Incubus of Bourbon Street (20 page)

She led us through two rooms, each of them richly decorated with a witch theme. One was potions, the other astrological. The third room was full of lit candles and a collection of what had to be handcrafted pentagrams. In the middle was a large round table where Dayla, Fiona, and two other women sat, staring at me.

I was grateful for the soft candlelight, though I was certain my white pants weren’t hiding anything.

“Matisse,” Dayla rose and hugged her niece. “You look lovely as always.”

Mati smiled. “So do you, Auntie.”

Dayla wore a gauzy white blouse with cutouts in the shoulders to show off her toned arms, and sleek black trousers. Her light hair was done up in a complicated updo and there was a pentagram pendant fastened to the front of her choker necklace. She screamed elegance and money. All the other ladies were put together just as nicely, and it made me want to slip into the shadows just to escape their judgmental stares.

I chose to act as if I didn’t look like the drunk who’d embarrassed herself on the red carpet and held my hand out to the leader of the Coven Pointe witches. “It’s good to see you, Dayla. Thanks for including me in such a lovely evening.”

“Ms. Calhoun,” she said with an air of formality as she scanned the length of my body. “It appears you could use some help.”

I shook my head. “No, I—”

She reached out and took my hand in hers. Foreign magic pricked my palm and then danced along my skin until I glowed with red-tinged light. The magic dug in, pinching at my skin, and I cried out, belatedly reaching for my own power. But before I could even think to defend myself, Dayla’s magic left my body and concentrated on the fabric of my clothes.

“What’s…?” I watched as the magic rippled and then burst into tiny fireworks of magic.

“There. All better.” Dayla smiled serenely and sat back in her chair.

I glanced down. My mouth dropped as I realized she’d changed the color of my clothes and magically cleaned them. My dirty white pants were now black, and my favorite white shirt was now sunshine yellow. I hated yellow. It made my strawberry blond hair look orange.

Dayla cast me a look, daring me to challenge her. I had the feeling she was making sure I knew who had the power here. Message received.

I did my best to keep the scowl off my face, but only because I wanted information from these witches. It was considered very bad form to use magic on someone without asking. The last time Dayla had done something like that, she’d spelled Kane into an incubus. My wardrobe was a minor infraction compared to that, but it still pissed me off.

“Have a seat, Jade,” Mati said, eyeing me carefully.

“Sure.” I sat between Mati and Fiona, Mati’s cousin.

Dayla rose again and glanced at me. “Jade, these ladies are all part of the Coven Pointe Coven. You know Fiona. This lady to my right is Maven. She’s Matisse’s mother.”

I nodded to the witch with kind blue eyes.

She smiled at me. “It’s nice to meet you finally, Ms. Calhoun. Thank you for your help this last spring when Mati was trapped in another world.”

“No thanks is necessary. I’m just happy Mati is home safe.”

“And this is Jocelyn.” Dayla waved at a pixie of a witch who had rings on every finger. She wore one large emerald on a silver chain that hit her just below her breasts. Her right ear was lined with multiple earrings and she had small studs embedded in her cheeks right where her dimples would be. I got the impression she was more likely to be wearing leggings and combat boots than the silk halter top dress. She smoothed her long, jet-black hair and smiled knowingly. She didn’t really want to be here either, and the knowledge made me like her instantly.

“Hi, Jocelyn.”

“Jade.” She nodded in my direction.

Dayla sat back down and took a sip from her martini glass. “Why don’t we just get down to business, shall we?”

The other witches nodded and they all swiveled their heads in my direction as if on cue.

My palms started to sweat. All I’d wanted to do was ask Dayla about the shadows and what they might know about it containing Kane’s energy, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to share that with all of them.

“Well…” I took a sip of water. “I think—”

“Wait, Jade needs a drink first.” Mati picked up a padded menu and held it in front of me. “Which one?”

“The Cabernet,” I said automatically. I really wanted a beer, but it didn’t feel like a beer-appropriate occasion. And a cocktail seemed too dangerous.

“You got it.” Mati slid her finger over my choice, and a wine glass materialized out of thin air, along with a bottle of my favorite brand of wine. I reached for it, but the bottle upended and poured me a glass all on its own.

“Wow,” I said, staring at the glass now sitting in front of me.

“It’s part of the charm.” Mati put the menu back. “Okay, now you can tell us your secret.”

