Chapter 12
“Blood magic?” Hasan repeats, eyes going from me to Jacques, not sure which one of us will explain it. All I know is it’s bad, considered black magic, and that it’s something I’d never attempt once I figure out how to actually do any sort of magic.
“That’s why we’re bound to you,” Jacques says dryly. “By blood.”
It takes a few seconds for his words to sink in. But when they do, a chill runs down my spine. “I’m related to her.” I bring my arms in over my chest. “To Braeya.”
“It appears so.” Jacques takes a step back. “And it makes sense. You said it yourself: there was a reason we were moved to this house. And the moment you stepped through the door…”
“You look just like her,” Thomas says. “From what I’ve seen, at least.”
“You do.” Jacques is right by me again, large, dark wings hiding the others from view. He reaches out, fingertips sweeping over my cheek. His touch is familiar, though this time, it’s not from the visions. It’s from just us being together.
Me and him.
Not Braeya. It’s strange, how seeing the world through her eyes forced me to separate her feelings from mine. Did it do the same for Jacques?
“But you’re nothing like her,” he adds softly. “Your heart…” He pushes my hair back. “Your heart is pure.”
“There are plenty who will disagree with that.” A slight blush comes to my cheeks. I’m far from pure, though I think I understand what Jacques is saying. “So, if I just give you some of my blood can we break this curse?”
“It’s not that easy.”
“Of course not.” I bring my hand to my head, rubbing my temple. “I feel like I just got done with a long workout.” I look over at Thomas. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. A little singed, but fine.” He holds out his hands so I can see the marks, which look like bad sunburn. “I’ve had worse.”
Not protesting as Jacques leads me to the couch, I sink down and smile. “I kinda can’t believe I did that.”
“You should have no doubt in your powers now,” Jacques tells me. “Braeya’s family came from a long line of powerful sorcerers.”
“The bloodline has been watered down some, right? I mean, Braeya is like my great, great, great, great, great aunt or grandma or something. With a few more greats in there. The line is a thousand years old.”
“Blood is blood,” Hasan says from behind me. He comes around to the couch, sitting next to me. He’s concerned, and takes my hand, looking me over just to be sure I’m really all right. “And magic isn’t passed the same way.”
“Right. It can skip generations.” Jacques blows out the candles.
“So my mom might not have ever had powers,” I say out loud.
“And your aunt who lived here…I don’t think she did, either.”
Head spinning, I bring my legs up under myself and rest my head on Hasan’s shoulder. He loops his arm around me, pulling me in so I’m nestled between his wing and his body.
“Right,” I start. “Because if she did, you would have woken up the moment she walked through the door. Maybe she knew I did? Fuck,” I sigh, and shake my head.
“This would be so much easier if I could just talk to her.” I bite the inside of my cheek.
Obviously, I can channel the past. I have that book on summoning spirits, and what better way to figure this shit out than to ask someone who has the answers.
“No.” Jacques turns, wings sweeping behind him so fast they create a draft through the air that blows out the candles and scatters the salt across the floor. “It’s not that easy.”
“What’s not that easy?” Gilbert asks.
“Summoning a spirit.”
Gilbert shifts his gaze to me. “Who do you want to summon?”
“No one,” I say, getting agitated. I can fight vampires, hold fire in my hand, and go back a thousand years. I think I can handle summoning one little ghost. “I’m not summoning anything.” I yawn and my eyelids feel heavy. My body is tired, but there’s no way I can slow down my mind.
Not right now.
“Jac?”
“Yes, Ace?”
I swallow hard and sit up. “I’m sorry for what she did to you.”
His lips curve into a small smile. “I don’t blame you, Ace. I never did. You’re not her.”
“No. I’m not.” Needing a drink, I get up and go into the kitchen.
Something feels weird, and I can’t describe it any better than that.
It’s like I had a bit too much to drink, as well as too many coffees, and am walking into a room full of static electricity.
I hold my hand up, trying to get a better feel.
“Are you all right, Ace?” Gilbert asks, coming into the kitchen.
“I think so.” I bring my hand down. “Something feels…off.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“I can’t. It just…it doesn’t feel right.”
