Angels of Bourbon Street (4 page)

“Lailah!” With two steps, I bounded up the stairs, wrapped my arms around her middle, and yanked her backward.

“Oomph!” she cried, stumbling into me.

My foot slipped off the top step, and with yelps of alarm, we both tumbled off the porch.

Shit, that hurt! Darts of pain screamed through my elbow and my hip as I tried to roll Lailah off me. “Move!” I pushed her away and scrambled to my feet, ignoring the twinge in my ankle.

“Jade! What the hell?” She pulled herself up on her knees, not appearing hurt in the least. Of course not, she’d landed on top of me.

“Look.” I pointed toward the window.

She almost had her feet under her when she glanced up. Then she froze. “What the…?”

Right there on the porch, in front of the window, stood an ethereal couple. He was tall and thin with a narrow mustache, wearing a three-piece suit. She was a foot shorter, adorned in a sleeveless sheath dress and long pearls. I could see right through them.

“Get in the car,” Lailah ordered, backing up.

I was already pulling open the passenger door. Holy Jesus. Was I going to see ghosts everywhere I went now? The pair floated inches from the ground, their eyes fixed on me. I couldn’t tear my gaze from them. The fear gripped my stomach, making me catch my breath. “Get me out of here,” I whispered to Lailah once we were both in the car.

Her tires squealed as she whipped the tiny car around and sped down the driveway.

“Are you all right?” she asked when we stopped a few minutes later at a red light.

I took a deep breath, willing the unease in my stomach to settle. “Just take me home. To Kane’s, I mean.” Kane and I were already living together in his shotgun double in the French Quarter. Well, when we weren’t at the plantation house. I used to live in the apartment above Kane’s club on Bourbon Street. Technically, it was still mine. My furniture was still there. So was my ghost dog, Duke.

Duke.

Was he okay? Would these new ghosts have any effect on him? Maybe he could protect me. Oh, God. Would he be able to possess me? I did not want to go through life drooling like a golden retriever. I slumped against the window. “Since when does Bea have house ghosts?”

Lailah shook her head. “I’ve never seen them before. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t always been there.”

“They’re new.” I closed my eyes, trying to block out the creepy figures burned in my mind. “Wouldn’t I have noticed them when I was staying there?”

After my soul split, I’d spent a week recovering at Bea’s house while she watched over me. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary had happened during my stay. It had been the most peaceful week of my life.

“Maybe,” Lailah mumbled and took a sharp right onto Saint Charles. “But Camille has always been in the plantation house and this is the first time she’s come after you. Haven’t you and Kane been spending a lot of time there since Christmas?”

I chewed on my lip. “Yeah.”

“Something’s different, then.” Lailah gripped the wheel. “Something’s changed.”

I let out a hollow laugh. “Yeah. A ghost tried to take my body.” A shiver ran through me, and I curled inward, wishing I were in bed with the covers pulled over my head. “We need to find Bea and make sure she’s okay. What if the ghosts are terrorizing her, too?”

Lailah sped through a yellow light. At the last second, she swerved left.

I eyed her. “Where are you going?” We shouldn’t have turned for another dozen blocks.

“To get answers.” A few moments later, she pulled the car into a narrow driveway and parked between two brick buildings.

“The Herbal Connection? I thought you said Bea wasn’t there.” I pushed open the door and climbed out.

“She could be in the back working on spells. If not, her plans might be written on her calendar.” Lailah hit the remote on her key, and the car beeped, signaling it was locked. “Let’s go. I don’t want you on the street any longer than necessary. Anything could be hanging around out here.”

I glanced around. “Like what? Tourists?” The French Quarter was always full of people, and definitely a lot of odd people, but it was rare to run into another witch or angel. There just weren’t that many of us.

She let out an impatient huff and grabbed my arm. “
Ghosts
, Jade. Ghosts. You know the Quarter is haunted.”

Jesus Christ on a cracker. Of course there were ghosts. My heart thundered. Would I be safe anywhere in the city? What about Kane’s house? Or my apartment? It had already been haunted once. The ghost had left, but what if there were others hanging around? I let Lailah pull me to Bea’s shop and waited as she unlocked the door. In addition to being Bea’s guardian angel, Lailah was also her shop assistant.

