Angels of Bourbon Street (13 page)

“This won’t be forever,” Kane soothed. “We’ll fix this. We always do.”

I nodded my agreement but secretly wondered when our luck would run out.

Bea waved for us to sit in the living room while she headed upstairs to deal with Lucien. After a few minutes of complete silence, Bea returned with a sullen Lucien following her. My heart ached for him. I’d lost the coven leadership; he’d lost his ability to cast magic. It wasn’t a position I ever wanted to find myself in.

“Have a seat,” Bea said to Lucien.

He sat on the chair next to Meri and stared across the room, his eyes glazed over in thought.

“What’s a black heart curse?” I asked.

Lucien’s head jerked up, and he locked eyes with Bea.

She studied him for a moment. “It’s just a name for a specific type of death curse. In this case, it appears to be tied to the spell Lucien used. Though, black heart curses don’t usually have longevity. He was correct in his thinking that something like this shouldn’t have happened again.” She moistened her lips in thought. “I need to do some research to figure out why it’s lingering. Lucien, any ideas?”

“No. I’ve even used the spell successfully after…” He cleared his throat. “I have no idea why this is happening.”

Bea pursed her lips and jotted down notes. “That’s very unusual.”

Lucien nodded.

She put down her pen. “I’ll make some phone calls tomorrow.”

The room fell silent. Another mystery. What the hell was going on?

A few moments ticked by, and then Bea rose and crossed the room. She perched on her sunflower print couch next to me. “Let’s talk about the possession.”

“Do you know if Meri and I can do anything other than stay joined at the hip for twenty-four hours a day?” I asked.

“I happen to know a little bit about souls.” Bea pursed her lips. “I did a lot of studying over the last few weeks.”

I felt my eyes go wide. “You did? Why?”

Bea’s expression turned tender. “Would I do anything else? I may have given the coven leadership up, but I didn’t abandon you. Souls are nothing to mess with, as you can see. This is part of the reason I warned you to be careful to not give up any of your soul while transferring energy.”

I straightened. “You knew I could be possessed?”

Kane’s hand tightened on my leg, but he kept silent.

“No, dear.” She glanced at Meri. “Angels deal in souls. They have a command over them. For Meri, having half a soul is only inconvenient because her power is weakened. She has less to work with. But for you, your soul is who you are. It’s that piece of you that keeps you grounded here on earth. If you lose it, you lose yourself. In turn, if someone takes it over, you’re lost inside yourself until you waste away.”

Trepidation filled me and my fingernails dug into her chintz couch. “Are you saying a ghost can steal my soul? What about Meri? Is hers in danger, too?”

“There isn’t a record of an angel being possessed before. We don’t think Meri’s at risk. But it does appear that you
are
susceptible to ghost possession. If one is strong enough, she could steal your soul.”

I let out a barely audible gasp. “Camille.”

Kane perched on the edge of the sofa, staring intently at Bea. “But with Meri around she’s safe, right?”

“For now.”

Kane stood, almost knocking over the coffee table. “What does that mean,
for now
? Jade’s risked everything for a lot of people, including Meri. There must be something that can be done.”

The strain in his voice made me want to wrap my arms around him and block out the rest of the world. Intellectually, I knew Bea was telling us my life was on the line again. I should’ve been freaking out. I should’ve been asking what I could do to change the trajectory of my path. Ever since I was fifteen, my world had been turned upside down by magic and the supernatural. I was supposed to be marrying my best friend, not trying to dodge a goddamned ghost intent on inhabiting my body. I shuddered at the thought.

“I think I have a solution,” Bea said.

I waited for her to continue. When she didn’t, I narrowed my eyes at her, frustrated with the buildup.

“Well?” Kane sank back down next to me and grabbed my hand once more. “What is it?”

Meri leaned forward. “We think a spell can be woven around both her parents to help rebuild her soul enough that she’ll be able to fend off attacks by herself.”

“My parents. As in my mom
and
dad.” The bottom dropped out of my stomach. I pressed a shaking hand to my middle. I hadn’t talked to my dad in seventeen years.

“Yes. You came from them. They have everything you need to make you whole again.”

“Wait. Are you saying there was a cure for Jade’s soul this whole time?” Kane asked, anger clouding his eyes. “Why are we only finding this out now?”

