“Yeah.” I blink rapidly, trying hard to ignore how badly I want to talk to my uncle right now. “So, if the rumors that I’m still alive are going around, maybe he somehow projected himself so he could see me in person.”
“And sent those root-monsters after you as a way to test you,” Lucas goes on, finishing my thought. “Your blood was able to vanquish them, which would prove your heritage.”
“Your blood kills demons,” Ruby sums up, and then she looks at Lucas, and I know exactly what she’s thinking.
“Vampires aren’t demonic,” I say. They’re undead, don’t follow the normal rules, but that doesn’t make them inherently evil.
“I very much enjoy Callie’s blood,” Lucas says.
Ruby holds up a hand. “The less I know about that, the better.” She takes a slow step forward and looks at the book. “I think we need to assume this demon knows who you are now.”
I swallow hard. He has to or must have a really strong inkling. “I think so, too.”
“And we should also assume he’s coming back. In the flesh.”
My head bobs up and down, and I look up, meeting Ruby’s eyes. Neither of us have to say it, but if Bael has that much power to summon the root-monsters in astral form, I don’t know how we’ll be able to fight him in true form.
Our only hope is to find Ruth and stop her before she can figure out a way to get Bael here on Earth. Because in his true form…he’ll destroy us all.Chapter 26I wake with a start, heart racing. I’m alone in bed, as I knew I would be since Lucas is attending to business. Binx is sitting in the open windowsill, looking out at the forest behind the house.
“Anything?” I ask, running my hand through my messy hair. I’m still trying to pull myself out of my nightmare where I was back in the research lab, but when the doors to my room opened, Ruth came in along with Dr. Howard.
Binx lets out a soft meow, letting me know all is still. It’s been over a week since I put a name to the face, and in those days, absolutely nothing has happened.
Ruth hasn’t attacked.
Bael hasn’t come back.
If they’re playing a waiting game to make me go crazy, they’re winning. I flop back down and roll over, trying to get comfortable. But as soon as I close my eyes, worst-case scenarios run through my mind. I roll over and grab my phone from the nightstand, checking to see if Abby just happened to send a text as she was getting attacked by a demon.
It’s three-thirty a.m., and it’s way too late to contact my sister now. If she’s sleeping, I don’t want to wake her up and freak her out. And if she’s working the night shift at the hospital, I don’t want to bug her and, again, freak her out.
“Maybe I’ll enchant a mirror so I can check in on her,” I grumble as I lay back down again. The house is quiet, leaving me to believe Lucas is over at the estate, talking to the vampire contractors. They leave right around now, so he’ll be back soon and will be ready to come and get a few hours of sleep. He drank enough of my blood before he left to not need much sleep, but he knows I sleep better with him by my side.
The plumbing in the master bathroom is complete now, and the tile for the tub and shower is being laid. The counters went in the kitchen yesterday, too, and once the adhesive has had time to cure, the sink can be hooked up, and the kitchen will be one step closer to being functional.
Hyper-focusing on the house has kept me sane over the last few days, and it’s progressed quickly thanks to our human day crew and the vampires who come to work on it at night. They’re able to move faster than humans, and things have really come together.
Once the kitchen is done and the master suite is complete, Lucas and I could move in. Though the entire house won’t be heated, and there will be constant construction going on. I’m impatient, excited, and distracting myself with moving might take my mind off things. But it could also put my life in too much disarray, and I’ll be caught off guard.
Though at this point, I’d rather just be caught, period.
Yesterday, Evander and Kristy tried every last scrying spell they could think of to try and locate Ruth. Nothing worked. Ruby has been going just as crazy as I am trying to find more info on Bael. And big surprise there: we’ve gotten nowhere.
Bael was a big bad centuries ago, pissed off enough witches, and got thrown in supernatural prison. The details of how he was locked up were never recorded, probably for a good reason, and as far as we can tell, he hasn’t been set free. The Ley line’s power is steady, which means the gates of Hell haven’t been opened.