“I’ll do some digging,” Antonio says. “It’ll be easy to convince the others we want revenge on the vampires who took our sister.”
“Be careful,” I press. “If anyone figures out we’re onto them, it could be really bad. Whatever is going on, the Order is going to some pretty great lengths to keep the focus off them.”
“Yeah.” Leo nods. “This much demonic activity in the area should have already been flagged.”
I scoot my phone back in front of me and pull up a text from Devon. “Is this number familiar to any of you? It’s out of service now, so it’s probably a burner phone.”
“No,” they all say.
“I can find out who it belonged to,” Leo says, taking a picture.
“Thanks. I ran it through just a basic internet background check and came up with nothing,” I say.
Leo, who’s good at anything technical like this, nods again. “Burner or it’s been scrubbed. Nothing I can’t get around.”
“Perfect.” I lean back. “How is everyone?”
“Gia is fine,” Antonio answers, knowing what I’m really asking. “She misses you.”
“I miss her too.”
“She’s with Mom and Dad in Georgia right now. They’re working a job. Aunt Darcy and Danielle are there. Danielle broke her arm a week or so ago so she’s babysitting.”
“How’d that happen?”
“Tripped and fell while going down stairs.”
I make a face. “That’s embarrassing.”
“Right?” Antonio chuckles. “I think she’s telling people it happened while running from ghouls in a graveyard.”
“That’s a better story. And what about Liss?” I suck in a breath through clenched teeth, wincing from my own questions.
“She is out of town. So are Dale and Randall.” Antonio makes a face. “They’ll be out for a while, I’m sure.”
“I don’t think this is a situation where they can wait out. What seems like a long time to us isn’t when you’re seven hundred years old.”
“You can’t work your magic on your husband?” Leo asks and then shakes his head. “Not actually magic, but the other magic you have.” He wiggles his eyebrows.
“Hah. And, uh…” I pull my hands in my lap and look at my coffee cup, unable to make eye contact as I talk. “This isn’t something I can talk them out of. She kidnapped and tortured a member of the family and then it resulted in another family member getting shot and being turned.”
“I’m not trying to excuse what I did,” Ryder starts. “I’m honestly a little confused. Why is that guy?—”
“Devon,” I say, still feeling protective of him even though his behavior has made me quite unsettled.
“Devon,” Ryder repeats. “Why is Devon becoming a vampire a bad thing?”
“Well,” I begin, realizing that he doesn’t know the whole story. I don’t feel like telling it. “It just wasn’t part of the plan yet. And he…he didn’t want to be a vampire.”
A text goes through to all of the guys’ phones at the same time. It’s from the Order.
“They’re sending us back to the Midwest,” Leo huffs. “Because it’s so great there.”
“Hey, at least we’re close to Chicago this time,” Ryder says with a shrug.
“The Midwest?” I question. It’s really notthatodd to go all over for a job, but there are more than enough monsters in Appalachia to keep us close to home. Right now, I’m on high alert and scrutinizing anything and everything the Order is doing.
“I know where your mind is going,” Antonio starts. “And yeah, I’ve noticed it too.”
