certain I’d never seen this woman a day in my life.
Well, then.
I glanced at the woman’s name tag. It read ‘Liz.’ She stared at me in silence, her eyes narrowed in obvious dislike. Did this lady treat all of her customers this way? I strongly suspected that there were multiple rooms available at the motel; she just didn’t want to rent any of them to me.
I had about a dozen spells I could hit her with to make her give me a room. Or to at least compel the truth from her, so she’d tell me why she was giving me such a hard time.
But somehow, I already knew.
Bryan.
He was staying at this motel—a big part of the reason why I was so determined to get a room here as well. He must have said something to her about watching out for someone matching my description or maybe he had compelled her somehow.
I doubted the latter. Bryan was still messed up about what Giles had done to him. There’s no way he’d do something so similar to another person without a damn good reason.
Such as keeping me away from him.
I sighed, giving up.
It would be risky to try any spells on Liz without knowing exactly what Bryan had or hadn’t done to her. After all, I didn’t want to hurt her by mistake. Especially not if there was any chance that her behavior toward me was because she was ultimately trying to protect my mate.
“Okay, I got it,” I told her softly. “No rooms are available yet. I’ll check back in later.”
“Don’t bother,” she told me. “You ought to find a different motel. In a different town. Or, better yet, go back to where you came from.”
Scowling at her and shaking my head, I turned on my heel and walked off without replying. Well, I wasn’t willing to go to another motel—not with Bryan in danger. Which meant it looked like I was sleeping in my car tonight.
*
“Have you even slept?” Poppy demanded the following morning. She eyed my ghostly form, no doubt taking in my rumpled and wrinkled clothing and disheveled hair. Sleeping in the car hadn’t done me any favors. She heaved a sigh and added, “I sure as hell haven’t. Because you called me at one in the morning for information about a murder house in the middle of Podunk nowhere.”
“Miss you too,” I shot back, flashing her the sweetest smile I could manage. I paused, then added, “You know, you’re my favorite sister in the whole world.”
“Right.” She rolled her eyes at me. “I figured you weren’t using your powers to ghost-form all the way over here just so you could shoot the shit. What do you want now?”
I winced. “I need another favor.”
“Again? What am I, a saint?”
“I mean, kind of. If you were, you’d probably be the patron saint of virtue, patience, and—”
“Don’t you fucking finish that sentence, Tobias Hawthorne, or so help me, I’ll put my foot so far up your—”
“Vulgarity,” I finished brightly.
She sighed, shaking her head at me. “What kind of favor?”
“I need you to locate a woman. She and her daughter witnessed this ghost in action. I need to find her and learn what she saw in that house. And you know I suck at locator spells.”
She frowned at me. “You can’t just convince Bryan to maybe not randomly battle murderous ghosts for literally no reason?”
“It’s not for no reason,” I replied.
I used a bit more of my magic to solidify my form. Poppy’s location swam into focus. It was a rather nice apartment, decorated with a mix of expensive-looking ultra-modern furniture and antiques. Oddly enough, the mix wasn’t jarring. It actually seemed kind of cozy. The breathtaking view of the Puget Sound beyond the massive windows on one side of the room told me that she was somewhere high, probably in one of the skyscrapers in the heart of downtown Seattle.
Odd. My sister still lived at the coven’s stronghold. I wondered, for the first time, where she was.
Though I sucked at locating people with magic, because she was my twin sister, I never had any trouble finding her. Just focusing on her while out of body was always enough to bring me right to her.
Poppy caught me checking the place out and her cheeks went red. I raised my eyebrows, watching her look around the room wildly before she turned back to me, eyes wide with alarm. “Oh. Yeah. Right.” She let out a nervous laugh. “I’m, uh—well, I’m—”
That’s when Simone stepped around the corner that must’ve led to the kitchen. She was carrying two steaming mugs. Presumably filled with coffee. Or maybe tea.
Poppy looked like she wished the floor would open up and swallow her whole. She’d clearly stayed over at Simone’s place last night.
My twin sister’s vampire girlfriend barely batted an eyelash at seeing me standing there, only halfway corporeal, in the middle of what was apparently her living room. But then, Simone was a vampire with over a thousand years of life experience. She was probably pretty difficult to startle.
“Hello, Tobias.” She handed Poppy one of the steaming mugs. “Welcome. Please do make yourself comfortable in my personal space.” Her dark eyes danced with amusement, but her regal face was perfectly serene as she regarded me.
