The connection stopped abruptly when Oren removed my hand from his chest and let it drop completely. The last time we’d done this, I’d been the one who wanted the vision to end, but this time I’d been curious and their intimacy hadn’t bothered me.
I licked my lips and cleared my throat. “Did you ever find out what she was up to?”
“No.” He paused for a moment. “After that conversation, Pepita claimed things started feeling normal with Jacinta.”
I nodded, but didn’t say anything else. By the looks of things, there’d been some rivalry between them—mainly to do with Oren.
“That particular memory was during the foundations of our relationship, years before everything dissolved and we all went our separate ways.” He sighed, sitting back. “After Pepita left, Sally lost interest and a rift developed between her and Jacinta. It didn’t take long for everyone else to stop turning up to meetings. Before I knew it, there was nothing left. Years later I received a letter inviting me to Rome, where Jacinta corralled as many people as she could so we could continue our quest to rid the world of supernatural garbage.”
“None of this sounds bad—you’re supernatural crime fighters. So why didn’t you tell me the truth?” My biological grandfather was a badass witch hunter with a lot of magic at his disposal. He packed a strong magical punch and was teaching me so much that I was getting magically stronger every single day, so I couldn’t understand why he’d be reluctant to mention any of this.
Whatever nonsense had gone on between Jacinta, my grandmother, and him had nothing to do with me and wouldn’t change my opinion of him or where we stood. Not now that the walls I’d erected to keep him out were long gone. I respected this man, trusted him with my life, and most importantly, had finally come to see him as the grandfather he’d wanted to be since the beginning.
Though now that I knew my mother ended up marrying the grandson of my grandmother’s best friend, I was itching to read Grandma’s journal. This was starting to sound like a bad soap opera.
“You’re right. I should have known you could handle this, but the reason why I didn’t want to get into this is a lot more ominous.”
“Uh-oh, that doesn’t sound good.”
“In this line of work, there are bound to be casualties—collateral damage.”
I knew this all too well—Benita, Ebony, innocent spook catchers had all become collateral damage. As hard as it was to admit, my line of work resulted in the same.
“I realize that,” I said.
“I’m handed down assignments all the time. Troy happened to be one of them.”
I remembered something. “That’s right! When you killed Troy Slevani, you mentioned the Alliance had sanctioned you to hunt him down, didn’t you?”
He nodded. “I work for the Alliance—as well as Sally, Lavie, Father Luke and a handful of others.”
“So you go around killing witches and demons that get out of hand?”
“Not exactly…”
“But Lavie does?”
“Well, she’s more like you—freelance—though she certainly takes on any cases that might need our attention.”
“I still don’t get the secrecy and why you’ve avoided my questions.”
Oren squirmed in his seat. I’d never seen him act like this when all I wanted was an honest, direct answer.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“Oh Sierra, that curiosity of yours is not always a good thing.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. Though if I hadn’t let it lead me astray I never would’ve agreed to meet you at the cemetery and found that ley line.” If I hadn’t met up with him on that summer evening, I would probably be dead by now.
“Touché.” His frowned deepened. “I shouldn’t be telling you this and it will probably get me thrown out of the Alliance if someone finds out…but Lavie’s bound to tell you if I don’t. She’s already threatened to do it, actually.”
I had to give it to Lavie—she was a true friend. “Okay, so tell me already.”
Oren’s eyes narrowed. “Sierra, I’ve kept this from you for a good reason. There’s enough on your plate to make you paranoid, and I didn’t want to add anymore. I also want you to know I would never—
ever
—go through with this.”
My heart pounded, because he was starting to scare me.
“The Alliance knows what’s going on with the
Obscurus
. They are aware they won’t stop until they get their hands on you. Now that we all know they also want Willow, an executive order has been handed down. The Alliance wants to ensure the multiple demonic entity known as Legion doesn’t get through to our world.”
“I agree, so maybe I should become part of this group of yours—”
“Sierra,” he interrupted. “The Alliance has put an order on your life.”
“What?” I pushed the chair back and stood.
“That’s not all,” he said. “There’s one on Willow too.”
Was he serious? Her great-grandmother was the head of the Alliance! It hit me like a ton of bricks, hard enough to make me fall back onto the chair. “She wants to kill her own great-granddaughter.”
“Sierra, remember why I’m telling you this. You wanted to know, and we both know you can handle and deal with this.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, barely. “So this Alliance wants me as dead as the
Obscurus
? And they’ve thrown my sister under the bus too? She’s just a kid!”
“The order doesn’t kick into effect until the end of October.”
“Then what,
you
have to
kill me?
Or Lavie, maybe Sally has to do it?” My heart was drumming so hard I could hear every beat inside my ears. Something else made total sense now. “That’s why Sally saw my death in the tea leaves and got so freaked out, isn’t it? Here I thought she was talking about the other freaks.”
“Sierra, goddamn it, just listen to me.” He grabbed my arm, forcing me to look at him. “We didn’t know about the order until
after
she’d read the tea leaves.”
“That’s comforting.”
“No one is going to kill you. The prediction is not going to come true.”
Tears were blurring my vision. As hard as it was to realize an organization formed to end supernatural threats had made me a target, it was even harder to accept they’d bundled my innocent sister with me. “If even the good guys want me dead, why won’t it come true?”
Oren leaned closer. “Listen to me. It’s not going to happen because I will never let anyone kill you or Willow. As long as I’m alive, no one will ever harm my granddaughters.”
“What can you do when the order is enforced?”
He sighed and looked away. “It’s not going to get to that. When you get your full powers and eliminate the
Obscurus
, the order will die with it.”
