“Over the years, the nons have grown to outnumber us, which is great for business.”
“You call them nons? Why?”
“It’s short for non-magical people.”
“Makes sense. And they have no idea they live amongst a town full of magic?”
“I’m sure some have seen things or at the very least felt things,” I explain. “They’re drawn to the town because of the Ley line. In its natural state, it emits positive energy that makes Thorne Hill a great place to live.”
“It has a certain quaintness to it,” Eliza admits. “The place you call the Covenstead…how does that work?”
“It’s this whole hidden magical dimension thing that’s super complicated.”
“Sounds like it.” She looks back at the bar and draws her fangs. My heart skips a beat, thinking something is wrong, but then I see Dominic walking in. Monica, his human girlfriend, is on his arm.
“So, are you two together?” I ask carefully.
“Sometimes we are. Sometimes we aren’t.” Eliza stands and smooths her pastel pink dress. “Tonight, we will be. Good talk, Callie. We’ll have to do this again.”
I turn my head down, feeling a little bad that I don’t want to talk to Monica. She seemed pretty head over heels for Dominic, and even told me she thought they were fated to be together or something like that. And he and Eliza are secretly fucking on the side.
Talk about awkward.
The feather ends up in my hands again, and I spend a good ten minutes just staring at it. It’s shiny in the weirdest way, and the way the light reflects off it is as hypnotizing as watching dark waves lap against the ocean’s shore.
I don’t know how much time passes. A minute? Five? Twenty? I zone out, heart rate slowing and blood pressure dropping. I’m completely relaxed, and I bring the feather to my face, thinking of the blue-eyed man in the woods who saved me from the demon.
Feeling Lucas’s presence before I see him, I open my eyes and watch him walk through the bar. The crowd parts and everyone looks at him with a mixture of awe and fear.
And lust.
Though it doesn’t bother me that every single female in the bar and even a handful of the men want to fuck Lucas. There’s only one person he wants to hook up with, and I still feel so lucky that it’s me.
My heart leaps in my chest and a smile comes to my face. The room dims as he draws near, and all that I see, all that matters, is him. The feather falls from my hands, gently floating to the table.
He slides into the booth next to me, snaking one arm around my shoulders. Pulling me to him, he kisses me, deep and passionate, and I’m completely aware of the jealous stares and hateful glances being thrown my way.
“Hello to you too,” I say, breathless when we break apart. He kisses me once more, tongue pushing into my mouth, and then holds me against his chest. There’s no telling me how much he wants to take me home and fuck me or anything of the sort, making me think whatever information he got out of Dina is bad.
“Lucas,” I breathe, tipping my head up. His face is flecked with blood, and I don’t have to ask to know it’s not his. “What’d you find out?”
“Let’s go home.”
“Uh, okay.”
“To Thorne Hill.”
“I’m trying to avoid everyone there, remember?” I push away so I can look him in the eyes. “What’s going on? What did she say?”
Lucas’s dark blue eyes cloud over. “They’ve been watching you.”
“Vampires?” I winkle my nose. “How rude.” I do my best Stephanie Tanner impersonation.
“This is serious, Callie.”
“I know, which is what triggered my mature response.”
Lucas scoots me closer, holding me tight like he’s afraid someone is going to come in and snatch me right out of his arms. “I don’t know who tipped them off, but as soon as they knew you were a witch, you were of most importance to them.”
“Who’s them?”
“I didn’t get any names, and I’m afraid my temper got the best of me. It will be a while before Dina will be answering any questions.”
“Oh. Well, we’ll…we’ll, uh, figure it out. And if I can handle a hellhound that was really made up of a hundred rats, I think I can take on a few vampires, and don’t get all defensive over that. I could kick your ass if I really wanted to.”
“You could try,” he says back, unable to help himself. “And I don’t think it’s just a few vampires.”
“Between you and my familiars, I think any vamp who tries to kill me has another thing coming.”
“That’s the thing, Callie.” He cups my face with one hand and tips my chin up to his. “I didn’t get a straight answer—yet—but they don’t want to kill you.”
“Then what do they want?”
“They want to use you.”
Chapter 19
“Use me?” I echo. “Use me for what?”
“I’m not quite sure, but I won’t rest until I find out.”
My heart speeds up and my throat tightens. I’m on the verge of freaking out again, and everything seems too overwhelming. I wish my water was wine. Or whiskey. Yes, tonight is a whiskey kind of night.
“What’s this?” Lucas picks up the feather.
“Oh, that old thing.” I take it from him and suddenly everything seems hopeful. I’ll get back into the coven. I’m not guilty of anything. We’ll find and kill the vampires, which will result in shutting down a dangerous gang as well.
“Callie?”
I blink, tearing my eyes away from the feather. I zoned out again. “I, uh, I found it and it seems special.”
Lucas leans in and smells it. “It smells weird.”
“Weird is a little vague. Care to explain?”
He sniffs it again. “I can’t. It doesn’t smell like a bird.”
“I don’t think it’s from one.”
Lucas’s eyes meet mine. “What, you think it’s from a unicorn or something?”
“Of course not. Unicorns don’t have wings. That would be a Pegasus. Too bad they don’t exist in this world anymore.”
“You think they existed at one point?”
“I know they did. What, in the sixteen hundred years you’ve been undead, you’ve never once heard the lore?”
“I did, but it’s just that. Lore.”
“I read about it in school.”
He plays with my hair, twisting it around his fingers. “Do I need to explain how not everything you read is true?”
“It was an old textbook, not a mythical creatures website some sweaty fat dude runs out of his mother’s basement.”
“Nice visual.”
“I try to keep it real.”
“You don’t want to go back to Thorne Hill yet?” Lucas asks.
“Oh, I do. I miss it, but I don’t want to cause any trouble. Well, any more trouble.” I want to look through my Book of Shadow, which I left hidden in a magically locked box in my bedroom. It belonged to another witch before her death, and Tabatha gave it to me since I didn’t come from a long line of witches who had books to pass down generation to generation.
There’s nothing in my book about demons made up of rats. There’s not much in my book about demons in general. Most of the information about demons was added by me, and I’ve never so much as heard of a demon bursting apart into dead rats.
What I need to do is go to the library at the Academy and go through every single book about demons and black magic I can find.
Obviously, I can’t, and my only other option would be to send Kristy there. No one would know we’re looking into this together, and honestly it wouldn’t surprise me to get a call from Kristy in the morning telling me she already went in to look for info about the mystery demon.
An alert goes off on my phone, letting me know an article was posted about a decapitation here in Chicago.
“This might be our guy.” I unlock my phone and stare at the screen impatiently as the article loads. “It just says a body w
as found and asked for anyone with info to call in.” I set my phone down. “They haven’t released a name yet.”
“What are you going to do when you do get his name?”