Chapter Ten: An Invitation to Dinner
~ Marie ~
Marie grabbed her watch off the floor and glanced at it before she got up and stretched. She’d finally woken up at her usual time. Somehow she’d slept through any howling the wolves might have done last night. Marie stretched before getting up. She needed to hurry up and get ready. Marie needed to get as much as she could done before evening. She quickly picked out some clothes and went to the bathroom to take a shower.
After several cups of coffee, Marie left the room and headed to the main house. She needed to speak to Peter. Halfway across the yard she stopped and glanced around. It felt like she was being watched. She was able to make out the vague outline of three people behind some trees. They didn’t make a move towards her and she had no need to go into the forest yet. Marie continued towards the house.
The kitchen was empty except for Abigail. The bride-to-be moved from side to side as she cooked with four pans at once. One pan held about twelve eggs while the other pan held about the same amount of bacon. Marie couldn’t see what the other two held from here but the woman checked each one. Abigail wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve before she turned towards Marie.
“Would you like me to make you something?”
“Two eggs, please.” She had skipped dinner yesterday and was hungry. Abigail nodded and went back to focusing on the pans in front of her. Marie sat down at the table to wait. When Abigail was no longer busy, she could ask where Peter was. The front door opened and in came three men. It was the same men that had cornered her out in the forest. They laughed and talked loudly as they entered. She frowned. Did that mean that Jesse had lost or did it end in a draw? There was nothing she could do no matter what the outcome had been. Jesse had accepted the challenge.
The leader of the group laughed before he looked right at her. Tsk. Would they start something here too? He came over and sat down next to her. The other two joined him in crowding around her. One sat on her other side while the last one stood next to the blond.
“Since we’re still waiting on our food, we should get to know each other better.” The man leaned forward and tried to place his hand on hers but she moved it out of the way. He laughed before speaking again. “We didn’t get to talk much yesterday because we were interrupted.” The man to her left grabbed a strand of her hair and rolled it between his fingers. “I wouldn’t mind if we took our conversation somewhere private.” Would anyone have a problem if she knocked them out? She didn’t want to be the one to start something but if they kept invading her space, she might decide to make an exception.
“Here! I made what you wanted. Please eat.” Abigail slammed two plates down on the table. The food jumped off the plates from the force. None of the food fell on the table despite it being piled high with eggs, bacon, slices of ham, and hash browns. Abigail went back to the counter and picked up one more plate before putting it down on the table next to the other two. There was silence as the wolves glared at the bride-to-be. Finally, they stood up and grabbed their plates before they stomped outside. “That was close.” Abigail leaned against the counter with a heavy sigh.
Marie was impressed that she had cooked so much in such a short amount of time. It looked like Abigail had barely started when she came in. She glanced back at the door but none of the men returned. Good. Her thoughts were interrupted by Abigail placing a plate in front of her.
“Please be careful. We can’t protect you all the time.” Marie nodded but she didn’t need their protection.
“Is Peter here?”
“He should be around here somewhere. I saw him not too long ago.” Abigail waved her hand in a dismissive gesture as she began to do dishes. Should she go look for him or put it off for another time? Marie went back to eating. She should finish before those three decided to go after her again. It would hinder her job if she was accused of attacking outsiders and interfering with the Rite. The door opened and Marie waited to see who would be coming in. Peter looked around before his eyes settled on her.
“I’m sorry if I’m interrupting but I wanted to speak to you.” He spoke politely but he was frowning as he shifted his weight.
“Now is fine.” She was done eating. Marie took her plate and placed it on top of the other dirty dishes. She followed him as he led the way upstairs and into a room on the left. The room was about as big as the room she was currently staying in. There were several leather couches in here, facing one another, with a table between. On the other side of the couches, towards the back wall, was a large desk with a black leather chair. Peter closed the door before he headed for the desk and leaned against it. He gestured to the couches and waited for her to take a seat. Marie checked the area quickly for magic but didn’t find anything. She took a seat on the nearest couch.
“Several of the pack have reported a vampire in the vicinity. I wanted to warn you about it while we continue to investigate.” They were probably talking about Adrian. He had recently walked through the clearing. Marie didn’t want to do this again but she had no choice. She didn’t need them to end up fighting when there was someone else out there that could pose a threat.
“You don’t have to worry about the vampire. Adrian is my escort.” Marie heard the hesitation in her voice but she hoped that Peter would overlook it.
“Escort? I wasn’t aware that you had one.”
“It’s a recent change. I didn’t know he would be joining me on this case until yesterday. I’m sorry I didn’t inform you ahead of time.”
“That’s alright. I’m just glad that this wasn’t anything big. I’ll let the others know about him.” He stood up and looked ready to end their conversation but she wasn’t done yet.
“There was something I wanted to ask you.” Peter nodded. “Does anyone here know how to use magic? Any kind at all.”
“No. At least, none of the Pack does.” The response was immediate and he looked confident. That meant either an outsider was responsible or a third party.
“Do you know if any of the others can use magic?” He shook his head.
“No one’s mentioned anything about magic.” His eyes narrowed as he crossed his arms. “Is something going on?”
“I’ve detected some magic signals here and there but I haven’t found the person responsible. Has any of the Pack noticed anything unusual?”
“No. No one’s mentioned anything. Well, nothing besides the vampire.” He frowned as he thought. “Have you noticed anything else?” Marie shook her head. She needed more information before she shared what she knew concerning the house she found in the house. “Please let me know when you find out more.”
“I’ll let you know when I can.” Peter nodded. She left him alone in the room as she went back downstairs. Now she knew for sure it wasn’t any of the pack. Any outsider who knew magic would keep it hidden. Even if they weren’t the one using magic, they wouldn’t want to be accused of cheating if they won.
