Reborn (24 page)

“What is this?” She looked from me to her aunt. “Did something happen? Are you okay, Auntie Mel?”

“Yes, yes. I’m fine. I want you to come with us, back to your apartment.”

What?” She grabbed her hand back. “No. I just got here. Now what are you two up to?”

I stepped in. “Desiree, it is for your own protection that we barge in on you this evening. Now please listen to your aunt and come back with us. I’ll explain everything there.”

“Seriously?” She couldn’t seem to get her mouth to close.

“Please.” If I had to get down on my knees and beg, I would.

She threw her hands in the air. “All right. Fine. But if I fail the test tomorrow, I’m blaming both of you.”

Despite the circumstances, I found her anger stimulating. Everything about this girl filled me with some level of renewed life.

So she didn’t have to leave her car behind, I went with her, leaving Melba to lead the way.

Music blared when she turned the key in the ignition. She turned it down, and melted my heart with a sweet smile.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

“I told you, when we get back to your apartment.”

Her smile turned into a frown. “Have you gotten yourself in trouble with the law?”

“No.”

“Is Melba in some kind of trouble?”

“No.”

“Fine, keep your secrets. But I want answers once we get home.”

“And you’ll get them.”
Probably more than you will really want
.

When we reached her apartment, she turned to face me before getting out. “This whole mystery is kinda scaring me.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t want to scare you.”

“Hmm. Not even a smile? Yesterday, I had such a good time with you. Did I do—?”

“No, no.” I reached for one of her hands and held it between us. “You didn’t do anything. Yesterday was the best day of my life, and I wish I could relive it every day.” Looking into her eyes, I saw the girl in the mansion’s den. My heart ached for both of them. “Come. Inside where it’s safe.”

“Okay, I’ll play along,” she said, with a hint of amusement in her tone.

Melba stood by her car, flashing us looks of suspicion and annoyance. When we reached her, she grabbed Desiree’s hand again and held it until we were inside the apartment with the door locked and deadbolted. Then she had a quick look around and joined us in the living room.

“All right. I can hardly stand the suspense, so spill.” Desiree assumed authority, standing with her hands on her hips, shooting pointed looks our way.

With Melba at a sudden loss for words, I decided to tell what I knew.

“Solomon Brandt, the one from the plantation, is haunting me.”

“In your dreams?”

“Yes… and also when I’m awake.”

“Welcome to the second most haunted state in America.” As soon as she said it, remorse twitched in her eyes then she grinned. “Sorry, bad joke.”

“On my way home last night, I saw him in the park, riding Excalibur.”

Skepticism flashed across her features. “What? Really?”

“Yes.”

“How can you be sure it wasn’t one of the tour guides taking a horse home?”

“Solomon stopped and spoke to me. He was a faded image of himself. But Excalibur was whole. He used the horse as a vessel to enter this time period.”

Desiree turned her skeptical gaze on her aunt. “Is this for real?”

“Yes, Desi. Everything he says is true. The real Solomon died a tortuous death”—Melba flashed me a pointed look—”as was fitting. His black soul remained imprisoned by Hoodoo magic for a century and a half. Now he is risen—a true demon who reeks of evil and wants to dwell among us.”

“Why?”

Melba and I threw each other grave looks.

“He’s here for me.” It was on the tip of my tongue to tell both of them the truth as I knew it.

“Why does he want you? Who are you, really?”

That, I couldn’t even admit to myself yet. My heart raced on overload as I considered her question and how to answer. I began to wonder if I had ended up at Melba’s by accident that first day, or if some higher power had planned it?

I looked into her questioning eyes. “I think I am… he himself.”

The half-grin she sported then did nothing to lighten the mood.

“That doesn’t make any sense. You can’t be two people.” Her gaze begged me to take back my confession.

“That’s all I have.” And with that small statement, I felt the justification of how powerless I really was in this whole plan.

A spiral of hair brushed Desiree’s cheek when she shook her head. “Uh-uh. I don’t believe that.”

“There’s something else you both should know,” I said in a most serious tone.

Silence.

“He wants you, too, Desiree.”

Melba gasped, mumbled something into the air, and then grabbed my arm, spinning me toward her. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“I agreed she was in danger.”

“What a minute,” Desiree chimed in. “I’m still here, remember? Now what does some dead plantation owner want with me?”

I glanced at Melba, whose skin tone had turned a sickly gray, then clouded the truth with a lie. “I don’t know, exactly. But you are in danger, and I’m not leaving your side. At least tonight.”

Or ever
. But I would take things one day at a time.

Melba stepped closer to Desire. “I’ll stay, too.”

“There’s no need. I’m sure I’ll be safe here with Solomon.”

Melba cast me a shrew look. “Mmm hmm. I don’t think so, Des—”

“You can trust me,” I said softly to Melba.

“I do, but—”

“Auntie Mel, I’m an adult. I’ll be fine.”

“Hmm, well, I know when I’m not wanted.”

