It wasn’t advised to drink more than one potion in twenty-four hours. Doing so wouldn’t harm me long term—the witches had promised me that—but I’d feel nauseated until it was out of my system. Which was a new experience for me, since supernaturals don’t get sick. At least not with the same illnesses as humans.
Thomas packed up the last drone, and I took the antidote tablet to make me visible again. Unfortunately, the antidote tablet didn’t cure my stomach. The only cure for that was time.
When we got back to the Devereux mansion, they had boxes of delivery pizza waiting for us.
Seeing the boxes of pizza reminded me of Sage. Delivery was our go-to meal when we were on the road demon hunting. That girl could eat more slices than I could.
Damn, I was worried about her.
“Hopefully you like pizza,” Amber said. “I got one with all meat toppings on it, just for you.” She looked at me when she said that last part, and I nodded in thanks.
“We’ve been researching the red eyed shifters all night,” Cassandra said. “The library here has so much information—some I’d never seen before. They told me I could copy some for the library at the Bettencourt once this is all over.”
“What did you find out?” Thomas asked.
“Let’s sit down.” Bella made her way over to the table. “We’ll talk over dinner.”
Despite it being a casual meal of delivery pizza, that hadn’t stopped the girls from bringing out the fancy plates and glasses. And judging by the martinis in four spots, the red wine in two others, and the beer in the other, they’d decided on our seating arrangements, too.
We all took our seats, and I opened the box Amber told me was mine. It looked and smelled delicious—loaded with every type of meat available.
Hopefully it would soak up the potion swirling around in my stomach.
Amber took a slice of plain pizza, placed it on her plate, and cut into it with a fork and knife. I couldn’t help looking at her like she was crazy.
“What?” she asked.
“I’ve just never seen anyone eat pizza with a fork and knife before,” I said.
“Enough,” Thomas said, and all eyes went to him. He was seated, but he hadn’t moved to touch the food. “We need to know everything you learned about the red eyed shifters. Sage’s life depends on it.”
The witches looked at each other and said nothing. It was like they were silently debating who was going to speak first.
If they knew something that could help, they’d be jumping to share.
I took a swig of my beer and braced myself for the worst.
Bella was the first to eventually speak. “Like we suspected, the red eyed shifters are a result of ancient, dark magic,” she said. “There haven’t been any on Earth for a few millennia, but we found a mention of them in an old book from the back of our library. Back then, they were called slaves to the demons. They were all killed once the demons were banished to Hell. No one has mentioned them since.”
“Do you know how they became that way?” I asked. “Or how to change them back?”
“No.” She shook her head sadly. “The only witches who could answer that question are the ones in the family that created the spell all those thousands of years ago. Their knowledge of the spell must have survived. And apparently they’re working with the demons—either by choice or force—which is how demon slaves are being created now.”
I barely heard what she was saying, because my imprint bond with Raven suddenly ignited. She was sending me another message.
Numbers, in a loop. So many numbers.
I slammed by hands down onto the table, and all eyes went to me.
“Write down the numbers I tell you to,” I commanded, not speaking to anyone in particular. “Now.”
23
Noah
Amber took charge, writing the numbers on a napkin.
“These are the coordinates for the bunker where Raven’s being kept,” I said once they were written down.
The others looked at me with a mix of shock and awe.
“I told you she was communicating with me through the imprint bond.” I couldn’t help sounding smug. They deserved it, after how easily they’d dismissed the possibility yesterday.
Thomas brought his phone out and stared at it. “These coordinates place Raven about thirty miles outside of Aurora, Nebraska,” he said. “There’s a farm there with a small house on the property. The coordinates are near the house, but not exactly inside of it.”
“She wouldn’t be in the house,” I said. “The bunker would be underneath the house.”
“Why would there be a bunker underneath a farm in the middle of nowhere?” Amber scrunched her nose, as if the thought of living in such a place disgusted her.
“A tornado shelter?” Evie guessed.
“A hidden witch circle practicing ancient dark magic?” Doreen said.
“A human family preparing for the apocalypse?” Bella voiced her theory. “Some humans do that, you know. I watched a documentary on it once.”
The witches widened their eyes and smiled, clearly enjoying this little brainstorming session.
I slammed my hands on the table, bringing everyone’s attention back to me. “It doesn’t matter why the bunker exists. All that matters is that Raven’s there.” I turned my focus to Thomas, not wanting to lose a second of time that could be spent helping Raven. “Bunkers have security systems, right?” I asked, and he nodded in confirmation. “Any chance you can tap into this one?”
“I can,” he said. “But not with the limited equipment we have here.”
“Where, then?” I asked.
“We’ll have to go back to the Bettencourt.”
Cassandra teleported Thomas back to his penthouse at the Bettencourt, and Bella teleported me there.
At least, Bella tried to teleport me there. Apparently, witches weren’t accurate with teleporting to places they’d never been before.
