I came to a stop on the makeshift dance floor. It had to be my eyes playing tricks on me. That or Samhain was messing with reality.
Someone bumped into me and pressed a piece of paper into my hand. I glanced up at the individual, but between the masks, the moving bodies, and the disorienting play of light and shadow, I couldn’t tell who’d slipped me the paper.
I moved to the edges of the dance floor and unfolded the note.
Come to the Braaid. That is where your friend and your future wait.
Oliver extricated himself from the crowd of dancers and came over to me. “What are you doing?” he asked from over my shoulder.
I glanced up from the note. “Where’s Leanne?” I asked him. I couldn’t keep the tremors out of my voice.
Oliver shrugged. “Beats me. Probably making out with some seer dude she has the hots for.”
“I don’t think so.” I handed him the note, and watched as he read it over. “We both know she’s been foreseeing some weird stuff, and I haven’t seen her since we arrived. Now I think . . . I think someone may have kidnapped her.” Saying the thought out loud made it sound all the more ridiculous, but I couldn’t argue with the facts—Leanne had been acting strange lately and the letter looked a whole lot like a ransom note.
He looked up from the slip of paper. “How do you know the note’s referring to her?”
“I don’t, but seeing as I can count my friends on a single hand, and considering that you’re here and she’s been foreseeing some disturbing stuff, I think it’s a pretty solid assumption.”
“Point made.” Oliver pulled his cell phone out of his little Speedo, making me cringe, and dialed Leanne.
We stood in silence as the rings changed to her voicemail. Oliver ended the call before we could leave a message. “She probably just didn’t hear her phone,” he said.
I caught Oliver’s gaze. “Do you really think that?” I asked, my voice hushed.
He stared into my eyes before glancing away. “No. I think she’s in trouble.”
I thought over the nightmares, the long silences, the Last Rites she’d uttered. What she had seen had been haunting her.
I cursed. “I think whatever she saw convinced her that she’s going to die.”
Oliver nodded, looking as serious as I’d ever seen him.
“And this has something to do with me,” I added. The letter hinted at it, but between it, the murders, and the devil’s earlier promise to find me this evening, I knew in my bones that I was part of the reason.
“You know what this means,” Oliver said. “We’re going to have to save her ass.”
Chapter 20
“Should we wait for your honey pie?” Oliver asked as I searched the party for one particular person. I made a face at the endearment.
“I don’t think we’ll have to wait,” I said, pulling out my phone and checking the time. “He should be here any minute. When he gets here, I’ll ask him to come with us to the Braaid.” It was the one place I was supposed to avoid tonight, but now that Leanne had gone missing, my guess was that it was just the place I’d find her.
“He’s not going to like that,” Oliver said.
I slipped my phone back in my pocket. “An angry vampire is the least of my concerns.” The fact that I could honestly say that greatly disturbed me. “How about Rodrigo?” I asked.
Oliver sighed. “I haven’t been able to find him. I’ll just send him a text that something came up. He’ll live.” But Leanne might not. The sentence lingered in the air, unspoken but still heard.
“I need to speak to Caleb for a second,” I said.
I watched the dancers twist and turn alongside the ghosts. The colors blended together as people moved. Amongst the bright colors I caught sight of a head of gold, curly hair. That head of hair could only belong to Caleb.
I darted through the packed crowd of partygoers, never losing sight of the blond locks. When I was within reaching distance, I grabbed Caleb’s arm.
He turned around and lifted his mask. “Hey,” he said, grinning, “just the lady I hoped to run into.”
He eyed my outfit, and for the millionth time I wished I couldn’t smell or hear so well. Not even all the swirling scents and noise could cover up Caleb’s reaction. Knowing that I turned him on made it so much harder to act normal around him. “Want to dance?” he asked.
“Caleb, Leanne’s gone missing.”
His expression turned serious. He glanced around at all the masked students. “Are you sure about that? She probably just stepped away for a little bit or you missed her in the crowd. There’s a lot of people—”
I thrust the slip of paper I received into Caleb’s hand. “This note was given to me just a few minutes ago.”
“Who gave it to you?” Caleb asked, his eyes glancing down at the paper.
“I don’t know, I didn’t see them.”
Caleb read over the message, a frown spreading across his face. He looked up. “Did she get kidnapped?”
“I think so.”
He looked back down at the paper. “What do they want in return for her?”
“Me.”