Chapter 17
Ophelia opened her eyes and looked directly into those of a snot-nosed toddler.
The kid wore one of those fleecy zipped onesie things and stared at her like she was a bug.
Her dark, curly head slowly cocked to one side, then the kid’s tongue poked up, absently licking the slick of boogers dripping onto her lip.
Ew! Ophelia flinched back holding a sheet to her breast. What the hell? She glanced around the room. “Where’s Gideon?”
The kid kept licking.
Ophelia fought the urge to hurl and scrubbed a hand over her gummy eyes. Nope. Didn’t see that. Ugh. She glanced out the window. The sun was just cresting over the trees. Damn it, she’d slept later than—
“Poe?” a woman’s voice called from the next room.
“In here,” Ophelia yelled, sitting up. Though how the hell the kid had gotten in with the door closed was a mystery. Ophelia narrowed her eyes. Wait a minute. It was hard to tell without the dumb hat and puffy coat, but that had to be the little shit that’d freed Chambers.
The door cracked open, and a thin woman with pigtails poked her head in.
She rolled her eyes with a huff at the kid and came into the room.
“There you are,” she said sweeping the toddler up, onto her hip and whipping out a tissue to clean the kid up.
“Sorry. She’s doesn’t have a real great grasp of privacy yet. ”
“Or hygiene,” Ophelia muttered, running a hand through her hair. “Do you know where Gideon went?” Damn, was everything in here plaid?
“Yeah, he and Chase left a couple of hours ago. Something about having to file a report and wanting to look at some node stuff. They should be back in a few hours.”
Shit. Ophelia had totally forgot about the court filing. She chewed her lip, trying to figure out how in the hell she was gonna get to town hall.
“Anyways, I’m Kelsey, Liam’s sister. We met last night. I mean, sort of. You weren’t exactly conscious.” She hiked the kid higher onto her hip, her brows furrowing. “You look…different.”
Ophelia just stared at her, not sure how to read into that.
Kelsey buzzed her lips. “Um, so breakfast is on the table if you’re interested, I mean if that’s—you eat right? Like food?” She held up a hand. “If not, that’s totally cool. Tom’s got some IV bags in the ambulance, and I’m pretty sure my mom’s got straws somewhere around here.”
“Oh, cool, so I can drink it like a juice box?” Ophelia snarked.
“Yeah, no extra dishes, right?” Kelsey laughed, oblivious to the sarcasm. “Hey, is blood type the same as like vintages to vampires?”
“Um. No?” Ophelia blinked at her. Man, this chick was weird.
“Huh. You’d think it would be.” Kelsey shrugged. “Anywho, we got you covered.” Kelsey flashed her a huge smile and turned to boop the toddler’s nose, wiping it again. “But no blood for you, naughty girl. You get nummy nummy blueberry pancakes! Yes, you do!”
Wow. Ophelia puffed out her cheeks as they left the room, unable to believe that just happened or that people still wore overalls. Her gaze flicked around the plaid-on-plaid room again. Okay. Scratch that. Yes, she did. God, what was wrong with this t—
Ophelia froze at the slip, bracing herself for the stabbing agony that always followed even thinking anything remotely related to divinity.
It didn’t come.
She wet her lips, pretty certain she’d mentioned the Big Guy’s name more than once last night with the same results. What the fuck was that about? No. It had to be a fluke, right? She glanced around like she was being watched. Then—
“God.” She slapped her hands over her mouth.
Holy fucking shit—nothing happened.
“Goddamn, Jesus Christ, Holy Moses, and the Trinity.”
Nope. Nothing.
She giggled. Okay. No idea why that wasn’t a thing anymore, but she’d take it.
Swearing had never been as satisfying without being able to blaspheme.
God—hah!—the past few days had been fucking wild.
It was like she’d cashed in on some kind of vampiric “Get out of Jail Free” card.
She pushed off the bed and stumbled into what she really hoped was the adjoining bathroom.
Yep, score, and thank God, because she was about to burst. She giggled again as she sat on the toilet, way too amused.
Jesus, she cackled, flushing and moving to the sink. Get a hold of yourself, Phe.
Her gaze fixed on her reflection in the mirror, abruptly sober. She raised a trembling hand to her cheek. Holy shit. Her tatuaj…they…they were gone. How in the fuck—no wonder Kelsey had said she looked different, but how?
Ophelia craned closer to the glass, her stomach dropping at the paleness of her irises.
She blinked at herself. No, they weren’t pale…
They were normal-ish? Before she’d volunteered, her eyes had been a steel gray.