I nearly choked on a sip of wine. “Secret?”

“Yeah. That’s the price into girls’ night. Every month we get together and share something we can’t tell the rest of the world. You know, witch stuff.”

“Oh, uh, give me some time to think of something,” I hedged and set the glass down. I wasn’t telling them anything until one of them went first. What if they were setting me up? Dayla and Fiona hadn’t exactly proved themselves trustworthy the last time I’d dealt with them.

“We want incubus details,” Jocelyn said as she leaned in, her eyes alive with mischief.

Mati rolled her eyes. “You always want incubus details.”

“I’m living vicariously, all right? Give a witch a break.” Jocelyn’s gaze landed on me. “Well?”

Son of a… They seemed serious. I hadn’t been prepared for this to be a real girls’ night. Like one I had with Pyper and Kat. I wasn’t exactly turning cartwheels to share even the most mundane details of my life with these witches. I barely knew them.

“I’ll go,” Mati said suddenly.

I sent her a grateful smile.

“A few nights ago I was in a club with Vaughn and we were dancing. You know how things heat up with a sex witch and an incubus.” She waggled her eyebrows for effect.

“Yeah, baby,” Jocelyn said.

The three older witches just smiled knowingly.

“Well, there was this other couple who came on to us. You know, Vaughn and I don’t really share these days. So when they wouldn’t take no for an answer, we really turned on the charm, and well, by the time we were done with them, they were practically having sex right there in the middle of the club.”

“Mati.” Maven shook her head in disapproval. “That wasn’t nice.”

“Was it nice when the guy grabbed my ass and told me he wanted to fuck me up against the wall?” Her eyes flashed with impatience.

“Well, no, but—”

“Don’t even tell me I have a responsibility here. I was only into Vaughn, trying to have a nice night out. I wouldn’t have done anything if he’d backed off when I told him to.”

“And what about her?” Dayla asked thoughtfully.

“She stuck her tongue in Vaughn’s ear and tried to put her hand down his pants. It wasn’t pretty.”

Dayla laughed. “Then they got what they deserved.”

“So what happened after they lost control on the dance floor?” I asked, fascinated. Kane and I didn’t have that problem. Well, not much anyway. But then, I wasn’t a sex witch.

“They were caught on the dance monitor and their images went out on a live feed. I heard they both had significant others…who might have happened to find the link in their email boxes. Oops.”

“That’s boring,” Jocelyn said and took a long swig of her drink. “I thought you were going to say they started an orgy or something.”

“They almost did, but management threw them out.”

“Still boring.”

“Well, what’s your thing?” Mati asked Jocelyn.

“I turned a rabbit into a man.” Her eyes gleamed. “It was the best night of sex I’ve ever had.”

“Holy fuck,” I said.

“You can say that again.” Jocelyn raised her glass to me.

“You’re lying,” Mati said, laughing. The other witches chimed in their agreement.

“Ha. You’ll never know, now will you.”

I peered at her and caught a hint of indignation. She wasn’t lying. The image of rabbit-man humping her in rapid motion made me almost spit out my drink.

“Jade? You all right?” Mati asked.

“Fine. Yeah, just fine.” I clutched my napkin to my chin, wiping away any residual wine.

“Your turn. What odd thing happened lately?”

If I wanted to stick around and get them to trust me, I had to give them something. But it wasn’t going to be sex related. That was going too far. “Let’s see…Kane pulled me into a dreamwalk last night, but instead of waking up in our bed, we were separated. He was kept in the shadow world, and I woke up in his club.”

Everyone sobered as they stared at me.

“Uh…wrong kind of share?” I made a face. “Sorry, I—”

“It’s fine, Jade. We’re all just a little wound up about the shadows. Chessandra’s told us to stay away,” Mati said.

Dayla watched me with her hawkish gaze. Finally she put her glass down. “You’re clearly not here for girls’ night. You’re more uncomfortable than a pig in Spanx. Why don’t you just tell us what it is you want?”

The tension drained from my shoulders. That was all I’d wanted to do in the first place. “Here’s the deal. The shadows are tainted with poisonous energy. But the energy in that world feels like Kane’s…almost, but not quite. Because of that, Maximus took his dagger away while the Brotherhood investigates.”

“And what do you want from us?” Dayla narrowed her eyes at me.

