Darkness & Discovery (The Bespelled Trilogy #2) (3 page)

He went without
protest, which was very unlike him. And when he was settled on my couch, he
looked up at me and said, “These past several days have been so weird. I keep
feeling like there’s something I need to remember, something important. But the
harder I try to focus on it, the more it eludes me. And now, coming here and
seeing my truck, it just compounds that feeling that I’ve forgotten something
big, something
vital
. Something having to do with you, Lulu.”

I’d been trying to
figure out how to tell him as much of the truth as possible, while leaving the
words
vampire
and
werewolf
out of it. The reason I’d asked Joey
to compel Ted in the first place was because I really didn’t want his whole
world knocked out of alignment. I didn’t want him to feel unsafe, expecting
monsters around every corner. I wanted him to keep living in blissful
ignorance…but from where I was standing, not knowing didn’t look very blissful.

“Teddy,” I began, “you
came here several days ago, and you and I had an argument. You saw that Alastair
was staying here, and that made you angry, so you went speeding off. The next
day, you came back so we could talk. But I wasn’t here. Some bad people were
watching the house, and they took you hostage and brought you to San Francisco.
My friend Joey and I found you there. We got you out, and sent you to your
cousin’s apartment in a cab. You…forgot all of that. And that’s how your truck
ended up here.”

“I
forgot
?”

“Um…you were made to
forget.”

“How is that possible?”

I sighed and said, “It’s
complicated.”

Ted frowned and said,
“You were in danger. Right? Is that the thing I can’t remember? I keep having
nightmares that something bad is happening to you, and I’m trying to get to you
but I can’t. Something really did happen, didn’t it?”

“Oh God, Teddy,” I
murmured.

“It has to do with him,
doesn’t it?” Ted asked, standing now and squaring his shoulders as he faced
Alastair. “Is she in danger because of you?”

“Yes,” Alastair said
quietly.

“Then what are you
doing here, with her? If you’re endangering her,
why the hell are you here
?”
Ted demanded, his confusion giving way to anger.

Before Alastair could
answer, Joey burst in the front door and exclaimed, “Ted’s here? Well dang,
that can’t be good.”

He was dragging a girl
with curly red hair into the living room by her arm. I knew her. She went to my
high school and was a grade behind me, so she’d be a senior this year. “Carrie,
what are you doing here?” I exclaimed.

“Hi, Lu. Oh, hey Ted.
Could you please tell this bloodsucker to let go of me? Because it’s about to
get
real ugly
if he doesn’t,” Carrie said, trying to shake Joey’s hand
off her arm. He growled and tightened his grip.

“Bring it on, wolf girl,”
he snarled.

I exclaimed, “Joey, let
go of her!”  

“No can do. She’s a
were, Lu. And she was snooping around outside,” Joey said.

“If by snooping around
you mean walking right up the center of the road to come and see Lu, then yeah,
I was snooping around,” Carrie said, and brought the heel of her boot down hard
on the top of Joey’s foot. All that did was make him growl again.

“Come on Joey, knock it
off,” I told him.

We had a stare fight
for a long moment, and he finally backed down. “Fine. But she makes one move
toward you, and she’s puppy chow.” He released Carrie’s arm and stepped back
from her.

“Is that a dog joke?”
she wanted to know, getting up in his face. “What, you think you’re better than
me, dead boy? Maybe we should take this outside, then we’ll see who’s better.”
Despite the high heeled boots, Carrie was a good five inches shorter than Joey,
and he probably had sixty pounds on her. But she looked ready to rip his head
off.

“What’s going on?” Ted
wanted to know, but we all ignored him as Joey started to lunge at Carrie.

In a move so fast I
could barely see it, Alastair leapt over the couch, grabbed Joey, and
transported him to the far side of the living room. “Calm down. Now,” Alastair
said menacingly.

“Dude, the boss-of-me
voice doesn’t work anymore. Not since our maker bond got severed,” Joey said.

