Page 69 of Black to Light

Nick wanting Rucker to burn in hell for what he’d done was a totally separate issue in the vampire’s mind. He never would have put Aura through a trial, or protective services, or any part of the system set up to absorb unwanted and abused kids.

Nick wanted justice.

Black wanted justice.

Miri wanted justice, too.

But Rucker managed to slither his way out of the bulk of that––ironically, by being murdered. If Nick was going to get pissed off at someone, he should help the cops find Rucker’s killer. Then Nick could buy him as many drinks as he wanted, or yell at the piece of shit for letting Lucian, “Call me Luc,” Rucker off the hook for being an absolute fucking monster.

In the meantime, maybe they could figure out where Rucker found the girl.

Aura Woods.

It wasn’t a seer name. Her seer parents had likely given it to her in the hopes she might blend in. Maybe she’d even been born here, onthisEarth.

The way she clung to Miri now, just because Nick told her she could, suggested to Black that she’d had loving parents before all this. Black could feel how Miriam made it easier on the girl, just by being who she was, the warmth of her light, the fact that she was a seer, but Black could feel the familiarity in the girl, too.

Black himself, for example, likely wouldn’t have reacted that way to an older female seer when he was her age. He hadn’t had a particularly loving home, nor a particularly affectionate mother, at least not with him, so he wouldn’t have known enough to miss it.

This girl, Aura Woods, clearly did.

Trauma did funny things to a person, though.

Black still had no idea why the girl felt so safe and trusting of Nick. Had she been raised around vampires? She must know what he was. How else would she have known about Nick’s real eyes? Why else would she have called them “pretty”?

Even apart from all that, why on earth else would a female seer child trust a male vampire? It was beyond strange, for a lot of reasons. Why would most vampires give her anyreasonto trust them?

Considering the history between the two races, Black had a lot of questions.

He only stood there, silent, as Miriam climbed into the driver’s seat of the SUV with the cub curled up in the back by one of the doors. Black got briefly into the back seat with the girl, only long enough to cuff the cub’s wrist to the door, with a quietword to her about how it was only for her safety, and only until they got her somewhere.

Even Nick didn’t argue with that, and the girl herself was eerily cooperative, holding up her arm like it was the most normal thing in the world––like being chained to car doors was an everyday occurrence for her.

Blackdiddo it for Aura’s safety, but he also did it for Miri’s.

He couldn’t have the cub jumping out of the car halfway down the block, or attacking Miri while she drove. He walked up to the driver’s side door once he’d finished, activated the child locks to make sure the doors couldn’t be opened by anyone but the driver, and handed Miri the key to the handcuffs.

He kissed her cheek, then told her to take the car to the parking lot below the California Street building, right up to the elevator doors.

People would be waiting for them there.

Black no longer had a seer physician on his team, as Luric disappeared with the rest of those seers loyal to Charles, but he had a human he’d recently hired as their new company physician. She would have to do, at least for now.

Holo would also be there to help; lately he’d been studying seer anatomy and medical texts to replace Luric. With Yarli’s and Jem’s help, he’d gotten shockingly well-versed on seer medicine already, and he’d done it surprisingly fast. He’d been poring over every text Luric left behind, memorizing diagnoses and treatments for seer-specific health risks, diseases, drug reactions, challenges relating to different stages of seer lives, immune systems, regeneration, reproduction, sexual disorders.

He now spent most of his time reading and conducting virtual surgeries, to practice.

Black watched the SUV pull around the wide driveway and head back for the road outside the iron gates. He’d made sure Miri was wearing her headset, and that it was switched on. She’dbe able to contact him instantly if anything went wrong, even if she couldn’t use her sight. Miri assured them both she was fine taking the kid back on her own. It wasn’t far; maybe a fifteen-minute drive, assuming they didn’t hit an unusual amount of traffic.

Nick also watched them leave, but from under the shadowed overhang that protected the front door from the sun.

They’d opted to stay at the house to finish their search.

By then, Black and Nick figured out how to access and disable the security system at Rucker’s house, including the cameras aimed all over Rucker’s bedroom, all around the foyer, and over the front and back of the property.

Black also called Kiko, and not only to make sure there were medics and other seers available to help Miri with the cub. He told Kiko to grab, at minimum, Jax, Mika, Cowboy, and the best tech nerd they still had available with Jem gone, which probably meant Alisha.

He wanted them to join him and Nick at the house.

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