Incubus of Bourbon Street (15 page)

“We will,” Charlie echoed.

“Hey,” Kane said from the doorway.

“Boss man,” Charlie said. “Thanks for letting me stay here tonight.”

He shook his head, one of his dark locks falling over his eyes. “You didn’t have a choice. After today, we weren’t letting you out of our sight.”

“Well, thanks.”

“I’m ordering food. Any special requests?” He held out a menu to the neighborhood po’boy shop.

“Oyster,” I said.

“Shrimp,” Charlie added.

“I’m on it.” Kane retreated, and a second later we heard the front door click closed.

I rose and moved toward the door, but then stopped dead in my tracks. “Charlie?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you really go out on a date with a man?”

She stilled and bit down on her bottom lip as she grimaced.

“You did, didn’t you?”

She groaned and nodded.

I sat back down. “Can I ask why?”

She groaned again and flopped back onto the bed.

“Sorry. I… Well, I guess I’m a little confused. You know I don’t care who you date. It just seems so unlike you, and with the crazy stuff going on, I wanted to check with you to make sure there isn’t anything…off.”

She let out a burst of laughter and then sat up. “Off. I think that’s the operative word.”

I leaned forward. “And?”

She shook her head. “I don’t really know what happened. One day I was slinging drinks at the bar, and the next I was flirting with one of the regulars. And when he asked me out, I said yes.”

My eyebrows rose in curious surprise. “But why?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. It was awful. I mean, I don’t date guys. You’re not wrong about that. I’m not attracted to them. So the odd part about this is not that the guy was awful. He’s been to the club often enough that I kinda know him and like him well enough. The awful part was I had these strange, really overpowering conflicting feelings about the whole thing.”

“That’s new right?” Something told me this was all related to the Goddess and the club’s energy. I just didn’t know how.

She ran a hand through her short red hair. “I felt like I had a split personality. I didn’t want to be there at all. In fact, when he tried to kiss me, I physically felt ill. But then there was this whole other part of me that was excited to be out on that date.” She averted her eyes and lowered her voice. “I actually wanted him to touch me. You know, hold my hand.”

I sat there, not sure what to say. Then I cleared my throat. “Charlie, there’s nothing wrong with dating to see who you’re attracted to.”

“That’s the thing. I wasn’t attracted to him.” She stood again and grabbed one of the pillows. “All the desire to be there with that guy, it was foreign, as if it wasn’t coming from inside me.”

“Hmm, that’s odd. When did the feelings start?”

“A few days ago.”

A tingle of suspicion tickled my mind. “Before or after the club became supercharged?”

“After. The first night, actually. That was the night he asked me out and before I could charm him with my sass as I turned him down, I was saying yes. And felt happy about it all while my mind was whirling with a big dose of ‘what the fuck?’”

I laughed at her expression. “Sorry. I couldn’t help it because I can totally picture that and to be honest, it freaks me out a little.”

“Freaks you out? I’m losing my mind. I’ve known I was a lesbian since I was eight years old!”

“Well, I don’t know if this will freak you out more or less, but I don’t think you were suddenly having a sexual identity crisis.”

“No? What else would you call it?” She eyed me with suspicion.

“I’d call it an invasion. Or spell. Or some other supernatural phenomenon. Think about it. That all started the night the club went haywire. The weird energy in the club got to you and turned you into someone you’re not.”

She leaned against the closed door and regarded me. Then her eyes narrowed. “What if it wasn’t the club? What if I’m broken? Or having some sort of crisis?”

I gave her a look. “How are you feeling about men right now?”

She wrinkled her nose.

“Not feeling it?”

“No. Not at all.”

“Not even for the boss man?”

“Oh, Jesus on a cracker. You did not just say that.”

I grinned. “Is that a yes, then?”

“No. Dammit. Don’t even go there.”

“Well, then. If you’re not interested in the sexiest man alive, I think that settles it. You’re not into dudes.”

Her eyes sparkled as she laughed at me. “Thank God for that.”

Chapter 15

After dinner, Charlie excused herself and retreated to the guest room. Kane and I sat at the table, sharing a Guinness. Kane took a long swig of the beer and then passed it to me. “I’m going to dreamwalk Pyper tonight,” he said.