“No, we didn’t know,” Meri said, grabbing some notes from Bea’s table. “Like Bea said, she’s been doing some research, and combined with my knowledge of how souls are formed, we’re pretty sure this will work. It’s highly unusual and will mean we need the angel council’s approval, but it should work.”

He increased the pressure on my hand. “How exactly are souls formed?”

Meri pressed her lips together and then took a deep breath. “We don’t talk about this outside of the angel realm, but each individual soul is seeded with pieces of the parent. It’s in their DNA. If we can get the council to agree to a small transfer, Bea can perform the spell and Jade’s soul should be able to heal itself.”

“They won’t do it,” I said in a small voice. “They’ll never agree to an intentional soul splitting.” Why would they risk two more souls? Even if we did happen to find Dad.

“They might.” Meri passed one of the papers in my direction. “Bea found a mention about an intentional soul healing in the coven records from about two hundred years ago.”

The writing was faded on the yellowed parchment paper, but I made out the note about a torn soul healed with the help of the parents. No other details.

I took a shaky breath. “Does it have to be my dad, too? Can’t it just be my mom?”

Bea shook her head sadly. “One isn’t enough. Do you think it’ll be hard to get your dad to come?”

Tears welled in my eyes, and I wasn’t sure if it was because I wanted to see him or if I didn’t. “I have no idea. I don’t even know where he is.”

Chapter 11

I sat next to Kat. She was still weak, but sitting up and alert. I forced the thoughts of my dad from my mind. I didn’t want to think about him or how he’d walked out on us. Leaning forward, I smoothed her curls from her forehead. “You’ll be fine here for the night without us?”

“Sure.” She smiled, appearing as if nothing had ever happened. “I don’t think there’s anywhere safer. Do you?”

“I’m not worried about your safety. Not here. Just your piece of mind.”

Her smile faded. “I’m not going to lie. What happened was awful. I mean, I don’t even really know what happened. One minute, I was waiting on Lucien, and the next, my whole body felt like it was in a vice grip. My head felt like someone was stabbing it with an ice pick. I know I was screaming, but Lucien’s warm magic drifted over my skin. At first, everything was better…” Her eyes shifted, and she stared at one of the Garden District paintings on the wall.

“Then?” I prompted.

She snapped her head back in my direction, her eyes hard and cold. “You don’t want to know, Jade. Trust me. It was awful. If I tell you, you’ll never think of Lucien the same, and I don’t want that. It’s not his fault.”

“This happened before, Kat. How can you say it isn’t his fault?” My chest ached. I didn’t want to be angry with Lucien. I liked him. But he’d almost killed my best friend, the one person who knew everything about me.

“I know. And he’s really beating himself up about it.” She rolled onto her side and propped up on one elbow. “You have no idea the level of self-loathing he experiences for what happened to his friend. After she”—Kat gulped—“passed, Lucien was in a dark place for a very long time. Therapy and counter spells got him to where he is today. He swears he thought the spell died with her. He was only trying to help me.”

“But why did he use the same spell? What was he thinking?” I couldn’t imagine ever again using a spell that had gone so terribly wrong.

“Please let it go,” she said, her eyes pleading with me. “I don’t blame him, and I don’t want you blaming him either. It happened. It’s over. Now we need to find out why and what we can do to help him through this.”

Those damn tears were back, burning my eyes again. This had always been one of the things I loved most about Kat—her absolute compassion for those she loved. She saw the best in us and took us for who and what we were, despite the fact that she didn’t have one magical bone in her body. She came along for the ride and helped in any way she could. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” She smiled through the tears swimming in her eyes. “Now go home and talk to your mom. She might at least have the last known address of your dad.”

“What makes you think he’ll even agree to see me?” I hadn’t spoken to my dad or heard from him since I was ten years old. I couldn’t imagine calling him up and saying,
Hey, Dad. Just in case you didn’t know, I’m a witch, and my soul’s in danger. Can you come down to New Orleans and help Mom put me right?

Oh, jeez. Yeah, that would go over well. I lowered my voice. “What if he thinks I’m nuts?” Everyone I’d grown up with had. I’d been the class freak. I didn’t want to face my dad and feel like that again.

