Ghostly Justice (Seven Deadly Sins, #2.5)(21)

He mentally ran through what happened when he saw Moira on the dance floor with the blonde, Tessa Standler. He’d then realized it wasn’t Rex who was the greatest danger to Moira, it was Tessa. Every cell in his body had pushed him to get Moira away from her. He acted without conscious thought. Pure, primal instinct.

Because he knew what Tessa was. A vampire. Not the Hollywood immortal sleep in a coffin vampire, but a devout follower of Baphomet, the Blood Demon. She had power that was not simple magic. The negative energy that Moira had felt was Tessa and her sphere of influence. The evil oozed out of her, surrounded her, and she could draw it in at any time and use it against anyone she chose.

Rafe not only knew what Tessa was, he knew her endgame. She was preparing herself to become a vessel for Baphomet. She was seeking immortality, and would have it as long as Baphomet was satiated.

This wasn’t the first time Rafe had known something he shouldn’t know. And the more it happened, the more he feared what he was becoming.





Chapter Nine




Pounding on the hotel door had both Rafe and Moira jumping out of bed from a dead sleep, each reaching for their knives. Rafe checked the peephole as Moira slipped on jeans.

“It’s Grant.” Rafe put down his knife and opened the door.

“Neither of you answered your phone,” the cop grumbled as he walked in.

“You look like shit,” Moira said.

Unshaven with bloodshot eyes, Grant was wearing the same clothes he’d had on the night before. Rafe said, “Carter?”

“Same as last night.”

Meaning, still unconscious and the doctors didn’t know what was wrong. But to Rafe, that was a good sign. If he wasn’t worse than the night before, they had gotten to him in time.

“Tori Schaffer is missing,” Grant said.

Tori was one of the girls from Amy and Beth’s cabin at the nature camp.

“Tori? Didn’t you stake out Tessa Standler’s house?”

“I did. She was home all night.”

“That’s impossible. Unless she had someone else snatch Tori,” Moira said.

“She’s not the girl in the picture. I showed it to her this morning after I found out Tori was missing. Both Tessa and her mother looked at the picture. Not only was it not Tessa, she hadn’t been at the camp that week. She’d been the year before. As soon as I looked at the photo next to Tess, I realized that while there’s a passing resemblance, it’s not the same girl.”

“The witch at Defiance used her identity.” And likely cast a confusion spell, Rafe reasoned, so anyone from the camp who may have met the real Tessa wouldn’t have recognized the imposter. He exchanged a glance with Moira—he didn’t have to repeat their conversation from the night before: she understood that they were dealing with a powerful magician.

“I don’t f*cking care whose identity she stole, we don’t know where she is!” Grant reached into his pocket and pulled out a near-empty bottle of aspirin. He spilled four tablets into his hand, tossed them into his mouth and chewed. “I sent a unit to Defiance, and the owner, on paper, is Reginald “Rex” Van Allen. He did nothing to land himself in prison, was apparently helpful and alarmed that anyone had taken sick. The health department will inspect the place on Monday, but we all know they won’t find a f*cking thing!”

“By Monday it’ll be over,” Moira said.

“That doesn’t help Carter, and that doesn’t get me any closer to finding Tori Schaffer!” He glared at Moira. “Why did you leave Carter in there? How could you not see this coming?”

Rafe said, “Leaving Carter was my call. I told him not to drink anything.”

“So this is now his fault? He was doing me a favor! Do you know what shit I’m getting from my boss because of an unsanctioned undercover op? Once Tori went missing, I had to tell him the whole thing. At least everything except demons and witches. Which means I told him nothing.” Grant kicked a chair.

“Arguing isn’t going to get us any closer to finding her,” Moira snapped.

“Don’t you get it? It’s not my job anymore. I gave the local cops what I know about the camp and the threadbare connection to Defiance. And I had to lie—I said I saw her, not a psychic demon hunter!”

“I’m not psychic!”

Rafe put his hand on Moira’s back. “You understand, Grant, that the cops won’t be able to stop this. They won’t find Tori until she’s dead.”

“What am I supposed to do? Did you not hear that I’m no longer working this case? I made the argument that Amy was killed by people associated with Defiance all on specious circumstantial evidence. We have nothing connecting Amy with that club, and nothing connecting the fake Tessa Standler with Amy except a photograph.”

“Why isn’t that enough?” Moira asked.

Grant looked at them both as if they were stupid.

Moira strode over to the desk and pulled a map out of her backpack. “We have to find Tori.”

“What are you going to use, a Ouija board?”

Moira turned and shoved Grant backward. He was a big guy, but Moira was strong and he wasn’t expecting to be pushed. “I don’t have magical answers, I’m a lot like you, believe it or not. I investigate crimes, only mine are spiritual and yours are human. I know a lot more about how these people operate than you do.”