“I don’t know. One second there was a creepy voice in my head telling me to go to sleep and the next thing I knew the tattooed guy was screaming.” I wrapped my arms around myself and stared past them at the hulking shape of the high school next door, allowing my mind to dwell on what I had refused to think about since the witch’s attack. My mind probed at the silent part of me where the demon was, like a tongue touching the gap where a tooth used to be. “I think… I think my Mori is dead. I felt it dying,” I said hoarsely, filled an inexplicable sadness. Evil or not, its voice had lived inside my head my whole life and it felt like a part of me had been extinguished.

A warm hand touched my back sending a small flare of heat through me. “It’s been hurt, but it’s still alive,” Nikolas said in a gentler voice.

“How do you know?” I asked without looking at him.

“Trust me. I would know if it was gone.” My breath caught at the rough edge in his voice and I wondered if his demon felt pain or anguish if another Mori died.

“What kind of witch can hurt a demon like that?” Roland asked, awed.

“A Hale witch.” Nikolas spat out the words as if they were poison. “A desert witch from Africa. They get their power from the spirit world.”

“Like a shaman or witch doctor?” I asked. I thought shamans were all about healing and helping people.

“Hale witches only deal in dark magic and their power is much greater than a shaman’s. A Hale witch can cripple a person with a single thought and their compulsion is even stronger than a vampire’s, almost unbreakable.” Nikolas paused and I looked up to meet his searching gaze. “Not even the Mohiri are immune to their power. I’ve seen warriors brought to madness after a single encounter with a Hale witch.”

I had no answer for the question in his eyes.

“Hale witches abhor demons and they do not work with vampires,” Nikolas informed us. “And they usually stick close to their tribal region of the desert. It would take something big to get one of them to come all the way to America.” He fixed me with a hard stare. “You are not telling us everything. Who else is after you?”

“No one,” I declared and saw the doubt on both of their faces. “I swear, I have no idea why they attacked me.” It was true. As far as I knew, they were after Malloy, not me.

“What happened after you got away from the witch?” Roland asked.

I told them how Peter fought Tarek and then the man had pulled a knife on him and slashed him. “I kinda lost it when I saw him cut Peter. I just jumped him and squeezed his throat until he went down. Then we took off.”

Roland pointed at Scott who still sat quietly in the car. “Where does he come into this?”

“He was there at the rest stop when those guys showed up. He got blasted by the witch when he tried to stop Tarak from taking me.”

Nikolas’s anger was still evident when he spoke again. “What were you thinking going off to meet a total stranger in the first place with everything else that is going on?”

“I had to go,” I said defensively. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to find answers about my dad. I’ve been trying to meet with David for weeks.”

“How do you know he didn’t lead those men right to you?” he demanded.

I remembered the anguish and the real pain in David’s eyes and I knew his story was real and his motives had been good. “He’s an Emote and I believe he was telling the truth. He knew things… things about Madeline.” I felt Nikolas stiffen beside me. “Ten years ago Madeline went to see David’s father to tell him she was in trouble. They were friends or something and David’s father gave her a lot of money to leave the country. She said vampires were after her and before she left she had to warn –” My voice broke and it was a moment before I could continue. “She had to warn my dad. A few days later my dad was killed.”

“Jesus, Sara,” Roland breathed.

“David wanted to meet with me because he lost someone too. The vampires killed his father the same day they killed mine. David’s afraid the vampires will come after him because of what he knows. He was hiding upstairs while Madeline was there and he heard something he wasn’t supposed to. He thinks it’s why his father was killed.”

“Did he tell you what it was?” Nikolas asked tightly.

“Madeline told David’s father that she knew the identity of a Master.”

Before I could blink, I found myself beside the Ducati with a helmet shoved down over my head. “Stop,” I sputtered, pushing the helmet away. “What are you doing?”

“I’m getting you out of here,” Nikolas ground out. “I can’t protect you from a Master by myself. The only place you’ll be safe now is at a Mohiri stronghold.”

“That happened ten years ago. There is no Master after me.”

He barked a laugh and tightened his hold on my arm. “To you ten years is a long time but to a vampire who has lived hundreds of years it is nothing. And what of this witch and the man who grabbed you? Either way someone is looking for you and we need to get you out of this town.”

I shoved against him but he was like a marble pillar. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“I’m not asking.”

“So, that’s it? You’re going to force me to go against my will?” I cried in helpless anger. “You’re no different than them.”