Chapter 12

“I left a message with King.” Rhys tucked his phone into his back pocket as they strode through the open gates toward the mansion they were staying at.

“I’m sure he’s dealing with a whole lot of things at once.” Dallas had been quiet on the walk back from the Quarter, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.

“Yes. My brother is the same, always putting out fires,” he said, then chastised himself for opening up to her. He needed to keep his distance but it was damn near impossible at this point. He wanted to tell her about himself, and he’d already admitted the most painful memory from his past. Most of it anyway. And he wanted to know more about her—everything about her.

This sweet female with her big heart who lived by herself on the outskirts of town—on the outskirts of supernatural society.

“I can’t imagine being responsible for all those people. Willow is enough for me.” As if on cue, Willow flew down through the trees, letting out an excited chirp to see them.

Dallas broke away from him and raced across the front yard as her dragon landed on the grass. She threw her arms around Willow’s neck, and the dragonling simply flapped her wings excitedly and nuzzled Dallas’s face.

He followed after her, watching the interaction between the two of them with a weird ache in his chest. Everything about Dallas was so open and real.

“Someone has been missing you,” called Aurora as she appeared from around the side of the house. She nodded once at Rhys then looked back at Dallas, who was laughing under Willow’s kisses.

“I’ve missed her too,” she said on another laugh.

As Dallas finally stood, Willow scrambled toward Rhys excitedly. Despite his intention to stay a little removed from them, it was impossible—and he found himself crouched down and scratching behind her ear as Willow kissed his face.

“We’ve had an eventful day,” Dallas murmured, quickly launching into what they’d learned from Thurman.

Aurora listened to everything, her eyes widening only slightly, as if some of this wasn’t exactly a surprise.

When Dallas was finished, Aurora spoke. “King and I were informed about some of this earlier.”

Rhys straightened, but still petted Willow’s head. The little dragon leaned into him and gazed up at him with adoring eyes, and damned if it didn’t cause a squeezing sensation in his chest. “About the missing vampires and humans?”

“Missing vampires, at least. Humans aren’t as open with King or his pack yet. They’re all still adjusting to the new order of things, I think. Or maybe people without family have been taken, so no one knows they’re missing. I don’t want to speculate too much, but we need to figure out where they’re being held. Come on,” she said, motioning for them to follow her inside.

Dallas kissed the top of Willow’s head before her dragon took to the skies and started happily flying around the yard, completely content.

“I need to know exactly what Thurman said about this,” Aurora said as Rhys unfolded and laid the drawing of the crest on the kitchen countertop.

“That only witches would be able to see this crest. It’s actually not all that uncommon. This kind of thing dates back centuries. My kind have been hunted for as long as we’ve been around.” Dallas’s voice was carefully neutral as she sat at the center island and she avoided looking at him. Instead she stared at the aqua-colored bowl filled with bright red apples.

A fissure started in his chest, cracking slightly at her words.

“In order to keep coven meetings secret, witches would spell certain symbols at different houses, or locations, letting other witches know that a place was safe. So while the use of this spell is common, according to Thurman this crest will help us find the missing vampires and humans. I can do a finding spell and at least narrow down where this place is using the crest as a guide. I won’t be able to find it directly because witches are notoriously tricky like that. But I should be able to get a decent radius, which will help us narrow down where we need to search. Well, where I need to search.”

“I’ll be going with you,” he said.

She looked up at him and simply nodded, her expression still carefully neutral. She didn’t trust him yet, and he wanted her to. So much it stunned him. Not that he’d done anything to earn her trust.

Aurora had her phone in hand. “I’m going to call King. What do you need for the finding spell?”

“I really just need a map of New Orleans—something physical. Thurman didn’t say where this place was, so it might not even be in the city. If that’s the case, then my spell won’t do much good and we’ll have to broaden our radius. But I can’t imagine why he would have had a vision of something not connected to the area.”

“Give me a second.” Aurora hurried from the room, her phone at her ear.

“Is it difficult to do a finding spell?” He’d studied up on witches as much as he could, over the last year especially. But knowledge on their practices was secret and limited. They kept to themselves much in the way that dragons did. He didn’t blame them, especially considering he’d been a judgmental asshole about witches until the other day. Until Dallas. It made sense that they protected themselves.

Dallas lifted a shoulder.

He really didn’t like that neutral expression or the way she’d pulled away from him. He’d started to say something, though he wasn’t sure what, when Aurora strode back into the room and unfolded a huge map, laying it across the granite countertop. “Will this do?” Her phone was still at her ear as she asked.

“Yes, it’s perfect,” Dallas said.

“Good. King wants to know what you need from him.”

“Nothing now. Though…I don’t know who he can trust other than me to look for this crest. Because if witches in the city are involved in the taking of humans and vampires, he probably shouldn’t start telling other people we’re looking for them.”

Aurora nodded. “He said the same thing. So just do what you need to do.”

She looked between the two of them and shifted nervously on her seat. “I need a little privacy for this. You guys need to wait outside.”

Rhys didn’t like the thought of leaving her alone, but not because he didn’t trust her. “Do you want us to leave the back door open?”

