Page 77 of Destined for Dreams
Chapter 20
Cori
Cori picked at the food on her plate. Her mother had made meatloaf and mashed potatoes, which was her favorite meal as a little girl, but she couldn’t seem to stomach it at the moment. Instead, she kept lifting her cell phone from the table to check it, a forlorn feeling coming over her every time the screen was blank. Just to be safe, she’d had her mom call her twice already to be sure the phone worked properly.
“I can see why Asher insisted on taking over the shop for you this evening,” Joy said, holding a spoonful of mashed potatoes in front of her. “You can hardly sit still, let alone do any work.”
Cori only had two people stop by that afternoon requesting work from her—both of them humans—and it had been agony to get through their tattoos. All she’d wanted was to hightail it out of there and book the next flight to Prague.
She shoved her plate away. “The last time I heard from Bartol was on Sunday. It’s Thursday, Mom.”
“He was late once before,” Joy pointed out.
“He was late by less than a day—not two!”
Her mother sighed. “You’ve been acting strangely ever since that last phone call. Was it that bad?”
“It was great, actually.” Cori rubbed her face. “We were talking, as in really talking and saying things a couple should be saying. I was sure things were on the right track.”
“You shouldn’t have encouraged him to go in the first place. Sending your man after a powerful demon like that was silly. If I’d been here and known what was going on, I’d have told you as much.” Joy sighed and went back to eating.
It wasn’t worth talking about it with her mother. Other than cooking and organizing the new cabin just the way she wanted, her mom had little else to do aside from nag Cori about how she should have taken her relationship with Bartol more seriously. Despite having never met him in person and only talking to him on the phone, Joy thought the world of him. This was what happened when Cori made the mistake of telling her mother details about her personal life. If her mom didn’t approve, she never heard the end of it.
“Okay, look.” She sat up straight and directed her gaze at Joy. “Bartol and I have this mate bond that can tell us if something is wrong, and I’m telling you that he is in trouble. I can feel it in my gut—hell, I can feel it in my whole body.”
Joy glanced at the clock on the wall. “It’s after eight. Do you think your friend, Melena, would mind if we dropped by to talk to her about it?”
“I’ll text her,” Cori said, glad to finally be doing something.
The sensor replied a minute later saying that she and Lucas were home, and it was fine if they wanted to stop by the house. It was a small miracle that both of them were there, considering their busy schedules.
Cori stood. “Okay, let’s go.”
Her mother was already up and putting food away. “Give me a moment. We can’t leave this food out while we’re gone, or it’ll attract bugs.”
One thing about Joy, she couldn’t stand to leave a mess. There was no point in reminding her it was winter and probably not a problem. Cori jumped in and helped to speed things up. Every fiber of her being told her that she needed to get help for Bartol fast, or else they might never find him, but she had to go along with her mother’s priorities. Arguing with the woman would get her nowhere.
Cori hated that she’d waited this long to speak up. The problem was no one took her seriously because Bartol wasn’t that late on calling, and they thought the bond couldn’t possibly be strong enough to reach thousands of miles away. While the last part might have been true a month ago, they’d been strengthening their relationship during their phone calls. She knew—she justknew—they were closer than ever. The link between them was telling her something was wrong, and she wasn’t ignoring it anymore.
***
A half hour later, Cori and her mother pulled up in front of Melena’s house. A large, hulking figure appeared before the Tahoe. The man’s long black hair lifted with the breeze, partially covering his face. He crossed his arms and spread his legs wide apart.
“Who is that?” Joy asked, frowning.
“An idiot.” Cori shut off the vehicle and unbuckled her seat belt. “But some people call him Kerbasi.”
Her mother’s eyes rounded. “Kerbasi? The one who tortured Bartol?”
“That very one.”
Joy got out of the SUV before Cori could stop her and stomped over to the guardian. She poked a finger into his chest. “You have a lot of nerve, young man.”
Kerbasi lifted an imperious brow. “Young man? I came into existence when the pyramids were still being built.”
“Humph, as if that matters. From what I’ve heard about you, you haven’t matured a day since your birth.”
Cori caught up to her mother. “Don’t bother lecturing him. He loves a good argument, and you’re giving him exactly what he wants. Why else do you think he’s out here harassing us?”
