Chapter 237

Heather

Xander shrugged. “I’m just here for moral support. This demon and magic stuff has always been so far from my area of expertise. But Cosette isn’t going to be able to help.”

Not the crystals. Not Cosette or any of the fey.

magic. What else was left? What was I missing?

“There is someone else who maybe could help us,” Claudia said, interrupting my thoughts. “The thing is, I don’t know if she will. Or even how much she could help. I don’t—”

“No. No! Don’t backtrack now,” I said. If Claudia was bringing it up, then I had to believe it was a plausible solution. “I can convince her. Or I can make Brent do it. He’s got the good abs. Just tell me where to point him. He’ll say something in French. Take off his shirt. It’ll work.”

What are you dragging me into, chérie? He was laughing, but only on the inside.

I’m sure it won’t come to that. I’ll try to protect your virtue as long as I can. I let go of his hand and leaned across the table. I was desperate not to get sucked into Astaroth’s realm again. I had to stop his plan from ever coming to pass. “Who do we need to see?”

“Her name is Samantha Lopez. She’s kind of a cousin. Sort of. And she lives in LA, but—”

I shook my head. “A cousin in LA and I never met her? No way.” I didn’t have any relatives in LA.

“She’s from my father’s side. A second cousin once removed or something.”

Okay. That made more sense. Our mothers were sisters. So, if it was her father’s side, then I wasn’t related to her and maybe my mom didn’t know about her. “She’s a witch?”

“Not exactly.”

“So, how can she help?” Adrian asked.

“She’s got a unique ability. She deals exclusively in hauntings, but she does have some experience with demons.”

“This girl sounds awesome,” Xander said. “But we’ve been ass-deep in demons for a while now. If she has specific knowledge about them, why are we just now hearing about her?”

“Well…” Claudia looked at Lucas and I knew they

were talking, but whatever was said, it needed to be aloud.

“What is it?” This girl—whoever she was—sounded perfect. “You haven’t brought her up until now. So, what’s her deal?”

Claudia sighed. “She’s a couple years younger than me, so she’s your age. Maybe not yet eighteen? Anyway, she visited a couple times before my parents took off, but I hated to drag her into Luciana’s evil world. Plus, she’s had enough stuff on her plate to deal with. The last time I spoke to her, she’d been looking into ways to bind her abilities. When everything with Luciana started to get worse a few years ago, I stopped emailing her back. She needed a friend, and I turned my back on her.”

Claudia wasn’t the type to do that kind of thing and not feel one hundred percent guilty about it.

“At first, when everything went wrong with Raphael, I thought about calling her but it seemed like a long shot. Especially if she’d managed to get rid of her gifts like she wanted. And she wasn’t super good with demons last I heard.” Claudia glanced to her mate, who gave her a reassuring nod. “Muraco was so sure that Peru was where I needed to go, so I went there. But after everything in Santa Fe, I did some digging. With Luciana gone, I wanted to see how Samantha was doing and explain. I’ve been emailing her for weeks, but she hasn’t answered me. But from what I’ve found out, I don’t think she was able to bind her abilities. In fact, I think she’s gone the opposite direction.”

I had questions—like what kind of things this girl could do and what she was exactly—but I kept it zipped. None of that mattered. All I needed was help, and at this point, I couldn’t afford to be picky.

“I feel bad asking her after all this time, but Samantha’s the only other person I can think of,” Claudia said finally.

“Let’s give it a shot. Worst thing she could do is say no.” And if she was open to it and could maybe cut the tie between Astaroth and myself, then it was worth it.

“I second that. Let’s call her,” Xander said.

“Actually, I think it’s best if we go see her,” Claudia said. “I haven’t gotten her to take my calls or emails. But we’re a little harder to ignore if we’re on her front porch.”

“And if it doesn’t work out?” I asked.

“Then we come back here and do more research. We find another way and we try that. Because I’m not giving up. Are you?” Claudia asked.

“No,” I said.

“Neither am I,” Brent said.

“Me, too,” Adrian said.

“We’re all in. Let’s go,” Xander said.

“What about the meeting—” Claudia started, but Lucas cut her off.

“I’ll talk to Presley. I think we can delay it by a day if necessary.”

“Great.” I stood up. “How soon can we head out? Do we need to book tickets? What’s the—”

“Two hours.” Lucas pulled out his phone. “We’ll take my plane. We can be in LA by this afternoon.”