“Regardless, you need
to get hold of yourself before someone gets hurt,” Alastair told him sternly.

“Fine.” Joey took a
deep breath, which I always found odd since he didn’t actually need to breathe.
“She says she knows Lu, and has important information that could save her
life,” Joey said. “That’s the only reason I brought her to the house, even
though it’s a well-known fact that weres are not to be trusted.”

“That comment just
shows your prejudice and ignorance, dead boy,” Carrie told him.

“Come and sit down, Carrie,”
I said, leading her over to the couch as Joey tensed at my proximity to her.
Once we were seated I asked, “I hope this isn’t a rude question, but is Joey
right about the fact that you’re a werewolf?”

“Are you freaking
kidding
me?” Ted exclaimed, but I ignored him for now, the situation with Joey and Carrie
far more critical at the moment.

“I am,” she told me. “And
since when do you hang around with vampires?”

“That’s kind of a new
development,” I said. “So, what did you want to tell me?”

“There were some people
at my house this evening. I don’t really know what they were, but they weren’t human.
My brother is our pack leader, and they were asking him a bunch of questions
about some work the pack did for a vampire recently, about some house they were
watching. Ty didn’t know who the house belonged to, but he described it and it
sounded just like this place. I remembered it from that time your Aunt Claire
helped me with a sewing project when we were in junior high. Anyway, whatever
these guys are, I think they’re coming for you. And I wanted to warn you.”

“Why would you do that?
Coming here had to put you in danger, and you barely know me.”

“I’d seen your aunt’s
obituary in the Daily Tidings a few months ago, and was worried that you were
alone up here. You were always nice to me when we were in school, so I wanted
to help you.”

I said sincerely,
“Thank you for warning me.”

And Alastair asked, “Carrie,
can you describe these people?”

“There are five men
that all appear to be in their early twenties. They’re all incredibly good
looking, but there’s a coldness to them, like they have no emotions. And it
feels like…like there’s power radiating from them. Kind of the way you feel,”
she said to Alastair. “They’re all dressed in black leather, and they each have
two long swords crossed over their backs. Not exactly a subtle look.”

“The Order,” Joey said
as his entire body tensed. “Has to be.”

“The group of nephilim
that want me dead? How did they track me to Ashland?” Alastair asked.

“Don’t know, don’t
care. We gotta go. And I mean
now
,” Joey exclaimed. He came up to me and
tugged me to my feet. “Come on, Lu. You and Alastair head for the Impala.” He
turned to Ted. “Dude, I have no clue what you’re doing here, but you need to go
home. Now. Take her with you,” he said, gesturing at Carrie.

“Wait! Why wouldn’t we
stay and fight?” I wanted to know.

“It won’t be a fight,”
Joey said, running his hands over his short hair in frustration. “The Order has
a habit of burning things to the ground, and this house in the woods is practically
made to burn. They’ll surround this place, hit it with angel fire, and we’ll
all be toast.”

 “If we’re going
somewhere, I need to pack,” I stammered.

Joey was herding Ted
and Carrie out the door. I was surprised that she was letting him. “Ninety
seconds, Lu. Ted’s car is boxing ours in, and he needs to move it. So you have
ninety seconds.” Joey paused just a moment to look at me. “If I were you, I’d just
grab a couple things that have sentimental value. The rest you probably can’t
save, not if they find this place,” he said. And then he, Carrie and Ted were
out the door.

Alastair and I locked
eyes. “God I’m sorry,” he said, anguish in his eyes. “I’m going to go upstairs
and pack some clothes for you. Grab whatever you want to keep.” And then he was
gone. I heard him tossing things around upstairs a second later.

I looked around
frantically. My whole life was in here. I grabbed the photo of my Aunt Claire
that was on the Christmas tree, and my favorite quilt that she’d made, which
was over the back of the sofa. I was already wearing the bracelet she’d given
me and the necklace from Alastair, I wanted to save both those things as well.

