CHAPTER TEN: AN INVITATION TO DINNER

~ Marie ~

Marie grabbed her watch off the floor and glanced at it before she got up and stretched. She’d finally woken up at her usual time. Somehow she’d slept through any howling the wolves might have done last night. Marie stretched before getting up. She needed to hurry up and get ready. Marie needed to get as much as she could done before evening. She quickly picked out some clothes and went to the bathroom to take a shower.

After several cups of coffee, Marie left the room and headed to the main house. She needed to speak to Peter. Halfway across the yard she stopped and glanced around. It felt like she was being watched. She was able to make out the vague outline of three people behind some trees. They didn’t make a move towards her and she had no need to go into the forest yet. Marie continued towards the house.

The kitchen was empty except for Abigail. The bride-to-be moved from side to side as she cooked with four pans at once. One pan held about twelve eggs while the other pan held about the same amount of bacon. Marie couldn’t see what the other two held from here but the woman checked each one. Abigail wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve before she turned towards Marie.

“Would you like me to make you something?”

“Two eggs, please.” She had skipped dinner yesterday and was hungry. Abigail nodded and went back to focusing on the pans in front of her. Marie sat down at the table to wait. When Abigail was no longer busy, she could ask where Peter was. The front door opened and in came three men. It was the same men that had cornered her out in the forest. They laughed and talked loudly as they entered. She frowned. Did that mean that Jesse had lost or did it end in a draw? There was nothing she could do no matter what the outcome had been. Jesse had accepted the challenge.

The leader of the group laughed before he looked right at her. Tsk. Would they start something here too? He came over and sat down next to her. The other two joined him in crowding around her. One sat on her other side while the last one stood next to the blond.

“Since we’re still waiting on our food, we should get to know each other better.” The man leaned forward and tried to place his hand on hers but she moved it out of the way. He laughed before speaking again. “We didn’t get to talk much yesterday because we were interrupted.” The man to her left grabbed a strand of her hair and rolled it between his fingers. “I wouldn’t mind if we took our conversation somewhere private.” Would anyone have a problem if she knocked them out? She didn’t want to be the one to start something but if they kept invading her space, she might decide to make an exception.

“Here! I made what you wanted. Please eat.” Abigail slammed two plates down on the table. The food jumped off the plates from the force. None of the food fell on the table despite it being piled high with eggs, bacon, slices of ham, and hash browns. Abigail went back to the counter and picked up one more plate before putting it down on the table next to the other two. There was silence as the wolves glared at the bride-to-be. Finally, they stood up and grabbed their plates before they stomped outside. “That was close.” Abigail leaned against the counter with a heavy sigh.

Marie was impressed that she had cooked so much in such a short amount of time. It looked like Abigail had barely started when she came in. She glanced back at the door but none of the men returned. Good. Her thoughts were interrupted by Abigail placing a plate in front of her.

“Please be careful. We can’t protect you all the time.” Marie nodded but she didn’t need their protection.

“Is Peter here?”

“He should be around here somewhere. I saw him not too long ago.” Abigail waved her hand in a dismissive gesture as she began to do dishes. Should she go look for him or put it off for another time? Marie went back to eating. She should finish before those three decided to go after her again. It would hinder her job if she was accused of attacking outsiders and interfering with the Rite. The door opened and Marie waited to see who would be coming in. Peter looked around before his eyes settled on her.

“I’m sorry if I’m interrupting but I wanted to speak to you.” He spoke politely but he was frowning as he shifted his weight.

“Now is fine.” She was done eating. Marie took her plate and placed it on top of the other dirty dishes. She followed him as he led the way upstairs and into a room on the left. The room was about as big as the room she was currently staying in. There were several leather couches in here, facing one another, with a table between. On the other side of the couches, towards the back wall, was a large desk with a black leather chair. Peter closed the door before he headed for the desk and leaned against it. He gestured to the couches and waited for her to take a seat. Marie checked the area quickly for magic but didn’t find anything. She took a seat on the nearest couch.

“Several of the pack have reported a vampire in the vicinity. I wanted to warn you about it while we continue to investigate.” They were probably talking about Adrian. He had recently walked through the clearing. Marie didn’t want to do this again but she had no choice. She didn’t need them to end up fighting when there was someone else out there that could pose a threat.

