Tree Of Souls (Transfusion Saga #6) - Stephanie Hudson Page 0,19

real or not.”

“Okay, good point,” had been her short answer. After that she didn’t take much convincing to swap clothes, even though I first had to convince her it was red paint on them not the dried blood it looked to be. Although to be fair, her wide eyes were more focused on the necklace anyway, so I think it was more a case of her conveniently wanting to believe me.

So, I handed over the diamonds and in return she handed me her purse that she admitted only had a credit card with a $1500 limit that half of which had been spent and a current account that held another $756 and $245.61 in cash. Which meant she just got the bargain of the century seeing as the necklace she now wore underneath the sweater was worth at a guess well over a hundred thousand dollars. She did at least offer me her overnight bag, that she explained had a change of clothes and some toiletries in it, meaning that she felt bad enough to add a little extra onto my side of the deal.

Then, after giving me her details for accessing her money, I thanked her and ran back to the car with what I could only assume was minutes to spare. I knew this as I had already been told upon my arrival how the plane was being ‘delayed’ for some bogus reason or another. This then meant that my dad had been told and was trying to get them to stall for time until one of his men or even he himself could get here.

Either way, my time was short, so I had dropped my new cabin sized luggage in the seat beside me, unsure whether it would fit in the trunk space or not. Then I made for the highway, but an hour later, I found that couldn’t stand it any longer,

I had to call home.

So, I pulled into a rest stop, happy that it was pretty much empty that time of night. Then, after dashing inside, I found an ATM and drained as much as I could get out of the flight attendant’s accounts before I ran back to the car. After which I took a deep breath and made the decision who was safe to call at Afterlife.

In the end, there was only one.

“Hey, it’s me,” I said the second he answered.

“Gods, Fae! Where the Hell are you!?” Theo asked before anything else, telling me that they were most definitely still looking for me.

“That’s not important right now,” I told him making Theo scoff,

“The fuck it isn’t! Look, just tell me and I will come and pick you up…Hell, I will even drive you to an airport and get on a fucking flight with you, just don’t do this alone…come on, don’t be a pain in my ass, sis.” The sound of his pleading tone made me wince a second, bunching my shoulders before forcing my muscles to relax with the release of a sigh.

“Well, you are always calling me little lost girl, so…” I said trying to sound a lot more lighthearted than I felt.

“Yeah, and it’s so not the time to give that nickname new meaning,” he responded dryly.

“Look, I appreciate it, Theo, but really, this is just something I have to do alone…yeah.?

“Fuck no, but do I get a choice here?” he asked sounding frustrated and I could understand why, seeing as Theo would most definitely be struggling with this. I remembered the day we first met. The way he had wanted to help me even then, even before he knew who I was to him. But that was Theo, he was everyone’s hero and no matter how much I loved him for it, simply put…

Now was not my time for heroes.

“Not really, no…I just rang to…well, I just need to know how bad it is there?” I asked wincing before pushing through and just getting it out by asking.

“Well, Lucius is still alive, if that is what you mean?” he said sarcastically.

“Not really what I meant, no.”

“Fuck, I don’t know…what do you want me to say, Fae? The library looks like a war zone and mum hasn’t stopped crying since you left.” I tensed at that, holding myself ridged and closing my eyes against the pain.

“And dad?” I asked before the question got too hard to ask thanks to the heavy emotions I could feel trying to drown me under the weight of my heartbreak. But then he delivered a