Free A Wicked Night (Creatures of Darkness 2): A Coraline Conwell Novel by Kiersten Fay Page B

7

     
    “She didn’t answer?” Cora gasped when Mace ended the call. She leaned against the kitchen counter, needing to steady herself.
    Underfoot, Meeka munched the bowl of cat food Cora had set out. She was in her kitten form, her gray tail flipping back and forth in blissful ignorance.
    Mace stood in the doorway that connected the kitchen to the living room where Knox had stretched out on the sofa to watch another of those vampire kung fu flicks he seemed to like so much.
    How quickly he’d eased back into a semblance of normality, like he couldn’t care less about the past week’s events.
    “I’ll try again in a little bit,” Mace said.
    Dread devoured her voice for a moment. Before, at Wicked Wares, she’d received a bad feeling about that light-haired stranger, and during the short drive home she’d only grown more and more discontent. Now she was positively frantic. She never should have allowed Mace and Knox to hasten her away.
    “We must go back and find her, Mace. Please.”
    Knox’s rumbling scoff filtered in from the other room. “You might as well tell him, ‘Hey Mace, I’d love to go back and get snatched up and murdered by some incompetent assassin and prove what a lout you are at protecting me’. For the record, I’m all for killing the slouch. I’m more than happy to accommodate that kind or order, Cora.”
    She pursed her lips, liking nothing more than to order him off a cliff. Taking in a calming breath, she pressed, “Please, Mace. If anything happened to her…I already feel responsible for her grandmother.” Burgeoning tears emphasized her words.
    Mace eyed her lips on the verge of quivering. His expression fell. “That wasn’t your fault. Whether it was Knox’s doing—which I doubt—or some random act of violence, it wasn’t your fault.”
    “But this will be. If I suspect danger and don’t warn her and she gets hurt…or dies? That will definitely be my fault. It will devastate me.”
    Mace hesitated so long, Cora thought she was about to lose this argument.
    “Oh, go on, mate,” Knox called from his place on the couch. “I’ll watch the little witch. She and I have things to discuss anyway.”
    Cora’s eyes widened, but she was quick to hide her fear from Mace. “Couldn’t I go with you?”
    Mace grimaced. “I’ll not let you leave this cottage again with the present danger. And I don’t wish to leave you here alone.” Translation: he didn’t want to leave her here with Knox.
    “I know you don’t. But Knox is right.”
    At that Mace glanced down at her as though she’d gone nuts.
    “He helped us. He could have taken off the minute he was free of his cell, but he stayed and made sure Sadira was contained.”
    “He stayed to trick you into doing what he wanted.”
    “Perhaps,” she replied. “But he could have just killed me. Yet he chose not to. I know this situation is unfair, but we’re going to have to find a way to deal with it. Unless you want to lock him up again.”
    “Just try it,” Knox hollered from the couch.
    Cora continued with a little stiffness in her jaw. “And anyway, according to Knox, your laws state that he be granted access to my blood. Trent would side with him on this. Right?” She hoped Mace would refute the statement.
    At length, his head dipped in a single nod.
    “Then there’s no way around it.” She bit her lip and glanced over at Meeka, encouraged by the thought that her familiar could tackle Knox to the ground if he got out of hand. Besides, there really was much they needed to discuss . And she got the impression Knox was not a patient man, or easily placated. She had unwittingly agreed to do what ever he wanted. Now was as good a time as any to find out what, exactly, that was.
    In a honeysuckle voice, she asked of Mace, “Please will you go and warn Saraphine.”
    Again he was silent. His brooding turmoil grazed her subconscious. Finally, with a bolted jaw, he nodded.
    “Thank you. And please hurry back.” She