“That’s not all,” Eric said. “I can bring them in. I can protect them. You said they’re in Tulsa? I can get on the next plane there.”
“There is no need. Marcus will be landing there within the hour.”
“You mentioned him before. Who’s Marcus?” The question came from Mindy who’d been sitting next to Allie and listening intently to the conversation.
“Marcus Giatti. He’s one of the trainers who’s coming to work at the school,” I told her. “He’s been working forForzaat the Vatican for the last few years.”
“Oh!” She turned to Allie. “Isn’t he the one you said was—” She cut herself off with a sideways glance at Jared.
Allie rolled her eyes. “Yeah. I said he was cute. He is.”
I started to comment that Marcus, in his late twenties, was too old for either of them. Then I remembered that Allie and Jared had started to date—something I was still uncomfortable with, but mostly because my daughter was dating, not because he was a vampire. Still, though he looked seventeen, he was actually more than a hundred years older than her, so maybe it was best to just stay silent on the whole age and dating thing.
“Marcus will be meeting the surviving students at the cathedral in Tulsa,” Father Corletti continued. “They will stay the night in the church’s guest house, then fly into Los Angeles in the morning before traveling up to San Diablo. They should arrive at the school mid-afternoon.”
“Why not just fly straight here? We could go pick them up at the airport.”
“Father Donnelly is in Los Angeles. He will debrief the students, then accompany them to San Diablo.”
Once again, Eric and I locked eyes. He looked as unhappy as I felt.
Father Donnelly was not on my favorite person list, nor Eric’s, and Father Corletti knew it. Donnelly has had his fingers inForzafor decades and he was in deep with the plot to breed a next gen Demon Hunter. He’s responsible for what happened to both Eric and Allie, and as far as I was concerned, his experiments were horrific. He was playing with forces he didn’t understand. Playing with children and bloodlines. Playing with their lives without any understanding of the consequences.
I looked at my daughter. My beautiful daughter. What Father Donnelly had done to Eric had trickled down to her. And, yes, his horrific program may have culminated in the extraordinary powers that recently manifested in her, but that’s a good result that happened despite his bad acts. And because of what he did, she’d lost so much, including years that she could have spent with her father. More than that, she no longer knew who she was, and had no understanding of what was inside of her.
And all of that meant that I wanted Father Donnelly far away from Allie.
I remembered a piece of paper I’d seen in Eliza’s things when she moved up from San Diego. Some genealogical papers that her mom—my aunt—had kept. And right there on one branch, as clear as day, was the name Donnelly.
I didn’t know why. I didn’t know if he was really part of our family. And I didn’t know how he might be related to Eliza or to me. But the idea that I might share blood with that man was not something I wanted to think about.
But if he was here, atForzaWest, I knew that I’d be hard pressed to think about anything else.
“I don’t want him working at this school,” I said. “Eric can go get the kids. He doesn’t need to come. And he certainly doesn’t need to stay.”
“He does need to come,” Father Corletti said. “But he won’t be at the school. He’ll be at St. Mary’s. Father Donnelly is the new priest for the San Diablo parish.”
4
“I’m going to get you,” I shouted, racing to catch up with the little demon who was barreling across the school’s massive entrance hall. “I’m totally going to get you!”
“No, Momma!” Timmy giggled as he pedaled his tricycle madly and continued across the room, making a sharp left turn into the hallway towards the kitchen area.
I stopped, breathing deep. I work out—obviously, with the whole demon-hunting thing—but I’ve been working since the crack of dawn to prepare for the students’ arrival this afternoon and get Stuart settled in his room.
Father Corletti had agreed thatForzashould cover the cost of Stuart’s care, and the hospital was able to arrange for the transfer today. I was glad, of course, but everything was happening at a breakneck pace. We still didn’t have a nurse for Stuart, but his various machines were hooked up to the school’s alarm system, so we’d know if anything changed. Plus, Eddie’s girlfriend, Rita, had agreed to sit with him this first day. Considering it was becoming clear that she’d be spending a lot of time here, I had to wonder how long it would take before Eddie broke down and told her the truth about the school—and the students we were teaching.
Bottom line, I was exhausted. But I hadn’t spent enough time with my three year old, and demons notwithstanding, he deserved a little mommy time. Thus the wild chase through the halls of the Greatwater mansion.
And there are a lot of halls.
It’s absolutely humongous, and is nestled at the top of a hill with an exceptional view of pretty much everything in San Diablo from eastern hills to the western beach. The grounds are gorgeous, and include a cemetery, which seems apropos for demon hunting.
Inside, visitors arrive in to a cavernous entrance hall will windows that let in plenty of light. As for schoolrooms, there are more than enough for teaching and living. The upstairs ballroom—one of several—is now the main training room, with a convenient outdoor staircase to the yard for outdoor workouts and another indoor staircase that leads to the mansion’s tunnel system that provides access all the way across the property to where the main kitchen is located.
The library, located downstairs, is still the library, with floor to ceiling bookshelves and several freestanding shelves already filled with many occult-related titles left by the most infamous previous resident. Eric was in heaven when he saw it. He’s already moved in his own massive private collection, and his ongoing project is cataloging the additional books. I was pretty sure he thought he’d died and gone to heaven.
Multiple wings feature massive bedrooms, each with an attached smaller room that had presumably been used as a sitting area or nursery. Those are for the teaching staff who live on site.
