by Sadie Waters
“Where the hell are you, Zach?” Ember asked.
“I’m headed back toward the apartment, but I didn’t know if I should go there or somewhere else.”
“Somewhere else. Go to St. Paul’s. We’ll meet you there in a few minutes.” Ember hung up and took a deep breath. Jake wrapped his arms around her, and she melted into his shoulder. “That sucked.”
“You’re tellin’ me. I’ve got a burn mark on my favorite jacket.” Carson was examining his sleeve.
Shaking her head, Ember said, “Come on. Let’s go find Houdini before he gives us the slip, too.” How he’d managed to time that as perfectly as he did was beyond her, but then, he was a Seer. Maybe he’d known Lil was coming and hadn’t said anything. Or maybe he’d just gotten lucky. Something told her, next time, they wouldn’t get away with dumb luck. They needed to be ready.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
When they arrived at the church, Zach was sitting in the back of the car that had hastened him away from the scene of the demon ambush. He saw them get out of the SUV and said something to the driver before handing him some cash and getting out of the back seat.
Ember was relieved to see him alive and well. She tried to maintain her composure, but when they met in front of the secret door in the wall, she wrapped her arms around him. “You are one quick thinking son of a bitch,” she said, squeezing him so tight he groaned.
“Yeah, well, I’m just glad Horatio there happened to be in the neighborhood. Holy shit, was that scary.”
She stepped away, so Jake and Ryan could give him a quick hug. Even Carson gave him a fist bump. “Sorry, about that, man,” he said, shaking his head.
“No, it’s okay,” Zach assured him. “I think it was all some sort of a trap. I could feel something else going on in the atmosphere, but I couldn’t see them. Is there a way Lil might’ve been masking all of them?”
“I have no idea,” Ember admitted. “It’s been ages since she’s mounted that sort of a team of enforcers, and even then, it was a battle for territory, not over one person. I’m not sure what she’s up to, but it’s not good.”
“She must know you’re more powerful than the average Seer,” Ryan added.
“Well, I would just as soon get back to the safety of our apartment,” Zach said, and then corrected himself. “Your apartment. Standing out here in the open is freaking me out.”
“We’re on Holy Ground at the moment, so there’s nothing she can do here,” Ember assured him. “You’re safer here than you are at our place.”
“In fact, it might be best if you stayed here.” Ryan shrugged, and Zach looked at him like he was nuts. “I know it’s not ideal, but at least we wouldn’t have to worry about you.”
“What? You’re going to put me in one of those cells next to greasy boy? No thanks. I’ve been safe at your apartment so far. Can’t you put one of those spells on the door or something, Ember?”
She shook her head. “That only works on Holy Ground. But… here’s the thing, Zach, I’m thinking Lil might’ve had help figuring out where we were tonight. We know that Lane tried to sneak into the cell to get our demon. If he’s working with her, there’s a chance she might come after you at our place. She’s never tried it before. It is a strong hold. It would be hard for her to break in because of all of the positive energy guarding that place, and I can use some of my magic to make it harder, but I can’t keep her out completely if she really wants in.”
“So you really think I should sleep in a prison cell underneath a church?”
“No. I think we should go somewhere else, though.”
“Where?” Zach asked her.
She turned and looked at her team. “I think it’s time we introduced Zach to Abigail.”
Carson grinned. “Sounds good to me.”
“Abigail?” Zach echoed. “Who the hell is Abigail, and why do I hate it when he gets that look on his face.”
“Come on, Zach. We’ll swing by our place and get some clothes, and I’ll give her a call. You’ll like Abigail’s place. I think.” Ember had her hand on his back and was leading him toward the SUV.
“Wait--did you say ‘we’ll’ get some clothes. Are you all staying there?”
“Oh, yes. We wouldn’t dare pay a late night visit to Abigail and not plan on staying. She wouldn't hear of it!” Ember did her best to impersonate Abigail’s British accent, and the rest of the team laughed. Zach didn’t though. He was still petrified.
