"You have got to be kidding me" Maddie yelled"Think about this, Maddie. Do you know anything about your mother?""I–I do" Maddie said, but even as she said it, she felt her world crumbling around her. The only things she knew about her mother were the snippets her dad let loose at very few intervals. She knew her mother's date of birth and name: Mal Herodia Shay, and that her mother had died shortly after her birth, but nothing else. Not even the birthplace of her mother."No you don't, only the things your father chose to tell you. Your mother is a Greater Demon, Maddie. And she has been killing mortals all over New York. We need to find her and take her down."The tears that had been threatening to drop finally did, and Maddie curled in on herself, hugging her legs tight "I don't know what to believe anymore. I have a mother?" "Yes, Maddie, you do""Can you excuse me? I need some time to process this, please""I understand" Cassie smiled and left the room.It was all like a nightm
After eating her first meal in days (and truly, Cassiopeia was a very good cook) Maddie had a bath, though she had no change of clothes. After this, Ethan came in to her room."Hello" He said "I was asked to fetch you. The Sword Sisters are ready to see you""Okay" Maddie said and got out of bed. She walked out of her room with Ethan into a corridor of sorts, lined with similar looking doors."This way," Ethan said and led her to the left.As they continued walking, Maddie noticed that the house had a queer sort of outlook, the way the house of a wealthy kleptomaniac would look, so to speak. Rows and rows of shelves were filled with oriental objects gathered from all over the world, from Chinese porcelain dolls to African traditional masks and figureheads.The walls were also filled with portraits of varying people, all wearing the same black turtlenecked gear she'd come to associate with Hunters, all with their names scribbled at the bottom of the portrait. Maddie whispered them as s
The big, formidable cathedral on 8 Mile and Houston overlooked foot traffic of downtown New York. People going about their nightly business glanced at the cathedral and shivered in fear as they doubled their pace. Far below ran the East river, braceleted by bridges and flecked by boats that looked tiny from the distance. Although the night was thick with mist from the river, the top of the Statue of Liberty was visible from the cathedral.However, the woman who stood in the shadows of the cathedral's stained glass windows couldn't be less concerned about the view of the city. There was a frown on her white, almost marble-like face as she glared impatiently at the short, white-haired witch trying to create a Pentacle in the middle of the cathedral."What is taking you so long?" The woman demanded "It's been several minutes""It's the mist, my Lady Aosoth. It's making it hard to perform magic" The witch replied petulantly as she continued to draw the Pentacle. "The Pentacle is an eleme
The Caucus of Hunters was a tight-knit group of representatives from the best Hunter families. They consisted of seven members from different families across the New York metropolis, and acted as the governing body for the race of Hunters present in the city. George Ravenwood, Celia Ravenwood's husband, was the head of the Caucus. He had been away on some Hunter business concerning the dead bodies when Maddie had been brought into the Manor, so she hadn't had the liberty of meeting the man.Celia his wife had summoned the Caucus to the manor shortly after Maddie had regained consciousness, to discuss the next step to take on her behalf. They had walked into the manor in all their numbers, and Maddie hadn't been given the chance to see them. She had been pushed rather unceremoniously into a room adjacent the study, where the Caucus were supposed to have their meeting.Maddie found it unfair that Jason, Cassie and Ethan had been allowed to attend the meeting that would somehow decide h
Maddie shrugged into a wool coat lended to her by Cassie as the five of them including Ayesha stepped out of the huge house that was the Ravenwood Manor. She stared at the house as Jason locked the door."How do you manage to keep a house this big in the middle of New York?" She asked, thinking how contrasted the Manor was from the usual New York residences of half built apartment buildings and house trailers."Being a Ravenwood has its perks" Jason said as he jiggled the key in the lock."As if!" Ayesha snorted while chewing yet another gum "The house is Obscured, Maddie. It's a handy sort of magic, the ability to keep objects hidden in plain sight"Maddie wondered what Ayesha meant by this until she looked towards the sidewalk and watched as a group of shoppers stared at a widow's display of clothes in a boutique, and moved their eyes to the pastries shop on the other side of the Manor, as if the Manor didn't exist.Jason, having finished locking the door, policed all of them off th
"I need answers" Celia snapped."Mom, we can explain" Cassie, recovering her composure, stepped forward."Then get on with it" Jason's mother said, her arms folded, looking from Cassie to Ethan to Jason and back again. She was dressed in a stiff black suit, her hair, blonde like Cassie's and Jason's, packed up in a tight bun. Her eyes, an icy green, swept over her children like a searchlight. She didn't even act as if Maddie was there. Maddie could have been a hallway sculpture for all the attention she gave her.“We had a run-in with some Tracker demons in a diner. But it was nothing."Celia Ravenwood's frown deepened "And how much exactly is 'some'?"Even Cassie was silenced by that. She looked to Jason for an answer."A few" Jason said tentatively."A few' how many?" Celia's voice was rising. Ethan gave another squeak behind her.Ayesha spoke up for their benefit "I mean, technically there were about a dozen? But," she added, eyebrows raised "We only fought four""Four Tracker demo
Her walk home was equally depressive. She was tempted to take a detour and go to their apartment, check it out and see if truly her father was kidnapped. But something held her back. She wasn't sure if it was the ominous way in which Jason had told her that their apartment was full of demon activity, or the feeling of fear that nested in her chest like a bird. She knew that she would be done for if she took that detour.She got to Olive's house in a matter of minutes. Their house sat in the middle of a group of detached houses, with small lawns in the front and sprinklers. The bourgie part of New York City.She jogged up the staircase to the front and rang the doorbell, then stepped back, waiting for a response. She had always wondered how her best friend's dad was able to afford such an expensive house. She knew he was a real estate agent, but the nature of his work was as vague as vague things were. Were real estate agents that wealthy?Soon the door creaked open and Olive's dad pee
The rest of that day was spent with Maddie moping around the house and trying to put up a smile for Olive and her dad when they looked her way. The last thing she wanted was for them to suspect that anything out of the ordinary had happened. She knew deep down that them knowing about her other world would do them more harm than good. It had certainly led to her father's kidnap.Olive had tried to engage her in different activities throughout the day, including gardening. They had a huge garden at the back of the house, where her best friend tended to beautiful flowers and shrubs. She had said that the smell of manure and wet soil would push away all gloomy thoughts from Maddie's mind.But all Maddie could do as she sluggishly applied manure to the roots of a shrub full of sunflowers, was think about Cassie. The sunflowers had reminded her so much of the pigtailed twin that she had chuckled to herself. Was she going nuts? How the hell did a sunflower remind her of a human being?Then