“Fine, fine.”
Ever let go of me. “Spill.”
“I met Acacia. She was helping me.”
Ever lifted his brow and snorted.
“Acacia doesn’t help anyone unless she can get something out of it. What did you bargain with?”
“She might’ve walked in on me coming back from the Other Side. I told her I’d help her with something that involved going there.”
“You can enter the Other Side?” Ever asked. Art had been the most powerful out of us all when it came to the spiritual side of our powers. While I’d never seen him do it, according to my other brothers, Art could kill ghosts, a power that was rare and unique. Something else we kept under wraps because of the danger it would pose to him.
“Yes.”
“Fuck, you two are going to be more powerful than we ever thought.”
“More reason to make sure Rowan doesn’t get trapped by a vampire coven.”
“And what about you, little brother? What will you sacrifice for her?”
For a moment I wondered who he meant, Rowan or Acacia. I’d already sacrificed too much for the vampire, and she would regret the day she betrayed me.
“Don’t worry about me.”
Chapter 23
“Tonight we ask our ancestors to bless our magic, to add their wisdom, guidance, and trust in us. Tonight we bind our magic to the night, to our family, to the art of death.”
Rowan and I grabbed a candle to light. She’d found me after I finished my talk with Ever, a light in her eyes that told me she was up to something. She convinced me to come out to our family crypt and perform our ritual.
A familiar cold whipped around us, and the scent of fresh death reached my nostrils. To most, death had a terrible, nauseating scent, but most necromancers would tell you the opposite. We’d evolved to find the scent pleasing, familiar.
Magic twisted inside of me, slipping into place like the last piece of a puzzle. Rowan’s magic pulsed, calling to mine, and I allowed it to twine with hers. I hadn’t expected that collectively they would be so powerful. My jaw locked as I tried to hold back the pain. Rowan looked like she was experiencing the same thing as our shared tattoos flared to life.
We waited until the candle flickered out then set down our shared Tome and ritual agate stones. I recited the text I’d memorized years before, studying it to make sure I wouldn’t miss a single word. This ritual was sacred, and I refused to mess it up. Rowan followed suit perfectly, even with some of the trickier words.
The candles around us flared to life before dimming back down. My magic settled peacefully inside of me like before we’d started, but this time it felt even stronger.
We stepped out of the crypt, the sun just starting to peek over the edge of the horizon. Indigo stood nearby.
“Abel.” Rowan peeked over her shoulder at him. He stood aside, leaning against the Jeep they’d rented. “Let me come with you. I want to help you find the loophole. I need to.”
“No, it’s too dangerous.”
“Well, what about your mysterious friend?” she asked, looking disappointed that I hadn’t even revealed to her who my friend was. I would keep that a secret as long as I could.
“It’s better this way. Trust me, Ro.”
“Leaving with Indigo feels too easy. And I want to help you.”
“My little twin, I promise you will probably have more adventures with that one than you ever would with me.”
“You’re just talking bullshit so I won’t ask anymore.”
“Exactly.”
The graveyard where our family crypt sat was on the outskirts of town. Indigo had gotten me a rental to use since my truck was back in Seattle. Ever promised me my truck was still at his place and also offered to keep an eye on it since I didn’t know when I’d be back.
Rowan and I said our goodbyes, and Indigo helped her into his truck. I watched them drive away, the sinking feeling in my gut growing larger. Maybe letting her leave with him was a mistake.
“She looks a lot like you.”
“How long have you been in Alaska, Acacia?”
Much like the bond I shared with Rowan, I could feel Acacia’s presence. I couldn’t pinpoint her like I could Rowan, but when she was near, I knew. It gave me a sense of peace—at least I’d know when she would start wreaking havoc on my life.
But I had to push aside those thoughts for now, needing to focus on the immediate problems.
“You know how long. You can feel me, right?”
“How much do you know about this bond?” I asked, turning to face her.
She had a parasol opened above her, but she didn’t even look uncomfortable in the sun. Her blonde hair was almost white in the light, and she wore her signature leather. Seeing her fueled that quiet, simmering rage inside of me.
