Aric’s hand moved to the back of her neck and he gave it a light squeeze. “Zoe is a master at controlling the book. Her powers can be supercharged if she lets that darker magic out to play, though we try to keep those instances to a minimum.”
Rooster, eyes wide, shook his head. “That’s quite the story. Why would a bunch of vampires and shifters want the book in the first place?”
“They’re not the ones who want it,” I answered. “It’s Emma. She was there tonight. She’s in charge. Honestly, I should’ve seen it coming. I didn’t, though, and that’s on me.”
Zoe shot me a sympathetic look. “It’s not on you. None of us could figure out why the vampires and shifters were working together. They’re not natural allies. Now we know. She’s organizing the remnants of the Covenant College vampires and uniting them with your local shifters.”
Gunner made a noise in his throat to draw attention. “Only some of them are members of my pack. The bulk of them are remnants of Cyrus’ pack. He came in a month ago, wanted to cause trouble, and we took him down. Most of those wolves scattered. Obviously, some stayed behind.”
Zoe’s eyes flicked to me. “That’s the pack you were telling me about?”
“Yes. Why? What do you think it means?”
“I think that this Cyrus was probably working with the vampires from the start. The odds of two different factions showing up here and accidentally colliding sounds minuscule to me. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
“Except Hawthorne Hollow is a magical nexus,” Bonnie offered. “Paranormal creatures are drawn here.”
“A nexus?” Aric looked intrigued. “You mentioned that before but I wasn’t paying attention. How do you know that? And how does it work?”
“It’s common knowledge,” Rooster answered. “That’s why our group has so many representatives around to handle a low-population area. The nexus draws in paranormal creatures.”
“Just like Covenant College.” Aric glanced at his wife. “It makes sense that this master vampire would pick up the remnants of the Covenant vampires. They were stragglers and he was looking for a fight. Then another pack leader shows up to cause problems and two natural enemies collided and somehow became allies.” He nodded. “I think Zoe is right. These factions were working together long before they arrived on the scene.”
“But why would they want the book?” Rooster persisted. “What do they think they can get from it?”
Zoe shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe they think they can undo what happened at the college. A lot of their brethren were lost. Their power base was also destroyed. To me, it makes sense that they think the book can make things better for them.”
“I guess.” Rooster didn’t look convinced. Before he could speak again, his attention drifted to Raisin, who had wandered into the bathroom when she grew tired of the conversation. One look at the girl was enough to have him shifting gears. “Is something wrong?”
Raisin’s lower lip trembled and she’d gone unnaturally white. “I went to tell Sami that her parents were here.”
“Is she being a pain?” Aric asked. “If so, just ignore her. She has a sharp tongue. If she said something nasty, she doesn’t mean it. She lashes out because she can’t control her emotions.”
Raisin lifted her hand. There was a sheet of paper clutched in it. “She wasn’t nasty. She wasn’t even in there.”
Zoe sat up taller on her stool. “What do you mean? Where did she go?”
Rooster snagged the paper from Raisin and briefly scanned it. He looked fearful when he turned toward Zoe. “She’s gone.”
“What?” Zoe was off her stool like a shot. “Did that witch take her? How did she manage that? You guys were supposed to be watching. I thought this place was warded.” The look on her face as she read the paper turned from frightened to furious in the blink of an eye.
“What is it?” I asked, confused. “Did Emma take her? If so, we’ll mount up. Everybody will go this time. She won’t get away.”
“Emma didn’t take her,” Aric replied. He’d claimed the note from his wife and he looked positively apoplectic. “Your wards held. This is all on Sami.” His worry was evident as he stared at his wife. “Sami took off on her own to find Rafael.”
“What?” All of the oxygen whooshed out of my lungs. “You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, I’m serious.” Zoe grabbed the note from Aric’s hand and crumpled it. “I’m going to kill her.”
“Maybe she’s still out back,” Whistler said, moving from behind the bar. “Maybe she hasn’t been able to make it very far. We should break into teams and look for her.”
