Passionate Kisses 2 Boxed Set: Love in Bloom

by Magda Alexander

  She was leaning over her breakfast when she felt Emmett’s hand on her back. He rubbed circles that should have been soothing but only managed to put her more on edge.

  “What?” she demanded, wiggling away from his touch. She was losing patience. There was still a lot of food on her plate, and she wanted it in her belly. But she had a feeling she should hear the three stooges out first. “Whatever it is, just spit it out.”

  Emmett cleared his throat. “You were, uh-” He rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, searching for the right words. “Um, there was this spirit-”

  “Entity,” Nick said.

  “Entity,” Emmett repeated. “That kind of took over your body.”

  “Possessed you,” Nick said.

  “Pseudo-possessed,” Chiboza said. “Or oppressed. It can be difficult to tell the difference.”

  Emmett nodded. “Yeah, what he said. And the only way to get it out of you was for us to get married.” He winced. “I’m sorry. I know you don’t remember, but we kind of got married this morning.”

  “Did you know she wouldn’t remember?” Nick asked Chiboza.

  “I suspected,” he said to Nick. To Emmett, he said, “There is no ‘kind of’ about it.” He fixed his gaze on her. His expression was long and grave, sort of like a depressed Basset Hound. “You were pseudo-possessed by a spirit calling itself Mercy Abigail Birmingham. Have you no memory of this?”

  She blinked a few times, still getting over the fact that this man was here at all. She wasn’t exactly a morning person, but for some reason, she was finding it more difficult than usual to focus. “Don’t you live down in Mass?” she said. “You teach at Nick’s school. What are you even doing here?”

  “I came last night when Nicholas phoned me to say a friend of his had been possessed. Tell me the last thing you remember before waking up this morning.”

  She told him about the library and the article she’d read on microfiche. Something clicked into place in her brain. “Mercy! Hey, you said I was possessed by an ‘entity’ that called itself Mercy. Could they be the same-wait, I was possessed?” She scrunched up her nose. “Who gets possessed? Doesn’t that just happen in the movies?”

  “Pseudo-possessed,” Nick said.

  “But you’re okay now,” Emmett said, cupping his hand around the back of her neck. She really looked at him then, noticing the dark circles under his eyes and the creases at the corners. His hair was lumpy and needed washing. He had a thick layer of stubble that would have made him look dangerous if he hadn’t looked so exhausted. He’d aged five years since she’d last seen him. He smiled at her, but his eyes remained sad.

  She didn’t like the way everyone was looking at her like she’d almost died or something.

  “Your condition was very serious,” Chiboza said. “You very nearly died. Do you understand?” he asked, like she was a child.

  It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him to take his condescending act and hit the road, but he drew himself up in the chair and looked for all his 5 feet 5 inches like a man only a moron would cross.

  “Do you understand?” he asked again. He wasn’t treating her like a child but like someone who might be disoriented. And she was, she realized. She’d lost almost an entire day. She felt like hell. She couldn’t concentrate. And there was this cold feeling in her gut and in her bones, like when she’d gone in her basement to flip the breakers. She wanted to call it dread but it seemed ridiculous to feel dread when the sun was shining outside and she was with Emmett, in this comfy kitchen that smelled like coffee and bacon.

  “I was possessed,” she said, the words sounding unreal.

  Chiboza nodded solemnly.

  Emmett’s hand tightened on the back of her neck. “I’m so sorry,” he said, but she didn’t look at him. She watched Chiboza.

  “Does this have to do with my house?” Emmett seemed to believe whatever they were telling her, so she gave it an honest effort, wanting to trust him. But possessed? Seriously? It just sounded so religious and insane.

  “I believe it does, though I do not think you need to worry any longer. I believe the entities are gone now. To be on the safe side, though, I would suggest you not stay there alone until Nicholas can sweep it for activity.”

  “He didn’t find anything last night-er, two nights ago,” she said. “He told me whatever was there was gone.”