And then I made a
decision. I didn’t try to grab anything else. I let the rest go, and rushed out
of the house.

Alastair was beside me
on the porch a moment later, having shut off every light in the house and
doused the fire with the tea on his way out. “If it looks uninhabited, they
have less reason to burn it down,” he explained.

I shut and, for
whatever reason, locked the door behind us (as if that would keep out a band of
murderous half-angels). We hurried to the Impala, where Joey had the engine
running. He had pulled a couple big swords from the secret compartment in the
trunk and was putting them in the back seat. Alastair tossed in the four bags
he held (I recognized his and Joey’s among them), and I set the quilt and framed
photo carefully in with them before slamming the trunk.

I dove into the
passenger seat as Joey climbed behind the wheel. The Cadillac was idling off to
the side of the driveway, Ted’s concerned face peering out the window at us.
“Why haven’t they gone yet? What are they waiting for?” I exclaimed.

“I told them to follow
us down, because we can drive much faster than they can. We’d all be sitting
ducks if we were stuck behind them on that one lane road when the Order found
us,” Joey said. Then he looked past me and yelled, “Allie, what are you doing?
Get in the car. We’ve got to go!”

“No,” Alastair said,
shaking his head. “I’m going to wait for the Order and defend Lu’s home. I’ll
catch up to you when this place is secure.”

“Like hell you are!” I
yelled. “Allie, get in the car!”

“But –”

“But nothing. I don’t
need you to defend my house. I need you to stay alive! So get in now or I’m
getting out with you!”

He hesitated before
jumping in beside me and slamming the door. And then Joey took off like a drag
racer, the Impala’s big engine gunning as he hurtled toward the dirt road
leading into the forest. I had only a moment to verify that Ted’s car was
following us before I lost sight of them.

Joey drove like an
absolute maniac, flying down the narrow, rutted road. He’d been turned at the
age of fifteen, which probably meant he’d never actually gotten his driver’s
license. And why I had to have that super comforting thought right then, I didn’t
know. He took the turns so quickly that I was knocked around like a pinball,
until Alastair pulled me onto his lap and fastened the seat belt over both of
us. I pressed my eyes shut and muttered, “Tell me when we’re off the mountain,”
as I buried my face in my hands.

In only a couple
minutes the car slowed. I peeked out from behind my palms and saw that we were
calmly cutting through a residential area. “How on earth did you get us down
here so fast?” I asked Joey.

“By having mad driving skills.
And also awesome vampire reflexes. Admit it,” he said, shooting me a grin.
“You’re impressed.”

“I almost threw up,” I
told him. “And if I had, it would totally have been your fault.”

“You know, I’m
underappreciated,” Joey said, pulling up to the stoplight on Siskiyou
Boulevard. “Here I am, saving your bacon, and what do I get instead of thanks?
Vomit blame.”

“Sorry,” I said,
unfastening the seatbelt and sliding off Allie’s lap, because that probably
looked really strange to the other motorists. “Thank you for saving us. But
maybe next time, remember there’s a human in the car. And unlike you, I’m
actually breakable.” I glanced around and added, “Where are you going?”

“Ted’s house.”

“What? Why?”

“Because no one would
ever look for us there.”

“We can’t go there.
It’ll put him in danger!” I protested.

“It’s just for an hour
or two. We need to do regroup, make some plans. And given the fact that Teddy
just got in the middle of that whole vampire-werewolf-angel discussion, we’re
going to need to take a minute and compel him again, too.”

I shook my head. “It’s
bad enough we did that to him once. I think it really messed with his mind.”

“No it didn’t. It’s
perfectly harmless.”

 “I don’t know about
that. It seemed like it didn’t really take properly the first time, like it
left him really off-kilter.”

“What do you mean?”
Joey asked.

 “When Ted saw Alastair
downtown earlier this evening, it seemed like he was experiencing déjà vu or
something. And he told me he kept having nightmares that I was in trouble. But
I don’t get it. I was under the impression that compelling was pretty fool-proof.”