“If she doesn’t want to be found, she won’t be found,” Aric countered, his shoulders sagging. “She’s powerful. She knows how to hide.”
“Because we taught her,” Zoe barked. “She can erect a dome and hide underneath it forever if she wants. She can camouflage herself, too. She’s been taught so many ways to cover herself that I wouldn’t even know where to start to find her trail.”
“Where would she go?” Gunner queried. “She would need a firm plan if she expects to get him back. How does she expect to find Rafael?”
“She’ll try to magically uncover his trail,” Aric replied.
“That’s not working,” Zoe noted. “I tried earlier. They’re covering their tracks. She’ll look someplace else.”
I wasn’t the sort to panic and yet I could feel fear, real and terrible, bubbling up. “Where would she look?”
“I don’t know.” Zoe remained strong, her voice even, but her eyes were glassy. She obviously wanted to cry, give in to her tears, but she would never allow that when her child was at risk. “I just don’t know.”
“I do.” Aric grabbed Zoe by the shoulders and forced her to look at him. He was clearly as upset as his wife, but he held it together. “You can dream walk, baby. We can find her in our dreams. We’ve done it before.”
Zoe hesitated and then nodded. “You’re right. She can’t hide in the dreams.”
I was beyond confused. “What does that even mean?”
“We need a place to rest,” Aric replied. “We need to shut down.”
“You mean go to sleep?” Rooster wrinkled his nose. “Don’t you think that’s a waste of time? I don’t want to tell you how to feel about this, but I don’t understand how dreams can help.”
“We can share dreams,” Zoe explained. “It started after I absorbed the book. Aric and I showed each other our favorite memories in sleep. After we had Sami, we turned it into a game of sorts. We would take her to castles and on adventures in her sleep. Her mind can be tapped through sleep.”
“What if she’s not asleep? I mean, she took off to find the vampire. Why would she go to sleep now?”
“She doesn’t need to be asleep,” Zoe explained. “I’m the one who needs to be asleep, or at least relaxed enough to let my mind drift. It’s a whole process. When she was twelve, outside forces tried to gain control of her. They put her in a trance and tried to lure her from our property. I could wedge myself in her mind then, too.”
“We’re not going to sleep,” Aric added. “We just need a quiet place to work from, someplace with no distractions.”
“There’s a cot in the storage room,” Whistler offered. “It’s quiet there.”
Aric nodded in thanks and slipped his arm around Zoe’s shoulders. “That will work. I appreciate it.”
“No problem.” The grizzled bartender looked bewildered. “What do you want us to do?”
“Keep your ears to the ground,” Aric replied. “Hopefully we’ll be able to figure out where Sami is and then we can all move.”
“How are you going to do that?” I asked, a sick feeling settling in the pit of my stomach. “You’re not familiar with this area.”
“We’re not,” Zoe agreed, thoughtful. “You are, though.”
“Me?” I was taken aback. “How is that going to help you?”
“You’re magical. You’re more.” Zoe touched he
r temples and I recognized she was barely holding it together. “You’ll be able to recognize the locations we pick out of Sami’s mind.”
“Only if I can hitchhike into your daughter’s dreams with you. What if I can’t?”
“Then we’ll pick another avenue of attack,” Aric replied. “For now, this is our best shot. If we can track Sami through her subconscious, we’ll be able to see what she sees and that will allow us to find her faster.”
“I don’t want to be the wet blanket smothering the fire of this grand plan, but what if Emma already has her?” Marissa threw out. “That means the opposition has two things we value and we have nothing to trade.”
The look Zoe shot my petulant co-worker was straight out of a horror book. “If that’s the case, then I’ll have to kill all of them.”
Rooster gulped. “All of them?”
