Luckily, Martin hadn't heard me come in, and so far as I could tell, he hadn't heard me leave, either. I would likely have some major explaining to do if he found out I'd skipped school, but for now, I had my mind on more important things.
I kept my eye on the compass in my hand as I followed its directions. A magical compass guided by a location spell worked much like a modern-day GPS system. It would lead you to where you wanted to go, turn by turn. That way, you didn't end up trying to swim across a lake to reach your destination.
What it didn't tell you was how far away your target was from your current location. I didn't have a car, or even a bike, so I really hoped Kai was somewhere close and that he hadn't just used whatever crazy superspeed powers he seemed to have to teleport to school from Mars or something.
If he was even a couple miles away, it was going to take me forever to get to him.
Especially in this heat.
It was still pretty early in the morning by the time I started walking, but it was probably eighty-five degrees already. By noon, it would be over ninety.
I walked faster, turning west on Broad Street and then making a right turn onto Sanders. About ten minutes later, I was walking down East Hathaway when the needle on the compass started spinning again. At first, I worried maybe it had broken from the spell, but then, just like before, it suddenly clicked into place.
The needle now pointed directly to my left, and when I turned my body in that direction, I realized I was standing right in front of a small blue house with a well-maintained lawn and a bed of pansies out front. Frilly lace curtains framed a bay window in front of the house, and a pink butterfly windcatcher attached to a pole in the yard waved in the breeze.
I raised an eyebrow.
Was this where Kai lived?
Maybe he lived with his grandmother or something. This was definitely not what I was expecting.
I walked up the sidewalk, my heart beating faster with each step. Would he even open the door? He was not going to be happy to see me, and I hadn't even really thought about what I would do once I actually found him.
What was my plan?
Seriously, I'd just walked for twenty minutes and hadn't thought through a plan? What kind of natural-born Slayer was I?
I took a deep breath and stepped onto the porch of the blue house, but before I could knock, the white door swung open.
Kai towered in the doorway, shaking his head.
"You just couldn't leave it alone, could you?"
"Peyton is gone," I said. "Did you take her?"
I suddenly realized that deep down, I already knew he didn't. If I'd really believed he was capable of that, I never would have come here alone. I might be naive, but I wasn't stupid.
He studied my face, and I forced myself to meet his eyes without fear.
"Why did you come here?" he asked. "I thought I was clear about my feelings on this. Besides, you know Peyton isn't here."
"I'm here because I need your help," I said. "You can't really expect me to stay out of it after this, can you? Besides, if you don't invite me in, I'm just going to stand on your front porch for the rest of the day singing show tunes. That might get some of your neighbors asking questions you don't want to answer."
He barely held back a smile before bowing his head and opening the door in a grand, sweeping gesture. "Mi casa es su casa," he said. "Come on in."
My jaw tensed as I crossed the threshold of his house. I never really thought of myself as a stupid person, but yeah, this was probably really dumb. No one knew where I was right now, and if I'd misjudged him, I would be the sixth missing girl in this town.
I also hated the fact that my heart was racing for an entirely different reason than fear. There was something about being this close to him again, alone, that sent my nerves into overdrive.
"Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you," he said. "I already told you I would do everything I could to make sure no one hurts you."
"And why is that, exactly? You don't even know me," I said.
"I know enough," he said, and the way he stared at me, like he had so many secrets, just made my stomach flip.
"Seriously, what is your deal?" I asked. "I don't have time for this mysterious stranger act. People are missing. Their lives are in danger. Spill it. I need to know what you know."
He laughed, and it was such a pure sound, it resonated somewhere deep within me. It was so beautiful, it was unsettling.
This guy was not at all who I'd thought he was.
"Here, have a seat," he said. "I've been waiting for you to get here, so we could get started."
He gestured to a pack of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups on the table behind a can of my favorite Pineapple seltzer water.
My jaw literally fell to the floor.
I tried to say something, but I couldn't find any words for a very long, awkward moment.
