Now that he had the precious Vampire Vintage, Anthony didn’t have to go back to his lair in the morning. He could stay up for twenty-four hours and concentrate on finding Claudia.
It was incredible to see the sunrise again.
Until Sadie had some news, he could fill in for Claudia at the tea shop. He couldn’t wait to see Sadie and tell her what he’d found out. He also couldn’t wait to see the expression on her face when he showed up at her door during the day.
He was on his way there when he spotted Kurt.
“There you are. I’ve been looking for you.”
Kurt halted and stared. “Anthony?”
“Why haven’t you been returning my calls?” he demanded.
“I lost my phone. It’s the damnedest thing. I’ve looked everywhere for it. I was just on my way to the store to get a new one.”
“At least you weren’t ignoring me.”
“I wouldn’t do that. So, what’s up? And speaking of that, how are you up? It’s daylight!”
“I’ll get to that later. Claudia’s still missing. I was hoping you knew where Ruxandra’s lair is.”
“Uh, yeah. I do. But she invited me in last night and Claudia definitely isn’t there. Are you sure Ruxandra is behind it?”
“I can’t think of anyone else who’d want to harm her.”
Kurt tucked his hands in his pockets and gazed at the pavement.
“What?” Anthony asked.
“I think you might want to consider other possibilities. Ruxandra and I have spent a lot of time together recently. I really don’t think she has Claudia.”
Anthony didn’t want to give Kurt too much information in case he accidentally tipped off Ruxandra—or she compelled him. But his buddy defending the mother of all jealous ex-girlfriends gave him pause.
“Are you two getting close?”
Kurt smiled. “As a matter of fact, yes. I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time. I think she is too.”
“That’s great, but are you sure she didn’t compel you to think that?”
“She can’t compel me. She tried it three times last night and it never worked.”
“Why was she trying to?”
“I asked her to. She wasn’t up to anything sneaky. We were just curious about why it didn’t work and tried a few experiments.”
Could Kurt be Ruxandra’s beloved? The thought startled Anthony.
“Can you read her mind?”
“Uh…that’s not something I can do as far as I know.”
“Hmmm… Have you been intimate with her yet?”
Kurt recoiled. “That’s kind of personal, isn’t it, bro?”
“Yeah. Sorry.” Whatever Kurt and Ruxandra are to each other really isn’t important. Stay on task.
“I was about to see Sadie. Maybe we can all meet at the shop. Nick and Brandee too. Maybe by putting all our heads together, we can come up with something.”
“How about Drake and Bliss? Bliss is Claudia’s best friend.”
“I’d thought about that, but I didn’t want to worry her. Maybe I can ask Drake to come by himself.”
“I don’t know about that. From my experience, husbands and wives as close as those two share everything.”
Anthony sighed. “You’re right. I’ll wait until and unless there are no other options.”
“Uh, please don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m not sure I can be of much help, and my priority is finding that damn lab. Can you handle the Claudia situation without me?”
Anthony caught himself a moment before he let out a growl. Kurt was thinking of the greater good. It was understandable that his own thinking might be skewed toward finding his beloved, but Kurt had been trying to find missing paranormals, including his best friend.
“Are you getting any closer?” Anthony asked.
“Yeah. Nick and I are pretty sure we’ve got the right neighborhood.”
“Then you should follow up.”
“I can let you have Nick for your meeting. He might have some insight as a PI that I wouldn’t have. I won’t try a bust without him and a vamp or two, though. Ruxandra has already promised to help, and I think Sly and Morgaine would lend a hand.”
“Ruxandra is helping?” Anthony asked incredulously.
“Yes. She was happy to volunteer. I don’t think she’s as selfish as she was in the past. Either that or she never was, but you didn’t see it because of her singleness of purpose.”
“Good. I wish you luck, my friend.”
“You too,” Kurt said. “We’re going to need it.”
Chapter 15
Anthony welcomed each person or para as they arrived for the meeting at the tea shop. Fortunately, it wouldn’t open for another two and a half hours, so they had time to talk privately.
Sadie brought two pots of hot tea to the table where Anthony had already set out cups and some cookies he’d found in the kitchen. Nick and Brandee, Sly and Morgaine, Sadie and himself just fit around the two square tables he’d pushed together.
“Thanks for coming, everyone. I hope that by putting all our heads together this morning, we can come up with a way to locate Claudia and bring her safely home.”
“Before we begin,” Nick said, “I have to ask the obvious. How are you here? The sun has been up for a few hours.”
Anthony nodded to Sly and Morgaine. “Through the generosity of friends. Again, I can’t thank you two enough for sharing your cure with me.”
“It’s only temporary,” Morgaine reminded him.
“Still, I’m humbled and grateful that you trusted me with it.”
Sly smiled. “I can’t think of anyone more trustworthy. Look what you’ve done here.” He made a sweeping gesture to include the whole tea room. “You had a dream of creating a safe place for paranormals, and you’ve done it.”
“I love the idea of a tea shop,” Morgaine said. “It feels so much safer than a bar. I’m going to make it my goal to come here by myself in the future.”
“That would be wonderful,” Sadie said. “Good for you and good for us. If you’d like to do some tea-leaf readings, let me know. I can’t keep up with the demand some days. Perhaps if you had appointments…” Apparently the other psychic knew about Morgaine’s challenge with agoraphobia, but didn’t know if others were aware.
Morgaine smiled. “I’d like that.”
Anthony cleared his throat. “And now for the matter at hand. Morgaine did her locator spell and discovered that Claudia is somewhere far off the East Coast. Has that changed, Morgaine?”
“No. I double-checked it a few minutes ago. She’s still somewhere between forty and fifty degrees longitude, and forty-two to forty-three degrees latitude.”
Sadie’s brow wrinkled. “I’m afraid I don’t know much about nautical terms. Can you show me on a map?”
“Yes.” Morgaine dug a map out of her purple satchel and spread it across the table. “Here,” she said and pointed to an area, tracing her finger in a circle about an inch in diameter.
“I’ll bet it’s a lot more territory to cover than it looks like,” Nick said.
Brandee piped up. “If you can pinpoint her location, I can bring her back.”
Anthony’s heart leaped. “You can?”
“Yes. I’m not supposed to tell you how but I will, if I can trust all of you to keep this in the strictest confidence…”
“Absolutely,” Anthony said, and the others added their resolute affirmations.
“I’m a muse,” Brandee said. “The powers-that-be needed a new one to handle some of the modern technologies that have come into existence since ancient times. I can zap myself to an exact location if someone calls out for help.”
Anthony scratched his head. “Zap?”
“For lack of a better word.” Brandee shrugged.