Page 13 of Devoted in the Midlife

"An apt, if inelegant metaphor," Adalinda agreed with a slight wrinkle of her nose. "The blade is a mystery, even to the eldest of us. Some theorize it may be a key of sorts, that it could unlock powers or places long sealed away."

"Dragons do love their riddles," Xander mused. At Adalinda's sharp look, he raised his hands in mock surrender. "Hey, I calls 'em like I sees 'em."

"Regardless," Adalinda continued, ignoring Xander's smirk. "Its purpose remains to be seen. Perhaps it is simply a blade, nothing more or less. The simplest answer is often the truth." But there was a flicker of doubt in her eyes, a question left unvoiced.

I reached for the daggers, wrapping my fingers around the worn leather of their hilts. They felt surprisingly light in my hands, almost delicate despite the wicked edges. One to weaken, one to wound. A matched set, but with only half the instructions.

The dagger of nullification made a strange kind of sense - destroy the magic, destroy the mage. Or dragon in this case. But why create a second blade just to cut? Why shroud it in secrets and speculation? Something wasn't adding up.

I glanced around the room, taking in the tense lines of my friends' faces, the wary hope and weary determination. We were no closer to answers, not really. Just more questions piled atop the old.

But that was the job, wasn't it? To keep asking, keep pushing, until the truth finally gave way. We'd figured out the demon councilwoman, stopped a rogue necromancer, and even negotiated a peace treaty with the fae. We could handle one little dagger.

I set the blades back on the table, the metal whispering against the wood. Okay, two little daggers.

"People." I pushed to my feet. My voice rang with a confidence I didn't quite feel, but I faked it well enough. "We've got our toys, we've got our theories. Time to put them to work."

Jax met my gaze from across the room, a smile ghosting across his lips. "As the lady wishes," he murmured, dipping his head in a playful half-bow.

In the bedroom, Flint let out a sudden shriek of laughter, followed by Kendra's muffled chuckle. The sound was bright and startling against the heavy atmosphere, a reminder of the world still spinning outside.

I squared my shoulders, feeling my resolve settle like a weight across my back. "Let's figure out how to use the daggers to catch us a killer."

It was going to be a long night. But then again, when you ran with vampires and witches, socialite dragons and snarky pixies, the weird and wild was pretty much par for the course.

I could handle long. I could handle weird. And if I played my cards right, maybe I could even handle those creepy, cryptic little daggers and the nasty son of a beast who'd wielded them.

Hey, an immortal girl can dream.

7

HAILEY

The glossy sheenof the ancient daggers caught fragments of muted sunlight as I held my phone to my ear. Beside me, Luke leaned in, his brow furrowed with the same apprehension that had my stomach twisting into knots. The line crackled and then the unnervingly chipper voices of Avery and Allison, our baby sisters turned fledgling vampires, bubbled through the speaker.

"Hailey! Luke!" they chorused in unison, their glee at odds with the mysterious circumstances of their mandated stay at 'The Farm.'

"Hey, twincicles," I used my old teasing pet name, angling for some normalcy. "How's life on the supernatural dude ranch?"

A beat of hesitation, then Avery's forced enthusiasm. "Oh, you know, just peachy! Lots of fresh air, good old fashioned hard work..."

"And what does this hard work entail exactly?" Luke had one eyebrow cocked, clearly not buying the 'summer camp' spin.

"Pfft, nothing major," Allison hedged. "Just your basic farming chores and, uh, interpersonal growth exercises."

I swapped a dubious glance with Luke. The twins' obfuscation was raising more red flags than a carnival tent. I strived for a casual, coaxing tone. "That's cool. Hey, have you two made any progress on your official sentences? I know the Council wasn't super clear on the rehabilitation details..."

Another too-long pause crackled across the line. Then Avery blurted, "Well, funny you should ask. There's been this whole investigation thingy happening since the Farm's second-in-command got sorta... decapitated?"

"What?" Luke and I yelped in concert. A surge of adrenaline sharpened my vision and set my fangs on edge.

Allison rushed to fill the stunned silence. "No no, it's totally fine! They sewed her head right back on. Full recovery expected."

Luke gripped my forearm, his hazel eyes wide and incredulous. I could practically see him envisioning the headlines: 'Vampire Newbies Embroiled in Gruesome Farm Fiasco.'

"Girls, I swear if you're in over your heads..." He let the big-brother-warning hang.

"Relax, bro, we've got this," Avery insisted. "As soon as the victim stops doing her best Nearly Headless Nick impression, we'll crack this mystery wide open."