Love Your Entity (24 page)

“Yes, thanks.”

“What was all that about?” Ronan demanded when she disconnected the call and handed him back his phone.

“One of the previous owners may have smuggled some of the Romanovs’ treasure out of Russia.”

“I was still human when they were overthrown and arrested,” Ronan said. “I’d already been turned when they were murdered. Not that I played any role in that bloodshed.”

“Did Voz?” Sierra asked.

“I don’t know. He may have used others.”

“So that could be it. That could be the connection between Voz and…” She paused as she once again felt a cold grip on both her ankles. “Mother, is that you?”

Then she sensed it with every cell of her being. That terrible evil. Terror froze her vocal cords, preventing her from screaming as she was rapidly yanked off the bed and onto the floor.

Ronan grabbed her arm and held her in place. “What the hell?”

Sierra tried to kick out and managed to get one foot free but it went through something she couldn’t see but could feel. It was some sort of putrid plasma that wanted to suck her in.

“Don’t let me go!” she frantically told Ronan.

“Never.” He pulled her closer but it was as if she was mired in quicksand. Ronan went full vamp. She could feel his strength increasing along with his fury. “Release her!” he roared.

For a moment she was afraid she’d be pulled apart, like a wishbone at Thanksgiving or a prisoner locked in a medieval torture dungeon. Suddenly, without warning, she was released. The sucking noise as she pulled her foot free confirmed her fearful realization that she’d nearly been taken in. Her foot was covered in black slime.

That did it. She turned on her side and threw up. “Get it—” Barf. “Off.” A dry heave. “Me!”

Ronan slid his hands under her thighs and lifted her in his arms. In the blink of an eye, she was downstairs in the basement.

“You’re safe here,” he said.

He set her on top of the washing machine and turned on the water from the laundry tub. Gently reaching for her feet, he shifted them so the water rinsed away the slime. She watched it slide down the drain. What if it came back up again? She shimmied back, almost falling off the washer.

“Close the drain,” she shouted. “Use the plug!”

Ronan did.

“It could return.”

“Not here,” he said. “We’re in a secure area.”

“Since when?”

“Since Damon secured it. He’s a vampire Demon Hunter.”

“Was that a demon?” she asked unsteadily.

“It may have been.”

Sierra wrapped her arms around Ronan’s neck and rested her forehead on his shoulder. Tremors continued to grip her body.

He ran his fingers through her hair, trying to soothe her. “I’ve got you now.”

“Are we interrupting something?” Damon asked from the stairway. Zoe was right next to him

“Something tried to grab Sierra,” Ronan said. “It may have been a demon.”

“What did it look like?” Damon demanded.

“It was invisible to me,” Ronan said.

“Me too,” Sierra said, releasing her manic hold on Ronan and sliding to the floor to stand on her own two feet.

“Did it speak?”

“No,” Ronan said.

Sierra shook her head.

“What happened to your foot?” Zoe asked.

The slime was gone but the moldy dark color was back.

“Shit!” Sierra was so light-headed she thought she’d crumple onto the cement floor.

Ronan scooped her up and set her back on the washer. Unfortunately there was no comfy chair or couch for her to recline on. In fact, there was no furniture down here at all.

“We washed the slime away,” Ronan told Zoe. “It went down the drain. Sierra is afraid it might come back.”

Zoe moved close and studied Sierra’s foot for a moment before saying, “I’m going to do a protection spell for you. Is that okay?”

Hell yes. Sierra’s lips trembled too much for her to speak the words out loud so she nodded instead.

Zoe began reciting the spell.

By forces of day and spirits of night

By solemn vow and powers strong

When evil lurks or harm be in sight

Be you safe from all evil forever long

A puff of sulfur-smelling smoke popped the plug off the drain.

“That’s a good sign,” Zoe said. “It means the spell disarmed the demon power in the sink.”

“What about my foot?” Sierra said, holding it out.

“Give it a minute,” Zoe said.

Sure enough, the moldy darkness disappeared.

“So let me get this straight,” Damon said. “Not only is Hal the ghost after you, but now some demon is as well?”

