Chapter Thirty-Eight
Rodney Stokes answered the front door of Adelaide’s mansion in the same manner he always did, but this time he couldn’t help but hope it was Addie herself on the other side, even though he knew it couldn’t be. He’d placed wards all over the property to alert him at the first sign of her, just in case she came stumbling in mortally wounded or God only knew what. And of course, he was right. The person on the threshold of Adelaide Lane’s mansion was not the lady of the manor, but an old man.
“Mr. Stokes,” the man said. He smiled warmly, and bright, very blue eyes flashed in the sunlight. “My name is Monroe. I work for Nicholas Wargrave.”
A butler, Rodney thought immediately. He’d worked in the service industry – and watched enough Batman movies – to recognize the stature when he saw it. But then there was also something else he thought immediately, riding the coattails of his first impression: Magic.
“May I come inside? We need to talk,” Monroe said, and his smile was confident but there was something in his expression that indicated the old man was used to getting his way. To Rodney, he appeared wise beyond even his accelerated years.
Rodney made his decision. “Please come in,” he said politely, stepping to the side to allow the man entry to Adelaide’s home. He simply had a feeling, as seers often did. And he was hoping this one wasn’t wrong.
*****
“So who is this one?” Evangeline asked, pointing to the dark, hooded figure on Mimi’s computer screen.
“That one is Reaper,” Mimi instructed authoritatively. “His original name was Gabriel Reyes. But when Mercy resurrected him, something went wrong, and now he’s in a constant state of decay and regeneration, and as you can imagine, that hurts. So he’s always crabby.”
Eva’s brows raised. “Sounds to me like he could use a good, strong pain killer patch.”
“Yeah, my friends joke that he just needs some weed.” She smiled and giggled at something that was obviously going on in her head. “Then we could call him Reefer!”
There was a knock at the door. Eva put her hand on Mimi’s shoulder. “You stay here. I’ll see who that is.”
She left the home office and moved out into the hall. The home was a rental, and she’d only been in it for a few months. She liked to move around, and was good at it. Unlike most members of her species, she didn’t have a nearly unquenchable thirst for all things shiny and beautiful, so she hadn’t yet amassed so many personal items that she couldn’t move.
Granted, she did have some. Enough that she rented quite the expensive space in a high-end storage facility in Portland. Okay… and more than one safety deposit box at several banks in cities across the nation.
Still, she kept her close and personal baggage to a minimum. At least, in so far as physical baggage was concerned. The emotional shit was another story.
This apartment was on the fourteenth floor of an upscale high-rise in San Francisco. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, video monitors, an in-building gym, pool an hot tub, and a parking space. It wasn’t exactly cheap. But money wasn’t something Evangeline had ever had to worry about. Being abducted, charmed, blackmailed, or murdered – those were the things she worried about. Being found out. It was a never-ending danger.
So she was, as usual, overly cautious as she made her way to the front door, making certain to check the video monitors before she opened it. A young black man stood on the front doorstep, and immediately, Evangeline could tell he was a mage.
“Miss… Evangeline?” he asked uncertainly.
“Warlock or otherwise?” she asked.
The man blinked, and his eyes grew wide. “Otherwise,” he told her frankly.
“Good or bad?” You didn’t have to be a warlock to be evil, and in fact, most warlocks Eva knew were just the opposite.
He seemed baffled, which was a good sign. He cleared his throat and shrugged. “Honestly, some days I wonder.”
Eva smiled. She could certainly empathize with that. “Good enough for me,” she said, and stepped to the side.
He moved slowly past her, his expression still openly confused, and stopped just a few feet inside to face her.
“What can I do for you?” she asked, shutting the door.
“My name is Rodney Stokes. I work for a woman by the name of Adelaide Lane.” He paused and said, “I think you may know of her?”
Oh yeah. She knew of her. Adelaide Lane was the Nightmare Queen – or would be very soon if her evil-as-fuck boss didn’t get to her first. But Eva didn’t say anything. Instead, she waited for him to go on.
He cleared his throat. “I’m here because, as hard as this may be to believe, I was sent by someone to ask for your help.”
Eva’s gaze narrowed. Mimi was with her in the apartment. If something went down here and now, the young dragon might get hurt. “Sent by who?” she asked as her magic awakened inside her.
“By an old man with blue eyes.”
Eva stared at him a moment. “How blue?”
He smiled a small smile and chuckled. “Very.”
Eva took a slow, deep breath. “What did this old man want?”
“He said that you are a healer.”
Well that cinched it. She had a pretty good idea who that “old man” with blue eyes was. Once again, she didn’t say anything. But he seemed to be expecting this, and went on without pause.
“Adelaide needs your help. In a few minutes, she’s going to get into some trouble that will leave her wounded. She will die if someone doesn’t heal her.”
Eva’s gaze once more narrowed. “You’re a seer.”
“Yes,” he admitted. “But I didn’t see this happen. Monroe filled me in. He said you were the one to come to, that you could help.... He said you would understand.”
Eva licked her lips and ran a hand through her hair. It was silky soft, and once more its natural color – as white as cotton. Layers framed her face, touched her shoulders, and tumbled down her back in thick but fine white locks. Her eyes were notable enough, but her hair was so unusual and noticeable, she normally colored it before going out in public. With magic, of course. Human hair color smelled god-awful.
“Oh, I understand,” she said softly, her thoughts moving inward. “Funny how seers never seem to see disasters pertaining to those they love most, isn’t it?”
Rodney Stokes looked down at the floor, and his expression took on the appearance of distant thoughts. “Funny isn’t the word I would use,” he said, nodding. “But it certainly is strange. Adelaide Lane would know a thing or two about that.” He looked back up, and met her gaze. “She is a seer as well. Yet she failed to see her father die in a car accident. It pretty much cost her everything.”
Eva considered that. She happened to know that Adelaide Lane was a very wealthy young woman, and she’d already known she was a seer. But what she had not known was what Rodney just told her. So she understood more than a little bit what he meant when he said she’d lost everything. It had nothing to do with material wealth. And everything to do with family.
Eva would know a thing or two about that too.
“Where is this grizzly event supposed to occur?” she asked, glancing back at the hall, where Mimi waited in the back office at the computer.
“In a public high school in Seattle,” he said. “I can take you there. And we don’t have much time.”