Duke nodded before giving her another hard kiss then turning to Nic.
“Come on. Kaine has at least an hour jump on us.”
Nic nodded but didn’t move. His gaze followed Tira as she opened the door to the home she shared with her mom and waved her father through.
Only when she shut the door did he turn to Duke.
“Let’s go.”
Chapter Eleven
Two hours later, Tira’s head spun with a thousand different emotions, none of which she could make settle long enough to think about.
She’d just met her father. Duke and Nic had left to find Kaine and the eteri who’d escaped, probably with Kaine’s help.
And any help she might have provided to the guys by using her Gift was gone.
But not for long.
“Mom, I need to step out for a minute,” Tira said when her parents—Goddess, that sounded so strange—paused long enough in their conversation for her to get a word in edgewise.
They’d been sitting in the living room, where her mom had been waiting when Tira had opened the door two hours ago. Tira had caught back a gasp at the sight of her mother, clear-eyed and even wearing a tiny bit of makeup. And no longer blind. Blessed Goddess, Su looked so much like the woman Tira thought she’d lost months ago. So much so it nearly made her cry.
But she’d bitten her tongue to fight back tears as Su had smiled at Mark, holding out her hand to shake as if they were meeting for the first time, which wasn’t too far off the mark. They hadn’t spent much time together all those years ago. Just enough to fall hopelessly in lust and create Tira.
When Su and Mark had looked into each other’s eyes today, Tira saw that spark remained. Even though her mom had kept his daughter a secret all these years.
He’d asked about that, about why she’d done it. And her mom had given him as much of a straight answer as she could without divulging boschetta secrets.
He’d appeared to accept her explanations at face value and their discussion had turned from Why did you do that? to What have you been doing? What are you doing now?
They hadn’t gotten to the What do we do now? part.
But Tira could tell by the way Mark looked at her mom he wasn’t going to be going anywhere fast. He still wanted her.
And her mom deserved that chance.
“Mom,” Tira tried again to catch Su’s attention. “I’m just going to go talk to Margie for a minute, okay?”
Su glanced her way, her smile so sweet, it nearly made Tira tear up. “That’s fine, hon.”
Mark stood as she did, the old-fashioned gesture endearing. And his small smile warmed his expression by a few degrees when aimed at her.
“I’d like to talk to you as well, Tira. A little later. I’m afraid we’ve cut you out of the conversation, haven’t we?”
Tira forced a smile for him, hoping he didn’t notice the strain behind it. “Not a problem. There’ll be time. I’ll be back a little later.”
And when she returned, things would be different. Better.
They had to be.
Tira walked back to Margie’s and asked Dan if he wouldn’t mind keeping an eye on her house.
After a piercing stare which she held, he nodded and headed for the kitchen and the back door, shedding his clothes as he went.
“Is everything okay, Tira?”
Cat walked up to her, teeth lodged in her bottom lip. The girl looked more worried now than she had earlier and Tira gave her a hug.
“Everything’s fine, Cat. Thank you for helping my mom. And I’m sorry you’re going to get in trouble for it.”
A little of the tension eased from Cat’s pretty face and a smile lifted her lips. “The ‘rents were pretty cool about it, after Daddy got over being so scared.” Her eyes rolled in classic teen disgust but Tira knew Cat idolized her parents. All three of them. “Of course, Daddy Kyle’ll make me go through my self-defense training again. I swear he’s worse than a girl sometimes.”
“Your dads worry, Cat.” Margie’s droll reply made Tira glance behind Cat to her mother. “And so do I. We’ll be talking more about this. But not now. What can I do for you, Tira? You have something on your mind.”
Yeah, she did. Something she should have agreed to do a long time ago. Before her mom’s condition had gotten so bad. Before she’d let herself even consider the insanity of giving up her Gift.
She was tired of being considered weak. Hell, she was tired of being weak.
Time to pull her head out of the ground and use it for more than weeping and mentally wringing her hands.
“I need to use your landline,” Tira said. “I need to get in touch with Nortia and I need you to get Kotev.”
Cat drew in a short breath and held it, her blue eyes going wide as Tira mentioned the name of the leader of the boschetta. As the strongest of the streghe, Kotev needed to be here to do the transfer.
Margie reached for Tira’s arm.
“Tira, I’m not sure now is the time to make this decision. With everything going on—”
“It’s the right time.” Tira knew it down to her toes. This was right. She had a direction, a goal. A purpose. She wasn’t going to be talked out of this. “I should have done this a year ago but I was scared. I’m sick of being scared. I’m sick of being weak and frightened and without direction. I refuse to let my mom suffer any longer when this is what I was born to do.”
“You have to be very sure, Tira.” Margie’s expression didn’t lighten a bit. “This isn’t a decision to make in haste—”
Tira stopped her with a shake of her head. “This is all I’ve thought about for the past year. Agonized over for months. I know what I’m doing. Please. Send Cat for Kotev while I make this call. I want this done as soon as possible.”
They picked up the eteri’s trail easily.
The guy had had training on how to cover his tracks but Duke wasn’t looking for tracks. He followed scent. All he had to do was sniff the sheets the guy had lain in then follow that.
Kaine was a different story. He didn’t catch more than a whiff of her but it was enough to know he was on the right track.
And that Kyle was probably right. Kaine had released the eteri and set off after him.
The question was why.
With Nic beside him, Duke ran, the pack Nic had fastened to his back with their clothes and weapons barely noticeable. If any eteri caught sight of them, they’d do a double take but Duke would be long gone by the time their brain registered what they’d seen.
Duke wasn’t sure how long they ran but it had to be almost an hour, heading east into District then Hereford Township. The distance between houses grew farther and farther apart and forest and farmers’ fields took the place of suburban developments.
Duke had to wonder how the guy had run so far and so fast. Yeah, he’d seemed to be in pretty damn good shape and he was probably Duke’s age if not younger. Still, they’d covered a fairly decent distance in a short amount of time.
So where the hell was he going and why?
Too many questions. Duke hated not having any answers.
What’s worse, he hated having to chase this fucker down when he really wanted to be with Tira.
Gods damn—
Duke skidded to a stop, realizing he’d lost the trail.
He sniffed the air, lifting his snout in all different directions. Shit, what the hell—
With a yip, Nic tore off to his right and Duke followed, realizing that the scent hadn’t disappeared, he’d just run past where the guy must have veered off.