Part 8
Jessika was certain if she had to stand around and be nice to these awful snooty rich people for any longer she was going to throw up. She was bored out her brains, and to make things worse, for some reason Willow Redfern was hanging around her.
Which didn't make any sense whatsoever to Jessika. She knew Willow didn't like her. Nienna had never shown up, and Jessika couldn't lie for her sister, because she had no idea where Nienna was.
And since Willow seemed to be determined to keep her *at* the party it just made her all the more suspicious something was going on. She couldn't help thinking it had something to do with Saffron looking after the house while she and her parents were out of it.
Jessika had managed to get outside for a breath of air, and luckily for her Willow didn't seem to have followed her. She was occupied with some cute guy in a tux. He'd keep her busy for a while.
She took her cell phone out again. The house number just rang out. Jessika shook her head in utter confusion. Everyone she had tried to call that night hadn't answered.
Which meant she had been right about something not being right all along. She was sick of not getting any answers when she tried calling people, so she'd just have to make some excuse up and go do something about it herself.
A piercing scream from the party made her whip her head round. She slipped back in. Voices were raised in panic, people were turning around, pushing and shoving, trying to get out. Jessika couldn't see what was going on through the crowd of confusion.
More screams echoed when blasts of orange witch fire stared ringing out, men in black were running around with guns and wooden weapons. As a Daybreaker, it should have been her duty to call for back up, help these people.
But these were Night People of the worst kind, and frankly, she thought they were getting what they deserved. It was the distraction she needed to get out and get *home*.
As she shoved through the crowd to get to an exit, she was startled by the unexpected cry inside her mind.
//Jessika, help me!//
Saffron? Jessika could feel her frustration building. Only a witch she wasn't capable of telepathy to communicate. And she sure as hell didn't trust a single vampire here enough to get them to reply for her.
She tripped over something, screaming as she landed on a withered and dried body. A vampire corpse in a familiar gold dress. Though she knew better than to hope it was Willow.
She scrambled to her feet, trying to make herself small and unnoticed. Some stunningly gorgeous girl was standing on the buffet table shouting out instructions, looking like she was the one leading the assault on the party.
Jessika frowned. The girl was Blythe Redfern, a known lover of the current head of the Night World. What would she be doing attacking Jessika's grandfather's birthday party? Jessika didn't want to think about it. She just wanted to get out of there and get to Saffron.
She'd worry about Blythe Redfern later. Once outside she managed to hotwire herself a car, a handy trick an old boyfriend had once passed on. She remembered being horrified at the time, also intrigued and scared. She'd never imaged the trick would come in useful for her. She just hoped whoever's car it was had been killed in the attack.
Her cell phone started to ring as she was half way to her house. She was extremely tempted just to ignore it, unfortunately, the ringer was persistent.
"What is it?" she snapped on answering. She swore under her breath finding herself stuck in a traffic jam on the highway.
"It's Adreena Galena, from Circle Daybreak? Where are you?"
Jessika just about remembered the girl from one or two of her classes, maybe she'd seen her at a party at Lord Thierry's mansion, but apart from that she didn't really remember much about her. "On my way home, why? Is something wrong?"
Jessika already knew something was wrong, maybe Saffron had called Circle Daybreak for help, maybe Saffron was all right and she was panicking for nothing.
"Don't go home, there's a safehouse about ten minutes from your house, 256 Karayan Drive. Go there."
"Why? What the hell is going on? Look, my friend Saffron is in my house, she called me for *help*. Something's going on, I *need* to get her out."
"We know. The house has been taken over by a group of Circle Midnight witches, we're working on getting a spy inside to see what's happening. The best thing you can do now is come help *our* team."
"Who's on the team?"
"Jez Redfern, Morgead Blackthorn, Poppy North, me and Yelena Arnold."
Jessika knew of most of the names. The only one she didn't know was Yelena Arnold. Which sounded like a shifter name to her. Circle Midnight...wait a minute.
"Find my sister, Nienna, find her, she's responsible for this." She scowled in fury, unable to believe how Nienna could trick her into this. Granted, Nienna was Circle Midnight, she certainly wasn't the nicest person in the world. She was nasty and spiteful, but Jessika had never thought she'd actually *hurt* anyone.
^I'm coming Saffron,^ she thought. ^I'm so sorry, please don't die on me.^
"We're already looking into it. Try not to let anyone see you."
"Right," Jessika muttered, hanging up as the traffic jam finally started moving again. Nienna and her stupid bitchy friends were going to try and release...it. They were foolish enough to think they could handle it.
Jessika shook her head. If they did actually manage to pull it off, she wouldn't be surprised if it killed them all just for the hell of it. ^It would certainly serve them right,^ she thought with surprising meanness.
