I didn’t know what to say. This guy sounded seriously scary. I’d never heard of a vampire-witch hybrid before. How was I supposed to help this woman’s granddaughter against something like that?
“How do you know all this?” It seemed like as good a place to start as any.
“He killed my family.”
I swallowed hard. The bluish-white light surrounding her shimmered, and the edges around her started to fade.
My connection was waning.
“Don’t worry, though.” Her chin lifted. “Old age got me, honey, not him.”
Pieces to a puzzle I hadn’t been aware I was building suddenly fit together.
“You’re the woman holding the amulet in my visions, aren’t you?”
“Smart girl.” A smile stretched across her face, and the gap between her front teeth showed again. “I trapped Bram inside it a long time ago. However, someone’s set him free.”
“How do you know?”
It was obvious the woman was a witch. Maybe her ability fell in the category of reading minds or sensing things.
“I can feel it in my bones.” Her eyes darkened as her hand lifted to press against the center of her chest. She blinked and sadness overtook her features. “My belongings were supposed to go to my daughter when I passed—that amulet included—but I didn’t know my daughter was no longer of the livin’. She’s here with me on the other side. Which means everythin’ that was meant to go to her never made it into the right hands—into the hands of a Dupre witch.”
“How did you not know that your daughter had passed?” I asked as a low-grade throbbing entered my head. Time was running short. I needed to gather as much information as I could and do it as quickly as possible. “Where is your granddaughter? She’s the one I need to find, isn’t she?”
“She is.” The old woman’s face fell. “Unfortunately, my daughter and I had a fallin’ out ten years ago, because my baby girl refused to raise her daughter with magic. She took away any trace of the Dupre legacy from her life by bindin’ her magic. We didn’t speak again until recently when I crossed over and she was here to greet me.”
Tears streamed down the old woman’s cheeks, causing her shimmering dark skin to glisten. She sniffled and straightened her posture, composing herself quickly.
“Does your daughter have any idea where Hazel is?” I hated to seem pushy, but the old woman was already fading fast. My connection with the other side was breaking.
“No. And, you can’t track loved ones in that sense over here. You can come to them and watch over them, but you never truly know their exact location because it doesn’t matter.”
Dang it. Then, I had nothing to go on besides the girl’s name. I needed something more. A name wasn’t going to be enough.
“Do you know the city or state your daughter was living in when she passed?” Maybe I could start there.
“New Orleans. Hazel was there for a time too, but she’s like her mama and tends to move around a lot. There’s no tellin’ if she’s still there.”
The edges of the old woman blurred. Our time was ending. My muscles quivered, and my head ached as I tried to keep the connection with her open for a bit longer.
“How old is she now? Young, like you showed me?”
The woman smiled. “No. She’s twenty-two now. The image I showed you was of her at the age I last saw her.”
Hazel Dupre. Twenty-two. Possibly in New Orleans. It wasn’t much to go on.
“You’ll have to do a locator spell to find her before Bram does. He can’t get to her, Ridley. She knows nothin’ of magic and has no way to protect herself from him.”
Crap. That was right. Her mother bound her magic when she was little.
“I’ll find her. I promise.”
“When you do, tell her Grandma Adele sent you.” A sad smile twisted at the old woman’s lips. “It should at least get her to listen to you for a bit.” Her last words echoed through my mind as she faded enough to become one with the bluish-white light of the other side.
Black dots speckled the edges of my vision. My pulse raced in my ears like a drum. I fell away from the other side into a sea of darkness, thinking about how I knew nothing of where the amulet was still and little of anything else.
Chapter 11
“Ridley! Ridley, come on. Wake up!” Benji shouted.
His icy hands touched my face. The chill of them against my hot skin had my eyes fluttering open. I moved into a sitting position faster than I should have, causing the room to spin. Nausea sloshed through my stomach.
“Thank goodness. You gave me a scare,” he said. “You okay? What happened?”
He sat back, giving me space.
“Yeah. Where’s my pendant?” I asked. My tongue felt like sandpaper inside my mouth when I spoke.
I glanced around, searching for it. While I didn’t think Adele would try to contact me again so soon, I didn’t know if other spirits might. It would be best if I had my pendant on to help keep them in check.
“I put it on you when you passed out. Just in case. I wasn’t sure what happened, but I was about to get your aunt,” he said. I glanced down to see the pendant hanging from my neck. Relief trickled through me at the sight. “Whew, you scared me.”
My gaze lifted to Benji’s. I locked eyes with him and was able to see the worry he felt for me still festering there.
“I sort of scared myself. I’ve never held a connection with the other side for so long.” I rubbed my forehead. Exhaustion pulsed through my limbs. All I wanted to do was flop down on my bed and sleep for days. “How long was I tapped in for?”
“About three minutes. Give or take a few seconds I think.”
I blinked. That couldn’t be right. It had seemed as though I’d been tapped into the other side for nearly an hour.
“Seriously?”
Benji nodded. “Longest three minutes of my whole damn life. I can’t even put into words how worried about you I was.” He pulled me in for a hug, and I buried my face into his solid chest. The coolness of his body against my hot face was nice. Soothing even. “Did you figure out who was tryin’ to contact you? Or anythin’ about the little girl?”
