by D. G. Swank
“I want you to live here.”
I was sure I must have heard him wrong. “With you?”
“When I’m here. Or I can stay in town if you’d prefer. The previous owners of this house made it a veritable fortress. There’s no chance in hell of the Guardians breaking in, and if they should happen to get through, Rupert and Davis and a whole team of other men will be here to make sure they never get their hands on you.”
“So you want to keep me prisoner here?”
He looked confused. “No, Waboose. I want to keep you safe.”
“What about my job, Abel?”
“You don’t need to work.”
“My clients need me. The ghosts need me.”
“Listen to yourself, Piper. They’re ghosts. They don’t need you.”
“They’re people stuck between our world and the afterlife. They do need me.”
“I need you.”
“You need me to kill you. So I’m supposed to wait around in your house until the stupid crescent moon appears?”
“If you feel you have to keep your ghost appointments, you can go, but Rupert and Davis will accompany you from now on to protect you from human threats.”
The independent part of me that had rebelled against my grandmother’s gilded cage growing up now rose up in protest, but I didn’t speak the hell no my lips had formed. Instead, I turned back to look at the city and stared down at it for a long moment. I had to admit that his plan was slightly tempting. It was foolish to parade around town, pretending that a group of wackos didn’t want me for their own purposes. They’d waited fifteen years for me. They definitely weren’t going to just let me go. Still, staying with Abel seemed like a very, very bad idea. Besides, I’d be wasting my gift and I’d go stir-crazy within twenty-four hours.
To prevent an argument, I said, “I need to think about it.”
“What’s there to think about?” he asked in disbelief.
I looked up at him in exasperation. So much for the noncombative path. “You’re asking me to give up my life, Abel.”
“I’m trying to save your life!”
“You’re trying to save my life for you.”
“What difference does it make why I’m saving you as long as you’re protected?”
“I just need to think about it, okay?” I said, exhaustion washing over me. “But I’ll stay here tonight. Where am I sleeping?”
“I’ve prepared a room for you, or if you want to live here, I’ll clear my things out and give you the master bedroom.”
“The guest room will do.” As I moved to walk past him, he reached for me—only to quickly pull his hand back.
“I haven’t given you your birthday gift yet.”
“You can give it to me in the morning.”
“I think it will be worth staying up for ten more minutes, and if I’m wrong, I’ll find a way to make it up to you.”
His expression was so serious and intent it made me feel like a first-class bitch. He claimed to have flown to Europe to get me a gift, and he was being extremely generous in his offer to protect me. Sure, he needed me around to do his dirty deed, but he could have put me somewhere much less luxurious than this place.
I gave him an apologetic smile. “Of course I want to see it. I’m sorry if I sound ungrateful. It’s just that my grandmother kept me in a prison of sorts after my parents died. She was trying to protect me, and it made me miserable. This situation feels eerily similar.” I gave him a pleading look. “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. Just let me catch up, okay?”
He was silent for a second, his gaze sweeping over my face. “I wouldn’t have trusted you if you’d agreed right away. I know this will take time.”
I grinned. “Look at us, being all adult.”
He smiled too. “Wait here and I’ll get your gift.”
I decided to finish my cake while I waited. I might as well enjoy it while I could. If I moved in, Davis and Rupert had the potential to totally control my diet.
“Are you really going to consort with the enemy?” said a voice from somewhere behind the house.
My hand tingled, and for a moment, I worried the demons had found us, but my mark didn’t ping any demons. This felt like one of the neutral supernatural beings, the Nunnehi.
The house was built on the side of a steep hill, and there was nothing behind it except a sheer drop-off. I stood and moved to the edge, glancing around. “Who’s out there?”
“Piper?” a familiar voice called out from the side of house.
“Davis?” I called back. Was he already guarding me?
“Are you okay? Where’s Mr. Abel?”
I glanced around. Was I okay? “Abel went inside, and I thought I heard someone.”
“Go back inside,” he ordered, his voice tight.
Abel appeared at the door with a long white box with a blue bow, but the sound of Davis calling out commands made him reach for me. He pulled me inside forcefully, shutting the door before he tossed the box on the sofa. Grabbing both of my arms, he looked me up and down. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“No. I didn’t even see anyone. Just heard them.”
“Heard someone out back? What did they say?”
I stared up into his worried face. “It asked me if I was really going to consort with the enemy.”
His face hardened. “The Guardians.”
“No, actually. I think it was someone else. Or rather something else.”
“A demon? I have wards. Demons can’t get in.”
“But it wasn’t trying to get in. It was outside, spying. And I don’t think it was a demon. I’ve been stalked this week by other supernatural creatures. They’ve been watching to see what I do when I encounter demons.”
His eyes narrowed. “You think one of these creatures is out there now? What does it want?”
“Obviously it doesn’t want me consorting with you.”
“How did it find you here?”
“The demons have been using ghosts to find me, but I have no idea how these other creatures find me.”
“What do you mean the demons have been using ghosts to find you?”
“Now doesn’t seem the time to discuss it while your men are running around looking for something they likely can’t see with their own eyes.”
