On Pins and Needles: Sierra Fox, Book 3 (32 page)

Papan grabbed my elbow and pulled me aside. “You know I’m going to stand by your side no matter what.”

“There’s no time like the present, then.” I couldn’t help but smile at his constant support.

“Wait up!” Conrad called, standing up. “We’re not staying here. I need to take Ebony somewhere else—somewhere safe.”

“I don’t think she should be moved.”

“Sierra, just trust me on this,” he said. “Drop me off at Father Luke’s parish.”

“What, why?”

“Just do me this one favor, all right?”

I shrugged and headed for the front door, grabbing my keys on the way out. I stepped outside with Papan right behind me. Almost instantly, Vixen appeared out of nowhere and marched right up to him.

“Jason, where are you going?”

“What are you still doing here?” I turned to ask her but she ignored me.

“Who hurt your neck?” When she made a move to touch him, he grabbed both of her wrists to stop her and stepped back.
 

“Don’t touch me!” Papan barked. “Go home and I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Promise you’ll really call?”

“Yeah…” Judging by the murderous look in his eyes, I was pretty sure he wouldn’t.

“Okay.” She sidestepped to let us past but frowned when she saw Ebony in Conrad’s arms. “Wait, what happened to Eb?”

“Nothing that concerns you,” I said, hitting the path.

She ran down the stairs and forced me to stop by blocking me. “I’ve been trying to call her for days but she doesn’t return my calls either, and now you’re taking her somewhere while she’s unconscious? You need to tell me what’s going on.”

“I don’t need to tell you anything.”

“I’ll fill you in tomorrow,” Papan said as he passed by to hold the back door open for Conrad to slide Ebony into the car.

Oren locked the front door and joined me on the path. “Come on.”

Vixen glared at him, but Oren didn’t seem to notice—or mind.

I ignored the pathetic werewolf hunter long enough to jump into the driver’s side, while Oren got in behind me and Papan into the passenger seat. Times like these, I was especially grateful for the size of my car.

As I drove away from my house, I watched Vixen step onto the concrete path.
 

I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell she was really up to.
 

Chapter Twelve

“Oren, it’s so good to see you!” Father Luke said, taking Oren’s hand between both of his. “It’s been too long.”

“It’s a shame it’s not under the best of circumstances.”

The priest nodded and his haggard features darkened as the handshake ended. He was clean-shaven, balding, and dressed in his usual white shirt and brown slacks combo. The priest had a comforting aura about him and always made everyone feel welcome, though he seemed to be ignoring me right now.

Since the demonic incident where he’d been swallowed whole and then regurgitated by the huge demon he was trying to exorcise, Father hadn’t been the same towards me. Did he have nightmares about that afternoon? I didn’t have nightmares about the encounter, but I did think about it often because my life had changed so much after that day. It was the first time I dragged anything demonic into the dark patch.
 

“Yes.” The priest turned his attention to Ebony, releasing Oren. He placed a hand over her clammy forehead. “What happened to her?” He inspected some of the bites Narelle hadn’t been able to heal along her arms. “She’s got a very high fever.”

“That’s good, right?” I asked. “A fever helps fight infection—”

“She was held captive by vampires. They fed off her for days,” Conrad said. He hadn’t let go of her since we left the car, refused help every time we offered it. “One messed around with her head, made her forget some things about her life.”

Ironic, how she’d gotten caught up with the vampires to forget the bad experience at the Council and ended up losing so much more. I still hoped she’d wake up with her memory intact.

The priest scowled. “How did she get involved with vampires?” He glanced my way for just a second and nodded a greeting. Did he blame me for what had happened to her? It wouldn’t surprise me, since he cared about her. Ebony mentioned her parents used to dump her in his church when she was a kid, hoping some religion would change the fact she could see the ghosts of dead people. Obviously it hadn’t worked but the priest helped her accept what she was and supported her. But he didn’t know what she’d been through late last month and why she’d willingly gotten into such a desperate scenario.

I sighed. “The Council did some pretty nasty experimentation on her a few weeks ago. I think losing herself in the vampiric nightlife helped her deal with it, but she got in too deep.”

Father Luke’s frown deepened, causing his wrinkles to harden. “Bring her inside. I think the first thing she needs is a holy water bath. It should help remove any of the bacteria the vamps might have left behind. It might even help heal them completely so the scarring won’t be as bad as it looks now.”

We all crowded around the vestibule of The Lord’s Saint, the small church Father Luke called home.
 

As he directed Conrad to follow him into the nave with Ebony in his arms, I stayed put. Even though I donated whenever I could, his church still didn’t feel welcoming. It had nothing to do with the priest and everything to do with my feeling self-conscious and unworthy anytime I stepped inside a holy place. I didn’t consider myself religious and certainly wasn’t looked at favorably by the majority of the clergy, but Father Luke was an exorcist so he’d never held any prejudice against me. He knew how bad things could get when dealing with the darkness hidden in our world.
 

“Hey, what’re you thinking about?” Papan asked, stepping up behind me and pressing both hands against my shoulders.

Having him close and willing to offer such support would never get old.
 

“Nothing.” I whispered the lie. If I told him everything I was thinking about it would take hours to sort through the muddle. I wasn’t happy about Ebony’s condition, and wouldn’t be satisfied until she woke up and we could assess the mental damage. Then I was going to throttle and threaten her until she promised never to do something this stupid again.
 

No, that’s not what you want to do to her.

What I really wanted to do was have a proper conversation about everything that had happened, even if it meant ignoring her desire to keep me at a distance. I was done playing her game. We had to fix this. Our friendship was more important than any grudge. If it took her screaming at me for hours and blaming me for all her recent hardships, so be it. Anything was better than seeing her chained to a silver pole while vampires chewed on and abused her.

