The Paladins (8 page)

“I’m not trying to.” Her tone is serious. “We—”

“Shh, I know. I’m just messing with you.” My fingers brush her chin. “I understand.” And I do. She wants to wait. I respect that and her beliefs. Her teenage mother had an affair with an older guy, resulting in pregnancy before he abandoned them both. After losing so much, she needs security. Once again, I bury the knowledge that I can’t offer that anymore. My arms tighten around her. “I’d like to kiss you now, Raven, if that’s okay.” I’m proving a point. The attempt is untried and clumsy but sincere.

Her body relaxes into mine and she lifts her mouth. “Definitely okay.”

My lips capture hers in a soft, sensual taking. One arm flexes around her waist, while the other moves up her back, between her shoulder blades. The exotic, lotus scent of her hair intoxicates my senses. The person I was before wants to crush her beneath me, consume her, brand her with my love so she knows who she belongs to. But I don’t. Because what I need more than to fulfill any selfish desire is her confidence—for her to feel safe and protected with me.

My hand slides to her neck. Fingers thread through the hair at her nape, curling until they’re secured at the roots. I send my message of need and devotion through my touch, hoping it’s clear.

When she parts her lips, my tongue sweeps her mouth gently probing, exploring. Her hands inch up my arms to my shoulders, finally clasping around my neck. I absorb the heat from her body, raising the temperature in mine.

Capturing her bottom lip between my teeth, I worry the tender flesh with gentle violence until I feel her body weaken. She whimpers as I pull away. “Say my name,” I whisper against her neck. Her erratic pulse thrums beneath my lips, ramping my own heartbeat still higher.

“What?” The word comes out shaky, breathless.

“My name,” I urge. “Say it.” I pause, lowering my forehead until it rests against hers.
Calm down, Maddox.
I guess the beast isn’t completely gone
…

“Gideon.”

I raise my head. Energy builds inside me as I follow the curve of her lips with my eyes. Kissing Raven is unlike anything I’ve ever felt before—with anyone. Lately, though, it’s different. If my mouth is made of gasoline, she’s the match. I’m a hot, exposed wire, and her touch is water. As I cover her mouth again, heat pours from my throat. My lungs expand, burn. I’m on fire.

“What the heck is going on in here?”

Raven’s hands find my chest. A hard push creates unwanted distance between us. My gaze darts between Maggie and Dane, who are standing in the doorway, and the fire blazing away in the middle of the dining room table.

Fire?

Sure enough, one of Raven’s thick sketchpads is engulfed in blue flame. Smoke curling toward the ceiling.

I sweep Raven behind me with one hand, and snatch my jacket off the back of a chair. As fabric smothers the burning book, Dane tosses whatever liquid is in the pitcher he’s holding over the small inferno.

The flames die. Smoke chugs a few gasping puffs before sputtering out. Everything’s done in seconds, but …

“What the hell?” Dane asks.

Exactly.

I stare at the table, as though it’s capable of explaining how a book spontaneously combusts. Scowl firmly in place, I pick through the scorched items on the table: pens, paper, a magazine, some junk mail. “There’s nothing here to ignite, nothing electrical, no accelerant.”

I’ve seen my fair share of magical happenings in this house, but I’d hoped breaking the curse meant an end to the supernatural.

Maggie’s erratic glance darts from Dane to me. “It was a fluke, right? Please say I’m right. I can’t take any more today.” The words spill fast and urgent. The death grip she’s got on a tray of cookies bleaches her knuckles white.

Dane pries the tray from her hands and places it on the oak credenza behind us.

“My poor sketchpad … all that work.” Rae sneezes repeatedly. “Sorry. Soot up my nose.”

Maggie stares at the charred remains. “Ohmigosh, I know, but how weird. Rae, don’t you think this is getting scary?”

Her nervous chatter grates on my last nerve. No longer ignorant of ghostly specters, she and Dane were here the night my stepmother Desiree tried to strangle Raven with her undead hands.