I looked into his hopeful face and realized something. He knew as well as I did that no matter whether I inherited my rightful power or not, the Alliance would still want to remove the supposed threat I posed. The good guys didn’t want
one
person to have as much power as my grandma had organized for me to inherit. “You know that’s not true, so don’t lie to me.”
“Sierra,” he whispered. “None of us will ever execute such an order.”
I nodded, wanting him to think I believed him when I knew he was just trying to make me feel better. This order had already been placed, the time it went live didn’t really matter. Sure, maybe I wouldn’t die at the hand of Oren, Sally, or even Lavie, but someone else would step up.
“They think I’ll become a threat regardless, don’t they?”
Oren nodded. “But we know it’s not true.”
There was no way in hell this was going to happen. I wasn’t going to let anyone kill me, or take the life of anyone else I cared about. I wasn’t about to forfeit everything I’d survived and learned during this crazy year. After discovering my true family linage and the extent of my power, I could accept there would always be someone wanting to take or stifle it. But it was mine.
Good or bad, I was bound to become too powerful for either side and no one wanted that.
I was doomed either way, but wouldn’t go down without a fight.
“Sierra, did you hear me?”
“Yeah, I heard you.” I licked my dry lips. “But it doesn’t change the fact that my sister’s great-grandmother wants us dead.”
“She’s not going to succeed,” he whispered, squeezing my arm.
“No, she won’t.” I looked him in the eye. “I’ll kill her before she gets the chance to kill us.”
Chapter Three
I slammed the door of my 1972 Ford ZF Fairlane but didn’t bother to lock it. I doubted anyone would try to steal the car from here. The street was quiet, empty. Only one sound broke the silence—the odd squawking from the birds who’d taken up residence in the palm trees lining both sides of this industrial area.
My own words echoed inside my head.
I’ll kill her before she gets the chance to kill us.
Such a horrible thing to say, but I would see it to the end if it meant keeping my sister safe from some ambitious necromancer.
Everything went back to the
me or them
attitude circumstance had forced me to accept.
“Should I bother locking the door?” Lavie called from the other side of the car.
“Nah, don’t worry about it.”
“Where’s the haunted warehouse?” she asked, making her way to stand on the road beside me.
Before I could answer, Ebony stepped in front of us with the three teen spook catchers in tow. They’d arrived in a white, generic hatchback.
“It’s the peaked monstrosity at the end of the street,” Ebony said.
She wasn’t wrong. The dead-end street across from where we stood was short, consisting of a huge redbrick rectangular warehouse on the left, with a parking lot behind it. Another more colorful building ran along the entire right side. And there, at the end, stood the long building made of brick and topped with peaks.
“You guys ready?” I asked, wanting to get this show on the road.
The young catchers nodded, while Ebony smiled and motioned for them to follow her. They crossed the empty street in a row, making their way towards our destination.
I took a moment to look up at the gray clouds. I really could’ve used some twinkling stars to change my mood. When I was a little girl, I’d spend hours lying in bed staring at the night sky hoping to see a falling star so I could make a wish. Back then I’d wished my parents would wake up one day and forget about my strangeness, then realize they loved me too much to shun and leave me behind. But I’d learned the hard way that no matter how many times you wish to be normal and loved, it didn’t change anything.
I’d been grumpy since Oren told me about the Alliance’s plan, and had been glad when he waved and slipped out of the house while I took a call from Papan. He’d had more bad news—his meeting had turned into an instant case and he was going to get home a lot later than planned. So he probably wouldn’t make it for tonight’s planned festivities.
Willow had fallen asleep before I left the house. Even though the dog turned out to be malnourished and needed to stay at the vet overnight, she was so excited about him not being chipped that she didn’t protest when I told her she had to get an early night. I still felt a bit uneasy about leaving her alone, but needed to trust the protection spells around the house.
I sighed. In hindsight, Papan’s call made it easier for me to keep this appointment with the teenage spook catchers and Ebony. I’d even called Lavie so she could experience what we did firsthand, and maybe corroborate what Oren had told me.
“C’mon you two, what’re you waiting for?” Ebony’s voice echoed up and down the quiet street, causing a few of the overhead branches to rustle.
Ebony might not be back to her usual self, but she wanted to kick-start the work side of things. I wondered if it was something she’d chosen to do, or if Roe had chosen for her.
“We’re coming,” I called back. To Lavie I said, “Let’s go and get this cross-training started.”
She nodded, her red hair swaying in the breeze.
We jogged across the road and met the others.
“This is so exciting,” Juliet said.
“I know!” Claire added.
“Keep it down,” Ebony said to the girls.
This wasn’t the first time we’d gone out. Ebony and I had taken the trio to several cemeteries, libraries, on a few house calls, and were gearing them up to visit a hospital next. They were getting pretty good at spotting, finding and even capturing wayward spirits. I just couldn’t share their excitement—not tonight.
“Let’s go.” Ebony led the three teens—Jana, the blonde, and the two brunettes, Claire and Juliet—dressed in matching black outfits, down the narrow and short street.
Lavie and I hung back.
“So, how long have you known?” I finally asked Lavie, having avoided the topic during our drive.
“How long have I known what?”
I gave her a sideward glance. Lavie didn’t care about camouflage—she was wearing a lime turtleneck and bottle-green corduroy pants. Enough fabric to ensure her demonic seeds didn’t scare the living daylights out of anyone. She had several snake-like creatures coursing beneath her skin. A condition she’d contracted during an unfortunate sexual encounter.
I hadn’t forgotten my promise to help her figure out how to get rid of them—the task was on my mental to-do list.