IM03 - Pandora's Box by Katie Salidas Read Free Book Online Page B

washed away the bloody tears in the bathroom while Fallon booted her laptop and started uploading the pictures she’d taken with her camera.
    “Crystal, can you read any of these symbols?” Fallon asked as the pictures flashed across her screen.
    Crystal wiped her eyes and cleared her throat. She stood and took a few wobbly steps toward the table. “Let me have a look.”
    Fallon turned the laptop.
    “Sorry, no.” She rasped the words, her voice thick with grief. “This language is something before my time.”
    “Fallon.” I joined them at the table. “Do you remember what Lysander had us look up before we took off? Maybe there’s something we missed?”
    “Sure, let me pull up a few searches.” Fallon clicked away at the keys and in seconds had a search engine page with multiple results.
    I forced a smile on my face. “You’re so good at this stuff.”
    “It’s not like I’m doing anything special. The search engine does all the work. I’m just typing in keywords.”
    “I just want you to know I appreciate all you do to help the clan.” If that thing attacked us again, I wanted to make sure Fallon knew how much I cherished having her around. I’d never gotten to tell Rozaline that before she died. 
    Fallon stared at me for a moment, her eyes narrowed, and a mixture of confusion and worry flashed across her face.
    “So what was it you were researching?” Crystal asked, bringing us back on task.
    Fallon turned toward her. “Lysander deciphered two words on the box. One was a name I can’t remember, the other was a place. Arcadia. That led us to werewolves and Kallisto. However, there was nothing other than Kallisto’s name to connect vampires and werewolves. Nowhere in any of the legends does it mention why a spirit would be involved with both.”
     “Kallisto was a very old and powerful vampire. At least the one we knew was. But what would she have to do with werewolves?” Crystal pursed her lips and turned to walk to one of the two beds against the wall.
    Fallon clicked on one of the links. A new page loaded on her screen. “According to one search...” She quickly skimmed over the results. “Kallisto was the daughter of a guy who was turned into a werewolf. But he was turned after she was sent to the stars. Something having to do with being romantically involved with Zeus.”
    “Lysander said the interpretation means she was turned into a vampire, not literally sent off into space,” I added.
    Crystal sat down at the edge of the bed. “Well, that would certainly be a good interpretation if his Kallisto is the Kallisto from legend. There may have been other women named Kallisto throughout history.” She twirled a lock of her curly brown hair around her finger and stared off into space. “Even if she is the Kallisto, that still doesn’t explain the correlation with the spirit. It only connects vampires and werewolves in mythology. I’m sure just about anything supernatural can be connected by myths. That really doesn’t give us much to go on.”
    “Aren’t werewolves and vampires supposed to hate each other?” Fallon clicked on random links as they popped up on her screen. 
    “Why would you think that?” Crystal asked with a hint of confusion in her voice.
    “I’m trying to see if there might be more involved with this legend. What if the werewolves hated that Kallisto became a vampire? What if they held a grudge? I don’t know.” Fallon groaned in frustration and threw her hands into the air. “I’m not finding any answers here. The movies always portray them as enemies.”
    “Don’t believe everything you watch in movies, dear.” Crystal’s lips tightened. “Vampires and werewolves are no more enemies than you and I. In all honesty, Fallon, you’ll find very little prejudice among the supernatural races.”
    “Really?” Fallon turned around to face Crystal. “You’re all friends?”
    “Well, potentially, yes.” She let out a soft laugh. “Our communities are