Page 63 of Silver Claw

“Are you going?” Zach asked.

“Of course she’s not going,” Lucy said, but they all looked at me, and they already knew what I was going to say.

“Yes, I’m going.” I sat down and pulled a heaping plate of delicious food toward me. “I’m going, and I’m going to fight the demon elder to get back my blade.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Lucy did something she’d never done before—at least not since I’d known her. She had a dream while she was awake.

We were finishing up dessert, and Joe was telling us stories about when he’d been working security for Mayor Hedrick. We were laughing at his likely somewhat tall tale when Lucy dropped her fork, her eyes turned white, and for a few seconds, she was just…gone.

“Lucy,” I cried, jumping up to run to her.

Sam put his arm around her to keep her upright. “What’s happening to her?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. Her eyes looked like that in the daywalkers’ cave, too. It went away, but…I thought it went away.”

Apparently, whatever had happened to her in those caves had apparently just been lying dormant.

Sam tightened his grip around her shoulders and shook her, just a tiny bit. “Should we call Doctor Hayes?”

“She’s not sick or hurt,” I murmured, leaning down to look into her spooky eyes. “He can’t help her.”

It was Ash who brought her back. He put his front feet on her leg and whined, and every time he’d give a little bark, Lucy’s body would jerk.

“Kait,” Zach said, watching from across the table. “Put Ash on her lap.”

Sam stood and pulled Lucy’s chair away from the table, and I lifted Ash to her legs. He immediately began licking her face, whimpering quietly, and in seconds, Lucy came out of her trance.

She wrapped her arms around him and looked at us, confused. “How did…what happened?”

I crouched beside her and took her hand. “It was like you went away for a minute. Your eyes turned white, the way they did in the caves. Are you okay?”

“I fell asleep,” she realized, finally. “In the middle of dessert.” She squeezed my hand. “Take Ash.”

I stood and took Ash from her, and he was perfectly happy to trot to Remy to get a bite of food. “I’ve seen some freaky shit in my life,” Remy said, “but that’s right up there with the freakiest of them.”

Lucy leaned against Sam. “I had a dream. I dreamed about the woman in the attic…sort of.” She frowned. “She’s in a tall white house. Her cat has been put outside—it’s on the porch, waiting, poor thing. It didn’t look well. The cat is white, like the house.” She looked at me. “Like the ghost who waits with it. I think the spirit might be her mother. She’s waiting on the porch for help. She knows when help comes, it’ll be from someone like you.” She swallowed hard and pressed her lips together. “That’s the first time I’ve ever been inside the thoughts of a ghost. Or anyone other than the victim.”

Zach brought her a glass of water, which she took gratefully, drinking half before she continued. Then she said the thing I was hoping she wouldn’t say.

“I don’t know where she is.”

“You were there,” Sam said. “You saw the house, the porch.”

“That’sright,”I said. “Tell me everything you saw, everything you heard. Close your eyes and go back there. Take me with you, Lucy.”

She closed her eyes and began to talk, and in the end, she had the house number, the color of the car in the driveway—red—and the fact that the house was on a street in the city with otherhouses right beside it. She also saw the top of a building with the letters M-E across the front.

“Not in the Pocket,” I said, hurrying to grab my phone from the countertop where I’d left it.

“No, definitely not,” she assured me. “The houses are too nice for the Pocket.”

I called Max and gave him all the information. “Find me this house, Max.”

“On it,” he said, and ended the call.

I grabbed my keys. “I’m going to the city. Luce, if you think of anything else, call me.”