I gave her a quick kiss on the check before hurrying to my room to change and heading downstairs to join my friends.
Noah
Nothing compared to the freedom of running through the forest in my wolf form, but riding my motorcycle down the curves of the Hollywood Hills sure did come close.
Sage Montgomery rode beside me, as she had throughout my mission. It was a good thing I’d met Sage—well, a good thing that Sage had found me in a dingy underground LA shifter bar—when I’d arrived to California.
Sage and I had connected instantly—she was like the sister I’d never had. I would have been a clueless mess trying to navigate human society without her help.
Now, we pulled up to the gate in front of the modern Beverly Hills mansion owned by the most powerful circle of witches in LA and entered the guest code into the keypad. The camera zeroed in on me, and the light turned green, the gate swinging open.
We parked in the drive, and Sage hopped off her bike, swinging her long dark hair behind her. “Have I thanked you yet for convincing me to buy the motorcycles?” she asked with a grin.
“Only a handful of times.” I smirked, running a hand over the leather seat of my bike.
It hadn’t taken that much convincing to get Sage to charge the bikes to the Montgomery pack’s credit card. I didn’t know much about human money, but from what Sage had told me of the Montgomery account, they had more of it than they could ever need.
Enough that buying fake papers, identification, and everything else I needed to pass as someone from civilized society had been done in the blink of an eye.
“I can’t believe we’re halfway done with our hunt,” she said, and I instinctively reached into my pocket, feeling the five demon teeth that were in there—teeth from the demons I’d hunted and killed. “It won’t be the same here once you’re gone.”
“You sure you don’t want to come with me?” I asked. “Avalon’s looking for trained fighters, so you definitely fit the bill.”
I did a good job hunting demons, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that there had been one or two times when Sage had saved my ass.
There was a reason why wolves hunted in groups—or at least in pairs. We were always better together than alone.
“As tempting as that sounds, I can’t leave my pack,” she said. “They’re part of me. I’d never be able to live with myself if I left them forever.”
“I get it,” I said, since I did.
Leaving my pack had been one of the hardest decisions I’d ever made.
It was the right decision—I could do far more at Avalon than I could by staying home—but I’d be lying if I said there still weren’t days when I wondered what my life would have been like if I’d stayed.
“I’ll keep doing my part here in LA,” Sage said with a smile. “If Avalon ever needs a contact out here, I’m your girl.”
“Don’t you forget it,” I said. “And maybe once I’m in Avalon, I’ll be able to get you a slicer of your own.”
“That would be amazing.” She eyed up the dagger inside my open jacket, hunger flaring in her gaze.
The Earth Angel Annika herself had given me the dagger when she’d told me that I needed to bring her the teeth of ten demons I’d killed for admission to Avalon. An angel had dipped the dagger in heavenly water, which gave it the ability to slay demons.
Technically, the dagger was called a “heavenly dagger,” but I thought “slicer” had a better ring to it.
“No promises,” I said, since I had no idea what awaited me in Avalon. “Anyway, let’s head in before the witches think we’re loitering.” I strolled over to the massive glass door. “We’ve still got five demons to hunt.”
Noah
Amber—the leader of the LA witch circle—opened the door and ushered us inside the mansion that looked more like a modern art museum than a home. As usual, she was wearing yoga pants and an oversized sweatshirt, her blonde hair up in a messy bun. Only her floral supernatural scent gave any hint that she was a powerful witch.
Amber wasn’t the only witch I smelled inside—there were others as well. But unlike Amber’s fresh scent, they smelled sickly sweet, like syrup.
I’d asked Sage about them after the first time she’d taken me here, and she’d explained that while Amber practiced light magic, most of her circle practiced dark magic. That syrupy scent was the smell of a dark witch.
Luckily, the other witches stayed upstairs. Amber was the only witch of her circle who dealt with customers.
“I take it Tijuana was a success?” she asked as she led the way to the spell room.
At least, I thought of it as a spell room. Amber called it the apothecary.
“Would we be here if it wasn’t?” I asked.
“Perhaps,” she said. “You could need our help for a mission gone wrong. But you’re both looking rather confident, so I’m assuming that wasn’t the case.”
“You assumed correct.” Sage grinned. “This one gave us quite the chase, but we got her, just like we’ve gotten the rest of them.”
“Glad to hear it.” Amber opened the door to the apothecary, motioning for us to enter first.
Automatic lights turned on the moment we stepped inside, which was good since the apothecary was the only room in the house without windows. There was an empty table in the center, and cabinets along the walls displayed potions, crystals, and herbs. The only other door in the room was small and padlocked. I assumed it was a storage room.
“I take it you’re here for the usual?” Amber asked once the main door was shut.
“Yep.” I removed my slicer from its sheath and placed it on the table. “A demon locator spell.”
She retrieved her pendulum hanging on the wall and an atlas shelved nearby, placing them on the table next to the slicer. “You know the deal,” she said, looking at Sage. “I trust you both, but payment first.”
“Of course.” Sage reached into her bag and handed over her shiny black credit card.
