27
A week later, India and her parents met me at the hotel where I’d first met them. While Maria and Don were grateful, they were reserved. India had no such qualms.
I stepped into the room and she ran toward me, arms outstretched. Scooping her up, I held her tight. Today, she smelled only like baby powder, no scent of blood.
“How are you feeling, kid?” I put her back down and crouched so we were eye to eye. I rubbed at the spot on my body where the demon’s scorpion tail had pierced my prone form in the pentagram. Nothing seemed to have come from it, but there was a dull ache that wouldn’t go away. It was particularly bad at night. For now though, I’d ignore it. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it and all that jazz.
“Okay. I like Danny.” Danny was the therapist I’d set them up with. She also happened to be a true psychic who would be able to help India train her abilities.
“That’s good. She’s a nice lady.”
We visited for a few more minutes before I headed toward the door. India grabbed my hand, pulling me down to her level. “I have to tell you something.”
Smiling, I tipped my head so she could whisper into my ear.
“Berget says that Giselle is the key to finding her.”
Her words, so simple, set me back on my heels, and I had to kneel down to catch my breath. “How?”
India shrugged, keeping her voice low. A look over her shoulder, she waved off her parents, who had tensed at my apparent shock. “I can see them, the spirits. Your sister, she stayed with me. Told me things. She said that it wasn’t your fault. That she’s too far away for you to find. But” —India twisted her hands around mine— “Berget says that Giselle can help you find her.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” I whispered.
She shrugged. “It’s what she told me. Will you still look for her?”
I nodded. “I’ve never stopped.”
“That’s what I told her too.” India wrapped her arms around my neck. “I told her that you would always come for the missing children. Everyone knows that.”
A lump formed hard in my throat, one that I couldn’t swallow past. India made me swear I’d stay in touch. I could barely nod, and struggled to get out to my Jeep, where I laid my head on the steering wheel and finally let the tears flow.
Berget was still out there, and she didn’t blame me for not finding her. It took me a long time to pull myself together, but for the first time I felt . . . free of the guilt.
*-*-*-*
Jake pulled through, though he was going to be in a wheelchair for a while; both of his legs had been broken and quite badly, but he was alive and had no memory of what had happened to him. I visited him in the hospital, only once, and while he was sleeping. He wouldn’t remember me anyway. From what the nurses told me, he already wanted to be just like his new hero, Agent O’Shea. Jake wanted to be an FBI Agent when he grew up. Boo-yah.
Milly moved out of the Coven and in with me, Alex and Giselle, who’d come to live with us until we knew what would be best for her. I was happy, yet I had no desire to hear Milly and O’Shea “knocking boots” in the room across from me, so I implemented a “No Sex at the House” rule, which she seemed to be fine with.
Two weeks after Agent Valley visited me, I got a phone call from him. I didn’t answer. I still wasn’t ready to face that particular choice yet. Worse yet, the stack of papers on the Arcane division of the FBI had gone missing; most likely it got grabbed in one or the other raids on my place, so I had no further knowledge than what Valley was willing to give me, which wasn’t enough to sway me.
All and all, life went back to as normal as it could, at least for me.
That is, until the phone rang and Dox’s voice came through on the other end, his voice heavy with sorrow, his words telling me my time off was up.
“Rylee, we’ve got a problem.”