I moved my cup of tea around the table, trying to think. What could I do that hadn’t already been tried? The Drakes, Dracos,and wizards had failed to find Considine. TheCloisterscouldn’t find him.
I would never give up on Considine, but how could I—one lone slayer—succeed where we’d so far only seen failure?
Maybe…I don’t personally have to succeed. I just have to get the right kind of backup.
I stood up so fast I sent my chair falling to the ground.
Sarge shifted at the front of the room. “Blood?”
I grabbed my phone and slipped out from behind my table. “I have to go for a minute. I’ll be right back.”
Sarge studied me. “Do you want someone to be with you?”
“No.” I shook my head as I made my way to the door. “No, definitely not.”
Sarge watched me even as I slipped through the door and closed it behind myself.
Alone in the hallway, I took a deep breath, then woke up my cellphone. I scrolled through my family’s numbers, stopping when I found the one I was looking for.
I pressed the call button and held my breath.
After one ring the line clicked.
“Jade?” Dad’s deep voice boomed even through a phone call. “Did they find him?”
“No.” My hands shook, and I felt a little lightheaded. “Dad, I want to invoke a slayer stake.”
The silence that stretched across the line felt suffocating.
“Are you sure?” Dad finally asked after what felt like an eternity.
“Yes.”
“I’ll make the call that we are—”
“No—Iam the invoker,” I said. “I don’t want you and the rest of the family to pay for this. It’ll all be on me once it’s over.”
“That’s a high cost for you to pay alone, Jade.”
“I know.”
“You’ll probably have to quit your job.”
“I know,” I repeated. “But it’s been two days, and the Cloisters are reevaluating priorities. I can’t give up on him, and I know he’s waiting for me to find him.”
“This vamp means that much to you?”
“Yes.”
“We’d be happy to make the invocation with you. We’re a family, Jade. We’re supposed to have your back.”
Hot tears burned my eyes, and it was hard to see as I could almost feel how much my family loved me. “I know,” I said. “But it’s my city, and my vampire. I need complete control over the situation and for the other slayers to listen tome. The only way I’ll get that is if I’m the invoker.”
Dad sighed in a familiar tone that meant he thought I was right but he didn’t like it. “I’ll ask you one last time, then. Knowing what this will cost you, are you certain, Jade, that you want to invoke a slayer stake all to get help finding Considine Maledictus?”
“Yes,” I said without hesitation.
“Okay.I’ll get it started, and your brothers will get packed. We’ll see you early tomorrow morning.”
