Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
“They would have to have access to it somehow?” I need to just stop talking because everything she says just confirms what I don’t want to know.
Her eyes widen. “Knowing a demon’s name usually is enough access. And then if they can figure out how to crack the door…it would be very bad.”
The waiter brings me the iced tea I ordered and I tear open a sugar packet, mixing it in. “Yeah, sounds like it would be terrible.”
“You’re asking some very specific questions.” She holds her hand over her tea, stirring it without touching the spoon. “There’s a specific demon you’re worried about. And it has something to do with the Order.” She leans forward, reading my energy. “They’re up to something?”
“They always are,” I say ruefully, tearing open another sugar packet to buy myself a little more time.“And…” I say each word slowly with careful consideration. “I’ve heard mention of a demon.” I pause, just long enough to make it seem deliberate. “Vaelric.”
Marie looks up, brown eyes cloudy as she thinks. “Vaelric,” she repeats. “That’s not a name you hear often.”
“You’ve heard of it?”
“Mh-mh.” She slowly bobs her head up and down, something clicking in her memory. “Very powerful demon. It was a difficult binding. Not any coven could have taken him on.” She shifts her gaze back to me. “It was Blackwood work.”
My stomach drops and if I weren’t sitting, I would lose my balance. In my head, the world spins around me and it takes everything I have to stay grounded. I stare back at Marie and the silence that stretches between us is suffocating. Marie leans back, watching me with a newfound curiosity.
“So,” she says, picking up her tea. “Why are you so interested in the demon your family trapped?”
Chapter
Twenty-Four
“How was lunch with Delphi?” Xavier asks as soon as I step foot in the house. He’s leaning against the doorframe in the kitchen, waiting for me. Oh, shit. I can tell by the look on his face he knows I wasn’t with her. Knowing I don’t want to dig myself deeper into a lie, I take my shoes off and cross the space between us.
“I didn’t have lunch with Delphi.”
“I know. I had a phone conference with her pack. She was there.”
“It’s not what you think,” I rush out, knowing that lying about meeting up with a girlfriend usually means someone is cheating.
“Really? It seems exactly what I think. You met a witch.”
My mouth falls open. “How did you—were you spying on me?”
“I was worried, Wren. I sent Nina to check on you.”
I look at him, not sure if I’m warranted in my anger. Yes, I lied, but I didn’t have someone sneak around. “How did you know I was with a witch?”
“Marie Dubois is a well known witch in the south,” Theo says, instantly annoying me for getting involved. “We heard a rumor that she was spotted in Charlotte. You knew she was here.”
“What’s wrong with that?” I ask. “Are witches not allowed in your precious city either? What about me then?”
“It’s not witches,” Xavier goes on, and his calmness is worse than him being angry. “She showed up and then we were attacked by reanimated corpses.”
“Oh, come on, she is not responsible for what the demon did!”
“She’s related to Marie Laveau, the voodoo queen of the south,” Theo presses. “But she didn’t tell you that, did she?”
I swallow hard. She didn’t specifically say that, but she did tell me she was named after a prominent member of her family and did tell me that her family’s specialty was voodoo.
“They basically invented the zombie,” Theo goes on.
“I’m telling you, Marie did not create the zombies that attacked us. That would make no sense,” I counter.
“What makes no sense is a group of witches moving into vampire territory,” Xavier states calmly.
“Well why not,” Theo snaps, turning on his brother. “The hunters already have because obviously we’re just letting anybody move in now.”
“She didn’t move in. She came here to help me and I needed her help,” I say, not needing to go into telling them that her day job is writing articles for a historical magazine and she was able to get them to pay for her to stay a week at the Duke Mansion for “research”.
“Her help?” Xavier echoes and I know he’s taking it personally, that needing her help means he’s incapable in some way.
“What could you possibly need from a voodoo witch?”
“Voodoo is a type of magic. She’s a witch, like me. And I need help dealing with the demon,” I start. “It’s in my head and I needed to figure out a way to keep it out. Especially if Antonio is right and the demon is trying to use me so it can stay one step ahead.”
“The demon is in your head?” Xavier asks, clearly taken aback. “For how long?”