pavement prevented him from reaching the posted limit.
He absolutely had to find Rafe before the police did. To prepare him for the inevitable questions, the accusations. Skye was only doing her job, and she would be fair, but Anthony had no idea what condition Rafe was in.
His cell phone rang with an unfamiliar number showing. “Hello,” he answered curtly, keeping his eyes on the slick road.
“It’s Moira. I’m heading out to the cliffs right now to find Raphael Cooper.”
“What?” He slowed down, his attention now divided. “What do you know about Rafe?”
“When I got back to my motel room, Lily filled me in. Everything we suspected about her adventures on the cliffs was true, except for one surprising fact. A guy in hospital scrubs walked up and created chaos during the ritual. Told Lily to get the hell out of Dodge, then disappeared. Lily identified him as Cooper when I showed her his picture.”
Anthony said, “Rafe walked out of the hospital at midnight last night. No one has seen him, yet he was way out at the ruins last night?”
“No doubt it was him. I don’t know how he got there, but he saved Lily’s life. I’m going to try to retrace his steps.”
“Maybe the coven kidnapped him,” Anthony said.
“I don’t think so.”
“You can’t possibly know!”
“Something Fiona said this morning made me think he got away. Did your girlfriend tell you about how Fiona tried to kill me?”
He sighed. “What did Fiona say?”
“It was more the subtext of what she said. She implied that someone had stopped her from completing the ritual. Lily confirmed that demons were released, and that Rafe was trying to stop them.”
“I’ll meet you at the cliffs.”
“I’m practically there.”
“Wait for me.”
“No, I can’t stay here. There’re …
“But-”
“I wanted to tell you what Lily told me, and because she said something else and I don’t know what it means. Fiona called her the
“Is Lily still at the motel? I need to send Lily away, to protect her. She’s in grave danger.”
“She’s not there. Jared’s father, a cop, tracked them to my room and took them away. He said he was taking Lily home.”
“And you let him?”
“I wasn’t going to jail again, not that it matters to you.”
Anthony asked, “Where does Lily live?”
“Foxglove-1300. What does
“She’s a spirit trap.”
“What the fuck? Humans can’t trap demons.”
“Can you speak without swearing every other sentence?”
“Fuck, no,” she snapped.
Anthony supposed he’d walked into that one, and said, “She was dedicated for the purpose at her conception. You know something about that, don’t you?” He didn’t mean to be cruel, and almost took it back. But didn’t.
“Her mother … Anthony, Jared’s father took her home more than an hour ago. Her mother must be part of it.”
“I’ll get her,” Anthony said. “You find Rafe.” His stomach churned. He didn’t want to leave Rafe in Moira’s hands, but he didn’t see what choice he had. If the coven got hold of Lily, they might be able to re-create the ritual to reunite the Seven.
“I need a place for Rafe and me to stay. My motel room is no longer safe. What about your girlfriend’s place? Is there a friendly church around here?”
Anthony considered it but knew neither idea would work. “There’s a hotel on the coast, the Santa Louisa Coastal Inn. The owner is a friend of mine. I’ll call him and register a room. I’ll put the room under your name, and I’ll let him know you’ll be coming.”
“Why can’t-”
He knew what she was going to ask. “I want to talk to Rafe before the police.”
After hanging up with Moira, Anthony put Lily’s address into Skye’s GPS system, then called Father Philip, not caring how late it was in Italy. He was surprised that the Father had already left.
“When did Father leave for Olivet?” he asked.
“One moment,” the monk said. Moments later, Bishop Pietro Aretino came on the phone.
“Anthony,” Bishop Aretino said, “Philip isn’t going to Olivet. He’s on his way to Santa Louisa.”
“Why? He told me-”
The bishop interrupted. “He has his reasons. But he left before dawn, without his assigned escort.”
“What?” Dread filled Anthony. That Father Philip was leaving the sanctuary for Olivet was dangerous in itself, but that he would come here without a bodyguard was foolhardy. Both he and Father Philip knew that his life was in grave danger. He was on the inner council, was privy to information that few had. Information that the covens would love to have, and would be pleased to torture out of the old priest.
“We don’t know exactly when he left, and John is leaving now. We hope he can catch up with Philip before …”
“That’s not soon enough! We have a crisis here,” Anthony said. “The Seven Deadly Sins have been released.”
“You think Santa Louisa is the only major problem we’re facing?” Pietro admonished him. “Our ranks are thinner than ever. I’d send Rico, but he has to protect his people or we have no hope. You have more people in Santa Louisa to help than any of our other hot spots. Be careful, Anthony. God bless you.”
He needed all the blessings he could get. But the motto of St. Michael’s was
He had his work cut out for him. Finally off the treacherous mountain, Anthony sped up, and hoped that he wasn’t too late to save Lily Ellis, the
FIFTEEN
within my envy, within my envy, within my envy grows
Chris couldn’t find Ari after school, and several of her friends said she hadn’t come back after lunch. He tried her cell phone, but there was no answer. He wanted to explain that he’d talked to the sheriff because he was worried about Ari, not because he wanted to get her into any trouble.
“Hey, Kidd, you’re late,” his friend Travis said when Chris walked into the locker room.
He jerked his chin up. “Sec,” he said. He left another message for Ari, then grabbed his gym bag from his locker and jogged to where Travis was waiting by the door. They were the last two players to leave for the bus.
Travis Ehrlich was one of the few black guys at the central coast high school and they’d been friends since day one, when Travis moved to Santa Louisa in the seventh grade. Travis made varsity his freshman year, almost unheard of. He had NBA scouts watching him and a full ride to UCLA-a PAC-10 school-where he’d probably be a
