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“Yeah, we’re definitely not that lucky,” I said, as the plane began taxiing toward the runway. “It’s probably just going to be you, me, Desiree, and Griffin facing off against the big bad demon duo, assuming my friend even gets back to California in time. Maybe his vampire friends will back us up, maybe not. They barely know me, so I don’t know why they’d put themselves in harm’s way to help rescue my mate.”
Carter muttered, “Those are truly awful odds.”
Chapter 8
The cross-country flight seemed to take forever, though we actually made good time. My only consolation was the fact that the demon would have to travel the same distance to deliver my mate to his cohort. I had to cling to the hope that Elias was okay in the meantime.
A limo was waiting for us at LAX, and when we climbed into the back of it, Carter said, “Desiree Keene, say hello to Mateo Figueroa.”
Desiree was a cute, curvy Black woman who looked like she was in her early twenties, but since she was part witch, there was every chance she was much older. She wore her hair in two puffy pigtails up high on her head, and she was dressed in a pink velour track suit and sneakers. “Black Girl Magic” was spelled out in rhinestones on her purple T-shirt, which was very literal in her case.
She looked up from her pink laptop. On the back of it was a sticker of Disney’s Evil Queen, holding the Apple logo in one hand. “You were a real pain in the ass to find,” she told me, as I took a seat across from her. I liked her immediately.
“Desiree spent the past three months helping me search L.A. for you,” Carter explained, as he sat beside me. As the limo pulled away from the curb, he asked her, “Any news?”
She shook her head. “I have people watching the private jet terminals here at LAX and the four nearest municipal airports, and they haven’t spotted the brothers’ plane. Could be they’re flying into an outlying airport, but there are too many of them to cover. I also have a team keeping an eye on the brothers’ compound. So far today, no one’s been in or out.”
“We probably beat them here. I don’t think they flew out of Belfast, or I would have seen their plane when I went to get the helicopter. That must mean they had a bit of a drive to another airport, which would have slowed them down. That’s a good thing, since time is obviously of the essence.” Carter glanced at me, then said, “Stop that, or you won’t have a thumbnail left.”
I forced myself to stop chewing on that same raggedy nail and asked, “Can I use your phone again?”
When he handed it over, I placed yet another call to Griffin. Like the six calls before it, this one went straight to voicemail. I’d called Ari several times as well, with the same result. I’d also called their hotel in Paris and had been told they’d checked out the day before. I had no idea what that was about, but I really hoped to hear back from them soon.
As I handed his phone back, I glanced out the window and asked, “Where are we headed?”
Carter said, “My house.”
“We need to swing by mine first,” I said. “I need my phone, which has a lot of Griffin’s contacts in it. Maybe one of them knows how to reach him, because we really need his help.”
“Not a problem.” Carter lowered the privacy window and relayed the new address to his driver. Once the window was back in place, he asked, “How powerful is Griffin?”
“That’s hard to say. He came into his powers last fall and is still learning how to use them. I don’t think he knows what he’s really capable of at this point.”
Carter asked, “And he’s what, a quarter warlock? Or maybe half?”
“More than that.”
I had every intention of keeping my friend’s secret, but I actually forgot Carter could read minds until he blurted, “He’s a full-blooded warlock? I was sure they were all extinct.”
I frowned at him and said, “Please keep that information to yourselves, both of you. You know how rare it is, and you also know there are plenty of people who’d love to exploit his power.”
“I won’t say a word, and neither will Desiree,” Carter assured me.
Desiree looked up from her laptop and raised an eyebrow. “How the hell is there a full-blooded warlock left in the twenty-first century? Is he the result of centuries of inbreeding, or what?”
I frowned at her and said, “No. His parents both came from what had to be the last two unbroken magical dynasties in the world.”
“And they just happened to meet and have a baby, while not being first cousins or some shit,” she said flatly.
