AllFreeNovel
Share Us
By the time they’d arrived at this location, Valen had started to wonder if Stella was lost. As far as he could tell she was driving aimlessly from one narrow lane to another, always heading deeper into the bayou. But after an hour of rattling over the rough roads, Stella had left her car parked on the side of the road to walk through the trees.
Peri shook her head as Stella carefully tiptoed up a sinking stone pathway toward a house that had clearly been abandoned decades ago.
“Why would Richard come out here? It looks like it’s a sneeze away from collapse.”
Valen studied the small house, which was peeling its paint like a snake shedding its skin. It had a rusted tin roof with a chimney that was tilted to a wonky angle. The windows had been busted out and half the porch had collapsed, while the surrounding vegetation was creeping up the sides of the structure as if hungry to consume what remained of the house.
“That might be the point,” he replied.
Peri nodded slowly. “True. If Richard wanted to hide something, this would be the perfect location. Who would bother snooping around here?”
Holding up a hand to warn the demons to remain hidden in the trees, Valen led Peri across the soggy front yard to step directly in front of Stella. He didn’t want her going inside the house.
As if she’d run into an invisible wall, Stella stopped in her tracks. Valen gently entered her mind, tugging at the threads that had wiped away the memory of him. He didn’t want her to remember coming to the safehouse, but he wanted her to feel comfortable in his presence.
On cue she released a small sigh, her lips curving into a pleased smile.
“Oh, it’s you.”
“It’s nice to see you again, Stella.” He held her gaze. “Do you know why you’re here?”
“I’m looking for my brother.”
Valen nodded. At least he knew that she hadn’t been randomly driving around and decided to get out of the car. She’d followed Richard to this spot. But why?
“What was he doing here?”
She sent him a puzzled glance. “This land belongs to the Pascals. My great-great-grandfather was born in that shack.”
Valen glanced at the decrepit building. The Pascal family had certainly gone up in the world.
“It looks abandoned,” he said.
“None of us ever come out here. There’s nothing left but swamp and bugs.” She wrinkled her nose. “I suppose I should say that none of us came out here until Richard returned from Greece. Even then I didn’t know what he was doing until I followed him one night.”
Valen sensed Peri moving until she was pressed against his back. She obviously wanted to hear the conversation without distracting Stella.
“Why did you follow him?” he asked the woman.
“He’d been acting so strange. I thought something might be wrong.”
She was trying to hide something from him. Valen leaned forward, his voice soft, but edged with ruthless command.
“What did you think was wrong, Stella?”
Stella took an instinctive step backward as his icy power cut through the thick, humid air.
“I was afraid he might be addicted to drugs,” she ground out, his compulsion overcoming her reluctance to admit her fears. “I was determined to intervene, so I waited in my car one night, and when he drove away from his building I trailed behind him. I never dreamed that we would end up in this place. There’s nothing here.”
“But he was angry you followed him?”
“So angry.” She touched her cheek. Had Richard hit her?
“But he didn’t say why?”
“No.”
Valen could hear the aching sadness in her voice. She loved her brother, and regardless of their squabbles she was desperate for him to come home. Tomorrow morning, his body would be found and she could start to grieve. It was the best he could give her.
