by Jessi Gage
His lips pressed in a hard line. He answered the phone, keeping his eyes on her. After a second, he turned away. “What happened?” he said into the phone, and his tone made her chest constrict with worry. She heard the faint rises and falls of a male voice on the other end. Emmett scrubbed a hand over his face. “No.” It was half sob. His shoulders rounded. “Oh, shit, Rob. No, I have no idea why she would have gone there. She left here around 10:30. I thought she was going home.” He was quiet for a minute while the voice said something. “I’ll be right over. I’m so sorry.”
He hung up and faced her. “It’s my sister. She was at some biker bar last night and got in a fight.” He said it like going to a biker bar voluntarily would have been the last thing his sister would do. “That was her husband, Rob. She’s in the hospital. I’ve got to go see her.”
Sometime while he was talking, her hand had found its way to his arm. She squeezed. “Will she be okay?”
His expression relaxed at the contact. “Rob said she was in surgery all night. She got some knife wounds she’s healing from. But they’re more worried about her head. I guess she was babbling incoherently when they brought her in.” He shook his head, looking broken. “How could this happen? She was here last night. She was fine.”
She didn’t remember meeting Emmett’s sister, but suddenly, her missing memory didn’t seem all that important. Her anger shifted to the back burner to be dealt with later. Family emergencies came first. If Jilly were hurt, she’d need to be there, holding her sister’s hand. “You should go,” she said.
He dragged her into his arms, and she didn’t have it in her to fight him off. It felt too damn good letting him hold her. When she relaxed into his embrace, she felt something she hadn’t noticed before: a warm thread connecting them, a peaceful…bond.
Oh, hell no.
Every wall she had shot up to protect her heart from the overwhelming desire to be vulnerable with this man. She refused to buy into all this. She couldn’t afford to, not when believing it would mean Emmett had married her out of pity…to protect her from some out-of-this-world demon attack.
“I want you to come, too,” he said, stroking a thumb over her jaw. “But you’ve been through a lot. Chiboza said you should rest today.”
“I will,” she said automatically, saying whatever she needed to get him out of the house. “Go. Your sister needs you.”
He kissed the top of her head. “We’ll talk when I get back, okay? I’ve got so much to tell you. So much has happened. I owe you a huge apology, but I honestly can’t find the right words right now. You deserve so much better than this, but I promise I’ll make it all better when I get back.”
Promise. The word made her cringe.
She nodded, feeling all mixed up with affection for Emmett and a claustrophobic urge to get away from him. “Go,” she said, pushing out of his arms.
“I love you,” he said, his fingers clinging to hers for a second. Then he left.
Chapter 30
Joshua hugged the shadows in Emmett’s bedroom, listening to both sides of the phone conversation. It seemed Emmett’s sister had come by the house last night around the time he’d felt Draonius sever his bond with Mercy. He’d been focused on protecting Jade, and had lost track of Draonius. Now that Jade was safe, he’d been searching for signs of the demon, finding only the abandoned body of the blackbird. After hearing Emmett speak with his brother-in-law, he feared he knew where Draonius had gone. Emmett’s sister may have driven away last night with a passenger of the most malignant sort.
He released his shadow form and took to the air, invisible to the living and all but oblivious to the storm of the physical plane, thanks to his holy commission. Now that he knew what he was looking for, he found faint threads of power that told a story he could piece together. There on the roof was the bird’s carcass, and there beside it, traces of an aura so vile, it made him shudder. Someone much more powerful than Draonius had been here, and this spot looked over the driveway.
He watched as Emmett emerged from the house with Nick. “I wish you could stay and look out for Jade,” Emmett said as he locked the door behind him.
“She’ll be fine. Thanks to you.” Nick clapped Emmett on the back and pulled open the door to his car. “Congrats, man. I know she’s PO’d now, but she’ll come around.”
Emmett clenched a set of keys in his hand. “I wish she could remember.”
“Maybe it’s good she doesn’t. We have no idea what it was like for her. It might have been awful.”
Emmett winced. “Good point.”
