When one of the cans tilted precariously toward her, she placed a hand on it to keep it from toppling off. She settled it more firmly on the shelf before turning her attention to the solid wall behind it… or at least it looked solid.
She’d spent a lot of money and had some talented people come in to make sure that the keen vision of a vampire couldn’t detect any difference in the wall surface. They’d done a fantastic job, and she’d taken its memory from all the people who entered this house.
Stepping forward, she pushed on a section that looked no different than the rest. Only her knowledge of where the button was allowed her to find it, and there were times when she’d spend a minute or two trying to locate it. Unless someone knew it was there, they would never think to look for it.
Levers clicked, and a square wall section sprang open and swung toward her. She caught the door and peered in at the safe beyond. The red lasers crisscrossing in front of the safe were so close she couldn’t slip a piece of paper between them.
A keypad was on the inside of the wall panel. She tapped in her mother’s birthday, and the lasers vanished. Cabo and Zina knew where the safe was, but she hadn’t given them the code. She figured they were safer that way.
With the lasers gone, only the safe remained to guard the stones. She’d specifically had the safe designed to withstand a bomb and a vampire… at least for a little while.
Before this safe and this location, she would keep the stones scattered in different places, most of them locked in safety deposit boxes in banks. Before that, she’d buried them in areas only she knew or kept them with her.
All those ways to hide them had been endlessly nerve-racking as she’d constantly worried when they were out of her sight. She was still apprehensive now, but at least they were heavily guarded and together.
For some reason, their being together felt right to her. She didn’t know why, and she could never explain it, but she couldn’t rid herself of the feeling they belonged together.
She’d felt safer about having it down here, even with all this security, when Zina’s grandmother was alive. A human residing here meant no vampires could have gotten in without permission.
Since Brie was far stronger and older than most vampires, she’d made sure Zina’s grandma never let anyone in. She didn’t fear another vamp would break through her control and into the home. They could burn the house down, but not only was the safe fireproof, it was also encased in steel when the panel was shut.
She reminded herself no one else knew what she was doing. Sure, there were other vampires and humans out there with her ability to see the future and find things, but if any Savage or demon glimpsed the stones, they would have come for them centuries ago.
There was the off chance a new vampire with visions could emerge and find them, but no one that young would possess the kind of capability it required to do what she’d done. It took her fifty years to locate the first stone, and yes, since they were all together, it would be easier to find them, but it would still take a while.
“And what if they’ve been searching for a while?” she whispered as she stared into the safe’s shadowed interior.
“Cut it out,” she hissed.
She would make herself crazy with all her doubts and speculations. The endless possibilities of what could happen, what might already be happening, and the uncertainty of a future she often glimpsed was enough to drive the sanest person mad.
If someone else was hunting the stones, there was nothing she could do to stop it. She was doing the best she could, she’d kept them safe for centuries, and she would do so until the day she died.
She was certain the demons were hunting the stones too, but they would never get them. She would make certain of that. She wished she knew what they were for, why they were so vital, and what to do once she finally had them all together.
They were important, but how they were meant to be used remained a giant mystery to her. She doubted she was supposed to start throwing them at the demons. Not only was that childish but also pointless.
She’d been having visions of the stones since she was twenty-five, but none of her premonitions had revealed the purpose of them. It was a little detail she refused to let herself ruminate on; it would only infuriate her.
Most of the time, her visions were far more of a curse than a blessing, and if she didn’t somehow learn what these stones were meant to do, it would be one more failing on her part. Not only would it be that most didn’t believe her visions, but her entire quest for these past nearly five hundred years would be for nothing.
It was too depressing a possibility to linger on. When the visions of the stones first started, she had no idea what they meant or why she was getting them. Unable to shake them, or the incessant feeling she had to find that stone, she set out in search of it.
When she found the diamond-shaped, lime-green stone set into the hilt of a broken sword, she had no idea what she held or why it was so important, but every fiber of her beingscreamedto keep it safe. Over the years, she’d collected six more stones and added them to the safe. Now, only three remained.
Digging her hand into her pocket, she pulled out the red stone she’d retrieved earlier and rubbed her thumb across its dirty surface. There was no spark, nothing that made it any more important than the average ruby, except it would be a prettybigruby considering it filled the palm of her hand.
It appeared the same as any other stone, but she knew it was different. Setting it inside, she reached into the back of the safe. Her hand enclosed on the hilt of the broken sword that had become as familiar as her fingers over the centuries.
Lifting it, she pulled the blade from the safe, and a sense of peace and rightness stole through her. She examined the lime-green stone, but she already knew everycentimeterof it. Over the centuries, she’d spent countless hours holding this sword and studying the stone.
There was a small fleck of darker green near the center. It was so tiny that anyone casually observing it would never notice, but she had. She knew its indents, the way it curved, and the feel of its ridges as well as she knew her name.
It didn’t spark like it sometimes did when she held it, but she had first grasped it in the safe and most likely missed it. Still, it didn’t matter. This stone belonged toher. It was ingrained on her very soul.
Brie reluctantly placed it back in the safe near the only other stone also set into the hilt of a broken sword. She hated shutting her stone inside with the others. She ached to keep it with her, but she couldn’t. The blade would still kill, but it was far too noticeable, and she ran into too many Savages, many of whom she wasn’t always able to kill.
They'd hunt her if they saw her with the sword, and she couldn’t have that. They could come once she had all the stones, but not before then.