Rae grabs my arm. “It’s like the other night in your study … ”

Her pained expression twists my gut, knowing how badly she needs peace. Paranormal activity seems the antithesis of all things peaceful, but the past year taught me that while a person’s mind can deceive them, truth is constant. Reality can’t be changed or manipulated just because you don’t like it. When Raven finally broke through my denial, we acted together based on facts.

And the fact is this isn’t our first unexplained fire.

“What happened in the study?” Dane is all hard angles with an even harder head. He doesn’t trust me, and though Dane’s with Maggie, he and Raven share an iron bond of friendship that I’m forced to acknowledge.

I don’t take orders, I give them. But for Rae’s sake, I ignore his demanding tone. “I kissed her.”

“
So
not the part I meant,” Rae says, a blush creeping over her skin.

Dane rolls his eyes, which I find both amusing and patronizing since he and Maggie rarely come up for air.

“We had a fire going in the fireplace. I just wanted one for fun, and for atmosphere.”

I grin. “And s’mores.”

“That, too,” she concedes. “The room got super hot, and the fire went crazy. I didn’t think any more about it until today.”

Now might not be the best time to mention the mysterious burning light socket in my hotel room.

Dane studies the soggy, ruined sketchpad. His long dreads hang down his back in thick ropes. “Weren’t you two at it again, just now?”

I bark out a laugh. “You think my kissing Raven starts fires?” She focuses on the toes of her boots, an act I find both sexy and sweet.

“Why not? You’re the one with the voodoo, man.”

My smile hardens.

Maggie slides a hand under Dane’s arm. She’s petite and fair next to his dark and obviously annoyed body.

Rae sends me a pleading glance, and I relax my shoulders. There’s a point at which the beast inside may lose patience, but not today.

“Excuse me, sir.” Jamis appears in the doorway behind Dane and Mags. My employee is hunched, bald, covered in liver spots, and about a hundred and fifty years old, but there’s no one more loyal to our family. “There’s a gentleman here to see you.”

“Not a good time. As you can see, we’ve had an accident. Will you ask Jenny to step in please?”

“Yes, sir. Of course, but … ” The guy has so much white hair sticking out of his nose, he looks like he’s sneezed a scrub brush. “If you’ll forgive my insistence, I think you’ll want to see this visitor.”

Exasperated, I pause. No doubt my impatience is clear in my heavy exhalation. “Oh? And why is that?”

“Because the gentleman is Master Cole Wynter,
sir
.”

Cole

I freely admit I’m not the bravest guy ever. Walking up to Gideon’s house earlier today produced a coughing fit, dry heaves, and finally my lunch. There’s some small satisfaction in that, I guess—defiling Gideon’s manicured bushes with my vomit. While the act of returning to the place of my imprisonment makes me physically ill, the thought of returning to France without answers is unthinkable.

Nerves scramble over my skin like tiny spiders as I wait for Maddox in his imposing library. The room is unchanged. The smell of age, and dust, and pipe tobacco permeates leather book covers and antique rugs. Light streams in through the window at my right. It’s early summer and bright, but the weather does nothing to ease the chill in my veins. I’m here as a flesh and blood human this time, yet the Déjà vu is even weirder than I’d anticipated. That’s saying something, since I’ve become quite a coinsurer of weird.

A grandfather clock in the corner of the room marks the time. Amplified ticking drills a headache into the base of my skull. Maddox’s decrepit butler Jamis only left ten minutes ago, but it seems an eternity.

Multiple footsteps echo down the hall and my stomach cramps. I’m waiting for Raven, but it’s Gideon who enters first. His blue and green eyes focus on me the way a gambler watches another man’s cards. He steps aside allowing a tall black guy and tiny blond girl to saunter in. I remember these two. Dane and Maggie, friends of Raven’s who helped me escape The Void last year. Taking seats in the wingbacks across from me, they stare as well.

Cozy.

I nod to the room in general. Dust motes flit behind my host as he moves across the room to the heavy walnut desk. He leans lightly on his ornate walking stick to hide his limp. Springs creak as he settles into a brown leather chair. The lion head on his cane snarls at me over the edge of his desk. “Why are you here?”

No hello. No welcome, or greeting, or pleasantries. I expected as much. Dane’s hard gaze rivals Gideon’s, but Maggie grins as though I’m today’s guest of honor.

