She stepped off the deck and slung her bag back on her shoulder.
“Ms. Locke?” Billy called.
“Yeah?”
“Be careful.”
Why did something so simple bring tears to her eyes?
“Thanks Billy.”
But she didn’t promise it.
How could she when she was walking into the den of a demon? A demon wearing her sister’s face?
Chapter 23
POE
Poe considered calling Dae to come pick him up and then decided against it. He had just told his family he had this handled, after all. He did not feel much like hanging his head and admitting he’d been wrong.
Because now he had no deal, no power, no caeli, and Willa had gone and taken the collar with her.
She had a plan, she said.
Poe snorted.
What could she possibly do to defeat a demon?
Nothing.
She was absolutely no match for one.
This brought on a new wave of worry. For Willa and for the Blackwells.
Maybe Corvin and his demon pet would storm Blackwell House and take them all out and then Poe wouldn’t have to worry about his family’s wrath.
Don’t think like that.
That very well could happen.
He had failed.
Miserably.
Bloody fucking hell.
It took him over an hour to walk back home. By then, the sun was setting and his anger had started to froth at its edges.
Anger at himself and at Willa.
How had he fallen so far down that rabbit hole?
How had he allowed himself to be fooled by her body and her mouth? And the promise she’d made him?
Red had been right—she was no powerful psychic.
She couldn’t even come up with a name for his caeli.
Maybe you don’t have one.
He’d been waiting centuries.
Surely his time was now.
Because if not now, when?
His deals were not running thin, not yet anyway, but even if he managed to go every other year between deals, he barely had a century left in him.
But if he had his caeli, there would be no rush.
He entered Blackwell House through one of the staff’s entrances. He didn’t want to run the risk of bumping into one of his brothers. Instead, he went straight for one of the barely used sitting rooms in the back of the house, one with a stocked bar.
He poured himself a scotch and then added a generous pour of ginger.
Not bothering to stir, he slung the drink back and downed it in one gulp. The liquor combined with the ginger singed his throat, burning away some of his frustration.
God, what was Willa thinking?
He poured another drink and drained that too.
Then another and another.
Soon his problems didn’t feel so much like problems as they did annoying mosquitos that buzzed at his ears.
Willa had said she had a plan, but what could she possibly have come up with in an hour? Without him or his magic or her wishes?
She was going to get herself killed.
He lit a cigarette and filled his lungs with the sharp burn of smoke trying to drive away the worry.
She’d been using him. He didn’t care what happened to her.
As for his caeli...
He could find another psychic. Someone more powerful than Willa.
Hell, maybe Red’s psychic could find out who his caeli was, maybe send him a nice little letter about that.
Fifth drink in hand, Poe stumbled from the sitting room and went to what was arguably the most pretentious room in the whole house—the music room.
Because only pretentious assholes needed a separate room for music.
He flicked on the lights and the scotch slashed over the rim of his glass.
It’d been bloody fucking forever since he’d felt this good. How long had it been since he’d had a drink? Why had he waited?
He felt fucking amazing.
Fuck Willa.
Fuck his family.
He didn’t need any of them.
The only thing he needed was a ginger-spiked drink in hand and power beating at his insides.
He’d get it some other way.
Hell, maybe he’d go make another deal right now.
Just as soon as he finished this drink.
Chapter 24
WILLA
Willa left Billy’s and made the drive back to the city. Traffic was heavy and the slow pace allowed her to go over her plan, looking for holes.
It could be argued that her plan was too simple to be effective.
But she was running low on time and on options.
The cards had said she’d lose everything, that it was inevitable.
She would not survive losing her sister or Poe. And she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if something happened to Poe’s family because of her.
She was the Hanged Man.
She always had been.
And the cards had only reminded her of it.
The sacrifice she had to make was herself.
The demon—Rozen—wanted the collar and a permanent host.
So Willa planned to give it to him.
All she needed to do was lure Raina/Rozen away with the promise of the collar and Willa as his permanent host. And right before he took possession of her body and clamped the collar over her neck, she’d secretly down the whole bottle of wolfcaine and sit back as the demon—and her body—burned.
Chapter 25
WILLA
Willa walked up to the Corvin Compound in the gathering darkness. The guard at the side entrance was one she didn’t recognize.
Playing at ignorance, Willa said to him, “Where’s Billy tonight?”
The guy stared down his sharp nose at her. “Billy will be off for the foreseeable future.”
“Oh bummer. I liked the big lug.” She smiled and batted her eyelashes. “Is my sister home?”
Did the guard know what had happened two days ago? Did he know Caleb and Raina were looking for her?
If he did, he didn’t let on. He just said, “She’s in the great hall,” and opened the door for her.
Willa surged inside.
The door clanked shut behind her, sealing out the seaweed smell of the Rine River. Instead, Willa could smell only the heady scent of demon.
