Hey girl, I saw Reynard. He’s doing okay and I’ve got good news. Text me when you’re out of treatment.
Sage texted back, so glad that there was good news.
I’m out. WYD?
No response. Sage checked messages from Conri.
Hey chick, chick, chickee. I have some super important and urgent news about you-know-what! I think I know who was responsible. Where are you? Can I come to your place?
Ooooh, interesting.Conri was abearenshe’d dated a few times. She liked him well enough, but eventually they’d decided there wasn’t a real spark between them. Neither of them saw it going anywhere, so they’d cooled things way down. She hadn’t told the Vvyndicate about him because Conri wasn’t avod. ‘You-know-what’ probably meant when they’d both been roofied on a date a few weeks ago and didn’t know who did it.
Sage texted him.
Yeah, but I won’t be there for half an hour.
There was no immediate reply, so Sage video-called her mother.
After several rings, Paisley answered, looking innocent and happy. “Mommy!”
“Hi Sweetie, where are you?” Sage said, not recognizing the room Paisley was in.
“A hotel in St. Louis.”
Sage gasped. “Where’s the security team?”
Paisley went through a door between two hotel rooms. She turned the phone around to show Sage a team of three males lurking near a TV and two females near the door. Sage recognized most of them from pictures. They were all Van Crimsons, all strongfoxen, able to shift and go dim.
“Let me talk to yourvihvee” she said.
Paisley turned around and went back through the door, then into the bathroom, where she handed over the phone to someone.
“Yes, Sage dear?” Paige White said, propping the phone up, then going back to her mascara. Sage’s mother looked so much like Sage, it was almost like she was watching a video of herself.
“Mother,” Sage said, irritated. “Where are you?”
“St. Louis. We're going to the turtle playground and the—”
Sage cut her off. “The Vvyndicate team agreed to go to St. Louis?”
Paige waved a hand. “Yes, yes.” She put the mascara wand down and stared directly into the camera, batting her eyelashes. “Rosenveltwas happy to.”
Sage didn’t like the sound of that. “He’s there?”
“He’s picking up dinner.” Paige winked, then picked up her lipstick, talking as she applied. “Paisley’s staying with me all week. I’ve already spoken with Abigail, and I’ve already cleared it with the Vvyndicate.”
Sage was about to argue, but then she saw Paisley in the background, dancing in a circle with a stuffed turtle, looking happy. Sage shut her mouth and watched her daughter and listened to her mother.
“Everything will be fine, and Paisley will call you every night to say goodnight, Sage, dear, but not tonight. She can say goodnight right now. Paisley, come over here and say goodnight to your mama.”
“Goodnight, Mama, I love you.”
“I love you,vi.”
The call ended and Sage felt strangely empty. What was she going to do without Paisley for the next five days? They’d been living at the Inn since last year when Khain had stolenPaisley for a day, but Sage didn’t want to go there. She also had an apartment downtown, provided by the Vvyndicate, and she slept there sometimes. That’s where Conri thought she lived.
Sage left the suite, down the hallway, and out of the building, to the parking lot, which was mostly empty. The air was cold but the ground was dry. The sun would set soon. Sage got in her small sedan and left the lot, turning right on the empty road, driving slowly, with ‘the hole’ visible on her right like a volcanic caldera filled with massive evergreen trees. Her vision swam and she slowed. Her stomach convulsed in a hard knot and she groaned, then opened the windows for air. The air felt good on her face, and she stepped on the gas.
Sage sped down the bluff holding her stomach with one hand and wondering why she felt so strange.
