Pandora's Box

by Miller, Gracen

  Note to self: Get Madison a Rhombus as soon as possible.

  Becoming comfortable with their amicable silence, Nix watched her. Her direct, unblinking gaze left him feeling naked and uncomfortable all over again, as if all his sins lay exposed. What about her made him want to be a better man when he peered at her? What about her made him aspire to such heights?

  “I should apologize to your friend.”

  He shrugged. “Zo doesn’t hold grudges.”

  “Zo? Odd name.”

  “It’s Zoe actually. Zo’s my nickname for her.”

  “Ah….” The sound exited her lungs, inflected with hints of carnality and lusty promises that would fell a man or a small nation. “I don’t want any of you to get hurt, Phoenix.”

  The change in subjects stumped him for a moment before realizing they were back to her first statement when she suggested they leave. Nix rubbed his bottom lip with his thumb and pondered how to deal with her. “It comes with the nature of the business, Madison.”

  “I’m not responsible for your other jobs, just this one.”

  What a quick comeback! And smartly rational.

  “My conscience couldn’t bear any of you getting hurt or worse—” She swallowed hard and finished with “—killed.”

  “Are you a stubborn woman, Madison?”

  She mulled the question over a moment. An ironic grin tilted one corner of her mouth and she said, “Yeah, I am. Although a lady should never confess to the fault.”

  Nix couldn’t resist a smile. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

  “Good.” Her grin vanished and he recognized the expression of someone whose thoughts retreated to dreadful memories. “I’d hate for another stain to mar my reputation.”

  Only a true southern belle worried about her reputation, and Nix grew curious what could have happened to taint hers. “Tell me what happened to ruin yours.”

  “Nothing really. It’s a small town and people talk.” She played with her hair, running the ends through her lips. “There was some evidence that my parents’ car accident wasn’t exactly an ‘accident.’ Some thought I was involved or had someone do it.” She shrugged, a casual gesture, but he could tell by her stiffness, her confession reminded her of a bad time in her life. “And when Micah walked out, those same people speculated I was involved again, only this time their paranoia grew and latched onto others.”

  Nix couldn’t imagine how anyone might think this mild mannered woman could harm another person, much less people she loved. “What did they think was your motive?”

  A bitter smile flitted across her mouth. “Money, of course. My father might have been a religious nut job, but he came from old money and knew how to invest it wisely. Micah….” She brushed the strands of hair against her chin. “He was an attorney, but the money he left in my name surpassed anything my father could have dreamed about.”

  “A couple hundred thousand?” Nix guessed. The abstract amount created little cha-ching dollar signs registering behind his eyes.

  Madison chuckled. “No. If you look hard enough, you’ll find my name on the list of billionaires.”

  Nix whistled. The inconceivable amount spun like a slot machine in his head. Figures he couldn’t count the zeroes on, making her a mega rich client. They’d never worked for anyone with money before, not that it changed anything. He’d still help her, even if her wealth caused his head to spin with a slew of questions.

  “Wanna know something else?”

  He nodded and waited for her to continue.

  “I learned after Micah disappeared that he didn’t exist. My marriage wasn’t even legal. My ex-husband’s phony ID fooled the registrar’s office into giving us a marriage license. I still insisted on a very legal divorce.” She rubbed her forehead. “Even his birth certificate was a phony.”

  He guessed this could account for another stain against her reputation. Supernatural creatures rarely created “real” identities in the human world.

  “Madison, what do you mean when you say he didn’t exist?” He tried to sit up a little straighter, and discovered his position on the floor failed to accommodate a straighter seat.

  “There are no records of his birth, his Social Security number belonged to someone already dead, and a detailed Internet search produced nada. Even his brother, Elias, is a ghost. His so-called deceased parents were tracked to living during the 1700s.”

  Nix sucked in a ragged breath, the scenario she painted atypical of the paranormal community.

  “There is no record of any children being born to the couple. Everything Micah ever told me was a lie.”

