I slept like the fucking dead and am full of energy when Sev wakes me up at 6 the next morning. When I come out of the living room, I find Corinda putting the food away in the cupboards while Case packs a bag of extra clothes for everyone. That worries me. Does he think that they’re going to have to shift quickly? Why would they have to do that when this is supposed to be a friendly meeting? But at the same time, I know that I’m not going to be going home today, so this isn’t going to go as well as they had planned. We leave within half an hour, stopping to get food on the road a little later. Again, I’m blindfolded, which in all honestly, is starting to get really fucking old. I know that I slept most of the day yesterday but I’m all caught up on sleep now and ready to do something. It would be nice if I could at least look at the people I’m talking to. Corinda is a bit more friendly today and Sev and Case are definitely feeling a lot better. I wonder if they were able to t

Severn Brandon’s friend, Devin, uses his gift to heal the abrasions, cuts, and bruises I got from fighting the witches, but also replenishes my strength. “Stick with the witch on the left!” he yells to me, Casen, and Brandon. “We’re all going to team up and split ourselves between the witches.” “Got it!” Casen yells back and the three of us take off toward our designated witch. The two guys that had been fighting her take off and join other groups. She seems surprised that we are back and able to fight. That makes two of us. “Make a circle!” Brandon calls. We surround her and Case hits her with a blast of frigid wind so strong that it knocks her back and flecks of ice start to form in the air, pelting the witch with large frost covered shards. Cuts appear on her exposed skin and in her clothing. “Blasted cur!” she screams and throws up a wall of magic, blocking the wind. I cause the earth to roll beneath her, knocking her off balance and casuing her fall to the gro

I had never been partially taken over by Selene. It was weird to feel her power, have her knowledge, but still be able to have my own thoughts and react as I normally would. She’s the one that drove the truck and told Corinda what to do to help Brandon. And, apparently, our Holy Mother also knows how to hotwire a car. We park in a busy WalMart parking lot. We were looking for a car that was less than 10 years old, unnoticeable, and spacious enough for all five of us to fit in. That last part was a bigger problem, since we needed a backseat for Brandon to lay on. Finally, we find a black Chevy Tahoe. It has three seats, so we can lay Brandon in the backseat. I thank the Goddess that there aren’t any carseats in the Tahoe. I would have felt awful stealing a car from a family with small pups. That would have added way too much stress. As it is, there is all kinds of debris from family life in there, from sports bags filled with football equipment to backpacks to a forgotte

“Why don’t you guys smell like rouges?” Meredith asks. She really gets straight to the point. “Well…the way we figure it, we came from the same pack and we stayed together, so…we think we’re our own pack. Rogues never go around in groups of more than two. And that’s typically only when they find their mates. The fact that the witch that attacked us at our place had so many with her means that she exerted some sort of power over them,” Case says. “Mmmmm,” Meredith says. “I guess that makes sense. You guys were lucky to have each other.” “I wouldn’t call anything that’s happened to us lucky,” Corinda says sardonically. “Not what I said,” Meredith replies firmly. “I said that you were lucky to have each other. Can you imagine if you were alone? Or even if you had different mates? To be kicked out of your pack. To have lost your pups. The Mother gave you each other to get through these terrible times. So, yeah. You’re lucky.” Well, shit. This chick doesn’t pull pun

Hakeem, who happens to be the closest to the door, goes to stand in front of it. Before opening it, he scents the air. Incense, Hakeem links to us all. He looks through the peephole. I got two blondes out here. One’s about Meredith’s height, the other about just a little taller than Citra. Whispering into the phone, Zak asks, “What does your sister look like? What’s her name?” “Blonde. Slightly taller than me. A ton of expertly applied make-up. Stepford Wives clothing. Perfect manicure. Snooty, holier-than-thou expression on her face. Her name’s Celeste.” Citra does not sound happy at all to have to deal with her sister. Hakeem scoffs with laughter in the link. Described to a “t.” Take it she and her sister don’t really get along. “The other high priestess is Isabella Martin. Don’t really know anything about her,” Citra adds. “Alright, we’ll let them in. I’m gonna Facetime you so you can see them,” Zak says at a normal speaking volume as Hakeem unchains and