Page 167 of Claimed

“It’s okay, Lara. Best do as Adelaide says, sanitize your hands and get back into your bed. Okay?”

“I was having trouble sleeping,” Lara says.

“I’m sure you were. It’s not easy sleeping in a strange place.”

“It’s just… I forgot my special blanket that I’ve had since I was a baby in our trailer. I need it for falling to sleep. I like to rub the fuzz on my face. But my mommy said we can’t go back and get it because we’d have to ask and we… we don’t like to ask for stuff.”

Brody pulls in a steadying breath and blows it out slowly. “Which trailer is yours and what color is your blanket?”

“The pink and blue one two doors beside Addy’s. My blankie is wool. It’s pink and yellow squares and I think it’s on the couch.”

“I’ll see if I can find it for you. Yeah?”

Lara’s eyes widen with excitement.

Brody rises, putting a hand gently on her head for a beat, eyes burning into Adelaide’s, before he turns and walks out.

I watch Addy watch him go and a big swallow works down her throat before she turns to me.

“You okay?” I check.

She nods, looking a little dazed.

Everyone is busy and I can see the parked cars and make out the top of the Airstream from the porch of the mess hall, so I decide to dash for my bag just quick. When I’m nearly there I pass the guy who drove the red pickup truck up there. He’s walking back toward the mess hall.

“Where you goin’, Stacy?” he asks, looking concerned.

“Just to get my suitcase and toiletries. My bag is right inside the door of the camper, so I’ll just be fast.”

“I’ll come with,” he says, but someone is calling him.

“Boyd! Here quick!”

He looks conflicted.

“It’s okay,” I say. “I’ll come straight back.”

“You sure?” he asks.

“Go ahead,” I tell him. “I’ll do it super-fast.”

He jogs to the group of men building the makeshift outhouses.

When I get there, Cat’s van, Jared’s camper, and the other few vehicles are all parked along the fence line and the red pickup attached to the Airstream are first in the line. But as soon as I get the door open, ready to grab my suitcase, which is directly inside the door, a hand darts out from the dark space between the camper and Cat’s van and grips my wrist.

I gasp as my eyes meet the infuriated eyes of my brother’s as he wrenches my arm painfully, yanking me inside, immediately cupping my mouth with his other hand while pointing a gun at my forehead.

48

Grey

It’s not far off sunrise when I find myself in the hospital, standing over Mom. She’s unconscious, hooked up to machines, and the scents filling my senses are wrong. I don’t know much about poisons, but I know it’s what I’m smelling.

I’m infuriated. Someone did this to her. Someone put her here.

Fiery fury invades every cell in my body, the fire biting behind my eyes suggesting I’m pulling coven gifts into me to tell me that this isn’t just poison in her system, but spelled poison. I somehow know for a fact she won’t wake until it’s out of her system. I dial Dani so I can find out how to discern what it is, but the call drops. My phone has no signal.

A nurse comes in and bumps into me.

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