I trudged down the stairs, hearing voices floating from my office, making me wonder who my aunt had in there.
I spilled into the room and came to a halt. Dangerous Dave was sitting cross-legged on the floor, winding rainbow-colored wool around his hands. Aunt Sophia sat in my seat with a pencil in one hand and a mug in the other. Her mouth was moving as she read from the book and made notes on a pad.
Rebecca was in the visitor’s chair with a laptop in front of her. Aunt Sophia tore a piece of the pad off and handed it to Rebecca. Sebastian was in the other chair, and had a pile of books open in front of him. It was like a supernatural book club, although I was a little lost as to what Dave was doing, and why.
Aunt Sophia’s head snapped up. “Cora, you’re back. Did you enjoy the duck?”
Clearly, she’d had a premonition about my meal.
“I did enjoy my duck.”
“Excellent, because you are going to need your energy to go on this treasure hunt.”
Hudson strode into the room, eyeballed his chief of security on the floor, and then leaned against the wall with his arms folded. “What are we going to find?” I asked as I circled the desk and peered over Aunt Sophia’s shoulder.
She tapped her fingers on a page in the grimoire. “There are many dangerous things in this book, but none more so than the location of the Red Dragon. With what you’ve told me, I believe my sister,” she spat the word like it was poison, “is after the summoning spells held within that book. She’s tried and failed to recreate them, they don’t hold the demons long enough. Also, there is forbidden magic that shouldn’t exist, but cannot be destroyed.”
“How can it not be destroyed?” Hudson asked.
“The Red Dragon is not simply a book, it is black magic in written form. The book isn’t just a set of spells and summonings. It’s the definitive bible of evil. It’s impervious to our forces. The Vatican believes they have the original, but they are mistaken.”
Rebecca wrote something on the paper Aunt Sophia had passed her and then gave it back to her. Aunt Sophia nodded and smiled. “We have the location.”
“Excellent, where?”
“Have you ever been to Egypt?” Aunt Sophia asked.
Hudson grimaced. “I’m not a fan of airplanes.”
I raised a brow. “Why?”
“I can survive most things—”
“But not a plane crash.” I finished for him. “Just think, you’ll be in the land where your alien show centers.”
A smile lit up his face. Apparently, the lure of aliens was enough to squash his fears about flying thousands of feet in the air.
“I’m coming,” Sebastian declared, snapping the book closed.
“No,” Hudson snapped.
“Yes,” my aunt agreed. “You’ll need the combined power of the three factions to retrieve the book. Let’s just hope that you beat Eloise, because once she has the Red Dragon, there will be no stopping her.”
***
A witch, a shifter, and a vampire walk into an airport. The witch is the buffer between the animosity brewing between the two. Despite Sebastian’s revelation that he would be more attracted to Hudson than me, my shifter lover still eyed my vampire bestie with all the distrust reserved for your worst enemy.
Ugh. After many hours on a plane squashed between them and two changeovers, I could report that we had arrived safely, but I may yet murder them both if they continued with their sniping.
Bringing only a carry-on each meant we were out of the airport in Cairo less than thirty minutes after landing. The sun drenched my skin and I was glad for the linen trousers and matching top Aunt Sophia had made me wear.
A dark blue sedan was idling at the curb, and a tall middle-aged Egyptian man was leaning against it with a cardboard sign reading C Roberts. Guess that was the ride my aunt had mentioned she would organize.
I moved toward him and held my hand out. “Cora,” I announced.
He shook my hand and eyeballed the tall supernaturals at my back. “You’re Sophia’s niece?” he asked in a thick accent.
“I am, and this is Hudson and Sebastian.”