“It wasn’t her reaching out to me; it was her grandmother.”
“How is that possible?” he asked.
“She’s a powerful witch.”
“What did she want?”
“Help. Apparently, the amulet I kept seeing was hers. The man was someone who killed her family. He tried to kill her too, but she was able to trap him in the amulet.”
“I’m not followin’.” Benji untangled himself from my grip. “Why was she showin’ you that? What are you supposed to do for her?”
“When she died, the amulet was supposed to pass to her daughter, but what Adele didn’t know was that her daughter was already dead. They hadn’t spoken in years, and because of that, the amulet went to someone else with the guy, Bram, trapped inside. Somehow, though, he was released. And, according to Adele, that’s not a good thing. Bram is a vampire-witch hybrid who siphons magic from other witches when he feeds from them.”
“Okay, that’s a lot to take in. No wonder you’re exhausted.” Benji scratched the back of his neck. “So, are you supposed to find the little girl, then? Her granddaughter?”
“Yeah, before Bram does. And, she’s not little anymore. She’s twenty-two and doesn’t know about magic or her family history involving it.”
“Where is she?”
“Adele didn’t know. She said her daughter moved around a lot and that her granddaughter, Hazel, is the same way. The last known address for her, according to her mother, was in New Orleans,” I said. The room had already stopped spinning. Thank goodness. “Finding her will only be half the battle, though. Her mom raised her as human, which means explaining all of this to her isn’t going to be fun. She bound her magic when she was little.”
“Should be interestin’. You’re gonna be introducin’ her to a whole new world.”
I
sighed. “Exactly.”
“How are you supposed to find her?”
“Adele mentioned I should perform a locator spell, which seems like a smart idea.” I rubbed the center of my chest with the palm of my hand in an effort to calm my racing heart.
“Do you have one to use?”
“Not really, but I’m sure Aunt Rowena does in one of the books in her bedroom.”
“What about your book on gray magic? Wouldn’t there be one in there?”
“Maybe.”
I leaned over the side of my bed and grabbed it from in my nightstand. I placed it on the bed between us and flipped through its pages. Nothing jumped out at me. At least, nothing to do with locating someone on this plane of existence.
“What now?” Benji asked when I’d made it to the last page in the book.
“I’ll have to get a spell from my aunt’s books.”
“Have you done a locator spell before?” Benji asked.
“Once. With my aunt and cousin. It worked, but I don’t remember the ingredients or what was said.” I hated admitting how much of a newbie I still was to the whole witch thing. It grated on my nerves.
I closed the book on gray magic and slipped it into my nightstand drawer again.
“Don’t worry. We’ll find her and we’ll figure this out,” Benji insisted. He grabbed hold of my hand and squeezed. “Then you can put up the veil and be done with this whole anchor thing for good, if that’s what you want still.”
My stomach hardened. Was that something I still wanted?
I wasn’t sure anymore.
“You look exhausted.” Benji moved to stand. “I should go so you can get some rest.”
“Okay. Yeah, I am tired.” It was the truth, but also a lie. My body was exhausted, but my mind was ready to go. All I could think about was getting to Hazel before Bram.
How much time did I have to find her? How would I explain things to her when I did locate her? Would she believe me? Enough to come with me?
Benji kissed me, causing thoughts of Hazel to float from my mind. His lips were soft, as though I were breakable and kissing me might cause me to shatter.
“Good night,” he said when he pulled away. “Please don’t do anythin’ else tonight. Get some rest. Okay?”
“I won’t. I promise.” I flashed him a small smile. “See you tomorrow.”
He moved to my bedroom window, but wasn’t able to touch it thanks to the crystals still set in place.
“Care to let me out?” he asked with a smirk.
“I guess I could do that.”
I climbed out of bed and stepped to the window. I grabbed hold of one of the crystals keeping Benji in the room with me, and a jolt of energy traveled up my arm. The barrier was down.
“You’re free to go now,” I said as I placed the crystal on the floor.
“Thank you.”
Benji leaned in, his lips brushing mine again before he tossed open the window and popped out the screen, then left my room the same way he’d entered. I watched him fall the impossibly high distance to the ground and walk away before I shoved the screen back in place and closed the window. Then, I made my way back to my bed and pulled the covers up to my chin. My fingers reached for the pendant at my neck, and the conversation with Adele shifted through my mind. I focused on what she’d said about Hazel and Bram as I drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 12
All day I waited on edge for a headache or another debilitating vision to come, but nothing did. Even so, I couldn’t keep my mind off thoughts of Hazel or Bram. Sitting through my Monday classes seemed like a waste of time when there was someone’s life hanging in the balance. However, I’d used the time wisely to figure out what steps needed to be taken to find Hazel faster. Getting my hands on the proper locator spell was step one. I’d thought about browsing through Aunt Rowena’s books on my own, but I soon realized it would be a huge time suck. Besides, I needed a locator spell strong enough to locate a person.
Aunt Rowena would know which one would work best, I just had to ask.