“At what point can someone pinch me and wake me up from this nightmare?” he asked. Carson reached over and pinched him. Hard. “Ouch!”
“Sorry. Just tryin’ to help.”
“Asshole….”
Ember pushed Zach into the backseat and got in next to him while Jake got in the passenger side front and Carson got in behind the wheel. Ryan went around and got in on Zach’s other side. The former coffee maker was still rubbing his arm where Carson had done his best to wake him up. “Home, Jeeves,” Ember said, and Carson took off.
The energy seemed to shift as soon as they drove out of the church parking lot. Ember didn’t like it. The fact that she didn’t have any power left bothered her, too, though she didn’t mention that to Zach. If they ran into any trouble before they got to Abigail’s that would be a problem.
It would take a couple of hours to drive to her place in Upstate New York, but if they could spend a day or two there thinking out the situation and allowing Zach to poke around and see if he could find anything in Lil’s energy, it would be worth it. She had to assume by now that he'd given up on finishing the semester or ever returning to school, but then, with Zach, it was hard to tell. He could be so neurotic sometimes.
Carson pulled into one of the short-term parking spots outside of the building since they wouldn’t be there long. Before they opened their doors, Ember said, “Zach, can you double-check we don’t have any surprises waiting for us?”
“I can try,” he said. He closed his eyes and was quiet for a long moment, his eyebrows knit together. Eventually, he said, “I don’t see anything directly, but something feels off. Like the energy has shifted. It seems… negative. I’ve never noticed that here before.”
“Me neither,” Ember admitted. “The quicker we are the better.”
They got out of the vehicle and hurried into the building, Ember’s fingers constantly flickering to grab her weapon if needed. She thought about how close she’d been to using the ultimate weapon on Lil earlier, the Sword of Truth. If only she’d had a second longer, she might’ve ended this thing.
In the elevator, she tapped her toe, and Carson laughed. She elbowed him in the ribs. Why he thought her impatience was funny, she would never understand.
Walking into her own apartment felt off. It was almost as if something had been there. “I don’t like this,” she said, stepping through the door like she was walking through a veil of cobwebs.
“Me neither,” Zach agreed.
“Let us check it out,” Jake insisted, knowing that Ember had no Throwing power left. She nodded, and the three of them went inside, leaving her and Zach standing in the doorway.
She smiled at him, thinking about how terrified she’d been earlier when she thought for certain Lil had him. “Are you okay?” she asked quietly.
Zach nodded. “I’m just… tired. And broke. And wondering where the hell you’re taking me now.”
She laughed, thinking the Uber must’ve been expensive. “Don’t worry about money. We have plenty. And we’re taking you to Abigail’s house because it used to be a church. She’s too old to hunt in her current body, so she stays there and offers refuge to those who need it. Speaking of which, I should call her.” She took her phone out of her pocket and found Abigail’s number.
Before she could call, Carson came back. “It’s clear. But something is off. We need to hurry.”
“Got it. Thanks.” She pushed the button on her phone as she headed upstairs to her bedroom. Abigail answered quickly, and she explained the situation as su
ccinctly as possible. Once Abigail confirmed she had plenty of room, Ember hung up and went about throwing a few days’ worth of clothes into a small suitcase. She went into the bathroom and grabbed some toiletries and then scanned her room for anything else that might be worth bringing with her. Deciding to take a few other choice weapons she might need, she went to the chest at the foot of her bed.
It was guarded with a magic spell, and she didn’t have enough power to get it open. What’s more, something seemed off about the magic hovering around the chest. It felt heavy, like it had a negative charge to it, like something had been here and tampered with it. She didn’t like it, but there wasn’t much she could do about it at the moment. Until her powers were restored, she wouldn’t be able to open it, and they didn’t have enough time for Jake to come and do it now. They needed to go.
Leaving it, she headed back into the living room, bag in hand. She found Carson standing in front of the sofa, a perplexing look on his face. “What is it?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. I just feel like… something’s off. Like there’s some bad mojo in the air.”
