A Fall of Secrets (A Shade of Vampire #15)(22)

“The type the world has already seen in the news. Vampires. Witches…” Derek placed an arm around me. “My wife here is a vampire.” He caught my eye and nodded. I raised my lips and bared my fangs.

“Dear God,” Wilson whispered, gaping at me in disbelief.

“And Ms. Novalic here,” Derek said, gesturing toward Corrine, “is a witch.”

With a flick of a finger, she levitated a pen on the man’s desk into the air and made it do a twirl before setting it back down again. The man’s mouth opened and closed like a fish’s. He looked at the three of us as though he still couldn’t believe his eyes.

“And you?” Wilson said hoarsely, addressing Derek.

“My powers are not safe to display in this room.”

Wilson stood up, his legs shaking. “W-wait here, please. I need to make a phone call.”

We watched the man leave his office and walk into the adjacent room. I heard him pick up a phone and begin talking to someone—a superior of his, by the sound of it.

“That was really the first surname that entered your head for me?” Corrine muttered.

Derek ignored her, his eyes fixed on the door.

Wilson returned about twenty minutes later.

“I have spoken with my superiors and called for an urgent meeting.”

“Your superiors need to issue a warning nationwide,” Derek said, standing up. “And they need to do it as soon as possible.”

“When and where do you believe that they will strike again?”

“It’s impossible to say exactly when, but I’m certain that it will be soon. As to where, we don’t know. Hence, you must not delay in this.”

“Those black hooded people in the schoolyard footage, you say they are… witches?” Wilson asked, still looking as though he was in a daze.

“Yes. The worst kind,” Derek said, looking straight into the camera as though addressing Wilson’s superiors directly. “The best chance of surviving an attack by them is to shoot them through the palms. That’s where their powers emanate from.”

“And y-you three. Where have you come from?”

“That’s not important. Just understand that not all supernaturals seek to prey on humans. We are here because we want to help you.” Derek turned once more to the camera, his eyes boring into it. “You must heed our advice.”

“Mr. Ardene, you must come with me to headquarters. My superiors will have many more questions for you. We would like to conduct an extensive—”

Derek shook his head, cutting him off. “Perhaps in the future, but we don’t have time for that now. We just came to deliver this warning.” Derek held out a hand, gripping Wilson’s so firmly Wilson winced slightly. “I trust your superiors will make the right decision and do what is needed. Goodbye, Officer.”

Before Wilson could say another word, Derek looked toward Corrine and nodded. She held both of us by the hand and the brightly lit office disappeared.

When we reappeared again, it was on a beach.

“We’re still in California?” I asked Corrine.

The witch nodded. I looked up and down the empty shoreline, the sun still hours from rising above the horizon. I caught sight of the promenade behind the beach, lined with beautiful houses, not unlike Derek’s and my dream house that we’d spent the first five years of our twins’ lives in. I was overcome by a bout of nostalgia. The life we’d lived in that house seemed so distant now, like a past life. I swallowed hard, forcing my thoughts back to the task at hand.

“So we’re just going to assume that Wilson’s superiors will take care of things?” I asked.

Derek nodded. “We’ll have to. We did our part. Wilson filmed the meeting. He has proof of our display of powers, so there’s no way that his superiors can think he was hallucinating. After two displays of supernatural existence broadcast on mainstream media, we have to hope that his authorities will be more open-minded than to completely reject what we had to say.”

“And now,” I said, “what about South America? The countries lining the Pacific Ocean also aren’t far from the witches’ base.”

“We’ll start trying to meet with authorities in Mexico and make our way down along the coast,” Derek replied. “But we simply don’t have time to visit all of them. We’ll go as far as Panama. Hopefully our warning will start spreading to other countries.” Derek must have caught the doubtful expression on my face. “Sofia, I know this is a pathetic situation. We just have to try to do what we can.”

“What if the witches start moving to other parts of the world for easier targets?” I asked.

Derek heaved a sigh, casting a worried glance out toward the horizon. “We have to hope that Mona will find a solution before it comes to that.”

Chapter 16: Sofia

The South American authorities proved to be harder to get through to, mostly because of the language. A lot of the lower officials didn’t speak English and Corrine’s knowledge of Spanish was rusty, as was mine. We certainly weren’t anywhere near as fluent as my twins.

The process took us longer, but eventually we managed to reach an authority along the coast of each country who could grant us a reception. By the time we reached Panama, the sun was almost setting. I was glad to have remembered my umbrella. I’d had to use it a lot throughout the day.