Chapter 9
Idrop the necklace as if it’s poisonous, staring at it with horror. Jacques doesn’t move. His lips part and a few seconds tick by before he raises his gaze to mine. My heart is racing and I’m starting to feel as panicked as I was in the dream. The door bursts open and the rest of the guys rush in.
“Ace,” Thomas starts. “What’s wrong?”
Right. They can sense when I’m in danger or when I’m scared shitless. And right now I’m both.
“This.” I point to the necklace on the bed.
Gil comes over and picks it up. “Is it cursed or something?”
“Or something.” Jacques gets out of bed, pacing to the other side of the room.
“I’m not following.” Gil sits next to me, and seeing how I’m still freaked the fuck out, puts his arm around me. I turn on the bedside lamp and scoot back in close to him, feeling tucked in and safe with his arm and his wing behind me.
“I had a dream that Braeya gave that to me.” I apprehensively reach out and take the necklace. “And then I woke up and it was around my neck.”
“Why would she give you a necklace?” Thomas asks.
Jacques turns around. “Because I gave it to her.”
Silence falls over the room, and I look at the necklace. Something is engraved in the gold in Latin.
“On nobis, Domie, non nobis, sed Nomini tuo da gloriam,” Gilbert says softly, not having to read it directly off the cross. “It was the Knights’ motto. It means, ‘Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name give glory.’”
“Sounds like a cult,” I grumble, and he smiles, gently taking the necklace from my hand. He gives it to Hasan, who places it on the dresser and stares at it with disdain. “Now what?”
We all look at Jac, who seems too spooked to think rationally right now. He’s been my Mr. Giles this whole time, teaching and guiding me through this new world of magic. Seeing him unsettled makes my stomach twist into knots.
“Banishing spell,” I say. “Tom and Gil, can you get the ingredients ready?” I get out of bed and grab the notebook, flipping through pages until I find it.
“On it, boss,” Gil says, taking the notebook and heading down the stairs. His twin follows right behind.
“In my dream, there were people performing a ritual in the woods,” I tell Hasan. “I don’t think anyone is out there, but can you fly over and check? Stay out of sight.”
He gives me a nod and leaves the room, jumping over the balcony. He lands with a soft thud and I hear the front door open and close.
“Are you okay?” I ask Jac, taking his hand. He’s standing by the window, staring into the dark night.
He turns, eyebrows furrowed and a deep frown on his face. He doesn’t speak, but instead grabs me by the waist and pulls me in for a kiss.
“I don’t want her to get in your head like she did to me,” he says with his lips against mine.
“Not being in control of your own thoughts…” He trails off, shaking his head.
And it’s only then it hits me just how terrifying it would be to have someone else control everything you think and see.
You’d never know what was real or not real.
“She won’t.” I bring my hands up and cup his face.
“I won’t let her, and I know you won’t either.
” I slide my hands down and rest them on the curve of his waist. “And I know this might not mean anything, but she didn’t feel threatening.
She never has.” I close my eyes, remembering the way she looked at me…
and at Jacques. “She really seemed worried.”
“You shouldn’t trust her.”
“I don’t.” I bite my lip. I can’t base a judgment off of her based on what I felt in my dreams. She put a love spell on Jac and seriously fucked with his mind.
But I felt her come to care about him in a weird way.
She wasn’t really in love with him, but once she learned he was one of the good guys, she risked herself to save him.
Still, coming here with a warning that doesn’t make any sense is too weird to me, and makes me think back to when Jac said demons can take on the form of loved ones.
“Let’s go downstairs,” I tell him, and take his hand again. “I don’t have enough sage to purify the house, but we can get at least a few rooms.”
Nodding, he follows behind me, grabbing the necklace off the dresser on the way out. Thomas and Gilbert are in the kitchen, going through the cabinets to find what I need to cast another banishing spell. I go to the window behind the table and look outside, trying to spot Hasan.