We shuffled into the dark store. The smell of fresh rain and sea salt permeated the air, and for a brief moment, my shoulders actually relaxed. It was the welcoming charm Lailah had invented, unique to each patron, bringing the person whatever his or her favorite scent was. Mine happened to be the beach and Kane’s cologne. In any case, the calm was short-lived. I tensed. What if the store had lingering ghostly visitors?

“This way.” Lailah tugged on my arm, pulling me through the neatly organized rows to a door marked
Witches’ Sanctuary.

At least I thought it was a door. But there wasn’t a knob. Lailah placed her hand flat on the surface and whispered her name. The area around her hand glowed blue and then turned white as it melded with her aura.

I squinted, fighting the desire to shield my eyes. Holy crap, her inner light was bright.

The door gave a soft click and swung open.

“Illuminate,” Lailah said. Hundreds of candles lining the walls flickered to life.

“Wow. I guess that’s one way to keep the electric bill low.”

Lailah rolled her eyes and strode to the writing desk farthest from the entrance. While she rummaged around, I stood in the middle of the room, noted this side of the door had a handle, and then took in the two stainless steel work stations. The one to the right was impeccable, not a beaker or jar out of place. The one to the left had half-filled jars of brightly colored liquid weighing down a bunch of scattered notes. I moved closer, eyeing the concoctions. Each one had a label naming the contents, and upon careful inspection, I realized the papers beneath were detailed notes of the experiments.

“What’s Bea working on?” I asked, sniffing the beaker with the electric blue liquid.

Lailah turned and raised one eyebrow. “Nothing, apparently.” She tilted her head toward the empty work station.

Ah, I should’ve known. Lailah had once mentioned that she was a skilled inventor. I put the liquid down and jammed my hands in my skirt pockets. “Any luck?”

She tossed the day planner on the desk and shook her head. “No.”

I leaned against the counter. “Now what?”

She frowned, pulled out her phone, and called Bea. Sighing, she left a short message. “It went straight to voicemail.”

Damn, where was she?

Lailah stared at her phone and then closed her eyes, rubbing her forehead with one hand as if praying for strength.

“Lailah?”

Her calm, take-charge attitude had left the building. She gave her head a little shake. “Sorry. It’s just I haven’t talked to him since the hearing.”

“Who?” I asked with no small amount of suspicion. “You’re talking about Philip, aren’t you?”

The pain in her eyes told me everything I needed to know. I took three long steps and pulled her phone from her hand. “No. You don’t need to call him. We’ll wait here for Bea. Or Lucien, he might know. Or hell, even Ian. He’s a ghost hunter. He knows a few things about keeping them away.”

She placed a light hand on my arm and led me back to her work station. “See this?” She pointed at the blue liquid I’d asked about.

“Yeah.”

“The scent tricks you into thinking everything’s fine. It’s a soothing potion. And this one?” She picked up the scarlet-red potion. “Its scent is an aphrodisiac. Guaranteed to lower your lover’s inhibitions.”

I eyed it, and an image of Kane stepping out of the shower, wet and warm, and smelling of fresh rain, flashed through my mind. Hmm. What exactly would happen if I—

“Jade.” Lailah waved a hand in front of my face. “Now isn’t the time.”

I swallowed. “Sorry.” Heat flooded my cheeks, and I smiled sheepishly.

“For the love of…never mind. The point is, my skills lie with illusion. I can trick the brain into thinking pretty much anything. It’s quite useful for healing enhancements, actually. If the brain thinks you’re well, then it usually provides the body with what it needs to get better. But I can’t keep ghosts away from you or trick your soul into being more than it is. Even if your brain believes, your soul has its own power. It isn’t ruled by your mind.”

“So? What does any of that have to do with calling Philip?” He was an angel who guarded souls. Well, technically he was supposed to guard mine, but he was sort of MIA. Lailah had taken over. And good thing, too. If I saw him, I’d likely curse him into another dimension. The traitor.

“He’s been your soul guardian for twenty-seven years. No angel is better equipped to help you than he is.”

“You are,” I said dismissively. No way was I dealing with Philip. He’d tried to give my soul to Meri, the angel who’d turned demon and then turned angel again. And Philip still thought he’d made the right decision.

Lailah reached out, hesitated, and then took my hand.

I stared at the union with more than a little shock. Lailah and I had become friends since our stint with the angel council, but we weren’t close. Not close enough to be touchy-feely, anyway.

