Page 25 of Kiss the Dawn (Order of Helsing #4)

I waited till we all had coffee before breaking the news about the new chapter house to the team. There was silence at first, and I began to think that I might have read the situation wrong and overstepped, but then Merry broke into a huge grin.

“When? I mean, can we help look at places?”

“It would make life easier,” Holly said. “I don’t understand why you guys were stationed in Old Town when all your work happens here.”

“Prices,” Padma said with a shrug. “Properties are cheaper in Old Town, but the vampire king is hardly short of funds.” Her eyes lit up. “We should definitely ask if we can view places.”

“He said he’ll hire a realtor who’ll be in touch with some options, so we’ll definitely get to view.”

“We could get somewhere near Brimswood,” Merry said, hands clasped under her chin .

“Of course you’d want to live there,” Holly teased.

Warmth filled my belly because I’d done this, brought smiles to all their faces and excitement into the room.

My phone rang, Lorenzo’s name flashing on caller ID, and I left the office to take the call.

“Hello, handsome.” I couldn’t keep the smile off my face.

“Good morning, beautiful,” he replied, a matching smile in his voice. “I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner. Business got in the way.”

“It’s fine. I’m glad you’re calling now. So when are you coming back?”

“In a few days. I have some business to tie up, and then I’m all yours. But that isn’t why I was calling.”

“I know, I know, you wanted to hear my voice.”

He chuckled, low and sexy. “Of course, that was a huge part of the reason.” His tone grew serious, and I sobered. “Daphne Bloodmere called a few minutes ago. A hallomeet has been set up.”

“O-kay. How does that work?”

“You’ll be receiving a device late this afternoon with activation instructions. Once you’ve set it up, then the Isle will be able to connect with you so you can speak to your mother.”

I exhaled shakily. “This is really happening.”

“It is, and I wish I could be there with you.”

“No…No, it’s fine. To be honest, I’d like to do this alone. ”

“Understood. Will you call me after…let me know how it went?”

“Of course. Any news on Morningstar?”

“Yes, and when I see you, I’ll have clearance to tell you everything we know.”

We chatted for a few minutes more before ending the call.

I went back to the office to find them all gathered around one of the computers looking at properties.

“Oooh, this one is good,” Merry said.

“I like this one,” Padma said.

I stood hands on hips. “How about we do some work?”

“Spoilsport,” Holly muttered with a smile.

“We need to look into the entity that’s been stalking you,” Holly said to Padma. “Has anything else strange happened?”

Padma shook her head. “Just flickering lights and a cold spot in my room, but it went away.”

“Could just be a ghost,” Holly said.

“That was stuck in a teapot?” Merry wrinkled her nose. “That makes no sense. It would have been able to just…phase out.”

“Unless it was cursed to stay trapped,” Holly proposed. “Oooh, I could set up a new trap.” She pulled a book off the shelf by her desk and flipped the pages until she came to an illustration of an arcane circle with runic symbols on it. “This one. It’s fae magic, but I might be able to swing it. Mageri power is fae born anyway. The clever thing about this is that you can modify it to do things, like hold someone, or hurt them, or make them speak the truth. It can only hold one person at a time, so you have to be careful it isn’t triggered by the wrong person. But it's a clever little spell.”

“I don’t think we need to do that,” Padma said. “At least not yet. Edwin did some research before he left. He didn’t believe it was evil or meant me harm, and I agree. It’s not a priority right now. We have to work on our other cases. I think…I think he’ll show himself when he’s ready.”

“What do you mean?” Merry asked.

“I mean, I get the feeling that he’s…recharging? Like he wants to manifest but can’t. Yet.” She shook her head. “Or I’m imagining things. Either way, we have more important things to worry about.”

“Like the symbol,” Holly said. “We should get back out there and start canvassing.”

There was a lot of ground to cover in Brimswood, and we’d barely made a dent. “I’ll man the desk if that’s okay. I’m expecting a delivery.”

“That’s fine by me,” Padma said. “I need to stretch my legs.”

The others agreed, and ten minutes later, they were gone.

I was alone .

There was plenty of admin to be getting on with, but I sat at the computer that still had the property page up and started flicking through it.

My phone pinged with a text from an unknown number.

Miss Lighthart,

His Highness has instructed me with the honor of sourcing an appropriate property for you. I will be in touch in the next few days with viable options.

Mr. Butterworth.

I texted back a thank you and shut down the property page. There was plenty of admin to get on with, and I had all day to do it.

I’d just finished inputting the information for our burglary case when the bell on the main door tinkled, signaling an arrival.

I hurried out to the counter, expecting a client but found Kaster Black instead, UV-proof umbrella in hand. His eyes were bloodshot and his jaw unshaven.

If circumstances had been different, I would have hugged him, but he wanted boundaries, so… “Kaster, what are you doing here?”

He approached, and I held out my hand. One touch and his voice filled my head.

I found out who the vampires that died were. They were part of a secret group dealing in powerful and dangerous artifacts .

“How did you find that out?”

A note from one of the members warning me to stop digging. I ran tests and identified the writing. My father.

Laudon? Laudon is part of this group?

I confronted him last night. He told me everything about his black-market dealings. The group met there that night, and one of the members brought an artifact, a teapot containing some kind of powerful entity. There was meant to be an auction, but they were murdered, and the teapot was never retrieved. The only reason my father survived is because he was late to the meeting. By the time he arrived, the place was swarming with Sangualex.

My father believed that whoever committed the murder must have stolen the item.

Fuck.

What? What is it? Do you know something?

“It’s here. The teapot. We found it buried in the files when we took over this building.”

How could it have gotten here?

It was a rhetorical question, but I answered anyway. Maybe it was hiding?

You sensed its otherness?

I nodded.

“Where is it? We need to get it somewhere safe. He cupped my shoulders. Orina, whatever was inside that teapot is dangerously powerful. We can’t let it get into the wrong hands.

“I’m afraid we might be too late.”

What do you mean?

“I mean we’ve already let it out.”