The Accidental Kiss

by Nicole Simone

  “Life isn’t simple for anybody. It’s a chaotic puzzle that yanks you in different directions. People always say you choose your own destiny when in reality destiny chooses you.”

  “Like how I was born with this supposed gift that makes me a target for a power hungry voodoo priest?”

  An amused grin spread over her face. “Yes, exactly.”

  I smeared peanut butter on the bread as I mulled over Mrs. Ruth’s words of wisdom. Slapping the other piece of bread on top, I took a bite out of the sandwich. “I wish a different destiny chose me.”

  “Don’t you think Daemon wishes the exact same thing?”

  There wasn’t a doubt in my mind he did. Who wouldn’t? I pictured a life where Daemon wasn’t tricked into joining the voodoo priest and he lived a full and happy existence. A wife, 2.5 kids, and a dog named Buster.

  “Obviously, nobody wants their soul stolen,” I said around a mouthful of food.

  Mrs. Ruth landed graciously on the floor and opened the refrigerator. She took out a pint of milk, removed a glass from an upper cabinet and poured the beverage. Sliding it over to me, she smiled. “You look like you need it.”

  I swigged back a mouthful. Once my palate was clear of sticky peanut butter, I expressed my thanks. Mrs. Ruth went back to her perch on the counter.

  “Did Daemon ever tell you how he got out from under the voodoo priest’s control?”

  “He isn’t exactly forthcoming about….” I leaned my head to the side. “Just about anything.”

  She laughed, expressing her agreement over my statement. It was a nice change to talk to somebody who knew Daemon’s true character. With Emily and Lucy, I had to censor what I said about him, leaving out bits and pieces so that they didn’t catch onto the fact he wasn’t human.

  “You’ve spoken the truth.” Her manner sobered as her emerald green eyes locked onto mine. “But you should know something. While Daemon is now free to roam at his will, the priest still has control over him.”

  “How so?”

  “I’m not sure if he told you but the priest keeps all his soldier’s souls in jars as leverage but when Daemon wanted to leave the enclave, he had to pay a price of an existence without love,” Mrs. Ruth said gravely. “If he does fall in love, his trapped soul will turn into vapor, and his mortal body will die.”

  My mouth gaped open in disbelief. Daemon had gambled away his mortality for me? This new piece of information only confirmed I had made the right decision. Daemon and I could never be more than friends.

  “Why? Why would Daemon do that?”

  “For a number of reasons, but mostly because he felt as if it was the correct punishment to pay for his biggest regret. Taking an innocent life that was never meant to be taken in the first place.”

  I swallowed a lump of sorrow at the mention of Melissa. “But he wasn’t the one to do it. Parker was.” Conviction raised my voice. “Parker was the one who killed her. Daemon tried to stop him and in the end, I am alive because of Daemon. He saved me.”

  “It seems as if I touched a nerve.”

  My hands gripped the edge of the marble island as I forced myself to remain calm. Of course Mrs. Ruth had touched a nerve; I was a human with emotions and while they were complex when it came to Daemon, I never wished for him to die.

  “I can’t believe this,” I groaned. “When I fall in love, I become clairvoyant and when Daemon falls in love, he dies. What a mess!”

  “Love is always messy.”

  “Have you ever been in love?”

  Mrs. Ruth’s eyes took on a far away expression. “Once.”

  When she didn’t divulge any more details to her confession, I thought twice about not pushing for more but she already knew enough about Daemon and my problems to fill a novel. “What happened?”

  “The question isn’t what happened. It’s who happened?”

  My curiosity piqued. Mrs. Ruth was a uniquely beautiful woman and based on the fiesta in the courtyard earlier, she had a plethora of suitors. It would have taken somebody special to draw her eye.

  “Laurence was a respected healer in the community and a handsome one at that.” Humor shined in her eyes. “Women used to come to him with fake ailments sometimes because they wanted to feel his hands on their bodies. Once, a woman even claimed his slightest touch would bring her to orgasm.” Mrs. Ruth looked at me. “As you can imagine, that was a huge boom for his business.”