She squeezed my fingers. “I can’t protect you from possession. Remember what happened last time with Pyper?”

Six months ago, Lailah had tried to perform a ritual to free Pyper from her evil spirit. Only it had gone horribly wrong, and Pyper had ended up in an alternate reality. “That was different. Roy was evil. You couldn’t tell what was going on.”

“And I can’t now, either! Look, as much as I hate to admit it, Philip does know something about ghosts. He’ll probably have a decent idea of what to do.”

I scoffed. “Oh, really? Then where was he when I was being haunted by Roy? Huh? According to him, he’s been my guardian since I was born. But he sure as hell wasn’t around then.”

She shrugged her shoulders slightly. “The thing is, you weren’t haunted by Roy. Pyper was. You were haunted by Bobby, who was protecting you. As far as Philip could see, Bobby would’ve gone on protecting you if I hadn’t trapped him with that spell. There wasn’t anything Philip needed to do.”

Shit. She was right. While Pyper had been suffering at the hands of Roy, I’d had Bea’s brother haunting me. And it hadn’t been unpleasant. Not in the least. Except when Kane was around. The ghost had been a little jealous. But he’d moved on when he realized I wasn’t who he thought I was.

I ground my teeth, hating that I needed to rely on the good-for-nothing piece of angel turd. “Can we go home first? I’d really like to be on my own ground if we’re going to have to endure the bastard.”

Lailah glanced around the work area. “It appears safe here.”

“I know, but I want to see Kane.” God, I was starting to sound like one of those clingy housewives. What was wrong with me?

The frustration lining her face made me take a step back and study her. The one thing about Lailah was that, even though I no longer had my empath ability, I pretty much always knew how she was feeling about me. She was almost always either exasperated or angry. Our relationship was special like that. Except now, she appeared a little scared. “Lailah?”

“What?” she huffed out.

“What are you frightened of? A ghost possessing me, or seeing Philip?”

Her nostrils flared, and right away I had my answer.

“Philip,” I confirmed confidently. “And you’d rather see him on your turf, right?”

She jerked one shoulder in a quick acknowledgement.

“Okay. We can have him come here. But let me call Kane…and Ian,” I added reluctantly.

Lailah gave me a skeptical look. “If you say so.”

I frowned. Of all people, Lailah should be one who believed in the ability to banish a ghost. Heck, we’d done it together when we’d kicked Roy’s ass into Hell. “Do you need food? Is your blood sugar low?”

She straightened. “No. Why? Are you trying to say I’m cranky?”

“If the shoe fits…”

Chapter 4

“Dammit, Kane.” I hit the End button on my phone and scowled.

“No answer?” Lailah flipped through one of Bea’s spell books.

I shook my head. Where was that fiancé of mine? I’d already called his office, but the receptionist said he’d left. Now he wasn’t answering his cell phone. Sighing, I hit Ian’s number and sat on a stool behind the store counter.

“Jade?” Kane’s frantic voice carried over the connection.

“Kane?” I pulled the phone from my ear and squinted at the screen. Ian’s number stared back at me.

“Where are you?” he asked. Muffled voices filled the background.

“Bea’s shop. Why do you have Ian’s phone? And why aren’t you answering yours?”

“I left it at the office. I’ll be right there.” The background noise vanished.

“Kane? You there?” I glanced at the screen.
Call ended.
My hands started to shake. Why was he so worried? What was happening that I didn’t know about?

Lailah slammed the book closed. “There’s nothing in here about warding off ghost possessions.”

“It’s a spell book. What did you expect?” I pressed Ian’s number again. It went straight to voicemail. My heart sank. Kane was
never
unreachable. And where the hell was Ian? “Son of a…ugh.”

“Witches have been known to deal with ghosts before,” Lailah said idly.

I turned to stare at her. “What’s going on?”

She shrugged. “How should I know? You’re the one calling all your boyfriends.”

“Ian is
not
my boyfriend. We went on one date. One horrible, awful date. He’s with Pyper now.”

“Yeah. Whatever.” She spun and headed down an aisle toward the back of the store.

“Lailah.” I put my phone on the counter and followed her, irritated at the snide remark. She stood in front of a display of essential oils, pretending to inspect the labels. “What’s wrong? Ten minutes ago, we were forming a plan. Now you’re acting as if this is the last place you want to be. Do you have a problem with me or Ian?”