Pure Blooded

We need to know a few more things, and then we’ll stop. I glanced at the back of Kayla’s head, assessing her. “Kayla, we need for you to answer a few more questions. Then we’ll be done for a while. I need to know how and when Enid found you. Did she come ahead of time to set it up? Or did she surprise you recently? And had you ever come in contact with her before? She’s a huge threat to us, and we have to understand how this happened. After that, we can all get some sleep.”

 

 

“She came to me in my sleep two nights ago.” Kayla’s voice was low, barely above a whisper. “I could not resist her calls. She warned me that she would come if I didn’t cooperate, but I didn’t believe it—I refused to think she could force me when she only came to me in my sleep. Then in the early hours of the morning she woke me and led me to my brother. He was bound to his bed. I couldn’t get the chains off. They were spelled by something powerful.” She choked. “Then she somehow knocked me out. I have no recollection of how I arrived at the cemetery. My hands were tied. Once I was coherent, she was in my mind again, ordering me to raise the dead. At first I resisted, but she showed me horrible, awful pictures of what she would do to Jax—or had already done. I had no choice but to do as she asked.” She quietly sobbed, her head down. After a moment she cleared her throat and finished with “I don’t regret what I did to you. I would do it again in a heartbeat to save my brother. He is the only family I have left.”

 

“I don’t blame you, Kayla.” My voice was sincere. “We’d all do the same thing. When she was in your mind, did you ever see her face? Or get a clear picture of her?” It would help if we knew what she looked like.

 

Kayla shook her head. “No. Only a great, foreboding presence.”

 

“Damn, I was hoping—”

 

James slammed on the brakes and swerved, shouting a curse. “That vampire is a bloody nuisance!” As he regained control of the van, he slowed and eased it over to the shoulder.

 

Ray stood in the middle of the road ten paces ahead of us, his hands on his hips.

 

“Well,” I chuckled, “he could’ve landed on the roof. That’s a favorite of his. He must have spotted something urgent or he would’ve chosen another means to stop us.” Or maybe not. You never knew with him.

 

Ray gestured for us to park the van on the side of the road as he strode toward us. James shut off the van.

 

Nick reached over to the passenger door and opened it as I called to the front, “Marcy, check your phone.”

 

“Already on it,” she commented over her shoulder. “All’s still dead in Juanita-Land.”

 

Before any of us could ask what was wrong, Ray stuck his head in the door and launched in. “There’s a goddamn house up ahead, and it’s glowing. I’m trying to ignore it, but it popped up about three minutes after you turned the van around and headed east. Now its blinking like a lighthouse beacon. What the hell is going on? Why did we change course?”

 

He hadn’t been privy to our van chat.

 

“We’ve decided to help Kayla find her brother,” I answered. “We’re hoping to get to him before Enid does. We’re heading to Baltimore.”

 

Ray’s eyebrows hit his hairline, but if he thought our new plan sucked, he kept his mouth shut, which was a Ray-sized miracle. “Well, what do you want to do about the blinking house?”

 

“How close did you get?” I asked, knowing he would’ve tried to investigate it.

 

“Not very,” he said. “I didn’t want to stray too far in case a passel of dead bodies started chasing after the van.” He arched an eye at Kayla. “But the way it’s acting now, there’s no mistaking it. It’s some kind of beacon. It’s blinking at me like a disco ball, almost like it’s trying to piss me off. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s some kind of Morse code, but I don’t know how to decipher it.”

 

“Did you detect any magical signature?” I asked.

 

“Nope, it seems clean.” He shrugged.

 

I turned to Rourke. “What do you think?”

 

“Sounds to me like someone wants us to visit,” he said. “How many miles away is it?” he asked Ray.

 

“Looks to be about fifty or sixty by back roads,” Ray answered. “It’s due east, so it’s right on the path we’re taking to Baltimore. The sucker started blinking right when you turned around. It can’t be a coincidence.”

 

“Likely not,” I said. “But the question is do we trust it’s not a trap? Jeb told us to stay out of vehicles, and here I am. Maybe this is his warning and he wants us to pull over and stop for the day?”

 

“Could be,” Rourke said. “Or it’s a message of some kind.”

 

“Marcy, anything yet from Juanita?” I asked.

 

She waved the phone at me. “Nope, but you know, if you’re looking for my two cents, I’m for getting out of this crusty van. We all need rest, and Jeb is powerful. If he wants us there, he could ward that house and make it safe. I say we go and check it out.”

 

James turned from the driver’s seat. “I second that. It sounds like something we should investigate. But we go in slow, each of us from different locations, and Ray from above. We don’t take any chances.”

 

I glanced at my mate.

 

Rourke nodded. “Let’s go check it out. Better safe than sorry.”