“You’re right. Wait in here.”
He opened the sliding glass door and went out onto the deck.
I followed him and grabbed his arm. “Abel. What are you going to do?”
He turned back to me. “I’m going to track it down, then find out what it wants.”
As weird as it seemed, I didn’t want Abel to find it. The creatures that had been watching me seemed harmless. But I couldn’t ignore the fact that they thought Abel was the enemy. If they were still trying to figure out where I fit in all of this, Abel going after them could make me look like the enemy too. “Don’t go.”
He froze, tilting his head to the side as he looked at me in disbelief. “What?”
I wasn’t about to confess I didn’t want him to find the observer from beneath the balcony. He’d probably find it just to prove that he didn’t take orders from me. So I went a direction that didn’t sit well with my pride. “I don’t want you to leave me.”
He shot me a skeptical look, then gave me a gentle shove toward the sliding door. “Go inside, Piper. Wait for me there.”
I stood on the balcony and watched in shock as he leapt over the edge. Panicked, I ran to the railing and looked down. All I could see was the steep decline beneath the house. What had he just done? I tried to spot him in the darkness, but all I could see were trees.
“The Great One is angry,” a man said behind me.
I slowly spun around to see a man dressed all in black, wearing an armored vest and carrying a semiautomatic weapon, standing in the living room between the sofa and the fireplace. He was one of Abel’s guards, but I hadn’t thought there were any in the house. And then I realized what he’d just said.
Tear
s stung my eyes. Suck it up, Piper. Don’t let his death be in vain. I stepped inside the house. “Why is the Great One angry?”
“It knew you would be at the party tonight and planned on meeting you. Then you left with Abel.”
“The Great One isn’t angry with Abel?”
“The Great One is confused by him, especially since he doesn’t understand what he is. You need to be careful, and you need to trust Abel.”
So I had one supernatural being calling Abel the enemy and a ghost with a message from the voice telling me that I needed to trust him. Which one did I listen to?
“Is there anything else?” I asked gently as I walked toward him.
“No.” Confusion clouded his eyes as he seemed to emerge from his message-induced trance.
“What’s your name?” I asked as I stopped in front of him.
“Jim.” He pivoted to glance around the room. “Jim Delancey. What am I doing in here?”
“Do you have a family, Jim?” He was still looking around, so I grabbed his arm to get his attention.
He swallowed hard, fighting panic. “A wife…Sidney.”
“Do you know what happened? Do you know how you got here?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know…oh…wait. I fell down the cliff.”
A lump formed in my throat, so my words sounded tight. “Do you know how it happened?”
He shook his head, staring at me in disbelief. “The ground gave way under my feet.” Confusion swam in his eyes. “And then I was here. Giving you a message.” The confusion shifted to fear. “Oh God. I’m dead, aren’t I?”
I took his hand in mine, fighting the urge to cry. This man had died to give me yet another lame-ass message. The very least I could do was help him through the next part without falling to pieces. I nodded. “Yes.”
“I’m not ready to die.”
“None of us are,” I said gently, “but very soon a light will appear, and you’ll cross over to the afterlife.”
“I don’t want to leave Sidney.”
I squeezed his hand. I started to tell him that he didn’t have to go, that he could stay with her, but that wasn’t true for him. He wasn’t like the others. He’d disintegrate into a pile of ash and disappear. “I can give her a message if you’d like.”
“Tell her that I love her.” His voice broke. “I’ve always loved her.”
I sucked in a breath. “I’ll tell her that. I promise.”
A light appeared to the side, a small vortex that began to grow. He gave me a panicked look. “I don’t want to leave her alone.”
“I’ll check on her,” I said, “and Abel will make sure she’s taken care of. I swear it.” When that didn’t ease his fears, I added, “Time will move differently for you. She’ll miss you, but she’ll join you in the blink of an eye.”
The vortex widened.
“This next part might scare you,” I said, squeezing his hand hard. “But I’m here with you and I promise you’ll make it to the light.”
His eyes widened, and then he turned to dust leaving behind a pile of black ash as a stream of dark smoke wafted toward the vortex.
“Why?” I asked, my voice breaking. His death had been utterly pointless, just like the others. “Why?”
“Piper?” Abel asked from behind me, standing in the open doorway to the balcony. How in the world had he gotten back up there?
“One of your men died, Abel,” I said through my tears.
He gave me a sympathetic look. “I know, Waboose. We found him.”
“He died to give me a message. A stupid message that wasn’t worth his life.” I shook my head. “Why?”
“What did he say?”
“That the Great One is angry with me for leaving the den tonight, but—and this is straight out of Misogyny 101—he doesn’t blame you for dragging me out of there unconscious. He blames me.”
He looked grim. “Did he say anything else?”
I wiped the tears from my face. “He called you an unknown entity.”
“So they still don’t know who I am.”
“I don’t even know who you are. Why are these people dying to give me vague and nearly pointless messages?” I demanded, my anger starting to overcome my grief.
“The truth?”
“For once in our goddamned time together, I’d love to get the truth out of you,” I sneered.