Now they were a smokey lilac. She opened her mouth and tongued a fang.
Okay, well, those were still there, so what the hell was up with the rest of it?
… Our service for yours…
She jumped at the reedy whisper threading through her mind, goosebumps raising her skin. Shit. The node was responsible for this? That didn’t make any sense, and if it’d killed the virus, she’d be dead. Well, really dead, wouldn’t she? Her heart leapt to her throat.
Gideon.
She needed to talk to Jena.
Ophelia ran into the other room and jammed on the stupid pajama pants and t-shirt, only wincing a little bit out of habit as they slid against her skin.
She threw open the door and rushed into the other room, following the sounds of people eating through an industrial kitchen and into a dining room behind it.
The long table at its center was surrounded by people. Felix, his six rug rats, Kelsey, some big, tatted bald guy, and Jena all looked up as she rushed in.
“Are you okay?” Felix asked, reaching for the syrup.
Ophelia homed in on Jena. “What the fuck did the node do to me?”
“Umm…”
“Language!” the little redheaded girl screamed.
“Not now, Sway, finish your pancakes,” Felix chided, handing the dispenser over. The kid’s eyes got huge, and she snatched it, dumping everything in it onto her plate.
“Hey! I wanted some of that!” The swarthy boy across from her growled. Sway stuck her tongue out at him, and he looked like he was about to spring over the wide slab to murder her.
“I’ll get more,” Jena said, pale as she stood. “Help me?” she asked Ophelia.
Oh, she was gonna help her all right. Ophelia grabbed the syrup dispenser out of Sway’s sticky little hands and stomped after Jena into the kitchen.
Ophelia thrust the container at her when they were alone.
“What the hell? My tatuaj are gone, I can take the Lord’s name in vain, and the fucking node’s whispering to me about its service for mine. ”
Jena grimaced as she took the gummy bottle and went to the sink, glancing over her shoulder at her as she rinsed it off. “Yeah, it does that. The whispering, that is. I don’t know anything about the other stuff, but considering the color of your eyes, I’d say it’s responsible.”
“No shit, Sherlock. I want to know what it fucking means!” Ophelia swallowed the lump in her throat. “Am I…am I gonna die, like for real this time?”
Jena left the dispenser by the sink and took Ophelia’s hands in hers. “No. The node wouldn’t do that, but…” She bit her lip, furrowing her brows.
“But?”
“But apparently Thaddeus thinks drinking the blood of Havers’s residents mutates the virus.
Something about erasing tribal affiliations—you’d have to ask him about that.
Regardless, you fed pretty heavily on Gideon, like four pints heavily.
I know he’s not technically a resident, but he’s bound directly to the node.
I’m pretty sure that’s gotta be like mainlining whatever the node’s doing to the rest of us in Havers. ”
Ophelia slumped against the refrigerator. That weird tingle that started when she got here, the hum running through her now… Okay, so it tracked that drinking their blood was doing something to her. The question was, what?
“I have to talk to Thaddeus,” she said, anxiety pricking at her.
Jena nodded. “Chase and Gideon will be back in a couple of hours. They went out to look at the reserve nexuses.”
“What about Felix or you? Can’t one of you take me?” Ophelia fidgeted, the need to do something overwhelming.
“No, he’s waiting for Liam to get back from talking to the pack. We all agreed to meet back here before nine and figure out what our next steps are, and the coven’s meeting at the Witchery right after. Worst case, we can bring you over then.”
Ophelia pulled at her collar, a panic attack imminent. That was hours away, she couldn’t wait that long. She couldn’t!
“Hey, it’s gonna be okay,” Jena said, squeezing Ophelia’s hands. “Here, sit down for a minute and just focus on breathing.” She led Ophelia over to a chair in a shadowed corner by an open pantry.
Ophelia balked as she stepped close. “No, you don’t understand. I can’t stay here. I have to get back to the library—”
Darkness swirled around them, and Ophelia went rigid. What the fuck?
It cleared as quickly as it’d come, and the two of them stood in Thaddeus’s study. Jena fell back a step, her eyes wide and her mouth a freaked out “o.”
Before either of them could formulate a coherent thought, their attention snapped to a chuckle on the other side of the room.
Thaddeus sat in one of the chairs by the fire, a wide smile across his face. “Well, isn’t this a pleasant surprise. Come. Sit. Methinks we need to chat.”
Gideon stared across the desolate swamp stretching to the horizon to the massive lump of snow-covered stone several hundred feet from the shore. “That’s what’s left of the dragon?”
Chase nodded, his breath spiraling away. “Yep. That’s him.”