  Elias? What a peculiar name. Coupled with parents from the 1700s, her problem kept getting bigger and more complicated. “Have you seen his brother since Micah’s disappearance?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “Good riddance, too. Elias always made me feel like he stripped me naked. Made my skin crawl.”

  Nix wanted to strip her naked, too. He could understand Elias’s obsession there, but he’d been her brother-in-law, which identified him as a pervert and a little sick in Nix’s opinion. Some familial territory lines weren’t meant to be crossed. “Since Micah is nonexistent, do you think he was really a lawyer or do you think that another lie?”

  “He practiced law, but he held no official degree from Harvard as he claimed. I have all his case files boxed up if you want to look at them.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, that’d be great.”

  “What happened in the kitchen….” She shuddered and fear clouded her eyes. Considering what he knew and what he saw, he thought her very brave. She swallowed hard and asked, “Do you really think Amos got rid of it?”

  Nix hesitated, scratched his chin, and nodded. “Yeah, I do.” He gave her the answer he knew she was most reluctant to hear. He would never be comfortable sugar coating supernatural occurrences. Sugar coating got people killed.

  The beauty of her tear-filled eyes hit him again. Like blue diamonds.

  “How could he do that?” She swiped at the wet tracks falling down her cheeks, and Nix thought she’d be stunning dressed to the nines. Red-rimmed eyes, puffy red nose, a total mess, and still a very attractive woman any man would desire. He could understand why a high-powered man like her husband would desire a woman like her—if not for love, her looks alone would seal the deal.

  Between gasping, tear-laced breaths, her words stuttered out, “How could…he do…any…of…the things…he does?” A long, ragged inhale seemed to fortify her backbone into steel. The crying ceased and her voice grew a fraction stronger. “I’m scared, Phoenix. Terribly scared.” A nervous laugh made her sound like she hovered between the delicate edge of reason and full-blown irrationality. “I guess that makes me weak. Not the type of woman you’d….”

  She glanced away sharply, and Nix wondered what she’d been about to say. He knew what he wanted her to say, but even if she admitted an attraction to him, it wouldn’t be right to pursue it. Madison Wescott was a vulnerable woman, and he would be a cad to make a move on her during the worst moment in her life. Tense silence hung between them as she sniffled and used the back of her pale pink, three-quarter inch sleeves to mop up her tears.

  “You’re not weak, you’re human. I get scared, too. I’m just too manly to admit it.” For some crazy reason, he resisted the urge to pound on his chest like Tarzan. But it didn’t matter, she broke into laughter, a pure, melodious sound that shivered all over his body and settled like a warm cocoon on his downstairs brain.

  “Yeah.” Her chuckles retreated. “But at least you know how to protect yourself. If I tried, I’d just screw myself.”

  “Not anymore—you’ve got me to do that.”

  Their gazes locked, and she sucked in a shallow breath. Oh, God, he couldn’t have just said she had him to screw her now, could he? Not what he intended to imply, even if the idea was fabulous.

  Nix cleared his throat. He wouldn’t correct himself. It’d make matters worse if he tried. “You want to show
Gage those case files you said you have?”

  If Nix perused them, he’d be left scratching his head. Gage was the brain in the family, could dissect a computer faster than an IT tech.

  “Yeah. No point in sitting in the hallway feeling sorry for myself.”

  Nix stood and offered his hand to help her up. Madison stared at it as if he might bite if she accepted, but she finally placed her hand in his.

  He noted her tiny shiver as if skin-to-skin contact left her tingling in awareness.

  Chapter Nine

  Phoenix insisted on carrying Amos downstairs for her since she refused to let her son out of her sight for longer than a few minutes at a time. He settled Amos on the sofa, and she tucked a throw around his legs.

  “Thanks. He sleeps a lot.” She worried her bottom lip with her top teeth. Sleeping blissfully, he reminded her of the child he’d been, not the one that displayed hellfire colored eyes and went Jason on someone’s ass—normally her ass. “More than usual.”

