“It’s not a real funeral.”
“Yes, it is.” When was it going to sink in?
He shook his head and dug into his back pocket. “Here, just order whatever you want.”
“Miles, this your father, not mine,” I all but snapped as he pulled out his wallet and opened it with shaking fingers.
That trembling was the only reason I didn’t try to stop him from getting to his feet.
“I’m sorry, Lexie,” he mumbled as he dropped a credit card on the table and walked out the office door.
I sighed deeply and turned back to the catalog. Was I being too hard on him? Should I be the one handling this? Could I be making it worse? By taking care of all the arrangements, did I make it possible for him not to face it? I rubbed my eyes with one hand. I didn’t know what to do or say to Miles anymore. A restlessness began to bubble up inside of me. I was so tired of not knowing what to do.
It wasn’t long before the director came back. I eventually found a nice spread of mixed color roses. They gave a light, hopeful vibe. I hoped the jerk rested in peace. “This one.”
“That is a lovely choice, however I should warn you that the colors here may clash with the standing arrangements that you had previously selected,” she began.
“Can I be honest?” I asked.
I could see her hesitation before she finally gave a brief nod.
“This man was an abusive asshole,” I stated, feeling better that someone else knew.
She flinched at my language.
“He’s not my father, he’s my boyfriend’s dad.” I shrugged. “I don’t know what to pick for him. So, could you pick a couple of arrangements that would match? We’ll pay for whatever you pick.”
She hesitated again. “Isn’t there an adult who can take over?”
I sighed. “No, at the moment, we’re all there is.”
With empathy in her eyes she gently took the portfolio back from me. “I understand. I do have a specific arrangement in mind that will go beautifully.”
“Thank you.” I slid the card across the table for her.
After showing me what she had in mind, she left to go run Miles’ card. I needed to get through to him and nothing I said seemed to work. Maybe it was time to stop being subtle?
The director returned and we wrapped up business quickly.
I came out of the building to find Miles sitting in the driver’s seat of his car. I slid in and closed the door. “Miles …”
“Put your seatbelt on.” He started the car. “I’ve got to get back to work in the conservatory.”
“Miles. Stop.” I turned to him. “Could you please just … talk to me?”
He gripped the wheel and licked his lips. “About what?”
“About your dad.” I shifted so I could face him. “You’re leaving everything to me, and I don’t know what I’m doing.”
He turned, his gaze focusing on me. “I’m sorry, Lexie. I know I should be handling this but every time I try …” He looked out the windshield and shook his head. “Something just stops me. I get short of breath, a tightness in my chest. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“That’s anxiety, sweetie,” I said in a gentle voice.
He looked down at the steering wheel. “I need to be the calm one. I’m always the calm one.”
I reached over and touched his shoulder. “No, Nemo. You don’t. Not all the time.”
He took several deep breaths before turning to me. “Then I don’t know what to be.”
I gave him a soft smile. “Be Miles. The man I love, however you are, however you feel.”
He took my hand from his shoulder and kissed the back of it. “I’m yours. You know that, right?”
Warmth filled me at the uncertainty in his voice. “Yes, I know that. I’m just worried about you and why you’re leaving the funeral to me. But I think I get it now.” He was struggling to deal with it, and that I could understand.
His thumb moved over my knuckles. “I still think he’s alive somewhere.”
I sighed. Two steps forward, one step back. “He’s not, sweetie.”
He shook his head as he stared out the windshield looking very much lost. “It can’t be true, Lexie. It just … can’t.”
Deciding I’d pushed far enough today, I let it go. At least he hadn’t shut me out.
Miles shifted the car into drive, then took possession of my hand again as he pulled out of the parking lot and drove us home in silence.
Chapter 5
Isaac
“Why are we doing this here again?” I asked Uma as we sat down outside a coffee shop on Main Street.
“Because it’ll give you more of a chance to see different auras.” Uma crossed her legs and gestured with her paper to-go cup of coffee at the crowd. “What do you see?”
