Lost (The Allure Chronicles Book 3) (6 page)

“The future?” That caught my attention. My past was behind me, but I had no idea what the future held. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“He obviously wants you.” Violet muttered something under her breath before changing lanes again. Her driving expertise was coming in handy.

“How do you know?” I asked even though I knew the answer. I found asking questions could sometimes be useful.

“Because of the way he watched you,” she said as if it was the most obvious thing ever.

“If he’s so powerful, why didn’t he grab me right off?”

“Because he was waiting. I don’t know why.” Violet held the wheel so tightly her knuckles started to turn white.

“Maybe he wasn’t after me. Maybe that’s it.” If I said it, maybe it would be true.

“He is. There’s no reason for him to be after us.”

“Unless the Force hired him to find you, Violet.” They’d wanted her before. “Ever think of that?”

“They don’t need to hunt me down, and they wouldn’t use a Seer.”

“Why not?”

“Because they don’t need to know my past or future, but someone might need to know yours.”

“That someone being who?” I knew the answer to this question would be the most important.

“There are plenty of options.”

“Why? What makes me important?” I was a broken Allure. That should have made me less important.

“Likely whatever is messing up your transformation,” Roland explained.

“What do we do?” I asked. “If we aren’t going to stop, we don’t want to let him trail us.”

“Maybe Daisy’s idea isn’t so bad. Face him.” Violet let off the gas slightly. “Maybe it’s what makes the most sense.”

“I’m not letting a Seer touch her,” Roland snapped.

“Why? What if he sees nothing and leaves us alone?” Violet stayed put behind a slow car. She had officially given up on losing the guy.

“But what if he finds something?” I asked. “What if he tells whoever hired him?”

“They’ll catch up with us eventually anyway. We all know that.” Hugh turned forward. He had given up watching. Everyone was giving up, and I wasn’t sure if that was such a good thing for me even if I was the one who originally suggested we face the guy.

“Not necessarily.” Roland leaned forward toward the front. “Let me drive. I can lose him.”

“We can’t switch drivers now, and it isn’t my driving that is going to be the problem. He has a latch onto her. That’s how he found her in the first place,” Violet shrugged off his suggestion.

Roland shook his head. “Or so we think. We can’t know that for sure.”

“Or we can.” Violet sighed.

“What is the worst that can happen?” One positive part of being an Allure was being fearless. Even if I wanted to feel the fear I couldn’t. I was back to numbness again.

“He could bring you to someone who can kill you.” Roland didn’t mince words.

“But why would he do that?” I asked calmly. “Why would anyone want to kill me?’

Roland leaned back against his seat. “Because you might be dangerous.”

“How could I be dangerous?” The only people I was a danger to were human men. I seemed to get them so amped up with desire that they did idiotic things.

“We still don’t really understand what you are.” Violet looked at something in the rearview mirror.

I turned around to see what she was looking at. The Camaro was right behind us. “I’m an Allure.”

“Not fully.”

“Then I’m partially human.” I had to be something.

“Or so we think…”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nothing they could say would surprise me anymore, but I wasn’t looking forward to finding out I was anything more complicated. It wouldn’t bode well to ending the numbness.

“It means that it’s possible there was something else in the paste.” Violet changed lanes again.

“You constantly revise things. Change the rules. It’s never ending.” It was an endless cycle.

“That’s not entirely true.” Violet glanced at me before returning her eyes to the road.

“How is it so hard to know what was in the paste? Isn’t there someone who could figure that out?” The Allures knew all about Seduction’s Kiss. Didn’t that mean they knew what was in it?

“Louie,” Hugh said in an exaggerated low voice. “Although for all we know he hired the Seer.”

“Wait. What?”

“No way. He would have brought her in himself. This isn’t Louie.” Roland sounded completely confident.

“If we had brought her to him right away we wouldn’t be dealing with this anyway.” Hugh shook his head.

“Who cares?” I shrugged, still turned toward the back. “Just stop the car, and I’ll face him.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Roland’s expression darkened.

“What do you mean? I’m an Allure. I don’t care about anything.”

“That’s not true.” Violet pulled my attention back to the front. “I already told you about the self-preservation…”

“She doesn’t have any.” Hugh chortled. “She’s so screwed up. She doesn’t even have all the good parts of being an Allure.”

