“Not anymore,” he replied, closing the bathroom door behind him.
Melissa let herself fall backward onto the closest bed. The last few hours of their drive had been silent. Not that she’d minded. Unlike the first night, it was not an uncomfortable quiet. Besides, she’d appreciated the extra time to sort through the revelations swimming in her mind.
She’d never really thought about the kind of life necromancers were forced to live. Never even imagined that they’d have a reason to protest their treatment. It shamed her that she’d held balls and fundraisers for every human rights charity in New York, and not once had she thought about the prejudices and disparities in her own community.
The sound of running water filled the air as she contemplated her next move. Tarian was keeping her close in order to help his cause when they reached the city, but maybe she could be more than merely a witness that not all necromancers were evil.
Crawling across the bed she reached for the phone on the nightstand. This time Tarian had been too preoccupied to strip their room of anything technological. With her companion occupied, this could be her only chance to contact her family. She wasn’t going to waste it.
Luckily she’d never gotten used to the modern cell phone world with programmed numbers instead of good old-fashioned address books. The numbers of those most important to her were branded in her mind.
Her fingers paused over the keys as she debated who to call. Lucian would be impossible to calm over the phone but luckily for her, he now came attached at the hip to a far more serene mate.
The line rang as she waited for Abbey to pick up. Leaving a voicemail would be less than ideal.
“Hello?” Abbey said as the call connected. She sounded tired, and Melissa winced at the time.
“Abbey,” she said. “Hi.”
The sounds of scrambling movements and rustling covers met her ears.
“Melissa?” Abbey demanded, her voice high-pitched. “Where are you? Are you all right? We’ll come get you.”
“No, listen. I’m fine. I’m on my way home right now. We should be there in two nights or so.”
There was a pause. “We?”
“That’s the other reason I’m calling,” she said. “When I get to town I need to introduce Lucian to someone, and I need you to prep him on the idea so father doesn’t rip him limb from limb.”
“Does this have anything to do with Tarian’s mysterious disappearance?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” she lied. The last thing she wanted was for Lucian to hunt down Tarian’s home and discover his sister living within the city limits. “But I need you to start promoting the idea that not all necromancers are evil.”
Abbey snorted. “I have an infinitely slim chance of accomplishing that.”
“I’ve seen the way Lucian looks at you,” she replied. “You can convince him of anything.”
“Why should I? You can’t tell me they aren’t behind the kidnapping.”
“Look, the people who took me don’t stand for the whole group. Someone else is helping me and it’s…challenging a lot of my previous beliefs.”
“That’s all well and good of you to have an open mind, but you have no idea the hell Lucian and I have gone through since you left.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I would never have put you in that situation if I had a choice.”
“Be prepared for a whole army of bodyguards when you’re home,” Abbey said.
“Fine, but one problem at a time. Will you make sure Lucian is home two nights from now? We’ll probably be in early, so I doubt he’ll need to take the whole night off.”
“If you think he’s not going to yell at you and threaten to destroy the necromancers for ten hours straight, you really don’t have much concept of what’s been going on here.”
She groaned. “Fair enough. I’ll come up to the apartment as soon as we hit the city.”
“With your friend.”
“My rescuer,” she stressed. “Father is not allowed to remove his head the second he steps through the door.”
“I make no promises,” Abbey said, her voice growing serious. “This situation is not okay, Melissa, and I’m not going to try and convince Lucian it is.”
“I get that. Tell father I love him. I’ll be home soon.”
“Stay safe.”
Melissa hung up the phone as she battled a pang of homesickness. How she wished she could just take a plane and not have to worry about showing up on Dominic’s radar again.
“Finished?”
She turned to see Tarian stepping from the bathroom. Not only was he still fully clothed, his hair wasn’t the least bit damp.