Page 10 of Taken By the Blood God

“I will, honey. I promise. I’ll probably need to hire three people since I’m going to have my hands full with Talant and his brother here for the next little while.”

“They’re staying with you?”

I winced at the high pitch of her voice. “Would you prefer I set them loose on the town?”

“Goddess, that would be a horrible idea!”

“Exactly.”

There was another pause. “Are you going to be okay dealing with them alone?”

I doubted it. But I couldn’t tell her that.

Instead, I answered, “Yes, I will.”

There was a low, rumbling voice in the background. It seemed Dax was listening to our conversation. I couldn’t hear his words clearly, but his tone was unyielding as stone.

“Well, if you need back up, Dax says he’ll come help you keep them in line. And I will, too. Tal will listen to me. Especially if I’m yelling.”

There was another gravelly comment, but this one made her laugh.

“You’ll have to get over that, Dax. I’m an Anointed, remember? Talant is going to teach me about my magic.”

Ally laughed again, and this time it had a sultry edge. Apparently, Dax’s answer to her statement wasn’t verbal.

It was time to end this call before I heard something that scarred me forever.

“I’ll let you know when we’re leaving,” I said. “And once I have a better idea of how long I’ll be gone, I’ll text you. I don’t know if I’ll be able to call while I’m gone, but I promise to check in via text every day if I have a signal. If I don’t, I’ll send you a message via spell.”

“Okay, MinMin. I love you.”

“I love you, too, sweet girl.”

After we disconnected, I placed my phone on the table and stared at it unseeing.

I’d always prided myself on my ability to adapt, to roll with the punches. But the blows I’d been receiving the past few weeks were harder than any I’d experienced before. I was off-balance and overwhelmed by the chaos that had invaded my life. The fact that I could no longer access my visions only made it worse.

I hadn’t felt this way since my sister and her husband died, leaving their eleven-year-old daughter in my care.

I was lost, and I had no idea which direction to go next.

But, as it had been fifteen years before, my only choice was to breathe, pick a direction, and take that first step.

Chapter

Five

Talant

Something poked me in the back hard enough to send a spike of pain through my muscles.

I groaned as the ache expanded, radiating down my leg and up to my shoulder.

“You’ve been asleep for sixteen hours,” a perturbed female voice snapped. “If you want to sleep more, you need to go to your own bed.”

There was another jab, this one on my right ass cheek. It was even sharper than the last.

Without turning my head, I reached back, grabbed the object poking me, and threw it over the other side of the bed. Whatever it was landed with a clatter.

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