“If I’m so screwed up then why would anyone care if we stopped? I don’t want to run. Let’s get this over with.” Delaying the inevitable was pointless, and it would only give the numbness more time to worsen. I’d spent far too much time running. It was time to face reality and whatever was waiting for me.

Violet sped up and the sports car followed. “Where do you want to do this?”

“How about we stick to the original plan?” Roland suggested.

“Lead him all the way to Birmingham?” That seemed extreme.

“Why not? Violet, you have friends there still, right?” Hugh asked. “If the Seer means trouble we’ll have backup.”

“Wait, what friends of yours could still be alive?” From what I knew Violet had been alive for far more than a normal lifetime.

Violet nodded. “They’re not friends from my real life. Friends from the last time I was in town.”

“Oh.” That made more sense. There was so much about Violet I still didn’t understand. Her storytelling had stopped too soon.

“They are older. Not immortal, but slow aging.”

“How many different types of creatures are there?” Clearly there were tons I’d never heard of.

“Far too many to name, especially when you include the hybrids and the offshoots,” Violet explained.

“Have you met every type there is?” I was sure Violet had stories about each kind she had met.

“Not by a long shot.” Violet laughed. “But I’ve met quite a few. You have to be careful though. Allures aren’t universally liked.”

“I’m sure.” I already knew of a Pteron or two who weren’t fans.

“Many creatures want our immortality and will go to great lengths to try to get it from us,” Hugh warned.

“Or your essence.” I thought of Taylor.

“That too.”

“Are there secret skills I don’t know about yet? Ways to defend myself?” Now those would be convenient.

“Yes, and they should kick in naturally.” Violet answered.

“If they don’t?”

“If they don’t, then you weren’t meant to live forever.” Hugh laughed.

“I hope they kick in.” I was numb, but I didn’t want to die.

“Me too. I don’t completely mind your company.” Hugh grinned.

“Gee, thanks.”

J
im’s basement
was just a dingy old basement. I kind of expected it to be fancy. Or at least finished. Instead it had concrete floors and cinderblock walls. The only lighting came from bare bulbs hanging from the low ceiling. The small windows were covered up with heavy black tarps, and the austere furnishings consisted of a half dozen bookshelves and a couple of folding chairs set up around a card table balanced on tennis balls.

I walked over to one of the bookcases. It was completely packed with books with black electric tape covering the spines.

“I wouldn’t want to make it too easy on someone breaking in here,” Jim explained from behind me.

“Do you often have people breaking in to your basement?” I tried to taper down the sarcasm, but I found it hard to believe he was frequently the target of robbery.

Jim wore a completely serious expression. “More often than you’d think.”

“Even so, it also makes it harder for us.” Hailey ran her hand over a row of books. “Or is there a trick?”

“What’s the fun in life without a challenge?” Jim smiled.

“Great.” Hailey rolled her eyes. “But you have to have a trick, right? A way to figure out what each is?”

“Very astute.” He turned to Dad. “Your daughter has potential.”

“She’s an advisor to the queen. I doubt she’s going to be giving you her resume.”

“But if she were interested?” Jim watched Dad with interest.

“I wouldn’t stand in her way. My children are grown. They can make their own decisions.” Dad said that sort of stuff to me a lot, but not Hailey. Maybe he was finally starting to see her as an adult.

“So, um, yeah. I’m not looking for a job. I’m looking for a book to help Owen.” Hailey pulled out a book from the shelf. She flipped through the pages.

“Sometimes in life the thing we want the most isn’t what we’re looking for.” Jim joined her by the bookcase.

Hailey put the book back on the shelf. “Are you a philosophy professor too?”

Jim laughed. “Good one. I suppose I walked into that one.”

“Yes, yes you did.” Hailey met my eye around Jim, and I smiled. He was something else.

Jim smiled. “But to answer your earlier question, there is a trick.”

“There’s some sort of organizational system here.” There had to be, but I had no clue what it was.

“Right. The question is what is the system?” Jim was enjoying himself entirely too much.

“Is he always like this?” Hailey called over to Dad.

“You mean over the top?” Dad smiled.

“I prefer the term theatrical.” Jim beamed.

“Whatever.” Hailey returned to the bookshelf.

“Life is too short to live it in a boring way.” Jim pulled out a silver pocket watch from his pocket and opened it. “You should be spending every second wisely.”

“Do we have to guess the system, or will you help us?” I was losing patience.