Her lips twitched, and immediately, I felt a familiar ghostly presence nearby. Melba would see to it that her beloved niece was well protected.

“Solomon, you take good care of her. You know what’s out there.”

Desiree locked the door behind her aunt, and then turned to face me. And judging by the new flush of pink in her cheeks, she still didn’t take the danger as seriously as I did.

“So, here we are, alone,” she said.

But were we really alone?

o you really think I’m in danger?” Desiree asked, picking up the phone.

“Although it pains me to say it, or even think it, yes, I—”

She cut me off and spoke into the phone. She ordered a spinach and artichoke pizza with chicken and extra cheese, then hung up and looked at me. “Sorry, I’m starving. Are you hungry?”

Although hunger gnawed at my stomach, food was the furthest thing from my mind.

The image of the girl whose blood I helped devour came into view again. Her pleading gaze haunted me through Desiree’s eyes—a fitting punishment. I shook the poor wretch from my mind and concentrated on the warm, breathing body in front of me. Desiree—very much alive—stepped closer until the hardened buds beneath the silky fabric of her top pushed against the muscles in my chest. Already, I could barely breathe from her intoxication. She slid her hands up my arms, and rested them on my shoulders. A pleasant, cool sensation followed, settling in my cheeks, forcing me to take a deep, shuddering breath.

I wanted nothing more than to scoop her up into my arms and carry her to a place of peace and euphoria, where desires could be fulfilled without the threat of evil looming. But, instead, I summoned all the restraint I could devise and tried not to concentrate on the pleasant tingles shooting through every part of my body.

“Oh, Solomon, I’m sorry for not taking this as seriously as you are, but, well, it’s kinda hard to believe, you know? This isn’t how I pictured the mystery surrounding your identity to unfold at all. Do you really think you’re… him?”

Her voice was no more of a distraction than her fingers tickling one side of my neck. I pushed hair back from my face and nodded.

“Well, my aunt believes it. But she believes in a lot of nonsense.”

Unable to resist touching her any longer, I lifted my hands from my sides and slid them to the deep arch in her back. “Desiree, the things she believes in are not nonsense. What about the dream you told me about?”

She considered my question. “Yeah, it did feel real, and I did see something the other night when you were here.”

“The bug?”

“It wasn’t really a bug. I didn’t know what it was, just some weird shadowy thing. And there was a feeling that came from it, like I suddenly felt ashamed about us being together… in front of it, like it watched us. I thought if I told you, you would think I was crazy.”

I grinned down at her, then sheltered her in my arms and captured her parted lips with mine. The reward was sweeter than I imagined. In the heated moment, she managed to get backed up against the kitchen table, where the glow of the entry light barely reached. In a smooth motion, she hoisted herself onto the table’s surface, holding me inside the grip of her thighs. Passion flowed from her kisses to the deepest part of my being.

When I felt her fingers tug at the still-damp T-shirt I wore and push it up my chest, I aided her by lifting my arms. Our bodies came together again, this time just the thin fabric of her top between us.

She smoothed her hands over my ribs, and up the sides of my chest, kissing the spot right below my neck, spreading insane amounts of heat across my skin. Then she did something that turned the internal furnace up even further. She undid the first button on her top, then the second, exposing a little white bow in the center of her bra and two round bits of fawn flesh peeking over top of the lace.

As much as I wanted her to continue, I heard Melba’s voice in the back of my head, telling me to take care of her niece—not take advantage of her. At least I didn’t feel three pairs of ghostly eyes watching us.

Desiree’s fingers worked at the next silver button when I grabbed her hands and held them between us. I was about to tell her to stop, to not go any further. But the two passion-filled, glossy pools that stared up at me urged me onward. Clearly, she wanted this thing between us to happen as much as I did.

I let go of her hands and brought my fingers to the next button, unfastening it for her. She rested the palms of her hands on the table and arched her back. The motion popped her shirt opened further, exposing the white, lace garment that covered a little more than half of her breasts. I took the invitation eagerly and lowered my face to the mounds, touching them with my lips, brushing them along her flesh to the spot in between. At my leisure, I explored that spot, then worked my way up the front of her neck, holding the back of her head in one hand and the bottom of one breast in the other. Each little moan caressing the back of her throat made me hungrier than I already was.

And when I thought I would end up on the table, on top of her, the doorbell rang.

“Darn,” she whispered, her eyes still closed. “The pizza is here.”

After one more, soft moan she sat up and fastened one button.

Reluctantly, I took a step back and tried to steady my breathing. Desiree jumped down off the table and with the back of her hand, wiped moisture off her mouth. Then she straightened out the twist in her top and went to answer the door.

Although the moment was lost, I took some pleasure from the pink flush on her cheeks, and the mess of curls on one side of her head from my hand, and let her answer the door that way. When she spoke to the man at the door, her voice seemed softer than before, more relaxed than I’d ever heard it. She pulled money out of her purse. I clued in and intercepted the transaction with my own cash that I kept in a pocket.