When I unfist my hands, my knee bounces instead. I focus on Rosamond. I’m here to help her, and if I can, save myself as well. All I want is freedom, real freedom this time. Well, and maybe to leave with Raven.

And then she’s here. A chain on her boot jingles with each step. My eyes follow her long legs until they disappear under a leather miniskirt; linger over her red mouth and spooky gray eyes. Seeing her again blows the doubt from my mind, breathes fresh air into my lungs. I’m out of my seat before I know what I’m doing. Her hand is small inside mine. “Raven.” The name is healing, her gentle touch medicinal.

She throws her arms around my neck and hugs me tight. “I’m so glad to see you.”

Whoa, me too. “Hello, duck.”

Our embrace is awkward, but the clumsiness is all on my end. I curse my rusty skills as I pat her back. The motion feels wrong, like something you’d do with your sister.
Damn it
.

She smells like flowers and rain. Clean, like a baptism, or a new beginning. I feel Gideon’s eyes boring into my back and resist the impulse to flip him off. Raven should have the choice of who she dates—more choice than Maddox, anyway. This girl isn’t another possession to flaunt. She’s smart, and kind, and generous. She deserves the moon, and I doubt Maddox cares.

I hug her a few seconds too long, mostly because I’m hoping it will piss him off. When I release her, instead of sitting near me, as I’d hoped, she inches her pretty derriere over the edge of Gideon’s desk.

“What brings you here, Cole?” The guy’s nostrils flare as though he’d like to break my face. I imagine he would, too, if not for Raven’s influence.

I retake my seat, rubbing my hands down the legs of my jeans. I assume it’s okay to talk in front of the others. If he’s got no objection to his friends hearing about our collective oddities, I shouldn’t either. Maybe they can help. “I’ve got a problem.” My gaze darts around the room. “Actually, I wonder if
we
don’t have a problem. And I need your help.”

“Something that couldn’t be handled with a phone call, I’m guessing?” Gideon takes a large, gold coin from his pocket and rolls the piece through his fingers. A habit I’ve seen him perform many times.

For the sake of the lost girl haunting me, I hold my ground. “Not a chance, mate.”

Raven leans forward, interrupting our stare-down. “What’s going on?”

The words “you won’t believe me” die in my mouth. If anyone will understand, it’s this crew. “First, I’ve been experiencing … it’s hard to explain. There’s new energy, a strange force that’s been building inside me for weeks until I feel ready to explode.”

Dane’s head angles with his snort. “You need a girl, dude.”

Maggie punches his arm.

Neck stiffening, I refrain from glancing at Raven. “That’s
not
what I need.” A deep breath steadies me. “My hearing is unnaturally enhanced. I feel everything more distinctly. On the way here … ” I fall mute, afraid to voice my worst fears—that the magic of this house followed me home.

“Maybe its stress,” Maggie offers. “Adrenaline overload. That’s a thing, right?”

Dane rubs her arm. “Definitely a thing, baby.” He plants a soft kiss on her mouth.

Really?

Gideon ignores them, and for once, I’m in complete agreement. “And second?”

“Second, there is someone else in The Void … Rosamond Bryer. She’s been visiting me in visions.”

Dane straightens. “Say what?”

At the same time, Raven leans forward. “What’s a void?”

I’m not sure who to address. “The Void is what I call the in-between place where I was banished. The place inside the camera, behind the photos, hell I don’t know where it is.” I swipe a hand through my fringe, pushing it from my eyes. “I can’t remember if I made it up or if that’s the real name. After a while, we all called it that.”

“Who are
we all
?” Dane asks.

“The others. The people the Artisans imprisoned. Until they were released and went up in smoke, that is.”

Gideon’s gaze drops, and he repositions in his chair. A few months ago, he discovered the magic salts used for developing the film in the ancient camera were also the key to breaking the curse. At Raven’s urging, he sprinkled the bodies stored in the cellar with the substance, but the years lost in The Void were cumulative upon their release. People were swallowed in hot blue fire as the missing decades came rushing back to consume them.