Gilbert steps closer and the feeling grows stronger.
“Wait,” I say, and he stops. “Back up.”
He takes a few steps back, and the weird feeling fades.
“Come closer.”
He does, and the feeling gets stronger. I step in front of him, closing my eyes and resting my hands on his chest. “I think I’m still feeling the curse. Do you guys feel it all the time?”
He shrugs, taking my hands in his. “It would make sense if we did since we’re cursed, but it’s been so long I don’t know what normal feels like anymore.”
“Hopefully I can fix that.”
“I don’t know if I want to be normal.”
I tip my head to the side, twisting my hand around in his so I can slip my fingers through his. “What do you mean?”
“The curse breaks and then what? What happens to us?”
My heart thumps. It was a thought that crossed my mind more than once, and one I didn’t want to think about. I finally found someone I could trust. The guys know me—the real me—and I know them. I didn’t want to think about them leaving after the curse was lifted.
“I don’t know,” I confess.
“I like you, Ace. You’re powerful and sexy and unlike anyone I’ve ever met. I like this world. And I like having the powers of a gargoyle. But I miss the sun and not having to hide in a house.”
“You miss living.”
“Yes. I want to live with you. But all the time.”
There’s nothing more I want either, but I haven’t the slightest idea how to make it happen.
Gil wraps his arms around me, and exhaustion finally hits.
I lean against him for a minute, then tip my head up and part my lips.
He leans down and kisses me, and the feeling of his tongue in my mouth sends tingles right through me, warming my pussy and making me wet.
“Want me to fuck you and then rub your back until you fall asleep?”
“When you talk like that, I definitely want you to stay with me too.”
He chuckles and scoops me up, turning to go up the back stairs. I hook my arms around his neck, kissing him once more. And then my phone rings.
“Dammit. That’s work,” I sigh, hearing the specific ringtone I have set for the station come through the house. “I can ignore it if we’re fast.”
“I can make you come in minutes, Ace.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that. But what about you?” I run my hand down his chest, not wanting him to put me down yet. “I don’t want to shortchange you.”
“I’d rather take care of you. If I have to finish myself off I can. And then you can fuck me properly when you get back.”
“Mmmm, I like this idea.”
My phone rings again almost as soon as the first call ended, and it’s work again.
“Maybe you should get that,” Gilbert grumbles. “There could have been another murder.”
“You’re right.” He sets me down and I wobble, feeling a little lightheaded. Gilbert loops his arm around me, holding me steady.
“You said you were all right.”
“I am. I’m just a little dizzy, that’s all.”
“Sit.” He pulls out a kitchen chair and goes into the living room to get my phone.
“Bisset,” I say into the phone as soon as I answer. My head swims, and the spinning hasn’t stopped. I need to lie down and close my eyes until I’ve recovered from using magic.
“Hey, Ace,” the officer on the phone says, and I recognize his voice right away. It’s Nick, one of the few people at work to call me by my first name even though I prefer it the other way around. “We might have found your murder weapon.”
“Where?”
“In an alley two blocks from the coffee shop. We got the scene roped off, and the jeweler across the street has surveillance cameras. She’s on her way in to run the tapes for us.”
“Text me the address. I’m on my way.” I hang up and close my eyes, inhaling deeply. Maybe a coffee will help? And some Advil. And maybe another taco, because using magic makes me hungry.
“I don’t think you should go anywhere,” Gilbert says slowly, hating the words he’s saying. He doesn’t like being told what to do, and he doesn’t have to say it for me to know he feels bad telling me what to do. But I can’t disagree right now.
“I’ll be fine in a few minutes. They think they found the murder weapon and might have a recording of the guy ditching it.”
“Fuck. I wish I could take you.”
“That’d be nice.”
He pulls up a chair next to me and presses the back of his hand to my forehead. “You feel hot. I thought you did before, but I was hoping you were just hot for me.” His cheeky grin does little to hide his concern. “Maybe I should get Jac—”
“I’m fine,” I interrupt, but as each second passes, I feel less and less fine. I exhausted myself and need a few minutes to recover. That’s all. “Can you get me some water? I’ll rest a bit, then I’ll go.”
