The second Clare got to
the hotel her phone started beeping like crazy.
She ignored it, and helped Max get Rita to her room. The young girl seemed to be getting weaker by
the minute, and by the time Max and her put Rita to bed, the poor thing was
pitch white and shaking.
“Should we stay with
her?” Max whispered.
“I think she’ll be
okay.” Clare smiled, brushing the hair
off of Rita’s face. “You didn’t even
realize that you had a sensitive on your team, did you?”
“A sensitive?” Max gave her an odd look.
Clare motioned towards
the room door. She was pretty sure that
Rita could have slept through an earthquake at that point, but she didn’t
really feel like taking the risk of waking the poor girl up.
Once they were back in
the hallway, Max asked her again what she had meant.
“A sensitive is someone
who is tuned in to supernatural energy.”
Clare leaned against the wall, feeling pretty drained herself. “Something in that park was getting to
Rita. It was draining her.”
“I’m on over my head
again, aren’t I?” Max shook his head.
“How is it that, until I met you, I never ran into one supernatural
being. Now? I can’t seem to escape
them.”
“I’m kind of a magnet for
the weird and creepy.” Clare
laughed.
“Does that make me ‘weird
and creepy’?” Max stepped closer to
her.
“Maybe.” She could feel the warmth of his body next to
hers.
As much as she hated to
admit it, she was still attracted to Max.
He had his sweet side, for sure, but he was still a typical TV
personality. She could never know what
she was getting when it came to him. Even
if he was acting honest sincere, she could never trust that what she was seeing
was really him being a normal person, or him putting on a show.
Clare’s phone went off
again.
“Well, aren’t you
popular.” Max leaned closer. “Don’t answer it.”
“I have to.” Clare slipped away, and headed towards her
room. “I have a business to run.”
Once Clare was alone she
pulled out her phone. She had almost
twenty missed calls from Ashtyn. She hit
redial, and the call went through.
Ashtyn picked up after
the second ring. “Where have you
been?”
Her voice sounded tense
and panicked.
“I don’t get reception in
the park. What’s up?” Clare sat down on the edge of the bed.
Ashtyn rambled on for a
bit, filling Clare in on everything that was happening back in Wheaton. She couldn’t believe that someone had actually
staged an attack in the middle of a busy office. Even worse, she couldn’t believe that so many
people had lost their lives. She was
interested to hear about Kurt’s new, manifesting powers, though.
“There’s something
else.” Ashtyn cleared her throat. “I’ve been going over this with Bobby and
Kurt. Apparently Elizabeth, and most
likely Grath, have gotten their hands on some demon seeds.”
“Demon seeds?” The term sounded familiar to Clare, but she
couldn’t really recall what it was.
“Kurt saw it. It looks like a small, blue orb.” Ashtyn paused, and Clare could hear her
shuffling through papers. “Apparently, a
demon seed can give demonic life to anything.
Living, dead or inanimate. They
aren’t common, but they have been documented.”
“How do you get a demon
seed?” The word inanimate peaked Clare’s interest. Was it possible that those… things could be
responsible for the statues coming to life in the park? It seemed pretty likely.
“You grow them. Usually
this is done by human sacrifice, and upon death, the victim’s heart will
transform into a demon seed.” Ashtyn’s
voice shook. “This is all speculation,
though. Very little is known about the
tribe that practiced this ritual. So
little in fact, that they are actually called the Nameless.”
Clare froze at the name
of the tribe. She had heard that name
before. Someone had spoken it to
her.
Then she remembered. It wasn’t someone, but something. Those creatures in the Tunnel of Love had
said something about the Nameless. They
had said that they Nameless wanted them home.
Who was ‘them’?
“Clare? You still there?” Ashtyn’s voice pulled Clare out of her
head.
“Listen, are guys all
together?” Clare could feel her brain
starting to formulate a plan.
“Yeah.”
“I need you three to come
here.” Clare stood up, searching the
nightstand for a card, or something, with the hotel address on it. “I think whatever is happening with you
there, is connected to whatever is going on here.”
“Are you sure?”
“Not entirely, but it
wouldn’t hurt to have you guys out here, anyways.” Clare found a small piece of stationary with
the hotel address on it.
She read the address off
to Ashtyn, and then hung up.
She knew in her gut that
these two issues were connected. She
didn’t know how, but she just knew.
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