  “Not gone, per se,” Nick said. “I just thought it might be regrouping. But now I think it might have hitched a ride on you. That’s why we didn’t find anything the other night.” He was leaning on the counter, nervously picking at a belt loop on his shorts. He looked at his mentor. “But where did it go? If the entity that called itself Mercy was in her, and now it’s not, where did it end up? And what about the demon?”

  “Demon?” she asked in a flat voice. This couldn’t be happening. She was having a calm discussion with her boyfriend and his friend and some theology professor about demons and hauntings. All while her stomach was on the verge of turning itself inside out with hunger. She forked in a huge mouthful, deciding the guys could talk it all out while she refueled.

  “The body of the crow is on the roof,” Chiboza said. “Who is to know where the demon went. The important thing is, it cannot hurt any of us.” He looked pointedly at Jade. “Not anymore. We must trust that the angel took care of the demon and its minion.”

  Her throat stuck on a swallow, and she coughed. Emmett pounded her back until a piece of scrambled egg flew out of her mouth and bounced on the table. “What the hell are you all talking about?” she asked. “Demons, minions, angels? Dead crows? Have you lost your minds?”

  “I’m afraid not,” Chiboza said. “We determined there was a demon named Draonius who sent its minion, Mercy, to pseudo-possess you. I arrived last night and found your spirit gone from your body, which usually means death. But an angel named Joshua was protecting you.”

  She remembered reading about a young man named Joshua in the article in the library. There hadn’t been a picture on the microfiche, but a face popped into her mind anyway, the startled face she’d seen in her bathroom mirror. Did it make her gullible or just plain crazy that she was considering believing all this?

  “It was his idea that I marry you and Mr. Herald,” Chiboza was saying, “thus bringing your spirit under the protection of his Christianity. You are now permanently bound to each other, body and spirit. When you apply for your state license, I will gladly sign and notarize everything.” He rose from the table, drained his mug, and handed it to Nick. “I must be going. I will compose a letter to excuse you from your final exam,” he said to Nick. “You’ll arrange a make-up test with your professor. Your assistance was very much appreciated.” He hefted a backpack over his shoulder and said, “Good luck to you, Mr. and Mrs. Herald.” His wide mouth quirked in an almost-smile, and then he left.

  Jade’s breakfast made some noise in her stomach. “Is he for real?” She could not possibly be married. To Emmett. Who she’d only known a week and some change. Who was claiming he’d married her because she’d been so unworthy that a demon had possessed her and his goodness was the only thing that could save her. What a crock of insulting shit.

  “As real as a heart attack,” Nick said.

  “I think you mean serious,” Emmett said. “It’s ‘Serious as a heart attack.’”

  “How’s this for serious as a heart attack,” she said. “We are not married. This is crazy. You all are high or something. Is there a gas leak in your house? Carbon monoxide? We should probably all go outside and breathe some fresh air.” She nodded resolutely, but couldn’t bring herself to leave her plate behind. Picking it up, she started to push back her chair. She was getting out of this nuthouse, and she was taking breakfast with her.

  Emmett stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “Believe it, babe. We’re married.” A flicker of his usual charm made it through the apology in his eyes. “I proposed. You said yes. We said vows and everything.”

  “It was really bea
utiful,” Nick said. “Except for the possession part.”

  She rolled her eyes at Nick and glared at Emmett. This wasn’t funny anymore. Hell, it hadn’t been funny in the first place. “Did I spew green gunk all over my wedding dress? What happened to my veil when my head spun around?”

  “Please don’t make light of this,” Emmett said, taking her plate and setting it down. “I almost lost you.” He gathered both her hands in his and caressed her knuckles with his strong fingers.

  Maybe it should have felt comforting, but his grip was like the trap closing around her. She felt suffocated and judged. And most of all, she hated him for making her want to believe this nonsense even if just a little bit.

