Just then, Austin and my dad entered the room, talking about the same game my dad had watched earlier. Apparently, Austin had missed it and wanted to be caught up.
The moment my eyes landed on Austin, I felt my heart lurch for joy, but it dropped almost immediately in disappointment. I’d thought for a second that he was Abel. They had similar builds, both with broad shoulders, and were roughly the same height. Their similarities ended there, though. Abel’s dirty-blond hair would look dark next to Austin’s perfectly white hair, and while Austin’s eyes were brown, Abel’s were clear blue.
Nicole raised an eyebrow, obviously noticing my reaction to her husband.
I slumped back against my pillow. “I thought he was Abel. I’ve missed him a lot.”
Nicole whispered loud enough for me to hear over the men’s conversation. “You’ve got it bad, don’t you?”
“Yes—I’m in love with him. Literally. What am I going to do? He’s not here, and he’s rarely reliable. I mean, I can’t ever count on him to be where I need him to be. He disappears for days on end.”
“I’d like to know what his adventures are,” Nicole said, “but I’m afraid to ask.”
“Yeah. Especially given what I’ve told you already.” I glanced at Austin and my dad, who’d finished their discussion. “Thank you for coming, Austin.”
He shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Well, give me the sap. Oh, but first, what’s the plan if anyone comes to attack while I’m sleeping?”
“That’s why Austin and I are both here,” Nicole said. “We can handle anything they throw at us.”
I smiled. I almost wished hounds would come. They’d never know what happened to them. No, they wouldn’t die permanently, but Austin and Nicole were very powerful Aretes. In fact, Nicole had reached the point where she no longer had a threshold to her powers.
She handed me a cup of what looked like broth. It smelled like maple syrup, and I knew it was the sap.
“Drink up.”
Drinking was an unconventional way to use it. Generally, the stuff was spread over the injured area and clean sheets were laid over the person to allow it to work while they slept. But in instances where the injuries were internal—like my broken ribs—drinking it was the best method.
The bitter liquid burned as it went down, completely frying my taste buds. Tears were pouring down my cheeks when I finished. The stuff might smell like maple syrup, but it definitely didn’t taste like it.
I gasped, accepting the bottle of water Nicole had ready. Once I’d chugged about half of that, I felt the drowsiness already hitting me. Kaede sap is a fast-acting medicine.
Noticing my exhaustion, Nicole and Brenda jumped to help me settle into the bed.
Knowing that Nicole and Austin were there, I had no problem falling asleep immediately.
***
The first thing I noticed when I woke up—before I even opened my eyes—was the complete sense of rejuvenation and energy that tingled in my limbs. I hadn’t felt so alive, so awake, so well in months. I couldn’t believe how long it had been since I’d been fully healthy. Had I really been running myself that dry? Obviously, yes.
Wanting to savor the bliss, I stretched my broken hand. Zero pain. The bandages had already been removed. Next, I took a deep breath, expanding my lungs to their capacity, relishing the complete lack of resultant pain.
“You’re awake.”
The familiar voice filled my body with terror. My eyes shot open, and I scrambled to a sitting position.
Chapter Twelve
Omar was sitting in my armchair in the corner of my room, watching me.
“What are you doing here?”
He shrugged. “Just checking on you. Don’t worry—I’m in full control right now.”
My hand automatically reached for my amulet. It wasn’t there!
“Where’s my amulet?”
My door was already opening, and Nicole stepped into the room, handing the necklace to me. I could hear Brenda and Justin in the kitchen. The TV was on, and I presumed that Austin was watching it.
I held the amulet to my chest, reaching out to it with my emotions. It was completely calm about Omar being there. Thank goodness. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust—okay, fine. I didn’t trust him. “Why did you take it?” I asked Nicole.
“So you could sleep without it waking you up.”
I gritted my teeth, trying to control the flash of annoyance. “It’s supposed to wake me up so I can protect everyone if people like him come.” I nodded at Omar, then said, “No offense, of course.” I knew Austin and Nicole had both been there to prevent an attack, but I hadn’t expected them to take my only source of protection and warning.
Nicole rolled her eyes. “You needed to sleep off the sap completely. Having you wake up before you fully healed would’ve prolonged the healing by days. Besides, I already told you—Austin and I can hold our own against these things.”
Omar nodded. “Believe me. She can. And she proved it to me.”
At the surprised expression on my face, Nicole and Omar both chuckled. “Don’t worry,” Nicole said. “We cleaned everything up. I just had to test that he really was who he said he was.”
I raised an eyebrow at Omar. “And who did you say you were?”
He sent Nicole a sheepish expression. “A friend of Alexander’s.”
I snorted. “Omar is only good about twenty-five percent of the time,” I explained. “He tried to kill me a couple of times while we were in Iraq. Of course, he did end up saving my life, too. He’s very conflicted.”
Omar nodded, his expression still sheepish.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Nicole demanded with a glare.
He held up his hands in surrender. “Because you wouldn’t have let me come near her.”
“Of course I wouldn’t.”
I motioned for both of them to be quiet, then looked at Omar. “You must be here for a reason. You don’t usually just show up to visit.”