We ended up landing in the center of the hotel restaurant. It was just past sunrise on a weekday, so it wasn’t busy. But a few people wearing business attire who were indulging in a large breakfast buffet looked at us strangely.
“Come on.” Bella didn’t let go of my hand as she led me out of the restaurant and toward the elevator. She walked confidently, as if she belonged there.
I glanced behind us at the people who had already stopped paying us any attention. “Aren’t they going to wonder how we appeared out of thin air?” I asked once we stepped into the elevator. Luckily we were the only two people in it, so I was able to speak candidly.
“Most humans are remarkably good at rationalizing away magic, even when it happens right in front of their eyes. They’ll assume we were there the entire time, or that they just didn’t notice us until then.” She perused the panel of buttons, not pushing any of them. “Thomas said he lived in the penthouse. Should I assume the top floor is his?”
The elevator zoomed up before I could answer. “Apparently he already spotted us,” I said.
The doors opened straight into the foyer of Thomas’s penthouse.
It felt like forever since I’d last been here, even though it had only been two days.
“Your appearance in the middle of the restaurant showed up on the security cameras,” Thomas said, not looking bothered in the slightest. “But don’t worry. My coven is already taking care of it with memory potion.”
“That was hardly necessary, given that we barely caused a stir.” Bella marched into the living room and sat down on the couch, making herself at home. In her sleek, all-black outfit and matching high-heeled boots, she looked like she belonged there. “Humans use ‘logic’ to explain away magic all the time.”
“As the largest rogue vampire coven in North America, we take every precaution to remain undetected,” he said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. Tapping into the security system of a place miles away from here is do-able, but not easy. I’m going to need time in my study to figure this out.”
&nb
sp; “How much time?” I asked.
“A few hours, at the most.”
“Hours?” I couldn’t believe it. Now that we finally had a solid lead on Raven, I wanted it to take minutes not, hours. Hours seemed like an impossibly long time to sit around waiting.
“Unless you don’t want my help at all?” He raised an eyebrow. “My debt to Raven has already been paid. I’m helping you now because you just spent the night spying on the Montgomery complex with me for Sage. But if you don’t want my help…”
“Of course I want your help,” I said, stopping him from being ridiculous. “Is there anything we can do to help speed up the process?”
He gave me a hard stare that I assumed meant no. “Just wait here,” he said. “And try not to break anything.”
24
Noah
As Thomas worked in his study, Bella, Cassandra, and I had a frustratingly circular discussion about why Azazel would want Raven in a bunker, and about why Sage would so easily support her brother’s alliance with Azazel and become a slave to the demons.
We were pretty clueless about why Raven was being kept in a bunker. As for Sage, Bella was convinced she’d been playing us all along, and that she’d been siding with the demons the entire time.
Cassandra and I adamantly fought against this theory. Sage might be a rule breaker (okay, she was definitely a rule breaker), but her heart was in the right place. She’d never side with the demons. At least not willingly.
“Her brother imprinted on a demon—on Azazel’s daughter,” Bella pointed out for the third time since we’d gotten here. “I’ve worked with enough shifters to know they value their pack above all else. And Flint isn’t just a member of the pack. He’s their alpha.” She paused, like she was trying to be as dramatic as possible. “When the alpha makes a major decision, their pack either follows or gets cast out. I know you were both close to Sage. But is it so crazy to think she would fall in line and stick with her pack, even if it went against her better judgment?”
I was about to call Bella out on the fact that she was acting like she knew more about my own species than I did.
But Thomas chose that exact moment to emerge from his study.
Bella didn’t see him because her back was toward him. She was also halfway through her second martini since we’d gotten here, which I assumed was dulling her supernatural senses a bit.
“It is crazy to think Sage would do such a thing,” Thomas said, and Bella rolled her eyes before turning around to face him. “Especially considering that Flint isn’t her only family. She imprinted on me. If her pack cast her out, she’d always have a home at the Bettencourt. She knows that.”
“Fine, fine.” Bella rested an elbow into the back of the couch and took another sip of her drink. “It was just a thought. I won’t bring it up again.”
I eyed up Thomas, hope lighting up my chest at what his emergence could mean. It had only been an hour and a half. But maybe for once the universe was on our side here.
“Did you get into the security system?” I stood in anticipation of his answer.
“The system was more rudimentary than expected,” he said. “So yes. We’re in.”
He led us into the media room and brought up a video on the big screen television. The video was black and white and slightly grainy, but there was Raven, sitting on the bottom bunk of a bed. About twenty people surrounded her, listening to whatever she was saying. Some of them sat cross-legged on the floor, and others stood. All of them wore what looked like prisoner jumpsuits.
But I barely paid attention to the others. My entire focus was on Raven. Relief coursed through my body at how healthy she looked. Up until now, I’d feared she’d been experiencing terrible treatment from the demons. Beating, torturing… it hurt too much to think about, so I’d pushed the possibilities from my mind.
Seeing that she appeared in good physical shape put aside those worries for now.