Kat sat up and squared her shoulders, putting on her practical face. The one she wore when she was trying to talk sense into me. “You won’t know until you ask.”

“Shit. I hate when you’re all logical and crap.” I grinned, grateful that she seemed to be perfectly okay.

Maybe she was right. I was still furious at Lucien, but I’d try to put it behind us for her sake.

And my dad… I sighed. I really, really didn’t want to call him. I’d had enough rejection in my life. I wasn’t eager for more. But if it meant living with Meri for the rest of my life or sucking up my pride and talking to the ass who walked out on us, then I’d do my best to track him down. She couldn’t stay by my side forever, especially if she had some weird connection to Dan. My relationship with Kane deserved more.

I kissed Kat on the cheek. “I’ll talk to Mom.”

“I know.” Her lips quirked up into a mocking smile. “Get out of here so I can get some rest.”

Laughing, I headed for the door. “Call me if you need anything.”

***

I turned Pyper’s Bug down the narrow Garden District streets and glanced in the rearview mirror. Kane was following us back to his house. Beside me, Meri was slumped in the passenger seat, staring out the window into the darkness.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

She turned tired eyes on me. “Fine. I was just wishing for my own bed is all. It’s been a trying day.”

“I’m sorry. I know it’s hard to be in other people’s spaces.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She reached over and turned on the radio, loud enough to make talking difficult.

I took the hint and drove on in silence. When we hit a red light, I turned down the radio and faced her. “Did we need to stop by your place to pick up anything? Toiletries? A change of clothes?”

She shook her head. “Dan’s going to bring some stuff by.”

Right. Great, I got to see my ex…again. I suppressed a sigh and turned right onto Saint Charles. Ten minutes later, we pulled up in front of Kane’s shotgun double. And sure enough, there was Dan waiting for us on the porch.

Meri’s face lit up, and once again, I wondered exactly what kind of relationship they had. Not romantic, but it almost seemed magical, as if something mystical was holding them together.

Dan, dressed in faded jeans and a black T-shirt, met us on the sidewalk. His light brown hair needed a trim, and he probably hadn’t shaved in a week. If it hadn’t been for the stubble on his face, he would’ve looked exactly as I remembered him in high school. An intense desire to hightail it into the house clutched at my stomach, but I couldn’t leave Meri’s side. Instead, I was forced to invite him in. And then I felt terrible for not wanting to. Dan was a decent guy. It wasn’t all his fault we’d broken up, nor was it his fault he’d almost been possessed by a demon or that he’d spent time in Hell.

I shook my head and marched up to the front door. “Dan, did you want to come in?”

He turned from Meri, surprise clear in his pale emerald eyes. “You sure?”

I’d certainly never invited him in before, not that he hadn’t been in the house a number of times. I’d just never personally invited him. “I know you and Meri need to talk. Come on in so you can get some privacy.” Under one roof, they could go into another room where I wouldn’t be forced to witness whatever it was they had to say to each other.

Kane pulled his car to a stop behind Pyper’s and then came up the steps just as I was opening the door. “Hey,” I said as he placed a hand on the small of my back. Once inside, he ran his hand the length of my spine. I closed my eyes for a second, trying to wish everyone away. Too bad I didn’t know a spell for that.

Meri and Dan followed us in. I waved them toward the guest room.

“Jade?” Gwen emerged from the back of the house with a plate and a dishtowel. She absently dried it while searching my expression. “How’s Kat?”

Gwen took me in after Mom had disappeared into Hell, only a few days before I’d turned fifteen. From the first week I’d moved in with her, Gwen had loved my friend just as much as I did. “She’s fine. With Bea’s help, we managed to reverse the spell. Bea’s keeping an eye on her overnight just in case.”

“But is she okay? Really okay?” Gwen’s eyes shone with genuine worry.

I searched them, wondering if she’d had a premonition. No, she was usually much more stoic after she saw the future. “Really. Good as new. Bea’s just being cautious.”

Gwen let out a relieved sigh. “Thank the Goddess.” She ran a hand down my arm, then turned and disappeared back into the kitchen.

My steps slowed as I followed the sound of my mom’s voice.

“It’ll be okay, you know,” Kane whispered. “No matter what. I’ll give you my soul if I have to.”