Kai leaned against the doorway into the next room and hooked his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans as he watched me. Apparently, shocking the crap out of me was next-level entertainment for him.
Was this some kind of trap? Lure me in with tasty snacks and then chop my head off or something?
If it was a trap, it was a darn good one. I never could resist chocolate and peanut butter.
"How do you know so much about me, down to my favorite flavor combinations?" I asked. "You're freaking me out."
"Sit down with me, and I'll explain it."
I thought about it for a few seconds, but in the end, what choice did I really have? I hadn't come here to just yell at him and walk away. I came for answers, so if he was offering them, I had to listen.
I sat down and opened the pack of candy, just to prove to him I wasn't scared. And maybe a little bit to alleviate my extreme levels of stress. What was it about chocolate that cured everything?
I took the opportunity to study the room around us. This was a pretty small house, but it was incredibly clean and the inside was decorated more like a little old lady lived here than a teenage guy.
"So, is your grandma home?" I asked.
He tried to hold back a smile. "I'm staying at a friend's place for a while," he said. "I live here alone for now."
"I'm guessing the school doesn't know about that," I said. "And I'm guessing you're not really a senior in high school."
He sat down across from me at the small table. "Just how much does the Council know about your involvement at this point?"
I straightened. He was supposed to be giving me answers, not grilling me with questions.
"I'm sure you already know that the Council hasn't exactly given me permission to look into this," I said. "What about your involvement? And your relationship to the Council, for that matter. Are you a Slayer?"
"Not exactly," he said. "Not the way you and your parents are."
"Did the Council send you here?" I asked.
"No. I don't work for the Witch's Council."
"Then how did you just happen to show up in this town right before those girls started disappearing? That can't be a coincidence," I said.
"In some ways, I knew to come here the same way I knew you'd be knocking on my door this afternoon, or that you can't resist chocolate and peanut butter when they're combined together," he said. "I have certain abilities that make it easy to predict situations."
"So, did you know Peyton was going to be kidnapped?" Just asking the question brought tears to my eyes. I still couldn't believe she was gone.
"No. I knew someone was likely to be taken soon, but I didn't know who or when," he said. "Trust me, if I'd known, I would have done everything in my power to put a stop to it."
He lowered his eyes for a moment to his hands.
"I've actually been watching your place for the past few nights," he said.
When he looked up, our eyes met, and I could see he'd been telling the truth the other day when he said he would try to make sure no one hurt me. But why? Why did he care?
"You thought whoever's doing this was going to take me?"
"I thought there was a strong possibility," he said. "Even though most people can't see or sense it, I know that each of the girls who were taken have some magical blood in their ancestry. It's faint in most cases, but it's there. When you moved to town, I thought your strong connection to magic might make you a target, even with your uncle watching out for you."
"So, even though you've been here for six months trying to find them, you still don't know who's doing this?" I asked. "Do you know what's happened to the girls? Are they still alive? If you can see the future, how come you can't see what they're going to do next?"
"Do you always ask so many questions?" A faint smile tugged at his mouth.
"No, but I've been holding those in for a few days now," I said. "And Peyton's already been gone for more than twelve hours from what I can tell. She might not have much time left."
He stood and paced the floor beside the table, as if trying to decide just how much to tell me about what he knew.
"I'm fairly certain the being taking girls in Newcastle is a demon," he said. "I haven't been able to track them, though. Believe me, if I could use my abilities to find them or see their next move, I would have done it already. It's usually only something that works with people whose intentions are pure and good, and it's not always consistent. I can't see what you're going to say next, for example, but I knew you would come here. It's hard to explain."
I let his words sink in for a moment.
"So, you can't see the intentions of evil creatures or beings, like certain demons?" I asked.
He shook his head. "No."
"Then, how did you see enough to lead you here to Newcastle six months ago?"
"Because I was tracking someone else when I came here," he said. "I didn't know I would be stepping into a situation where young girls were going to be kidnapped."
"Who?" I asked.
"My father," he said.
I raised an eyebrow. I definitely hadn't expected him to say that. Every answer from him just led to more questions.
