15. Fifteen
FIFTEEN
Ofelia couldn’t bank her rage. Given the fact that banshees were looking for people with internal volcanoes of fury, she hoped she could work it to her advantage.
Once leaving the paranormal division, she drove straight to Pascal’s store.
He had designated parking for himself even though he didn’t have a vehicle, so Ofelia took that spot.
Then she let herself in through the back door.
For a change, Pascal was not sitting on his throne.
He was on his feet waiting for her. “What happened?” He knew Ofelia better than almost anybody, and he’d been feeling her distress for almost two hours at this point.
Since it was daylight, and he had no idea where she was, he couldn’t go to her. “What’s wrong?”
Ofelia thought she would vomit the information out on him in a big ball of lava. Instead, she burst into tears.
Pascal pulled her to him, held tight, and rubbed his hands over her back to soothe her. When she’d cried for almost five minutes straight, unable to get the story out, he moved her to the chair and poured her a glass of tea. Then he hunkered down in front of her.
“I cannot help unless you tell me what’s going on,” he said. “Is it Angelique? Has she turned?”
“Not yet, but we only have a few hours left there.” Ofelia’s lower lip quivered, but she forced herself to calm down. She couldn’t save Sully or Angelique if she didn’t get it together. “Zach is gone.”
Pascal blinked. He didn’t have to. He’d trained himself throughout the centuries so people wouldn’t be too suspicious of him. Now it was second nature. “Are you telling me Sully is dead?”
“No. Well, I guess maybe he’s dead. I don’t think so, though.”
“You need to tell me the whole story.” Pascal was adamant. “Do it now.”
It was his commanding tone that had Ofelia snapping back to reality.
Taking a page out of Sully’s book, how he handled situations like this when emotions got out of hand, she told Pascal everything.
Her voice cracked a few times, but otherwise she held it together.
When she was finished, she raised her expectant eyes to him. “We have to find him.”
“We’ll find him.” Pascal offered up a kind smile as he sat on his throne. His expression told Ofelia he was already working things out. “How much do you think Biff knows?”
Ofelia shrugged. “Enough that he’s a big, fat, lying liar.”
“Yes, that goes without saying. There’s no chance he’s not aware of the family lore.” The vampire tapped his long fingers on the arm of the chair. “We need the book.”
“Oh, right.” Ofelia jumped to her feet. “It’s in the truck. I’ll be right back.” She darted out before Pascal could tell her it wasn’t a race.
He watched her go, his stomach twisting.
He had loved Ofelia from the first moment he saw her, when she was a child sneaking books into the storeroom of Krewe, where she would proceed to read them on a garish purple beanbag.
She’d been inquisitive from a young age, and even though Pascal knew she hadn’t been able to identify him as a vampire until she was a little older, she’d been curious.
He’d fought the raging waters of Hurricane Katrina to get Ofelia and Oscar to safety.
When she was a teenager, she would come to his store and complain about her parents.
When Oscar was cycling, he’d let her hang around the store for hours. Then, at night, he would hunt down Oscar and try to get him back on track. Sometimes that worked, and sometimes it didn’t. No matter what, he always made sure Ofelia was safe during those incidents.
When she’d started dating Sully, he wasn’t sure the shifter was good enough for her.
He’d known Sully through his work with the police department.
As a creature of the night, he’d been taught to disdain law enforcement.
Despite that, Sully had a good reputation.
So did his boss. More than that, he clearly loved Ofelia with his whole heart.
Pascal knew the most important thing was that Sully was not only willing to die for Ofelia but also kill for her. He never believed in soulmates before watching Ofelia and Sully fall deeply in love. Now he knew that it was true, that they were the real deal.
He would not let a banshee, no matter how different, ruin their love story.
He accepted the book when Ofelia handed it to him, then ordered her to sit down and calm herself.
“You can’t get through that whole book,” Ofelia complained. “We don’t have time.”
Pascal shushed her and started scanning pages. Vampires could do everything faster than humans, including reading. Luckily, because of his age, he was fluent in multiple languages, including Creole.
“It says here that the original author approached the wailing woman and asked to be turned,” he said after a few minutes. “She thought it would be a great way to escape her lot in life.”
“You can say she was a slave,” Ofelia said dryly. “It’s not a dirty word. She was a slave, and she wanted a way out. Nobody blames her for that.”
“Yes, but she could have killed herself if it came to it, and she didn’t want to take that way out,” Pascal noted.
