“Come back to my tower. We’ll talk.”
Translation: Come back to my bed, I’ll distract you until you no longer know your own name.
“I have things to do, Samael. My deadline is approaching.”
Silence. He examined me, his eyes hard. Samael didn’t like anything he couldn’t control. And when we’d almost slept together, the line between us had blurred. I was no longer just the witch who was forced to do his bidding. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t kill me if he had to. He might regret it afterward, but he’d do it.
“We need to talk about the accusations the witch made.”
“You mean the fact that your imprint was found near my mom’s body?” That little tidbit had been left out of the crime scene report, and I was kicking myself for trusting Samael enough to fool around with him.
If he’d had anything to do with my mother’s murder, I’d make sure he died if it was the last thing I did.
“What motive would I have to kill her, Danica?”
“Why don’t you tell me why you were near her body, and we’ll go from there.”
“Let’s talk about this privately, little witch.”
“Let’s talk about it now.”
He heaved a sigh, and I tamped down the urge to bury my knife in his heart. It probably wouldn’t kill him, but it’d feel damn good.
“Do you really want me to talk about your mother here?” he opened his arms, taking in the alley, along with the demons still gathered and talking in hushed voices.
“Fine,” I said. I stalked toward Vas, unwilling to have Samael’s arms around me right now. Surprisingly, Samael didn’t protest, keeping his eyes on me as he gave me a slow smile and launched himself into the air.
My phone vibrated, and I held up a hand as Vas reached for me. “One sec. Steve just messaged me.”
Mary’s grandmother was a member of the McCormick coven. And Mary was kicked out of her last coven for sacrificing the coven leader’s dog. Be careful.
Why had that information been kept out of Mary’s file? The Mage Council wanted her brought in, so why not give me all the information?
Dread grabbed hold of my stomach and twisted. I’d been so busy focusing on Beatrice that I’d forgotten one important fact: Mary had been searching for witchweed too.
What if they were working together?
I messaged Steve back.Thanks. Do me a favor– put a trace on her phone? Also, let’s check into all the other descendants of the coven. Facebook, Insta, Portal etc. I want to know who’s involved in this shit.
Fine. That’s three you owe me.
I rolled my eyes. At this rate, I’d still be paying back my debts to Steve when I was old and gray.
I relayed the text to Vas, yelling over the wind as he flew me back toward the tower.
“We need to pay Mary a visit. I should’ve searched her house when I went looking for her, but she was just a failure to appear.” I shook my head, pissed at myself.
The tower loomed in the distance while Vas searched for the right words.
“You told me about how she was after the witchweed too, and I forgot as well. It’s been an insane few days.”
It was my job to remember, but Vas was attempting to cheer me up, so I’d let him.
“That’s putting it lightly. I’ll talk to Samael at the tower and then we can head to Mary’s. She’s not going to be home, but I need to check anyway, and follow up with some more of her contacts.”
Vas flew close to the tower, and I frowned as I spotted a familiar figure far below me.
“Can you get a little lower?”