“You don’t have to worry about the vampire. Adrian is my escort.” Marie heard the hesitation in her voice but she hoped that Peter would overlook it.

“Escort? I wasn’t aware that you had one.”

“It’s a recent change. I didn’t know he would be joining me on this case until yesterday. I’m sorry I didn’t inform you ahead of time.”

“That’s alright. I’m just glad that this wasn’t anything big. I’ll let the others know about him.” He stood up and looked ready to end their conversation but she wasn’t done yet.

“There was something I wanted to ask you.” Peter nodded. “Does anyone here know how to use magic? Any kind at all.”

“No. At least, none of the Pack does.” The response was immediate and he looked confident. That meant either an outsider was responsible or a third party.

“Do you know if any of the others can use magic?” He shook his head.

“No one’s mentioned anything about magic.” His eyes narrowed as he crossed his arms. “Is something going on?”

“I’ve detected some magic signals here and there but I haven’t found the person responsible. Has any of the Pack noticed anything unusual?”

“No. No one’s mentioned anything. Well, nothing besides the vampire.” He frowned as he thought. “Have you noticed anything else?” Marie shook her head. She needed more information before she shared what she knew concerning the house she found in the house. “Please let me know when you find out more.”

“I’ll let you know when I can.” Peter nodded. She left him alone in the room as she went back downstairs. Now she knew for sure it wasn’t any of the pack. Any outsider who knew magic would keep it hidden. Even if they weren’t the one using magic, they wouldn’t want to be accused of cheating if they won.

Marie went out the door and headed straight for the room. She needed to research the herb in the bottle as well as the flower she picked up yesterday. The flower was a little crushed but she should still be able to identify it. Marie entered the room and stood near the table. The books she’d found were in a neat little pile. Just one book and the notebook were missing.

This was the problem with teleporting things without her. They never ended up in the exact same place or in the exact same position. Hard to gauge distance and height when she wasn’t present during the teleportation. Marie glanced around the room. Where could they be? It would be bad if they were someplace where they were getting wet or ruined. Marie rechecked all the places she had looked before, in case, she had missed something the first time. Nothing. She sighed as she scanned the room.

At this point, the only place she hadn’t checked was under the bed and maybe inside the walls. It had never happened before but it didn’t mean it wasn’t a possibility. Marie knelt down beside the bed and looked. There, at the very back, were the two books she was looking for. The books were between the bedpost and the wall against the corner. She laid down flat on her stomach before she slowly moved forward. Marie half crawled, half wiggled until she was close enough to reach out and grab them. They were jammed in there and she had to pull on them several times before they popped free. Dust was kicked up by her yanking and she had to hold her breath as she wiggled out backward. Just as she cleared the edge of the bed, she felt a sneeze start to come on. Marie tried to ignore the feeling, to push it back down but—

“Achoo!” That one sneeze set off a couple more sneezes. She waited a moment after the last before she relaxed. Marie sighed as she got back up and sneezed one more time. Marie sighed again as she rubbed her nose. She waited a moment but no more sneezes came. Marie took the books over to the table and sat down.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Now she could finally start her research. She pulled the bottle closer and lined up the flower next to it. Both needed to be researched but the bottle was more important. Marie flipped through each of the books. After half an hour of skimming through each book, she’d narrowed it down to three. These three had photos of each plant as well as a comprehensive list so it should make it easier to identify and compare. She wasn’t as knowledgeable about plants as she was demons but it shouldn’t be difficult to find what she was looking for. Marie opened the first book and started looking.

Several hours later and she was certain she had found the right plant. She’d also made sure to check other books to see if there was additional information but each of the books said the same thing.

And it meant that she might need Adrian’s help after all.

She leaned back with a sigh.

The number of enemies had grown and she wouldn’t be able to handle all of them on her own. With this new information, she knew for sure that the werewolves themselves were being targeted. This didn’t have anything to do with the rite itself. She placed an old receipt inside the book and set it to the side. Marie checked her watch. It was close to one. Looking for the flower shouldn’t take as much time now that she was a little more familiar with how the books worked. After this, she should focus on the notebook and then check out the house to see if anything had changed from yesterday. With that decided, she went back to reading.

