I sat back, disappointed in the answer. I'd hoped for something more, something a little more helpful.
"She's not going to be able to escape it, Lena. It'll chase until it catches her. It's going to consume her, and I'll never see my baby again." Mrs. Bradley turned towards me, her eyes made scarier by the utter calmness in them. An emotion that had been missing from her until now. "Just like it got you."
Her words sent a chill down my back, despite the fact I knew she was a few cards short of a full deck.
"It's time for you to go now, my dear," she said, lifting the poker. "And don't come back."
"Wait, Mrs. Bradley. I need to ask if you know where Caroline is, where she might go. There are people looking for her, monsters looking for her. It's important I find her first."
"Oh, my dear," Mrs. Bradley's expression was pitying. "The monsters have already found her."
"What?" I asked. It was the only question I had time for before Mrs. Bradley raised the poker and swung at me. I dodged, the iron coming down hard, scraping the coffee table where I'd been sitting moments before. "Mrs. Bradley, wait. What are you doing?"
I evaded another swing. This one taking out a few objects on the end table. The woman was surprisingly spry given her mental state and age.
"Sorry, my dear. No monsters allowed here."
She wound up for another swing. The backs of my legs bumped against the couch, and I clambered up and over its cushions, knocking over a lamp as I vaulted over the end. The poker buried itself in the cushions, and Mrs. Bradley pulled it free with a rip, the cushion's insides coming out in a flurry of white.
"Mrs. Bradley, it's me. It's Aileen. You've known me since I was two," I said, holding out a hand, palm facing up to show I wasn't armed.
She hesitated in the middle of her next swing, the poker over her shoulder, and blinked at me. Confusion in her face as she looked around the wreckage of her living room. "Aileen."
I breathed a sigh of relief. She recognized me again. Thank God. I didn't want to be the one responsible for anything happening to Caroline's mom, even if it was an injury that was self-induced. "Yes, Aileen. How about we put the poker down, and I'll get this straightened up?"
She looked around, the confusion draining from her eyes and that familiar set expression taking hold again.
"Uh oh," I said. This wasn't going to be as easy as I thought.
"I know what you are," she said, her voice deeper and more confident. She pointed the poker at me, her expression vindictive. "And you won't take me like you took my daughter."
"I don't plan to do anything to you, and I would never hurt Caroline," I said, desperate to get her to see reason. I'd run out of places to go, and I was hemmed in on both sides by a fallen end table and her TV. The door to outside was behind her. The only way to it was through her, something I couldn't bring myself to do.
"You're a liar, Lena. You always have been." She didn't sound upset, her voice calm.
That was kind of true. Though, I hadn't realized Mrs. Bradley knew about all those times Caroline and I had lied to get out of trouble or to get into it.
"Aileen Travers, I rescind your invitation to this home. Never darken its doorstep again." She stepped aside, her bearing that of a warrior goddess and her eyes watchful.
A force exploded in my chest, and a thunderclap deafened me. I was propelled out of the house, flying through the air, my shoulder clipping the door as I burst out of it. I landed hard on my back on the walkway out front, the breath exploding from my chest as I blinked up at the lamp post over me.
"Goodbye, Aileen. I'm sorry I couldn't save you from the monsters," Mrs. Bradley said. She was back to seeming like a frail old lady, nothing like the Valkyrie that had managed to toss me out of the house with just a few simple words.
I rolled to my side, my body not quite willing to find its way upright quite then. "Wait."
She didn't pause, her door closing with a sense of finality.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
I COLLAPSED AND groaned. That had hurt. A lot. My body still ached from her rescinding the invitation.
I hadn't even known that was possible. Sure, I knew I needed one to enter a domicile inhabited by a human since I'd had a few unfortunate encounters with the strange barrier in the past, but I hadn't known that rescinding it resulted in a physical expulsion. Learn something new every day.
I forced myself to sit and looked around. What now? Mrs. Bradley had been less than helpful. All she'd given me was a bunch of muttering about darkness swallowing Caroline. Given her apparent knowledge about monsters and evicting vampires, I was willing to give more credence to Mrs. Bradley's dream than I would have otherwise. It still didn't give me much; definitely not enough to find her.
All I'd gotten for my troubles was a bruised ass and ripped jeans. I fingered the rip and curled one lip. Another pair destroyed. Apparently, I was way harder on my casual wear as one of the fanged than I'd ever been as a human. This was the third pair I'd damaged this month. At this rate, I'd need to make another trip to the thrift store.
Before that, I needed to go on a little excursion to the north side of the city and see a sorcerer about a tracking spell. Destination decided, I retrieved my bike and climbed on, setting my feet on the pedals.
I really didn't want to go and see the sorcerer. Last time, he'd managed to force me to pull out my own eye. Not an experience I wanted to repeat, but for Caroline, I just might have to.
I set off on the bike, making my way to one of the numerous bike paths. Over the past few years, Columbus has made a serious effort to turn itself into the Seattle of the Midwest. In addition to an influx of hipster restaurants, it’s torn up many of the city's streets, remodeling them to make them friendlier to cyclists by installing bike lanes. It was safer for those of us who choose to travel by two wheels rather than four, and it also made it easier to bike from one end of the city to the other without having to worry about getting hit by a car on a busy road.
After a short ride that snaked through campus and then a longer jaunt along the bike lane on East Seventeenth Avenue, I turned onto the Alum Creek bike path, which would take me over to the eastern side of the city and let me out right next to Easton. It was only a short ride from there to the office building that I suspected the sorcerer owned.