"Did you find him?"
Kai shook his head and stopped pacing the floor.
"I don't think I'm ready to talk about that just yet." He sat down beside me at the table. "But what I can tell you is that I'm pretty sure the girls are all still alive. For now."
I fell back against the chair, surprised and relieved. "All of them? How do you know that?"
"I've had a lot of time to research what's been happening here, and I found a connection to a series of kidnappings that have happened across the world over the past decade. Each one of these kidnappings involved five teen girls, all taken over the course of about six months."
My stomach twisted into a knot. Patterns like this were never good, and I wasn't sure I wanted to hear what had eventually happened to those other girls in the other towns.
But he was going to tell me anyway. I needed to know the truth, no matter how hard it might be to hear.
"What happened to them?" I asked.
He looked down. "In each instance, the girls were kept alive until all five were taken. Soon after, on the night of the next full moon, they were all five sacrificed together in a ritual," he said. "From what I can tell, it's the same ritual each time. I've managed to put that information together from various research and interviews I've done over the past few months, but what I haven't been able to discern is exactly what he's gaining from it. And, of course, who's behind it all."
I let this information sink in, and then I closed my eyes and counted. I had a calendar in my bedroom of the moon cycle, so I pictured it in my mind now, trying to figure out where we were in the current cycle.
My eyes snapped open, tears flooding to the surface.
"The next full moon is in three days, Kai."
My hands trembled, and I set the chocolate down. I'd just lost any appetite I had.
If he was right, we had less than three full days to find Peyton and the others before it was too late and this demon, or whatever it was, moved on to another town to repeat the horror show.
"I know," Kai said. "I was hoping there would be at least one more cycle before he took another girl, but the second I heard about Peyton, I knew we were down to just a few days."
"We can't let that happen," I said. "We have to save them and put a stop to this."
"That's exactly what I'm trying to do here," he said. "But without knowing who's behind it, I'm not sure what to do next."
I shook my head, trying to work through it. What could we do to help?
"What about the Council?" I asked. "If this is a demon who's repeating this ritual over and over, why haven't they gotten involved? Isn't this exactly the kind of thing Slayers exist to deal with?"
He stood and started pacing again. I kind of wanted to join him. The tension inside me was building to an extreme. I felt like I could have probably punched through a brick wall if I wanted to.
"It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, either," he said. "Yes, Slayers should have been called in on this, but from what I can tell, no one on the Council is even investigating this situation."
"Maybe they just aren't aware of it for some reason," I said, standing. "Maybe we need to tell them. They can send in Slayers and deal with it faster than we could on our own."
"I'm not sure we can trust the Council, Lenny," he said. "They should have sent someone to deal with this by now. I alerted them to my suspicions four months ago when I discovered the connection between this and those other rituals. I basically got the equivalent of the Council's voicemail."
I bit the inside of my lip so hard, I tasted blood.
Maybe he was right when he told me I was getting in over my head.
There were rules to this life of being a Slayer and a witch. There was an order to things. But if the Council didn't decide to interfere, what then? Were we really expected to just sit back and watch innocent people be sacrificed?
I was very not down with that idea.
But what happened to witches that defied the Council's rulings?
I shuddered. I wasn't sure I wanted to know.
"I should probably talk to my uncle Martin about this," I said. "He's been a Keeper for ages, and even though he's retired now, he would probably have something to say about why the Council isn't choosing to intervene."
Kai smiled. "And how to get around it?"
Dang. It was like he could read my mind.
And I guess maybe he could, in a way.
"I wouldn't want to get him into any kind of trouble, though," I said. "But maybe he could help."
"That's entirely your call, Lenny. You need to do what you think is best, but either way, I think Martin can take care of himself."
"He's pretty old," I said, scrunching my nose. "And he's retired. He's probably a bit rusty."
"I wouldn't count him out just yet," Kai said with a knowing smile. "Keepers aren't usually skilled at combat like Slayers are, but I've heard tales about old Martin from his younger days. Back then, he was known for being a rare Keeper with Slayer tendencies. He could apparently hold his own."