  Wrenching her hands away, she kicked her chair back. “Well, what the hell am I supposed to say? I wake up this morning and you tell me I was possessed! And that we’re married! Gee, how romantic, Emmett. Thanks for giving up your comfortable bachelor life to take demon slaying to a whole new level. God is going to be so thrilled with you. You probably have wings waiting for you somewhere up there.” She threw her arms in the air and turned on Nick. “What was your gift for the bride and groom, huh? A crucifix? A monogrammed Bible? Were you like, the best man or something? Did your responsibilities include tying the possessed bride to the bed and straightening the groom’s halo?” She wheeled on Emmett. “Why don’t I remember any of this? Why are you all so in-sane? We are not married. I cannot be married.” Her chest shuddered with panicky breaths. The muscles in her legs bunched with the urge to escape.

  When Emmett took a step toward her, his face was wounded and concerned instead of angry. That was the last straw. She could have handled angry. It would be no problem to run from angry. Damn him for making her feel like a jerk for running.

  She turned and flew from the room anyway, retreating upstairs to look for her phone and keys. If he was going to make her feel like a jerk with those compassionate eyes, she might as well live up to it.

  “Jade,” he yelled, his voice at the bottom of the stairs. She ignored him and stuffed the few articles of clothing she’d had littered on the floor into her carryon bag.

  She heard Nick say, “Give her a few minutes, man.”

  “Fuck that,” Emmett said, and the sound of his hushed cursing unwound a little of her tension. “She’s my wife, and she’s hurting. Can you blame her? She’s been through hell and back, and she doesn’t even remember it.”

  His footsteps started up the stairs, and she had mixed feelings about seeing him. He was coming after her, and she liked that, but he’d supposedly married her just to get her un-possessed, and she was pissed as hell at what that said about his opinion of her. Marriage should be something special two people do because they love each other, not a formality to undertake to kick a demon out. Not to mention, who was Emmett to think he was better than her because he was a Christian? What an ass. She didn’t buy that a demon or minion or whatever was forced to leave her body just because holier-than-thou Emmett married her in a pinch. And she didn’t believe they were actually married. She would remember getting married. There had to be some other explanation for this craziness.

  Emmett came up into the room. She refused to look at him. “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Leaving. What does it look like?” She zipped up her bag and patted the front pockets. Where were her damn keys?

  “Please don’t,” he said, and his voice was pained. She chanced a look at him, and he looked so dejected, her heart kicked.

  The muffled musical tones of his phone in his pocket saved her from having to respond. “Aren’t you going to get that?” she asked, when it seemed he was going to ignore it.

  His lips pressed in a hard line. He answered the phone, keeping his eyes on her. After a second, he turned away. “What happened?” he said into the phone, and his tone made her chest constrict with worry. She heard the faint rises and falls of a male voice on the other end. Emmett scrubbed a hand over his face. “No.” It was half sob. His shoulders rounded. “Oh, shit, Rob. No, I have no idea why she would have gone there. She left here around 10:30. I thought she was going home.” He was quiet for a minute while the voice said something. “I’ll be right over. I’m so sorry.”

  He hung up and faced her. “It’s my sister. She was at some biker bar last night and got in a fight.” He said it like going to a biker bar voluntarily would have been the last thing his sister would do. “That was her husband, Rob. She’s in the hospital. I’ve got to go see her.”

  Sometime while he was talking, her hand had found its way to his arm. She squeezed. “Will she be okay?”

  His expression relaxed at the contact. “Rob said she was in surgery all night. She got some knife wounds she’s healing from. But they’re more worried about her head. I guess she was babbling incoherently when they brought her in.” He shook his head, looking broken. “How could this happen? She was here last night. She was fine.”

  She didn’t remember meeting Emmett’s sister, but suddenly, her missing memory didn’t seem all that important. Her anger shifted to the back burner to be dealt with later. Family emergencies came first. If Jilly were hurt, she’d need to be there, holding her sister’s hand. “You should go,” she said.

  He dragged her into his arms, and she didn’t have it in her to fight him off. It felt too damn good letting him hold her. When she relaxed into his embrace, she felt something she hadn’t noticed before: a warm thread connecting them, a peaceful…bond.

  Oh, hell no.