Marie went out the door and headed straight for the room. She needed to research the herb in the bottle as well as the flower she picked up yesterday. The flower was a little crushed but she should still be able to identify it. Marie entered the room and stood near the table. The books she’d found were in a neat little pile. Just one book and the notebook were missing.
This was the problem with teleporting things without her. They never ended up in the exact same place or in the exact same position. Hard to gauge distance and height when she wasn’t present during the teleportation. Marie glanced around the room. Where could they be? It would be bad if they were someplace where they were getting wet or ruined. Marie rechecked all the places she had looked before, in case, she had missed something the first time. Nothing. She sighed as she scanned the room.
At this point, the only place she hadn’t checked was under the bed and maybe inside the walls. It had never happened before but it didn’t mean it wasn’t a possibility. Marie knelt down beside the bed and looked. There, at the very back, were the two books she was looking for. The books were between the bedpost and the wall against the corner. She laid down flat on her stomach before she slowly moved forward. Marie half crawled, half wiggled until she was close enough to reach out and grab them. They were jammed in there and she had to pull on them several times before they popped free. Dust was kicked up by her yanking and she had to hold her breath as she wiggled out backward. Just as she cleared the edge of the bed, she felt a sneeze start to come on. Marie tried to ignore the feeling, to push it back down but—
“Achoo!” That one sneeze set off a couple more sneezes. She waited a moment after the last before she relaxed. Marie sighed as she got back up and sneezed one more time. Marie sighed again as she rubbed her nose. She waited a moment but no more sneezes came. Marie took the books over to the table and sat down.
Now she could finally start her research. She pulled the bottle closer and lined up the flower next to it. Both needed to be researched but the bottle was more important. Marie flipped through each of the books. After half an hour of skimming through each book, she’d narrowed it down to three. These three had photos of each plant as well as a comprehensive list so it should make it easier to identify and compare. She wasn’t as knowledgeable about plants as she was demons but it shouldn’t be difficult to find what she was looking for. Marie opened the first book and started looking.
Several hours later and she was certain she had found the right plant. She’d also made sure to check other books to see if there was additional information but each of the books said the same thing.
And it meant that she might need Adrian’s help after all.
She leaned back with a sigh.
The number of enemies had grown and she wouldn’t be able to handle all of them on her own. With this new information, she knew for sure that the werewolves themselves were being targeted. This didn’t have anything to do with the rite itself. She placed an old receipt inside the book and set it to the side. Marie checked her watch. It was close to one. Looking for the flower shouldn’t take as much time now that she was a little more familiar with how the books worked. After this, she should focus on the notebook and then check out the house to see if anything had changed from yesterday. With that decided, she went back to reading.
Marie leaned back after a while and stretched. She had gone through three pages of the notebook. From what she could tell, they had nothing to do with what was happening right now but they did give her more information on the sorcerer. This person had done the same thing in several different cities.
Each of the pages had the name of a different city written at the top of each page as well as different targets. It was safe to say that they had been evading Guardians for quite some time. Marie frowned as she closed the notebook and put it to the side. She would need to approach this carefully. This case still needed to be solved but if she acted recklessly, the sorcerer might get away again. A quick glance at her watch told her that she only had about two hours left until Adrian woke up. She was cutting this close but she still wanted to check the area around the house out. Marie smiled. Good thing she didn’t have to waste time walking. Marie put a barrier on herself before she teleported to the first location.
Her best course of action was to check the hills first. It was unlikely this person would just stop what they were doing. Marie knelt down and looked but didn’t find anything. She pushed her senses out. No magic in the area. The next hill didn’t have anything either. Had they switched up the way they were putting people to sleep or had they become more cautious because of what happened yesterday? Marie put her hand to her chin. If the house came up empty, she could roam around looking for more hills but the only problem was that she didn’t know the terrain very well. It could take a few minutes or half an hour to find another suitable hill. She glanced around the area one more time before she teleported over to the house.
The area looked the same as yesterday. The burnt remains of the building looked untouched. She stretched her senses out. The magic in the area was very faint, likely the leftover magic from the bottles or even from the spell that was used to blow up the building but nothing recent. She looked around for a moment before she decided on a direction. Marie moved things here and there as she created her own path. She was careful where she stepped as she moved forward. It would be bad if she ended up stepping on a nail or triggering a trap. There wasn’t much space to move around if she needed to dodge.
Marie stopped when she came to where she thought the back room had been. All of the books that had been kept here had become little more than burnt confetti. Nothing had escaped the fire. Marie knelt down to get a closer look. Someone had come by and shoved the rubble around. There were drag marks and other signs that things had been moved from their original position. Were they trying to find the medal? Or were they looking for something else?
She stood up and looked around. Nothing else looked like it had been touched so what they wanted had to have been back here. Marie went around the entire area and checked as much of the house as she could. Most of what was left were unstable or destroyed completely. Nothing could be salvaged. Marie moved away from the remains of the house and checked the plants that had survived the fire. There were only a few left. She knelt beside one and examined it more closely. It didn’t look like any of the plants that had been used so far but given that there was only one, she didn’t think the person could do much with what was left. Marie dusted off her jeans as she stood up.
She didn’t have much time left. The forest was already growing darker.
Should she head back to the room or continue to look around here? If only she knew for certain if the blood link was active. Then she’d know if he was going to head straight for her or if he would be heading to the room. If he headed to the room then she could spend a little more time investigating on her own. She turned towards the forest and froze.
A brief burst of magic brushed against her senses.
It was too quick to know its exact location but it felt close. Really close. Maybe thirty feet away. She scanned the area around her but didn’t see anything. It might be possible to bait the sorcerer into showing themselves.
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