Marie leaned back after a while and stretched. She had gone through three pages of the notebook. From what she could tell, they had nothing to do with what was happening right now but they did give her more information on the sorcerer. This person had done the same thing in several different cities.

Each of the pages had the name of a different city written at the top of each page as well as different targets. It was safe to say that they had been evading Guardians for quite some time. Marie frowned as she closed the notebook and put it to the side. She would need to approach this carefully. This case still needed to be solved but if she acted recklessly, the sorcerer might get away again. A quick glance at her watch told her that she only had about two hours left until Adrian woke up. She was cutting this close but she still wanted to check the area around the house out. Marie smiled. Good thing she didn’t have to waste time walking. Marie put a barrier on herself before she teleported to the first location.

Her best course of action was to check the hills first. It was unlikely this person would just stop what they were doing. Marie knelt down and looked but didn’t find anything. She pushed her senses out. No magic in the area. The next hill didn’t have anything either. Had they switched up the way they were putting people to sleep or had they become more cautious because of what happened yesterday? Marie put her hand to her chin. If the house came up empty, she could roam around looking for more hills but the only problem was that she didn’t know the terrain very well. It could take a few minutes or half an hour to find another suitable hill. She glanced around the area one more time before she teleported over to the house.

The area looked the same as yesterday. The burnt remains of the building looked untouched. She stretched her senses out. The magic in the area was very faint, likely the leftover magic from the bottles or even from the spell that was used to blow up the building but nothing recent. She looked around for a moment before she decided on a direction. Marie moved things here and there as she created her own path. She was careful where she stepped as she moved forward. It would be bad if she ended up stepping on a nail or triggering a trap. There wasn’t much space to move around if she needed to dodge.

Marie stopped when she came to where she thought the back room had been. All of the books that had been kept here had become little more than burnt confetti. Nothing had escaped the fire. Marie knelt down to get a closer look. Someone had come by and shoved the rubble around. There were drag marks and other signs that things had been moved from their original position. Were they trying to find the medal? Or were they looking for something else?

She stood up and looked around. Nothing else looked like it had been touched so what they wanted had to have been back here. Marie went around the entire area and checked as much of the house as she could. Most of what was left were unstable or destroyed completely. Nothing could be salvaged. Marie moved away from the remains of the house and checked the plants that had survived the fire. There were only a few left. She knelt beside one and examined it more closely. It didn’t look like any of the plants that had been used so far but given that there was only one, she didn’t think the person could do much with what was left. Marie dusted off her jeans as she stood up.

She didn’t have much time left. The forest was already growing darker.

Should she head back to the room or continue to look around here? If only she knew for certain if the blood link was active. Then she’d know if he was going to head straight for her or if he would be heading to the room. If he headed to the room then she could spend a little more time investigating on her own. She turned towards the forest and froze.

A brief burst of magic brushed against her senses.

It was too quick to know its exact location but it felt close. Really close. Maybe thirty feet away. She scanned the area around her but didn’t see anything. It might be possible to bait the sorcerer into showing themselves.

Marie pulled a pouch out of her pocket and opened the top. She pushed on the bottom of the pouch until the medal peeked out of the bag. Last night, Marie had moved the medal over to the pouch Adrian had found in the house. It had become necessary after she was forced to dispose of her jacket. The material had absorbed too much miasma.

“Missing something?” There was another brief magic signal. It was closer, maybe twenty feet. She waited, listening hard, to see if there would be some other kind of response. Nothing. Marie put the medal back in her pocket as she kept an eye on her surroundings. They were being extra cautious but something must be keeping them here. Easier to avoid a Guardian if you stayed out of their way. Marie had their magic tool but it wasn’t like they couldn’t make another. It was dangerous to make one, let alone two but if they cared about the danger, they wouldn’t have made one, to begin with. So what was keeping them here?

“What are you doing?” She turned. Adrian leaned against a tree, studying her. How long had he been standing there?

