My stomach dropped. “You’re not serious.”
“I am, but again, if your friend would like to come in, we can test her and perhaps change our viewpoint.”
Get tested? The stone in my stomach sank even more, the feeling pulling me down, down, down. If I came clean and told her that I was the one who’d used psychic abilities to determine Tessa’s abduction, then I would have to be tested. And not only would my psychic magic be revealed but other things would be too.
My mother’s warning, the warning she’d told me when she was still alive, came back to me like a whisper on a breeze. Never, never tell anyone. You must keep it a secret, Tala, no matter the cost. Revealing it could summon the Bone Eaters, so you must never tell anyone.
So I hadn’t. For twenty-five years, I’d kept my forbidden power and immense magic a secret. Even though I had no idea who the Bone Eaters were, or if they even existed, my mother’s terror at summoning them had been real, as vivid and horrifying as a Bosch painting. And despite countless searches to determine who this elusive entity was, I’d never found answers, yet I still clung to that promise, the last promise I’d ever made to her. “I won’t tell, Mama. I won’t ever tell anyone.”
I cleared my throat, forcing myself to remain calm. “If my friend can’t come in, isn’t there an SF psychic who can come to our shop and assess the area? Then you’ll know that Tessa’s actually been taken.”
The vampire commander gave a reluctant nod. “I have one psychic on staff, but she’s currently on assignment.”
“When will she be free?”
“Depends. It could be within the hour or not until tomorrow. I’ll know more when she contacts headquarters.”
An hour or tomorrow. Those were my options. It was a gamble, unless I came clean and got tested right now.
I breathed out a terrified yet frustrated sigh as the faint memory of my mother came back to me again. Never, never tell anyone. I still heard her hushed words as clear as day, tasted her fear like a bitter aftertaste on my tongue.
I opened my eyes and hoped I wasn’t making the biggest mistake of my life. “Will you keep me posted about when your psychic seer can come to the shop?”
The commander nodded. “I can do that.”
“And in the meantime, no matter what, the SF won’t look for Tessa until a psychic seer can corroborate her abduction?”
“Unless forty-eight hours passes. If that much time passes and she’s still missing, I will follow SF procedure and classify her as a missing person.”
“But not before then without your psychic agreeing?” I knew my tone had turned pleading, but it felt as though my throat were closing in.
The commander leaned forward and placed her forearms on her desk, her black SF suit gleaming like an obsidian skin. “Tala, I’m going to be frank with you. Do you mind?” Before I could reply, she said, “Do you know what I see every time your sister goes missing?”
I quirked an eyebrow and replied dryly, “No, but I have a feeling you’re going to tell me.”
She continued as if I hadn’t said anything. “I see two girls who grew up without parents while they were shuffled between distant relatives’ homes and were forced to learn how to cope with life on their own. Only thing is that one of those sisters has learned to cope better than the other, and it’s made that sister feel the need to care for the other. And while I think the sisters genuinely love one another, I also think one of the sisters is near to sucking the life from the stronger one.”
I gave her an incredulous look. “What is this? SF therapy 101? While my sister’s missing?”
The commander gave an exasperated sigh. “I’m not saying this to make you angry. I’m saying it to help you see the reality of what’s going on. How many times have we met in this office?” She waved around at the undecorated walls and SF technology. Holographs of Chicago’s downtown streets danced on the other side of the room in a 3D rendition. “How many times have you sat before me looking anxious and worried while your sister was gallivanting somewhere else in the world?”
I didn’t reply but kept my hands gripping the armrests.
Her expression slackened. “Have you ever thought that maybe it’s time to let your sister make her own mistakes and live with the consequences?”
“It’s not like that. Not this time.”
She leaned back. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to overstep. It’s just hard. In this job, with domestic issues, we see the same patterns play over and over again, without an end in sight. Sometimes, I can’t bite my tongue anymore.”
Her words lashed out at me like a razor-sharp whip, because everything the commander saw—my sister’s flighty choices and reckless behavior—was true. But she didn’t see the caring, vivacious, larger-than-life woman that was also my sister.
The commander was right about one thing, though. My sister was the only true family I had. Our parents had died in a car accident when we were very young, and our distant elderly relatives, who had shuffled us from house to house, had long since passed away.
I was so young when my parents had died that only one concrete memory stood out about them—my mother’s worried eyes when she’d made me promise to hide my secret no matter what. Never, never tell anyone.
And now it came down to either revealing that secret or waiting for the SF’s psychic. I steeled myself against that impossible choice, my hands curling even more around the chair until they resembled talons.
I hated this. Hated everything about it. I hated that some asshole had taken my sister. Hated that I was now having to choose between compromising myself or saving her. Hated that the SF wouldn’t just believe me and do their fucking job. Hated it.
But I couldn’t break my promise. “Will you just tell me when the SF’s psychic is free to verify Tessa’s abduction?”
“I will.”
I nodded in acceptance. I’d have to wait. I would give myself an hour to wait for their psychic—an hour of freedom before I sacrificed everything I’d spent my life protecting.
I stood stiffly from my chair. “Can you call me when she’s free? Right away? No matter the time?”
“Are you sure your friend can’t come in?”
“I’ll ask her, but I doubt it. She doesn’t like authority.” If the commander saw through my lie, she hid it well. I reached her door but paused with my hand on the door handle. “What are the chances your psychic will actually be free within the hour?”
The commander shrugged. “How long is a piece of string?”
Of course. I gave her a tight-lipped smile and strode from the room, but just as I reached the front lobby where Jeff was still playing online poker, an alternative solution to finding Tessa hit me.
My breath caught in my throat as my heart began to pump madly. Once outside, I whipped out my cell phone as the evening breeze blew around me. Carlos’s text still sat there, waiting for me to reply, but meeting up with my ex was the least of my concerns right now, regardless of how I’d once felt for him.
I tapped my finger on my contacts and scrolled to a name that I was loathed to call. But if the SF refused to search for Tessa until her abduction could be verified, and I wanted to keep my secret safe, then this could be the answer to finding my sister now.
I placed the call.
He answered on the third ring. “Jenkins.”
“It’s Tala Davenport. I need a contact.”
“Tala.” A squeaking noise sounded in the background, and I knew the half-demon was lounging back in his chair, probably with his large belly protruding over his pants. “It’s been a long time.”