I smiled at the thought. "I didn't know that, but it doesn't surprise me."
Kai looked down for a second, growing quiet. When he looked up again, his voice was softer.
"I'm glad it wasn't you they took," he said. The look in his eyes said he was being genuine, though I couldn't imagine why he cared. "I'm not saying I'm glad it was Peyton. I would rather it was no one at all, but I'm especially glad it wasn't you, Lenora."
The sincerity in his tone nearly took my breath away.
There weren't a lot of people out there in the world who cared about me at all, and yet, here he was, saying these things as if we were old friends.
This guy was a pure mystery.
"Why do you care so much? We've never even met," I said. "Unless you count yesterday, which I'd rather forget."
"But we have met," he said. "You wouldn't have remembered it, because you were so young at the time, but I remember you."
"We did?" I asked, my eyes widening. "When?"
"You were probably about eight years old, and you were staying in a little village in Romania for the summer," he said. "Your parents were there investigating a vampire hive rumored to be terrorizing the area. My father had some business to discuss with them at the time, and he brought me along. I was only ten, but I remember you very clearly."
"Wait, our parents knew each other?"
Today was like bomb after bomb of new information. I wasn't sure I was taking it all in.
"They were good friends, actually," he said. "At least according to my dad. I'll tell you more about it another time. For now, though, I think you need to get home to Martin."
"Why?" Fear gripped my heart. "Did you see something? Is he in trouble?"
He closed his eyes and touched his forehead, straining at some thought or vision.
"I can't say exactly, other than he's thinking of you," he said. "He's worried."
I let my head fall back, and I groaned.
"Awesome. He's probably just found out I skipped school," I said, reaching for my bag. I was not looking forward to trying to explain this.
"If you want, I can drive you home," Kai said.
I raised an eyebrow. "So, you don't just travel everywhere by super-crazy-fast teleportation speed? How interesting."
He laughed again, and it was so real and pure, that I was sure I could feel it vibrate in the air around me. My arms broke out in goosebumps.
I studied him as he walked into the other room to grab his keys. He was extremely graceful. He possessed some kind of minor clairvoyance. And the air vibrated when he laughed.
What in the world was this guy?
Definitely not a witch. Or a demon. Not a vampire, despite his grace.
I had so many questions.
He led me out to an old VW Bug, and I couldn't hold back my laughter. This car did not suit him at all. He was this tall, dark, handsome guy cramming himself into this tiny car with a flowery headband hanging from the rearview mirror and a lucky cat bobbing on the dashboard.
When he looked over and saw my expression, he actually blushed.
"The car came with the house," he said.
"Obviously," I said.
It took just a few minutes to get back to Martin's, and I'd been quiet the whole drive, imagining a police car parked out front.
Instead, when Kai pulled up, there was a different car parked in the driveway. Not exactly a cop car, but something that was potentially much, much worse.
"What's wrong?" he asked. "You look like you just saw a ghost."
"I have to go," I said, clawing off my seatbelt and jumping out of the car as quickly as I could. "Find me later tonight. If I'm still alive."
I muttered that last part under my breath and ran to the house, throwing open the door to find two serious sets of eyes snap toward mine.
"I can explain," I said.
A woman wearing a perfectly tailored black pencil skirt and matching jacket crossed her arms in front of her chest and focused her icy blue eyes on mine.
"Well, I certainly hope so," she said. "Or we're going to have a serious issue on our hands."
I glanced at Martin, and he shook his head. I could practically feel the disappointment rolling off of him.
But right now, it wasn't Martin I was particularly worried about.
It was Blythe Greer, the witch who had been my parents' Keeper for the past fifty years. Beautiful. Powerful. Ruthless.
She was known inside the Council for only sending messages by raven. In fact, she so rarely made personal appearances that some witches had started calling her the Grim Reaper, because if she showed up at your house, heads were about to roll.
And judging by the look on Blythe's face, my head was next.