  I laughed and leaned against the island. “I can imagine.” My half-eaten sandwich was long forgotten while Mrs. Ruth’s recounted her tale of love and heartbreak.

  “My husband and I were trying to have a child without any success. My dear friend recommended I try a healer. Back then, I was adamantly opposed to any kind of voodoo or witchcraft but I was desperate. Laurence was my only hope.” Mrs. Ruth twirled a ring with a ruby red gem around her forefinger. “At first, it was strictly professional until it wasn’t anymore. Laurence was the opposite of my husband. Sweet, nurturing, and for the first time in my life, I felt as if I was actually being heard. As if my thoughts and opinions mattered. It was intoxicating. When my husband caught wind of the affair, he was furious and demanded I stop it at once but I refused. I was convinced Laurence was the love of my life.”

  “Are you still convinced he was?” I questioned.

  Mrs. Ruth’s unfocused gaze stared into the distance. “Yes. Laurence understood the real me. When we were together it was like magic.”

  “So you guys ran off together and lived happily ever after?” Hopefulness tinted my tone.

  “No, my husband had him killed.”

  A shocked gasp fell from my lips as I looked at Mrs. Ruth blankly. That was an unexpected turn. “Holy shit.”

  Mrs. Ruth’s expression was devoid of any emotion but the pain was written into the lines around her mouth. “My ex-husband was a ruthless business man who always got what he wanted and hated to share the things he acquired. Once I found out about Laurence’s death, I changed my identity and fled to New Orleans where I honored his memory by becoming a healer myself.” She gestured to the house around us. “And opened Mrs. Ruth’s Voodoo House.”

  “Yeah, but you’re without your soul mate,” I said without thinking. “Wouldn’t you have rather not met Laurence and had him live?”

  “Guilt racks me everyday about what happened but those precious moments we had together was worth the heartache. Like I said earlier, love is messy and complicated but when you find your person, hold onto to them as long as you can. That kind of love only comes around once.”

  Herbs and other unmentionables were stacked neatly in rows against the wall. A lone light flickered above and every few seconds, total blackness would descend over us. The smell of damp earth permeated my nostrils. When I had woken up in the morning, Ina had directed me to the apothecary, where Mrs. Ruth and Daemon were waiting for me. If I had known it was a dark creepy basement, I would have had my coffee first.

  A shudder ran up the length of my spine as my eyes blinked against the blackness. “Can’t you use a spell or something to fix that light?”

  “We don’t use unnecessary magic,” Mrs. Ruth said.

  “I feel like I’m in a horror movie waiting to happen.”

  Daemon chuckled softly somewhere to my left. I hadn’t spoken with him since my arrival this morning. While my anger still burned brightly, a new emotion was thrown into the mix: fear of losing Daemon forever. Remaining cold and distant was the only way to save him. Under no circumstances could our feelings teeter into love. I didn’t care what Mrs. Ruth had said last night; I would rather have Daemon as a frienemy than dead.

  “Sky’s right. It is rather uninviting down here. A teensy bit of magic wouldn’t harm anybody,” Daemon said with persuasion in his voice.

  “Fine,” Mrs. Ruth snapped. She spoke a few words and the light bulb grew stronger until the room was awash in light.

  I took in my surroundings. Among the herbs in glass jars, there were also bookcases jammed with books th
at were dusty, old, and cracking at the spine. Nonetheless, they added a certain charm to the musty basement.

  Stepping closer to the row of glass jars, my eyes widened. A tiny white mass was suspended in liquid that closely resembled a brain. “Is that what I think it is?”

  “Yes, it’s the brain of a shrew,” Mrs. Ruth replied.

  “Why do you need that?”

  She shrugged nonchalantly. “I like to be prepared.”

  Daemon clapped his hands together, focusing our attention over to him. Day old stumble dotted his jaw line and his sandy blonde hair was tousled perfectly so. It wasn’t fair Daemon had inherited the sexy gene. It made the task of staying away from him a thousand times harder when all I wanted to do was kiss him senseless.

  “Focus is the word for this morning.” Daemon’s brow arched. “Can we do that?”

