Till Death Do Us Part: A Paranormal Why Choose Romance (Vows Duet Book 1)

Chapter 50

Chapter 50

Present Day

This is worse than dying.

Watching Nova fall to pieces is devastating. Even more devastating is her declaration of love for all of us because it came on wings attached to death and murder.

Rohan holds her as she sobs, but we’re all crying, too. At least it sounds like we all are, though tears aren’t flowing as proof. Jimmy stoops down, wrapping his arm around both Rohan and Nova. I blink at that the closeness between the two men, but fuck if I care. I could use a damn hug myself right now.

With that, I step forward, collapsing to my knees and throwing my arms around all three of them, burying my nose into Nova’s hair. There’s a shift and then I feel one of them put a hand on my back too. I grunt as another body fights its way into position. Theodore joins our group hug, building a cocoon around Nova.

As absolutely right as this feels, I can feel the clock ticking, hanging over our heads and taunting us that will Rhea will return soon. I kiss the top of Nova’s head, her sobs having quieted, turning to gasping.

“We need to get you out of here, little Nova,” I whisper. “I don’t want you here when she gets back, especially if she realizes you know.”

Nova nods her head a few times in a jerky motion. “Okay,” she rasps, and we all start untangling from one another. “Okay, yes.”

The few minutes of touching our girl have given me a bit more energy. When Rhea was losing her shit, none of us knew what to do. If we touched Nova, Rhea would see us. But we couldn’t do anything to protect her either. Something about how we had been panicking had manifested itself in electrical pulses throughout the entire house. I don’t think Nova had even realized that half the appliances in the kitchen were beeping and turning off and on as Rhea raged.

But the result was all of us feeling drained, weak. Like we need to go to that space between and rest for a while.

That isn’t happening anytime soon.

Once she is on her feet, she stares down at the wallets and swallows hard, her throat bobbing. “What did she do with…with your bodies?” she whispers.

Fuck. Not now.

“Sweet girl, let’s get you out of here and we can talk about that later,” Jimmy suggests.

No, no, no. I can see the wheels turning in her head, her brow furrowing.

“How did she even get you alone?”

I close my eyes. “Nova, we don’t have time to go through all of this,” I plead. “We will tell you. I swear to fucking God we will tell you. But not until you’re out of here.”

Her eyes flash with hysteria. “What is in her room? Why can’t I go into her room?”

We freeze, every single one of us guys freeze, and it’s a dead giveaway. I try to think of a way to explain part and not all of it right at this fucking second. My eyes dart to the freezer compartment of the fridge as I wonder if that would be the easiest thing to reveal quickly.

Yes, because cannibalism is so simple.

Sorry, Nova. Your sister didn’t just murder us in cold blood, she also cooked us up and ate us.

I dismiss the idea, but as I turn my attention back to Nova, her gaze follows the path my eyes had traced. As soon as she lands on the refrigerator, she steps toward it.

Jimmy seizes her arm, stopping her. “Glass,” he reminds her. “Come on, let’s go get some of your things.”

Nova doesn’t take her eyes off the fridge. “Veal,” she murmurs, then squeezes her eyes shut so that her entire face wrinkles. “It isn’t veal. Is it?”

Her voice sounds so dull, so hopeless, that it cuts into me. I withhold my groan, preparing to give her another blunt truth since I’m the fucking one who looked at the fridge.

“No.” I’m saved from answering by Theodore. “It isn’t veal, baby girl.”

I swear she turns green, just like in the cartoons. “She tried to feed me—”

She doubles over with no warning, heaving. Stomach bile splashes over the mess still scattered over the floor, soaking into loose papers. Rohan is there in an instant, pulling back her hair until she’s done, putting his chilled hand on the back of her neck.

Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she straightens when the vomiting stops, but she still looks like she might be ill as she looks at each of us.

“She couldn’t have eaten”—she pauses, clamping a hand over her mouth for a moment—“all of the bodies. Bones, other stuff. What did she do with them?”

Them. Not you.

That must feel safer.

“The parts she didn’t want are buried in the backyard,” Jimmy answers quietly.

“You had sex with her.”

I hate how I want to look away when she says it, her voice clear, confident, her eyes assessing as she takes a moment to watch each of us. She nods as if getting confirmation.

“That’s how she got you here. That’s why you were here,” she whispers, bowing her head.

“I’m sorr—”

Nova cuts me off with a wave of her hand. “I don’t—just no. I don’t want to know.”

Theodore walks to her, cupping her face. “Nova baby, we need to get you out of here. I know this is a lot. I know you’re in shock. But we need to get you out before she comes back.”

Her head swivels around as if she didn’t hear him, her eyes locking on the hallway with huge eyes. “What’s in her room?” she mutters under her breath. “What’s in her room?”

Trying to stop her, Theodore takes her arm, but she sloughs him off and races down the hallway, leaving us to scramble after her.

“We’re going to have to pick her up and carry her out,” Jimmy yells. “She isn’t listening.”

“She’s in shock,” Theodore shouts back. “She’s got no rationalization right now.”

“She seems to be rationalizing shit just fine,” I snap.

Nova slams her shoulder into Rhea’s door, turning the knob. It flies open.