“Do you think you can?” I tilted the bottle to my lips.

“I can try.” There was a deadly serious determination about him that I rarely saw. Kane was confident and an excellent demon hunter, but this was personal. The Goddess had taken Pyper, and he’d stop at nothing to find her.

“I’m going with you.”

Kane studied me for a long moment.

“I’ll be there in your dream. You can’t stop me.” For months now every night when we fell asleep, I slipped right into Kane’s dreamwalks. While I wasn’t a dreamwalker, we shared a deep connection, and I doubted he could keep me out even if he tried.

“Good.” Kane slipped his hand over mine. “We’re going to find them.”

“We better.”

***

Kane and I lay in our bed. My heart rose up and clogged my throat. The decision to let Genesis take Kat and Pyper weighed heavily on my soul. I let out a long sigh and pressed my cheek against his chest.

His arms tightened around me as he kissed the top of my head. “I’ll be waiting.”

Images of Pyper and Kat played in my mind and a tear slipped silently down my temple.

Kane stroked his fingers through my hair, saying nothing. He didn’t have to. The only thing I needed was for him to hold me.

Before long, his chest rose in a steady pattern, and I knew he was already asleep. I wished with everything I had I could let go of all the turmoil running through me long enough to relax, to slip into the dream state that would allow me to accompany Kane to find our friends. Dreamwalking was our only hope at the moment.

Settling myself, I focused on Kane’s breathing. In. Out. In. Out. Soon enough, my body started to relax and I felt myself drifting into oblivion. Darkness closed in followed by the beginnings of weak light. An uneasy tightness formed in my gut when I didn’t see Kane right away as I usually did.

I was standing in a hazy mist of an alternate reality. Or was I? “Kane?”

“I’m here.” He appeared out of nowhere and slipped his hand into mine. “Come on. I’ve found them.”

The next thing I knew, our surroundings shifted and we were standing in the middle of Kane’s club. I blinked, trying to focus. Everything was distorted, as if we were seeing the room through a filter. “You’ve seen them?”

He shook his head. “No. I hear them. Listen.”

We stood on the stage, silent.

Then I heard it. Kat’s voice. And she was reciting passages of Shakespeare. A Midsummer’s Night Dream. “It’s Kat,” I said.

“Pyper’s there, too. I can hear her having some sort of conversation.”

We were silent for another moment and although I couldn’t quite tell if I could hear Pyper or not, I had something better. I felt her. And Kat, too. “They’re this way.”

Clutching Kane’s hand, I tugged him into the back of the club. With each step, my friends’ energies intensified.

“I already checked back here. I didn’t see anyone.”

“They’re not down here.” I pointed toward the stairs. “They’re that way.”

Kane tilted his head to listen.

“Trust me.”

He paused when we got to the stairs leading to the second floor.

“What’s wrong?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. The energy is…”

“Creepy?” I supplied.

“Yeah. Everything just feels wrong.”

“You can say that again. We
are
dealing with a spirit-eating Goddess.”

“Right.” Squaring his shoulders, he took off up the stairs two at a time.

Well, damn. I didn’t mean for him to be that focused. Steeling myself, I headed upstairs, prepared for the worst.

Kane stopped at the top of the second floor landing, holding his arm out to keep me from going ahead of him. “She’s here. The Goddess.”

I peered over his shoulder into the darkness and let my guard down. A chill crawled over my limbs in the form of desperation, but it wasn’t from the Goddess. I shook my head. “It’s someone else. We need to get in there.”

“Who?”

“No idea. But whoever is in there is in trouble.”

That was all Kane needed to hear. He strode to the apartment door and without knocking, he tried the handle. Locked. But this was a dream. Kane could transport us to wherever he wanted. He clasped his hand over mine and in the next second we were standing in the middle of the sparsely furnished apartment.

I let out a loud gasp. A large pentagram was drawn on the far wall. Zoe, our new tenant, was suspended right in the middle of it, her wrists and ankles tied to large spikes. Her eyes were wild with fear and she was clearly screaming, but I couldn’t hear her at all. It was as if her voice had been silenced.