“Ever called.”
“What did my brother have to say?”
“Oh, something about keeping you safe, or he’d kill me himself. I’m guessing you didn’t tell him or your family about us?” She twirled the parasol around, trying to seem innocent.
“There is no us, Acacia. You fucked me over. You sold me out then bound me to you. What was the end game there?”
“You survived.” She dropped the innocent look and stared me right in the eyes.
“Yeah, nothing like a little torture.”
“It builds character.” Acacia flashed her fangs at me. The anger that flared in her eyes made me smile. I had struck a sensitive nerve, it would seem.
“You did this. I hope like fuck you know how to undo it.”
“Don’t get your boxer briefs in a twist. Of course I do.”
My faith in her was nonexistent. Even if she claimed to know the way to break the bond, I’d research it on my own as well. Using other vampire blood hadn’t worked when they were torturing me, so I would find another way. I wouldn’t just leave it to her.
“Since we’re stuck together for now, are you still going to help me?” I asked.
“You sincerely think you can save your sister?”
“You want your soul back?” I countered.
“Fine.”
****
“Horace?” The Other Side was as dark and gray as I remembered it, but something felt off.
I called for Horace again, reaching out to feel for a familiar soul of the family. He seemed to be there, but also hidden away, as though a veil had fallen between us. I tried to reach out to him once again. Like the first time we met, he was static-like and flickered in and out.
“Stop, Abel. It’s… gerous… after….” Horace disappeared, and the person I’d been hoping would appear stood in his place.
The necromancer threw back her hood and glared at me.
“You just don’t know when to stop, do you?” she sneered.
“Just trying to get your attention.”
“What do you want?”
“You to free my uncle from your hold and to know who killed him and why.”
Her lips twitched upward. The small, fidgety girl of before was gone, replaced by a red-haired vixen. She had a hard look to her eyes and a tattoo imprinted on her wrist. It didn’t look like any necromancer symbol I’d seen before. I made a mental note to memorize the symbol and research it later; it might give me more insight into exactly who I was dealing with.
“You don’t ask for much, do you, little boy?”
“Why?”
“You’re asking the wrong questions. Maybe one day, when you’re older, you’ll figure it out.”
She started to disappear, and I decided to try something. My Death Lines flared to life. Here in this realm, we were all considered dead, so it would stand to reason that she would be too.
My Death Lines caught her, holding her in place before she could leave.
“Careful, Curse Breaker. You aren’t the only one out there.” The red-haired necro’s Death Lines shot out from her. Green and dangerous, they broke the lines I’d made. The color didn’t tip me off as I’d hoped it
would. Some families had very distinct colors, but green was common.
“Just remember my warning.” With that, she wrapped her lines around me and forced me out of the Other Side.
The sun hit the back of my eyelids, and I blinked them open. The sunlight hurt, but my entire body was sore. Leaving the Other Side like that had been painful and unnatural.
Leaves crackled as the footsteps grew closer. Acacia came into view, blocking the sun from my face.
“That looked like it went well.”
“I have more information than I did before. It’s a start.”
“So, we have to sort out your uncle’s murder, how to break a twenty-one-year-old contract, and who this mystery necromancer is?” Acacia listed. “And all we have is a vague name and whatever you ‘found out’ over there?”
“The dead have all the answers. We just need to start asking the right questions.”
Epilogue
“Your plan isn’t working.”
“Once you come up with a better one, I’m all ears.”
Acacia took a step backward and watched over my shoulder as I researched the symbol on the other necromancer’s wrist. My father had given me the paperwork about my uncle’s last case, the one that may have gotten him killed. It felt like he’d sent that first memory to me for a reason.
Acacia often got bored with the research I had started to pour myself into. Her emotions and desires started to slip into our bond again. It’d only been a week since we’d reconnected, but it was stronger than ever. She even admitted to feeling my emotions in return. She and I couldn’t be left alone together for long.
