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Chloe turned her angry stare over to Bianca, who just stared back with a knowing grin. All at once the tension fell away and Chloe let out a huff before turning back to us.
“Continue, please,” she said. Her voice held a bit less annoyance but it was clear she wasn’t trusting.
“My sister was taken while we were out several months ago. I turned for a second and she was dragged outside. I was shot with a silver bullet when I caught up to them and tried to save her,” I started my story at the beginning. I continued on, from the killings to the abduction and my time at the Bluffs, then finally to what led us here. She listened the entire time but the moment I mentioned the magic the tracker used, her nostrils flared in anger. It was subtle but I was studying her directly as I spoke so I didn’t miss it.
When I finished, she took a long pull of champagne then shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry for your loss, Vanya. I really am.” I believed her, there was a shared type of sadness there meaning she’d lost someone too. “But my coven is alive because we mind our business and stay within this city. If we help you… we could lose it all.”
“You could anyway,” Leven said bluntly. “He approached Vanya right outside of Vince’s shop today. He’s here already. There seems to be nothing that stops him.”
“And he literally just poofed out of existence when the square came to her aid,” Vince explained.
“More magic,” Bianca said. “Do you know who is helping him?”
“The Grave Pack apparently has a dark witch on their side. She set the traps to snare other witches and now they’ve moved on to wolves. I have no idea what their end game is other than to make their pack the strongest in the country, if not the only pack in the country. They have to be stopped,” Callum said. His tone bordered on pleading.
Chloe closed her eyes for a moment as if to gather her thoughts before locking eyes on Callum. “I would bet money that it is Straya. She was a high priestess that was exiled from our leading coven. That entire coven fell first, in fact.”
“Exiled for the type of magic she used?” I asked. My curiosity was winning out again. Though, it couldn’t hurt to ask these questions while we could so we didn’t go running in blind.
Bianca nodded and held out her arm, wrist up for us to see a long burn winding down it.
“Yes. She uses blood magic as a way to overthrow others. Most of the darker arcane arts were ended long ago and the books burned. Yet some always seem to find their way into the wrong hands. This burn came the night she tore apart my old coven. I was the sole survivor of the attack and that was only because they left me for dead and Chloe found me.”
“I’m sorry you went through that,” Nyx said. “I think that this duo has done far too much damage among all of our kind.”
“You are right about that,” Vince said. “If he finds a use for vampires, he would attack us too.”
“What is your plan?” Chloe demanded of Callum. Our alpha didn’t falter under the challenge. His head was held high, and he kept his tone light but confident.
“Protect my people at all costs. To save those who have been taken. We have silver weapons waiting with our pack. Our job was to find witches to help aid us or to join us. We plan an attack. There’s a network of untouched packs that are on our side as well. We have strength in numbers but we do not have the same level of spells on our side.”
“We cannot join you in battle,” Chloe said firmly. She was letting her fear win, but I could respect her doing what she could to save her coven. Though I also believed Leven’s warning was true. She was only safe temporarily. “But we will offer aid. I have a specialist in protection and one in explosive spells.”
“I could rune your weapons,” Bianca said. Chloe turned sharply to stare down her companion. We all knew she’d have to see the weapons to rune them. This was a big risk and one against her coven leader.
“No,” Chloe said firmly.
“Yes,” Bianca countered evenly. “I have to do this. We aren’t joining them in battle, the least we can do is ensure they are well protected. That includes weapons.”
They silently stared at each other as if they were having a full conversation with their eyes or in their heads. Finally Chloe closed her eyes and nodded slightly to give her reluctant blessing.
“We fly back tomorrow if you would like to join us. Or you can join us just before battle,” Callum offered.
“Before battle. The magic will be stronger,” she said. “Do you have a starting point?”
“No, but if you give us a way to contact you, I can send details the moment I have them,” he promised.
Bianca pulled open her clutch and pulled out a receipt of some kind and a pen, scratching out a note and sliding it over.
As if they knew the conversation was over, the wait staff slipped in to deliver our meals. The conversation stayed on lighter topics as we worked through our plates and thanks to Bianca’s initial icebreaker and the heavy topics out of the way, it felt a whole lot less intense.
“I’m glad we came,” Chloe said as her and Bianca stood to leave. Vince had paid the bill for all of us despite protests on all sides, so all that was left was to part ways.
“Thank you for hearing us out. Your aid could change the tides of this war,” Callum said with a bow of respect. Nyx, Leven, and I all bowed as well.
Vince gave us a hasty goodbye and rushed out after the witches with a hopeful spring in his step. When they veered off for the club I did a silent cheer for them, knowing they all needed to let off some steam after that last conversation.
We rode down in exhausted silence. It was a full day of research, a tracker scare, then that eventful dinner. All I wanted was to go lounge in the room we’d moved to down in the archives.
