“Um, basically I don’t care where you go, but you can’t stay here.”
“That’s it?” Eliza raises her eyebrows. “It sounded much more profound in Enochian. In English, it sounds like a line from a country song.”
“Yeah,” I say with a nod. “It does. It worked. Why couldn’t you see it?” I ask out loud.
“We couldn’t see the Horsemen, either,” Melinda goes on.
“Witches can see things humans can’t.” Lucas puts his arm around me. “Things vampires can’t see, either.”
“You’ve always been able to see magic. Unless…” I trail off, shaking my head at my thought.
“Unless what?”
I turn in, using his body to block me from sight, and summon hellfire in my hand. Like the fire I summoned not long ago, the flames have a blueish tint and feel almost cool in my hand. “Unless I’m accessing a different realm somehow.” I put out the flames and let out a breath. “There are different realms and dimensions all over the place. Where we are now is commonly called the physical plane. The Covenstead is located in what’s often referred to as a pocket dimension on the physical plane. Hell is another dimension, as are the prisons created to keep demons away from earth.”
“Everything you just said is more complicated than anything I learned in med school.” Abby’s eyebrows hike up. “I can’t wrap my head around it.”
“Don’t think about it too hard,” I tell her. “Just accept that it’s real.”
“Easier said than done,” she mumbles and rubs her forehead.
I lean against Lucas, feeling that tightness in my abdomen again. Elena moves at the same time, kicking me in the ribs and uncomfortably stretching everything inside me.
“What’s wrong?” Lucas slips his arms under mine, ready to pick me up and cradle me like a baby again.
“Nothing,” I say, gently pushing on my stomach to get the baby to move. “She’s moving and—” I gasp when a red-hot burning sensation spreads through me. It only lasts a few seconds and subsides to nothing. “I’m fine.”
“You said that before,” Melinda says slowly, eyeing me with concern.
“This happened earlier tonight?” Lucas asks.
“Yeah, but I’m fine. I’m tired, and my back hurts, but I’m fine. Let’s go home.”
“Maybe you should get checked out,” Abby suggests. “Phil had to go to the hospital to perform emergency surgery on a cancer patient. He can pull some strings and get you an ultrasound at least. The way you’re wincing makes me a little worried about placental abruption. It won’t hurt to get checked out. I’ll come with.”
“I don’t want to ruin your night out.”
“Seriously?” Abby gets out her phone to call Phil. “I’ve had more than my share of those two, and this is my niece we’re talking about.”
I straighten up. “I really feel fine now. If something was wrong, I wouldn’t feel fine, right?”
“Probably not, but I can’t tell you things are fine without running some tests,” Abby says, clinging to her medical knowledge because it’s what she knows, and familiar things offer comfort. “You need to be examined so we can rule anything and everything out.”
“I agree, Callie.” Lucas rubs his thumb in little circles over my palm. “Get checked out.”
Everyone is staring at me, waiting for me to do the logical thing and go to the hospital. The thought of hospitals still freaks me out, and what if something is wrong? It’ll be right there in my face, and I know ignoring it won’t make it go away, but the thought terrifies me as well.
“You’re right,” I relent. “I’ll—holy shit.”
“What?” Lucas rushes out.
“The guy who tried to mug us—”
“What?” he repeats, getting more upset by the second. Yep. I’m definitely getting an ankle monitor, as well as being put on house arrest.
“Eliza handled it,” I go on. “But he’s infected. He said he’s going to kill me, and it made him attempt to mug four innocent women, but hah, joke’s on him because we’re too badass to be innocent but—fuck—I sent him to the police station.”
“That’s a good place for him to be,” Lucas counters.
“No, it’s the worst. He’s going to go all crazy and murderous and get himself shot. He’s innocent for all we know. He wasn’t carrying out his latest in a string of crimes. I have to go save him.”
“You don’t,” Lucas presses. “You didn’t know, Callie.”
“I should have! I saw the demon in the mirror in the bar, and then we left. We just left.”
“You didn’t just leave,” Melinda interjects. “You shook it off when it tried to take a hold of you and then did that gray cloud spell to trap it. I thought it was handled too. We had no way of knowing War was literally in the street, calling the demon out.”
“We can’t let him get shot and killed!”
“It’s out of our control, Callie!” Lucas argues.
“The more souls they claim, the stronger they become,” I say, repeating Lucifer’s words. “War wants him to die so he can collect his soul. We can’t let that happen. We have no idea if War has killed before. This could be the last soul he needs before he can step out of the astral plane.”