Her hands grew clammy.
She went to the main hallway between the Compound’s front and back and expected to hear the pounding of music from the great hall. Instead, she heard only silence.
The double doors to the gathering space were cracked open and the room was dark inside. Willa backtracked and checked the TV room and found it empty, too.
She went to the kitchen next. The lights were on, but no one was there so she stepped through to the connecting staff dining room and came to a sudden stop.
Caleb sat at the head of the table. His blond hair was mussed like he’d been running his hands through it repeatedly. He did that sometimes when he was frustrated and angry, when things weren’t going his way.
When Willa first met him, she’d been blinded by how ruggedly good-looking he was. There was symmetry to his face that made her feel like she was looking at a painting. Tonight, he sported a deep five o’clock shadow, which just betrayed what lingered beneath his pretty surface.
He was stressed. He was exhausted.
“Hi,” he said.
There was no menacing edge to his voice.
“Where’s Raina?”
“Willa,” he started, but she cut him off.
“I just want to see my sister right now. We can talk about all the other shit later.”
“Where’s the collar?” he asked.
Willa thought she detected a hint of fear in his eyes.
He sat up straighter.
“Hidden. For now.”
“That was stupid.” He sighed.
“I’m not going to fight Raina a
gain. I just want to talk to her.”
Caleb collapsed back against the chair. He was in a plain white t-shirt and black jeans. Around his neck hung the protection amulet his father had given him on his sixteenth birthday. Raina told Willa it had been created by a demon. Caleb said it made him nearly invincible, but Raina had once told her that it didn’t do what Caleb thought it did.
And when Willa asked her what that meant, Raina had shrugged and said, “Demons don’t give without taking.”
Now, Caleb stared at her, looking like a man who had had too much taken from him.
What had the demon promised him and what would it cost him in return?
“You should give us the collar,” he said, “and then run, Will. Run far away.”
“What?” She laughed because it was that ludicrous. She came around the table. “I’m not leaving my sister. Especially not to you and a demon.”
“Don’t you get it?” he asked, his voice low and throaty. “This is your chance.”
“For what?”
“To get out,” he whispered. He was visibly shaking.
Raina stepped into the room.
The blade in her hand flashed in the overhead light.
“Rae,” Willa said and looked from the blade back to her. “Can we talk?”
Raina brought the blade to her wrist and pushed the tip into her pale skin. “Say yes,” she said.
Dread crept up Willa’s spine like spider legs.
Not yet. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go!
“I’ll give you the collar.” Willa held up her hands. “We just need to go get it. Together.”
“Say yes.”
Willa’s heart clamored in her chest.
She could hear Poe’s voice in her head: You are no match for a demon.
“You want the collar,” Willa said. “You can have it and me. Just let my sister go.”
The plan wouldn’t work if the demon took possession of Willa now. Once it was inside her head, it would know the plan. It would know about the amber vial of Wolfcaine in her pocket.
She needed to get Raina and the demon to Billy’s and then drink the poison.
The demon pushed the blade into Raina’s skin, breaking the surface. Blood beaded around steel.
“Stop! Please.”
“Say yes.”
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Raina had always been Willa’s greatest weakness and the demon knew it.
Poe had been right.
Her bravado was full of hot air.
She was no match for a demon.
The blade sunk another centimeter. Blood dripped from the wound and pattered on the floor.
“Please.”
Willa took a step back and bumped into Caleb. He put a hand between her shoulders to steady her.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I thought we were strong enough to control it.”
The demon let the blade cut a slit in Raina’s wrist.
Blood ran in a river all the way down to Raina’s elbow.
“Will?” Raina said, her voice shaking. Her eyes filled with tears. The demon had given up control on Raina just enough to let her speak, but the blade still stuck in her skin.
“Rae. I’m here. I’m here okay?”
“I’m sorry.” Raina’s lower lip trembled as the tears broke free and streamed down her face. “I’m sorry, Will. I’m so tired. I’m so tired of trying to fight it all the time. I just...I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Willa swallowed against the lump in her throat. Suddenly Raina was that little girl again blinking up at Willa from her bowl of ramen noodles asking her if someday things would be better.
Willa had wanted that for them.
She’d tried so hard to pull them from their shit life.
Ice cream on the boardwalk and smores on the beach. Movie nights together. Greasy pizza.
But maybe they’d never stood a chance.
Maybe this was exactly where they were always going to end up.
Willa sniffed and blinked around her own tears.
“It’s okay, Rae,” Will said again. “I will always be where you are.”
Raina blinked and her eyes turned to pure white. “Say yes,” the demon said.
Tears streamed down Willa’s face. Raina would be free of Rozen. It would be the last gift Willa could give and maybe, just maybe, it would be enough to save her sister.
“Yes.”
The demon smiled at her and then a second later, Raina was lying on the floor unconscious.
