Chapter 10

As soon as he says it I have to take a moment to make sure I really heard it.

"What?" I ask.

"I said stop looking for me." He says again, sternly this time.

"Peter, what's going on?" I look up and notice that the old lady is still looking at me with an unconcerned expression; The stack of money still in her hand. I hear a scuffle on the other end and voices murmur.

"Peter?" I ask.

"You have to promise me that you will leave this alone. Go back to Cassiopeia or Gao, I don't care- just stop trying to find me." He says. I'm about to argue back but the line is cut off and he ends the call. I stare at my phone before glancing at the lady.

"Is there a problem?" She inquires. I bite my lip and look back at my phone.

"No." I say with assurance, walking ahead to sit at the table with the crystal ball. The woman walks in after me and joins me at the table.

"Can you find someone for me? I need to know their location." I drop my backpack beside my leg as I ask. The woman folds the money away and places it in the pocket of her dress.

"Do you have something of theirs I can use to help me?" She asks. I move my hand to the front of my collar and curl my fingers around the silver chain that hangs around my neck.

"I have a gift that he gave me." I say, adding, "It has been in his possession for a long time previously." I drag the necklace up to free the silver-lined shell pendant with the inscription 'P & L' on the back. The woman nods to it and holds out an open palm.

"It will do." She says. I undo the necklace and hand it over to her. She places it on the table and turns to the shelf behind her to grab some of the herbs and powders as well as a large map book.
"Somewhere in this country, I assume?" She asks, flipping through the pages.

"Yes, I think so. We could try, anyway." I say, leaning forward on my seat. She lays the book out so that the large map is visible before gripping the necklace and rubbing the powder and herbs over it. She begins some sort of quiet chant to herself, closing her eyes and focusing on covering the pendant in the ingredients. She then releases the pendant and holds the necklace by the chain. The powder and herbs seem to disappear in a cloud of purple smoke and the pendant swings in a circle over the map. I keep my eyes fixed on it while the woman continues to chant. The necklace chain then suddenly straightens itself out and the pendant falls firmly on the map like a rock sinking to the floor of the ocean. It's sits at an angle and the pendant has fallen on a specific location on the map. The woman opens her eyes and slightly widens them upon seeing the location the pendant is pressing against.

"I see." She says. I look at her and study her expression, making a mental note of the location on the map.

"That's where the coven is, isn't it?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. The woman looks up at me suspiciously and moves her hands to the sides of the book. I notice that's she's about to close it so I quickly dart my hand out to the page and stop her from doing so.

"There was a mistake, you have to leave now." She says sternly, trying to pull the book to her and out of my grasp. I give her a cold look and yank the book out of her hands.

"I don't think so." I say, ripping the page from the book and shoving it in my pocket. The woman throws the pendant at me and I catch it quickly.

"Get out of my shop." She says, her voice rising to a shriek. She brings up her hand as if ready to slap me and a dark cloud begins to form in her palm.

"You do any damage to me and Mr Gao will destroy you." I say in warning, quickly pulling my phone from my pocket. She drops her hand and looks at me angrily. A sudden loud banging on the front door makes us both jump. I can make out the shapes of a group of people, probably men, in dark suits. I take a quick look around for a back exit and can see only a window in a kitchen adjoined to this room. The woman continues to glare at me and the banging on the door continues as well as some shouting in Chinese.

"You'd better get that, seems important." I say, slowly reaching down to pick up my backpack. As soon as the woman turns away to walk to the front door I dart for the kitchen and thrust open the window. I quickly slide through the open space, incredibly grateful that I can fit, and hear the door being forced open. It's still pouring down rain outside and I have to pull my hood up to try and decrease it's impact on my vision. I hear the men storm into the house in search of me and hastily run through the back alley, not wasting another moment. As I run through the alleys there are some people sitting around talking and others taking out trash who I have to dodge and avoid running into. I run for a while and travel a few blocks before the voices of the shouting bodyguards soon reach me. I leave the alley I'm in and end up running onto a busy road where I almost get taken out by a car which screeches to a stop. The car hood knocks into my leg and I fall to the ground. I land on my side and the driver of the car steps out and starts shouting at me both in worry for my injury and in annoyance that I jumped in front of his car. I quickly jump to my feet and feel a shock of pain run along my leg. The driver gets a glimpse of my appearance and his annoyance instantly fades away as he moves to my side; I glance back at the alley I came from. At the very end I see the bodyguards notice me and begin to run for me. The driver of the car has placed a hand on my arm and is talking to me worriedly while dialling a number on his phone. I don't know what exactly it is that he wants but he's slowing me down, so I shove him off of me and dart across the street to duck into a busy restaurant.

