They stuck their phones back in their pockets, and when Zina climbed behind the wheel again, Cabo returned to the passenger seat.
“I’ll come with you,” Asher told her as the van started.
“I always go after the stones alone.”
“That was before. Now you can have someone watch your back, just in case. I’m not one of your friends, I’m expendable, and you’re not going to care if something happens to me.”
Brie was a little unnerved to realize shewouldbe upset if something happened to him. She barely knew this man, but she liked him.
“You saw that neighborhood,” she said. “There aren’t any demons and Savages lurking around there.”
“I’ve seen a lot of things recently that seemed innocuous but weren’t. The demons and Savages aren’t playing fair anymore. They’re using humans in some towns to spy for them. If you say those stones can help you stop them, I will help you find them.”
“You are helping by staying out of the way.”
She said this, but his words had chilled her skin and caused her bladder to clench. The demons were using humans as spies and injecting vampires and hunters with their blood?
Those monsters had unleashed a whole new aspect of war upon them, and there was no way they could fight against that kind of evil, especially when theyweren’tevil. They didn’t think in such cruel ways.
How far were they willing to go to succeed? How far would they go to take over the earth? They were here to destroy them all, and if they couldn’t be stopped, then all of humanity was doomed.
“Is it true they’re using humans in that way?” Cabo inquired.
“Yes,” Asher said. “And there could be some of those people in this town.”
Cabo stared at him before his gaze swung to Brie. “I’llgo with you.”
Brie shook her head. They couldn’t leave Zina alone in this van with the hunter. She didn’t think he would do anything, but she couldn’t take the chance either, and Zina was the weakest of them. She could kick some ass, but Brie had fought the hunter; he was strong and fast and could take down Zina. She couldn’t take that chance.
Brie’s fingers slid to the inner pocket of the windbreaker she’d donned. Though it remained empty, it had held the last two stones and would carry another today.
As soon as her fingers touched the pocket, a flash longer than one from a camera but with nearly the same intensity, went off in her head. An image of the woods, the stone buried beneath the earth, and a blue house with yellow shutters that was almost too cheerful went off in her head.
Then, the image zoomed up to the back door like she was about to enter. She went to stretch her hand inside, but of course, it wouldn’t go any further because no vamp could enter a home uninvited.
A hunter could.
And then, as fast as they came, the images vanished, and she found herself staring into Asher’s curious eyes. He’d leaned toward her and rested his hand on her shoulder when she froze, but she didn’t feel it until the vision ended.
“Are you okay?” Asher demanded.
“What did you see?” Cabo inquired.
“That was a vision?” Asher asked.
“Yes,” she said to Asher before focusing on Cabo. “I saw the stone again and this time the house. I tried to get into the house, but of course, I couldn’t.”
“Are you okay?” Asher asked again.
“I’m fine,” she assured him and shrugged off his hand. She couldn’t be distracted by his touch when she had to work through the vision. “It’s nothing new for me.”
Asher leaned back as he tried to process what he’d seen. Kadence received visions, but he’d never seen anything like that happen to her. Brie had frozen, her entire face went slack, and her eyes glazed over. She’d almost looked alien for a second as she stared blankly at him with her mouth slightly parted.
“I’m going with you,” he insisted.
Brie chewed her bottom lip as she resisted arguing with him. The stones werehermission, and though she’d seen the next one tucked safely beneath the earth, there was a reason she received a vision of the house. Did it mean she had to bring him with her?
Yes, as much as she hated to admit it, it did.