“Have you heard of invisible demons?” Sierra asked. “It was yanking me into some sort of plasma shit. I couldn’t see anything. Just feel it.” Another thought hit her. “Ronan said you secured this site yet there was some kind of bad stuff in that slime in the sink.”

“You brought the slime in,” Damon explained.

“And I got rid of it,” Zoe said. She slid her arm around Damon’s waist. “We make a good team.”

“Yes, we do.” Damon kissed Zoe briefly but intensely. “And to answer your earlier question, Sierra, there are rare instances of demon plasma consumption, where a demon force tries to suck its victim into a deadly invisible vortex.” He got out his smartphone and texted. “I’m contacting my sire Simon to see if he has more information on this phenomenon. He’s been doing this longer than I have.”

While he did that, Sierra asked Zoe, “Will that protection spell you did work on keeping me safe from Hal?”

Zoe shook her head. “It’s mainly designed for demons.”

“Do you have another one for ghosts?”

“Not really. Especially since you are an entity empath. You are more sensitive to spirits than others,” Zoe said.

“What if I don’t want to be that sensitive anymore?” Sierra said.

Zoe gave her a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry. That’s beyond my powers.”

“Simon texted that he’ll check into it and get back to me,” Damon said.

“I’ll check with Pru,” Zoe began when Damon interrupted her.

“Simon said he’d relay the message to her as well.”

“They are a couple,” Zoe explained. “Pru is a witch like me and Simon is a vampire Demon Hunter like Damon.”

“Not quite like us,” Damon said.

“Right,” Zoe agreed, giving Damon another quick but intense kiss. “No one is quite like us.” Looking around, she said, “You’re going to need some furniture down here.”

“Why do we have to stay down here if I’ve got a demon protection spell?” Sierra asked.

“Because this is a secure site. No ghosts,” Ronan said. “I think you’ve had enough excitement for one night.”

“True,” she said. “I’m not sure how I’ll ever sleep on that bed again.”

“I can get you a new bed. What style would you like?” Zoe asked.

“This isn’t a design makeover from HGTV,” Damon said irritably. “Just give her a bed. Big enough for two.”

Zoe wrinkled her nose at Damon before beginning her incantation.

Air and fire

There is a desire

Air and earth

For what it’s worth

Whatever is said

Please, we need a bed.

While she did that, Ronan rushed upstairs and brought down Sierra’s laptop and phone. He did all that in a millisecond.

“Get some sleep,” Zoe suggested. “Call us if you need anything.”

When Sierra was alone with Ronan she said, “I have to tell you something. I saw my father at the cemetery tonight. When I wandered off, I didn’t go looking for him at all. It’s as if I was drawn there. I called him a shit-faced bastard. Maybe that made him mad enough to turn into a demon. Or maybe he always was one. I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”

“How do you know it was your father in the cemetery?”

“Aside from the fact that I was standing next to his headstone with his name on it, I could see him,” she said.

“Could you see him tonight?”

“No, I saw nothing. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t him.” She looked at the bed. “I can’t believe Zoe did that.” She cautiously sat on it. “Not bad.” The sheets were plain white and the comforter was as well. Nothing fancy. Just a plain bed. Created by a witch who had recited a demon protection spell on Sierra.

She reached for her laptop and then started doing research. She’d investigated everyone else so she might as well investigate Baron Voz and then the Russian circus guys. She didn’t get far with Voz.

“All I can find is a reference to him during the Crusades. That’s not possible, right?”

“Wrong,” Ronan said. “He became a vampire around that time.”

She kept looking on the Internet, trying to ignore the fact that she had to pee. Yes, she’d smudged the bathroom off her bedroom with sage but she wasn’t ready to go back upstairs yet.

As if reading her mind—wait, Ronan
could
read her mind. “There’s a small WC behind the stairs,” he said. “Just a toilet and sink.”

“Thanks.” She rushed over to it and shut the door. Small was right. When she sat on the john, her knees bumped against the sink, which she faced. From side to side there were maybe a few inches bracketing the toilet. She couldn’t even stretch out her hands. She had to keep her elbows bent. Had Zoe spelled this room as well as the bed? Sierra hadn’t noticed it before but then she hadn’t spent much time down here. The first time she’d tried to explore, her flashlight went out. Then earlier tonight, she’d been in the passageway and couldn’t wait to get out and go upstairs to eat her pizza, which she’d thrown up all over her bedroom floor.