“It’s ready, Ace.” Gilbert sets a pot on the counter, sliding the glass bottles of herbs over to the edge. Tearing my eyes away from the window, I go to the counter and look down at the notebook, going over the chant in an attempt to memorize it.
The guys step aside, watching me invoke the herbs. I close my eyes, concentrating, and slit them open to look down at the spell again. I’m putting this one on the top of my to-memorize list.
I grab the herbs in each hand and hold them up, chanting while summoning the fire to ignite from my fingers. Smoke wafts up from each hand, and I let out a sigh of relief. I take the bowl of herbs to the living room and do the spell again.
Hasan comes back in after that and says he didn’t see anything outside, which is what I expected. I take the sage stick I had stashed in my purse and light it on fire, gently blowing the flames to get it smoldering. I walk through the house, carefully wafting the smoke around.
The sage stick is almost burned away by the time I get back to the living room, and this still doesn’t feel like enough. Jac still looks spooked, and a weird feeling hangs in the house.
“Want to watch a movie?” I suggest, setting what remains of the sage stick in a ceramic bowl and placing it on the coffee table in the living room. “Something funny?”
“Yes,” Gil says, knowing I need the distraction.
I’m tired but way too freaked out to fall back asleep.
And now that things have settled, the danger has faded…
just a bit. The five of us move into the living room.
I sit on the couch with Gil’s arms tight around me, and after a minute of trying to get comfortable, he gets up and leaves the room, returning with a concealment charm.
Flashing me a grin, he slips it on over his head and watches his wings disappear.
“What are you doing?” his brother asks.
“Making it easy to sit on the couch with Ace.” Gil slides in next to me, bringing me to his chest and lying down, which isn’t something we can easily do on the couch with his wings. “This is better, isn’t it?”
“I wouldn’t say better,” I start. “More comfortable maybe, but not necessarily better.”
“You can admit it.”
“Admit what?”
Gil chuckles. “The wings get in the way. I miss feeling human.” His voice drops off at the end and he shakes his head. “So enjoy my body while you can.”
Being pressed up against him is comforting. We fit well together, and not just physically. He gets my weird sense of humor even with the thousand-year age gap between us.
I lace my fingers through his and close my eyes, a little surprised at how relaxed I am given what just happened. Though if anyone were to make me feel safe, it’s my guys.
I wake up around seven a.m., alone of course. I’m still on the couch and am covered with a blanket. I sit up fast, heart already racing, and look around the house. Bright sunlight pours through the wall of windows, and the house has a better feel to it. Leave it to me to make this place haunted.
Stretching my arms out in front of me, I swing my legs over the side of the couch and notice the end table has been moved and a circle of salt has been drawn around the couch. I smile, silently thanking the guys for doing everything they can to keep me safe.
Getting up, I go and check on the runes before I do anything else. They’re mostly hidden under the guys, but I still worry about someone taking them and gaining control over where the guys are compelled to go every morning once the sun comes up.
I pull the string for the basement light and go down the stairs, wrinkling my nose at the musty smell.
It’s gotten stronger since the last time I was down here, and I hope that doesn’t mean there’s a water leak somewhere.
I walk past the guys in their stone form, putting my hand on each of their faces, and look around the basement.
I don’t really know what I’m looking for, and when I don’t find any puddles of water, I go back upstairs to make some coffee.
Jac’s words come back to me and I know I should try to get more sleep so I can be rested up for whatever comes our way, but I can’t go back to sleep right now.
I’m not freaked out with all the sunlight coming through the window, but as soon as I lie down, I will be.
I don’t want to feel afraid. Not in my own house.
I get as far as turning on my coffee pot when someone knocks on the door.
Shit. I forgot that guy was coming over this morning to measure the window.
It’s too fucking early for this. Running my hands through my messy hair, I look down at myself and grimace.
I’m not wearing a bra and it’s painfully obvious.
Pulling my hair over my shoulders to try and cover my nipples, I look out the window, making sure this guy is who I’m expecting. His van is marked with his company logo, and I open the door.
“Hi,” I say. “Roy, right?”
