Page 68 of Investigation of a Quest

Time slowed as Bel watched death speed toward them. Eamon burst out of the abandoned building, blood dripping from his mouth as he ran, but he wasn’t fast enough. He was too far behind to stop the inevitable. The strange witch rushed for Dorothy, weaving a spell of her own, but she was too late. The death magic was hard on their heels. Bel’s friends and family had tried to save her. They’d tried to prevent the end of the world, but what were they to ancient magic? They’d played right into Dorothy’s hands. Perhaps she’d let her father rescue her. She let them believe they were free. It pulled Eamon into her trap. He was too close to escape the curse. Ewan too. Dorothy would shackle two predators in one blow, and Bel wrapped her arms around her father’s neck.

“I love you, Dad,” she whispered in his ear, and then the magic struck.

But the pain never came.

A blur of fur and muscle and fang surged into the line of fire, its incredible mass rising to its full height to block the magic. The air exploded, the sound so deafening that the world went mute, and Bel watched in horror as familiar eyes met hers. For a split second, they told her everything while saying nothing. They told her to run. They begged her for forgiveness. They accepted their fate. They’d wronged her once before, and this was their atonement. This was a sacrifice given willingly, and Bel reached her fingers toward the werewolf. He wouldn’t die alone. She would stay with him to the end, and with peace in his eyes, Ethan Rollo left the land of the living.

His massive werewolf body hit the dust, the death magic trapped in his fur, and without his mass blocking her view, Bel watched Eamon collide with Dorothy. He caught the witch unaware in a brutal display of rage, his palm slamming over her gaping mouth to prevent the last syllables of the spell from entering the world, and she went down hard, her shock at Ethan’s sacrifice making her pause. She hadn’t expected the wolf to die willingly, and something about his sacrifice changed the evil pulsing through the air. Eamon didn’t love the wolf as he cared for the rest. Ethan had no claim over the dhampir’s heart. His death was a weak sacrifice to the curse’s hunger, and his final act of goodness tipped the scales just enough for Eamon to resist the half-brewed enslavement. Dorothy didn’t finish her casting, and now it was too late. She belonged to Eamon’s wrath now.

The second witch joined him in the assault, and Ewan pulled Olivia and the groggy but conscious Griffin off his back.

“Run!” he growled as he barreled into the battle.

“And don’t stop!” Eamon added as he threw Dorothy at the bear, the monstrous animal catching her in his jaw.

“Get them out of here!” Eamon continued as he and the second witch descended on Dorothy’s trapped form. “Take them somewhere not even I can find them!”

“Eamon, no!” Bel shouted over Ethan’s corpse. She should honor his sacrifice and live, but she’d never seen her dhampir so beaten. She wasn’t sure he could win this. If she left, would this be the last time she saw the love of her life?

“Go!” Eamon roared as if the simple word dug blades into his throat. “When it’s safe, I’ll find you.” He met her gaze as Dorothy broke free of Ewan’s bite. “I’ll find you,” he promised, and then he vanished into the battle as Reese and Griffin ran until no one could find the women Ewan and Eamon loved.

THANKSGIVING—ONE MONTH LATER

“Turkey’s almost done.” Reese cracked the door to make his announcement before disappearing back inside the warm cabin.

“This is not how I thought I’d be spending Thanksgiving,” Bel said as she took the drool-coated football from Cerberus and launched it across the clearing.

“At least your dad and dog are here.” Olivia sat beside her on the porch steps, hands clutching a steaming tea mug to ward off the fall chill. “My parents can’t even know where I am.”

“Your dog’s here too.” Bel nodded to the black terrier who had his own miniature-sized football trapped between his teeth. Unlike Cerberus’ tough toy, his little ball squeaked, and too hot from trying to keep up with a pitbull, Toto had found a sun patch to chew his toy in.

“True.” Olivia smiled at the animal. After fleeing Dorothy’s attack, they’d stopped at Eamon’s mansion to grab Cerberus. They packed nothing but the pet, but they’d forgotten the terrier Dorothy had maimed was still staying there. Not knowing when—or if—Eamon would return home, the women took the second pup with them. He grew instantly attached to Olivia, so she named him Toto and decided to keep him. “But I’ve only known him for a month,” she continued. “He isn’t family yet, like Cerberus is to you.”