  “We’ll figure this out, Madison.” Phoenix squeezed her shoulder in a reassuring gesture; his touch electrified her with sexual awareness. There couldn’t be a worse time to delve into a hot and fast romance. Terribly inappropriate when her focus should be on her son. Not that she’d ever been involved in a hot and fast romance anyway. Micah claimed the title of her one and only lover.

  James entered the room, cell phone pressed to his ear, and Madison stepped out of Phoenix’s reach. The older man studied Amos as he talked, and disconnected the call with an agitated snap.

  “Something wrong?” Phoenix asked.

  Laughable question. Aside from a child who’d gone psychotic, demon hunting strangers in her home, and a Mimicker her child dismissed as casually as he dismissed his vegetables, she thought the question blasé. Could anything scarier go wrong?

  “Georgie is certain we’re dealing with a demon.”

  “Perfect.” Phoenix’s tone held a wealth of sarcasm in his tone. “What kind of demon? Shifter? A Plague demon doesn’t fit.”

  Did the world just rotate off its axis because it sure as heck shifted beneath her feet. There was more than one type of demon? She slumped into a chair, dropped her face into her hands, and rested her elbows on her knees.

  “One of the Kings,” James said.

  “A King?” Raw fear flavored Phoenix’s voice, and Madison studied his behavior.

  She detected the hesitant glance James shot in her direction. Apparently things could get scarier. Madison felt the blood drain from her face. “Talk frankly. I want to know all of it, even the worst.”

  Phoenix nodded his head at his uncle. James’s phone vibrated, he flipped it open to peek at caller ID, and must have decided whoever called could wait, because he pressed a button and the phone silenced. James rubbed his forehead with his fingers before speaking, “A demon King is one of the original fallen angels who sided with Lucifer against God.”

  “I don’t believe in God.” She spoke the thought aloud. Maybe if she continued to not believe in God, repeated it often and loudly, demons couldn’t be real either, and all of this would go away. Denial kept Amos from getting help the first time—if anyone could call what she received actual help.

  “Well, He believes in you, Madison.” James gave her a piercing stare. “You need to get with the program fast, or things are going to go to hell faster.”

  She shot to her feet. “You can’t just tell me to believe in God and expect it to happen?” If it’d been that easy, her father would have saved her soul.

  “Not believing helped get you in this mess,” Phoenix interjected.

  She swung her glare to him. “Now it’s my fault?”

  “That’s not what I meant.” He crossed his arms over his chest and widened his stance, his eyes holding hers. “Demons prey on those with the strongest ties to God. Makes their conversion all the sweeter.”

  “I just told you, I don’t have any ties to God.”

  “Yeah.” He tossed a glance at his uncle, canted his head to the side, and waggled his eyebrows as if to say she had him there.

  “That’s the part that makes no sense.” James flipped his phone open once more, hit a button and clipped it back to his belt, again, obviously dismissing the caller.

  Phoenix threaded his fingers through his spiky hair. “None of this makes sense. And a King? Seriously? We don’t know how to defeat one of them.”

  Madison’s attention shifted between the men.

  James nodded and grunted. “Yeah, a King, and I know it’s going to be ambitious to kill one. We need to identify the King before we can decide anything else.”

  That didn’t sound promising at all. “I thought you conducted all your demon tests on Amos already?”

  The Birmingham men shared some more glances, their silent communication starting to irritate her.

  “You did the holy water stuff, the gadget with the lights, some type of exorcism, and none of it worked. You said a demon wasn’t involved.”

  “We performed all the tests to prove he’s not possessed by a demon.” Nix shifted his weight and held her direct gaze. “He’s not possessed, but that doesn’t rule out demonic interference.”

  “There are a lot of missing pieces to this puzzle,” James admitted, and he appeared none too happy with the admission.

  No kidding—it was one big puzzle piece for her, too.

  “But we’re not giving up,” Phoenix said, his stare impassioned.