A female hostess is standing near the entrance with menus and she looks surprised at my sudden appearance. She then smiles at me, offering me a menu. I look behind me to see that the guards are still following me so I take a menu and rush into the restaurant. I hear the woman calling out for me in protest so I disappear into the kitchen at the back. Where I almost run into a waiter carrying a stack of plates. The chef's and cleaners look at me in surprise as I run through the kitchen so I hurry to locate a back door. One of the waiters grabs me by the arm and looks down at the leg I've been limping on. He points to it as he says something in Chinese and I try to shrug him off of me.

"I don't understand you, I'm sorry I have to go." He tightens his grip on me and I have to grip onto his wrist and twist it to make him let me go. He shrinks back in pain and I jump away from him.

"I'm sorry." I call to him over my shoulder, running for the back door. As soon as I burst out the back I run straight into the bodies of the men in suits standing there waiting for me. They grip onto my arms and I kick against them trying to get them off of me. As soon as my sore leg connects with one of the men another shock of pain runs through it. I let out a shriek and one of the men picks me up and shoves me over his shoulder.

"Get off!" I shout at him, banging against his back. I wipe the rain from my eyes and focus enough to notice that there are three of them, the other two have taken positions at the rear and front of the one holding me. We leave the alley and walk up to a black car that's parked on the side of the road. I continue to kick and fuss in the man's arms and the door of the car is opened before I'm shoved into the back seat. I sit up to shout at the man who's placed me in the car and he shuts the door in my face. I pull against the car handle and continue to shout profanities. I can't believe this is happening. I throw myself against the seat and feel pain in my leg once again. I feel my eyes swell up with tears and I look over at the two people in the driver's seat and passenger seat. The driver is wearing a hat as he usually would but something seems odd about the bodyguard in the passenger seat. His shoulders are slumped and his arms dangles at his side lazily. The car jumps to acceleration and I'm thrown back against the seat again. It's when I sit up to get a better look at the bodyguard that the driver speaks in a very familiar voice.

"I'd buckle up if I were you." He says. I look over at the driver wide-eyed and see blonde tufts of hair poking out from under his hat. Felix looks at me with a smile and abruptly pulls up to the side of the road before leaning over to open the passenger door and pushing out the unconscious man onto the pavement. As soon as the guard is out we speed off and I climb over to the passenger seat and lean over to kiss Felix on the cheek.

"I don't know how you did this but I really needed you. Thank you." I say, looking at him with a bright smile. He smiles widely back to me and gives my hand a squeeze before looking back to the road. I bring the map out of my pocket and unfold it, marking where the pendant fell. I hand it over to Felix and he nods, understanding where we need to go. I lean over to grab my bag from the back seat and pain sears in my leg. I groan in pain and move my hands to hold my thigh where it hurts.

"What happened? What's wrong?" Felix asks, suddenly worried. I bring my hands away from my leg to see that my hands are now painted red.

"Jesus Christ, Lena, you're bleeding." He says, putting on his indicator and moving to pull over. I place my hand on the wheel and swerve us back onto the road. The cars behind us honk and Felix swears.

"Don't stop! The car has a tracker, they'll just catch up to us." I tell him.

"How did that happen?" He asks, alarm in his voice.

"I fell over." I say with a sigh, pulling my bag to my lap.

"On what, glass?" He asks.

"Calm down, I'll bandage it up." I say, pulling out medical supplies from my bag. I unzip my jeans and begin to wiggle out of them.

"What are you doing?" Felix asks, looking confused and slightly on edge.

"I need to get to my thigh, don't look if you're uncomfortable." I say, raising an eyebrow. He goes silent for a moment before murmuring under his breath,

"I'm not uncomfortable."