Page 52 of Scorned

An odd feeling came upon me and I realized why. “Shit. Because it’s cloaked.” I yanked my cell from my pocket, dialed Drag’s number, and put it on speaker.

“You guys okay?” he asked after only one ring.

“We need to be picked up and taken back to our van. We’re sitting ducks out here. I’m sending you the location now.” I shared our GPS coordinates to his phone. “We need to get as far away from this place as possible, so we’ll start walking until we find a road.”

“Did you get the info we needed?”

“I got more than that, Drag.” I looked back toward the direction where the compound should be standing and a creepy feeling went down my spine again. “The entire Venom headquarters disappeared after we left the property without the person allowed to enter. So, you know what that means.”

“Venom’s base is cloaked?”

“Yep. Those fuckers are working with witches. Now we know why no one has ever found any of their locations. Which means VRC is probably cloaked too. There’s more, but I wanna talk to you and some of the older vamps about it when we get back.”

“Alright, I’m on my way.” Drag hung up.

“I can’t see anything out here, Winnie.”

“It’s Winston.” I pocketed my phone and turned toward Erik. “Use your phone light, but keep it low to the ground. I can hear vehicles, so we need to go this way.”

Erik flipped his flashlight on and we headed for the highway. “You said Venom’s cloaked. Is that the same as the wards we have around the camp?”

“We have both. The cloaking spell conceals a place and keeps anyone from seeing it even exists. The wards are the invisible line surrounding it. The two different spells can be used separately or in unison.” I pointed to the right of me. “Look at where the Venom base was, do you feel that creepy feeling?”

Erik turned his head toward where the base should be. “I do. Feels like the land is haunted or something.”

“That’s the wards. Certain warding spells can make people feel uncomfortable, so they won’t go near them, and others can be used to keep supernaturals out. Since I was able to cross, I’m surprised Venom didn’t use one of those.”

Erik’s forehead tightened. “If Venom has magical wards like the camp does, how did we get in at all?”

“When a resident permitted inside of the wards allows someone in, it appears visible to the newcomers. So, when Naomi guided us across the barrier, the wards considered us safe.”

“So, anyone inside our camp could bring enemies in?”

I stopped walking, bad thoughts filling me. “Technically, yes.”

“Maybe we should consider who we keep there.”

We started walking again and I began to wonder about the wards. I knew neither the shifters nor vampires would do anything to harm our community. The humans were the only ones I was unsure of.

Lyric and Sage were both safe in my book. And after spending some time with them, I was sure Erik and Jimmy were trustworthy. But Nellie and Randi were frequently on my watch list. Even more now.

Chapter 16

Sage

After we got to the second campground and exited the vehicle, we headed onto a porch with a woman pacing back and forth, trying to soothe the baby in her arms.

“Hey, Dani.”

“Hey, Lyric.” The woman nodded her head toward Peach with a smile before her gaze traveled to me. “You must be, Sage. My name is Danika Montoya, but you can call me Dani. Dragos is my brother and has told me so many wonderful things about you.”

I furrowed my brows, wondering who the hell Dragos was, but as my eyes drifted over her brown hair and fair skin, it finally clicked. She looked like my friend. “Do you mean Drag?”

She laughed as she swayed her hips, soothing the fussing baby. “Drag is his nickname. Do you know where he is? I’m not trying to be rude, but I’m panicking here.”

“I saw him leave with a couple others right before we came here,” Lyric said. “But I didn’t ask where they were going.”

“We have an issue I need to discuss with him.” She pulled the blanket back, revealing the face of a pink infant with red hair. “This is Scarlet. She’s a wolven baby and I don’t know what to do with her. Her mom, Tilly, used to be a part of our pack before she left with her boyfriend James who was from Ironclad.”

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