“Tell Lisa I hope she feels better. I’ll be praying for her.”
“Thanks man. And thanks for being here. I would have been lost without you. Jade would have been lost without you.”
The men shared a quick embrace, and Nick drove away while Emmett got in his truck. Joshua spread his wings and followed Emmett, checking his armor as he flew. Twenty minutes later, they arrived at a brownstone, three-story hospital building.
He pumped his wings, hovering over the building, scanning its interior for a tainted aura. It wasn’t hard to find. He said a quick prayer of thanks and slipped into the building, taking his shadow form and cloaking himself in the narrow cleft of darkness cast by a softly beeping machine.
A blond woman lay in a bed with rails. She had bandages on her arms and a purple bruise on her cheek. A dark-haired man sat beside the bed, holding her hand. He looked weary. Joshua recognized the marriage bond between them, even though Draonius’s wicked intent distorted it, confirming his suspicion that the demon had struck a deal with the Enemy. It would have been the only way for a demon of Draonius’s station to oppress a married woman. It also explained why he had cut Mercy loose. The Enemy had offered him a chance at lordship, something Mercy would never have been able to compete with.
Poor Mercy.
Foolish Draonius. The demon’s greed had cost him not only his favored essence, but his existence, as well. He could have fled in the body of the blackbird and continued his temptations while hiding from Joshua and his heavenly cohort. But he’d been too bold. He’d broken a multitude of rules, and Joshua had found him. He must pay.
Joshua stepped from the shadow and cast a veil over the bed. A shiver rippled over the man’s skin, as the veil touched his arm, but he didn’t pursue the sensation, returning to his silent vigil.
As it should be. Joshua would deal with Draonius discreetly then leave this family in peace.
“Come out, demon,” he commanded. “In the name of the Lord Almighty, leave the mortal.”
The demon had no choice. Unlike with Jade, the woman’s essence was still inside her body. She would be whole again once free from the intruder.
An inky essence seeped up from the woman, peeling away from her aura and coalescing into the core of power that was Draonius in his most basic condition. He was dim with exhaustion and cracked with the effects of facing the physical plane with nary an essence left to protect him. By his sorry state, Joshua could tell he’d been unable to tempt the woman into adultery, which would have no doubt been his goal.
My, my, Joshua, I never thought I’d see you again. Draonius’s voice wavered as the physical plane buffeted him. The wind was meant to protect mortals. Since Joshua was on the side of Almighty God, it felt like no more than a pleasant breeze to him. Been hobnobbing with the holy, have we?
He didn’t deign to respond. The less time he had to look on this pathetic waste of spiritual matter, the better.
Draonius, you are hereby sentenced to execution for failing to adhere to the rules set forth by heavenly decree. He raised his sword of fire.
After all I’ve done for you—
Joshua whipped his sword in an arc and sliced the wretched core of power in half. Draonius shrieked, and then he was no more.
The door to the room opened and Emmett came in. “Wow,” he said as the man by the bed looked up. “They’ve got the AC up full blast in here.”
The men greeted each
other with a masculine hug involving several thumps on the back.
Joshua lifted the veil, and shot heavenward, ready for his next commission.
* * * *
The doorbell rang, and Jade scurried to answer it. Her ride was here at last.
“Hi, Betty,” she said, looking over Emmett’s threshold at her grandmother’s neighbor. “Thanks for the lift.”
Her iron-gray curls were perfectly set around her round, smiling face. “It’s no problem at all. I’m delighted to bring you along to see your grandmother today. This address is right on my way.”
Jade needed to get away from Emmett’s house stat, but the thought of going back to Grandma Nina’s house made her shiver uncontrollably. A visit to the cozy nursing home and her loving grandmother who would hug her and hold her hand and make all this craziness go away was just what the doctor ordered.
“You don’t mind dropping me at home after?” She’d have to face the house sooner or later. She’d prefer later, or never, but since she would be riding shotgun with Betty, her options were limited.
