Testimony of Children (Alice Gray Book 2)

48

Lizzie had tasted Stephen's blood. Which was beyond gross, but it meant that she could sense his location. They were coming here to join the party.

Sheffield was where it was all going down apparently.

"Just who exactly is coming here, Emily? Are they coming to help with Stephen, the coven? I don't understand why the vamps are interested in all this."

Emily rolled her eyes, not bothering to answer my questions.

"Alice, they're coming because of you," Lucas answered for her, "all the top dogs in London were in a frenzy when they felt your power. Weres aren't interested in you because your power isn't a threat to ours. Were power is natural, instinctive. We don't do spells, or make those...things," he continued, throwing a look of disdain at the poppet. "Sure, I can feel the pull of your life-force, but your power doesn't have the same draw to us, we can't use it. The vampires don't want to miss the chance to secure your allegiance. Especially when somebody else is going to such lengths to get your attention."

I thought about that.

James had established our family bond at the earliest opportunity. He had sought me out that first morning in London.

And then Roger. He had been desperate to get me beholden to his family, and more particularly to himself.

Even Lucas was kidding himself where I was concerned. If weres weren't interested in me, why the hell did Lucas choose me to start this misfit pack? He was going to have to find an answer to that at some point.

Sick to death of not knowing who was after me, I looked at the creepy little poppet from under Stephen's pillow. I scooped it up. What harm could it do at this point?

Expecting a revelation, I was disappointed when only faint warmth travelled from the poppet through my body, before it fizzled to nothing. Maybe it actually was an innocuous good luck charm.

I was about to toss it back on the bed when I looked up. Swaying, my hand shot out to grasp Evan's shoulder. The others were no longer in my direct line of sight. They were still there, but the bedroom and everybody in it was now in the periphery of my vision.

In the centre was a different scene: Hazel's restaurant, the coven headquarters. The two sites wavered into one-another as my brain tried to make sense of the two different realities I was somehow experiencing.

I could still sense my pack in the bedroom. My physical body remained there, but I was seeing through somebody else's eyes.

Trying to focus those eyes on something that might tell me whose vision I shared, I realised that I didn't have any control. I was a passenger. All I could do was settle in to view the show and try not to hurl as my battered head tried to assimilate this new challenge.

Hazel sat in the centre of the tree mosaic in her restaurant chanting rhythmically. The tree pulsed with power underneath her. Her blue life-force was strong and as she chanted I felt her pull strength from my host.

I knew first hand how powerful Hazel was with the support of her coven. It was how she had foiled Jonathan to pull me out of his realm. She was amassing power now. There was no doubt about it.

But for what?

My host lowered her eyes and I got a glimpse of a soft, gauzy skirt. The distinctive vine tattoo that travelled up her shapely leg gave it away. Jenny was going to be pissed if she ever found out that I'd been in her head.

Jenny looked to her right. My shock nearly jolted me out of the trance. My cousin Anne looked terrified.

Anne was part of the coven, as was compulsory in Sheffield. Yet she rarely took part in group workings. Anger swirled through me at the thought that they had forced her, and now Hazel was draining her power.

The intensity of the emotion pushed at the connection the poppet forged with Jenny. Pressure built behind my eyes. Jenny blinked several times feeling it too.

Suddenly Hazel's head snapped up. She locked eyes with Jenny.

"We have company."

Uh oh! Can Hazel sense Alice? 😱