Really, I’m just sad.
Sad for Ares. Sad for his sister. Sad for everyone caught up in this mess.
We need to figure out how to take this demon out and end this, once and for all.
“So, what are you doing here?” I ask, folding my arms across my chest.
“I want to know what you have planned so we can work together.”
I’m shaking my head even before he’s finished speaking. “I’m glad you found the mole, but if they can get to Ares, who’s to say they haven’t compromised someone else?” One glance at Talon and I know he’s thinking the same thing. “It’s not a chance I’m willing to take.”
“Don’t be hardheaded about this. The Order has more resources than you do. You can only keep her safe on your own for so long.”
I think about our plan to go to the creature world and how much safer Haven will be a world away. And how I’ve just convinced Cassian to help us. “I think we’ve done okay so far.”
“I have just as much interest in keeping the girl safe as you do,” Kade says.
That’s highly unlikely, I think, but keep my mouth shut.
“Fine, you don’t want the Order involved,” he says. “I get that. Then just me. I still know this world better than the both of you. You’re both formidable in a fight, I won’t debate that, but you can’t tell me it wouldn’t help to have an extra set of hands right now.”
I cut my gaze to Talon, trying to read what he thinks of this, but I can’t tell. He seems on the fence.
“I would do anything to stop this demon from gaining full powers and a physical form. Let me help,” Kade adds, and the look on his face makes me believe him. Or at least want to.
“If Kade helps Cassian get ready, then we can get back to the girls and their parents,” Talon says evenly.
Kade looks confused, not yet having figured out why we’re here for Cassian.
“Their parents aren’t going to like it,” I say.
“That’s an understatement,” he agrees.
It’s going to take a little time to gather the materials Cassian needs to open a portal. Getting back to Haven rather than having to stay with him and prepare to open the portal would be preferable. But as much as I like and respect Kade, there’s only one way I’m going to be okay with letting him in on our plans.
I look him straight in the eye and say, “How do you feel about blood oaths?”
Twenty-Six
HAVEN
When Locklyn relays that the guys are returning earlier than expected, a traitorous zing of happiness sparks through me that I promptly squash. I was worried Cassian wouldn’t agree to help us, but the good news is that they somehow managed to enlist the ancient vampire’s help. The bad news is, at least for my parents, that the head of the New York Order is now somehow part of our small group.
At first, my parents respond with fear and outrage, but after getting on the sat-phone with Talon and finding out that Kade is under a blood oath to withhold information about us and our plans from anyone else, they calm a bit. They still aren’t happy with the arrangement, but the blood oath mollifies them.
Since Kade is now helping, he’s taking Cassian to prepare for making the portal, in whatever way that means, and so the guys are already on their way back to the cabin. The plan is for all of us to meet up with Kade and Cassian late tomorrow and go to the creature world.
As much as I hate to admit it, every hour that ticked by while Becks was away, my anxiety leveled up. I’m now a messy ball of nerves. We’ve had a small reprieve from the early winter snow, but now it’s coming down hard, making me worry the guys will have trouble getting back.
The rumble of an engine reaches my ears, making me perk up from the puzzle I’ve been distracting myself with for the last hour.
Locklyn pops up and runs to the window, but I force myself to remain where I am even though everything in me is screaming to do the same: to get off this couch and make sure that Becks is back, safe and unharmed.
I remind myself I have to stay strong if I want to sever this connection between us. But even as it’s the right thing to do to protect myself, I feel a physical tug in my chest, as if my heart is trying to force me to my feet.
I bite my bottom lip, my foot tapping with sudden anxiousness.
“Are you all right?” my mom asks, and when I glance up, she’s frowning down at me.
