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No wonder Julian left. Silas was his sire and, according to my father and the evidence I’d just seen with my third eye, he couldn’t say no to him. He had every reason to believe Silas could make him hurt me as he’d threatened to do to the girl in the vision. So Julian’s solution was to remove himself from the equation.

This man killed Clare, Julian’s sister. What must it have been like for Julian to be indebted to him?

“I just remembered something,” I said with a smile of my own as I stepped into the dappled sunlight, still chilled to the bone. “The general will want a full report.” I wiggled my fingers in a goodbye wave and hurried down the steps to Mabel’s daisy-covered Volkswagen. She’d come back for me just as she promised.

“Have fun with the crypt walkers?” Mabel asked, materializing in the driver’s seat as she pulled away with a screech of tires.

“Not one bit. But I did get some information I needed. I don’t suppose you know anything about vampires?” I asked, clicking my seatbelt into place as we hugged the curve of the road.

“Yeah, it’s best to stay away from them,” she said with a toss of semi-transparent hair.

Kind of hard to do when your father dragged you into their midst at a young age, but I kept that miserable assessment to myself. What had Dad gotten himself into now? Did he have the slightest inkling that Silas was evil?

I had to find Julian. He knew everything about Silas, and I’d need all the information I could get to stay out of his clutches.

Mon Cher. The name he’d called me in my mind made me physically ill and I hugged myself.

How had he so easily fooled both Dad and Lydia? Dad had already demonstrated questionable choices when it came to sources of funding. But Lyds? She had a level head on her shoulders.

“Where to? The house?” Mabel asked as we crested the hill toward the village.

“No. Take me to the base, please.” I needed to talk to someone who could think clearly, and I knew just who that someone was.

Chapter Nine

My First Mission

“What do I do with the file?” I asked as Daphne flipped it closed.

“Burn it,” she said. “You’re giving him something to hold over you if you turn it in.”

“But if I do that, then Lydia will take the blame.”

Daphne scrunched her tiny nose in thought as vines rose and twisted in the foot of fog behind her. “Then we nail him for murder instead. Two problems solved.”

I sighed and leaned back on the boulder bench she’d called out of the ground for me to sit on and gave voice to the issue that had been poking at me for hours. “What if it really was my fault?”

Daphne leaned over so we were face to face. “If, and that’s a big if, baby, it was your command that caused this, then that’s on him. He knew about the command, and he still tried to do gods-know-what to Lydia. You saved her life.”

“But we can’t frame an innocent man no matter how despicable he is,” I protested, fighting tears.

“Innocent?” Daphne snorted. “From what you told me, Silas killed multiple times without conscience, and he is framing you.”

“Well, when you put it that way…” I forced a smile. “How do we do it?”

“Hmm that’s the tricky part,” she said, sitting as the thick vines behind her twisted into chair support. “That’s going to take some thought and strategic planning.”

“Which I don’t have time for. As it is, I feel horrible not being able to focus on finding the missing kids. I have to find Julian and run Tittwell’s errand to save another psychic from MorningStar.”

“You can’t do everything yourself, hon. Your mom, Zoe, Hazel, Binx, and Sam are all working on finding the kids. You find Julian and save a psychic while I dispose of this,” Daphne waved the folder. “And figure out how to prove Silas’s guilt.”

“Don’t dispose of it yet,” I said, standing. “It’s Lydia’s only insurance policy. We may be able to use it somehow.”

“Okay. I’ll hang on to it then.” Daphne pointed at the boulder I’d just vacated, and the center sank in, creating a compartment of sorts where she placed the file. Then she waved a hand and the rock slid over the top.

“Wow,” was all I could say as she swiped her hands together in a done motion.

“Take whatever supplies you think you’ll need in your belt,” Daphne suggested. “Wear something comfortable, too, in case you need to fight.”