Save My Soul (18 page)

Who was he kidding? He felt bad for the kid. The boy had just lost his parents and was in a new house. His grandparents didn’t know how to deal with him and were treating him like a miniature adult. Something about the child pulled on a part of Luc he’d long ago tried to bury, memories from when he was human and innocent himself, as fleeting as those moments had been.

Finally, he materialized. “Don’t worry about the monsters, kid. I’ll keep them away.” His voice was more gruff than he’d intended. He was such a pathetic excuse for a demon.

The boy swiped at his eyes and settled down. “Are you an angel?”

“Yeah,” he said, chuckling, “an angel . . .

Anna sat up in bed. She’d thought Luc had always been a demon, assuming he’d been created with leftover evil floating on the ether. Had he lost his soul? Been bad as a human? She wanted to go back to sleep and find out, but her body rebelled against not being fed.

She got up and crept down the stairs. To get to the kitchen, she had to pass Luc’s room. He’d chosen to take up residence in what was once probably servants’ quarters. A room under the stairs, next to an alcove. She heard a moan through the cracked door and cringed.

“Shhh. Hush now,” Luc said.

“I’m trying to be quiet,” a female voice responded. It was Renee. She let out a soft sigh, and Anna heard the bed creak.

“Bite a pillow if you have to.”

“Why? What does it matter if I’m loud?”

“I don’t want to rub it in her face.”

“You care for her, don’t you?”

Anna waited, holding her breath, wanting to hear him say yes, but unsure she’d believe it, even if she overheard it. Her earlier visit with the priest still had her shaken.

There was no answer. He’d never specifically said it to her, but Anna suspected if he could sleep with only her, he might do it. He didn’t seem to get the same kind of thrill out of his nature that Cain did.

It was wrong to keep punishing him for something he couldn’t help. What did she expect? He was giving everything he had to give. Just the fact that he wasn’t using thrall on her and taking what he wanted anyway should mean something.

It should mean everything.

“Why can’t she just sleep with you, too?” Renee said. “It’s not like we won’t share.” So he had answered? Maybe just with a look or a nod.

“She can’t share,” he said.

“Well, that’s silly.”

Anna barely heard his quiet reply.

“No, it isn’t.”

She slipped past the door, to the kitchen. He’d left a plate for her in the fridge. These weren’t the actions of an evil demon. Whatever Beatrice had done had changed him. Anna trusted him. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t still be in the house.

It didn’t matter what the priest said. She didn’t want the bond broken. Somehow the thought of losing that connection with Luc scared her more than anything else.

Luc stood next to the stove, trying to stay out of the cat fight. The girls were gathered behind Maria who was facing off with Tam. They’d been arguing loudly for the past thirty minutes, enough that it woke Anna. When she entered the fray, Tam whirled on her.

“Gypsies? The fucking gypsies are coming today?”

The girls, who had been hiding behind Maria, used the distraction as an opportunity to leave.

“I’m not sure. Why?” Anna said. She looked to Maria, who nodded. “I guess they’re coming today. Is that a problem?”

Anna’s hair was a messy mane of curls Luc wanted to thread his fingers through. He had to fight to keep from kicking every female but Anna out of the house so he could get some alone time with her, but Tam looked even more irritated than before.

“Look, I know we got a lot done the other day, but I agreed not to come by yesterday because the weirdo ghost people were coming. How did that go, by the way?”

Luc and Anna both avoided her eyes.

“I see,” Tam said. “Now we have to give up another day to the gypsies. And really, you can have gypsies but not witches? You know me. Am I in any way creepy or evil?”

“No . . . but . . . ”

“But nothing. I can’t believe you’ll go to complete strangers and use gypsy magic but you won’t use witch magic. How many options do you have left here?”

She looked from Anna to Luc as if he’d give her support. It wasn’t a misplaced appeal. He wanted the spell broken, and the sooner Anna could run through her list of pointless attempts, the sooner he could convince her to just burn the damn thing down.

Karen rushed back into the room. “They’re here! And they look just like real gypsies. I’m so excited!”

Maria scowled. “They are real gypsies.”

“I know,” Karen said, “but I thought they’d be wearing jeans, not cool skirts and jewelry. It’s like they just stepped off a caravan.”

Maria rolled her eyes. “That’s because they work as fortune tellers with a traveling carnival. I cannot believe they’re wearing that. It’s just reinforcing stereotypes. I hope they’re wearing shoes.”

“I like the outfits,” Karen said defensively.

Maria turned to Tam. “What if your coven showed up wearing long black dresses and pointy hats? Wouldn’t you be appalled?”

“Oh my God, yes.”

Luc gawked at both of them, unable to believe they were bonding now after they’d spent the past half hour at each other’s throats. He stole a glance at Anna and was surprised to find her looking at him. She seemed to have abandoned the drama around her once Karen had returned. There was a heated expression on her face that said there might be a chance. For what, he didn’t know.

He reached out to her, unsure of the plan past feeling her skin against his, when the door opened and in glided three gypsies. They each had long black hair and kohl lining their eyes. Their lips were a deep ruby red that would have made other women look like harlots.

True to Karen’s description, they looked like real gypsies in brightly colored skirts and layers of jingling coin scarves that made a cachink cachink sound when they moved.

“Maria! Darling. Why are you living in this house of sin?” one of the gypsies asked with a thick accent.

“I am a hooker or had you forgotten?”

“We were hoping you would stop that and come work with us,” a second woman said.

“I don’t think so.” Maria looked down her nose at the women. Luc raised a brow at the interplay. There must be some serious family drama if she preferred the life she had to the one they offered.

She turned to the rest of the group. “These are my aunts on my mother’s side, Lenora, Merripen, and Zenda. They are sure to lie to you about their exploits, but the magic is real, and that’s what matters.”