  Madison noted James remained silent. “Maybe you should, Phoenix.”

  Gage and his girlfriend entered the room. Keys dangled from his fingers. They were headed elsewhere. Good option.

  “You just said you didn’t know how to defeat a demon King. There’s no point in you four going down with us.”

  The expression on Phoenix’s face—furrowed brow, heavy lines between his eyes, and a grimace worthy of scaring demons—oh, yeah, he could pummel something into a bloody mess right about now. “I’m not giving up,” he bit out between clenched teeth.

  “Fine.” She sent the rest of the group a hesitant glance. None of them said a word, just curiously watched. “Your blood is on your hands.”

  Phoenix shoved his fingers through his hair, giving his spiky, disheveled locks a more natural flow. “Just the way I like it.” He sent her a snarky grin and went back to business. “Now, I need Micah’s case files.”

  Chapter Ten

  Nix braced the hotel curtain back with his forearm and stared up at the late afternoon sky. Clouds bloomed like overlapping black cotton on the horizon, an ominous sight as it approached the southern city liquid fast. His gut twisted as lightening zipped across the horizon and arced to the Earth.

  “I think something’s coming.”

  He could hear the swish of the pages Zo turned in one of their handy-dandy Sherlock supernatural guidebooks, and Gage rifled through the mounds of paperwork from Micah’s legal case files that Madison had given them.

  “Yeah, I noticed the approaching thunderstorm about thirty minutes ago,” Zo said.

  Nix paused and waited while a bright spark zigzagged through the heavens. “There’s no thunder.”

  Gage ripped his attention from Micah Wescott’s legal files long enough to say, “It’s a cold front, Nix. Alabama’s known for its nasty weather in the spring.”

  “This is more.” He couldn’t explain it, but the atmosphere felt more malevolent. “Looks like a demonic omen.”

  Felt like a demonic omen, too, but he didn’t add that part because he couldn’t explain how the storm felt different from other squalls. Maybe the static electricity in the air blipped his radar as more wicked than a generic thunderstorm. He turned to look at them, gnawing on the inside of his cheek. Worry for their charges tied a thick knot of dread in his abdomen. “We shouldn’t have left her. We—”

  Gage glanced up. “Her?”

  Nix continued “—should have taken her offer to sleep in one of her extra rooms.”

  “We have a he and a she
to protect. What’s your obsession with this chick anyway? Besides the fact she’s hot.”

  Uncomfortable with the probing question, he ignored it.

  “So, so hot,” Zo agreed.

  Nix rolled his eyes. As far as he knew, Zo had never experienced a lesbian encounter in her life. Hearing her agree now went down as just weird in his book. Even Gage shot her a surprised double take.

  Zo didn’t seem to notice either of their reactions. “He’s right, you do seem abnormally attached.” She placed her hand in the book to save her spot and lifted her gaze to him.

  “I’m not attached or obsessed.” He clucked his tongue. Really, he needed to know Madison Wescott a little better before he could say if he ‘liked’ her. He admired her temerity, but he could say the same about people he immensely disliked. “They just need our protection.”

  “Hey, Nix, I thought Madison’s husband’s name was Micah Wescott?”

  “Yeah, so?”

  Gage folded back several pages of a legal document to curve over the staple binding the sheets together and held them up. “He signs everything Micah Dominus.”

  They fell silent, absorbing the information. The air in the room grew stale and thick with the ramifications. Dominus…shit! That was more than an omen. The lightening lengthened in intensity.

  Although unlikely he’d need his jacket in this insane southern spring heat, Nix snatched it off the chair. And now, with a storm brewing, it’d be muggy, too. “You’ll find me at Madison Wescott’s house.”

  ***

  Beliel stepped out of the torrential rain onto the porch. As he rounded the corner of the deck, he spotted the vehicle and froze mid-step, automatically blanking his presence as he lowered his foot. Whipping his gaze up and down the street, he saw no other cars parked curbside.