“Zoe!” I ran to her. But when I got a foot from her, I smacked into an invisible barrier and jerked back, crying out in pain. No wonder I couldn’t hear her. She was trapped behind an invisible force. My skin burned everywhere I’d touched the barrier. “Son of a bitch!” I held my arms out, inspecting the burns. We were in a dream, and even though I knew when I woke up I wouldn’t see the marks, the pain would still be there until I healed.

“What happened?” Kane asked.

“Electrified, I think.” I stepped back and tugged on my magic. I was spitting mad and my magic sprang forth with very little effort on my part. Aiming just to the left of Zoe, I unleashed a torrent of raw magic. It collided with the barrier, both sparking, and then my magic jolted through and crashed into the wall about a foot away from Zoe.

Her mouth dropped open in a silent cry and the wall crumbled.

“Damn it all… It wasn’t enough.” The barrier was still intact with a near perfect hole where my magic had penetrated it.

Kane reached for his dagger. He scowled and swore under his breath when he came up empty.

“I’ve got this,” I said and let loose another round of magic just to the right of Zoe. My magic blasted through, creating a similar hole on the opposite side. More plaster from the wall clattered to the ground.

Kane glanced at me. “Now what?”

The barrier hadn’t budged. I walked up to it, positioned both hands near the edge of the holes, and released much smaller blasts of magic, using my mind to nudge it toward the center. Tiny cracks formed and ran in chaotic lines until the barrier caved and shattered at our feet.

Zoe stared at us, her expression pinched with pain as her mouth moved but was unable to form speech.

“What’s happened to her? Why can’t she talk?” I asked Kane.

But before he could answer, a rumble sounded from above, followed by a thunderous boom.

I jumped back, grabbing Kane’s arm. And then right before our eyes, the bindings vanished from Zoe’s limbs. She rose above us and her skin started to ripple and her form stretched and shifted from the captured woman to the Goddess Genesis.

“You!” She pointed at me, her eyes wild with rage. “How dare you invade my sanctuary?”

Her words just pissed me off. “You do know Kane owns this building, right? It’s you who’s invading our space.”

“So naïve.” She rose up above us and widened her arms. “Nothing belongs to you when you’re dealing with the otherworlds.” With a grand sweeping gesture, she lowered her arms, and the room shifted from a small apartment to a vast stone cave, complete with live-fire torches on the walls. “This is my home. And these—” her lips curled into something sinister, “—are my pets.” An invisible veil lifted, revealing Pyper and Kat.

A guttural cry erupted from me as I ran forward, desperate to free them from the chains binding them to the stone floor.

“Jade!” Kane grabbed my arm. “Wait.”

He stopped me just before I reached them. “What?”

“Look.”

I glanced down at my two friends. There was a sheen of magic covering them. The same that had been protecting Zoe. Frustration overwhelmed me as I realized there was no blasting through it this time. Not unless I wanted to hurt Pyper or Kat. “Let them go!” I demanded, whirling on the Goddess.

Genesis floated to the ground, her face serene. “Why? They’re perfectly happy in their alternate realities, living the lives they always dreamed of.” She snapped her fingers and a large screen appeared, showing Pyper in a high rise office running some sort of important meeting. She wore a sexy business suit and had her hair piled high on her head as she used a laser pointer to highlight critical points of her presentation.

The picture on the screen shifted. Kat was there in a TV production, reading lines with an ensemble cast. She held a script and while she looked exactly the same, she seemed more polished. Her hair and makeup had been professionally done and she wore high heels with her jeans and blouse.

“That’s not what either of them dreamed of,” I said, as if that even mattered. They were chained to the floor.

She laughed. “Trust me. They’re content.”

Her smug smile caused rage to ball in my gut. My fists were clenched and if Kane hadn’t had a hand on my wrist, I was certain I would’ve already rushed the Goddess, fists flailing.

She let out a soft laugh and elevated back up so she was staring down at us. “You can’t win. Not against me, a Goddess.”

“What do you want?” Kane asked, dead calm in his tone.

She tilted her head and regarded him. “I already have what I want. Youth and power. And thanks to your club, now I have adoration. And a long line of willing participants to…feed my needs.”

“Why my club?” Kane asked.

I was too busy trying to rack my brain on how to save Kat and Pyper to care about why she was doing any of the things she was doing. It didn’t matter. I’d just as soon destroy her than worry about what she needed.