Midnight Hour (Shadow Falls: After Dark #4)(111)

She ducked her head and moved through the cascading wall of water. Chills ran down her spine. The kind of chills you got when good things were

about to happen.

*

Perry hadn’t been surprised when Jax had the vampire follow him. He’d debated flying to a hotel and calling it a night. But then Jax would

assume Perry hadn’t known he was being tailed.

No, Perry needed Jax to respect his powers. He just had to make sure that Jax didn’t feel threatened by him. Which was why when he’d shifted

for Jax, he’d held back. And when Jax decided to make it a game of who could shift faster, Perry had let him win. Not by much. But enough.

So instead of finding a room and calling it a night, he’d dived into a patch of trees, scared off another falcon, and waited until the vampire

had followed the wrong bird. Before he took off, he texted his dad. Tell Jax, better luck next time. He figured making light of it would be

less likely to piss the guy off.

Even as he started out, he backtracked, and never stopped checking if someone followed.

As he neared Shadow Falls, thoughts of seeing Miranda pushed him to fly faster. But he needed to see Burnett first.

He landed, shifted, and walked straight for the office. The light in Holiday’s office told him someone was there.

“Hey.” Burnett sat in Holiday’s chair again.

Perry dropped the two files on the desk.

“What’s this?”

“Info on Ricky Raco and Caleb Davidson.”

Burnett reached for the papers. “How did you get this?”

Perry dropped down in the chair. “Jax.”

“You stole them?” Burnett asked.

“No, he gave them to me.”

Burnett’s brow creased. “Why would he do that?”

Perry’s stomach turned just saying it. “Because I’m supposed to hunt them down and kill them.”

“Will it ever stop raining shit?” Burnett asked, but after blowing steam he came up with a plan. “I’ll put some men on finding Caleb and

Ricky, let’s stay focused on finding Tabitha.”

Perry remembered Bell, and how Caleb had taken her life as if she meant nothing. “I’d like to help to find Caleb. He killed Bell.” Perry

owed the girl that much. “And my gut says he might know more about Jax’s operation.”

Burnett wavered, but finally agreed. “But we’ll do it together.”

*

Miranda walked through the lagoon of water into the cave behind the falls and sat down on the rock floor. The same aura that was outside

followed her inside. Tranquility, peace. Miranda had never felt anything like it.

A scratchy noise sounded behind her. She turned. Not out of fear, curiosity. The armadillo moved from behind a rock.

He scuffled over beside her.

She didn’t say anything for several seconds. “Are you a death angel?”

“Oh no.”

“Then what?” Not that Miranda was afraid. He wasn’t evil. Evil couldn’t exist here.

“Think of me as your fairy godfather.”

She studied him. “That doesn’t work. You don’t look like a fairy godfather. What are you?” Then another question hit. “Did the witch, the

one at the drug house, curse you?”

“No, I was cursed a long time ago. Zander just … imprisoned me. I was trying to help her, but she was too scared. Then she was too scared to

let me go.”

“What was she scared of?”

“The bad ones.”

“What did they do that was bad?” Miranda stared into the water, iridescent circles danced on the surface.

“They took her, took her power, took her memories, took her babies, took her self-will. Finally they didn’t have to take it. She just gave it

to them. Hoping they wouldn’t take her life until the point came when she hoped they would.”

Miranda considered that. It was ugly, but the essence of this place kept it from hurting too much. “Did she get injured in the explosion?”

“No, she caused it. To stop the others from coming for you and your sister.”

“Why? What did they want with … us?”

“The same as they took from Zander. You are powerful, they wanted their sons to be just as strong.”

“But…” If not for the peace of this place, she’d be freaking out. “How did they know we’d be there?”

“Zander’s magic. They forced her to put magic spells on all young witches. They were looking for the powerful ones. Those like you and your

sister.”

“And the drug house?” Miranda asked, confused. “How is that connected to the warlocks?”

“The drug house belonged to another gang leader. One who is even more powerful than the warlocks. They went to this leader to help them find

new breeders for their younger warlocks. He set up Zander there to read the fortunes of young witches so she could find the girls the warlock

gang needed.”

Miranda’s mind swam. “So my sister’s sudden need to see Zander was because of a spell?”

“Yes, I am afraid so. But Zander couldn’t carry through with it.” The creature came to the witch’s defense. “Because of you and your