“Eve!” I screamed, pounding on the door. “Eve!”
“I’m calling her,” Seraphia’s voice sounded from my side. “She’s on the top floor. Might not hear you.’
I looked down at her and saw her bare feet and legs. She wore sleep shorts and a ratty old T-shirt. No shoes. She’d run all the way through the city barefoot behind me.
My throat tightened again.
The phone in her hands rang, and I kept banging on the door. I was two seconds away from breaking it down.
Eve answered Seraphia’s call on the third ring, her voice annoyed. “What’s going on? It’s late as hell.”
I grabbed the phone. “I’m at your flat. Let us in.”
“I’m at the shop.”
Shit.
It wasn’t far. I shoved the phone back at Seraphia and sprinted down the street, headed the short distance to her shop. The lights glowed golden from inside, beckoning me with hope.
He would be there. Just like Beatrix, he would be there.
I shoved my way into the shop, finding Eve in her back room, potion ingredients spilled all over the tables. She looked up at me, eyes tired and questioning. “What’s going on?”
“Where is he?” I demanded. “Grey?”
“What?” Eve frowned.
“He’s gone. Dead.” The words tumbled over themselves. “Like Beatrix was. But my magic could keep him from death. He’d need a power source like Beatrix did, though. He’d need you.”
Confusion flashed across her face, and I realized that my partial sentences probably sounded crazy. She hadn’t heard the whole story from Evangeline like I just had. She didn’t understand.
I drew in a deep breath to calm myself. It didn’t really work, but at least I wasn't screaming anymore. I searched the room around her, trying to get a feel for Grey. Was he here?
Would he turn into a bird?
I had no idea.
That had been part of Beatrix’s magic. Maybe a bat? He was a vampire, after all. Or were vampire bats just something out of old cartoons? It seemed too ridiculous. No way he was a bat.
“What’s going on, Carrow?” Eve’s voice was calm and clear, and I clung to it, trying to join her in the realm of the rational.
“In the last thirty minutes, have you felt another life force appear around you?” I asked. “An animal or something?”
She shook her head. “There’s been nothing.”
“Did you feel Beatrix when she arrived?”
“Um…” She frowned. “Not particularly, to be honest.”
I nodded. Okay. Okay. That meant he could still be there then. But where?
I spun in a circle, searching. Eve looked questioningly at Seraphia, who shrugged. I ignored them, trying to gather my thoughts. I had the power to bring him back. Not only had Evangeline told me so, but I could feel it. I just needed to figure out how.
There was more to this than I realized. I staggered to the shelf and sank to the ground, the floor hard against my butt. Blindly, I stared into space, trying to piece it all together.
This was a puzzle, and there was a missing piece.
I just needed to find it.