I held them out, palms up.
Oren frowned. “You’ve got tiny slivers of glass embedded in your skin. Jason, can you get me some tweezers?”
Papan didn’t hesitate and headed for the downstairs bathroom.
“Oren, what happened?”
“I have no idea.” He rubbed the top of his head, which was still bloody but looked dry. “I was reading the text about the ritual…and then, nothing. I opened my eyes and found you here.” He looked at me. “It wasn’t easy to get Ebony away from the vampires, was it?”
“It got messy.” I looked down at my jacket and jeans—both stained.
“I can see that.” He frowned.
“Oren, the vampire who had her somehow made her forget about Conrad,” I whispered. “And I’m really worried. You said she’s in some sort of coma—what if she never wakes up because we killed the vampire who messed with her mind?”
His frown deepened and he looked me in the eye. “I don’t think his death will have a bearing on her survival. She might have been bitten many times, and could even have taken blood, but it takes much more to turn someone into a vampire.”
“What about her memory—do you think she’ll get it back?”
“I really don’t know.” He shrugged. “You didn’t find Willow downstairs or outside?”
I shook my head.
“The defenses are still intact. I don’t understand how anyone could have gotten in and out without making a dent in them.”
“The laundry door was unlocked.” I felt my chest constrict at what I was about to say. “Maya came and took her, didn’t she? Maybe lured her out.”
Oren shook his head. “I don’t know, but I didn’t hear or feel anything out of the ordinary inside or outside the house. It’s all very peculiar.” He rubbed his white whiskered chin. “But I have to tell you something important before Jason gets back.” He peered over his shoulder quickly before turning back. “I finished deciphering the Obscurus text.”
“That’s good, right?” At least one positive thing had come out of this horrid night. Yet he was still frowning. “It’s not a good thing?”
“The ritual they have planned is a brutal one and requires a lot of supernatural energy. It’s no wonder they want you at your full strength.”
“We kinda knew that already.”
He nodded. “True, but I didn’t realize there would be so much blood needed to fuel it. They will be making sacrifices every step of the way which means at least four humans will die during the ritual. And that’s not the worst thing.”
“Do I want to hear this?”
“Sierra, once the conjuring of Legion is set in motion, there’s only one way to stop it.”
My breath caught in my throat. “Well, don’t keep me in suspense, what is it?” If he was stalling, this had to be pretty bad.
“The only way to stop the ritual’s success is by killing everyone trapped inside the pentagram.”
I shrugged, underwhelmed by his answer. “I can do that. I already got rid of Travis and killed Mauricio, plus you don’t want to know how much vampire blood I have on my hands after tonight.”
“You don’t understand…”
I sighed in frustration. “Then tell me why you’re freaking out about this!”
Papan’s footsteps drew closer.
“In order to stop the ritual once it’s begun, you need to kill the Obscurus members at each point on the pentagram star, the one in the middle, and their sacrificial lambs. Everyone inside the sealed pentagram must die.”
“Man, it was hard to find these,” Papan called, strolling back into the kitchen.
I stared at Oren, willing him to make me realize the full extent of what he was saying. So much for my initial reaction—this was bad.
“Everyone you eliminate will lose the ability to have their soul carried on,” he whispered.
I couldn’t help but gasp.
“Hey, are you okay? What’s going on?” Papan rushed to my side, looking at my hands as if he expected them to have fallen off or something. After the night’s events, I guess we were all pretty jumpy. We might have gotten Ebony back, but had lost Willow in the process.
It took me a moment to collect myself, but I managed to answer. “I’m fine, just not looking forward to this.”
Papan handed Oren the tweezers. “Here you go, and be as gentle as you can.”
My grandfather rolled his eyes as he dragged a kitchen chair in front of me and sat with a heavy sigh. He held my left hand in his and started the tedious task of pulling out the small glass fragments. It took him longer than I thought it would and the three of us sat in silence the whole time. Once he was done he applied some of the cooling salve and bandaged both hands.
“I’m pretty sure I removed all the pieces.” Oren wiped his hands on the hand towel he’d used to clear away the blood every time he removed a sliver of glass.
“Thanks.” I didn’t want to fixate on what Oren had told me about the ritual but couldn’t shake it. Stripping away whatever black soul the Obscurus crazies had wasn’t anything I would regret, but doing the same to someone who didn’t deserve it was unthinkable.
Right now, I had to tackle the first problem on the list.
“We have to find Willow,” I said. “Papan was able to track her scent to the end of the street.”
Oren turned to look at him.
“I’ve only known her for a few days so her scent isn’t too familiar, but it was strong enough up until that bus stop.”
“So whoever took her caught a bus?” It sounded like such an unlikely scenario, and I felt silly voicing it.
Papan shrugged.
“It could be a way to throw off the trail,” Oren said.
I nodded. “Well, it looks like it worked because unless we board each bus that stops there to see if Papan can follow the scent we’re pretty much screwed.”