Amber swiped the card through a device attached to her phone and handed it back to Sage. “Now time for the fun part.” Her eyes gleamed as she opened the atlas to a map of the Western USA. Once the map was positioned, she retrieved four different colored candles, placed them on all four points of the map, and lit them with a match. Each candle smelled like a different element. Earth was north, fire south, air east, and water west.
When all four candles were burning steadily, she picked up the pendulum and my slicer. As she’d explained this first time I’d seen her do this spell, this was so she could channel the essence of what we were seeking—in this case, demon blood similar to the blood that had been on my dagger—and connect that energy with the pendulum to locate it.
She zeroed in on the map, and her breathing slowed into long, steady breaths—like she was meditating. The room smelled like it blossomed with flowers as her magic burst to life.
I held my breath as I waited for the pendulum to move. If it didn’t, we’d come back every day until it did. We wouldn’t be charged again until she located the next demon, but sometimes we had a longer wait between hunts than others.
Just when I thought we’d be coming back tomorrow, the pendulum started swinging with a life of its own. It pulled Amber’s hand away from the center of the map, toward California.
I didn’t speak—I didn’t want to interrupt Amber’s concentration—but my veins pulsed with excitement. The closer this demon was to home, the sooner we could kill it.
The pendulum finally stopped swinging right over one of the largest city dots on the state.
“LA.” Amber’s eyes widened as she said the name of our home base. “There’s a city map in the front of the atlas.” She spoke quickly, the bitter scent seeping from her pores revealing her fear. “Pull it out and place it under the pendulum.”
Sage was quick to do as instructed.
With the new map underneath it, the pendulum started swinging again. I’d seen this happen before—Sage and I had consult
ed witches at each city we’d visited to pinpoint the location of the demon we were hunting—but there was something different about watching it happen against a map of the city I’d been calling home for the past few weeks.
I didn’t like the thought of one of those creatures on my home turf.
Amber moved her hand with the pendulum until it stopped swinging, pinpointing the location of our next hunt.
The writing on the map was gibberish to me—a fact I didn’t share with others if I could avoid it—so Sage said the name of our destination out loud.
The Santa Monica Pier.
Raven
Seriously?” I asked when Kaitlin pulled into the parking lot. “We’re going to the Pier?”
“It’ll be fun!” she said. “We can play tourists in our own city. But it’s your birthday, so if you don’t like the idea we can go somewhere else…”
“No,” I said. “You’re right—it’s been ages since I’ve been to the Pier. Let’s do it.”
“Good.” Tiffany smiled and glanced at her watch. “Because we have reservations at the Mexican restaurant, and we’re almost late.”
“And after dinner we can go on the rides!” Amy squealed, clapping her hands together like a little kid.
“That sounds perfect,” I said. It really did—especially since I’d never been fond of clubs, which was where a lot of people went for their twenty-first birthdays. Now that I was over the corny tourist aspect of coming out to the Pier, I had to admit it was a fun idea. “Thanks, guys.”
We entered under the lit up sign, meandering around gawking tourists who kept stopping to take pictures with the rides in the background.
“We should take a picture.” I took out my phone and flipped it onto camera mode. “After all, you only turn twenty-one once.” I raised the phone to take a selfie and snapped a few, although it was hard to get all four of us plus the background in the frame.
“Let’s get someone to take it for us.” Kaitlin took the phone from my hand and turned to two people passing by—a guy and a girl decked out in leather.
They looked ready for a motorcycle convention—not for the Santa Monica Pier on a spring night. They were also both jaw-droppingly gorgeous. I’d always considered preppy guys to be my type, but something about the way this guy’s shaggy brown hair framed his dark, intense eyes took my breath away.
“Excuse me,” Kaitlin said to him, apparently unfazed by his incredible good looks. “Would you mind taking a picture of us?”
He glanced at the phone like it was poisonous and sneered. “I’m no good with those things.” He didn’t even bother to look at us—it was like he thought we were vermin. “Find someone else.” He tugged on the girl’s arm, and she shrugged in apology before following him away.
“Some people are so rude,” I muttered. “How hard is it to take a picture?”
His back straightened, and he turned around to glare at me. I would have thought he’d heard me, but he was far enough away that that was impossible.
We quickly found someone else to take our picture. Once checking to make sure we all looked good in it, we continued along the Pier. The restaurant was all the way at the end, so we got to pass by all the carnival booths and rides. We were already discussing which ones we wanted to try.
“Raven!” someone called from a booth off to the side. “Raven Danvers!”
I looked over to see who was calling my name, expecting it to be someone from school. Instead, I saw a tanned, exotic-looking teen girl who was wearing sunglasses, despite the fact that the sun was nearly done setting. She stood inside a humble blue psychic booth called “Rosella’s.” She appeared to be working there.
She looked familiar, so I waved, figuring she was a customer I’d helped at the store.
“Do you want a palm reading?” she asked. “Complimentary, of course.”
“Thanks, but we have dinner reservations and we’re already running late,” I said with what I hoped was a kind smile, pointing my thumb toward the restaurant. “Maybe once we’re done!”
I wasn’t coming back once we were done, but there was no need to insult her. She was just trying to be nice since we worked in the same industry.