“Willa,” Caleb said and grabbed Willa’s arm. “Brace yourself.”
Something slammed into her. Her body jolted and then—
She wailed in agony as an electric current sizzled up her spine and burned out through her veins. Caleb caught her beneath the arms or else she would have fallen on her face.
Oh God, oh God. Make it stop. She cried, unable to get out coherent words as her skin seemed to stretch and grow taut over her bones. Her teeth burned in her gums and her tongue tingled like she’d stuck it to a battery.
Heat pulsed in her chest and she gritted her teeth against the burning pain. Caleb was shouting at her but she couldn’t make out the words. There was nothing but the roaring in her ears.
Mistake. She’d made a horrible, horrible mist—
Her head was thrown back sharply and she heard a crack she thought for sure was her spine.
But then, as if settling into her bones, the demon stood upright within her body.
All of the pain and discomfort vanished, replaced only with a cool buoyancy in her own skin.
Willa wanted to fight.
She thought to fight.
But her limbs weren’t her own anymore.
Her fingers and toes and mouth weren’t under her control.
Willa had finally sacrificed everything she had to save her sister.
And it still wasn’t enough.
Chapter 26
POE
Poe clumsily propped up the lid on the grand piano in the music room and sat on the bench, fingers poised over the cool ivory keys.
At one time, Poe had been considered the best pianist in all of Europe. That was before those assholes Beethoven and Mozart stole the title from him.
Rumor had it, Mozart wished for his talent from a Northman djinn, but Poe had never been able to substantiate the rumor.
Probably it was true.
Most legendary talent came from a deal with a djinn or demon. Or worse, a god.
“Fucking bloody gods!” Poe shook his fist at the sky.
And then he trailed off into laughter because gods were not in the sky floating around on fluffy clouds.
Gods walked the earth.
Despite his inebriation, Poe was able to reel out a haunting composition of something he’d called, “Go Ahead and Jump Off a Cliff.”
His fingers danced over the keys filling the room with the swelling sound of the chords.
This was what it was to not give a fuck.
He’d forgotten how nice this felt.
He closed his eyes and retreated into the music, and then—
“Hey!”
His hands crashed down on the keys in a discordant twang.
Thorin stood beside the piano, arms folded over his chest. “Are you wasted?”
Poe lifted his glass from beside him on the bench and tossed back the last swill of it. “Yes, baby brother. I am absolutely, positively wasted.”
Thorin frowned. “Where’s Willa?”
Poe jabbed his glass toward the window. “There.”
“What, in the garden?””
“Nooooo. She’s gone. Fucking gone.”
“To where?”
“How the bloody hell should I know?” Poe slid from the bench. He stumbled forward and Thorin had to catch him to keep him upright. Once Poe finally managed to stay standing, Thorin pried the glass from his hand.
“Hey.”
“You’ve had too much.”
“That’s scientifically impo
ssible, considering I’m immortal.” Poe slouched back and cupped his hands over his mouth. “Hey everybody, I’m immortal! I should tell the world. Let’s go to the city. I’m going to tell everyone.”
“No, you’re not. Stop being an idiot.”
Poe poked Thorin in the chest. “You stop.”
Thorin sighed. “Tell me what happened with Willa.”
“What happened with Will?” Poe shuffled over to the sofa and dropped into it. His head was so fucking heavy. “She left me. Like everyone does.”
Thorin sat in the chair across from him, his elbows on his knees. “Why do you keep banging on about that? No one has left you.”
Poe snorted and lifted his hand. “One, mom left.” He ticked off a finger.
“Ma died. And in case you weren’t aware, we were all affected by it.”
“Yeah, but did Dae blame you for it? No. That’s two.” He ticked off another finger. “Three, Willa.”
“I’m not sure she counts as proof just yet.”
“Four, you lot. All of you.”
“Us? When did we leave you?”
“When the bloody fucking Tudors locked me in the Tower and claimed I was the Devil.”
He shivered.
There was no amount of alcohol and ginger in the world that would dull those horrid memories. And besides, his buzz was already waning. He might be able to get piss-drunk on ginger, but his metabolism was too high to keep it going without him constantly feeding it.
He needed another drink.
“Are you being serious?” Thorin said.
A dull ache bloomed behind his eyes. He massaged at the space between his brows. “Yes, I’m serious.”
“Do you really not know?”
Poe blinked at him. “Know what?”
“How do you think you got out of the Tower?”
“Charm and luck.”
“No.” Thorin shook his head and gave him a look like he was the biggest idiot of all time. “It was Red.”
“Red was at Hampton Court. I asked when they released me.”
“Because he made a deal with Henry VIII and Wosley. Two deals he gave away for you. Part of the bargain was that you were released and absolved.”
Now the buzz was completely gone. “You’re not making this up?”
Two Deals: a Djinn Paranormal Romance (Blackwell Djinn) Page 12
