Bewitched on Bourbon Street (7 page)

“What the hell?” I asked, glancing around.

Kane stared up at me in awe.

“Snap out of it, dude!” I reached for him, but my hand slid right through his arm. “Oh my God.” I stared at my hands and arms. They were solid just as they’d been before. What was happening?

Kane’s surprised expression turned to one of determination. He reached a hand out to take mine, but again when we tried to connect, his hand passed right through me.

“Jade!” Kane took a step forward, both arms raised, and grabbed for me, but he came up empty. “Goddammit! That went all wrong.”

“Not completely wrong.” I waved a hand at the now-visible door. “At least now we know where it is.”

The stricken expression on his face told me he couldn’t care less about the stupid door. “Jade, you’re translucent.”

“I am?” I held my hands out in front of me, not seeing anything different. “That’s not what I see.”

“Well, I do, and I can see right through you.” A muscle at his temple pulsed.

I shook my head, unwilling to entertain the implications of what he was saying. “Where’s your dagger?”

He jabbed his head off to the side. “Why?”

“Get it. This happened to me when you took the magic into the stone.”

Kane hesitated for a fraction of a second, then he snatched it up and held the blade so the stone was facing toward me. A wave of calm washed over him and his eyes turned almost black with concentration.

With the first pull of magic, ice filled my veins, making me shiver. My entire body shook, and I felt like I wanted to crawl right out of my skin. I couldn’t wait until the foreign magic was expelled. I writhed and twisted, unable to stay still.

Everything started to hurt. A dull ache filled my chest, making it hard to breathe. And then a sharp pain stabbed me in my solar plexus. I gasped. “Stop!”

Kane dropped the dagger and stepped forward just as I fell from my suspended spot in the air. I landed, crumpled in his arms, exhaustion keeping me from finding my feet. “I guess I’m solid again,” I said, out of breath.

His arms tightened around me. “Yes, mostly. But the door is almost gone, too.”

Mostly?
That wasn’t a good sign. I glanced at my feet, noting they were in fact planted on the floor, but I couldn’t feel them. There was a shimmer just below my knees, and even though I looked solid to myself, I guessed to him my shins and feet were still part of the “other world.”

“What do you want to do?” Kane’s voice penetrated my haze.

I jerked my head up. “About my feet?”

“And the door. Whatever we’re doing to bring you back is hiding it again.”

I cast a glance at the barely visible outline on the wall. Anger consumed me from the depths of my soul. It was raw and resentful and full of a hatred I’d long ago buried. I wasn’t a ward of the angel realm. They’d have to work a hell of a lot harder at keeping me locked up.

“Unload the magic on the door,” I said and twisted out of his hold. A surge of power shot up from my toes as I once again rose in the air. Fiery magic spilled from my fingertips, blasting the seams of the door. It crackled and caught on, creating a ring of magic fire around the frame.

Kane turned and unleashed the power stored in the stone of his dagger. His red stream of magic collided with my flames. The inferno escalated, the flames licking their way up the door, turning the wood a deep orange as the fire penetrated to the center and burned from the inside out.

“It’s working,” Kane said.

Intense magic streamed from my fingertips as I remembered how I’d been trapped in this place for more than two months. How the angels were always manipulating everything, how they thought they owned us.

I unleashed every last bit of anger and frustration at the door until the structure seemed to moan under my ministrations. Then the wood expanded in a surreal state of slow motion until it burst, the explosion knocking us both backward.

Splinters of smoldering wood flew past my face as I crashed against the side table. Pain slashed through my back, knocking the air out of me.

Kane grunted and moaned about five feet from me. He was splayed out on the floor, his arm twisted at an odd angle.

I sat up, rubbing at my eyes, trying to clear my fuzzy vision.

“Hurry,” an unfamiliar voice called. “Before they arrive.”

I blinked again. A jean-clad male angel stood in the doorway. He had copper-colored hair and couldn’t have been a day over twenty. “Who are you?”

“I’m the one who’s going to get you out of here. Come on. The guards will be here any second now.”