“Maria, really,” Merripen said. “We aren’t that bad.”

Lenora was the oldest, sixty at least, though her hair was black through the miracle of hair color. She turned her hawkish gaze on Luc.

“This is the demon, then?” Her eyes glittered dangerously as she pointed a long, manicured fingernail at him. Her head whipped around to Anna suddenly as if she were receiving some sort of vision. “And you. You’ve been tainted with him.”

She grabbed Anna’s hand, an act that was starting to wear on Luc’s nerves. Did no one from this century have manners or a sense of personal boundaries? Although it did lend credence to them being the real deal if they could sense the blood magic on her, unlike the ghost hunters of the day before. Either way, he was tired of it. Luc growled before stepping forward and physically moving Anna behind him.

He felt his eyes burn with the light that was brought on by strong emotions for his kind. “Don’t touch her. You are here to break a curse, nothing more.”

“Oh, this is interesting.” Lenora moved closer to him without a trace of fear. If Anna weren’t there to witness it, he could have broken through that wall of bravado quickly enough. But behaving like an animal would get him nowhere in gaining Anna’s trust.

The gypsy gave him a once-over and laughed. “A demon with feelings. It’s been a long time since I’ve crossed paths with one of those.” She looked back to Anna, assessing. “You haven’t slept with him. And yet you are the one that he wants. Very strange.”

Luc growled again. He wasn’t sure if the gypsy had intended to be more insulting to him or Anna. Either way felt like a good reason to be pissed.

She held her hands up in surrender. “Calm yourself. I’m not going to touch your girl again.” Then to Anna, “Where would be the best place to do the ritual, dear?”

He could feel Anna was shaken. Besides the slight tremor of her body when they’d briefly touched, emotions were pouring out of her so strongly he could feel them without effort.

She led the three women to the living room. “Here is fine.”

“No, it’s no good,” Zenda said, her eyes glazed over. “Magic has already been worked here. Catholic magic. We will have to cleanse the space.”

When they started working, Anna excused herself to look for Tam. Luc didn’t attempt to follow, more concerned with babysitting the gypsies to make sure they didn’t try anything funny.

***

Anna found her beside the fountain in the garden, staring down at the green algae and smoking a cigarette.

“Want one?” Tam asked. She seemed ready to forgive Anna’s witch-prejudice as if no ill words had been exchanged in the kitchen. But that was how their friendship was. Little spats, a little crisis, then all’s forgiven. Like sisters.

“You know I don’t smoke anymore.”

“Yes, but now seems like a good time to start again. It’s very tense in there,” she observed, gesturing toward the house.

Anna shrugged. “What the hell. Yes, I would love to take up smoking again.”

Tam smirked but passed her a cigarette. “You remember when we were in high school and we used to pretend to smoke just to upset our parents?”

Anna laughed and took the offered lighter. She was already making promises to herself, planning to quit again when Luc was free. She was aware of Tam’s eyes on her, gauging markers only longtime friends even knew to look for.

“So you wanna tell me what’s wrong?” Tam said, finally.

Anna spent the next twenty minutes describing her run-in with Father Jeffries and the choice in front of her.

“Yeah, I knew about all that.”

“You what ?”

“Well, not about the bond and stuff, but I knew about the other dimensions. I mean, hello? My gods don’t live here.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I think your exact words were: ‘Tam, whatever you do, just don’t tell me about it.’ I took you at face value. Sue me.”

Anna was still having a bit of trouble with the witch thing. For years they’d been out of touch, and before that, her friend had mostly kept it hidden. Now that the world had turned out to be so magic, Tam wasn’t bothering as much with discretion. Anna couldn’t really blame her.

Merripen poked her head out the door. “We’re ready to start.”

Anna nodded her acknowledgment, and the gypsy went back inside.

“I really think Luc’s okay,” Tam said as if reading Anna’s fears right off her face. “I know you don’t like the witch stuff. But I’ve been using magic for a long time now. And I told you, I don’t get the same vibe off him as I do other demons.”

“But you were under thrall the first time you met him.”

“I took care of that problem.”

Tam didn’t elaborate, and she didn’t push. Whatever rituals were being done behind closed doors were none of Anna’s business. “You coming in?”

Tam laughed. “And have a freak-out about conflicting magical techniques? Or have them sniff the unclean non-gypsy magic on me? No, thank you. I’m going down to Sally’s to see how much we can reasonably fit on the shelves. I’ll call you later.”

When Anna returned to the foyer, candles and incense were already lit. Odd items lay scattered in a strange pattern on the floor.

“Oh, good, you’re here. Anna, dear, come. I need you for the ritual.” Lenora motioned for her to step into the circle. Scarlett and Rhett sat just outside the ritual space, wary but curious.

Luc watched the proceedings from the corner. “Why do you need her?”

Lenora met his eyes and something passed between them. When she spoke, it seemed more for the benefit of Anna than Luc. “I need her blood. You know blood is the only thing strong enough, and she owns the house now.”

His jaw clenched. “It’s up to her. I’m not going to make her do this.”

“Anna?” The gypsy woman asked.

Anna looked uncertainly from Lenora to Luc. “Will it hurt him?”

Lenora’s eyes widened. “Even more interesting. You care for your demon as much as he cares for you. I had thought it was one-sided.”

“He’s not my demon,” she said. Denial , a traitorous voice in her mind whispered.

The woman looked deeply into her eyes, then nodded, satisfied when she found what she was looking for. “Take it from an old gypsy fortune teller. He will be.” She held Anna’s hand in hers, and looked at her palm. “Ah, just what I suspected. You have a very long life line. Shall we?”

Everything the gypsy said or did was cryptic and seemed like an inside joke. It made Anna uncomfortable, but she stepped into the circle anyway because Luc was counting on her.