“Of course not, dear. We’re neighbors.” Betty popped the trunk so Jade could toss her carryon inside. While they buckled into the McIntyres’ champagne-colored Buick, Betty nodded at the oversized sweatshirt she was wearing and the insignia on the breast that read Herald and Son Lawn Service. “I see you hit it off with the lawn service.” She was grinning like a fox.
Jade snorted. You have no idea. Apparently, I married the owner while I was demon possessed.
The fact that Betty didn’t ask any questions during the twenty-minute ride to the hospital was almost enough to make her believe there was a God. The second they walked into Grandma Nina’s room, Jade with her guilty sweatshirt and Betty with a bag of fresh snickerdoodles, Jade launched herself at her grandmother.
Grandma Nina’s eyes went huge, and her mouth made a little O. She managed to move her tablet before Jade crushed it between them.
“How are you, Grandma?” She inhaled her grandmother’s scent, baby powder and lipstick, holding tight to the one stable anchor in her life.
“What’s all this?” Grandma Nina said.
Behind her, Betty said, “I’ll be in the waiting room. Come get me when you’re ready to go, dear. Nina, we’ll talk tomorrow.” She left the cookies on a chair and the door snicked shut behind her.
Jade said, “That Betty. She’s all right.”
“She makes good treats,” her grandmother said sagely. “Now what’s this about?” She stroked her hand down Jade’s hair. “You look...interesting.”
“Interesting?” Could be worse.
Her grandmother squinted at her. “You know what you look like?” She didn’t wait for her to answer. “You look like your mother after she gave birth to you.”
“Uh, okay.”
“You know I was with her when you were born?”
She nodded. The pictures were in one of Grandma Nina’s albums. There was one of Grandma Nina back when her hair was naturally auburn with no more than a few streaks of gray, standing by a hospital bassinette and holding the tiny bundle that was her. There was one of her mom, smiling down at her baby self while Grandma Nina sat on the edge of the bed, looking on. There were some of Grandpa Earl. He’d been there, too.
“She was younger than you are now. Just a child.” Grandma Nina shook her head sadly.
Jade settled in for a story, snuggling beside her grandmother on the bed. She’d heard the terrible story of how her mother had gotten pregnant at seventeen by a man who had kidnapped her and been caught days later—dear old dad, may he rot in jail—but she hadn’t heard many details about the day she was born.
“Only eighteen when she had you,” Grandma Nina was saying. “Young, strong, headstrong. But no amount of youth and determination is a match for labor and delivery. Having a baby knocks the stuffing out of the heartiest of us, and your mother was no exception. She was so tired. So weak. She had those dark circles under her eyes, like you’ve got now.”
Her grandmother’s gentle hand touched her cheek, near the bruise that was almost completely faded now.
“It’s different, the exhaustion you feel after your body’s been put through the wringer of childbirth.” She scrutinized Jade while she talked.
She tried not to squirm. Was her grandmother saying she looked like she’d been through something as major as childbirth? Maybe that wasn’t far off. She felt a lot better now, but when she’d first come to in Emmett’s arms, she’d been a wreck on every level.
Was she actually believing this? Could Emmett have been telling the truth?
“But she was still beautiful, you know.” Her grandmother’s voice was as tender as her gaze. “Tired as she was, she was still radiant. You know why, honey?”
Jade shook her head.
“She was in love.”
She fiddled with the drawstring on the sweatshirt’s hood.
“When she looked down at you in her arms, it didn’t matter how you came to her or how hard it was bringing you into the world. All that mattered was you were hers. You got that look to you, honey. Like you’ve been put through the wringer, but you came through with your eyes on someone very special.”
Tears brimmed in her eyes. She wouldn’t let them fall. She shook her head. “It’s not like that, Grandma. I just had a bad night. That’s all.”
Grandma Nina raised one penciled eyebrow. She started to say something, but stopped when Jade’s phone rang. “Go on. Get it. I imagine it’s the man whose clothes you got on.”
Jade exchanged a smirk with her and checked the display. It was, in fact, Emmett. She sent the call to voicemail. Then she felt guilty. She hoped his sister was okay.