“She wanted power. She and the banshee struck an agreement, and then the banshee turned her. It wasn’t a surprise to either of them that this woman — I can’t read her name — wasn’t lost to the screams but somehow managed to control them. ”
“I can’t read the name either,” Ofelia said. “Do you think that’s important?”
Pascal shrugged. “Probably not, but information is power in situations like this.”
“Yeah.” Ofelia scratched her cheek. “Power.” She shifted on her chair. “Am I going to have enough power to take out all of those banshees?”
“First, we don’t know that they’re working together.”
Ofelia offered up an exaggerated eye roll.
He smirked. She was coming back to herself. That was a good thing. She needed to break down so she could put herself back together and come back stronger than ever.
“Second, you will not be alone.” He picked up his phone, glanced at the antique clock in the corner of the room, and then started texting. “Banshees are no match for vampires.”
“Really?” Ofelia looked hopeful. “How many of them do you think you can take?”
“It won’t be just me either.” Pascal leveled his gaze on her. “I have friends. They’ll be coming with me.” He hesitated, then continued. “You need to contact Zeke and Madeline.”
Ofelia immediately balked. “Why would I do that?”
“I suppose mentioning that Sully is their son isn’t enough in your book.”
“Not even a little.”
“I figured.” He was grim. “There are a lot of people — a lot of shifters — in this town for your wedding. You said yourself that Sully had no problem taking out the banshee at the party.”
“Oh.” Ofelia took a moment to consider it. “I hadn’t even gotten that far, but you’re right. We have an army.”
“We most certainly do.” Pascal bobbed his head in approval. “The banshees are no match for us. I believe that’s why this Shirley woman took Sully. She’s going to try to use him as leverage against you.”
Ofelia allowed that to sink in. She felt better knowing that the only smart plan would be to keep Sully alive. “What do you think her end goal is here?”
“I have no idea.” Pascal’s forehead creased in concentration as he went back to reading the book.
“Nothing that has happened is smart. If those younger banshees are her soldiers — and that’s the only thing that makes sense to me — why would she send them to a paranormal party where they were woefully outnumbered? ”
“Is it possible she didn’t know that they would be outnumbered?”
Pascal lifted one shoulder. “I’m not certain. Anything is possible, I guess. The only way I can see that working is if they didn’t know about the panthers.”
“Well, I mean, it’s not as if Zach advertises what he is.”
“No, but Shirley is the one organizing all of this, correct? She would have the information from her son.”
That was the other part that Ofelia couldn’t wrap her head around. “What is his part in all of this?”
“I don’t know.” Pascal lowered the book. “You’ve never liked him.”
“I’ve always hated him,” she readily agreed.
“You’ve always questioned his place on the team. Do you think Jack knew that he was from a banshee family?”
Ofelia thought back to Jack’s reaction. “No.” She shook her head. “There’s no way. He looked betrayed.”
“So, Biff was hiding it from him and acting like a normal individual investigating the paranormal world.”
Ofelia waited for him to continue. He clearly wasn’t done.
“Is it possible that Biff hid his origins and made it appear he was smarter than he really is?” Pascal asked finally. “Perhaps Biff made it look as if he was invaluable to the team, and that’s why Jack never questioned him.”
“Honestly? I don’t care about Biff. I’m going to make him pay if he knew what his mother was up to, but I don’t care otherwise.”
“You’re suggesting that Biff was protecting his mother simply because she was his mother and he had no idea what she was up to,” Pascal pressed. “Am I correct?”
Ofelia opened her mouth; it was on the tip of her tongue to agree with him, but she couldn’t actually say the words. “No. That’s not right.”
Pascal’s smirk told her she’d said the exact right thing.
“You already knew that, though,” she surmised.
“I believe I have it figured out,” he said. “I want you to get there yourself, though. We still have two hours to burn until it’s dark. That’s when we’ll be heading out.”
“How are we going to find him?”
“You’re a witch, and we’re going to have a bunch of shifters and vampires searching for him. We’re talking beings with superior scenting abilities. That will not be a problem.”
“Oh.” Ofelia slapped her forehead. “I’m really slow on this one.”
“You’ve been overwhelmed,” he replied evenly. “The puzzle pieces are about to slip into place for you. First, how do you think Shirley took Sully when you were so close?”
“The mirror,” Ofelia replied, not missing a beat. “It’s a portal. She built it as an escape route.”
“Is it a one-way portal?”