He nodded. “I wanted to give you an update. First, the demon still isn’t fully regenerated. If he wasn’t imprisoned in that graveyard, it would go much, much faster. As you can imagine, he’s not happy about the delay. Second, the hounds are planning on attacking somewhere near you tonight. It’s a good thing your friend here made sure you are fully healed so quickly because you need to be there to stop them.”
“Why are they attacking?”
“Because they sense your weakness. They want to draw you out of your house, see what you’re willing to do and how far you’re able to go.”
He ran a hand through his dark hair. “I took advantage of being good right now to tell you. But don’t be surprised if I’m with them. If you feel like killing me . . . again, I would understand.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not going to kill you. Especially not now that I understand how easy it is for hounds to go back and forth between good and evil.”
He thanked me, I thanked him for the update, and he shifted into a dog and disappeared in a cloud of smoke in the corner.
After making sure no one else was coming, Nicole gave me some privacy, shutting the door behind her as she left. I desperately needed to take a shower—the longest shower in the history of earth. I had weeks of grime buildup to remove. Yes, the hospital had helped me clean up and I’d done plenty of no-water rinses on my hair, but nothing could possibly compare to the feel of crisp peppermint shampoo that tingled as it cleansed.
While drying off, my thoughts drifted to Abel. It suddenly occurred to me that I’d hired him to do a job and had promised him money, but I hadn’t paid him yet. My insides ate away at me as I thought of his situation. I was positive he needed cash. How was I supposed to get it to him?
I hopped into clean clothes and pulled my hair into a tight ponytail, braiding it in an effort to prevent frizzy loose ends. And then I called Abel, leaving him a voice message when he didn’t pick up and hoping I hadn’t called at a bad time.
“Hey,
it’s Lizzie. We need to make arrangements for me to pay you. Give me a call when you can.”
I ended the call and stared at my phone for a moment, wishing he’d answered. And then, of course, I felt silly for calling him in the first place. Which I shouldn’t have—there was nothing wrong with trying to fulfill my end of a bargain. It was the honest and upfront thing to do. So what if it also would have allowed me to hear his voice again?
A couple of moments later, I finally left my bedroom, ready to be seen. My mother saw me first and hopped up from the couch, a worried expression on her face.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m all better now.”
“Oh, good.” Brenda hugged me tightly. “I was so worried you’d be mad at us for calling Nicole and tattling on you.”
I laughed. “I’m not.”
She hedged for a moment. “I don’t want you to think Dad’s running the moment you’re better, but his company called him in to work yesterday, and they were disappointed when he was unavailable. Now that you’re better, though, we’ll be switching his return flight to tomorrow. They really do need his help, and with this being an unscheduled trip, they’re suffering. I’ll be staying another few days, just to make sure you’re on your feet.”
“You should go with Dad—you know how he is when you’re away. I’m one-hundred percent fine now.”
Brenda looked unconvinced, but it didn’t take long for me to get her to agree. I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. As much as I appreciated and loved my parents, their presence here still freaked me out, especially now that Omar knew they were staying with me. He would still have that knowledge when he went bad again. And that was a huge problem.
“Don’t worry about it, Mom. I really appreciate you coming.”
Brenda raised an eyebrow. “Last time we had this conversation, you made it obvious that having us here stressed you out.”
“I’m just worried for your safety.”
She frowned. “And I wish you would tell us why. I wish we could help you with whatever it is.”
Before she even finished, I started shaking my head. “I know. But I can’t tell you anything. Just pray that it ends quickly and I’ll be able to go back to being a normal person again.”
Nicole sighed. “As normal as you ever were, anyway.”
I mock glared at her. “Hey, I’m your best friend. Which means you chose me.”
We laughed, then Brenda announced that dinner was finished, and the five of us sat down to eat. It felt nice having my favorite people in the world around me again. So much time had passed since we’d all been together.
I hadn’t forgotten Omar’s warning, though, and once we finished, I readied myself. Now that I knew there would be a hound attack that evening, my nerves started tingling with fear and excitement. Austin and Nicole had promised they’d help. Well, Austin had—there was no way we would allow Nicole to assist us.
From what I knew, Austin didn’t have any experience fighting, but he was fantastic with magic. We shouldn’t have any problems working together.
At ten at night, the amulet started warming at my neck.
It’s time.
Chapter Twelve
I glanced over at Austin, who was snoring on the couch next to Nicole. She was struggling to stay awake herself while reading a book on her phone. Silly people—already exhausted from the day and they didn’t even have kids yet.
Austin and I were both dressed in dark clothes, Austin in ones borrowed from Mr. Russell, my neighbor. They weren’t exactly flattering on him, and Nicole hadn’t been able to stop giggling for quite some time after he’d put them on. Mr. Russell was a tiny old man, and his clothes looked ridiculous on the much taller Austin. The pants hadn’t fit around Austin’s waist, so he was wearing suspenders and had tucked in the long black-and-gray flannel shirt to hide his boxers. The poor man was seriously uncomfortable. Too bad neither he nor my dad had brought anything other than khaki shorts. Austin didn’t want to buy dark pants because he had plenty at home. Served him right, according to Nicole, for not wanting to spend the money. I tended to agree with her.
