Bewitched on Bourbon Street (11 page)

“Pretty much.” Lailah shrugged and poured herself a cup of tea. “But I’m dying to hear what happened.”

I sat back and explained how my own father had insisted we be kept in the room where time stood still and how it had felt like we’d only been there for minutes before we busted out, presumably with the help of Jasper.

“Jasper is Chessandra’s assistant?” Lailah’s light eyebrows shot up her forehead. “You’re kidding.”

I shook my head. “Nope. That’s what he said. Why?”

She chewed on her lower lip. “Well, she’s usually really particular. I’ve never known her to choose a male assistant, either, since she forces them to do everything, including help her get dressed. It’s unusual is all.”

“Do you think he’s lying?”

“Probably not.” Lucien added, “It would be too easy to check. I’ll do it now.” He got up, whipped his phone out of his pocket, and disappeared into the kitchen with the phone pressed to his ear.

“Who’s he calling?” I asked.

“Chessa’s office, I suppose,” Lailah said.

“He can do that?” How come I hadn’t known that?

“Only through the Witch’s Council. He has connections there.” Lailah rose from her chair, crossed the room, and dug out a notebook. “What else did Jasper say?”

“He thinks Chessa’s up to no good and wants to be our informant with the understanding that we help him find Avery. She’s his fiancée.”

Lailah’s eyes gleamed as she scribbled something down. “You know what this means?”

I shook my head.

“We just got our first lead.”

Chapter 11

Kane

Malstord lunged forward, swinging wildly. I jumped back, gratified when he fell off balance and stumbled headfirst right into my path. With a quick jab, I slashed, leaving a deep cut across his ribcage.

He let out a loud roar, the sound echoing through the warehouse.

“Is that all you got, crater face?” I taunted, referring to the deep wrinkles of his leathery skin.

Green fire danced in his eyes as he circled me. Then he balanced on the balls of his feet and reached out an arm with lighting speed, his talons slicing through my shirt and the skin beneath. I barely felt it with the adrenaline fueling me and twisted, catching him just above the hip with one of my daggers.

Despite the hit he took, the demon twisted with me and clamped his claw down on my forearm, yanking my arm behind me, no doubt attempting to either break it or bring me to my knees. But instead of fighting, I went with it, throwing both of us to the floor. Limbs flew, each of us receiving our share of blows.

By the time I scrambled away from him enough to get back on my feet, blood was pouring into my left eye and pain pounded in my right knee. There was no time to regroup.

The demon came at me, his arms out as he reached for my neck. I feinted left, ducked, and gave him everything I had with both daggers right into his gut.

His eyes widened and he froze.

I kept a tight hold on the daggers and, while staring him right in the eye, I said, “Poison from the well, end this demon, save him from Hell.”

Magic shot from the stones of my daggers down into the blades still lodged inside Malstord.

“No!” His horrified denial drowned out the shouts of the onlookers.

And as his talons dug into my shoulders, I doubled down, pushing the daggers in even farther, and twisted. Those sharp talons dug so deep into my shoulders, I was certain he’d hit bone. We were locked in a battle of wills more than we were one of strength. Each of us had the other one skewered. It was only a matter of waiting to see which one of us would break first.

“Bastard incubus,” he said, more yellow pus bubbling at his lips. “You have no idea what you’ve just done.”

“I think I do,” I said through the pain, trying to fight the fog claiming my brain. If I passed out now, I was a dead man. I’d never see Jade again. There’d never be a family.

My resolve strengthened. I would not let this be the end. “Give up, demon. You can’t win this. The magic is already taking you down. If you surrender now, you’ll heal. Wait any longer, and you’ll be dust.”

Blood so dark it was almost black mixed with the pus on the demon’s lips. He tensed, spit the disgusting mixture right in my face, and released me.

I wasn’t expecting the abrupt movement and jerked back as his fluids dribbled down my forehead. Shuddering with disgust, I sputtered and regained my footing just in time for the demon to repay my actions by burying one of his claws in my gut. Fire sluiced through my torso, and sweat ran down my face, stinging my eyes. Agony engulfed me as a collective gasp went up around us. I was impaled, unable to move or even breathe.