“I know. I feel it, too. I hate that our own home feels that way.”
“Who could’ve been in here?”
“I don’t know.” Ember wished she’d set up a surveillance camera on their own place. It would’ve been handy about now.
“Hey, I’m pretty sure someone’s been in here,” Jake said, carrying his bag in from his room. “The magic I had protecting my most valuable weapons has been altered. I was able to get into the safe, and everything was fine, but it wasn’t exactly as I’d left it.”
“Mine was the same. I don’t have enough magic to go fix it right now, though.”
“Do you want me to?”
“No, we need to go. Where the hell is Ryan? Isn’t he always packed for these kinds of emergencies?”
“Yeah, his bag’s by the door. He went upstairs with Zach,” Carson explained. “Kid don’t know how to pack his own underwear, I guess.”
“Ryan!” Ember shouted, wishing they still had their ear pieces in. “You guys okay?”
“Yeah. Hold on a second….”
“That doesn’t sound right.” Ember was worried, but she didn’t go back up the stairs.
A few minutes later, Ryan and Zach came down the hall. Ryan was carrying Zach’s bag, while Zach pressed a hand to his forehead.
“What happened?” Ember wanted to know, concerned that Zach was hurt.
“He says his head hurts, but it doesn’t seem like just a regular headache to me. I think it has something to do with whoever--or whatever--was in here while we were gone.”
“That’s not good.” Jake was rubbing his chin, like he was trying to figure out what it might be.
“Let me take some aspirin, and I’ll be fine,” Zach assured them.
“I don’t think aspirin’s going to cut it for a headache brought on by magic. The sooner we get you away from here, the better.” Ember was already moving toward the door. “We need to have someone come in and do a cleansing while we’re gone. Dr. Ford, maybe.”
“Good idea,” Ryan agreed. He picked up his bag, and the five of them moved out into the hallway.
Before they left, Ember asked Jake to put a spell on the door that would keep anyone with evil intentions out. While it wouldn’t be strong enough to combat someone as strong as Lil, it would work against anyone with lesser powers, and anyone who was allegedly one of the good guys but was up to no good. Ember had a sneaking suspicion it wasn’t a demon who’d been tampering with her stuff but someone she was meant to be able to trust--which in many ways was far, far worse.
Chapter Thirty
The drive to Abigail’s was nearly silent. Carson was behind the wheel, as usual, with Ryan in the passenger seat, and Ember sitting between Ryan and Zach in the middle row of the large SUV. Zach’s head was still hurting, but leaving the apartment had helped. When he had leaned his head on her shoulder, she’d let him, and after she was sure he’d gone to sleep, she found herself absently running her fingers through his hair. Admitting she was growing fond of him was still a few steps away, but thoughts of losing him tonight had made her realize he wasn’t just annoying--he was also rather endearing, in an annoying sort of way.
Jake’s hand was on her knee, and the closer they got to Abigail’s the more she had to fight off thoughts of what would happen behind closed doors. Since Abigail was a Xana herself, there was no need to explain the necessity of sharing a room with Jake. She might be old at the moment, and her place might’ve been a church decades ago, but she got it. The higher up her thigh Jake’s fingertips moved, the more she wished Carson would drive faster, not that he wasn’t already leaving the speed limit in the dust.
A little before four in the morning, Carson pulled the SUV into the drive. There were a couple of other cars there as well, which told them others were seeking refuge that night, though Ember doubted any of the others was a Seer. If any more had been located recently, she hadn’t heard.
They grabbed their bags and headed up to the porch. Abigail was waiting for them, her tiny body back lit from the open door, her gray hair almost white in the soft light. “Welcome, welcome,” she said, hugging each of them in turn. At times, Abigail was the same age as they were, depending upon who died and when, so she knew each of them well. “I’m glad you made it safely. And this must be Zach.”
“Hello, Ms….”
“No need for that, sweetie. Abigail is just fine. Come on in.” She gave him a hug, too, and then gestured for him to enter.
