“Anything else?” he asked.
“Water for Lorde,” Lula said.
“Lorde?”
“Our shepherd.”
That got a short chuckle out of him. “Of course we’ll get her some water. Would she like the beef bone I have back there?”
Lorde sat up, her fuzzy ears turning toward him. She whined softly.
“Yes,” Lula said. “Thank you.”
He turned back toward the bar.
“He called me Glory,” Abbi said. “Did you hear that, Brogan?” She flashed a big smile. “He gave me a name!”
“You have a name,” I said. “Several of them.”
“Yeah, but I like that one. Abbi Glory.” Hado popped out of the backpack in her lap and mewled up at her.
“That’s not your name,” I said.
“It could be.” She settled Hado on her shoulder. “Abbi Glory Gauge,” she whispered. She blinked up at me, her expression asking for my permission. Asking to use our last name.
I pursed my lips and leaned toward her as if sharing a secret.
“Thatisa good name,” I said. “But right now we need to deal with the promise you made to the witches.”
She turned to Cassia. “Tell them about Rhianna.”
“This isn’t easy,” Cassia said. “We’ve…we’ve made mistakes, many mistakes. Some because we didn’t have the information we needed, and decisions…that were made in the heat of the moment. You have not found us at our best.” She grimaced then seemed to gather herself.
“We’ve lost more than one person. We’ve lost two of our coven. One is my son, Variance. The other is his daughter, Rhianna.”
Lula nodded and I relaxed. This was familiar ground, and we were good at it. We’d searched for the lost before, searched for Abbi, for Hado. It was part of the deal we’d struck with Cupid—find the lost people, bring them back to who or where they called home.
But Cupid was not behind this, as far as we could tell. He wasn’t a part of this promise or bargain.
Stratton strolled over, handed out our drinks, then placed a bowl of water and a bone with meat on it on the floor for Lorde. He patted her head and made himself scarce.
I tried the beer. Cold, hoppy, and bitter in all the right ways.
“Do you know why Route 66 is so special?” Cassia asked. “It isn’t just because it helped build a growing country. It’s been a way that people, and many other things, have traveled. To explore, expand. To find home. Magical things have always moved along the Route,” she said. “Monsters too.”
“Like vampires,” Lula filled in.
Cassia lifted her wine glass in both a toast and an acknowledgment that Lula had gotten it right.
“They’ve settled here. A lot of vampires. But we’ve settled here too. We’ve found a way to live in…well, not in peace, but not at war. They stay out of our town and territory, and we stay out of theirs. It’s been that way for nearly a hundred years.”
“But now?” Lula asked. She hadn’t touched her wine. She just turned it slowly by the stem, never once looking at it.
“The leader of the vampires—Dominick—has always been vile. He was turned vampire by something powerfully malevolent. He carries darkness that unbalances the flow of the universe. A darkness we have combated and held off for decades.
“One of us, Variance,” she added, “made a mistake. He was fool-hearted. He thought he could confront Dominick and force him to ease off of our territory.”
She gulped wine, her hand shaking, red staining her pale lips. “He didn’t know, couldn’t know the consequences of his actions. Couldn’t know the horror he would invite into our home.”