  Every wall she had shot up to protect her heart from the overwhelming desire to be vulnerable with this man. She refused to buy into all this. She couldn’t afford to, not when believing it would mean Emmett had married her out of pity…to protect her from some out-of-this-world demon attack.

  “I want you to come, too,” he said, stroking a thumb over her jaw. “But you’ve been through a lot. Chiboza said you should rest today.”

  “I will,” she said automatically, saying whatever she needed to get him out of the house. “Go. Your sister needs you.”

  He kissed the top of her head. “We’ll talk when I get back, okay? I’ve got so much to tell you. So much has happened. I owe you a huge apology, but I honestly can’t find the right words right now. You deserve so much better than this, but I promise I’ll make it all better when I get back.”

  Promise. The word made her cringe.

  She nodded, feeling all mixed up with affection for Emmett and a claustrophobic urge to get away from him. “Go,” she said, pushing out of his arms.

  “I love you,” he said, his fingers clinging to hers for a second. Then he left.

  Chapter Thirty

  Joshua hugged the shadows in Emmett’s bedroom, listening to both sides of the phone conversation. It seemed Emmett’s sister had come by the house last night around the time he’d felt Draonius sever his bond with Mercy. He’d been focused on protecting Jade, and had lost track of Draonius. Now that Jade was safe, he’d been searching for signs of the demon, finding only the abandoned body of the blackbird. After hearing Emmett speak with his brother-in-law, he feared he knew where Draonius had gone. Emmett’s sister may have driven away last night with a passenger of the most malignant sort.

  He released his shadow form and took to the air, invisible to the living and all but oblivious to the storm of the physical plane, thanks to his holy commission. Now that he knew what he was looking for, he found faint threads of power that told a story he could piece together. There on the roof was the bird’s carcass, and there beside it, traces of an aura so vile, it made him shudder. Someone much more powerful than Draonius had been here, and this spot looked over the driveway.

  He watched as Emmett emerged from the house with Nick. “I wish you could stay and look out for Jade,” Emmett said as he locked the door behind him.

  “She’ll be fine. Thanks to you.” Nick clapped Emmett on the back and pulled open the door to his car. “Congrats, man. I know she’s PO’d now, but she’ll come around.” />
  Emmett clenched a set of keys in his hand. “I wish she could remember.”

  “Maybe it’s good she doesn’t. We have no idea what it was like for her. It might have been awful.”

  Emmett winced. “Good point.”

  “Tell Lisa I hope she feels better. I’ll be praying for her.”

  “Thanks man. And thanks for being here. I would have been lost without you. Jade would have been lost without you.”

  The men shared a quick embrace, and Nick drove away while Emmett got in his truck. Joshua spread his wings and followed Emmett, checking his armor as he flew. Twenty minutes later, they arrived at a brownstone, three-story hospital building.

  He pumped his wings, hovering over the building, scanning its interior for a tainted aura. It wasn’t hard to find. He said a quick prayer of thanks and slipped into the building, taking his shadow form and cloaking himself in the narrow cleft of darkness cast by a softly beeping machine.

  A blond woman lay in a bed with rails. She had bandages on her arms and a purple bruise on her cheek. A dark-haired man sat beside the bed, holding her hand. He looked weary. Joshua recognized the marriage bond between them, even though Draonius’s wicked intent distorted it, confirming his suspicion that the demon had struck a deal with the Enemy. It would have been the only way for a demon of Draonius’s station to oppress a married woman. It also explained why he had cut Mercy loose. The Enemy had offered him a chance at lordship, something Mercy would never have been able to compete with.

  Poor Mercy.

  Foolish Draonius. The demon’s greed had cost him not only his favored essence, but his existence, as well. He could have fled in the body of the blackbird and continued his temptations while hiding from Joshua and his heavenly cohort. But he’d been too bold. He’d broken a multitude of rules, and Joshua had found him. He must pay.

  Joshua stepped from the shadow and cast a veil over the bed. A shiver rippled over the man’s skin, as the veil touched his arm, but he didn’t pursue the sensation, returning to his silent vigil.