“Yes,” he answers, and holds out his hand to shake. “Beautiful home. Robert told me this place was a beauty, but seeing it in person…it’s breathtaking.”
“Thanks.” I step aside and show him into the front sitting room.
He makes small talk while he measures the window.
I offer him coffee to be polite and he accepts.
Cursing myself for having manners, I go into the kitchen and put on a pot.
While it’s brewing, I hurry into the laundry room and sort through the basket of dirty clothes I’ve been meaning to wash and pull out a sports bra.
Quickly, I slip it on and go back into the kitchen, pouring two cups of coffee as soon as I can.
I give one to Roy and take a sip from my own mug. “Do you think you have anything that’ll fit?”
“Oh, I’m sure I do. The question is if I have the right type of glass. You see, glass from this time period wasn’t made like glass today.” His eyes dart past me to the dining room. “May I?”
“Sure.”
With excitement, he goes into the room and gently taps the glass on one of the windows. “This is original to the house and has a ripply effect to it. It’s beautiful.”
“Yeah. It is. I didn’t think I’d grow so attached to this place, given its endless fixer-upper to-do list, but it has its charm.”
“It certainly does.” He takes another drink of coffee and sets the mug down on the dining room table. “I’ll take a look in my storage barn and see if I have anything that’ll work for the house.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll give ya a call later today and will let you know.”
“Thanks,” I say, and see him out. I finish my coffee, fear turning into anger. How dare something show up and scare me in my own house. The crying ghost girl, the freaky dream, Braeya’s warning…it all pisses me the fuck off.
I’m not the kind of person who gets scared and hides. Fear is important to staying alive, and when you’re not afraid of anything, you have an issue. But I’ve reacted better to fear before, met it head on and came up with a plan that was more than sitting around feeling the way I do right now.
I take another drink of coffee and then bring the mug to the sink, pouring the rest down the drain.
I rinse out my cup, fill it with water, and chug the whole thing down.
Then I go upstairs, make my bed, and get dressed in athletic shorts and a sports bra.
I pull my hair into a high ponytail as I go down the stairs, putting on my shoes and heading outside.
I warm up and stretch, then start running down the road.
I’ve fallen out of my normal workout routine, and it feels so good to be back at it. I gulp in fresh air, pushing myself just a bit harder. The adrenaline rush I get from running is the best, and my body is thanking me for putting it back into forward movement like this.
“Ace!”
I slow, turning to see Keri standing on her front porch waving at me.
“Ace!” She’s barefoot and still in her pajamas, which is nothing more than a short silk nightgown. “Do you have a minute?”
Letting out my breath, I stop and turn into her driveway, feeling my pulse. “Sure. What’s up?”
“I wanted to apologize,” she calls, wincing as she walks down her cement driveway. I don’t see any rocks or gravel that would hurt her feet. “I didn’t mean to act so shocked yesterday. I feel bad. I was rude.”
“Oh, it’s, uh, okay. A lot of people are surprised,” I lie. I want to get back to my run before my pulse slows.
“Yeah, but I still feel bad.” She hobbles down to the end of the driveway.
There are rocks and bits of gravel here that got caught in car tires from the road.
I move a few feet up. “And I didn’t want to say this in front of Robert because he can be a bit sensitive at times.
” She rolls her eyes. “But damn, girl! You have two hot as hell boyfriends. I am a little jealous.”
I laugh. “They’re both great guys.”
“They seem like it. Especially the French one.” She wiggles her eyebrows and laughs. “Do you want to go out for lunch later? I still feel like I owe you. I didn’t want to make either of you uncomfortable.”
“Uh…” I’m about to tell her no, but then I turn and get a glimpse of my property line and the anger comes back.
Getting out of the house might be good. I turn back to Keri.
She’s still in her nightgown, but her hair and makeup are already perfectly done.
She’s a few years older than me, has a happy home life, and as far as I know, isn’t trying to secretly help kill me.
“Yeah,” I say. “Lunch would be nice.”