  “Yes,” Mrs. Ruth and I said in unison.

  “Awesome. Do you have any ideas on where to start, Ruth?”

  Her eyes turned toward the ceiling as she racked her brain. A twenty-second delay passed before Mrs. Ruth spoke again. “Yes, the books on the highest shelf toward the wall might help us but it’s going to be a long morning. There is a reason the voodoo priest has been alive this long. The spells he has woven around himself will not shatter easily.”

  I really should have gotten coffee.

  Daemon sprung into action and pulled the books Mrs. Ruth suggested off the shelves. We were each assigned a different one to look through. The pages in mine were yellowed and tearing at the corners. Two hours later, I had uncovered the Latin word for witch and little else.

  I groaned. “Unless we want the voodoo priest to turn into a cow, I got nothing.”

  “Cows can’t direct an army or kill you, so it’s not the worst option I’ve ever heard,” Daemon said.

  “You’re telling me we bust into the voodoo priest’s hide out, somehow get through all his zombies, and then turn him into an animal?” The ridiculousness of the plan was unfathomable. “In paranormal novels, the bad guys are sent back to hell. Can we do that?” I asked Mrs. Ruth.

  “There is no heaven or hell. Only the space in between different realms of reality.”

  “Ok, fine. Send him there.”

  “It’s not that easy. You can’t just say a few words and poof! On top of that, it’s a delicate matter since a tiny rip in the seams of physical existence have a domino effect.” Mrs. Ruth pressed her fingers into her temples. “What we want to do is turn the voodoo priest into a normal human with no magic to speak of and set the souls he has captured free.”

  “So if we do that, does that mean Daemon might get his soul back in tact?” I asked, optimistic.

  “Possibly.” Her eyes narrowed in warning. “But until then, what I said earlier still stands.”

  Daemon’s head whipped around to Mrs. Ruth. His body thrummed with anger. “You told her about the deal I struck with the voodoo priest? You had no right to do that.”

  “She deserved to know.”

  Daemon threw the book he was holding down onto the table. The sound echoed off the walls. “She deserved to hear it from me on my own time.”

  “You would be dead before that happened, Daemon. You’re not exactly open when it comes to all things personal.”

  “So? Every since Sky and I arrived here, you’ve made it your own personal mission to strip me bare.”

  I discreetly stepped out from in between them as they glared at each other. Tension crackled in the air. Daemon rose to his full height, dwarfing everything in the small space, but Mrs. Ruth didn’t back away. She met his anger head on.

  “I was the one who found you, Daemon, wandering the streets of New Orleans without a clue what to do next and or how to live as a human in the twenty-first century. I brought you into this house. Fed you, clothed, and eventually fell in love with you.”

  My suspicions were true. There was something between Daemon and Mrs. Ruth. The green-eyed monster reared its ugly head and the air got sucked out of my lungs.

  Mrs. Ruth looked at Daemon tenderly. “When I realized you didn’t return my feelings, I set you free. Now you’re back and you’re asking for help to save…” Her chin wobbled. “I have the right to strip you of everything you care about because you did the same to me.” Daemon took a step towards her but Mrs. Ruth held up her hands and halted him. “Don’t. Just leave. Please. I need a moment.”

  I could tell Daemon was torn between wanting to comfort her and respecting her wishes. The good southern gentleman inside him won. “If that’s what you wish. We will reconvene when you’re ready.”

  Daemon lightly squeezed her shoulder as he walked over to the staircase, leading up to the main story of the house. At his touch, Mrs. Ruth’s face crumpled and my heart reached out to her. No woman should have to experience the pain of losing her beloved more than once. I almost wished Daemon had felt the same as her. Almost. I quietly followed him out of the basement and left Mrs. Ruth to battle her heartache alone. The mid-afternoon sun slanted across the hardwood floors. A slight breeze kissed my bare skin, which felt glorious after being locked away in a windowless room.

  “Hey, hold up,” I called after Daemon.

  His stride didn’t falter as his head turned. “What?” He bit out. “I have stuff to do.”