Her house still looked like an eighteenth century church, though she’d had it relocated to its current spot, out in the countryside among rolling hills. Brick by brick, it had been rebuilt, the ground beneath it becoming Holy Ground with the placement of each stone. She’d never held services here, but it was still a church. Thus, demons and dark spirits could not step upon the grounds. Zach would be safe here.
“Now, I have four beds, but only three empty rooms. I assume Ember will be asking one of you gentlemen to stay with her, but two of you will have to share a room with twin beds....”
“Not it!” Carson exclaimed before Abigail even finished her sentence.
Ryan shook his head. “That’s fine. It’s just as well. If Zach has to share a room with someone, I’m guessing he’d rather it wasn't you anyway, you jerkface.”
“Language, Ryan. We’re in a house of God,” Carson scolded.
Abigail snickered. “All right then. I guess this room is Ember and Jake’s,” she said, stopping outside of a room Ember had slept in before. It was beautifully decorated, with a large four-poster bed and dark furniture. It also had an adjoining bathroom.
“Thank you, Abigail. We’ll see you in the morning.”
“It’s morning now, sugar,” Abigail reminded her, patting Ember on the shoulder. “Come along, gentlemen….”
Ember and Jake walked inside, leaving the rest of the team to their own defenses. All she wanted to do was collapse on that bed, but when Jake started kissing her neck, she found a spark of energy. That was all it took to ignite a flame within her, the kind that wouldn’t be extinguished until her powers were restored and her need was fulfilled.
“You ready to be reinvigorated?” he asked in an overly husky voice that had her laughing.
Turning to face him, she found his lips. “You gonna keep talking dirty to me?”
“You want me to?” He had a goofy grin on his face as he raised and lowered his eyebrows at her.
“Not if it sounds like that.”
Jake made a wounded puppy look, and Ember couldn’t help but laugh, but then her mouth was on his, and his tongue tangled with hers, and all the humor left the room.
He tugged her jacket off, and she did the same for him, suddenly not able to move fast enough, even with her superpowers. He unfastened the top three buttons of her shirt but then gave up and pulled his mouth off of her long enough to pull her shirt up over her head. Ember gasped a
t the feel of his fingertips on the bare flesh of her waist.
Slowing down slightly, Jake ran his hand up and down her sides as they both worked their boots off without separating. Her hands flicked through the buttons of his shirt until his bare chest warmed her palms. The smooth skin of his pecs enticed her to run her hands over the smooth muscle, all the way down to his rippling abs to find his belt, which she quickly unhooked.
As she unbuttoned his jeans and yanked his zipper down, his tongue worked its way along the cords of her neck, licking, tasting, nipping her with his teeth. He sucked the sensitive spot between her neck and shoulder, and her knees caved in beneath her.
Ember slid her hand inside of his pants, feeling his hardness against her palm and desperately needing him inside of her. She pushed his jeans to the floor as he unhooked her bra and slipped it off of her arms. She let go of him long enough to get it out of the way.
Jake’s tongue on her nipple sent her reeling. Ember leaned her head back, gasping for air and moaning a little more loudly than she probably should have considering they were not in the privacy of their own home. She couldn’t help herself, though. Jake was an expert and knew exactly how to send her over the edge.
Somehow, he managed to work her pants off without letting go of her breast with his mouth. He left her thong in place and picked her up, tossing her on the bed and then taking off his briefs.
His dick was hard, throbbing against her outer thigh as he pinched and caressed her nipples, finding her mouth and dancing his tongue around hers. One hand slipped between her legs. The silky fabric of her thong was soaked. Jake pushed it aside and ran his finger through her folds. She spasmed, her body longing for him to enter her.
Looking into his eyes, she couldn’t help but smile at him. He was such a kind hearted spirit. Always calm and patient, willing to do whatever he could to help anyone else, Jake was the sort of man who knew how to make a woman feel wanted, needed, and loved beyond measure.