The demon moved in a few more inches and whispered, “You might have won this round, but rest assured if you survive, one way or another I’ll find a way out of Hell. And when I do, you’re dead.”

He released me with a howl of frustration, took one step, and vanished back to Hell where he belonged.

I clutched my middle, my warm blood seeping between my fingers, and fell to my knees, not even noticing the heavy impact against the concrete floor.

Chaos erupted around me, but I heard nothing as white noise filled my ears and my vision narrowed to one person—the angel. He was propped up against the wall, staring at me with curious eyes. Ethan had saved him.

***

The faint hum of machinery filled my senses as I struggled to wake. My confused world was dark, permeated with flashes of light and full of unidentifiable sensations.

“Kane?”

I heard the call of my name but couldn’t register who was speaking.

Jade?
The word wouldn’t move past my lips.

“Mr. Rouquette? Do you know where you are?”

That voice. It was deep. Belonged to someone I knew.

“Blink if you can hear me.”

I felt my eyelids follow his command, and my vision started to clear. The outline of a man in all white hovered over me.

“He’s awake,” the same voice called, but it wasn’t coming from the man standing next to me.

“Yes, but he’s not out of the woods yet. I’m going to sedate him again, let his body heal a little more before we wean him off the meds.”

“But we need to—”

My world faded once again into the deep slumber of nothingness.

***

Jade

“I’ll have the crab cake to start, the shrimp and grits, and a diet soda.” Lailah handed her menu to the waiter.

“The same,” I said, snapping the menu closed. It was just after six p.m., and we were at the Crescent City Brewery trying to do whatever it took to take my mind off all the crap going down in our lives right then.

“I thought you were having the duck.” Lailah tore off a piece of bread and popped it in her mouth.

I shrugged. “Decision making seems like too much effort.”

Her lips quirked into a small, ironic smile. “It sucks to always be at the center of the battle of good and evil, doesn’t it?”

“Yes.” I picked up my water glass, desperately wishing I’d gone with wine instead of diet soda. “Only this time I have no idea who’s on what side.”

She clinked her water glass to mine. “You said it, sister.”

Lailah had asked me out to eat under the guise of discussing Zoe, but I knew she was secretly trying to keep my mind off the curse and the fact that Kane had been gone for hours without any word. It wasn’t necessarily unusual for him to not call when out on a mission. And for the most part I was used to it. Except I couldn’t shake the nagging doubt that something was wrong.

“Maximus would get in touch if anything had happened,” Lailah said, leaning forward on her elbows.

“I’m sure he would. I… Man, I don’t know. It feels like something is way off. I don’t know how to explain it.”

Her expression changed from mildly amused to concerned, and worry radiated off her, brushing my skin.

A tiny shiver ran up my spine at the look on her face. “What?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. Not really. But I have learned to not ignore those feelings.”

I let out a deep sigh and grimaced at the twinge of pain still plaguing my abdomen. “Yeah. Me, too. After we’re done here, I’ll call Maximus just to put my mind at ease.”

“It can’t hurt.”

“Other than Kane being annoyed that I can’t even go twelve hours without checking up on him.” I spread a thick layer of butter on my bread, not caring in the least how many calories I was consuming.

Lailah raised an eyebrow. “That’s a lot of butter.”

I fixed her with a defiant stare. “So?”

She held both hands up and laughed. “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

I nodded as I chewed. That’s right. I was entitled to a little butter therapy. “Tell me about Zoe.”

Lailah sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. “She’s been doing really well. I bring her to the Herbal Connection with me, and she spends her day helping either me or Bea with various things. We started slowly, you know, having her wrap sage bundles and stocking candles, things like that. But now she’s able to do intention spells with great accuracy. Her specialty is in metals. She’s working on a line of necklaces called Dream Makers. People custom order them from her and then she spells them. All they have to do is wear them and speak their intentions for the spell to work. They have to mean what they say, though, otherwise the necklaces fail.”

“That’s pretty cool. Like when people put intentions out into the world? The necklace helps reaffirm their commitment to their goals?”