The group was talking about something, but I only knew that because their lips were moving. I couldn’t hear a thing.
“Is there any sound?” I asked.
“Like I said, the system is rudimentary,” Thomas said. “The cameras are decades old. They don’t record audio—only video. It’s like whoever owns this bunker hasn’t updated it since it was built.”
Suddenly, the lights on the screen flickered. It must have meant something to them, as the people around Raven headed toward what I assumed were their own beds.
Raven spoke for a bit with a teen girl sitting next to her—it killed me that I couldn’t hear what they were saying—until the girl eventually got up and went to her bed as well. Then Raven stared up at the camera, and my heart stopped.
I could feel through the imprint bond that she was thinking of me. That she was hoping I was searching for her.
I tried again to reach out to her through the bond and let her know I was. Maybe it would work now that I could actually see her.
She gave no signs of receiving my message. She just climbed onto the top bunk and curled up to go to sleep.
Less than thirty seconds later, the camera went dark.
“What happened?” I looked to Thomas, panicked. “Where’d the video go?”
“Relax,” he said. “The lights went out in the bunker. The camera is still working. See that light on the edge?”
I looked to where he was pointing and nodded.
“That’s the light from the hall peeking out from under the door,” he said. “Like I said, this camera system is rudimentary. It doesn’t have night vision.”
I stared at the screen, endless questions running through my mind. I wanted to know so much. But for now, I needed to focus on helping Raven.
“Is that the only room in the bunker?” I asked.
“No,” Thomas said. “There are a few more. A cafeteria, a kitchen, a gym, a communal bathroom, and what looks to be a doctor’s office. And the hall, of course.” He used his power to flip through the camera views as he spoke about them. “There appear to be four demons guarding the facility.”
Four demons versus Thomas, Cassandra, and me. There would be even more on our side if the other Devereux witches agreed to help. Judging from their desire to defeat the demons, they would.
We had the numbers to defeat the demons and break out the humans.
This was assuming the demons guarding the bunker weren’t greater demons, but I doubted they were. There weren’t many greater demons in existence. And from what I’d seen, greater demons didn’t venture out to scout for humans to kidnap or guard bunkers. That was what their demon minions were for.
Since Azazel had brought Raven to this bunker, I’d bet these guard demons worked for him.
“Now we have to study everything about this place and make a plan to break in.” I rubbed my hands together, ready to get started. “Because we’re getting Raven—and all the other kidnapped humans—out of there.”
25
Noah
“A few minutes of seeing Raven, and you’ve already forgotten about Sage,” Thomas said coldly. “I should have known this would happen.”
“I haven’t forgotten about Sage,” I said.
“Could have fooled me,” he replied. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have hacked into the bunker security system until we got Sage back home. That would have given you enough incentive to remember she needs our help too. Don’t you think?”
I jumped up with my arms out, ready to throttle him.
Someone leaped in front of me and wrapped their hands around my wrists, holding me in place. Bella.
Witches were generally the most peaceful of the supernaturals. It made it easy to forget that they could hold their own against us. And while I wasn’t actually trying to harm Bella, I was impressed by her strength.
Cassandra had raced to Thomas’s side, although the vampire prince hadn’t done as much as flinch. The man was like a damned robot. The fact that Sage had fallen in love with and imprinted on him baffled me.
The two of them
couldn’t be more opposite if they tried.
“We’re all on the same side here,” Bella said, her grip firm around my wrists. “I doubt either Sage or Raven would want the two of you trying to rip each other to shreds when they both need your help.”
“He wouldn’t have been able to harm me.” Thomas smiled, his teeth glinting even in the low lighting. “But it would have been interesting to see him try.”
A growl rumbled deep in my throat. I wanted to try.
But Bella was right. No matter how badly I wanted to wrangle Thomas, I had to focus on helping the girls. We all did.
And I did have logical reasons for wanting to save Raven first. Yes, I also had personal reasons. But saving her first made sense.
To get Thomas to understand, I’d have to do it in his language. Facts and logic.
I could do it. I had to do it. For Raven.
Bella must have felt my tension ease, because she loosened her hold on my wrists. “You good now?” she asked.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “I’m good.”
She let go and stepped to the side, although she looked ready to jump back in front of me in case I launched myself at Thomas again.
I rubbed my wrists where she’d been holding them. She had a strong grip, which was good. She’d be more of a help in battle than I’d initially realized.
Thomas examined me coolly. “Don’t try that again,” he warned.
“Don’t use Raven as a tool to threaten me.” I held my gaze with his to show I wouldn’t back down. There were certain limits I wouldn’t tolerate being crossed.
Thomas dangling Raven’s safety in front of me like a carrot to get me to do his bidding was one of those limits.
“I was simply saying what was necessary to ensure you didn’t forget about your so-called best friend, Sage,” he said—as if I needed reminding about her existence.
The Angel Trials- The Complete Series Page 55
