Page 69 of The Omega's Bloodline: Part One

I hopped up into Logan’s lap.In a bit.

He watched her stroke my ears. The world fell away as my eyes slid shut and she triggered my purrs and happy feet. Gods. Fucking magic fingers, I swear. I had no idea how long she pet me. It was hard to tell the passage of time in that delirious, gloriously blissed-out state.

When she finally stopped, I flopped against her chest and waited for the world to regain balance. I looked up at her.Sorry I kissed you. I got too excited.

She laughed and kissed the top of my head. “It’s okay. That’ll teach me for skipping over opening my eyes first.”

I stood and rubbed my cheek against hers.

“Doesn’t count as an apology if you immediately start scent marking her,” said Caden as he set a cup of coffee on the table for me.

Logan scooped me up and patted my hip. “Go get dressed so we can go into town.”

I scampered off to do that and wash up. We took turns in the bathroom, and soon enough we were on our way into Portland for breakfast and their massive bookstore.

I’d never been in one sobigbefore. It was like a labyrinth. We wandered our way through and found the occult section, settling in. Figuring that old books were probably the most helpful to start with, we each picked one off the shelves and skimmed through. Mine turned out to be useless, so I prowled through the stacks to find something more helpful, passing them to Caden and Logan, and returning their used ones.

Logan’s phone pinged and she pulled it out of her pocket. “Oh, hey, Melinda says we can meet her between five and seven tonight at the shop. I guess when we’re done here, we can head over?”

“Perfect.” Caden squeezed her knee and went back to his skimming.

“I think I found a bit of something,” Logan said, looking up from a book of demonology spread in her lap. “I dunno if it’s the same thing but it talks about a beast of shadows called forth by a witch. Apparently if its witch dies or cuts it off, they lose their fuel source and basically go rabid to hunt magic sources.”

“Sounds like a general direction, at least,” said Caden. “There are shifters all over the place, though. Why is it huntingus?”

“Maybe you’re from some super-secret royal shifter bloodline that’s extra magical?” Logan suggested.

I snorted. “If we were, I'd be pissed over all the money and power we’ve missed out on. Do we know if it’s still following us? Maybe we finally shook it.”

“I can try asking the trees. Not sure if they’d be able to tell, but it can’t hurt.”

We dug through a dozen or so more books before Logan leaned against the shelf with a groan. “My eyeballs are crossing.”

“Do we want to buy the one possibly useful book and grab some drive-thru before going to Hood River?” Caden asked.

“Fuck yeah!” I grinned. “I’m starving.”

We tidied up the mess we’d made and purchased the thick demonology book before heading out. We grabbed some cheap burgers and ate them on the way. It was a solid hour drive to Hood River from the bookstore.

The metaphysical shop we were searching for was basically a hole in the wall—small and cramped, with stock up to the ceiling. It smelled like incense, but about six different kinds at once, and made my nose twitch.

A middle-aged woman with thick, dark hair and bejeweled glasses lifted her head as we all came inside. “Logan.”

It was weird that she said the name as a statement rather than a question.

“Yep.” Logan waved and took the lead on our group.

“I’m Melinda.” The woman held out her hand. “Come here, sweetness. Tell me everything.”

Logan spilled out everything that had happened. Melinda’s eyes gleamed as she absorbed the story, and the hair on my arms stood on end.

“Who were your parents?” Melinda held up her hand and a thick leather-bound book zipped into her hand, hovering as she flipped it open.

“Um, Matthew and Lorelei Murphy. They adopted me when I was born.”

“Hmm.” Melinda waved her hand over the book and the pages whipped frantically. “Do you have information on your birth parents?”

“No. My birth mother wanted everything to be closed and I was supposed to get information when I turned eighteen, but apparently all the records were destroyed before then.”

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