  The sharp barb of his tone slashed my insides. I blew a piece of my hair out of my eyes and skidded to a standstill. Whatever Daemon was working through couldn’t be soothed by my presence or my words. “Nothing. Forget it.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  Outrage seeped into my veins, tinting my vision red. He had no right to talk me as if I was gum on the bottom of his shoe. Especially after the betrayal, the lies and blatant misuse of the trust I had put in him.

  “How dare you?” I hissed.

  Daemon’s shoulders stiffened as he spun around. Fire blazed in his eyes. “How dare I what? Hm?”

  “How dare you direct your regret and anger at me. I’m not your fucking punching bag.”

  A bitter laugh broke from his lips. “That’s right. We’re friends. Isn’t that the term you used?”

  I had seen different sides of Daemon over the past couple of days but this was my least favorite. He was cruel and callous. Irrational. “It’s for your own good.” I threw back the question he asked me last night. “Don’t you want to live?” Fear turned in my stomach when I saw the answer hidden in his eyes.

  “It was a gift when the priest told me if I fell in love, I would die. Finally, the nightmares would no longer haunt me and there was only one person who had ever truly captured my soul.” His gaze pinned me into place. “The girl who changed everything.”

  “I was the reason Mrs. Ruth set you free.” Awareness settled over me and the room spun. My body sank to the floor. “You never had any intention of living, did you? I was just a sick ploy to redeem you of your sins.”

  “You were more than that. You were a chance to experience love, true love, so that I could die a happy man.”

  “But…you can’t love me. You hardly know me.”

  I heard his footsteps grow closer until his shoes came into view. He tipped my chin to meet his gaze and I saw how far the depths of his feelings went. They were endless. “You are my savior and my greatest weakness and I knew that as soon as I laid eyes on you. Don’t you understand, Sky? I would die a thousand deaths if that meant I could love you for a single day, a single hour, a single breath. You are worth it. You will always be worth it and pushing me away isn’t going to burn out the love I feel toward you.”

  Tears formed under my eyelids as desperation took hold. “But….how?”

  An infectious grin lit up his face. “Because you are impossible not to love.”

  Daemon was no longer the same person the voodoo priest turned him into. The evil acts he committed were exactly that, in the past. The man I had come to care deeply for was charming, selfless and undeniably sexy. Forgiveness seeped into my heart. We had to defeat the voodoo priest and
get Daemon’s soul back before it was too late but I should have known fate had a sick sense of humor. Suddenly, Daemon’s features turned pale, his eyes grew wide and his mouth gaped open in agony. Stumbling away from me, he let out a distressing groan and collapsed face up onto the hardwood floors.

  “Daemon,” I screamed. Crawling over to him, dread turned my blood cold. His vacant green eyes were devoid of any warmth. I gripped his t-shirt and pleaded. “Please, no, please.” Looking around the house, desperately, there wasn’t a soul in sight. “Somebody help us!” My cries of help were met with silence.

  The attic room’s slanted ceilings and exposed brick walls held a hundred years of history. It was sparsely decorated with a twin bed and an overstuffed armchair covered in a floral pattern. Daemon’s feet jutted out over the mattress, making him look like a giant in a kid’s bed. When they had moved him here after the incident in the foyer, I inquired about a larger bedroom but Mrs. Ruth said this space encouraged healing. Since she was the expert, my concerns were kept to myself. Daemon’s eyelids fluttered against his cheek and his hands clutched and unclenched at his sides. He never stopped fighting even in his sleep, which was the reason why Mrs. Ruth’s vitality spell worked wonders on Daemon. The man was a force to be reckoned with. I bent my neck to the side, releasing the tension. In those few moments Daemon was presumed dead, it dawned on me how much he had become an integral part of my life and what a bleak existence it was without him.

  I entwined my fingers into his and squeezed. “You’re are not going to die because of me. You hear? We will defeat the voodoo priest and get your soul back. I promise.”

  “He is as stubborn as a mule.” Mrs. Ruth entered the room and looked at Daemon with a mixture of disdain and gratefulness. “I told him he shouldn’t have gone after you. That you weren’t worth it.” Her glance cut over to me. “No offense.”