If he was offended, he didn’t let on. “I think whatever is doing this is toying with you.”
“Why?”
He gestured toward me. “Look at you. You’re distraught and questioning your role. It’s trying to undermine your confidence, and it’s clearly working.”
Putting my hands on my hips, I walked around the pile of ash on Abel’s wool rug. “I can’t let one more person die for me, Abel.” I looked up at him with pleading eyes. “I can’t let one more person die because of me.”
He must have realized he was included in that statement. He walked over to me and picked up my left hand. “I’m sorry, Waboose.”
Except I doubted he was sorry we’d made the blood oath.
“Part of me wants to see the mark there so I can end this thing,” I said, curling my left hand into a fist within his palm, “but the rest of me is terrified I’ll find it now.” I squeezed my eyes shut, scared to look. “I couldn’t handle it on top of everything else.”
Abel spread my fingers open. Then his thumb smoothed over my palm.
“No moon,” he said in a husky voice. “No moon.” He actually sounded relieved.
Fresh tears filled my eyes. Some warrior I was turning out to be.
I glanced up at him, surprised that he looked genuinely concerned. But then why wouldn’t he be? He needed me to stay on task.
I tugged my hand free. “I need to clean this up.” I started to squat, but Abel pulled me back up.
“Not now. That’s not him, Piper. That’s just a pile of ashes. He moved on to the next life.”
I nodded, but it still felt wrong. “I told him that you would take care of his wife. If I spoke out of turn, I’ll find a way to pay you back.”
“I reward those who are loyal to me. I’ll make sure she’s taken care of. You didn’t speak out of turn.”
“Thank you. And I need his contact information. I have to talk to his wife.”
“Why?”
“I need to give her a message. I promised Jim.”
His face softened. “Waboose. I’ll take care of it.”
“No,” I said, getting pissed. “I’ll do it. Even if I hadn’t promised, this is part of the job description.” The job I hadn’t asked for but couldn’t bring myself to abandon.
“You’re exhausted. Go to bed and we’ll discuss everything in the morning.”
I nodded. If only a good night’s sleep would make everything better.
Chapter 21
I didn’t expect to get much sleep after my day from hell, but as soon as I closed the guest bedroom door, the fluffy white duvet on the queen-sized bed called out to me. I lay down and started to fall asleep within seconds, but then I realized I should check in with Hudson. It was after one a.m., so I sent him a text.
I’m spending the night with a friend. I’ll be home in the morning.
As soon as the message was sent, I closed my eyes. The next thing I knew, sunlight was streaming in through the bedroom window and the phone was still in my hand. I’d gotten a text from Jack at three in the morning.
I’m finally home, but I’m staying at Becca’s. Don’t worry about me, I’m fine.
I considered texting him at his sister’s, but I hoped he was still sleeping.
The screen said it was a few minutes after eight—two hours later than I usually slept—so I got up and went into the en suite bathroom, and was pleasantly surprised I didn’t look like more of a hot mess. I hadn’t washed my face, but my mascara wasn’t even smeared. I considered taking a shower, but it would feel weird to get naked in Abel’s house…which probably meant I couldn’t live here. Besides,
I’d never hidden from anything in my life before, and I wasn’t about to start now. There was also the small matter that I’d left a five-year-old ghost in my attic.
After I’d washed my face and finger-combed out my braid, I emerged and found Abel sitting in the living room. The dress slacks and button-down shirt he wore made it look like he was about to leave for work, but he wasn’t wearing a tie and the top two buttons were unfastened.
“I thought you might sleep longer,” he said. “You had quite a night.”
“It’s a couple of hours later than I usually sleep. Does Davis know I’m not coming to practice today?”
“He knows things are currently undecided and is prepared to do whatever needs to be done.”
I put a hand on my hip and studied him. “You seriously have an employee whose sole purpose is to be at your beck and call?
He looked pissed. “Of course not.”
“Well, it sure looks like it from where I’m sitting. Not only does the man work seven days a week training me, but he was guarding the house last night, well after midnight.”
“It’s his job, Piper,” he said, getting to his feet. “His job is to do what needs to be done.”
“Just like Jim Delancey’s was?” I asked, my voice thin.
His face softened. “I know how much his death upsets you.”
“Not just his death, Abel,” I said in a hard tone. “The others too. Whoever is doing this killed Rhys’s girlfriend two days ago to give me a message.” Why was I getting mad at Abel? He hadn’t killed them. I ran a hand over my head. “I think I’ll just go home.”
“I thought we’d decided you would stay here until we figured out what you were going to do.”
“And this morning I realized I needed to go home.”
He started to say something but cut himself off and gave me a small smile. “You still need to open your gift.”
How had I forgotten? He’d moved the long white box to the end table next to the sofa. It was about three feet long and six inches wide. The blue ribbon was wrapped into a bow.
He picked it up and brought it over to me.
Now my interest was really piqued. The box wasn’t very heavy, maybe a few pounds. He held it still while I unwrapped the ribbon and the paper. When I opened the top, I moved the tissue paper aside to reveal a sword.