Don’t ... open your eyes. Don’t ... She slumped, exhausted from another round of hell. She had to stay strong. She could do this if she just napped ...
She dropped off.
“Renata!” screamed in her ear.
She jerked wide-eyed awake and ... screamed.
Chapter 10
Daegan teleported onto the yard outside the prim white cottage with a bright yellow door.
Luigsech had an affinity for that color it seemed.
He’d landed out here to enter alone first to insure Reese’s safety as well as Quinn’s. As soon as those two appeared, Reese ducked out from under Quinn’s arm and stood with her arms crossed.
“Ya watch out for Reese,” Daegan told Quinn. “Do not forget demons appeared with the Imortiks last night. I need a moment to check the interior to be sure ’tis safe.”
Reese cocked her chin up in a show of bravado, but she also paled at the mention of demons. “I have the power to kill a demon.”
Daegan lost patience with the friction going on between her and Quinn, but he managed to keep his voice calm. “I have no doubt ya are capable of defendin’ yourself against demons, Reese, but your safety is of utmost importance to me. Ya are the only one I know of among our allies with the ability to track someone usin’ your remote vision gift. For that reason, I ask ya to not jump into danger unless ya have no other option.”
Quinn said nothing, but a wave of relief passed through his gaze.
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Got it. Sorry. I’m ... just cranky. I want to get Tristan back as much as anyone. I’ll sit tight.”
“Good. Thank ya for all ya are doin’.” Turning to Quinn, Daegan said, “Call to me if anythin’, demon or otherwise, appears.”
“Understood.”
Daegan stepped over to look inside a window. Everything seemed as wrecked as it had when he’d left earlier this morning under the cover of darkness.
He teleported inside and made a quick check of the rooms then teleported Quinn and Reese inside.
“... feel a presence out here,” Reese said, finishing a sentence she’d started outside.
“What?” Daegan asked as he shoved a curtain aside to peer through a window at the front of the cottage.
“Right before you snatched us in here, I sensed something around us,” she explained. “Not sure if it was a demon or some other being, but not natural. I could probably figure it out if I had another couple minutes out there.”
“No.” Daegan appreciated the thought, but he would not put her at any additional risk.
She blew a lock of hair off her face. “I didn’t say I wanted to go back out, only that I might have been able to identify the source.”
“Point taken.” But Daegan had no time to waste determining if someone, or something, hid in the tree line. Venom in his body continued to eat away at his power. How long would it be before he could protect no one? The sands of his hourglass poured out faster with every breath, upping the risk of loss on more than one level.
Pushing ahead, Daegan asked Reese, “Where did ya see Luigsech enter the cottage from her secret tunnel?”
“I’m pretty sure it was in a bedroom.”
“’Tis only one bedroom.” Daegan tossed Quinn a look. “Stay in this front room and keep an eye out for any activity outside. We shall search the bedroom.”
“I’ll do that and search this room for anything I can find that might offer information on her as well,” Quinn confirmed.
“Good idea.”
“What’s that stink?” Reese pinched her nose.
“’Tis the residue of dead Imortiks.”
She nodded at Daegan, who moved ahead of her leading the way to the bedroom.
“Except for the smell and destruction, this is a cool cottage. Probably been here a few hundred years,” Reese mused as she stepped into the bedroom. “A wonderful sanctuary in a beautiful country.”
Once again, Daegan paused to take in the location from Reese’s perspective. Lacy curtains no longer bright white had aged with time, but the delicate material had been kept clean with care. If Daegan guessed, the oak bed had been hand carved as had the standing chest. Not likely to see multiples of that one or the quilted cover on the bed. Nothing showy, but a place that had been lived in, and loved, a long time.
Had this been Luigsech’s safe haven?
He felt another twinge of guilt over pushing the woman from her home. Actually, the Imortiks had sent her running as much as him showing up unannounced.
Tristan’s face smoked through Daegan’s mind.
He got over his momentary attack of conscience.
Who was Luigsech to be so deeply involved with a preternatural such as Cavan?
“I’ll sit on the bed and see if she sat there to pack a bag or something.” Reese eased down on the neatly made bed.
After half a minute, she got up, muttering, “Nothing recent there.” She went to the bathroom.
Daegan tapped on the walls, listening for a hollow spot to indicate an escape route.
Reese came back into the bedroom and stared at the space. She dropped to the floor next to the bed, sitting in her usual cross-legged style. Every ten or fifteen seconds, she’d scoot to a different position, but with her eyes closed.
She banged into a corner of the bed frame. “Ouch.”
“Reese?” Quinn called from the other room.
She sagged with a heavy sigh. “Would you tell him I’m not freaking dying?”
Daegan smothered a smile at her aggravation with Quinn. He called out, “Reese is safe. Stop irritatin’ her so she can work.”
Silence answered him.
Reese laughed. “I like you. Okay, let me try this spot then I’ll keep moving if nothing pops up.”
In the next location, Reese remained in one place for a longer period. Her shoulders relaxed and she leaned back against the bed with her eyes closed. That fluttering motion behind her eyelids from before happened again as she began whispering.
“Luigsech stood where I’m sitting. She was here only a second, then raced out to the other room where she searched for something important. She pushed