Oren looked thoughtful, scratching at his chin. “There’s got to be a way, something we missed…”
I wracked my brain, trying to find some sort of miracle, something to help answer our questions, when I caught sight of the laptop. All the talk about the Obscurus and the computer itself reminded me of Maya—our main suspect. And now that I knew she was connected to Jonathan, there might be one lead we could follow.
“Actually, I might know someone who can help.” I avoided both of their confused glares and instead stood up and stepped into the living room with them close on my heels.
Ebony was lying on the couch and someone—probably Conrad—had put a cushion under her head and thrown a blanket over her. With the long multi-hued strands of hair spread out, she looked more like a sleeping child than a woman. She’d really screwed up this time.
“Sierra, you can’t say something like that and then walk away,” Oren said.
“He’s right. What do you mean?” Papan stood beside the older man with his arms crossed.
“Will you guys keep it down?” Conrad snapped, giving each of us a dirty look. He pushed aside the bowl of chips, sat on the coffee table and leaned forward, scrutinizing every breath Ebony took.
“We’re not disturbing her,” I said.
“Maybe it’s better if we are. Then she might wake up.” Oren raised his white eyebrows to emphasize the point neither one of us had obviously considered. “But back to what we were discussing—what makes you think you might know someone who can help find Willow?”
“Maybe we can start by asking Jonathan where Maya is.”
Papan frowned. “Why would he know?”
“I thought you said you didn’t want to see him,” Conrad said.
I sighed, making my way around to the other side of the living room and behind the couch so I could look at the three men crowding this space. “This won’t be a social call or even asking him for help healing someone, but if he’s hiding Maya we might also find Willow.”
“We don’t know for sure that she took her,” Oren said.
“Who else would take Willow?”
I nodded. “Maya’s part of the Obscurus and won’t hesitate to kill her, so it’s important that we find Willow ASAP. I’m sick and tired of creatures hurting the people I care about.” I sucked in a breath. “If you guys don’t want to come, that’s fine. You should probably stay with Ebony anyway,” I said to Conrad. “And this isn’t your fight, Oren.”
He stepped closer. “The hell it’s not! This Lamia is threatening both of my granddaughters, so it’s very much my business.”
“Okay then, let’s go.” I turned to Papan. “The same goes for you, you know? You don’t have to do this. You’ve already gotten hurt tonight.” I reached for the damaged skin of his neck but stopped short of touching it.
Papan grabbed my elbow and pulled me aside. “You know I’m going to stand by your side no matter what.”
“There’s no time like the present, then.” I couldn’t help but smile at his constant support.
“Wait up!” Conrad called, standing up. “We’re not staying here. I need to take Ebony somewhere else—somewhere safe.”
“I don’t think she should be moved.”
“Sierra, just trust me on this,” he said. “Drop me off at Father Luke’s parish.”
“What, why?”
“Just do me this one favor, all right?”
I shrugged and headed for the front door, grabbing my keys on the way out. I stepped outside with Papan right behind me. Almost instantly, Vixen appeared out of nowhere and marched right up to him.
“Jason, where are you going?”
“What are you still doing here?” I turned to ask her but she ignored me.
“Who hurt your neck?” When she made a move to touch him, he grabbed both of her wrists to stop her and stepped back.
“Don’t touch me!” Papan barked. “Go home and I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Promise you’ll really call?”
“Yeah…” Judging by the murderous look in his eyes, I was pretty sure he wouldn’t.
“Okay.” She sidestepped to let us past but frowned when she saw Ebony in Conrad’s arms. “Wait, what happened to Eb?”
“Nothing that concerns you,” I said, hitting the path.
She ran down the stairs and forced me to stop by blocking me. “I’ve been trying to call her for days but she doesn’t return my calls either, and now you’re taking her somewhere while she’s unconscious? You need to tell me what’s going on.”
“I don’t need to tell you anything.”
“I’ll fill you in tomorrow,” Papan said as he passed by to hold the back door open for Conrad to slide Ebony into the car.
Oren locked the front door and joined me on the path. “Come on.”
Vixen glared at him, but Oren didn’t seem to notice—or mind.
I ignored the pathetic werewolf hunter long enough to jump into the driver’s side, while Oren got in behind me and Papan into the passenger seat. Times like these, I was especially grateful for the size of my car.
As I drove away from my house, I watched Vixen step onto the concrete path.
I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell she was really up to.
Chapter Twelve
“Oren, it’s so good to see you!” Father Luke said, taking Oren’s hand between both of his. “It’s been too long.”
“It’s a shame it’s not under the best of circumstances.”
The priest nodded and his haggard features darkened as the handshake ended. He was clean-shaven, balding, and dressed in his usual white shirt and brown slacks combo. The priest had a comforting aura about him and always made everyone feel welcome, though he seemed to be ignoring me right now.
Since the demonic incident where he’d been swallowed whole and then regurgitated by the huge demon he was trying to exorcise, Father hadn’t been the same towards me. Did he have nightmares about that afternoon? I didn’t have nightmares about the encounter, but I did think about it often because my life had changed so much after that day. It was the first time I dragged anything demonic into the dark patch.
