Chapter 23
Chapter
Twenty-Three
“Is Claire even enough to open the gate?” Devon asks. I shoot him a look. He winces.
“That’s a fair question,” Marie says. “And honestly, I don’t know.”
“Vaelric is definitely going to try,” I say. “What’s one murdered human to him if it doesn’t work?”
My heart speeds up again, and for a second I seriously consider texting Delphi and asking her to write me a prescription for Klonopin. Or Xanax. Probably both.
“We need to find her.”
“I really don’t think you should cast a locator spell,” Marie says. “I hate to say something seems too easy and therefore it probably is, but this feels like one of those situations.”
“I agree with her,” Antonio says. Then his expression changes. “And now I’m wondering if that notebook was left there on purpose for you to find, Wren.” I stare at him. “Think about it,” he continues. “It was almost too perfect.”
“Was it? Vivian is crafty. But I don’t know if she’s crafty enough to assume I would be crafty enough to piece all of this together.”
“I think you’re crafty,” Mabel says encouragingly. “And a good singer.”
“Thank you.”
“They had vials of Claire’s blood,” Leo says, thinking aloud. “At that point, didn’t they already know they needed fresh blood?”
“Maybe they collected it before they realized it needed to come directly from the source,” I suggest. Then I shake my head.
“Either way, even if this is some kind of setup, I’m going to find her.
She deserves to know the truth about where she came from.
” My stomach twists. “And she’s going to fucking die if Vaelric gets to her first.”
“Vaelric is a powerful demon,” Marie says carefully. “But I still don’t know enough about him. I don’t know exactly how his powers work, how dependent he is on a conduit, or whether freeing the Crone is easier for him than finding someone new who can wield his necromancy.” She takes a breath.
“So be careful. I know you would willingly walk into a trap for this girl, but think twice before you do. I have a feeling the rest of your family agrees with me.”
“We definitely do,” Leo says.
“And let’s not forget we’re hunters. We can try to find her the old-fashioned way first.”
“Vivian is also a hunter,” Antonio points out. “If Vaelric is inside her now and has access to everything she knows, then he has the Order’s resources at his fingertips too.” He makes a face. “And not many people even know she’s possessed.”
“Oh, shit.” I hadn’t thought of that. Vivian could walk into Order headquarters tomorrow and be treated with exactly the same respect she would’ve received a year ago.
“I’m going to call the group home and see what information I can get,” Antonio says, getting to his feet.
He looks at Leo. “I want you to call the local police department. Use Ryder’s FBI contact if you need to, assuming it hasn’t already been flagged or marked invalid by the Order.
See what you can get on Claire.” He shakes his head.
“She’s a seventeen-year-old runaway about to age out of the system.
It would be easy for her to slip through the cracks. ”
“Accidentally or intentionally,” Leo adds. He looks genuinely sympathetic. And he’s right. Girls like Claire don’t always get much attention. She’s almost an adult. Once she turns eighteen, if she’s still technically considered a runaway, I’m not even sure how much anyone will care.
“If there’s anything to find, we’ll find it,” Antonio assures me. “In today’s digital age, it’s not that easy to disappear. Especially if she’s trying to get somewhere specific.”
“Yeah.” Though I know perfectly well it can still be that easy. Claire could be lying dead on the side of a road somewhere. At the bottom of a ditch. Scattered across the woods after animals found her body. Or Vivian could already have her. I shove the thought away.
At least Claire knows what Vivian looks like now. And if her powers are finally coming in, maybe she’ll be able to sense that something is wrong with her. She might not understand that Vivian is possessed, but hopefully her instincts will tell her to stay away.
“I’m going to keep digging here,” Marie says. “I’ll keep you posted. And you keep me posted.” Her voice firms. “And promise me, Wren. Don’t cast that locator spell. I have a bad feeling about it.”
I bite the inside of my cheek.
“If you absolutely cannot resist,” she continues, “tell me first. I’ll come get you and bring you to the Covenstead. At least there, we can protect you while you do it.”
“I won’t cast the locator spell,” I promise.
Not right now, anyway. I keep that part to myself.
Because it is still the quickest and easiest way to find Claire.
And once the sun goes down, I’ll have vampires on my side.
Having vampires on my side is also part of the reason I’m so desperate to get to Claire before Vaelric does.
One of my biggest fears about necromancy has always been what it could mean for Xavier.
Things are already bad enough with his alliances falling apart from every direction.
Vaelric knew exactly what he was doing when he manipulated the Reapers into performing that ritual.
And even though we killed the chaos demon, the circumstances surrounding that whole thing left us with more questions than answers.
How were the Reapers influenced? Were they possessed by lesser demons? Manipulated? Was the chaos demon ever the real objective? Or was it always meant to keep us distracted?
“I’ll call you back in an hour,” Marie says. “Even if I have nothing new to report. Just to check in.”
