Chapter 21
Cass
Cass pressed the blood-soaked towels against her father’s wound, her panic and fear held in check by a thin layer of glass.
She could see it, knew it was there waiting to swallow her whole, but couldn’t feel it—she couldn’t feel anything.
Instead, her mind was strangely clear as she stared into her father’s battered face.
“What happened? Where’s Mom?”
He didn’t answer.
She listened for Grayson, who had disappeared into Sofia’s room. It remained disturbingly quiet. Under her hands, her father’s body gave a soft jerk followed by a faint groan.
A crack snaked through her protective emotional glass, leaking panic. “Dad? Can you hear me?”
His split lips moved, but no sound emerged. His hand rose and then slid off her arm.
She dared to lift one hand from the towels to catch it before it hit the floor. “Hold still. Help is on the way.”
Elias tugged against her grasp and turned his head.
Worried that her grip was hurting him, she set his hand down. “Stay still, Dad.”
“Cassandra?” he asked weakly, his body twitching.
“Yeah, Dad, I’m here.” The stain on the towels under her hands grew. Heart pounding, she pressed down hard. “I need you to hold still for me, okay?” His fitful movements continued. “Stay still.”
His one good eye fluttered then opened. It was bloodshot, but even more worrisome was how unfocused it appeared, as if he wasn’t aware of what was happening around him. His blurry gaze swept over her. “What’s going on?”
“You’ve been attacked.”
“Attacked?” Some of the haziness cleared from his face, and this time, when he went to grab her arm, he made contact, his fingers digging into her wrists. “Rhea? Sofia?”
“Sofie’s okay.” She prayed she wasn’t lying. “Mom’s not here.” Saying it out loud fractured the protective numbness, and her voice shook. “Can you tell me what happened?”
His eye fluttered closed, and she wondered if he’d lost consciousness, but then he started to speak.
“I was with Sofia. Needed another drink. Went to the kitchen. Got to the living room.” He grimaced and sucked in a breath as his fingers tightened, his eye opening again.
“This man popped in out of nowhere. Right in front of me. Hit me. I went down.” He let her go, and his hand drifted toward his head, where a raised knot was forming.
“We fought. Then”—his hand drifted to where she was holding the towels—“he stabbed me with something sharp.”
Reading his rising agitation, she pressed a little harder. “Don’t move, okay?” When he resettled, she asked, “Did you recognize him—the guy who attacked you?”
Elias closed his eye, his face haggard and shiny with sweat. “No.” His hand slid away from her arm and dropped to the floor.
Wanting to keep him conscious, Cass kept pushing. “And Mom? Where was she?”
“Office,” he murmured. “Call came in from Cole. Had to take it. Urgent.”
That was not a name she’d expected to hear. “Cole Burton?”
But her father didn’t answer.
The well of fear crashed through the glass wall, breaking it into a thousand pieces. Panic turned her voice high and sharp. “Dad!” Her heart raced, and tears, hot and heavy, blurred her vision. “Dad! Come on, wake up! Please!”
It took everything she had not to let go of the towels and shake him. She had to hold the blood back, keep it from spilling across the floor. She focused on the shallow rise and fall of his chest, only vaguely aware that she was chanting, “Please, please.”
Time warped, and she had no idea how much had passed when the shrill whine of a siren pierced her terror. “Just hold on, Dad. Help’s almost here.”
The noise drew closer and closer until it encompassed everything. Then it abruptly shut off, leaving a ringing silence that was broken by the heavy thump of a fist against the door.
“Come in!” she yelled.
There was a rush of movement, then someone was pulling her away. She fought them blindly, fearing if she let go, she would lose her dad. Eventually, the panic lifted enough for her to realize the EMTs had arrived and she was being held back by a female firefighter.
“Ma’am, I need you to calm down.” From her calm tone, it was clear she’d been trying to talk Cass down for a few minutes.
Cass forced her body to still. “I’m good.” A shudder wracked her, making her words a lie.
The arms around her didn’t loosen. “Can you tell me what happened?”
One firefighter stood off to the side, talking into a radio and watching the rest of the crew work. He was older, with an air of command. Two other firefighters worked in tandem with a two-man paramedic team, one of whom had his eyes closed and his hands on Elias’s temples.
A healing mage.
Emergency kits were sprawled open as the men grabbed and discarded various items. They spoke in low, urgent tones cluttered with acronyms unique to their world.