I pushed myself up, my head spinning, and was relieved by the wave of Kane’s faint smoky fresh-rain scent. He wrapped his arm around my waist. I pressed into him, needing his comfort, but pulled back slightly when his skin nearly seared mine with his heat. I glanced up to see him gritting his teeth. “You’re hurt.”

“I’ll be fine. Let’s go.”

We hurried to the door. Anxiety gripped me. The angel stood just on the other side of it, and I was certain there would be an invisible barrier. If I was making wards, that was what I’d do. I reached out a tentative hand. Just as my fingers crossed the threshold, a sharp jolt of pain raced up my arm. I jerked my hand and winced.

“It’s best if you jump through it quickly to get it over with.”

Kane pulled away from me, cradling his hurt arm to his body.

Dammit! Jumping through the spell was gonna hurt like a bitch.

“Let’s go.” Kane gave me a small nudge, and I jumped. An invisible vise crushed me from all sides, and a cry got caught in my throat as I crossed the barrier into the hallway. I slammed into the opposite wall, trying my best to not crumple into a heap right there at the angel’s feet.

Kane followed me, landing with much more ease and grace than I did. But the twist of his face told me it hadn’t been pleasant.

“This way.” The angel took off down the hall without waiting for our response.

Kane and I glanced at each other, then with a silent nod of agreement we followed.

We rounded a corner and suddenly the world swirled and shifted, throwing us into a pixilated world of confusion, almost as if we were barreling through television static.

My feet hit the earth, jarring me, and it took a moment to catch my breath. Kane crouched beside me, his dagger held out with his good arm, ready to battle.

“There’s nothing here to attack you, Mr. Rouquette,” the angel said mildly.

I glanced around. We were standing on the banks of the Mississippi, the French Quarter to the one side and the river to the other. Only there weren’t any people but us in sight. And the world was monotone. No life. No color. No energy. It was exactly like the void world Mati had been trapped in a few months back.

“Why here?” I asked, accusation lacing my tone. Had we left one prison for another? Mati hadn’t been able to leave. I could’ve tried to jump back into our world right then, but I needed answers. Who was this angel, and why had he helped us?

I took a moment to get a good look at him. He was tall, almost as tall as Kane at six foot two. But he was lanky, hadn’t yet grown into his frame. He had dark, almost black eyes and unruly hair that curled at the top of his ears. If he hadn’t been an angel, I might’ve mistaken him for a beach bum type.

Kane slowly straightened and sent the angel a narrowed gaze.

“Because the other angels can’t follow you here,” the angel said, answering my question.

“And you can get here because…?” I asked.

He shrugged. “It’s my gift. I can jump worlds. And ever since Chessandra’s sister stayed here, once she was freed, I’ve been able to jump in and out. I don’t know why. But it seemed the safest place to talk.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “About what?”

The angel swept his gaze over us as if sizing us up. A nervous energy streamed from him, but if I hadn’t been an empath, I’d never have known. He appeared as calm and cool as could be standing there in the presence of a white witch and a demon hunter. I had to give him credit for that, considering either one of us could’ve likely taken him with one hand tied behind our backs.

He took two steps and turned to face the mighty river. “If it’s known I’m helping you in any way, I’ll be punished to the highest degree. I need your word you’ll keep my confidence.”

I opened my mouth to agree, but Kane said, “Not until you tell us who you are and why we should trust you.”

The angel shifted, staring straight at Kane. “I’m the high angel’s assistant. I’m privy to a lot of information. Information I think you want. But unless I get a clear agreement from you that not only will you keep my confidence but you’ll also protect me from her potential wrath, I’m leaving now and you’ll never see me again.”

Kane’s gaze met mine. Interest and a sense of excitement danced in his eyes. I nodded, sure he saw the same in my expression reflecting back at him. This was our break. The one we needed to get to the bottom of Chessandra’s deception.

I stepped forward and held my hand out. “Deal.”

He stared at my hand and shook his head. “This isn’t a gentlemen’s agreement. If we move forward, the spell will be binding.”

Oh, son of a… I did not want to be bound to this dude. I didn’t even know him.

“Fine,” Kane said.

I gaped at him.

He shrugged. “He’s not going to budge on this. If this is the cost, then so be it.”

