“Greater demons can teleport,” I reminded her. “I’m sure he’s already gotten what he needed and left by now. If he hasn’t, we can hide out and check it out once he’s gone. Our rings will hide our scent. He won’t even know we’re there.”
“I thought you didn’t care about what the demons were hunting?” Sage asked. “You just wanted to get the rest of your demon teeth and get to Avalon?”
“The more information I have, the more indispensable I’ll be once I get to Avalon.” I shrugged. “Plus, if we know what the demons want, it could help us in our hunt. So?” I turned back to Amber, ready to set off. “Where did he go?”
“A new age store in Venice Beach,” she said, reciting the address. “It’s called Tarotology.”
“Thanks.” Sage whipped out her credit card. “How much do we owe for the information?”
“Nothing.” Amber shook her head, her eyes empty.
Sage froze, looking shocked. It was unheard of for the witches to do anything—even supply simple information—without compensation. This was clearly a first.
“I insist.” Sage held the card out. “The Montgomery pack prefers paying to owing favors.”
Amber looked at the card but didn’t take it. “That demon took my sister from me,” she said, her voice laced with venom. “You figuring out what’s at that shop that he wanted badly enough to take Whitney’s life to find it is all the payment I need.”
“We’re on it.” I backed toward the door, itching to get moving now that we had a lead. “And thanks for the tip.”
Without further delay, Sage and I left the mansion, revved up our bikes, and sped off toward Venice Beach.
Raven
It was only a ten minute car ride from the Pier to Tarotology. I spent the entire drive staring out the window, thinking about what had happened in the alley.
I’d told my friends it had been an attempted kidnapping. I still believed that.
But I couldn’t forget the inhuman speed of my rescuers, the way the older guy had disappeared into thin air, and how my savior had stabbed Eli and turned him into a pile of ash.
It was the drugs, I reminded myself. Eli must have slipped something in my drink that had made me hallucinate.
Otherwise… I was either suffering from a psychotic delusion, or something supernatural had happened in that alley.
It had to have been drugs. Except I didn’t feel like I’d been drugged. I’d never been drugged before, so I supposed I had no way to tell if I’d been drugged or not, but I felt the same way as when I’d had one beer too many.
It was one of the reasons why I hadn’t wanted Tiffany to call the police. The police would test me for drugs, and I feared I’d come back clean.
Which would mean I was suffering from a psychotic break.
It was exactly what I’d feared since the jaunt to Europe. I’d thought I was getting better, but now… that apparently wasn’t the case.
It was time to make an appointment with a real psychiatrist. Not one of those new age organic doctors my mom was sending me to who’d give me herbal supplements and crystal wands to try purifying my aura, but a trained professional who could get to the bottom of what I was experiencing and help me get better through actual science.
Tomorrow, that was exactly what I planned to do.
The traffic was insane—like always—but eventually Kaitlin pulled up to the back of the shop. Even though it was only five feet from the car to the door, my friends insisted on walking with me.
After what had happened tonight, a hollow pit formed in my stomach at the idea of walking anywhere by myself. Especially at night.
My friends made me promise I’d call them tomorrow. Then I locked up and hurried upstairs to the apartment, ready to change into my pajamas and tell my mom everything. It would be such a relief to get it off my chest.
I stopped dead in my tracks when I entered the kitchen.
A chair was overturned on the floor, and a half-eaten plate of pasta was on the table. The stovetop was still on with leftover dinner simmering in a pot, and the television blared with the local news. The tarot cards remained where they’d been earlier, so the Chariot card was still face-up on the table.
“Mom?” I dropped my bag on the table and hurried to her room.
Her lights were off, the room was empty. She wasn’t in the bathroom, either. I called for her again and looked for her in my room—I didn’t know why she would be in my room, but it was the only other room in the apartment left for me to check.
She wasn’t there.
I would have thought she’d gone out, but she wouldn’t have left the kitchen in such disarray, and her car was still in the lot behind the building.
I hurried to my bag and took out my phone to call her. We were walking distance to a lot of places—maybe she’d gone somewhere and hadn’t thought to let me know. She had no reason to think I’d come home early on the night of my twenty-first birthday.
I turned off the television, tapped her name on my speed dial, and held the phone up to my ear.
Her phone rang behind me.
I turned around. Sure enough, her phone was on the kitchen island, lighting up with my call. I ended the call and slid the phone into my back pocket, dread seeping into my bones.
The overturned kitchen, the food left on the stove, the phone left behind… it was all adding up to look like my mom had been taken.
I leaned against the wall, my breaths shallow, and tried to get ahold of myself. How could someone have gotten in here? The back door had been locked when I’d gotten home, the balcony door was shut, and the front—the entrance for the store—had an alarm system.
Maybe she’d gone downstairs to the store to check on something and left her phone up here? After what had happened to me tonight, I was automatically jumping to the worst conclusion by thinking she’d been taken, but I was probably panicking for nothing. She could be doing a last minute inventory check.