A shiver crawled down my spine.

“Hey.” Papan dropped his hands and made his way around me until he was all I could focus on.

“Sorry,” I said with a sigh. “There’s just so much going on.” I pushed long strands of knotty curls away from my face. All of this rain wasn’t being kind to my hair.

“Yeah, and you’ve got your thinking face on. So I know something’s on your mind.”

I didn’t want to dwell on my thoughts, so instead jumped straight into what I wanted to do right now. “We have to find Jonathan. Tonight.”

“Why do you want to find
him?
”

I looked past Papan and found Lavie exiting the nave with her aunt beside her. Sally nodded and smiled at me and Papan before heading straight for Oren. He stood by the holy water font and extended both hands out to greet her. The familiarity I’d noticed between them at her store seemed even more evident now, as she encouraged him to step farther into the shadows near the front door.
 

What did they have to chat about that entailed such secrecy?

“Well?” Lavie stepped closer. The hem of her long, purple dress swept over the floor as she moved closer, her pointy-toed boots peeking through with each tread. “Why would you want to find
him
? You know he’s bad news. Is he still hassling you?”

“It’s not because I want to,” I said. She was staring at Papan with a questioning look on her face. “Oh, you two haven’t met. Sorry. Lavie, this is Jason Papan. Papan, this is Lavie Grye.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said, holding out his right hand.

She shook but continued to hold on when he made a move to pull out of the handshake. “It’s nice to meet you too. You’re not an average human, are you? But I can’t detect anything demonic about you.”

“I bloody hope not. I’m a werewolf, not a demon. Though, from what I hear you deal with them often enough.” He laughed. “I’ve had my fair share of transactions with demons, and although they’re not all pleasant, some are more helpful than evil.”

“Yes, that’s right! I did mention that to Sierra once, but I can understand why she’s jaded with all those psychos after her and her ex being possessed by one.” Her smile widened. “So, are you two…”

“Yes, we are,” I said with a nod.

“Good. You deserve to be happy, Sierra.” She sidled up beside me and whispered, “And he’s a total babe. Yow!”

I chuckled, and was pretty sure Papan heard her every word.

“So, what’re you doing here?” I asked. “I didn’t take you for being the religious type.”

“My aunt and I had a meeting with Father. He’s part of the Alliance.”

I couldn’t help but wonder where I’d heard that name before. “What alliance?”

“
The
Alliance. Hasn’t Oren told you about us yet?” Her hazel eyes were shiny with mischief, almost as if she’d let this slip on purpose. “If he hasn’t told you by the next time I see you, let me know. I’ll fill you in.”

“Uh…okay.” I wasn’t surprised to have stumbled onto another one of Oren’s secrets. As much as he wanted me to be straightforward with him, I knew he kept a bunch of things from me. Probably because he wanted to protect me, even if the way my life was going I needed as much knowledge as possible. Otherwise, I’d be at a disadvantage.

“I’m sorry about what happened to Ebony. Did you know she stopped by the store last week asking for some
special
herbs? We didn’t sell them to her because they’re hallucinogenic and only supposed to be used at times of deep meditation.”

Ebony loved the unconventional, and herbal teas were one of her favorite things to have on a daily basis. She claimed it helped her concentrate, and after almost having her gift thwarted by a crazy guy who’d given her a jinx amulet, she’d drank a lot to “purify herself.” The fact she’d tried to resort to herbs for a solution fit her personality.

“I’m glad you didn’t have any, then.”

“Oh we have plenty, because my aunty uses it all the time. I just didn’t think she should be taking it.”

“Thanks.”

“So, what was this about Jonathan?”

I took a deep breath. “I think he knows where my sister is.”

Her eyes were suddenly shiny. “So Aunt Sally was right! You
do
have a sister. And here I was telling her I was pretty sure you were an only child. She’s so good at predicting the future.”

My heart jolted. Her aunt had predicted my death, so finding out she had an accurate psychic reading percentage didn’t particularly appeal to me. “Did she see that in my tea leaves as well?”

“I think so,” she said. “Or maybe it wasn’t a prediction…maybe somebody told her. I can’t remember.”

I couldn’t stop my jaw from dropping. “Who told her?” Who the hell knew I had a sister before I did?

“Um, I better get going.” Lavie strolled past, then quickened her step. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call. We still have some cross-training to do.”

“Lavie, I—”

“Listen, were you able to read the text you asked me about?”

“Yeah, Oren helped, but—”

“That’s good. Well, gotta go. It was nice to meet you, Jason.”

“Yeah,” he said with a grin and a wave.
 

We stood in silence and watched Lavie exchange a quick hug with Oren before she, Sally and Oren dipped their fingers into the holy water font, made the sign of the cross and left the church.
 

“Cross-training, huh?” Papan asked with a quizzical look.

“Don’t ask.” I took his hand. “Come on, let’s go to Jonathan’s store and see what we can find there.”

As we headed out Oren headed back into the church, lost in thought.
 

“If it’s about her predicting my death, don’t worry about it,” I tried to joke.

“What?” Oren asked, distracted.

“Never mind—listen we’re going to Prologue.”

He nodded absently.

“But don’t think I won’t be asking you about what this Alliance thing is. As soon as we get this sorted out, you’re going to tell me all about it.” Well, if I survived.

That got his attention and he sighed. “Did Lavie mention it?”

I nodded.

He looked a little frustrated but didn’t say anything. I half expected him to insist on coming with us, so I was surprised when he continued into the church. “Be careful and come back here as soon as you find out anything. I think it might be a good idea if we all stay within the sanctuary of these walls for at least tonight.”