“Looking around.” Adrian scanned the area as he walked over. He stopped right next to her before he took a defensive stance in front of her. Marie quickly applied a barrier to him before searching the area. There were several magic signals headed this way. She reapplied the protection against scent based spells. The signal stopped and now their enemy was staring at them from the edge of the forest. Eight bucks surrounded them.

The deer directly in front lunged forward and reared up. It kicked at the air as the other deer moved in. There were too many for her to use the release spell on at once. She would need to incapacitate them first. Adrian swung her into his arms and jumped back out of the way as two of the deer came charging towards them.

“Do you have something that can put several of them down at once?” Her sleep spell was one option but it wasn’t a very good spell. If she tried to send it towards the deer, the effect would lessen depending on how far away they were. That’s why she normally touched people when she used it.

Wait. Maybe she did have something.

Marie quickly looked the area over. There might still be one left. Her eyes quickly scanned the area. There!

“I need to be on that side.” Marie pointed to the other side of the clearing. The item she needed was at the edge of the clearing. He jumped over debris while avoiding the deer. Adrian slid to a stop right where she needed him to. The deer were still keeping a good distance away. “Put me down.” His eyes narrowed but he complied. “I need some time but I have something.” He nodded before putting himself between her and the deer in front of him.

One of the deer threw themselves into the barrier and bounced off. The buck shook itself before it repositioned itself for another attack. Since their attacks weren’t that strong, it should be a while before they even cracked the barrier. She was more worried the deer would severely damage themselves before that happened.

Marie yanked the flower out of the ground, spraying dirt. She quickly wrote out the spell and activated it. She had only seen it clearly once but she was confident she’d remembered it. Now she just needed the deer to get as close as possible. She dropped her barrier and waited for the first deer to attack.

The wait wasn’t long. Several of the deer had stayed beside her, despite being unable to reach her. A buck lunged at her. She stepped back and narrowly missed the antlers. The other deer near her inched closer and circled her. Marie tried to keep the three of them in her sights but they weren’t moving in the same direction. A buck lunged towards her again. She stumbled backwards to avoid it. Marie felt a sharp pain as the other deer slashed her across the back of the arm. She staggered forward.

“Marie!” Adrian scooped her up and jumped out of the reach of the deer that surrounded her. He moved back but the deer he had been facing moved in. They were soon surrounded again. The deer pressed their antlers right up against his barrier. One of the bucks stepped back. The deer scratched at the ground before it charged towards the barrier. A foot away the deer slowed and dropped to the floor.

One by one the deer collapsed. Once all the deer were knocked out, she stopped the spell. Marie didn’t want to end up putting the two of them to sleep. Just because they were protected, didn’t mean they wouldn’t get affected eventually.

“Put me down.”

“Not until you heal yourself.” Marie frowned but closed her eyes and sent magic to her arm. He set her down and she went around dispelling the mind control on the deer. She turned and found Adrian standing there with his arms crossed, a frown on his face. “What was that?”

“I just used the same spell the sorcerer did.” She held up the hand that was holding the poppy. The red flower had lost a few of its petals but it was mostly undamaged. Once she started the spell, she just needed to wait for it to fill the area with enough smoke to put the deer out. Marie quickly disposed of it before she dusted her hand off. It was better not to leave this lying around.

“That’s not what I’m talking about.” Was he talking about her barrier? It wasn’t a big deal. As long as she had magic, any wounds she got could be healed.

“I wanted them to get closer.” The closer the deer got, the more they would inhale the scent and if the barrier kept getting activated then the scent would have continuously been cut off. The spell would have taken longer to take effect if she’d kept the barrier up. He scowled as he looked away. “I’m going back. What are you going to do?”

“We still need to talk.” She figured that’s what he’d say but she’d still been hoping he would just leave her alone. He took her offered hand and a moment later, they were standing in the room. Her stomach growled but she ignored it as she went to the table.

“When was the last time you ate?” Marie looked at him sideways.

“Does it matter?”

“We should take this conversation over to Leon’s house.”

“Why?” Did he want to include the dragon in her investigation as well? He smirked.

“I can make something while we talk.”

“I’m fine.” She didn’t need him to cook for her. One person helping her was already more than she wanted. Marie just wanted to give him the information and investigate the rest on her own.