The chokehold around my chest started to ease. This was good. We had the start of a plan. Something that we could actually do. A demon expert to talk to. It wasn’t a ton, but it was a start.

“I’m going to shower and grab a bag in case we’re there overnight. Then I’m heading to the library. Going to do a quick search and grab anything I can on Astaroth for the plane ride. Meet in the parking lot?”

“Sure,” Lucas said. “Everyone be there in an hour.”

I let out a long breath. “Great.”

“I’ll head to the library, too. Get a head start on research,” Adrian said.

“Awesome. Thanks.” We all got up from the table, heading off to get ready for our sudden trip to Los

Angeles.

It was funny how much my life had changed since I’d been there last. That city wasn’t home anymore, yet I felt a sense of comfort and relief about going back.

Yes, what was happening now wasn’t good, but a lot of bad things had happened and we’d come out of them kind of okay. And if this girl couldn’t help us, then I’d find another way. Someone else. Something else. But I wasn’t going to stop. Not while I had enough air to breathe.

Astaroth hadn’t known what he was signing up for when he attached himself to me. That motherfucker was getting sent back where he belonged, and I sure as shit wasn’t going to be joining him.

By the time we landed at the Los Angeles International Airport, I was ready to get something concrete done. We’d each brought a stack of books with us but found a whole bunch of nothing in them. Sure there was info on who Astaroth was—Great Duke of Hell, blah blah blah. Evil Trinity, blah blah blah. But the overarching theme was if you saw him, run or else you’d die. Painfully. Miserably. And him knowing who you were meant death.

It was safe to say that he knew me. I was pretty cool with the running part, but once he had enough power to cross the barrier between hell and earth, I was screwed. And I was still pretty much screwed even if he couldn’t cross it. The demon had already managed to suck me into his world. He’d killed Muraco to do that.

The clock was ticking, and I couldn’t run forever if he was tied to me.

If Astaroth won, he’d have the power to open a giant portal to Hell and demons would overrun the mortal plane. My death would fuel the end of the world.

Fun times.

As I stepped out of the plane, the sun hit my face. I grabbed my sunglasses from where they were hanging on my shirt collar, and slipped them on. “Seventy-two and sunny.” I moaned. “There’s so much wrong with this city, but man, the weather’s awesome. I’ve missed it.”

“The smell is what bothers me the most,” Lucas grumbled from behind me as I started down the stairs to the tarmac.

“What is that? I never smelled it before, but I’m assuming it’s because my nose is so much better now…” Exhaust and sweat and dirt and garbage—so much garbage—all rolled into one indescribable aroma.

“Eu de big city,” Xander said.

“Paris didn’t smell this bad.” It was bad, but not quite so revolting.

“Paris isn’t in a valley,” Brent said.

“Ah. Right.” It made sense. The smog was so bad that I usually couldn’t even see the mountains, but a good rain or the Santa Ana winds would roll in and clear it out. Those were the days I used to look forward to. I could really see how pretty LA was then.

An SUV was waiting for us with a driver. Is he Were? I asked Brent.

No. This driver will take us to the lobby of the private terminal. But the driver there will be a Were. Lucas wouldn’t want to be driven by anyone else.

From the local pack?

Nah. LA is too crowded for a pack. We like space. But there are a few Weres who have made home here.

I thought everyone had to have a pack?

No. It’s better to have a pack, but you can live without one.

That sounded like an excellent option. One that I would be happy to take advantage of—

We’re going to have a pack. I don’t know why you think of it as a burden. Having a pack is a privilege, and if you stop to look around, you’ve already started one.

Lucas isn’t in our pack. He’s the Alpha of his own.

Right, but Xander and Adrian would be in our pack. More and more will come, and soon you’ll have a pack full of people that you care enough about that being their Alpha will be an honor.

I don’t even know what it takes to be the Alpha of the pack.

You’re already being Alpha. You’re always rushing to save everyone. Leading the charge. Protecting the werewolves that you care about and the ones that are weaker.

But aren’t my friends rushing to save me right now? I mean—Astaroth is after me.

Only because if he takes you down, the rest follow.

Maybe so, but I still didn’t feel like I knew what being the Alpha meant. All I knew was I was doing the best I could to keep myself and everyone else alive.

I blew out a breath. I had enough to worry about for now. I’d deal with the pack stuff later. Much, much later.