“Anyone who gets in my way.” Zoe’s voice was icy. “I made Sami a promise when she was born that nobody would ever hurt her. Now, she’s decided to be an idiot and walk into danger willingly, but the sentiment remains. I’ll kill anyone who touches my child,” she hissed. “I’ll rip out still-beating hearts and lop off heads. Nothing will stand between me and her. I can guarantee it.”
Twenty-Five
I was uncomfortable when it was just the three of us in the storage room. I’d been in here before of course. There was nothing out of the ordinary when it came to the room, other than it had been used as a prison of sorts only weeks before when Brandon Masters, Gunner’s best friend, had been turned into a half-vampire and needed to be controlled. What made me uncomfortable was Aric and Zoe, and the intimacy they shared.
“Let’s get comfortable,” Aric suggested, sitting on one end of the lone cot. He made room to tuck Zoe in at his side, which left the far end for me.
I stared at the open spot for a long beat, frowning. “We’re not all cuddling together on this cot, are we?”
When I risked a glance in their direction, I found a small smile playing at the corners of Zoe’s mouth. Her eyes remained glassy, as if she was continuously fighting off tears, but she managed a moment of mirth. “We don’t roll that way. You’re safe.”
Aric winked at me and slid his arm around Zoe’s back. “You have to calm yourself, baby. I know you’re upset right now, but this is only going to work if you take a deep breath and let your mind drift.”
Zoe’s expression remained stoic. “Aric?”
“Hmm?”
“Shut up. I know what I’m doing.”
He chuckled and kissed her forehead. “Let’s do this.”
From my spot at the end of the cot, I watched the two of them melt together. Aric leaned his back against the wall and pulled Zoe so her head rested on his chest. He closed his eyes, their breathing falling into the same rhythm.
“I can’t do this if you stare at me,” Zoe said to me without opening her eyes. “You need to relax, too.”
“I don’t know what to do,” I admitted. “I ... this feels really weird.”
“It’s not dirty. I’m pretty sure you can dream walk. You can travel between planes, right? Dream walking should be simple.”
On the face of it, I agreed with the statement. Still, this felt somehow off. “How am I supposed to know where to find you?”
“You’ll know.” Zoe sounded sure of herself. “Lean against the wall, align your breathing with mine.”
“I don’t have to touch you, do I?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Good, because I’m not sure I can go the freaky threesome route, even if it’s not a true threesome.”
“Shh,” Aric admonished. “Just ... drift. Zoe will handle the rest.”
I watched him for the moment, my heart pinging as he rested his cheek against his wife’s forehead. Their daughter was missing, set out on a mission of her own making, and in terrible danger. Other parents would be freaking out. Zoe and Aric had closed themselves off in a small room, with me, to find their daughter on a dream plane.
The entire thing was baffling.
“Close your eyes, Scout,” Zoe admonished. “You’re wasting time.”
Because she was right, I did as she asked. The first few minutes were tense while I tried to get comfortable and not focus on the fact that they were wrapped around one another on my right. However, it didn’t take long for the sound of their breathing to lull me.
I was certain I wouldn’t be capable of drifting off. I was wrong. Within minutes, I crossed over to a gray realm, and found myself in an entirely different world.
“Where ... are we?” I asked when the scent of leaves and foliage assailed my olfactory senses. Before anyone could answer, my eyes popped open and I looked around. We were in a clearing in the middle of the forest, although there were no landmarks for me to gauge where. “What is this place?”
Zoe and Aric appeared from behind me, their eyes trained on the tree line.
“We were hoping you could tell us that,” Aric said, lifting his nose to the air.
“Anything?” Zoe asked hopefully.
He shook his head. “I’ve told you before that my senses are dulled when we do this. It’s as if I’m a visitor in my own head or something. I don’t know how to explain it.”
Zoe chewed on her bottom lip and nodded. “Okay. Stick close.” She started walking forward. “We all ended up here for a reason. I think that’s because Sami is close.”
I wanted to ask how she knew that. I considered my senses sharp, my feel for magic keen, and yet this place was an empty echo chamber. “Maybe we should call out to her,” I suggested, running a shaky hand through my hair. I felt off my game. “If she’s here, she might be hiding.”
