Page 157 of Blue Moon Mistress

Each light we have to stop at keeps me on edge. There aren’t many, but all of them feel like an ambush waiting to happen.

But nothing accosts us on the drive across town. Not even a stray cat darting out in front of us makes me pump the breaks.

Chase’s muscles still flicker as we make our way up the steps.

“I think,” He says, breathing hard when he leans against the door jamb. “That maybe I should just call you in the morning.”

“Oh.” Cold needles cover my skin. “Okay.”

I don’t fight him.

As much as I want to steer him into the house, into his bed and take care of him until I’m certain there’s no lingering effects…I’mthe one who did this to him.

I let him close the door between us without even a goodbye and then make my way slowly down those steps… Feeling like part of me is trapped in that shut door and I’m pulling away from it, stretched thing like taffy.

I watch the front of the house for a minute before I turn the key in the ignition.

Enough is enough. Wherever Aphrodite is, she’s no where near the Liberty.

Because it felt like Aphrodite… and I know how small it would have to be for her to have made it on her own. To get big enough to drop a boulder on Chase’s car… Wherever she’s hiding, I need to find her.

Fast.

Twenty-Nine

I feel utterly drained.

My readings only confirmed that she’d made the terratoma at least five miles away from The Liberty. It also strengthened my theory… Blood magic would make the creature stronger.

Blood magic performed with a vampire’s blood…

I couldn’t decide if the coven was being willfully ignorant, or if my grandmother’s writings were truly a secret.

It would not surprise me.

No one in the coven would approve. And gran did enough things to irritate the other women of her generation… it was, no doubt how she wound up in the Carraway plot.

Exhaustion had finally claimed me an hour or so before sunrise. And as I drink my tea now, staring out at the mist that still clings to the ground, despite the fact it’s almost noon, I want to call Chase.

But I know he’s still asleep. I can’t imagine him waking up before five tonight… if he doesn’t sleep clear through to tomorrow morning.

So I call Joshua instead.

No answer.

I look at the phone for a long moment, hoping he’s just busy with work. So I text him.

Call me when you’ve got a minute.

He hasn’t called me back by the time I finish eating my lunch and I know I can’t sit here and do nothing… I’ll go crazy. I need to get up and out anddosomething.

And there’s one thing I know will take my mind off this.

Time for a doll hunt.

Who knows how messy that’s going to get. Pulling on my jeans meant for the Carraway plot and braiding my hair to keep it out of the way, I head to the kitchen and start what little prep I need for this.

Digging through the ugly mess of papers and books strewneverywhere, I finally find the carved map of the town I use to find lost things.

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