“You may not think killing Dominick is our goal,” he said, “but it is very much my goal, Mother.”
Cassia shook her head. “First, the child. First, the child comes home.”
He didn’t reply. Cassia pushed her chair back and stood. “Contact us. Before the full moon. If you want a room—”
“We don’t,” Lula said. “We’ll let you know.”
She didn’t look at me, didn’t have to. If Lula said we were done, we were done. I stood and snapped my fingers for Lorde. She chomped on the bone, pushed up, and walked over to us.
Lula and Lorde crossed the room and were out the door. I followed a little more slowly behind them, and was halfway to the door before I realized Abbi wasn’t following us.
I turned. “Abbi?”
She was still sitting at the table. She waved at me. “Bye, Brogan. I’m staying with the witches.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “You’re coming with us.”
She gave me a frank look.
“No,” she said. “I am staying here. I agreed to the terms already. I can help Rhianna. I’m going to do that no matter what anyone says. I’m powerful. With the full moon, I’m even more powerful. Bright like the sun.”
I hesitated. Abbi was a deity. The witches loved her and practically fell over themselves to please her.
She had Hado to keep her safe or to come get us so we could keep her safe. But I still felt like I was leaving a child behind in a dangerous place.
Her eyes were moonlight silver and the power in them was ancient. “Go,” I heard her say in my mind. “Lula needs you.”
I shook my head, but did as Abbi asked, following Lula into the night.
The air was heavy with stale heat that hadn’t moved since June. I scanned the parking lot but didn’t see Lu or Lorde. They might already be in the truck.
She could be gone, making deals with monsters, with hunters. Killing a vampire.
I strode past cars, trucks, and a trio of Vespas, the lights from the sodium lamps antiquing each vehicle with shades of sepia.
Lorde sat next to the truck, the blackness of her fur, eyes, nose making her almost invisible. The bone in her mouth caught the light. She wagged her tail as I came close enough to scratch behind her ears.
“Good girl. Where’s Lula?”
Lorde whined, wanting in the truck so she could get back to chewing on her treat. She turned a dainty circle, inviting me to open the door for her.
We’d left the windows down, so I reached in and unlocked the door. “You seen Lula, girl?”
Lorde made a happy groaning sound and settled onto the seat. I gave her another ear scratch, then leaned back and patted the doorframe.
Options: Sit in the passenger’s seat and hope Lula showed up, or get in the driver’s seat and go look for her?
I didn’t like driving, liked it even less at night. The broken wrist wasn’t going to make it any more pleasant. But sitting in the shadows twiddling my thumbs wouldn’t solve anything either.
So, driving it was.
I walked around the truck, checking the bed—no Lula—then opened the driver’s door, feeling that uncanny tingle of someone watching me.
Light from the cab’s overhead splashed a cleaner yellow into the night. If I hadn’t been an obvious target before, I certainly was one now.
I hauled up into the driver’s seat.
We kept a spare key on a magnet under the console, so I dug that out and put it in the ignition.