“How can you be sure?”

“By his body language.” Kane swept his gaze over the man from head to toe. “Go ahead. Read him. Tell me what you think.”

I sighed. “You know I try not to do that.”

“Do it,” the angel said. “If it builds trust, then do what you have to.”

Fatigue weighed on me, and all I wanted to do was sit down to rest. Doing a reading wasn’t going to help my lack of energy. But I had no choice, really, other than just leaving, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

“Fine.” I sucked in a breath and probed lightly at the angel’s energy. Cold determination and pure nerve met me in the form of a steel wall, followed by light shocks of anxiousness. Closing my eyes, I probed deeper, sending my magic past his barriers and straight to the depths of his soul. Love, righteousness, and fear swarmed together to create the kind of man willing to put everything on the line for what he believed in.

The emotions gripped me, spun me up, made me want to do everything in my power to help his cause. I pulled back, the shock of losing his energy leaving me numb. “Yeah,” I choked out, hardly able to form words from the intensity of it all. “We’ll complete the binding.”

The angel sent me a grateful smile, raised his arms, and called,
“Witch, incubus, angel, one of three and three of one, may the alliance binding be done.”

Three separate bolts of magic shot out of the sky and struck each of us in the neck at the same time. Only a tiny pinch of discomfort radiated over my skin before it vanished as if nothing had happened at all.

Kane and I stood together, watching the angel.

He stared back, a look of satisfaction on his face.

Foreboding curled in my gut. He was entirely too pleased by this outcome. I pursed my lips and then asked, “What’s your name?”

“Jasper.” His expression turned cold, hard, angry. “And Avery, the angel who’s missing? She’s my fiancée.”

Chapter 7

Understanding crashed through me, and my heart went out to the young angel standing in front of us. Avery had been sent into the shadows under Chessandra’s orders during a time when it wasn’t safe, and she’d just disappeared. The high angel had tasked me and Kane with finding her, but we hadn’t even had any leads, much less any luck.

Lailah was now on the hunt for the lost angel, but despite all her research and investigating, she wasn’t doing any better. If I’d been in Jasper’s shoes, I’d have blown up the angel realm a long time ago. Figuratively and literally.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, my voice soft and full of emotion.

He gritted his teeth, and a muscle flexed in his neck. “You’re going to help me find her. And we’re going to take Chessandra down in the process.”

Kane nodded. “You got it.”

“No question about it,” I said. I’d offered Lailah my help before, but so far she’d said she didn’t have enough to go on, and the only thing she could think of was breaking into Hell. But with no assurances or even a hunch as to where Avery might be in the underworld, that was a suicide mission. With Jasper on our side, we might be able to glean more useful information.

“Good. I’ll be in touch within forty-eight hours.” Jasper turned to go.

I held my hand out. “Wait a minute.”

He paused and glanced back at me, his black eyes piercing me with his gaze.

I found him interesting. An enigma for the angel realm. Most angels of the realm lived with single-minded determination. One goal: to save souls any way possible. They were almost emotionless about it. But there was plenty of emotion consuming this young man. He was drowning in loss, need, and revenge. And ever since the binding, it was all right at the surface, easy for me to read. We were connected now, and hiding his true feelings would be harder for him.

“Why didn’t you come to us sooner?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“I didn’t have enough leverage then.”

I frowned, confused. “We would’ve helped you anyway.”

“Even without the binding spell,” Kane said, his tone neutral.

The kid shook his head. “I couldn’t be sure of that, and I’m not taking any chances. Now, no matter what, because of the spell, you’ll be compelled to help me, and you can’t lie like everyone else I’ve gone to for help.”

“Wait, what does that—?”

Jasper took a step and vanished from the void world.

“Dammit,” Kane muttered.

That foreboding came rushing back. Exactly what kind of binding spell had he used? Binding spells usually meant the parties were magically bound to protect each other. That confidences couldn’t be betrayed. But compulsion? That wasn’t standard. What had we gotten ourselves into?

I blew out a breath and met Kane’s troubled gaze. “Let’s go home.”

He nodded and wrapped his hand around mine.