Sunlight (Blood Magic 4)

Making my way to the stairs, I opened the door to the small closet underneath and dragged out the heavy-duty black trunk I kept locked in there. I opened it and retrieved my Benelli M4 semi-automatic shotgun. When I had to use firearms, this baby was my favourite.

Living in Tribane, where the supernatural reigned, guns weren’t always my weapon of choice. However, they could come in useful when you needed to make a statement and scare some people into acting right.

Since times were so uncertain, I decided to take this one with me. Upstairs, I changed into a clean set of clothes. The only stuff that was washed was my DOH uniform, so I threw that on, a sense of mourning sweeping over me as I thought of all my dead comrades. Of our dead leader. The organisation I’d dedicated my life to for years was gone. The only saving grace for me was the knowledge that there were other branches around the world. Perhaps I could rebuild things here in Tribane with the help of those branches.

I tightened my jaw and steeled myself for the battle ahead. Theodore wasn’t going to get away with what he’d done, but first, I needed to save Rebecca. If Alora’s vision was to be believed, then that girl might be the key to our survival and possibly the key to killing Theodore once and for all.

When I went back downstairs, Alora was still in the kitchen munching on the cookies I had given her. She heard me come in and straightened up, setting the packet down on the table and wiping crumbs from her face.

“Where’s Delilah and Ira?” I asked.

“They went across the street to Delilah’s house to get some of her clothes,” she answered.

Right. I’d almost forgotten Cristescu had been living over there. Alvie and Gabriel came in from the RV, and I told them about my plan to go to Emilia Petrovsky’s house for Rebecca.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Alvie asked warily. “She’s a powerful witch. She won’t take kindly to us showing up.”

“She’ll take kindly to it whether she likes it or not,” I answered brashly. I wasn’t normally so flippant, at least I liked to think I wasn’t, but this whole shitty situation was really starting to get to me.

“Who is this girl?” Alora interjected.

I turned to her. “I think she’s the one you saw in your vision.”

“Oh,” she whispered, and her brow furrowed.

“What is it?”

“Nothing. It’s just I’m not sure if you’re right. I mean, it could be her, but I just have this feeling that my vision was far in the future. I feel like the girl I saw hasn’t even been born yet.”

“Well,” I said, clasping my hands together, “I could be wrong, but I need to get her anyway. She was abducted and is the daughter of my friend who recently passed away.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said, reaching out to touch my hand. Something about the comforting gesture soothed me.

Half an hour later, we were all back in the van again, heading towards the district where most of the magical families had their homes. As we neared Petrovsky Manor, a black town car sped by us and stopped at the entrance gates. A smartly dressed man reached out the driver’s side window, pressed a few buttons on the entry system, and waited as the gates opened up. I pulled in directly behind him before the gates had the chance to close again.

The town car stopped, and a man in his fifties emerged with an almighty scowl on his face.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” he yelled, stomping towards the van.

“I’m looking for Emilia. She around?” I asked, getting out of the van and stepping up to face him.

He sighed long and hard and swiped his hand over his face, his forehead lined with stress.

“No, she’s not here. She’s been taken.”

I furrowed my brow. “Taken by whom?”

“The sorcerer!” he cried. “What would he want with her? My goodness, he’s going to kill her.”

“Hey, hey, calm down. Theodore has a bone to pick with the vamps. Emilia’s one of his own. Did he take the girl, too?”

The man shook his head. “She was kidnapped by a woman claiming to be Emilia’s granddaughter. She came to the house with a vampire who could walk in the sun!”

He looked like he needed to sit down with a strong glass of brandy as he told me this. A smile touched my lips. Tegan came for Rebecca already. The little minx beat me to it. A sense of relief I didn’t know I needed washed over me. If she and Cristescu were working together, did that mean we had nothing to fear from him? Was he going to rule over the vampires peacefully?

I patted the man on the shoulder. “You should go inside and rest. You look like you need it.”