It would take a very long time, if ever, for me to forgive her for the bond. When I pressed her about why she’d agreed to it, she refused to say anything. I learned to stop asking after the fourth time and just accept it for what it was; she wouldn’t explain her reasoning, and I needed to hold back certain information as well.
“How much longer do we need to stay in this place?” Acacia asked, getting bored again. Her restlessness poured into me, which irritated me.
“How old are you exactly?”
“Look, Abel, I’ve been watching you do nothing but read and research for a week now. I think it’s time we leave town.”
Something else was twisting in her besides just restlessness. I focused harder on the emotion and realized what it was.
“What aren’t you telling me, Acacia?”
“My past might be catching up to us again.”
“How long do we have?”
“Not very.”
Fuck.
Acacia and I left the library and headed back to the apartment complex. I didn’t know where we would go after we packed our bags, but we would leave in the Jeep Indigo had left for me to use when he left with Rowan, Cornelius, and Willow.
Finding Horace would’ve been the easiest way to get the information we needed. Now that my powers were back and at full strength, I could get answers with a single touch. The problem was the necromancer who had the hold on him must’ve tightened her leash as he’d gone completely silent. And ghosts in Kodiak Falls were few and far between. Even if I could find one, most wouldn’t have any information I needed.
Acacia hadn’t given me any more information on the coven after her, so I was left blindly following her. She only told me she could feel when her maker got closer, that it had been part of their bond. She made a deal with a witch decades before that hid her from her maker unless he was within a certain number of miles. All I knew was it was a complication we couldn’t afford.
It was time we returned to Seattle. I had hoped to stay as far from Ro as I could, but Horace’s Tome might be the key to the answers we desperately needed.
To Be Continued…
Special Tease
Abel’s scent tickled my nose, so close to Rowan’s but with a masculine flare. I could never mistake the two, and his scent would never make me react the same way Rowan’s did. As he climbed into the passenger side of the Jeep, I smelled the worry on him.
“Where did you drop off Cornelius and Willow?”
Abel had never been the type to beat around the bush, a Hayes quality I appreciated and respected.
“They’re staying with my dad and Ira. Cornelius isn’t too happy about it, but it puts my dad a little more at ease. You know how much he hates strangers in his town.”
“I know.”
I turned off the car, sensing Abel had something important he wanted to ask me.
“You still love her, right?”
A fierce force like a gale wind washed over me. Love seemed like such a small word for the things I felt for Rowan Hayes. The desperation a man had after days in the ocean water. There but so unattainable—until my uncle had finally cleared me.
“With all my heart.”
“And your wolf?”
His raw, carnal desire for her shot through me like a rocket. My wolf felt his own version of love for her. Together, what we shared was dangerous.
“Him too.”
“Good. Keep it a secret a little while longer, will you?”
What Abel asked of me over the years had been hard. He noticed my attraction and desire for Rowan long before she even got it in her head that we were different sexes. She rarely saw what was right before her. Abel had asked me to hold back, just to let her have the experience and figure it out on her own. I had, even though it killed me.
When I returned here ready to tell her everything, he asked me to hold off. I did though it hurt to do so. My wolf clawed at my insides, uncertain how to respond. A pack member couldn’t tell us what to do, and I wanted to punish him for it.
“You realize it kills me every time I’ve bitten my tongue. Every time she asked me to be straight with her and I held back because you asked me to. I have my wolf under control. I’m ready to tell her.”
“But she isn’t ready. And I need you to keep her safe.”
Abel thought he knew his twin better than himself, but in those quiet moments Rowan and I had shared when we were kids, I saw her as much more insightful than he thought. She might rush ahead, but her actions always had a reason. She thought in different ways than Abel. One day their codependent bond would be their downfall. For now, I would do my best to protect my pack mates, my best friend, and the love of my life.
LAST WORD FROM THE AUTHOR
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Stuff about the Author
Becca Vincenza lives in wonderful Michigan. She has an obsession with candy, her animals, and of course books. When she's not wearing her author hat, she's working to pay off her student loans for her acquired English degree.
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Secrets of the Dead Page 15