Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 73252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
He reaches for the back door of a patrol car. I mentally roll my eyes. What good is the back seat going to do me?
“That’s Xavier Malus’s wife,” one of the officers whispers. Not quietly enough. “He’d have your head if you put her in the back.”
“Ma’am,” another officer says, stepping forward. He opens the front passenger door of his cruiser. “The air is on.”
“Oh, thank you so much.” I glance at his badge. “I’ll make sure to tell my husband how helpful you’ve been, Officer Martinez.”
“So, I just remembered something,” Leo blurts behind me. Perfect. Every officer within earshot looks toward him. I have absolutely no idea what story he’s about to tell, but Leo is more than capable of making something up and holding an audience long enough for me to do what I need to do. Before anyone can look back at me, I lean over and tap the computer mounted in the center console. Just like I hoped, Officer Martinez is still logged into the system.
We’ve hacked into enough official networks over the years that navigating the next few screens comes almost instinctively. I pull out my phone, ready to take pictures if anything comes up. I glance over my shoulder. The officers are all looking skeptically at Leo as he tells some elaborate story, complete with dramatic hand gestures.
I quickly type Eudora Claire Bellamy into the missing-person database. Nothing local would necessarily come up, but she’s a minor. Her name should be flagged nationally. It doesn’t take long. My heart jumps into my throat when her information appears. I snap a quick picture of the NCIC report, then click into a separate incident report.
Everything inside me is screaming at me to stop and read it. But I don’t have time. I might have seconds before someone catches me.
I take two more pictures, clear out the search, and lean back against the seat just as Officer Martinez approaches with a bottle of water. I take it and twist off the cap.
“Thank you.” I take a drink. “I’m feeling much better.”
“Take your time, Mrs. Malus,” he says. “You’re lucky the gun jammed. This could’ve been much worse. I can only imagine how rattled you are.”
“Yeah.” I keep up the terrified-wife act. Though at this point, what is this? My third close call recently? There’s a reason hunters move around. Having repeated run-ins with the police tends to look suspicious.
“And that’s when I saw him pull out the gun,” Leo is saying behind us. “I heard the shot, but I wasn’t looking directly at him.”
The officer taking his statement scribbles notes, looking increasingly confused.
“Thank God my sister is okay.”
“Are we needed for anything else?” Antonio asks, making a show of pulling his phone from his pocket. “Theo and Xavier are eager for us to return home.” I internally smile. I’m almost proud of him for sinking to my level and using the Malus name like a get-out-of-jail-free card.
The werewolf officer looks back and forth at us. He definitely knows something is off. But between Xavier’s influence and his pack master clearly not wanting me detained, he looks like a man whose hands are tied.
And the faster we leave, the happier everyone will probably be. A few minutes later, we’re walking away.
“You gonna tell me what the hell that was about?” Antonio asks once we’re a block away.
“It’s one of the names in the notebook.” I realize I started in the middle of my explanation. “Eudora Claire Bellamy,” I backtrack. “Marie told me the Bellamy family hunted demons alongside the Blackwoods. That can’t be a coincidence. Her name is in that notebook.”
“If the Bellamys trapped demons the way the Blackwoods did,” Leo says slowly, thinking out loud, “then theoretically there could still be demons locked in Bellamy prisons.”
“Exactly.” I pull out my phone. “I need to talk to Marie. She made it sound like she knew who Eudora was.”
“Call her,” Antonio says, like it’s that simple.
“I texted her and she hasn’t replied.” I’m painfully aware that I sound like a teenage girl refusing to double-text her crush. I just really don’t want Marie to dislike me. I’m desperate for that witch connection. Which, yes, definitely makes me sound like a thirteen-year-old girl obsessing over whether her crush likes her back. I open the photos on my phone and look down at the reports as we walk.
“She’s seventeen,” I read aloud. “Claire is her middle name and what she goes by.” I keep reading. Then stop. “Wait. No way.” “What?” Leo asks. “She ran away from a group home just a couple weeks ago.”
“So she’s alive?” he asks.
“I mean, she hasn’t been found dead.” I scan the report more carefully.
“The article I found online was old, but it looks like the general information was accurate. Claire has a history of running away. She’s tried multiple times to get back to family on the East Coast.” I swipe to the incident report, which gives a much more detailed look at what was happening before her disappearance.