Standing side by side with my sister, the two women were quite the contrast. My twin sister was short and wiry, with skin so pale she practically glowed in the dark. Her heart-shaped face was wreathed in a long mane of wild bright red hair, and there was a perpetual scowl on her lips. Simone, on the other hand, was tall and willowy, with cheekbones for days and flawless dark skin. She’d cut her black hair very short since the last time we’d seen each other. It was a good look on her—very sleek and modern.
“I believe you were in the process of explaining to your sister why you have no other choice but to help your mate battle evil ghosts,” Simone prompted. “Given the fact that you are aware of your bonded status, I can only imagine how imperative it must feel to you to provide for his needs and his protection.”
“Right,” Poppy put in. “And I was in the process of telling him that he should convince Bryan not to battle evil ghosts for fun and profit.” Poppy shot Simone a scowl that still somehow managed to be affectionate. Only my sister could pull off an expression like that. She turned back to me. “Seriously, Toby. Just convince him to go talk to a therapist. And then take him to dinner and a movie, like a normal person would. Problem solved.”
“For the thousandth time, it’s not Toby.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “It’s never been Toby. Stop trying to make Toby happen.”
Simone shrugged, but her lips twitched, like she was fighting back a smile. “I rather think Toby suits you. And it pleases your sister, therefore it pleases me.” She punctuated that by giving Poppy a tender look.
My sister’s blush deepened and I watched in total amazement as her scowl melted into a soft, almost shy, smile.
Simone raised her eyebrows at my sister and added, “But darling, they are not a normal couple.”
Poppy rolled her eyes, still smiling, and I watched her cave. “Right. They’re all fated and destined or whatever.”
“Yes, precisely.”
“But we’re not fated?” Poppy cocked her head slightly at Simone. Her eyebrows drew together. She sounded more hesitant. “I mean, right?”
Simone shrugged, but her lips twitched again. “You’re aware of how this works. We might recognize each other immediately and we might not. We wouldn’t know for certain until we’ve exchanged blood.”
“And we’re taking this slow for right now.” Poppy’s scowl returned.
I bit my lip to keep from laughing out loud. Patience had never been her strong suit.
“Yes, that is exactly right,” Simone replied, too innocently. She took a sip of her coffee and from the way her eyes were twinkling with amusement, I was one hundred percent certain that it was mostly so she could hide her smile from my sister.
“Look, this is important to Bryan,” I said to Poppy. “And so, it’s important to me that he’s able to get this done. Without getting himself killed in the process. Will you help me?”
Poppy huffed. “Fine, you big sappy weirdo. Obviously I’m going to help you. I still think you ought to get him therapy instead, though.”
“Let’s focus on him living through this situation first.”
“Excuse me for being the fucking voice of reason. Anyway, whatever. I tried.” My sister shook her head again, clearly exasperated with me. “Text me the name and whatever else you know about this woman you want me to locate, and I’ll find out where she is. But I’ve got a training session with Ethan and the Witch Queen coming up in like twenty minutes and that takes priority. She’s trying to teach me the bilocation spell.”
“Oh, no shit?”
“Soon you won’t be the only one who can be in two places at the same time. Assuming I don’t blow myself to bits or end up with a shard of my soul trapped in some nether dimension.”
Simone’s expression darkened slightly at that, but she said nothing. Which meant that the possibility of something happening to Poppy alarmed her, but she wasn’t willing to stop my sister from being… well, my sister. But that was one of the very best parts about Simone, wasn’t it? She’d seen so much in her exceptionally long life that she’d probably learned to accept others radically and completely, in a way that most people would never be able to. And Poppy needed that, way more than she’d ever let on.
“I’d tell you good luck, but you don’t need it,” I said to my sister, realizing for the very first time how good Simone was for her. I was actually kind of happy for them both. More than kind of. I added, “You’ll be fine. Seriously.”
She would be, too. One of the drawbacks of being twins was that people often compared us side-by-side in terms of magical power and skill level. I knew that Poppy was hands-down the best spell caster in the entire coven, apart from the Witch Queen herself. She had yet to run across an enchantment she couldn’t weave. Which was a big part of the reason she and Ethan were training together, so they could split leadership of the coven when Tatiana decided to step down.
“Thanks. Anyway, I’ll call you in a couple hours, once that’s finished up and I have a chance to work the locator spell. All you have to do is keep Bryan out of trouble until then.”
“Right,” I replied.
But, of course, I knew that was going to be much easier said than done. Especially since he wanted nothing to do with me.