“Good idea. Sami!” Zoe screamed so loudly I swear the trees stood at attention and saluted.
Aric joined in. “Sami!”
They took turns yelling their daughter’s name, moving closer to the trees. They didn’t cross the line and disappear into the darkness; something was holding them back. Then it occurred to me. “Is this like your other dream walking excursions?”
Zoe shook her head. “No. This is different. Maybe Sami is frightened and shut down. We can usually control our environment when we do this.”
“How?” I was honestly curious. I was also suspicious. Yet I wanted to be absolutely sure before I voiced my concern.
“I don’t know.” Zoe planted her hands on her hips. “Why are you acting weird?”
“Let’s calm down.” Aric took her hand. “There’s no reason to turn on each other.”
“I’m not acting weird, Zoe. I’m simply trying to get a feel for your process. What were the other instances like?”
Aric was the one who responded. “Zoe controls the magic but somehow I’m allowed input on where we go. When it first started, we revisited memories of one another. In fact, she was sick on the bathroom floor when it happened the first time. She was pregnant, although we didn’t know it at the time, and she’d just thrown up in the kitchen sink during a cake tasting. We shared a dream of our first meeting. Except, the weird thing was, I was experiencing the dream from her perspective. That’s when I knew something weird was up. After that, we started doing it on purpose. We hit up our favorite memories, and even a few sad ones. Once we added Sami to the mix, we turned it into a literary game.”
Zoe’s expression softened. “We took her to Hobbiton, and Hogwarts ... and even Dracula’s castle. She loved watching Aric fend off the female vampires.”
Aric jabbed a finger in her direction. “You’re the one who did the weird thing with the vampires. You also made Dracula look like Colin Farrell because you were hot for him at the time.”
Zoe snorted. “At the time? I’m still hot for him. Don’t kid yourself.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Aric pushed her hair away from her face and wrinkled his nose. “Then there was the infamous Disney princess phase. Sami wanted to visit all the castles. We took her, even playing parts from various movies.”
His voice broke. �
��I danced with her when she was Belle because that was her favorite one. She loved the music and the idea of talking teacups and candlesticks.”
Zoe moved closer to him. “We’re going to get her back.”
He choked back a sob and nodded. “Of course we are. She’s just as stubborn as her mother. She’ll burn the world down before succumbing.”
I wanted to give them a moment to bolster each other but we didn’t have the time. “Yeah, I’m sorry for what you’re going through and I agree we’re going to get her back. The thing is, I don’t believe you’re the one controlling this particular environment.”
Zoe snapped her head in my direction. “Meaning what?”
“Meaning I’m controlling it,” a female voice announced from behind me, and I cringed. I didn’t have to turn to know who was joining the party. It seemed the thing to do, though, so when I swiveled, it was with an open glare. “Hello, Scout,” the woman who was apparently haunting my dreams on a regular basis announced. “I’m so happy you could join me.”
“Who is this?” Zoe demanded, strategically placing herself in front of Aric in a protective move. Aric was having none of it.
“Knock that off.” He lightly nudged his wife to the side so he could stand with her. “Who are you?”
The woman looked him up and down. “It doesn’t matter who I am,” she replied. “All that matters is I know who you are and, more importantly, that I know of your child.”
Zoe rolled her eyes in dramatic fashion. “More importantly?”
“Your reputation is quite impressive, mage. Even from across planes, your presence reverberates.”
“Planes?” Zoe cut her eyes to me. “Is this the woman you were talking about?”
I nodded, grim. “She won’t stay out of my head. I think she enjoys torturing me.”
“Torture is such a strong word,” the woman countered.
“What word would you use?”
“I didn’t say it was the wrong word.” Her tone was light and airy as she chuckled. “I can see you’re not amused by the turn of events, mage. You need to relax, take a breath.”
Cut to the Crone Page 25