“Yes.” The priest turned his attention to Ebony, releasing Oren. He placed a hand over her clammy forehead. “What happened to her?” He inspected some of the bites Narelle hadn’t been able to heal along her arms. “She’s got a very high fever.”
“That’s good, right?” I asked. “A fever helps fight infection—”
“She was held captive by vampires. They fed off her for days,” Conrad said. He hadn’t let go of her since we left the car, refused help every time we offered it. “One messed around with her head, made her forget some things about her life.”
Ironic, how she’d gotten caught up with the vampires to forget the bad experience at the Council and ended up losing so much more. I still hoped she’d wake up with her memory intact.
The priest scowled. “How did she get involved with vampires?” He glanced my way for just a second and nodded a greeting. Did he blame me for what had happened to her? It wouldn’t surprise me, since he cared about her. Ebony mentioned her parents used to dump her in his church when she was a kid, hoping some religion would change the fact she could see the ghosts of dead people. Obviously it hadn’t worked but the priest helped her accept what she was and supported her. But he didn’t know what she’d been through late last month and why she’d willingly gotten into such a desperate scenario.
I sighed. “The Council did some pretty nasty experimentation on her a few weeks ago. I think losing herself in the vampiric nightlife helped her deal with it, but she got in too deep.”
Father Luke’s frown deepened, causing his wrinkles to harden. “Bring her inside. I think the first thing she needs is a holy water bath. It should help remove any of the bacteria the vamps might have left behind. It might even help heal them completely so the scarring won’t be as bad as it looks now.”
We all crowded around the vestibule of The Lord’s Saint, the small church Father Luke called home.
As he directed Conrad to follow him into the nave with Ebony in his arms, I stayed put. Even though I donated whenever I could, his church still didn’t feel welcoming. It had nothing to do with the priest and everything to do with my feeling self-conscious and unworthy anytime I stepped inside a holy place. I didn’t consider myself religious and certainly wasn’t looked at favorably by the majority of the clergy, but Father Luke was an exorcist so he’d never held any prejudice against me. He knew how bad things could get when dealing with the darkness hidden in our world.
“Hey, what’re you thinking about?” Papan asked, stepping up behind me and pressing both hands against my shoulders.
Having him close and willing to offer such support would never get old.
“Nothing.” I whispered the lie. If I told him everything I was thinking about it would take hours to sort through the muddle. I wasn’t happy about Ebony’s condition, and wouldn’t be satisfied until she woke up and we could assess the mental damage. Then I was going to throttle and threaten her until she promised never to do something this stupid again.
No, that’s not what you want to do to her.
What I really wanted to do was have a proper conversation about everything that had happened, even if it meant ignoring her desire to keep me at a distance. I was done playing her game. We had to fix this. Our friendship was more important than any grudge. If it took her screaming at me for hours and blaming me for all her recent hardships, so be it. Anything was better than seeing her chained to a silver pole while vampires chewed on and abused her.
A shiver crawled down my spine.
“Hey.” Papan dropped his hands and made his way around me until he was all I could focus on.
“Sorry,” I said with a sigh. “There’s just so much going on.” I pushed long strands of knotty curls
away from my face. All of this rain wasn’t being kind to my hair.
“Yeah, and you’ve got your thinking face on. So I know something’s on your mind.”
I didn’t want to dwell on my thoughts, so instead jumped straight into what I wanted to do right now. “We have to find Jonathan. Tonight.”
“Why do you want to find him?”
I looked past Papan and found Lavie exiting the nave with her aunt beside her. Sally nodded and smiled at me and Papan before heading straight for Oren. He stood by the holy water font and extended both hands out to greet her. The familiarity I’d noticed between them at her store seemed even more evident now, as she encouraged him to step farther into the shadows near the front door.
What did they have to chat about that entailed such secrecy?
“Well?” Lavie stepped closer. The hem of her long, purple dress swept over the floor as she moved closer, her pointy-toed boots peeking through with each tread. “Why would you want to find him? You know he’s bad news. Is he still hassling you?”
“It’s not because I want to,” I said. She was staring at Papan with a questioning look on her face. “Oh, you two haven’t met. Sorry. Lavie, this is Jason Papan. Papan, this is Lavie Grye.”
“Nice to meet you,” he said, holding out his right hand.
She shook but continued to hold on when he made a move to pull out of the handshake. “It’s nice to meet you too. You’re not an average human, are you? But I can’t detect anything demonic about you.”
“I bloody hope not. I’m a werewolf, not a demon. Though, from what I hear you deal with them often enough.” He laughed. “I’ve had my fair share of transactions with demons, and although they’re not all pleasant, some are more helpful than evil.”
“Yes, that’s right! I did mention that to Sierra once, but I can understand why she’s jaded with all those psychos after her and her ex being possessed by one.” Her smile widened. “So, are you two…”
“Yes, we are,” I said with a nod.
“Good. You deserve to be happy, Sierra.” She sidled up beside me and whispered, “And he’s a total babe. Yow!”
I chuckled, and was pretty sure Papan heard her every word.
On Pins and Needles: Sierra Fox, Book 3 Page 23