My palms were sweaty as I stood outside her bedroom door. I smoothed them along my jean-clad thighs and pulled in a deep breath before knocking.
“Come in,” she called out, her voice soft. My heart thundered as I swung the door open and stepped inside. “Oh, you’re home already? I lost track of time.” She glanced at the clock on her nightstand and closed the book she’d been reading.
“Getting lost in a good book is always nice,” I said.
“It is. Definitely the sign of a great writer.” She tucked her hair behind her ear as her eyes focused on me. “Did you need something?”
“A locator spell, actually.”
Aunt Rowena perked up. “Oh. For what? Did you lose something?”
“No. I, um, need to find someone.”
Her brows furrowed. “Who?”
What was I supposed to say? The truth was out of the question.
“I’m not performing it for me. It’s for someone else. They asked me to find someone for them.”
Technically, I wasn’t lying. Adele had asked me to find Hazel.
“Is it for Mina?” she asked. Her face fell and I didn’t understand why. “What is her pack dealing with now? Goodness, my heart goes out to them. They never seem to catch a moment of peace.”
Her hand went to her heart as though it were breaking for Mina and her pack.
Words fumbled through my mind, but none of them made their way to my lips. I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t lie. Not any more than I already had, and dang sure not about Mina and her pack. Aunt Rowena would find out the next time she talked to Eli.
“You don’t want to tell me,” Aunt Rowena said. She paused in front of her bookshelf to glance at me from over her shoulder. Her brown eyes penetrated straight to my soul. “It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me who the spell is for. I’m only glad to see you’re practicing magic—true magic—and that you’re using it to help someone. I trust that, if you need help with something on it, you’ll come to me. Yes?”
I nodded. “I will.”
Her emphasis on true magic wasn’t lost on me. She’d been taking a jab at gray magic.
Aunt Rowena flashed me a smile and shifted back to look at the books in front of her. She reached for a navy blue, leather-bound one and pulled it from the shelf. “A standard locator spell for finding someone should work.”
She flipped through the book’s pages. I remained where I stood, glad she hadn’t tried to warn me again on the dangers of gray magic.
“Here we go. This one should do the trick,” she said, pointing to a page in the book. “It should work easily for finding someone the pack, or anyone else, might search for. And, it only takes three ingredients—a scrying crystal, a cup of salvia tea, and a map.”
“Salvia tea?” I repeated.
While I knew what salvia tea was, it wasn’t something we had on hand. Mina’s pack did, though. It was what they used during their full moon ceremonies to help trigger the wolf gene for those not yet moon kissed among the pack.
I hoped Mina was ready for me to take her up on her previous offer to help, because she was the only way I’d be able to get my hands on any of that tea.
“Yes. Wolves are good at tracking, and salvia tea is heavily associated with them.” She passed the book to me. “Let me know if you have any issues performing it.”
I swallowed hard as I took it from her. I couldn’t believe she wasn’t going to lecture me or press for more details.
“I will,” I said. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Everything you need, except for the tea, is in the attic.”
“Okay. I’ll head up there now.”
I left her room and headed straight to the attic. Once I gathered the scrying crystal and a map of the USA, I planned to send Mina a text. Pride rang through me because I was now one step closer to locating Hazel Dupre. Which meant, I was closer to saving her life.
Chapter 13
; I turned into Mirror Lake Trailer Park and headed for Mina and Eli’s trailer. Both of their vehicles sat in the driveway. I bit my bottom lip as I parked behind Mina’s tiny car. I’d been hoping Eli wouldn’t be home. It wasn’t that I didn’t like him—he was a sweet guy who treated Mina like a queen. It was that since he’d become alpha of their pack, an intense energy always charged the air around him.
Also, I wasn’t sure how Mina would feel about handing over the pack’s sacred tea.
I climbed out of my car and made my way to the wooden steps near their front door. A puppy barked inside, the sound filtered through the door. I knocked, and the barking grew louder. I knew it was Moonshine, Eli and Mina’s yorkie puppy. I also knew her bark was worse than her bite. She was a sweetie.
“Come in!” Mina shouted from somewhere inside.
I twisted the knob and swung the door open. Moonshine wasn’t waiting to dart out like I’d thought she would be. In fact, she didn’t come to me at all. The scent of vanilla tickled my nose as I closed the door behind me. I spotted the source on the kitchen counter and wondered if I was interrupting something intimate between Mina and Eli. Candles burned and low music played.
“Hey, um… should I come back later?” I asked.
Mina laughed from in the kitchen where she stood with Moonshine in her arms. She set the puppy down, and the instant her tiny paws hit the linoleum floor, she darted straight to me. I bent at the waist to pet her once she reached me.
“Not at all. This is our typical Sunday afternoon—cleaning with candles and music.” Mina grinned. She stepped to the sink and began washing the dishes. “Sounds romantic and exciting, right?” Sarcasm dripped from her words.
I opened my mouth to tell her it did, but Eli stepped out of the hall with a stack of folded dish towels in hand and the words died in my throat. While he had an intense alpha air about him that made unease prickle through me, he was also incredibly attractive with dark hair and bright green eyes.
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