“The problem is that we’ve found nothing. I think most of this is stress. If we all just agree to put the poorly stated words from Michael behind us, then we can get back to work.”
“Poorly stated words?” The question was full of venom. Her gaze narrowed as she took another step toward Mr. Dawson. I didn’t think I’d ever seen Claudia this mad before. I had to admit, my cousin was kind of scary. “He’s repeatedly stepped in when it wasn’t his place. He still has yet to apologize for not notifying me about the demon attacks, and now—now—he says that it was my fault.” Claudia shot her mate a look, but he pulled her down on his lap. They were quiet for a second before Claudia sighed. “You’re right. We’ll deal with this later.”
“Fine,” Mr. Dawson said, even though I was pretty sure he didn’t mean it was any kind of ‘fine.’ “I have some other things to see to. I’ll be back later.” With that he stormed from the room, slamming the door behind him.
The room was quiet for a second, and Claudia sighed again. “What’d you find?” she asked me.
“Not sure, but we got a lot. Her basement was massive. Maybe a little bigger than her house.”
Claudia’s face went white. “No. How could it be so big? I don’t know for sure, but I really don’t think anyone knew about a basement. Right?” She looked to her brother.
Raphael shook his head. “It’s the first I’m hearing of it.”
“I wasn’t sure what I should take or not, but…” I looked back the pile of stuff the guys had placed on the floor. “Hopefully it’s something more than what you’ve found
.”
“Which is a whole bunch of nothing.” Adrian shoved away the book he’d been reading.
“Well, maybe we have something now.” I grabbed the bag from where I dropped it and walked to one of the tables. “So, there’s good news, bad news, and really fucking shitty news,” I said as I started putting the objects I’d taken last minute.
Claudia hissed when she saw the knife. “What’s the bad news?”
“There are a lot of dead bodies in Luciana’s basement. Not sure if it was Astaroth or Luciana—”
“My guess is Astaroth. Some of the bodies were fresh,” Dastien said.
How did you know that? I asked him.
I’m a trained Cazador.
Right. But I just pictured him staying around St. Ailbe’s and teaching martial arts all the time. I guessed there was more to my mate than I knew.
“What’s the good news?” Lucas said.
“We escaped Astaroth and made it back here alive.” That was pretty amazing news in my book. “Go us!”
Adrian jumped up so fast his chair toppled to the ground. “Is he coming here? Is that the really fucking bad news?”
“No. At least not right away. Eventually, probably.” I was trying not to think about that, though.
I put the last of the objects on the table and folded the bag before looking at each of my friends. “But the more important thing to note is that there’s an open, active circle down there that Astaroth can enter whenever he wants, and I couldn’t break it.” Claudia made a whispering noise, but I kept going. “Not with sage or salt or prayer. I didn’t have much time before he showed, so maybe it’s still possible? But I’m not going back and I’m not sure any of us should mess with it. The only reason we’re still alive is because—as of now—he’s still tied to that circle, but if he gets enough power to escape it, then we’re screwed.”
“What are you going to do?” Raphael asked. He was visibly shaking, and I didn’t blame him. He was still tied to Astaroth. Just like I was. And since I was Astaroth’s end game, Raphael was probably up next.
I sighed. “We’re going to make a new bond that seals this plane.”
“We need to do it soon,” Claudia said. “Tonight is impossible. There’s not enough time to go through the books and find the magic and prepare a spell, but tomorrow or the next night at the latest.” She paused and came around the table to me. “Por favor, prima. Tell me you found something awesome in there that will solve all our problems.” Her eyes were wide and from the sickly sweet scent, I knew she was scared. I was too, but that was a tall order and I didn’t have a great answer for her.
“I don’t know. We got a lot of stuff, but we’ll need some time to figure out what’s usable. But for some reason, I felt compelled to take these three objects from Luciana’s basement. Any thoughts on them?” I asked her.
“Other than that I don’t want to touch anything Luciana used?” Disgust was thick in her voice as she crossed her arms.
“Yeah. Beside that.” I knew she wasn’t going to like anything I took from the basement—she’d made that perfectly clear—but I didn’t have as many qualms about using anything that would save our butts. She was going to have to be a little more open-minded.
She sighed, leaning down to take a closer look. “The dagger feels evil to me.” She squinted and then gasped, nearly tripping over her feet as she stepped back from the table. “The markings on it. I thought it was just texture, but it’s people. And flames.” She rubbed her arms. “I… I don’t think we can use that for anything good.”
The dagger’s blade was about three or four inches long. I hadn’t noticed that it was carved—I’d been in too big of a hurry—but now that she did, I could see the flames licking up the blade. The handle was long and curved at the end. I’d noticed that it felt bumpy, but I’d been in too much of a rush to actually see why. Now I could.