“Cookies,” I explained
Silently, she nodded and opened them before pulling one out.
“I’ll be back in a minute. I just have a couple of things to take care of,” I said, leaving her sitting at the table.
Making my way to the stairs, I opened the door to the small closet underneath and dragged out the heavy-duty black trunk I kept locked in there. I opened it and retrieved my Benelli M4 semi-automatic shotgun. When I had to use firearms, this baby was my favourite.
Living in Tribane, where the supernatural reigned, guns weren’t always my weapon of choice. However, they could come in useful when you needed to make a statement and scare some people into acting right.
Since times were so uncertain, I decided to take this one with me. Upstairs, I changed into a clean set of clothes. The only stuff that was washed was my DOH uniform, so I threw that on, a sense of mourning sweeping over me as I thought of all my dead comrades. Of our dead leader. The organisation I’d dedicated my life to for years was gone. The only saving grace for me was the knowledge that there were other branches around the world. Perhaps I could rebuild things here in Tribane with the help of those branches.
I tightened my jaw and steeled myself for the battle ahead. Theodore wasn’t going to get away with what he’d done, but first, I needed to save Rebecca. If Alora’s vision was to be believed, then that girl might be the key to our survival and possibly the key to killing Theodore once and for all.
When I went back downstairs, Alora was still in the kitchen munching on the cookies I had given her. She heard me come in and straightened up, setting the packet down on the table and wiping crumbs from her face.
“Where’s Delilah and Ira?” I asked.
“They went across the street to Delilah’s house to get some of her clothes,” she answered.
Right. I’d almost forgotten Cristescu had been living over there. Alvie and Gabriel came in from the RV, and I told them about my plan to go to Emilia Petrovsky’s house for Rebecca.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Alvie asked warily. “She’s a powerful witch. She won’t take kindly to us showing up.”
“She’ll take kindly to it whether she likes it or not,” I answered brashly. I wasn’t normally so flippant, at least I liked to think I wasn’t, but this whole shitty situation was really starting to get to me.
“Who is this girl?” Alora interjected.
I turned to her. “I think she’s the one you saw in your vision.”
“Oh,” she whispered, and her brow furrowed.
“What is it?”
“Nothing. It’s just I’m not sure if you’re right. I mean, it could be her, but I just have this feeling that my vision was far in the future. I feel like the girl I saw hasn’t even been born yet.”
“Well,” I said, clasping my hands together, “I could be wrong, but I need to get her anyway. She was abducted and is the daughter of my friend who recently passed away.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said, reaching out to touch my hand. Something about the comforting gesture soothed me.
Half an hour later, we were all back in the van again, heading towards the district where most of the magical families had their homes. As we neared Petrovsky Manor, a black town car sped by us and stopped at the entrance gates. A smartly dressed man reached out the driver’s side window, pressed a few buttons on the entry system, and waited as the gates opened up. I pulled in directly behind him before the gates had the chance to close again.
The town car stopped, and a man in his fifties emerged with an almighty scowl on his face.
“What do you think you’re doing?!” he yelled, stomping towards the van.
“I’m looking for Emilia. She around?” I asked, getting out of the van and stepping up to face him.
He sighed long and hard and swiped his hand over his face, his forehead lined with stress.
“No, she’s not here. She’s been taken.”
I furrowed my brow. “Taken by whom?”
“The sorcerer!” he cried. “What would he want with her? My goodness, he’s going to kill her.”
“Hey, hey, calm down. Theodore has a bone to pick with the vamps. Emilia’s one of his own. Did he take the girl, too?”
The man shook his head. “She was kidnapped by a woman claiming to be Emilia’s granddaughter. She came to the house with a vampire who could walk in the sun!”
He looked like he needed to sit down with a strong glass of brandy as he told me this. A smile touched my lips. Tegan came for Rebecca already. The little minx beat me to it. A sense of relief I didn’t know I needed washed over me. If she and Cristescu were working together, did that mean we had nothing to fear from him? Was he going to rule over the vampires peacefully?
I patted the man on the shoulder. “You should go inside and rest. You look like you need it.”
To be honest, he seemed like he was going to faint any minute. I thought he was about to nod in agreement when his steely reserve returned.
“I want you people off this property immediately,”
“Right you are, captain,” I said, saluting him.
I hopped back in the van and quickly gave everyone an update. The gates opened, and I pulled out of Emilia’s stately residence. What to do now though? The sky was darkening, and it would be night soon. I was tempted to go to Cristescu’s house and see Tegan, but then I thought better of it. I’d wait until the morning. That way, his army of vamps would be tucked safely into their coffins and I’d be able to talk to him man to man.
Hehe. Tucked safely into their coffins. That was a good one.
“Where are we going now?” Gabriel asked.
“Back to the hotel,” I answered. “Tomorrow we’re going to pay Tegan and Cristescu a little visit.”
Delilah chewed on her lip worriedly at the prospect of seeing her brother. I guessed she was anxious about how much he’d changed. That made two of us.
We ate at the diner again, and I was beginning to get used to the greasy spoon vibe of the place. When we all separated to go to our rooms, Alora flopped down onto the bed and curled up in a ball. I bent over her, hoping she was all right.
“Hey,” I murmured, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“Please, just leave me alone for a while,” she requested quietly before pressing her face into the pillow. She clearly needed to have a cry about her parents being AWOL, so I left her to it. Sometimes we all needed a good cry to get it all out.
Yeah, I was secure enough in my masculinity to admit it.
To give Alora a little privacy, I turned on the television and went into the bathroom to shave. I brought some of my toiletries with me from the house, since something seriously needed to be done about the potential Gandalf beard I was cultivating.
Once finished, I peeked my head into the room to see Alora fast asleep on top of the covers. I went to kneel by the side of the bed, for some reason fascinated by the way her face looked in slumber. On instinct, I reached out to touch her before stopping myself. I didn’t want her waking up and getting freaked out by me being up so close and personal like a total lech. Okay, so maybe she wouldn’t be able to actually see me, but she’d definitely sense me, hear me breathing. Again, like a lech.
Deciding I needed to get out for a bit, I threw on my boots and jacket and headed for the minivan. I would’ve switched to my car when we went to the house, but there wouldn’t have been enough room for all six of us, especially since Ira was such a giant. The van’s engine sputtered a little and wouldn’t start.