Cold Blooded

A huge burst of energy broke through the twilight, roaring through the predawn like a fog of malice-laced power.

“Time’s up!” Rourke shouted.

As the car sped off, I spotted Tyler and Danny running alongside us in their true forms.

Naomi and Ray took to the sky. Nick was behind us in the SUV, but as I watched in the rearview mirror, he spun the Suburban 180 degrees in the opposite direction once we hit the pavement. “What’s he doing?” I yelled, turning my head around to look out the small back window.

Rourke glanced behind us. “He’s buying us time.”

“He can’t take on a demon alone!”

“He won’t. Once they figure out he’s not who they want, they’ll move on.”

“What if they kill him first because they can? We have to go back.”

“Jessica, we are not going back. Nick is an adult supernatural who makes his own decisions. He is giving us a chance and we’re taking it. He knows the risks.”

Go back and help Nick, I yelled at Tyler. He’s trying to block whatever is coming. If you stand together, you have a better chance. Naomi and Ray have already taken off.

Got it, Tyler said. But get the hell out of here as fast as you can. Once we get to New Orleans, we’ll track you. We won’t be too far behind.

Another shock of power rocked the car.

The force of energy brought all four wheels off the road. On the way down, the car bounced, bucking us in our seats. Rourke yelled, “Put your head down!” right as all the windows in the car exploded simultaneously.

I ducked fast, covering my head with my arms as tempered glass rained down all around us. Adrenaline shot through my system and my muscles coalesced in an instant. Once the barrage was over, I unlaced my arms and tilted my head up. Rourke had the Porsche at 150. The wind was incredible. “Can you outrun power like this?” I shouted as we flew down a back road.

“We just broke through the end of that demon circle. That was the power burst.” He wrenched his head to look behind us, not slowing the car. “There are two things working in our favor right now. Demons have to stay within the circle they were summoned in. And daylight is breaking. It’s my understanding demons hate sunlight. If we stay rural and change our direction every fifteen minutes, we have a shot. The spell on the car is gone, but we still have GPS. It’ll have to do. We’ll use it to stay on the back roads until sunrise.”

I punched on the GPS and reached out to my brother.

What’s going on? I asked. Tyler, talk to me!

As soon as you made it through the circle, they left. Nick is on the road already. We aren’t far behind him.

Any luck with Dad?

Not yet.

Okay, keep trying. Rourke thinks we can make it to New Orleans if we stick to the back roads. Once the sun crests, we are hoping they back off.

Don’t worry about us. We’ll find you.

I sat back in my seat and reached up to secure my hair, which was flying around like a cyclone in the wind. I bound it with a twist tie I’d found in the ashtray. No windows at this speed was going to make it an interesting ride.

I leaned over and opened the glove box, moving the car insurance papers around, searching for anything that might help us. I half hoped I’d find a big red witchy help button to push for backup.

No such luck.

I closed my eyes and tilted my head back, mouthing a few simple phrases.

“What are you doing?” Rourke asked, his voice loud to compensate for the wind.

“Hoping that if I focus hard enough, a bag of beef jerky will appear in the glove box.”

12

“Dammit,” I muttered. “I never should have told them to come here before we had a concrete plan in place.” We were parked outside of what Rourke had just informed me was the Vampire Coterie, which literally meant “clique” in French. It so figured the vamps would be cliquey. I was second-guessing my decision to order Naomi and Ray here ahead of us. “I just wanted them to be safe, but it’s not going to come without some serious consequences.”

“There was no way we could’ve known,” Rourke assured me. “You did what you thought was best in the moment, and I agreed with you. Demons aren’t something anyone takes lightly. They are feared for a reason. We were lucky to escape the circle before it had a chance to stop us. Naomi and Ray would’ve tried to protect you at all costs. It was much better they had gone.”

It was seven in the morning. The disturbances had stopped at daybreak, but that hadn’t meant we were clear of danger.

The sorcerers wouldn’t stop hunting us during the day.

Now that we were in the city, it was only a matter of time until they found us. We were waiting for Tyler, Danny, and Nick before we made our next move. “I don’t think we’ll be able to knock on the door until dark,” I said, nodding toward the imposing mansion with its turrets and high walls. “I’m assuming the Queen has to be awake in order to have a conversation, and we don’t know if she receives guests during the day. She is going to be less than thrilled to see us, to say the very least.”

Rourke’s tension filled the car. “Entering a Coterie full of vampires uninvited will be tricky no matter what—day or night—but with demons on the prowl, it’s our only real choice,” he said grudgingly. “As much as I hate the idea of going in there, I can’t come up with a better plan. The vamps are the only game in town powerful enough to keep the demons out. Once we connect with your father, and your Pack arrives to back us up, it will be a different story. Once we have strength in numbers to fortify us, we can move to a better location.” He gestured to the stone fortress the Queen called home. “This will only be temporary. Your father is one of the strongest supernaturals on the planet. You have to remember, the demons aren’t going to mess with him easily and they won’t want to tangle with Eudoxia either. It’s the best plan we’ve got.”

Tyler hadn’t been able to get in contact with our father after repeated tries. I was beyond worried and had crept into full-blown panic. Something was very wrong. “We have to believe what Maggie predicted to be true, or I’ll lose my mind with worry.” I undid the twist tie from my hair and tried to brush it out with my fingers. It was like trying to comb through straw. “We have to stay in New Orleans no matter what happens. Ray is already here, and because of that I have to believe my father will live. He has to.”

“Jessica, your father is an extremely strong supernatural,” he said. “It would take something immeasurable to defeat him. You have to remember that. He can take care of himself.”