I’d never thought about it, never considered the fact that Rhea kept her door unlocked. Nova could have entered at any time. But Rhea knew she wouldn’t. She knew Nova would never disobey the rules. And that—maybe that is why Rhea lost her shit earlier. It wasn’t because of Jimmy or Tilly. It was because Nova wasn’t who she thought she was. She wasn’t who Rhea wanted her to be.

We cram ourselves through the doorway, fighting to get into the room, before I realize I can think myself into different places. While Jimmy and Theodore struggle with me to enter, I vanish and reappear a few feet into the room, standing between Nova and the closet door she’s staring at. Her eyes had swept the room, but zeroed in on the closet immediately.

“What is in there, Koda?” she asks, voice deceptively calm.

“Nova, please,” I plead. “Leave the house. We will tell you later.”

“I need to know,” she whispers. “I need to see it.”

“We’re already here,” Theodore sighs. “Show her. We’re wasting more time fighting her. But then you go,” he adds, a bite to his order as he and Nova share a glance.

I move out of the way, hands up, closing my eyes. I don’t want to see this. We’ve destroyed so much of her today already. There’s hardly any shred of her innocence, that wide eye naivety, left to corrupt.

Throwing my arms over my head, like I can protect myself from hearing and seeing her response, I brace myself. The closet door opens, the hinges giving a whisper of a protest, and the light switch flips on, and then…

Silence. Pure silence.

It becomes too much, the silence deafening, and I dare to look, to see what is happening. Nova stands in the closet’s opening, her eyes trailing over the jars lining the shelves.

“Eleven,” she murmurs, the word holding more sorrow than anything I’ve ever heard. She sucks in a quick breath as her gaze lands on the bloodstained hammer. “That’s the…?”

“That’s how,” I confirm.

She turns around to face us slowly, clarity developing in her gaze like she’s just waking up. “I have to call the police. I have to show them.”

“From Tilly’s,” Rohan agrees. “You can call from Tilly’s, love.”

Sucking in a shuddering breath, she nods. “Yes. Get me out of here, please.”

Those words sting because I can’t get her out here—she’s got to do it herself.

The front door slams.

We freeze, Nova’s eyes widening with fear.

I haven’t prayed often in my life, but I pray hard as fuck that it is Tilly that just walked through that door, and not Rhea.

It isn’t Tilly.

Male chatter reaches us, followed by a nervous laugh. “Man, what happened in here?”

The second we hear him speak, Nova begins breathing too heavy and too fast, her red-rimmed eyes wider than I have ever seen them.

“Kid sister was being a little shit,” comes Rhea’s answer. “She was supposed to clean this up while I was gone. I’ll deal with her later.”

“Oh, my God. She’s planning to kill him,” Nova whispers, more to herself, I think.

Rhea definitely is. She only brings back strangers the first time if she’s planning to kill them outright. How in the fuck she found him so fast at nine in the morning is beyond me.

I hear glass crunch and then cupboards thump. I could pop into there, see what’s going on, but I’m sure as fuck not leaving Nova.

“Kinda early for a drink, yeah?” the guy says, almost teasing. He sounds unsure, like he doesn’t understand why Rhea is pulling out whiskey.

“Just to break the ice,” Rhea responds smoothly.

“We need to get her out of here,” Jimmy hisses.

Yes, but how? I’m not sure what Rhea’s game is here. She ordered Nova to stay, but isn’t seeking her out. She brought a man back to murder, but she knows she’s not alone if Nova obeyed her. If she sees baby sister, how will she react?

“I’m not leaving without him,” Nova murmurs, her tone brokering no argument. “I’m not letting my sister kill anyone else.”

Theodore throws his hands up in the air, exasperated, looking this close to beating his head against a wall. I’d laugh if this wasn’t the most fucked up situation on earth right now, and I wasn’t right there with him.

“Phone,” I say suddenly. “Call the cops from your phone.”

Nova’s face is ashen as she looks at me. “I left it out there.”

I want to scream at the world, God, and any other entity that might have a bearing on fate.

Glasses thunk down on the countertop and I lunge for Nova, dragging her to the door. She can go into the bathroom, anywhere is better than in here.

Too late. The guy is talkative, driven by nerves, letting me know that they’re walking into the hall, heading straight for us. I backtrack, unsure of what to do or where to hide Nova. I glance at the closet at the same time she does, but then she puts a hand on my chest.

“Let go of me,” she whispers. “She’ll see you.”

“I don’t give a shit,” I snarl.

She pats my chest once and then removes her hand. “I need to do this,” she replies, angling her head and I blink when her green eyes appear to glow.

I let go out of surprise more than agreement, and just in time. Rhea pauses just before her door when she sees it open and then charges in. She glowers at Nova, taking in the open closet behind her.

“What have you done, Rhea?” Nova asks softly. “What did you do?”

The guy Rhea has picked up takes a swift step back as he surveys the standoff. “Whoa. I don’t know what’s going on, but maybe this isn’t a good—”

“Shut up,” Rhea growls at him.

“Run,” Nova tells him at the same time. “She’s going to kill you if you don’t.”

I angle myself in front of Nova, preparing myself to touch her so I can take the brunt of Rhea’s attack when it comes. But she doesn’t charge Nova like I expect, tossing a dark laugh her way instead.

Before anyone can react, Rhea spins around and sinks the knife she’d been concealing into the man’s gut.