“That depends.” He replaced the watch in his pocket.

“On?” Hailey gestured a forward motion with her hand.

“How fast you guess.”

“There’s a reason why the tape is placed in a different spot on each book. Slightly lower or higher.” It was the only thing I could come up with.

“Right.” Jim smiled.

“No two are placed in the same spot.” Hailey leaned in to better observe the books. “But that still doesn’t help us. It helps you though.”

“Today it won’t help you, but in the future it might.”

“Ok, but this isn’t the future.” And I had no plans to spend more time in that basement.

“Let’s see. We need to start with botany and—“

“Botany?” I raised an eyebrow. “How is that going to help us?”

“The paste,” Jim said as though it explained everything.

“It wasn’t made from plant extracts.”

“I am sure there were plants in there.” He pulled a few books down from the shelf.

“Either way, how is that going to help us?”

“We need to figure out what was mixed into the paste. She didn’t change instantly, which means there had to be something in it working as a block for the Allure essence. It has to be something, and my guess is it was a plant.”

“But the block is gone now.”

“Do you know for sure?” He watched me carefully. “Did you see her fully changed?”

“No,” I admitted. “They didn’t give me the chance.”

“Then we should start with the theory that she might still have a human side.”

His words sent a wave of hope through me. Was it possible? Did we really still have time? “Ok. So are those all your botany books?” I pointed to the three books in his hands.

“Magical botany of course,” Jim corrected. “And no, there are many more.”

“Of course.” I resisted the urge to make a snappy retort. Jim was helping us, and he had a point. Something had blocked the essence.

Jim scanned the books before pulling one from a middle shelf. He held it out, and I took it while he started to pull down more books. He handed them out until we were all holding three or four each. Hailey and I just looked at each other. Our uncle was something else.

Just as suddenly as he started, Jim stopped. “I think that’s all I have here. Everyone grab a chair and a book. Remember you’re looking for anything on an herb or other extract that could act as an inhibitor.

“I wish I’d paid closer attention in biology.” Hailey pulled out a chair and sat down.

“You always did well in science.” Dad sat down beside her.

“That didn’t mean I paid attention.” Hailey opened one of her books.

“And you wonder why I never had children.” Jim took the one empty chair.

“That’s not the reason you never had any children. You’d have had to find a willing woman first,” Dad ribbed. It strange watching my dad fall into such a familiar routine with a man I’d never met. I was positive they had fascinating stories if we’d had the time to listen.

We spent hours flipping through the books. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about magical botany, but I found nothing. I tossed down my third book and tried to keep my cool. This was just one idea. There were others. We also could always go to Mayanne. Still, I hoped we weren’t wasting our time.

“Ah, huh!” Jim jumped out of his chair so quickly that the chair fell down in a crash.

Dad looked up with his book with a start. “What did you find?”

“Rosimo!” Jim exclaimed. “It must have been the rosimo herb!”

“And that is what?” I asked certain any explanation he gave probably wouldn’t mean much to me.

“An herb that’s had a resurgence suddenly. No one had seen it in years.”

“And the fact that it’s out there again means it was in the paste?” Hailey set down the book she’d been reading.

“That’s not the only reason.” He fixed his chair and sat down again. “It also has strong impeding properties. It is often used in poisons to slow the effects in order to prevent detection.”

“You think something used in poisons was given to Daisy?”

“Emphasis on used in. It isn’t a poison, and it’s far less dangerous than the partial Allure essence she was given.”

“Didn’t they say they thought it was a whole essence?” Hailey asked. “Like that made it even worse.”

Jim’s mouth fell open. “Daisy was given an entire Allure essence? But that’s impossible. The Allure would have had to have been killed!”

“That’s what they think…” Or so I was told.

“That explains a lot. You should have told me, Owen.” Jim scooted his chair closer to me. “This changes everything.”

“What does it change?”

“It means the Elders never would have agreed to stop the change even if you had given up your wings. It was only a trick. Entertainment. And it means there had to have been an inhibiter in the paste. Otherwise the full essence would have killed her.”

“Why? What does that detail change?” Dad asked.

“No human has ever been given an entire essence. The effect could be beyond belief or incredibly dangerous.”

“That still doesn’t explain why they wouldn’t have stopped the change.”

“They will want to see what happens. Unfortunately it also means she’s being watched, closely. She would be considered highly valuable to many.”

