“So what kind of damage is Detroit in for today?” Andrew asks.
I look at him. “What?”
Andrew rolls his eyes, grabs a glass and fixes Mara water. She takes it and gulps the whole thing down in two swallows and Andrew’s eyebrows go up.
“My apologies, beautiful lioness, I should’ve given you a pitcher.” He fills a clean pitcher with ice water and places it in front of her.
“This vampire is weird,” Mara mutters into her pancakes.
Josiah looks at Andrew. “While Andrew already has a mate of his own, he does covet the beauty of the lioness.”
Layla giggles and looks at Mara. “What’s not to love?” She flashes from Josiah’s side to next to Mara at the bar so fast I don’t track the movement and reaches down and grabs Mara’s tail gently. “You surely are a delicate piece of art. Even I can see your beauty.”
Mara hisses and rips her tail out of Layla’s palm. Layla grins at her but her expression is unreadable.
“We aren’t going to destroy anything,” I tell Andrew. “I’m just looking for someone.”
Andrew scoffs. “I already called Kade. She told me to keep an eye on you.” He leans against the bar. “Whatever is going onin Wintermoon, my mother being too busy to get your asses in line... something is wrong.”
Josiah straightens his cuffs. “You can conjure your father’s location. Do it now.”
“You think I’m some master of spells? I’ve never done that before.”
“But you’ve conjured others,” Josiah says.
“Yeah, but that’s because I’m bonded to them.”
Josiah raises an eyebrow. “But you’re not bonded to him... hmmm. Interesting.” He tilts his head. “‘The ties we deny are often the ones that bind us tightest. Acknowledging a bond is not a weakness but the first act of power over it.’ Chapter thirty-one.”
“No offense, Uncle Jo, but I really hate that fucking book.”
“Is it the truth you hate?” Josiah asks. “Or just the book itself?”
“Both.”
But I push away from the bar and walk out onto the empty dance floor. The colored lights are off and the space is wide and dark without the crowd. I flick my wrist and blue-gold light extends from my palm, filling the space around me. My magic responds. I close my eyes.
“Help me find Eric.”
My power pushes outward and I stand there in the quiet while it reaches through the city. I can feel it searching for the thread I don’t want to admit is there. Josiah was right. That’s what pisses me off. It wasn’t the book that stung me. It was the truth in it. I wouldn’t be in this position if it weren’t for my longing for a relationship with Eric. I spent two years letting him in because I wanted a father so badly I ignored every instinct that told me something was wrong. My mother tried to warn me. Mara tried. I didn’t listen. I trusted Eric because I wanted it tobe real and that wanting made me stupid enough to open the Witching Glen for a man who was using me.
My magic pulses. It found him.
Mara’s tail brushes against my arm and I open my eyes. She’s standing next to me with a soft smile and I give her one back. She doesn’t say anything.
Eric appears in the form of a hologram on the dance floor. He’s walking through what looks like several floors of a library, passing people who don’t notice him. Like he’s invisible. Mara steps closer and I pull her against me and she looks up at me and then down at the hologram.
“I’ve seen this place before,” I murmur.
Layla walks over, her eyes scanning the hologram with familiarity. “It’s my old job. The Detroit Main Library.”
I look up at her. “Why the hell would he hide there?”
Josiah steps up behind her. “What better a place to hide? ‘The most dangerous adversaries are those who conceal themselves in places that feel safe. You will never think to search where your guard is lowest.’ Chapter nineteen.” He watches the hologram. “You wouldn’t think to look here, would you?”
I let out a sigh. “No.”
Josiah grins, his fangs flashing, and snaps his fingers. A portal opens in front of us. “Let’s go talk to him.”