“This is what you wanted, though.” Bel rubbed her friend’s back. “When you first moved to Bajka, you joked about adopting a dog so we could get together for playdates.”

“But I was supposed to be with Ewan,” Olivia said. “He wasn’t supposed to be a bear shifter, and we should be on our way to getting engaged. Now I don’t even know if he’s alive.”

“I thought Eamon would’ve come for us by now,” Bel said, the conversation taking a sobering turn.

“The news hasn’t reported any doomsday disasters, so they’re still free of her… at least, that’s what I tell myself.”

“But it also means they haven’t found Dorothy… Morrigan yet,” Bel corrected. “Morena West and Ruby East searched for her for twenty years after she escaped her prison in Mexico without a single sign of her until Bajka. What if it takes Eamon twenty years to find her?” She accepted the ball from her pitbull again and launched it as hard as she could. “I can’t hide here for two decades.”

After Ethan Rollo sacrificed his life to save the detectives, Eamon had ordered the only four humans he truly cared about to vanish where not even he could find them while he, Ewan, and Morana West fought Morrigan. After escaping her prison, she’d transformed herself into Dorothy and lived under the radar as she searched for the perfect specimens to fuel her curse. A dhampir with Eamon’s power could never be completely enslaved with just any mortal blood, but Isobel Emerson was a gift she never could’ve imagined. Not only was she the daughter of true love, but she had the Impaler’s heart. Their love would seal the curse, so as long as she was beyond Morrigan’s reach, the world was safe… enough. Reese, Griffin, and Olivia would be adequate replacements if the witch lost access to Bel, so all four had to disappear. They’d assumed it would be for a few days at the most, but then a strange witch arrived unannounced at their hiding spot. Only she wasn’t a stranger. Bel recognized this woman’s presence. She always wore it around her neck… or at least she had until the necklace had been ripped from her throat. This woman was the witch who’d blessed her book charm with a protection spell before Eamon left it anonymously by her hospital bed in New York, and she was there to perform another.

Morrigan had escaped Eamon on Halloween, and she’d vanished into the wind. Eamon, Ewan, and Morana vowed to hunt her down, but if she found Bel or any of these four humans, there would be no undoing the apocalypse. A random mortal wasn’t a great threat, but this foursome? Fivesome if one counted the pitbull. They would be the world’s downfall, so Eamon’s contact spelled them and sent them into the wilds where not even she was allowed to know their destination. The fugitives piled into a car not registered to any of them and drove west without packed bags or directions. They drove until something indescribable urged them to stop, and then with the case of cash Eamon’s witch contact had handed them, they rented a cabin in the middle of nowhere under names that couldn’t be traced back to their real identities.

Like witness protection for the supernatural, the foursome expected to hide for a week or so, but a month later, they were no closer to going home. They were completely cut off from their lives, but the witch had sent them on their way with a promise. With Morana’s help, they mobilized the local covens to watch the foursome’s families. Morrigan needed Bel’s blood for a perfect binding, but the five other Emerson sisters were daughters of true love. The same ancient magic flowed in their veins, so Eamon wanted them protected. The Emerson girls didn’t know they were being watched, but they didn’t make a single move without a witch following them in the shadows. They also guarded Griffin’s wife and Olivia’s parents. They would make weak sacrifices, but they’d be ideal bait to draw the group out of hiding. Regardless of whether they were allies or enemies, it seemed none of the covens wished to see Morrigan succeed.

The witch had also assured them that Eamon had contacted FBI Agent Jameson Barry. He’d reached out to the necessary people, making Bel’s, Olivia’s, and Griffin’s disappearance one of a legal nature. Morrigan, as Dorothy, had pulled the officers into a high-profile case and then kidnapped Bel. It wasn’t hard to bend the truth to fit their narrative that a serial killer was hunting Bajka’s finest.

