“Go ahead,” I said.
“She’s hosting a party,” he began.
“So?’ Elias asked.
“Elias, there were demons invited. And vamps.” Jasper shook his head. “It was something big.”
“You sure?” Elias. “Demons? Could you make out details?”
He shook his head. “I could feel them but I’m not sure who they were.”
“How many?” I asked.
“We counted about a hundred,” he said.
I looked over at my brother. His brow was furrowed in concentration. “You think she’s building allies?”
“That or it was an auction,” Elias said. “She’s clearly showing off the stone, though. She has to be using that as her claim for more power. Or she’s looking for a friend to unlock it for her.”
“Let me ask a few questions.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and walked to the kitchen.
“You think it’s safe to check with your contacts right now?” I called after him.
“I’ve got one or two I trust,” he said.
“Like Cain?” I looked over my shoulder in time to see him flipping me off.
His ego was going to be our undoing. Not everyone was on our side. I was starting to think nobody was. How could we even trust the people in this building? Aside from Jasper and Hadrian, I wasn’t certain about anyone.
“You should return,” I said to Jasper. “Don’t leave your brother alone again. I’ll come relieve you as soon as we get a break from the human.”
“Didn’t crack her?” Jasper asked.
“Not sure yet,” I admitted.
“Try some hematite,” he said. “Always worked for my mom.”
I laughed. “I forgot about that. But it really did, didn’t it?”
“When she wasn’t wearing that necklace, she couldn’t remember shit,” he said with a grin.
We’d used that to our advantage a few times when we were younger. The twins’ mom had been cursed when she was young and her memory was shot. She had to wear a hematite necklace to keep her memory working. I couldn’t believe I didn’t think of that before. “I’ll see if the Mage has any. Thanks, Jasper.”
He nodded and headed for the door. It glowed pink for a moment as he passed through, then returned to normal. Shelly was a crazy powerful mage. I’d never known anyone who could make such exact wards. All of us could get in and out, but to anyone else, the house didn’t even appear. I hoped it would hold long enough for us to do what we needed to do.
Elias walked back in. “My contacts don’t know anything about a party tonight.”
“I hope you didn’t give us away for nothing,” I said.
“Have a little faith in me,” he said. “We’re not going to pull this off if we don’t work together.”
“Right. On that note, I need to talk to the mage.” I ran up the steps and knocked on the door.
Shelly opened it. “What now?”
“Hematite.”
Her brow furrowed, then her eyes widened in understanding. She pushed past me out the door and raced down the steps. I was still trying to decide if I should go into the room and talk to the human or if I should go back down to where Elias was sulking when she returned.