What kind of girlfriend was she if she refused to be there for him while he had a family emergency going on? But she wasn’t just a girlfriend anymore, was she?
“You look mad,” Grandma Nina said. “Was that the donkey fart that hit you?”
“No. It was my husband.”
A pause. “Bad night, indeed.”
“It’s a long story, Grandma.”
“Is it one you want to tell?”
Her phone alerted her to a text message. She peeked at it.
Thinking of you. Visiting with Rob. Lisa is going to be okay. Can’t wait to get back to you, but might be a little while. I’ll bring you lunch.
Her heart smiled. Her face scowled. She shook her head to her grandmother’s question. Pocketing her phone, she reclined in the bed, enjoying being close to Grandma Nina. She felt safe here. “Why did you marry Grandpa?”
Her grandmother smiled. She was so beautiful. It was awesome to see her starting to look like herself again. The blood thinners and rest were agreeing with her.
“People will tell you things like, ‘I just knew he was the one’ or ‘the first time he smiled at me, I knew I’d love him the rest of my life.’ But it wasn’t like that for me.” Grandma Nina folded her hands in her lap. Her plain gold wedding ring was just where it had always been even though Grandpa Earl had been gone for eleven years. “Your grandfather and I had a slow courtship. We were both older, you know. Both wary of jumping in too fast. I don’t know if I ever told you, I was married before. Divorced three years later.”
“Wow. I didn’t know that.” It was a day for surprises.
“You know that old saying ‘fools rush in?’”
Jade shook her head. “I can guess what it means, though.”
“Means when you rush into something—like a marriage—you might find yourself wishing you hadn’t, feeling a fool. It isn’t always true, honey. There is such a thing as ‘love at first sight,’ but I’ve never experienced it. Thought I had. But I was wrong. I was that fool that expression warns about. I was nineteen. One look at a cute ass in a pair of tight Navy whites, and I was done for.”
“Grandma!”
“What? I remember what it was like, being young and horny all the time.”
“TMI.” She clapped her hands over her ears but
only for a second. She couldn’t help laughing at her grandmother’s mischievous wink.
“Anyway, I learned my lesson. Your grandfather and I took our time. We were friends first. Our attraction bloomed slowly. It wasn’t like fireworks or being hit over the head with a mallet or any of those things people say about love. It was a quieter love. A steady love.” She took Jade’s hand in her warm dry grasp. “I married your grandfather because I knew he’d always be there for me. I knew he was a good man. Nothing else mattered but that. Things weren’t always perfect, of course, but I could always go back to that certainty. Honey, you find a man who’s good to the core, you grab on and don’t let go.” She leaned back to study Jade’s face. “Or have you already done that?”
Jade sighed. She was so tired and so confused. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“How do you not know something like that? Did you meet someone or didn’t you? What on Earth is going on with you?”
“I think I got married last night,” she blurted. “But I don’t remember it. And I don’t want it.”
Her grandmother frowned. “I thought I was done dealing with all that drinking and drug drama when your mother passed.”
“I wasn’t drunk or high. I was—” possessed. “Unconscious.”
“You realize you’re not making any sense, honey?” Her grandmother was looking at her like she’d gone off the deep end. “And you look so tired. Why don’t you go home and take a nap?”
There was no way she’d fall asleep in that house any time soon. “I don’t want to go to the house.” Partly because she was afraid of it, partly because Emmett might come looking for her there. She wasn’t ready to face him. But she couldn’t stay here, either. Betty would have to go home eventually.
“Well, what do you want? What is your heart telling you?”
That was easy. “To run away.”
“So, what are you doing here?”
She sat up straight. “Hey, you’re supposed to tell me to grow up and face my problems, not of run from them.”
“You should face them, honey, but look at you. You’re exhausted. You’re stressed. I’ve seen you tired before, and I know whatever’s going on with you is bigger and badder than anything you’ve faced before. You’ve been up here for almost two weeks, and all your friends are down in Boston. Why don’t you get yourself a coffee and go for a drive? Clear your head. Visit with your friends. Have some fun. Then come back in a few days and face what’s got you all knotted up.”
