Page 57 of Infernal

“She’ll call,” he said with absolute confidence, though I had no idea where he was getting it from.

“And if she doesn’t? What the hell are we going to do?” I said as we made our way out the building. The dewy air pressed around me like a soggy blanket. “We need another Caster or we’ll never be able to bind the sisters.”

Dominic unlocked the passenger door and opened it for me, his gaze shifting away from me briefly. When his gaze returned, his eyes looked harder—troubled even. “I may know of someone,” he finally said.

My eyes widened with surprise. “Who?”

“Just someone I used to know.”

Well that wasn’t cryptic at all.

“Why am I only hearing about this now?” I asked, unimpressed with his blatant withholding of information.

It felt like forever before he spoke again.

“Because, angel, she’s my sire,” he said, his eyes as dark as a star-lit sky. “And believe me when I say, she’s a last resort.”

21. PERSON OF INTEREST

Dominic and I didn’t say much to each other on the drive back to the hotel. As much as I was dying to know anything and everything about this secret sire of his, I could see he was bothered by the mere mention of her. And Dominic was never bothered by anything, which had to mean that she was eitherthatbad, or they had history.

Honestly, I couldn’t decide which one was worse.

As soon as we were back in the room, Dominic didn’t waste any time marching straight to the wet bar and making himself a drink. He quickly downed the first glass and then started to make a second one when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He took a quick peek at the screen and then held it up so that I could see the caller I.D.

Tessa.

Again…

“Perhaps you should speak to her,” he suggested.

He was probably right. But not because I owed it to her. I’d just had enough of her incessant phone calls. Snatching the phone from him, I hit the accept button and put it to my ear as I walked out onto the wrap-around balcony.

“Where the hell is my sister?” I heard her shouting on the other side of the line. “I swear to God, if you did something to her—”

“He didn’t do anything to me. I’m perfectly fine,” I said, irritated by her mock-concern.

She paused for a second and then barked out, “Where are you? I’m coming to get you.”

“If I wanted you to know where I was, I would’ve left you a note.” I leaned over the railing and looked down at the rocky coastline. “Do you see a note anywhere?”

There was a stint of silence on the other end, and if I knew my sister, she was using it to compose herself. “This isn’t cute anymore, Jemma. You need to get back hereright now—we have a meeting with the Council first thing in the morning.”

“No,youhave a meeting,” I corrected. “I haven’t agreed to anything.”

More earsplitting silence. “Look, I don’t know what kind of a point you’re trying to prove, but this is getting really old. You don’t just sneak out of the house in the middle of the day and—”

“Oh, kind of like you did with our mother’s body?” I quickly shot back.

“JEMMA!”

“Go to Hell, Tessa.”

I ended the call and tossed the phone back to Dominic. He was sitting on the couch with his arm draped along the backrest, watching me with those dark eyes of his.

“That was fast,” he remarked.

Truthfully, I’d intended to have a longer conversation with her, to even hear her out. All she had to do was shut her big mouth for once—maybe even take responsibility for something and apologize for it. But no, not Tessa. She was going to run her mouth until the end of days. Literally.

---