“Okay.” I hesitate. “And thank you for helping me. Seriously. You don’t have to be doing any of this right now.”
“I know,” she says warmly. “And you’re welcome.” She pauses. “This is what family does for each other. And once you’re part of our coven, you’ll be family too.” We end the call. I can immediately feel everyone staring at me.
“Yes,” I say, more irritated than I mean to. “She wants me to join her coven.” I spread my hands. “I’m a witch, okay? I’m supposed to be around my own kind.”
“What about us?” Mabel asks. Her face falls. “I thought we were your family.”
“You are.” I turn toward her quickly. “You guys are my family. I love all of you. And I love Xavier in a very different way.” My voice threatens to break. “But everything happening right now is happening because I’m a witch.” I look away.
“And I can’t stop thinking that maybe if I understood my powers better, or understood where I came from, I could’ve gotten myself out of this mess before it escalated this far.” I shake my head. “Or maybe I never would’ve gotten into it at all.”
“Then you never would’ve met me,” Mabel says. I look at her. “I know it’s not the greatest silver lining,” she continues, “but I really do believe things happen for a reason.” Her expression softens.
“I hated my life when I first came here. I hated that I had babies I was forced to give up. I still hate that I have children who are immortal and don’t speak to me.
” Her gaze drops to the floor. “And I hate that some of my memories of them are gone because I asked for them to be taken away.” She blinks back tears.
Then suddenly lifts her head and smiles. “But look. We’re friends now.”
I smile despite myself. “And I’m really grateful for that.”
“Let’s get to work,” Antonio says. Typical man. Emotional women make him uncomfortable, so naturally he changes the subject.
“I’ll start with Ryder,” Leo says. “Then I’ll call around to different police departments while I run whatever facial-recognition searches I can.” He pulls the laptop closer. “If Claire has run away multiple times, there’s probably a pattern somewhere.”
“She doesn’t have money, right?” he asks. “But you said she had a job?”
“Yeah. She worked at a coffee shop two days a week after school. That’s all I know. It was within walking distance of the group home.”
“I’ll find it.” Leo picks up the computer. Devon, who has apparently developed a sudden passion for demon hunting and locating missing teenagers, follows him out of the room.
“Do you want me to order food?” Mabel asks.
“I’m not particularly hungry.”
“But your brothers always are,” she says.
“Pizza doesn’t sound bad,” Antonio admits.
“I love ordering pizza!” Mabel claps her hands. “What toppings do you want? There are so many options.”
“This loser doesn’t eat meat,” Antonio says, pointing his thumb at me. “So cheese and olives for her.” Then he looks at Mabel. “I’ll take one with as much meat as humanly possible.”
“Gross.” I make a face, and we all laugh. I head into the kitchen to see if there’s any coffee left. There isn’t. So I start another pot and lean against the counter while I wait. Someone enters the room so silently I don’t hear him.
But I feel his energy. I look up. Theo seems almost disappointed that he didn’t manage to startle me.
“Don’t even think about bringing a teenager into this house,” he says.
“Trust me, if Claire comes here, it’ll only be temporary. She’d probably be better off with Marie or maybe with a relative willing to take her in.” I run my fingers through my hair. “I don’t know how to raise a kid. She’s not even that much younger than me.”
Theo arches an eyebrow. “You have a decade on her.”
“Yeah. Hardly anything.”
He stares at me. “You’ve brought a lot of trouble into this house since you arrived.”
I open my mouth. I genuinely do not have the emotional bandwidth for this conversation today.
But Theo steps closer. “And you’ve dealt with more trouble than any human I’ve ever met.”\I stop. “You’ve handled it surprisingly well.”
I narrow my eyes. “Was that a compliment from Grumpy Bear?”
“Don’t push it.” His mouth twitches. “But yes.”
I grin.
“I still don’t like the way my brother acts like a dog in heat around you,” he continues. “And I still think you’re more trouble than you’re worth.”
“Wow. You really know how to ruin a compliment.”
“But,” he says, “you’re growing on me.”
“Like a fungus.” I give him my cheesiest smile.
Theo wrinkles his nose and walks away. He’s growing on me too.
I pour myself a cup of coffee and go back into the family room.
Mabel unpauses the Disney movie, and I sit beside her, sipping my coffee.
She starts braiding my hair. The feeling of her fingers slowly raking over my scalp nearly puts me to sleep.
I’ve never been one of those lucky people who gets sleepy when they’re anxious or depressed.
Usually my brain just runs faster. But right now, I think I’ve reached my limit.
I just want to sleep. I’m almost dozing off when Xavier comes into the room.
“Hey.” I blink my eyes open. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he says immediately.
Then he tilts his head. Even he knows that answer isn’t convincing. “But I just heard back from my connection at the prison.”
I sit up.
“Larissa had a visitor last night.”
“If it was Vivian, I swear to God…”
Xavier shakes his head.
“Not Vivian.”
I wait.
“Marco Russo.”