Gilbert’s full lips press into a thin line, and worry takes over his young, handsome face. He gets up, wings swooshing behind him, and brings me a glass of water. I chug half of it down and feel much better.
“I’ll sit here a minute,” I say to appease him. How the fuck am I supposed to break the curse when doing something simple like this wears me out? I fold my arms on the table and rest my head. A minute later the spinning stops. I finish the water, use the bathroom, and feel back to normal.
“You rebounded your energy,” Jacques says, startling me a bit as I step out of the bathroom. “Try grounding yourself next time after you open a circle.”
I nod, debating whether to tell him I have no idea what that means or wait until I get back. Turns out the look on my face says it all.
“You took in energy from your surroundings and your body isn’t used to it. But that’s a step in the right direction. You’ll get the hang of this, Ace.”
That explains why I felt so weird right after. “Where did the energy go?”
“Inside you somewhere.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Sounds dirty.”
To my surprise, Jacques actually laughs at my lame joke. The amusement is fleeting, though, and his brow furrows. “It makes you stand out, Ace.”
“Stand out to who?”
“Demons.”
My heart skips a beat, and everything he said about my parents comes rushing back.
“Right.” I hold up my hand, feeling my fingertips tingle with heat. “I’ll be ready if they attack.”
Jacques lifts his hand, putting it right up to mine. “We will be too.”
“Good boy,” I tell Maximus, patting him on the head.
The dog turns to me, ears flattening as he sniffs my hand.
“I know. I smell weird,” I say softly. “Don’t freak out.
” The dog found the baseball bat, half hidden under the dumpster, when his owner was taking him for a walk.
The owner heard about the murder this morning and called the police when he thought he saw blood.
I retrace the steps our killer might have taken, going from the alley to the coffee shop.
He wanted to take Josh out back, probably to a car he had waiting.
Had he driven through the alley and tossed the bat out the window in a panic?
He missed the dumpster and didn’t stop to pick it up. He left in a hurry.
The murder didn’t go according to plan, yet he still set it up and claimed it. Unless he really thinks he’s framing someone. We were careful with the details we let the press know about with Lily’s murder, and even more tight-lipped this time around.
Thinking back to the criminal psychology classes I took in college, I’m not sure how to classify this guy.
He has a Zodiac Killer-vibe going on with the cryptic crime scenes, but I fully believe he’s setting them up that way to try and trick everyone, not confuse and mislead the cops.
He’s not trying to take credit, not yet at least, which is why he got rid of the bat.
He had to cross two main roads to get to this block, and several stores have back doors that open into the alley.
I make notes of their names and will have officers go to them later to see if there’s any footage or if anyone saw a car speeding through here early in the morning.
We’ve questioned everyone we could so far around the coffee shop, but with the murder being so early in the morning, not many places were open and occupied.
I’m walking back to the dumpster when the voices rush up on me.
I whirl around, not knowing what to expect.
It’s like a crowd of whispers, too far away to decipher what’s being said yet right up in my ears at the same time.
My head spins, and the energy that rebounded inside me bubbles up, making both my hands heat up.
The feeling of being watched weighs heavily on me, and it’s not coming from the officers a hundred or so yards down. Swallowing my pounding heart, I keep my hands at my sides, ready for a fight. I’m basically a beacon of magical energy right now, and demons are like moths to a flame.
My mind goes back to the bloody basement, back to the words written in black ink under the animal blood. The situation was chalked up to a prank, and is the last thing I need to be thinking about right now. So why the fuck does it keep popping up in my mind?
“Find anything?” Nick’s voice echoes off the brick buildings, too loud in my ears. I ball my fists and force myself to take in slow, steady breaths.
“No.” I walk back down to the dumpster. “Killer must have panicked. The murder already didn’t go as he wanted. He was worried about getting caught. Let’s check traffic lights in the area around the time of the murder. See if anyone ran a red or got caught speeding.”
The bat is bagged and tagged, taken back for evidence. I’m sure we’ll get matching fingerprints, along with Josh’s blood, if not Lily’s too. The lawyer who takes on this case is going to have an easy win in court.
I just need to find the murderer.