* * *
Jessika was certain if she had to stand around and be nice to these awful snooty rich people for any longer she was going to throw up. She was bored out her brains, and to make things worse, for some reason Willow Redfern was hanging around her.
Which didn't make any sense whatsoever to Jessika. She knew Willow didn't like her. Nienna had never shown up, and Jessika couldn't lie for her sister, because she had no idea where Nienna was.
And since Willow seemed to be determined to keep her *at* the party it just made her all the more suspicious something was going on. She couldn't help thinking it had something to do with Saffron looking after the house while she and her parents were out of it.
Jessika had managed to get outside for a breath of air, and luckily for her Willow didn't seem to have followed her. She was occupied with some cute guy in a tux. He'd keep her busy for a while.
She took her cell phone out again. The house number just rang out. Jessika shook her head in utter confusion. Everyone she had tried to call that night hadn't answered.
Which meant she had been right about something not being right all along. She was sick of not getting any answers when she tried calling people, so she'd just have to make some excuse up and go do something about it herself.
A piercing scream from the party made her whip her head round. She slipped back in. Voices were raised in panic, people were turning around, pushing and shoving, trying to get out. Jessika couldn't see what was going on through the crowd of confusion.
More screams echoed when blasts of orange witch fire stared ringing out, men in black were running around with guns and wooden weapons. As a Daybreaker, it should have been her duty to call for back up, help these people.
But these were Night People of the worst kind, and frankly, she thought they were getting what they deserved. It was the distraction she needed to get out and get *home*.
As she shoved through the crowd to get to an exit, she was startled by the unexpected cry inside her mind.
//Jessika, help me!//
Saffron? Jessika could feel her frustration building. Only a witch she wasn't capable of telepathy to communicate. And she sure as hell didn't trust a single vampire here enough to get them to reply for her.
She tripped over something, screaming as she landed on a withered and dried body. A vampire corpse in a familiar gold dress. Though she knew better than to hope it was Willow.
She scrambled to her feet, trying to make herself small and unnoticed. Some stunningly gorgeous girl was standing on the buffet table shouting out instructions, looking like she was the one leading the assault on the party.
Jessika frowned. The girl was Blythe Redfern, a known lover of the current head of the Night World. What would she be doing attacking Jessika's grandfather's birthday party? Jessika didn't want to think about it. She just wanted to get out of there and get to Saffron.
She'd worry about Blythe Redfern later. Once outside she managed to hotwire herself a car, a handy trick an old boyfriend had once passed on. She remembered being horrified at the time, also intrigued and scared. She'd never imaged the trick would come in useful for her. She just hoped whoever's car it was had been killed in the attack.
Her cell phone started to ring as she was half way to her house. She was extremely tempted just to ignore it, unfortunately, the ringer was persistent.
"What is it?" she snapped on answering. She swore under her breath finding herself stuck in a traffic jam on the highway.
"It's Adreena Galena, from Circle Daybreak? Where are you?"
Jessika just about remembered the girl from one or two of her classes, maybe she'd seen her at a party at Lord Thierry's mansion, but apart from that she didn't really remember much about her. "On my way home, why? Is something wrong?"
Jessika already knew something was wrong, maybe Saffron had called Circle Daybreak for help, maybe Saffron was all right and she was panicking for nothing.
"Don't go home, there's a safehouse about ten minutes from your house, 256 Karayan Drive. Go there."
"Why? What the hell is going on? Look, my friend Saffron is in my house, she called me for *help*. Something's going on, I *need* to get her out."
"We know. The house has been taken over by a group of Circle Midnight witches, we're working on getting a spy inside to see what's happening. The best thing you can do now is come help *our* team."
"Who's on the team?"
"Jez Redfern, Morgead Blackthorn, Poppy North, me and Yelena Arnold."
Jessika knew of most of the names. The only one she didn't know was Yelena Arnold. Which sounded like a shifter name to her. Circle Midnight...wait a minute.
"Find my sister, Nienna, find her, she's responsible for this." She scowled in fury, unable to believe how Nienna could trick her into this. Granted, Nienna was Circle Midnight, she certainly wasn't the nicest person in the world. She was nasty and spiteful, but Jessika had never thought she'd actually *hurt* anyone.
^I'm coming Saffron,^ she thought. ^I'm so sorry, please don't die on me.^
"We're already looking into it. Try not to let anyone see you."
"Right," Jessika muttered, hanging up as the traffic jam finally started moving again. Nienna and her stupid bitchy friends were going to try and release...it. They were foolish enough to think they could handle it.
Jessika shook her head. If they did actually manage to pull it off, she wouldn't be surprised if it killed them all just for the hell of it. ^It would certainly serve them right,^ she thought with surprising meanness.
* * *