“Of course. Thanks.” The girl seemed more than grateful.
The boy grabbed his bike and took off, and I waited as she scrambled up the lawn and went inside. She waved from the door.
This was good. I’d actually helped someone tonight, and that felt damned good. I waved and went back to coasting down the street. “Well, that was fun.” Donovan had stopped behind us, but he followed as I turned down another street of sleepy houses.
Shane grunted. “Focus on your abilities. You have to harness them to find where the action will be tonight.”
“What do you think I’ve been doing?”
“Nothing useful,” Shane muttered.
I jerked the car to a stop, and twisted to look at hm. “Not cool. And you’ve got years of brujo practice on me. Where are all your brilliant suggestions?”
He stared at the ceiling for a second before meeting my gaze. “Sorry. It’s not your fault. I’m just feeling antsy.”
“I know it’s been a really shit week, but let’s try to hold it together.” I hit the gas and tried to take my own advice. A note of sympathy passed through the bond and I glanced at Dastien. You’ve been awfully quiet.
I’m not sure how to help, Dastien said.
I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel. Yeah, me neither. If we were close to Luciana, I wasn’t sensing anything. No magic. The night was quiet. Maybe she’s still laying low.
No. She’s got power to spare. She’s not going to sit quietly by. Not anymore. He was quiet for a second, but I could feel his thoughts, like gears turning, clicking by as he saw them and dismissed the ones he deemed unworthy. She’s already started trying to make us look bad. I doubt anything’s stopping her from doing more of that.
If she’s feeling vindictive… I chewed on my lip. Who was I kidding. It was Luciana. She was always feeling vindictive. She’ll try to get us where it’d hurt the most.
But St. Ailbe’s is too well protected. Everyone’s already on alert.
Exactly. I was missing something. Something big. Last night, she’d let her demons tear through a few residential neighborhoods. Eight families were dead before the sun rose. She’d made the point that she could get the humans where they slept. They weren’t safe in their own beds.
I thought of those families, and hurt for them. I couldn’t imagine the pain their loved ones were in. If something like that happened to my—
Fuck.
No. She wouldn’t go after…
I swallowed as the realization sank in. No. She totally would.
Where the hell was I? We’d been wandering for hours. I slammed on my break.
“What’s going on?” Chris asked as Dastien’s cellphone started ringing.
“You really think—” Dastien started but cut off when I shot him a look.
“Yeah.” It was the most horrible thing I could think of, so why wouldn’t Luciana try it?
My hands shook as I tried to work the navigation system. I needed to get to my parents’ house. Now.
“Please proceed to the highlighted route,” the robotic voice said, and I gunned it, taking the turn so fast I thought I might flip the SUV.
“The guards are still on my parent’s house, right?”
“Of course. I’ll find out who’s on duty.” Dastien punched the buttons on his cell. “Hey, Gill. Who’s on the McCaides tonight?”
“Let me check.” Rustling sounded through the phone like the guy was flipping through papers. “Shit. It was supposed to be Rory but he left with the others. I’m sorry. I don’t know how this got overlooked.”
I slammed the steering wheel. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
“Send a team in now.” Dastien growled. “We’re on our way. We might have a situation.” He ended the call. “They’re okay. Don’t worry. We don’t know anything yet.” Dastien tried Dad’s cell, but he didn’t answer. Neither did Mom. With each ring tone, my anxiety rocketed.