But the lies meant to explain their temporary absence were growing too great to easily undo. The group only drove into the small town when they needed supplies, and never at the same time. At first, the two father figures forbade the detectives from leaving the cabin, but as stir-crazy emotions set in, they relaxed their opposition. They went nowhere as a group, though, and they avoided speaking to locals unless necessary. The isolation kept them safe, but they were utterly alone. After a month, hope was failing. A father, a boss, two detectives, and their spoiled dogs. They were all they had, and they feared they were all they’d ever have. It had taken the witch sisters East and West twenty years to find their former coven leader. Would it take the dhampir and the shifter two decades as well? Or was hiding useless? Would Morrigan find them and finish what she started centuries ago? Were there other humans on this planet who could assume Bel’s place as the sacrifice? Bel wanted to believe that Eamon’s superior power would rip the witch into a hundred pieces and scatter her to the wind, but she saw the way Morrigan’s death magic killed a werewolf. She saw how it forced blood from Eamon’s lips. The man she loved was invincible, but that fight had shattered the illusion. She understood him better now. The fear of losing the one you love in the most horrific way? Sometimes, it was all she could do to survive the day without getting sick over the toilet. Eamon was Dracula’s son. He was the Impaler. He was the top of the proverbial food chain, and she couldn’t lose him. Not when she hadn’t had the chance to confess she loved him more than any imaginary children. She didn’t need kids. She needed him.

But it had been a month, and he’d yet to defeat the witch. He’d yet to find her as he promised. And even if Eamon and Ewan were victorious, how would they find them with a spell cloaking their locations? Especially since her necklace and its panic button were lost. Bel only hoped that once that wicked witch Dorothy had been destroyed, the spell would break, and Eamon could bring them home.

“You two coming?” Griffin leaned out of the front door. He and Reese had insisted on cooking the women a holiday meal, even though none of them felt like celebrating.

“Sure.” Bel nodded. “Come on, baby beast! Turkey time!”

“Yup, turkey time!” Reese shouted from the kitchen. “I made a separate turkey breast for you boys without seasonings or salt, so come get your special dinner!”

It seemed Reese Emerson was missing spoiling his grandkids, so he’d taken a page from Eamon’s playbook on how to spoil dogs. The patchwork family clung to one another as they lived in this foreign stretch of land. They were all they had, since they couldn’t draw attention to themselves, which meant Cerberus was working overtime as their emotional support. He didn’t understand how much they needed his cuddles. He just assumed four people he loved were obsessed with him, but Bel saw the hole in his tiny heart. The pitbull missed his dad. Bel missed her dog’s dad. She missed his voice, his laugh, his hugs. He was her home. Maybe that’s why she hadn’t moved in with him. She didn’t need to move her address. Her home was any bed where he lay beside her, and this month without him felt like a threat. She couldn’t survive twenty years of this loneliness. Eamon had to kill that witch.

“Good boys!” Reese crooned as the dogs burst into the cabin. They were the light of their lives, and while Cerberus was sad without Eamon, he seemed to love being the only grandchild.

“Wow, dinner smells awesome!” Olivia said, putting on a brave face for the men who’d tried so hard to make this holiday special. “Thanks for not making us girls cook.”

“Well, you’re an honorary daughter, so you get the Emerson treatment.” Reese draped an arm over the blonde’s shoulders. “It’s what your parents would want.”

“Thank you so much.” Olivia buried her face in Reese’s shirt, and Griffin rubbed her back.

“I don’t have kids,” Griffin said. “So, you two are all I’ve got.”

“And I’m glad they have you.” Reese clapped Griffin on the shoulder, and a single tear fell down Bel’s cheek as she watched her family. For that’s what they were—her family. Blood and found. She loved them. But they weren’t whole. They were incomplete. Half of her heart was missing, and with hopeless hope, she gazed out at the naked trees. Without their leaves, they felt as empty as she did, and for a moment she stared at this strange forest and begged. She pleaded with Eamon to come. She waited for him to come. It was Thanksgiving. He had to come. So she waited.

But she knew he wasn’t there. She wasn’t sure he’d ever be there, so she turned and strode into the cabin, locking the door behind her and her family.