“Can you wake him up?” I whispered to Nicole. “It’s time to go.”
She did, and he grabbed a soda from the fridge to help him get alert. I motioned to my car. He would be driving so I could concentrate on the instructions the amulet was anxious to give.
Following the simple directions (right, straight, left, et cetera), we got onto Pioneer Crossing and headed west. The amulet guided us past Saratoga Springs and into Eagle Mountain, where we turned left onto Ranches Parkway.
The amulet warmed at my sternum. Right, it whispered to my mind as we reached the Chevron on Pony Express. I could tell we were getting closer to our destination. The amulet practically vibrated with an excitement that was contagious. I felt myself getting ready, tensing up and preparing to jump out of the car at a moment’s notice.
We entered Lone Tree, a subdivision I’d never been to before, and stopped in front of a dark split-entry house. No lights were on—they’d probably gone to bed already. After a brief discussion, Austin and I decided not to knock when we found the front door unlocked.
We opened it, slipping inside. Austin motioned to the stairs leading down, but I shook my head, pointing up. We padded up the stairs, our footsteps quieted by the carpet, following the instructions of the amulet. At the hallway, we turned left.
Here, the amulet said at the first door.
I glanced in at a nursery. Little nightlights illuminated elephant and giraffe decorations all over the wall and a big stuffed bear in one corner.
My heart stopped. A man was standing over the crib, staring at the baby sleeping inside. I knew right away he didn’t belong. His ragged clothes were the complete opposite of the perfect and tidy home. Besides that, the amulet told me this was who we sought.
I cautiously stepped across the room until I was close enough to see the little fire that glowed near the man’s sternum. Before he noticed our presence, I snuffed it out.
He fell over the crib, slamming his chin against one side with a loud bang and falling to the floor. The baby awakened and began crying. I held my breath, expecting the parents to come running into the room and preparing to deal with the resulting panic. But they didn’t. Nothing happened.
Austin and I glanced at each other before rushing across the hall into another room. I gasped, unprepared to see several people standing over the bed where the parents huddled in terror.
A burly man farthest from the door glanced at me and grinned before pulling out a long knife and stabbing the dad in the chest with it.
“No!” I screamed, sprinting across the room.
Chapter Thirteen
He leered at me, finding it amusing that I would attack. The expression on his face was short-lived, however, because before I got there, a strong pulse of magic rushed from Austin and ripped the knife from the man’s hand, embedding it into the ceiling where it couldn’t be easily reached.
Just as suddenly, all four people were lifted into the air and slammed against the wall opposite the bed.
The dad had slumped over on the bed. Blood dripped from the wound in his chest. The mom was screaming, grabbing his shoulder.
Austin glanced at me. “Take care of the hounds. I’ll call 911.” With a flick of his wrist, he dropped the people to the ground, pinning them in place with his magic. Not wasting a moment, I fell to my knees next to them and reached out with my magic, snuffing the flames one at a time. Austin was already on the phone, directing an ambulance.
I turned to help the wife with her husband, praying that he was still alive, when I saw a dog in the hallway, staring at me with an eerily intelligent expression on his face. It took me a second to recognize that the amulet was warning me about its presence. I’d been using it too much to kill fires to have noticed.
The beast took off, and I jumped up and raced after it. The hound was faster. It slipped to the front door before I even reached the stairway, and by t
he time I was on the front porch, it had disappeared somewhere into the night. Even with the amulet guiding me, there was no way I’d be able to catch up. Not when all it needed was to find a corner to travel through. Had that been Omar? I’d probably never find out.
Knowing I was needed back in the bedroom, I dashed through the front door and up the stairs again. The woman was sobbing, cradling her husband’s head in her lap. I stopped at the side of the bed and checked his pulse. His eyes fluttered open—he was alive. Thank goodness.
I looked at the woman. “We’ve got to stop the bleeding!”
She didn’t even blink through her panicked crying. Groaning in frustration, I grabbed a shirt that had been tossed on the floor next to the bed and pressed it over the wound on his chest. From what I could tell, the knife had gone in just above the man’s heart. Thank goodness. I kept applying firm pressure to his injury, then glanced at the woman again.
“Your baby,” I said.
She didn’t hear me over her crying—no wonder she couldn’t hear the infant.
“Get your baby!” I shrieked.
The woman stopped sobbing, staring at me.
“He’s alive?”
I tried not to lose my patience, knowing that several types of people simply did not handle stressful situations like this rationally. “Yes. He needs you. Get him.”
The woman scrambled off the bed and dashed out of the room, completely ignoring the dead bodies on the other side of her bed. She returned, cradling the whimpering baby to her chest.
Her husband opened his eyes and stared at me, a dazed expression on his face. I didn’t know how much blood he’d lost, but he didn’t look good.
Sirens sounded outside, and Austin led the paramedics into the bedroom. A couple of worried neighbors hovered in the hallway. The paramedics tightly wrapped an ACE bandage around the man’s chest, holding the rumpled-up shirt in place, then put him in a wheelchair and took him down the stairs and out to a waiting ambulance. The woman and her baby went with, and a neighbor followed in the family van.
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