She shook her head and didn’t look at him.

Some deep part of him felt like a temperamental child, wanting to demand that she look at him. Instead, he strode outside with Aurora, feeling that fissure in his chest grow even wider.

* * *

Dallas moved quickly and grabbed a ceramic bowl from one of the cabinets, then plucked a knife from a drawer. Technically she didn’t need to be alone for this, but she didn’t like revealing any parts of her practice to others, especially not a dragon who’d made it clear he didn’t trust witches and was out to kill one.

An annoyingly sexy dragon.

She didn’t have her normal tools like her athame with her, but a regular fillet knife would do.

Though she was going to use her own blood. This wasn’t actual blood magic, not in the sense that she was practicing the dark arts like some of her sisters. Blood magic was when witches or others used someone else’s blood, usually without consent, and for dark purposes.

As a natural-born witch, she could use her own blood when necessary, and if it was for the greater good, there was never any bounce-back on her. Bracing herself for the pain, she wrapped her hand around the fillet knife and slid it across her palm in one quick slice.

She hissed as it dragged across her skin, but softly chanted the simple spell as she held her bleeding hand over the bowl. Her blood started to drip into the bowl but as she continued chanting, the droplets suspended in midair, twisting and turning in a delicate dance before finding their mark on the map.

Her blood swirled around and around, hovering over the map, and for a long moment she thought maybe the missing vampires and humans weren’t even in the city, when suddenly the crimson drops spread out in a circle and landed on the paper below, creating a perfect oval. Her blood immediately turned a very soft blue, as if she’d drawn the line and not used part of herself.

She quickly put the bowl and knife in the sink and washed them, wanting to get rid of any traces of her blood. A witch’s blood could be used against her, something she knew personally. Her mother had tried to control her once upon a time.

She winced at the pain from the cut but her skin was already knitting itself back together. Since she’d created the spell with good intentions, wanting to help, it made a huge difference in how fast she healed.

Once everything was cleaned up and only an angry red mark remained on her palm, she opened the back door to find Aurora and Rhys standing there with Willow, both cooing and petting her. Well, Rhys wasn’t cooing, but he was still petting her.

Her chest tightened at the sight of the big, strong dragon being so sweet with Willow but she shut down those emotions. That male was not for her.

“I’m done,” she called out, before she quickly turned away and hurried back inside. Being around him was messing with her in too many ways.

“You’re sure this is it?” Aurora asked as she traced her finger around the blue oval.

“As sure as I can be. So I need to search in this radius and it’s pretty damn big.” Relatively speaking anyway. “I just need to grab something to eat and then we can start.” It was almost dusk, but it wouldn’t matter—with symbols like the crest, it would glow neon for her to see. If anything, it was almost more visible at night.

“Are you sure? You’ve been on your feet all day.” Rhys’s mouth pulled down into a frown. His concern was…sexy. Of course, everything he did was sexy. He definitely had that whole brooding, tortured male thing going on. Something she’d never thought was attractive. Until Rhys.

“I’m sure King can find someone else to come with me.” Maybe he didn’t want to be her babysitter anymore, and frankly, that would be easier on her.

That intense frown deepened. “Are you kidding me? That’s not what I meant,” he snapped. “And I’m not leaving your side.”

Aurora’s eyebrows simply raised as she looked between the two of them with interest.

Dallas rubbed a hand over her face, fighting a wave of exhaustion. “All I need is some food and I’ll be ready to go. We can cover a lot of ground over the next few hours. At least we can eliminate some neighborhoods and then I’ll start again in the morning. Unless King wants me doing something else?” He had called her to the city to scout out various food plots.

“No, he said this is the main priority,” Aurora said. “And he’s going to pull in a few more of his pack to go with you guys. Even if you’re the only one who can see this crest, if these witches are kidnapping people, they’re not going to like it if you find out where their victims are. You’re going to need backup.”

“I am a dragon.” Rhys sounded beyond offended at the thought of taking backup.

Aurora simply snorted. And despite everything, Dallas hid a smile. Sweet goddess, dragons really were arrogant.

“Backup won’t hurt,” she murmured.

His frown was still in place but he moved to the refrigerator. “I’ll fix you something and you will eat all of it. You look way too tired.” His voice was all gruff, but she saw the worry in his eyes.

And okay, that kind of touched her. Although maybe he was just worried that if something happened to her, he wouldn’t be able to find…Catta. But whatever, he was concerned and she kinda liked it. Which was probably sad, but she ignored that thought.

As Aurora took a picture of the map—likely to send to King—Dallas sat at the island top.

Rhys peered into the huge fridge. “We’ve got cheeses, fruits, meats—”

“How about a grilled cheese sandwich?”

“That’s it?”

“And any fresh fruit you have. Strawberries or blueberries?”

He nodded and started moving around the kitchen with an impressive efficiency. It was sexy as hell to have such a big, capable male cooking for her. Something she shouldn’t care about. But again, her head and heart were not in sync.

This male had made it clear that his goal was vengeance. He wanted to use her. Not…anything else.

She would do well to remember that.