“Nothing. Just information. If you know anything more about incubi or how their energy can be stolen without their knowledge.”

“Stolen without their knowledge?” Mati asked. “Is that even possible?”

Dayla shook her head. “No. Incubi can be manipulated to do things they don’t want to do, though.”

“Kane didn’t do this,” I said with conviction. “I can tell.”

“Empath,” Maven mumbled.

Mati nodded. “Yep. She’d know.”

“If it truly wasn’t him,” Dayla said, “then it’s someone or something related to him.”

I frowned and fingered the napkin. “None of his relatives live nearby.”

“They don’t have to be living. For that matter, they don’t even need to be in this world.” She went very still as if she were listening to a far away voice, and then her tone dropped a register as she stared right at me, her eyes deep black pools. “Research his family tree. Once you find out where he comes from, you’ll find your answer.”

Chapter 21

I wasn’t sure if Dayla had gone into a trance when she’d told me to research Kane’s family history, but afterward everyone got really quiet and refused to talk about it. Dayla herself had seemed drained all of a sudden, and girls’ night ended roughly twenty minutes later.

Mati kept mostly to herself on the walk back to her place. I trailed behind her, opting to go barefoot because after the zap of magic from Dayla, the numbness had worn off. My toes were killing me.

We stopped next to Kane’s car.

Mati touched my arm. “Take care, all right?”

“I’ll try.” I forced a smile.

She nodded and then pulled me into a hug, whispering, “Vaughn’s trying to help. Just know Kane has a friend in him if he needs him.”

I pulled back, somewhat stunned. “Really?”

She nodded. “He’s not super crazy about the Brotherhood’s method of doing things.”

That I could understand. “Thanks…” I paused. “Is Dayla a seer?”

Mati stiffened.

“Hey, if it’s a secret, forget I asked. My aunt’s one and she never talks about it.”

Mati let out an exaggerated sigh. “It’s not exactly a secret. We just don’t talk about it much because she’s uncomfortable with the ability. So yes, she is a seer, but she keeps her visions to herself because of an incident that happened years ago. Every time one comes on, she holes up for months. It’s why the mood shifted so suddenly.”

“I see.” And I really did. I knew Gwen had never suffered through a tragic incident due to her visions. Something like that would’ve killed her. She wasn’t a witch, but if she was and had used her power to help someone and it had backfired, she would’ve never gotten over it. “I hope Dayla’s back to herself sooner rather than later,” I said as I climbed into the car.

“Thanks, Jade. I’m sure she’ll be fine. Let me know if there’s anything we can do to help.”

“I will. Thanks. ” I sped off down the street as the gorgeous sex witch climbed the stairs to her apartment.

On the drive back to my side of the city, I called Kane.

“Hey, gorgeous,” he said on the first ring.

“Hey, yourself. Any luck?”

“No. They were all out, supposedly hunting demons,” he said bitterly. “What about you? Any leads?”

“I think so. Meet me at Bea’s house?”

“Sure, but I’ll have to catch a cab.”

I clutched his steering wheel tighter. “Right. I have your car.”

He laughed. “No problem. See you soon.”

The line went dead, and the uneasiness that had been forming in my gut started to fade. Dayla’s words while she’d been in a trance had resonated with me. I had a hunch, but I needed to run it by Bea and Lucien first.

***

I stood in Bea’s kitchen, leaning against the counter and was stuffing my face with a turkey sandwich, when Lucien joined me. I’d called him to meet us as soon as I’d pulled into Bea’s driveway. If my theory was correct, we were going to need his input.

“Ready?” he asked.

I nodded and grabbed a cup of coffee. Bea and Kane were already waiting for us at the table.

Kane pulled the chair out for me, but I shook my head. “I’d rather stand if you don’t mind.”

He gave me a noncommittal shrug and pushed the chair back in.

I put my mug down and walked a few paces. “Tonight was interesting.” I paused and met Bea’s gaze. “This information is not to go any further than this room, but it appears Dayla is a seer.”

Bea nodded. “Yes, I was aware of that.”

Of course she was. “Okay, so tonight she went into a trance while we were talking about Kane’s energy tainting the shadows. She said to look up where he comes from. To search his family ties. And a few days ago, Gwen called with a message telling me to research the history. So clearly there’s a pattern here.”