Chapter 444
Arriving in Kansas City had felt weird. It was like being in a house where you live that isn’t your home. Your stuff is there. It’s all familiar. But it’s not right—it doesn’t feel right.
Dr. Cale Ryan picked us up at the airport, which was a surprise. It was very clear to me from the moment we stepped out of the plane why he was there. He had a sparkle in his eyes that he couldn’t hide; there was a possibility my sister might be single again. I like Cale, and we joked around a little bit in the car on the way back to headquarters, but I thought it was a little despicable that he was there to hit on my sister when Aaron wasn’t dead. Not that it would have been okay if Aaron was dead....
Cale parked outside of the archives building, and we headed inside. The sun was just coming up. I was more than exhausted, but I had a fire inside of me still, the kind that propels a person to keep picking up their feet even when they have absolutely no energy left in their tank.
I was eager to hear what Ward had to say, and it wouldn’t be long until we got another message. Even though it wouldn’t be coming to my phone, I still needed an update. I wasn’t looking forward to seeing Christian again, but his presence was part of the deal. So I followed my sister into the archives building and into the conference room in the back.
We walked in to see Christian, Hannah, Ward, and Aurora sitting around a huge oak table, the infamous book on the table in front of Ward. Aurora immediately stood and came around to us, wrapping my sister up in her gargantuan arms before she started crying. I hadn’t really given much thought to how she must be feeling, but I imagined if she still had feelings for Elliott at all, she was missing him pretty badly. “It’s gonna be okay, isn’t it?” she whispered into my sister’s hair.
I felt a shift in the atmosphere as Hannah unleashed a wave of calm. It was appreciated, but was only enough to take the edge off of the pain. My sister assured Aurora everything would work out, and then we all found our seats.
Cadence sat down next to Ward, and I took the seat beside her. Ashley went around to sit next to Aurora, and Cale stood in the doorway, lost.
“Do you want me in here, or is there something else you’d like for me to do?” He looked completely out of place, and I wondered how much he even know about what had transpired.
“No, come on in,” my sister said. Then, looking at Hannah, she asked, “Unless you can think of something you’d rather send him to do?”
Hannah thought for a minute before she said, “Everything else is under control. Meagan and Shane have been very helpful even though they’re still in Shenandoah. Emma and Fannie are researching cell signals and portals, though I have no idea what they might be able to find out. And I’ve got Lucy and Tara keeping an eye on the airports, as well as all of the local teams around where Holland was last sighted. I think we’re good.”
Fannie is an excellent tech guru, one I wish was part of our team instead of Montana’s. Emma’s also super good at that sort of thing. If anyone could figure out the portal/cell phone connection it was her. Thinking about them made me remember what I’d done to Christian yesterday. I couldn’t help but stare at him. He wouldn’t glance in my direction. I noticed his face looked better, like Martin or Ona must’ve attempted to patch it up. But I could still see a scar, and I hoped it stayed that way.
Cale took a seat at the end of the table, and my sister turned to the task at hand. “Ward, what have you been able to find out?”
His hand hovered over the worn, leather cover. “This book is very old. I believe it was likely written in the mid- to late-sixteenth century, possibly earlier. At that time, Vampires controlled much of Scotland and Ireland, as you know, and they would continue to dominate that area of the world for the next several centuries. It’s basically a manual for all sorts of information to be left for successors, should anything become of the kings and queens of the time, though they obviously expected to live forever.”
It was fascinating, but I took advantage of his pause to ask a burning question. “How much of it is about the portal?”
Carefully, he opened the book to a spot a little over halfway through. The sheets were a brownish color, I imagined from age, and the ink was several different colors, dark black to light gray. From where I was sitting, it looked like it had been handwritten.
“Only four pages are devoted to the Blood Moon Portal,” Ward explained, pointing at one of those pages. “Though there are other mentions of it elsewhere, they are all in reference to the information shared here or not recorded at all.”
Ashley scoffed. “Four pages doesn’t seem like much.”
“Four pages is enough, I think. But it’s going to take some puzzle-solving on our part,” Ward replied. I could see confidence in his eyes, though his words didn’t quite match the level his eyes portrayed.
“What do you mean puzzle-solving?” Cadence asked.
Before she could get an answer, her phone dinged twice. My stomach lurched into my chest. Without my phone, I was able to concentrate on those little flickers of IAC life that popped up every time the portal opened. I counted them but couldn’t see who was who. I only counted five....
My sister unlocked her phone, and while I was eager to see what she had to say, I was confused. Why were there only five? I didn’t want to breathe, didn’t want to move, just wanted to wait for that sixth flicker. It had to come....
“What is it?” Ashley asked. But she wasn’t talking to me.
Aurora demanded, “Is it bad? Did something happen?”
I turned to look at my sister and understood why they were asking. All of the color had drained from her face. “I only saw five flickers.” My voice sounded like it was coming from somewhere else. I could hardly even recognize it.
