Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Sorcha was glad she was sitting down. “I can’t be Aztec. It’s not possible.”
“I can’t speak to that fact, only that I know what I tasted. You carry the blood of the gods.”
She held her hands up. “Please give me a moment to process.” Scowling, she met his gaze. “Can you tell anything else?”
“No. Just the power that flows inside you.”
Great. He made her sound like a transponder. Her mind whirled. Who had wandered into her gene pool she didn’t know about?
But then in a weird way it made sense. “Is that why I see ghosts?”
“Probably. Xolotl was a psychopomp. He would send out his hounds to help gather the dead and escort them through the underworld and navigate the perils there. You seeing dead people would make sense.”
Sorcha had no idea how to deal with this. “I need to call my mom.”
Getting up, she retrieved her phone and dialed it.
“Hey, baby. Good morning. Everything okay?”
Sorcha hated to hear the dread in her mother’s tone. It had never been there before Siobhan’s death. Now, her mother panicked any time Sorcha called outside her “normal” time.
Even though Luke didn’t need it to hear, she put the phone on speaker and held it in her hand. “I’m fine. I was sitting here talking to my partner—”
Luke plopped on the couch next to her. “Hi, Mrs. O’Malley.”
“Hi, Luke. You taking care of my girl?”
“Always. Even took a bullet for her last night.”
Silence descended.
Eyes wide, Sorcha glared at him and quickly added, “Metaphorically, Mom. Not a real bullet.”
Luke sucked his breath in sharply as he realized he’d come close to giving the poor woman a heart attack. “I’m so sorry, Mrs. O’Malley. I wasn’t thinking. I’ll never say that again.”
“It’s okay, Luke. I know you didn’t mean anything by that. I’m very grateful to have you protect her. I pray for both of you every night.”
If her mom only knew.
“Appreciate that, Mrs. O’Malley. Your prayers mean a lot.”
While most people would think he was mocking her mother’s faith, Sorcha knew better. Luke meant what he said. He did appreciate the good wishes.
That being said, he did find it amusing as he claimed her prayers could never help a beast like him.
“So why are you calling so early, sweetheart?”
“We’ve got an interesting case that we’re working, and I have an odd thing that’s bugging me. Do you know if you or Daddy have any Mexican or South American heritage?”
Her mom gave a nervous laugh. “Funny you should ask about that. Granddaddy always claimed his real father was a curandero who seduced his mother while her husband, your great-grandfather, was at war. He swore it was why he didn’t look anything like his siblings.”
Sorcha’s heart pounded at that. “Wait? What?”
“Well, you know how he was. He’d get in them moods and start saying all kinds of oddball things.”
That was true. He did have some creative thoughts. But this was a doozy. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about this?”
“Well, we’ve got no proof and I didn’t want you to think bad things of my grandmama.
She was a gentle lady who extolled virtue, and I don’t want anyone to ever think otherwise.
I believe it was just Grandpa’s fears that made him say that awful stuff.
He had an affair while he was in France during the war, and it was just easier on him to think she’d done the same so he wouldn’t have all the guilt he should have.
But my daddy always said that if it was true, it was where he thought he got his healing powers from. Why he saw things we couldn’t.”
That also made sense. Her maternal grandfather did have powers no one else did…
“Okay, Mama. Thank you for clearing that up.”
“Now don’t you go spreading that stuff. It’s just mean gossip. I don’t know why my daddy sees the things he does. Mama always said it was just his idiocies.”
“You mean idiosyncrasies?”
“Nope. Mama always said idiocy.”
Sorcha laughed. That did sound like her grandmother. “All right. I’m going to get back to work now.”
“All right, baby. Y’all be careful. Call or text me tonight before you go to bed.”
“Will do.”
“Love you.”
“Love you, too, Mom. Bye.” Sorcha hung up the phone.
Luke smiled. “I adore your mother.”
“She adores you, too.” Ever since her mother had met Luke and seen the size of him, she’d been thrilled that Sorcha had moved to Savannah. And even more thrilled that Luke was assigned as her partner.
Luke handed her another cup of coffee. “So now you believe me?”
“I believed you before, I just wanted to know how and why.”
He inclined his head. “And now you do.”
“Yeah, but it’s not great. My poor great-grandma.”
Luke shrugged. “You know the old saying. Mama’s baby. Daddy’s maybe.”
Growling, she gave him a menacing stare. “I hate that saying.”
“Even if you do, it’s the way of things. My dad had fun back in the day wreaking havoc with lineages. Makes me wonder why they ever traced the father’s line over the mother’s. Unless an ancient god gets tricky, you’re basically assured whoever births you is your direct genetic donor.”
She would have to give him that. “Yeah, well, I need a few minutes to wrap my head around this new information. It’s a weird place when you realize everything you thought you knew about your family is a lie…well, maybe that’s harsh. Not so much a lie as an intentional misleading.”
“Don’t be harsh on them. Times were different back then.”
Yes, they were. Still… “I remember being told that my grandfather was a preemie. I’m thinking now that he wasn’t. She just lied about his birth to protect herself.”
Luke nodded. “There were a lot of those back in the day. For that exact reason.”
And still Sorcha’s thoughts whirled. Was that really why she and her grandfather had their powers?
It didn’t seem right. There were other family members who couldn’t be related to the curandero who had powers. Ability to see and do paranormal things hadn’t originated with him.
She had family who’d been burned in Europe during the witch trials.
“Take a deep breath, Sorcha. I can feel your stress.”
That made her laugh. “Well, if stress burned calories, I’d be a supermodel.”
Luke fell silent at those words. She was so much more than a supermodel to him. While he definitely appreciated her looks, it was her other qualities that had twisted themselves through his heart.
Beautiful women he could get any time or place. In Hell, they were more common than third-degree burns. While his father liked to take the looks from some, he enhanced the looks of others…to help torture the ones who’d lost their looks.
With Sorcha…
Even her blood had been sweet. He couldn’t get the feel of holding her out of his mind. It was taking everything he had to keep his body calm.
Because right now, he was acutely aware of the fact that he had a bed in the next room that was filled with her scent.
Okay, that had been a stupid thought as it set his groin on fire.
Damn.
Pressing his thumb in between his eyes, he soothed his grimace and considered other options.
Now that they knew she was divine in origin, it changed a lot of things.
He really regretted how little he knew about the Aztec people. While he knew more than most about many topics, there were others where he had a giant gaping hole.
No particular reason for that, other than he’d been a lazy layabout in Hell and had enjoyed it. Research and work had been unknown to him until he’d been banished.
“So what’s our game plan?” Sorcha asked, breaking in on his thoughts.
“Keep you alive,” he said simply.
“I like the sound of that. But what are you thinking?”
He wasn’t about to answer that because he didn’t want her to know where his thoughts were going. At least not at the moment.
Verify before horrify. No need to get her upset when he might be wrong.
“Let me get showered and we’ll get with Captain Suave and see if he’s come up with anything new.”
Sorcha scowled at him. “Captain Suave?”
“Your winged boyfriend.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “You have wings, too. I’ve seen them.”
“But I’m not your boyfriend.” Sadly. And that was a thought he’d never say out loud.
Sighing at the thought, he got up and headed to his room. He glanced back to see Sorcha ruffle Trinket’s furry head.
To his surprise, Trinket purred.
That was the real magic Sorcha wielded. Her ability to tame creatures like them.
The untamable.
I will protect you.
No matter what, he was going to make sure she didn’t end up like her sister.