“I assume these people include many I don’t want near Daisy.”

“You assume right.” Jim’s face darkened. “We need to move quickly.”

“Agree.” I nodded. “So what do we do now?”

“We find rosimo and study it.”

“Uh…” That didn’t sound like moving quickly to me.

“And find out who has it and is selling it because that is going to be the ticket to helping your Daisy.”

“Who we still need to find.” I’d assumed she was completely transformed already, but what if Jim was right? What if the change hadn’t fully happened? I should have tried harder to find her in the beginning.

Hailey reached across the table and patted my hand. “We’re going to find her and fix everything.”

“Or we will at least try.” Jim set aside a pair of reading glasses he’d been wearing.

“We will fix everything.” Hailey set her jaw. “If you need encouragement think of how incredible it would be to meet Daisy after all she experienced.”

Jim’s face reddened. “All the encouragement I need is in this room. As much as you may think I abandoned our family, I didn’t. I was given no choice.”

“They know that,” Dad said quietly. “No one is accusing you of anything.”

Jim leaned back against his chair. “We need to find who harvested the rosimo and sold it. It will lead us to who was really behind the paste, because it surely wasn’t a French Quarter witch.”

“Her name is Kalisa.”

“She was working for someone. I can guarantee it.”

“Everyone is always working for someone.” I’d learned that the hard way.

“True observation.” Jim pushed the book forward. “As much as it’s lovely to see you brother, you need to get back to New Orleans and find my old journals.”

“You need them right now?” Dad’s forehead furrowed.

“Yes.” Jim nodded. “It’s going to help. Call me when you have them and then we can meet up.”

“Why do I get the sense that you are trying to get rid of me?” Dad narrowed his eyes.

“Because I am.” Jim’s face remained completely serious. “But I do need them.”

“These are my kids, do you understand that?” Dad crossed his arms.

“Yes. I am aware of who they are.”

“Then understand when I tell you no samurai hustles. And no Chicago kid’s meals. Got it?”

Hailey and I exchanged looks. Had my dad lost his mind? Why was he talking about samurais and kid’s meals?

“Got it loud and clear.”

“Fine, I’ll get the journals, but take care of my kids.” Dad relented far easier than I’d expected. I assumed that meant he trusted his brother. I had to trust Jim too. He knew far more about Allures than anyone else I’d met, and thankfully he appeared willing to help.

“We can take care of ourselves.” Hailey could never sit back and let conversations happen.

“Fine, take care of your brother then.” Dad grinned.

Hailey smiled back “That I can do.”

I stood up as my dad walked around the table.

“Don’t give up. That’s the only way you can lose.” Dad pulled me into a hug.

I hugged him back. “I’m not giving up. I’d do anything to find her.”

“I know.” He patted my back before letting go and moving on to Hailey.

I watched with bittersweet feelings as Dad walked up the stairs. We were officially putting all of our faith in an uncle we’d only just met.

“And then there were three.” Jim laughed.

“This is really going to work, right?” I asked.

“Why wouldn’t it?” He leaned a hand on a chair.

“I’m just surprised you wanted Dad to leave.”

“I wanted him to leave because he’s not going to like what we’re really going to do to find the herb.” His lips twisted up at the corner in a smirk that matched my father’s in an eerie way.

“And what is it that we’re going to do exactly?”

“We’re going to deal with some people your dad isn’t a fan of.” Jim looked toward the stairs as if to make sure my dad had really left.

“Dad doesn’t usually care what I do.” At least he hadn’t in years.

“He cares what your sister does.”

He’d figured that out quickly. “Very true.”

“Which is stupid. And sexist.” Hailey pouted.

Jim ignored her pout. “I happen to want you on this journey.”

“Good, because I’m coming regardless.” She put a hand on her hip.

“But you two need to follow my lead and my instructions. I’d rather not have to explain to my brother how I got one or both of his kids killed.”

“I’d prefer if you didn’t have to do that either.” Hailey shook her head. “We’re not on a suicide mission.”

“What kind of training do you two have?” Jim looked between us.

“As in hand-to-hand combat training or—” I started.

“As in survival training,” Jim interrupted.

“We’re pretty good at surviving.” Hailey smiled. “We’ve been put in some trying situations.”

“That’s not what I’m asking.” Jim rubbed the back of his neck.

“Then what are you asking?”

“How about I show you?” Jim headed toward the stairs.