I flicked on the light near the steps and hurried downstairs to find her.
But if she was down here, wouldn’t she have turned on the lights?
“Mom?” I pulled aside the curtain that led to the front, looking around the empty store in panic. Next, I checked the back room. Nothing.
That was it. She wasn’t here. I was calling the police.
I ran upstairs and heard two vehicles pull into the back.
“This is it,” someone said—a male. “He’s been here. I can smell him.”
“What would a demon want with a human-run store?” the second voice—a female—said.
“No clue,” the man said. “But I doubt he left anyone behind, so let’s take a look and find out for ourselves.”
I hurried to my bedroom and peered through the blinds.
Two motorcycles were parked next to my mom’s car. The people who’d been speaking—who I presumed had come on the bikes—were nowhere in sight.
Thumping noises came from the balcony—like they’d climbed up. But that was impossible. It was too high to climb, especially that quickly.
But there was jiggling on the outside, and the door started to open. My heart jumped into my throat. I wouldn’t be able to get out of the apartment without them seeing me.
I was trapped.
I closed the door to my room and glanced around for something to use to protect myself. It was a situation like this where owning a gun would have come in handy, but my mom was way too anti weapons to have ever considered it. Instead, I grabbed the biggest healing crystal wand on my nightstand and hid in the closet. The crystal was half a foot tall, as wide as a broomstick, and it had a pointed tip, so it could double as a weapon.
I hoped. Which would have to be enough, since it was all I had right now.
Securing the crystal in one hand, I grabbed my phone out of my back pocket with the other and dialed 911.
They picked up after the first ring. “911, what’s your emergency?” a calm woman asked from the other side of the line.
“Someone’s in my
house,” I whispered, not wanting to risk them hearing me. “I got home and my mom was gone and now I think whoever took her is trying to take me too.”
“Where do you live?” she asked, remaining perfectly calm.
I quickly gave her my address. “It’s an apartment,” I added. “Above a store called Tarotology.”
“The police will be there in ten minutes,” she said. “Are you in a safe place?”
I glanced around the closet and at the crystal wand in my other hand, unsure how to answer her question. “I’m hiding in a—”
I was midway through speaking when the door to my room creaked open. Footsteps sounded through my room. I stayed as quiet as possible, not wanting to give away my location, and raised the crystal wand higher.
It wasn’t much, but I refused to go down without a fight.
“Miss?” the voice on the other end of the line asked. “Are you still there?”
The footsteps got closer and closer until they were right in front of the closet. Then they stopped.
I held my breath—whoever was inside was standing on the other side of the door.
The door opened, and with as much strength as I could muster, I arced the crystal back and rammed the tip of it straight into the intruder’s flesh.
Raven
She cursed, and I bolted to the door without stopping to look at her.
But the man who had saved me in the alley was standing in the doorway, blocking my path. I ran straight into him, and he wrapped an arm around me to keep me still. He used his other hand to swipe my phone from my hand.
He glanced down at the screen, ended the call, and tossed the phone to the ground. His hold was as strong as Eli’s—maybe stronger. Trying to get out of it was futile.
“Who’d you call?” he asked.
I heard his question, but I was too busy watching the girl pull the crystal wand out of her shoulder as easily as one might pull a pin from their hair to answer. How did she do that? Blood dripped everywhere—I must have hit an artery. But the wound was knitting together, healing in front of my eyes.
“That’s not possible.” I shook my head, trying to make sense of what I’d seen. But there was no way to make sense of it.
Was I hallucinating again?
Maybe. But her blood was still on the floor. I’d felt the crystal wand break through her skin. Now she was standing up, unharmed. And the man was acting like this was totally normal.
This was real. I didn't know how it was real, but it was. I knew it in my gut.
Which meant everything that had happened in the alley was real, too.
“Was there someone here earlier?” the man holding me asked. “The older man from in the alley?”
“Are you working with him?” I tried to twist around to look at him, but it was hopeless, so I directed the question toward the girl instead. “Did he take my mom?”
“He took your mom?” Her eyebrows shot up in surprise.
The man spun me around so I was facing him. He stared down at me with his deep brown eyes and gripped my shoulders, holding me in place. “We’re hunting that man, not working with him,” he said. “We followed his trail here. Do you know why he wanted your mom?”
“No,” I said. “But I called the cops. They’ll be here soon. They’ll figure out what happened to her.”
They had to.
“We can’t be here when the cops arrive.” The girl walked to the balcony and glanced out the open door. “We need to get out of here.”
“Fine.” The man followed her, dragging me along. “But she comes with us.”
“What?” the girl and I said at the same time. She glared at me, as if wondering how I dared say the same thing as her, and looked to him for an answer.
“She might be able to help us figure out what the greater demon wants with her mom,” he said.
“Demon?” I sputtered and tried to pull away, but he held me locked in place. “Are you saying that a demon took my mom?”
“Yes.” He held his gaze with mine, like he was daring me to contradict him.
