“I was thinking human history.”
“History it is. I’ll see you tonight.” He disconnected the call.
Simon stared at me. “I know conversations between your uncle and you get weird, but that was beyond weird.”
“Something wasn’t right with the phone call. I had to think quick on my toes. I’ll have to swing there before Mason and I go to the location.”
Gabby’s brows drew together. “Why?”
“Because if anyone has information on Adrianna Hyde, it’ll be my uncle.” I nodded. “He’s got years of research and history at his house. He knows a lot about those who walk on the dark side of magic.” Occasionally, he was one of those people, but that didn’t matter right now.
“Okay, I guess you’re right, better to go in with knowledge.” She sounded worried.
“Look, I know Liz. She’s smart, and she’s resourceful. I’ll get her out of whatever mess she’s in.”
“And if she’s dead?” Gabby snapped back. “If Adrianna has had her fun and tortured my sister and…and…” Gabby shook her head. “If…”
I put a hand on her arm. “Then I will mourn her with you.”
She took a moment to gather herself, taking a few deep breaths. “Thank you.”
“I’m going to call Mason to let him know what’s going on. I’ll have Merick take us to the station, so Mason’s not driving all around town for us.”
Simon nodded. “I’ll stay here with Gabby?” he suggested.
“Unless Gabby wants to wait at home?” I left the choice up to her. I wasn’t going to force her to sit around a stranger’s house waiting for news of her sister.
She thought for a moment. “I’ll wait at home.” She disappeared, and Simon looked at me.
“The smell of fear rolling off her is enough to clog my nose.” He crinkled his nose a couple of times. “I don’t like it.”
“What about lies?”
He shook his head. “No lying that I could smell. How’d the conversation with Levi and Mario go?”
“Not as well as I would have liked, but not as bad as I expected. Merick is still alive, and Levi agreed to let him watch my back. So I’m going to call it a win for the night.”
Simon pulled me into a hug. “You looked shaken when we walked in.”
“Mario had me trapped against the couch. He was just trying to scare me.” I shook my head. “I’m fine.”
Simon kissed me gently. “Okay, I’ll head home for the night. Please check in when you can.”
“Okay.” I walked to the door with him, he gave me another quick kiss.
“I love you.”
I smiled at his words. “I love you too.”
I shut the door when he left and put my head against it. What the hell was I thinking? There were red flags all over this.
Gabby knowing exactly where Liz would pop up.
Liz going after some crazy super-witch.
Crazy immortal super-witch that was.
I sighed and pushed away from the door and texted Mason. “Meet me at the station in two hours. We’re going on a road trip.”
I didn’t get a response right away, but chances were, he was working on case-related paperwork at this time of night. Explaining the multiple dead bodies, the vampires in the basement.
Always with the basements.
I pulled my phone to text Merick, but he appeared right in front of me. “An eventful night.”
“At least you don’t have to hide as a cat anymore. Not from most people anyways.” I shook my head. “Can you take me to my Uncle’s house? Levi didn’t bring me the Hummer, and I don’t want to take Mason there.”
He nodded. “Field trip?”
“Research. I don’t know anything about this Adrianna Hyde, and I don’t want to go to this location completely blind.”
Merick crossed his arms. “The fact that you want to go to that location at all concerns me.”
“At this point, I’m treating Liz like a missing person case. She’s been out of contact for over twenty-four hours. Our chance of finding her alive lowers with each passing hour. I want to find her alive.”
Merick nodded. “As do I, so let’s go.”
The world reappeared around us, and we were standing in front of my uncle’s mansion. I rang the doorbell, not wanting to walk in on something that wasn’t going well. Once I walked in on him fighting Ira. It was a terrifying situation that I didn’t want to repeat.
He opened the door and peeked out. “I don’t remember inviting Merick.”
“It was either him or Detective Mason. It’s after dark, and I’m out of my house.”
“No Mario?” Oliver opened the door wider so we could enter.
The doorway led to a long hallway with plush carpet. The walls were bare of anything that might give away any personal information about Oliver. I’d learned long ago that he dealt with some questionable characters that he didn’t want to give sensitive information to.
I had thought it paranoid until I realized what kind of trouble he often found himself in.
“Mario needs to stay in town in case Samuel shows up.” There was a strange urge to add ‘again’ to the end of that sentence. “Are we safe to discuss?”
Oliver nodded. “I had a client here, and I didn’t want to give away too much of what was going on.”
“You called me though.”
He nodded. “I can’t get into the details. Just know that it was not my chosen time to call you, but I was hoping you’d provide me with an out for tonight. Which you did.”
It really wasn’t a surprise that he used me as such, and it wasn’t that big of a deal. He’d once traded me for another life because he knew I was strong enough to survive.
“I need to know what information you have on a witch named Adrianna Hyde.”
He cringed at
