I put the glass to my lips but paused. “You’re not going to get me high like with the chocolate are you?”
She chuckled and pushed the small plate with cookies on it toward me until it was next to my cup and saucer. “No, but it will calm your nerves. You won’t feel quite so spacey though. Also eat a couple cookies. They’ll help your shoulder heal faster. Like a lot faster.”
I nodded. Calm was fine, but no more chocolate-drunk. If my shoulder could feel better as well? I was all for that since I hated wearing that damned sling.
“Where is he going?” I asked as I sipped on my tea before chowing down on a couple cookies, trying to figure out this whole strange situation, and why they’d felt comfortable telling him things we couldn’t tell the other cops.
“The clubs. The vampires won’t be at their club until nightfall, but the shifters hang out at all hours at their place.”
It was strange. I would never want to hang out at someplace with hissing vampires and growling shifters. I’d had the sense that Daniel was brave before, but it took someone with a lot of guts to go to a place like that.
And he was doing it for me. Okay, not for me, but for my brother.
Yet, as much as I appreciated what he was doing, it wasn’t enough. I’d watched enough crime shows to know the next twenty-four hours were the most important. If I didn’t find my brother by then. I didn’t want to think about that.
“Do you know what club he’s going to?” I asked. I’d told him I wouldn’t sit around and do nothing. Just because he’d given me a sweet smile and looked at me with those stupidly gorgeous eyes of his didn’t mean I was going to suddenly change my mind.
Deva and Carol exchanged yet another glance. “I do,” Deva said guardedly. “It’s not really a club, per se. More of a shifter hangout spot.”
I held her gaze. “Can you take me there?”
“I don’t know. It can be dangerous.”
“Please,” I pleaded around my mouthful of cookie.
She frowned, shaking her head. “It’s not a place we should be going to.”
I laughed darkly. “I’m Karma, remember? What could go wrong?”
Carol snorted. “Famous last words.”
Deva looked unsure, but finally gave a curt nod. “Fine, but I’m calling the others. That way they know where to find us and so we’ll have backup if we need it.”
Carol nodded. “Good idea. I could use a break from the shop.”
“And we’re stopping at my restaurant first.” Deva stood. “I need to pick up a few things.”
I didn’t know why, but this was the first time in my life that I got a feeling picking things up from a restaurant was going to end in some magical trouble. But then again, I’d never expected magical trouble before. I also had the feeling that tracking down the people who took my brother might send karma flying around, so I had no idea which of us would be more dangerous.
Or even if we would stand a chance against the shifters.
9
Emma
After a pitstop at Deva’s restaurant, which was full of delicious-looking food that practically had me drooling over the display case, she drove Carol and I to—well, the middle of nowhere. The woods led right up to a cliff face, which the road we were on ran directly along. And if I was remembering the shape of the coastline correctly, it also dropped right into the ocean, which was a terrifying thought in and of itself, never mind adding in shifters that could turn into god-knows-what on top of that, probably running around in the forest.
The paved road beneath us suddenly ended just ahead of us, giving way to a bumpy dirt road that continued into seemingly nothing. Deva slowed down before we left the pavement, but we were still instantly tossed around like bags of potatoes, and my back didn’t like that one bit.
I groaned and shifted around in my seat, clenching my teeth as one wheel caught a pothole.
“Your back?” Carol asked from the seat behind Deva.
I looked back at her, where she sat with her knitting gear clicking away in front of her, and sighed. “It bugged me when I was younger, but now there’s not enough Advil in the world to get it to calm the heck down sometimes.”
“Tell me about it. My knees ache every time I have to take the stairs to the apartment.”
“That’s nothing,” Deva said, both hands firmly on the wheel. “Did I tell you what my chiropractor said about my neck?”