“That’s ridiculous,” I said. “Demons don’t exist.”
“Wrong,” he said. “Or have you already forgotten how I saved you from one and disintegrated him back in the alley?”
My eyes widened. It had been real.
How would he have known what had happened otherwise?
“We don’t have time for this.” The girl glanced out the balcony, looking worried. “We need to leave. Now.”
“Who are you guys?” I looked back and forth between them with a mix of wonder and terror. “You move so fast, you turned that man into ash, and you healed in front of my eyes. None of that should be possible.”
“We’re the ones who can help you find your mom.” The man towered over me, his grip around my arm tightening. “The police can’t help you. We can. But if you want our help, you need to come with us.” He watched me so intensely—so desperately—that I knew he was telling the truth.
I looked past him to the kitchen table, where the Chariot tarot card was still face up in the same spot it had been during my final conversation with my mom. What had she told me regarding the card?
She’d told me to be prepared for upcoming changes, and to be receptive of the new people who came into my life because of those changes.
She’d also told me to remember that I was the Charioteer of my own life, and not to let anyone take that power from me.
“Well?” The girl threw her hands up in the air, scowling at me. “Are you coming or not?”
Logic said I should wait for the cops to arrive—not run off with two leather-clad intruders who may or may not have superpowers. Who knew where they’d take me? Maybe this was all an elaborate plot so they could abduct me, too.
But I’d seen how strong they were—I could feel it in the man’s grip. If they’d wanted to take me, I would have been halfway back to their lair by now.
Instead, they were giving me a choice.
Most importantly, the man seemed to truly believe that they were the only ones who could help me find my mom.
“If I go with you, will you answer all my questions?” I asked, matching his steely gaze with one of my own.
“We can’t—” the girl started.
“As long as you answer ours in return, then once we’re back to the compound, yes, we’ll answer your questions,” he cut his companion off, glaring at her as if telling her to shut up with his mind.
Maybe he had told her to shut up with his mind. After all, they did have superpowers.
Add telepathy to my growing list of questions I had for them.
“All right.” The decision felt right once the words were out of my mouth. “Let’s go.”
Raven
He threw me over his back, ran to the balcony, and jumped over the ledge.
I screamed and squeezed my eyes shut, preparing for the worst. But he landed as lightly as a feather, as if he’d jumped one step down instead of one story down.
He released me from his back, and my feet hit the pavement, my body shaking. Both he and the girl hopped onto their motorcycles like they were performing some sort of choreographed dance.
He revved the engine and looked at me. “Are you coming or what?” he asked.
“I need my stuff.” I glanced back up at the open doors of the balcony. “My phone, my wallet… they’re inside the apartment.”
“We don’t have time for this.” The girl glared at me. “I hear the sirens in the distance. Get on Noah’s bike, or we’re leaving without you.”
My mysterious savior had a name—Noah.
I liked it. It fit him well.
“The Montgomery pack will take care of you,” Noah said confidently. “But Sage is right. We need to leave—now.”
I bit my lip and wrapped my arms around myself, feeling naked without my stuff. Going anywhere without my phone, ID, and credit cards was downright stupid. Especially given that I knew nothing about these people, or the Montgomery pack t
hey’d mentioned.
But if Noah and Sage left me here, I’d lose this chance of finding my mom.
I had to suck it up and trust them.
So I hopped on the back of his bike and wrapped my arms around his waist, holding on for dear life. The moment I was on, he pulled out of the drive. The girl—Sage—followed close behind.
My hair whipped behind us as we sped down the main street. Two police cars passed on the opposite side of the road, speeding toward the apartment.
They must have been the ones dispatched by 911.
Deep down, my heart told me that going with Noah and Sage was the right decision. They had supernatural abilities, and whoever had taken my mom—the demon, they’d said—clearly had them too.
I was entering completely uncharted territory.
But as the sound of sirens disappeared into the distance, I couldn’t help wondering if I’d just made a terrible mistake.
Raven
It didn’t strike me until we hit the freeway that I had no idea where we were heading. They’d mentioned a compound, but that was all I knew. So I held on tight for the entire forty minute ride that eventually took us all the way up into the Hollywood Hills.
The winding roads, full trees, and open land in the Hills seemed like a completely different world than Venice Beach. Noah drove and drove up the hills until pulling up to a house all the way at the top.
Well, “house,” was an understatement. Like they’d said, it was a sprawling compound.
Sage stopped outside the thick wooden gate, and Noah followed her lead. She shook out her hair, running her fingers through it to brush out any knots.
I tried to do the same to my hair, but it was a hopeless mess.
“Welcome to the Montgomery compound,” she said to me, her tone grim. Without waiting for a response, she turned to Noah and asked, “What are you planning on telling the pack? They’ll freak out when they realize you’ve brought a human here.”
“We couldn’t just leave her back there,” Noah said. “Not after everything she saw.”
The Angel Trials (Dark World: The Angel Trials Book 1) Page 5