“As you wish.” She removed her sunglasses and stared at me with eyes so vacant that I shuddered.
It was only upon reaching the restaurant that I realized why her eyes looked like that.
She was blind.
But if she was blind, how had she known to call out my name while I was passing by?
Raven
My friends ordered a round of shots the moment we sat down at the table.
“IDs?” the waiter asked with a raise of his eyebrow.
I handed mine over and held my breath. Even though I was legal now, ordering drinks at a restaurant was still making me feel like I was doing something wrong. I supposed being twenty-one would take some getting used to.
“Happy birthday.” He handed it back with a smile. “You get a complimentary drink of your choice. What’ll it be?”
“Smirnoff Ice,” I said on instinct.
“Coming right up.” He headed off to grab it.
“Now that you’re twenty-one, you need to find a drink that isn’t known for catering to the underage crowd,” Kaitlin said with a laugh.
“Hey!” I held out my hands in defense, pretending to be offended. “Don’t trash talk my Smirnoff Ice.”
The waiter returned quickly with my Smirnoff Ice and the tequila shots. He took our orders, and I got the least vegan thing on the menu—a ground beef burrito with extra cheese melted on top. My mom only kept vegan food in the house, so I delighted in eating meat and dairy at every other opportune moment.
“Things are getting wild tonight.” Amy grinned devilishly at the shots and rubbed her hands together. She reached for hers and held it up, and we all followed her lead.
“To Raven’s twenty-first birthday!” Kaitlin said.
“And to her night of freedom!” Tiffany added.
“Cheers to that.” I smiled at them, and we all clicked our drinks together before downing the shots. It took a lot of self control not to gag as the liquor burned its way down my throat, but I forced it down, my eyes watering as I finished the last of it.
Luckily, a swig of deliciously sweet Smirnoff Ice was just the remedy to flush out the taste of tequila.
“So,” Kaitlin said, turning to me in excitement. “Tell us about your European adventure!”
“Yeah,” Tiffany agreed. “What made you go in the first place?”
“And why haven’t you posted any pictures online yet?” Amy asked.
They all leaned forward, watching me eagerly.
I lowered my eyes, knowing my answers were bound to disappoint them.
“I’m not sure why I went,” I said softly. “It’s weird. I mean, I always wanted to do some traveling at some point, but not like that. Not so unplanned.”
I shuddered at the thought of going anywhere without a plan—especially to a foreign country. Yet, I’d gone. I did the whole backpacking thing, taking the train from place to place, and going on tours recommended by other people in my hostels. And I did it with cash that I sort of remembered saving up, since there was no record of the trip on my credit card.
I thought I’d enjoyed the trip, but it was all hazy now. Like a dream instead of real life.
I hadn’t talked about it with my friends because I didn’t want them to think I was losing it. Who goes on a trip but doesn’t remember why, or if they even had fun while there?
And while my mom and I didn’t see eye to eye on much, worrying her by disappearing without telling her where I was going made me feel sick every time I thought about it. She’d thought I’d been kidnapped. Or worse—killed.
It was why I hadn’t argued with her decision to ground me. Yes, it was ridiculous for a twenty-one year old to be grounded, but it was also unacceptable for anyone to act the way I had.
I deserved the punishment.
“Going witho
ut a plan was very unlike you.” Kaitlin smiled, and I could tell she was trying to lighten the conversation. “Heaven forbid that anyone should ever ruin one of Raven’s plans. You had each semester of classes planned up to your senior year—starting from back when you were a freshman!”
“Of course I did!” I laughed and ran my fingers along the crystal on my neck, glad to be back on more familiar territory. “I need all the required courses to apply to medical school. You have no idea how hard it is to get into the right labs.”
Although of course, now that I was behind a semester, that plan had gotten messed up too. Why had I ever thought it was a good idea to gamble my future on such a whim?
I sat back and frowned, taking another swig of my drink as if it could wash my worries away.
“What about pictures?” Amy leaned forward, apparently oblivious to how I didn’t want to discuss Europe. She was the smallest of the four of us, so I assumed the shot had gone to her head. “Don’t tell us you went to Europe and took no pictures?”
“My phone broke on the journey home.” I shrugged. “I lost all my pictures with it.”
“Oh.” She frowned. “Bummer.”
Luckily the waiter came with our food before the inquisition could continue, and the topic of Europe was forgotten as we feasted on our meals. The girls were happy to tell me about all their latest guy drama, and I was more than happy to listen so I’d no longer be the center of attention.
After clearing our plates, the waiter returned with another Smirnoff Ice. “A gift from the gentleman in the plaid shirt at the bar,” he said as he placed the drink in front of me, tilting his head toward the guy he was referring to.
Heat rushed to my cheeks. I’d never had a guy send a drink over to me before. That was something that happened in movies—not to me.
I wasn’t sure what to do, so I looked over at the guy and raised my drink up in thanks before taking a sip.
He was cute. I wasn’t sure how old he was, but he looked around my age, or maybe a few years older. With his tanned skin and long blond hair, I guessed he was here on vacation to catch some waves.
The Angel Trials Page 2