Mesmerized, she watched their well-rehearsed, synchronized dance.
She didn’t dare look away, afraid that if she did, the steady beep indicating that her dad was still here would turn into a flat keen of death.
Controlled chaos. The distant realization barely penetrated, just a strange observation, as if anything more would be too much to take in.
The arms around her fell away. “Ma’am, do you know what happened?”
“We came in and found him.”
“We?”
The firefighters moved, blocking her dad from view. Cass blinked and turned to the female firefighter, her brain slowly playing catch-up. “Sorry?”
“You said, ‘we.’” The firefighter’s voice remained gentle, but her gaze was sharp.
“Grayson—he’s with my sister.” She started to fold her arms, only to stop when she caught sight of her bloodstained hands. Her mind blanked.
“Where are they? Are they injured?”
“No.” The firefighter’s questions buzzed around her like mosquitoes, and it wasn’t until the woman caught her wrists and tugged on them that Cass realized shock was setting in.
“Let’s sit over here.” The woman guided her toward the couch. She made Cass sit, then she perched on the edge of the stone coffee table so they were facing each other. “What’s your name?”
“Cassandra Alcmene.”
“Hi, Cassandra. I’m Tracy.”
Habit had her saying, “Hi.”
Tracy managed a gentle smile. “The man on the floor—who is he?”
“My father, Elias Ambrose.”
“And your sister?”
“Sofia Ambrose.”
“Good. Okay, so who is Grayson?”
The series of questions steadied her, helped her claw free of the paralyzing shock. “He’s my boyfriend.” She stumbled a little over the description as her mind made up for lost time and spun, seeking traction.
“All right. Where are Sofia and Grayson, Cassandra?”
“In the guest room, down the hall.” When Tracy turned toward the rest of her crew, Cass knew she was going to have one of the others head down the hall, so she touched the firefighter’s knee.
“Wait.” Tracy looked at her, questioning.
“They’re not injured, but Grayson is a Key, and my sister was recently cursed.
” Scenarios flicked through her mind like fireflies, and she thought fast. “My family wanted to keep the situation private, so my parents asked Grayson to step in.”
An expression of alarm bloomed under Tracy’s professional demeanor. “Cursed?” She looked at Elias, her concern for her crew obvious. “Your father. Is he—”
“No.” Cass knew she had to finesse the spin before it spiraled into a mess. “I think this, all of this”—she motioned to the room at large without taking her attention from Tracy—“has something to do with my parents’ company.”
“Are you saying this—your father, the curse—is some kind of business dispute?” There was hefty skepticism in Tracy’s voice.
“Unfortunately, yes.” Then Cass did what she’d never thought she would do—she played her mother’s game, twisting and turning things to keep the authorities out of the loop.
“Pythia Strategies works exclusively with the Arcane Families, and sometimes things can become volatile. Occasionally, our family will get caught between upset clients. And as you know, our particular clientele prefer to handle such situations themselves and don’t appreciate outside interference. ”
A flash of something came and went in Tracy’s face, but Cass couldn’t pin it down. “Is that your polite way of asking us not to call in ACRT?”
“Please.”
Involving the Arcane Criminal Response Team would only make things worse. The red tape alone would strangle any chance of finding her mom. Not to mention ACRT would pull Grayson off of Sofia, and Cass was not about to lose any of her family.
Before Tracy could respond, a rattle of wheels over tile announced the arrival of a gurney. Cass got to her feet and moved toward where they were loading up her father, Tracy right behind her. “Will he be okay?”
“We’ve got him stabilized,” one of the EMTs told her, adjusting an IV before giving a nod to his partner. They began to wheel Elias out.
Cass stood frozen, watching as they disappeared through the open door. Behind her, she could hear Tracy talking to the older firefighter with the radio. Their voices were too low to make out what was being said. The two remaining firefighters continued to pack up their equipment.
“Where are they taking him?” Cass asked.
“Santos Medical,” Tracy said as she came up to Cass’s side. “You can meet them there.”
“Thank you.” She didn’t dare explain that there was no way she could sit in a waiting room with her mom missing and who knew what happening with Sofia.
Tracy touched her arm. “Cassandra, do you happen to have your father’s insurance information?”
She blinked, turned to Tracy, and shook her head. “I don’t. Sorry. I live out of state.”
Tracy gave a nod as the firefighters started to clear out. “Okay, why don’t you call your mother, have her meet you at the hospital. She can fill out the necessary paperwork there.”