“Exactly. So when someone says they want to find love and get married within the next year, Zoe spells one of her necklaces with that specific goal, and while the person is wearing it, they’re more likely to engage in behaviors that lead them to their goal. In the case of finding love, the spell may help nudge them into being more open to people, accepting more dates, making the first move, that kind of thing.”

“I like it. Maybe I should get one that says I intend to stay out of trouble.”

Lailah laughed. “I said she was pretty good, not a miracle worker.”

I frowned. “I still don’t understand why she wasn’t participating in the summoning spell at the coven circle, but maybe she was just overwhelmed or afraid she’d do it wrong.”

“Maybe.” Lailah nodded to the waiter, who set our drinks on the table. “I’ll talk to her about it tomorrow. It might be something like the chorus singer who’s too self-conscious to sing in front of everyone else, so she mouths the words.”

I hoped she was right. Because if Zoe really hadn’t wanted to find me—No. I wasn’t going to second-guess everyone I knew just because a few were playing dirty. Silence fell between us as we both got lost in our own thoughts and were interrupted only when our food arrived.

Shrimp swam in the rich sauce surrounding a mound of grits in the center.

“This looks amazing.” I took a bite, and my whole body relaxed with pleasure.

“It always is.” Lailah held her full spoon up in a small toast. It was then I noticed the sparkling blue sapphire on her left ring finger.

“Lailah,” I said, teasing suspicion in my tone. “When did you get that gorgeous ring? And more importantly, who gave it to you?”

She sucked in a breath and choked on a mouthful of grits.

“Oh, jeez.” I reached over and patted her back as she proceeded to cough up a lung. Her face was so red she resembled a hothouse tomato. “Here.” I passed her my full glass of water. “Try this.”

She took it and sucked down half the contents before she was breathing normally again.

“Okay?”

“Yeah…” She cleared her throat. “Food went down the wrong way.”

“Clearly.” I laughed, enjoying watching her squirm. It was so rare to see Lailah vulnerable, I couldn’t help it.

She was very tight lipped about her private life after having an on-again off-again affair with Philip for years—another angel who’d been mated to someone else. Granted, his mate had been a demon at the time, so it wasn’t a cheating situation, but Philip had never been able to fully commit to Lailah. She’d cut him off last year when Meri, his mate, had returned to our world as an angel. I wasn’t sure if the two had gotten back together or not, but for Lailah, that didn’t matter. The possibility would always be there, and she couldn’t keep letting herself be hurt by Philip.

“So?” I stared pointedly at the ring. “Got a new man in your life?”

She shook her head as her face burned a deeper shade of red, if that was even possible.

“Philip?” I heard the incredulity in my voice and cringed.

“No, no. I haven’t heard from him in months.” She picked up her soda and sipped slowly.

I raised a curious eyebrow. “You don’t mean Jonathon?”

She grimaced guiltily as she put her glass down. “Please don’t think I’m a terrible person.”

My teasing humor fled. How long had she been holding on to that secret? Guilt blossomed in my chest and ate away at my conscience “Of course I don’t think that. Dang, am I really that judgmental?”

She glanced down at her abandoned food and gnawed on her lower lip. “No. But he was pretty awful when he was here. I figured no one wanted anything to do with him. So that’s why I haven’t said anything.”

She was right, of course. The first time I’d met Reverend Jonathon Goodwin had been on an airplane ride when Kane and I had been headed home from Idaho. He’d been offensive on many levels—so offensive, in fact, that he’d been taken into custody by the air marshals.

Imagine my surprise when I later learned he was an angel who had a vendetta against witches, and me in particular. It had been mostly for show to raise money for his evangelical church, but he’d been pretty nasty.

Turned out he’d only gone into ministry after his mate had left him at the altar. Weird thing about angels: each of them had one fated mate, unlike the rest of us. And Goodwin’s mate happened to be Lailah. She swore he’d been very different when they were together as teenagers, that he’d been nothing like the douche-canoe persona Goodwin had taken on. She just hadn’t been ready to make that final commitment. It had crushed him.

Everything had changed for him, though, after the Angel Council had decided he was harming more souls than helping them and forbade him to continue his ministry. Since then, I hadn’t seen much of him, but it appeared Lailah had.