“It’s all cleaned up,” Ronan told her through the door. “The mess upstairs, I mean.”

Okay, then. Definitely time to slam her mental barrier back in place. No more thought sharing as she sat on the john. Because the bottom line here was that by midnight the day after tomorrow they had to find the key or she’d be turned into a vampire. Unless she and Ronan had sex. So that was a given. They were
definitely
having sex.

She just needed to work out a few details first. And she needed to do that without Ronan listening in on her thoughts and her plans.

Chapter Twenty

Sierra greeted her friends the next afternoon. “Thanks for coming.”

“Is there a reason we’re sitting outside on this chilly February day when there are two perfectly warm and toasty houses in front of us?” Zoe asked as she tried to make herself more comfortable in the plastic resin chair Sierra had set outside. She’d ordered them express from Amazon the other day, before the cemetery stuff.

“We’re out here because this conversation needs to be private.” It was only after Sierra said the words that she realized they were almost the same as those that Ronan had used when he’d told her about his sister. She handed a mug of hot cocoa to Zoe and one to Daniella, who sat beside her.

Sierra hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. No surprise there, given what she’d gone through yesterday. She didn’t feel safe in her own house so she’d taken this meeting outside. She couldn’t hold it in the basement. Ronan was using that space to piece together what he had of the map from Hal’s coffin and the passageway wall. Tomorrow was Valentine’s Day. Time was not just running out, it was freaking racing.

She’d still been unsettled this morning and avoided her bedroom and the rest of the house, including the kitchen. Ronan had actually handed her the hot chocolates in mugs as he escorted her outside before returning to the house. Somehow he’d also dug up an extra mug. A vampire good with a Keurig. Who knew?

“How are you doing today?” Zoe asked. “Was there any more trouble after we left last night? I already filled Daniella in.”

“I’m hanging in there,” Sierra said. “We still aren’t sure what came after me.”

They were interrupted by the arrival of Nick. Sierra hadn’t seen him since her first night in the house. He wore a black leather coat, as did most of the vamps around here, and had a cashmere scarf in his hand. “Ladies.” He nodded to Sierra and Zoe but went right to Daniella, tugging her to her feet before tenderly wrapping the scarf around her neck. “To keep you warm,” he murmured before kissing her with undisguised hot passion. When they finally broke off the embrace, he kissed her cheek and fondled her fanny. “That was to keep you warm.”

Sierra was hot just from watching them. When Nick walked away, she saw the adoration on Daniella’s face. Saying they were a couple was putting it mildly. They were clearly something very special. The same could be said for Damon and Zoe. Which is why they were the perfect ones to share this discussion.

“What did you want to talk about?” Zoe said.

“Sex,” Sierra said. “Or more specifically, sex with a vampire.” After what she’d just witnessed, she suspected she already knew the answer but still she had to ask. “I’m assuming it can be done?”

“Oh yeah,” Zoe said. “It can be done.”

“It can be done
incredibly
well,” Daniella agreed.

“Um … is it different than other sex?” Sierra asked.

“Absolutely. It’s better than anything I’ve ever experienced,” Zoe said.

“Ditto,” Daniella said with a huge smile on her face.

“Is there pain involved?” Sierra asked.

“You know, I voiced that same question myself,” Daniella admitted. “Nick’s reply was that vampires don’t have fangs on their privates.”

Zoe tried to squelch a snort to no avail. “I can’t believe you asked that!”

“Didn’t you?” Daniella said.

Zoe shook her head.

“Well, you’re a witch,” Daniella said. “You know more about these things than I do.”

“Not where vampires are concerned,” Zoe said, before turning to Sierra. “You are thinking of having sex with Ronan?”

“Yes.”

“Just thinking or planning?”

“Planning.”

“Because of the vampire bond you two share?” Zoe asked. “You want to break it?”

“Yes,” Sierra said. “Wouldn’t you?”

“I can’t answer that,” Zoe said.