I settled back in the patio bistro chair and surveyed the Saturday crowd. Even though things in town had gotten strange, people still walked by, going in and out of shops, talking, having a good time. And here I was trying to read their auras. “Nothing. I got nothing.”
“Because you’re fighting it.” She turned to me with an understanding smile. “Relax your shoulders, clear your mind.”
Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I did as I was told. Immediately a woman across the street caught my eye. A light glow surrounded her. Shades of brown blended with silver around the woman, particularly around her heart.
“Her,” I said in a low voice. “I see silver with a dingy brown overlay.”
Uma eyed the woman through her sunglasses. “Brown overlay usually means insecurity, negative energy. And silver could mean health problems or an accumulation of fear.” She turned to me. “What can you surmise from that?”
“Well, the silver is around her heart,” I said. “So, she’s scared of something.”
“Possibly a boyfriend or girlfriend. Or even the idea of opening up can do that,” Uma surmised. “Do you see how she’s walking?”
I watched the woman walk through the crowd, her head down, avoiding even the possibility of contact with anyone. “Yeah. She’s kinda in the crowd, but not. She’s avoiding people.”
“Do you see any other colors?” She took a sip of her coffee.
Now that she mentioned it, there was a soft edge of pastel pink mingled in with the browns and silvers. “Pastel pink.”
“What does that mean?” Uma raised an eyebrow.
I racked my brain, trying to remember the books that Uma gave me. “She needs serenity. She’s sensitive.”
Uma nodded. “Good. What else do you see?”
I took the time to really look at the woman as she stopped at a window of a store. It was cool out, but not so cool that you needed the sweater and jacket she was wearing. Her shoulders were hunched. She kept looking around, as if reassuring herself that no one was watching her. “I think she’s nervous about being out in the open.”
Uma set her cup down on the table. “What can you get from her body language?”
“She’s not confident,” I thought out loud. “She’s hiding her body with her clothes, they’re baggier than they need to be. So …” It hit me. “Could she be scared of just being out of the house?”
Uma smiled. “Very good.” She gestured across the street toward the woman. “Social anxiety isn’t easy to overcome, and I’d bet everything in my bank account that she’s trying her best today to face it.”
Poor woman. “That would suck.”
Uma nodded. “Look through the crowd, tell me what else you see.”
I spotted a couple walking hand in hand down the street. She pulled him to a stop outside an antique store. They talked. Her aura was bright and full of pink, clear reds and green. The woman was practically a Christmas tree. His on the other hand? Brown. Shit brown. With flecks of black throughout. “That guy’s a dick.”
She raised an eyebrow. “How do you know?”
“Well, his aura is mostly solid brown, which means greedy and self-absorbed, but there are flecks of blac
k and that could mean unreleased anger or an unforgiving personality.”
We both watched as his girlfriend smiled up at him and gestured at the store. He shook his head and pulled her further down the sidewalk. Her smile disappeared.
“And she’s completely in love with him,” I added.
“Good assessment.” Uma nodded. “However, an aura reading is only at that moment. It doesn’t mean that person is that way at all times. He could be having a bad day.”
I shrugged. “His girlfriend wanted to go into the store, he said no. That’s a dick move.”
“Do you always want to do what Lexie does?” Uma asked.
I turned to her. “No, but if she was smiling up at me like that, she can do whatever.”
Uma’s smile turned sad as she looked down at her coffee. “Louis was like that.”
My heart sunk. “I’m sorry you guys lost him.”
She nodded. “So am I.”
A black glow emanated from her. Unreleased anger? Or grief? I didn’t say anything. “How is the family?”
She let out a mirthless chuckle before taking a sip from her coffee. “Savannah is managing everything as best she can. The gargoyles were nice enough to take them in, so Juan has more protection then we did in New Orleans.”
“It’s gotta be hard being away from them for so long,” I said softly.
She looked down at her coffee. “It is. But I need to be here to make sure Jadis doesn’t win.”
More black flecks appeared in her aura. More anger probably. “Just, make sure you go home to them. I know you’re angry and want justice for Louis, but those kids can’t lose another parent.”
She lifted her head and met my gaze through the glasses. Her eyes narrowed. “You’re reading my aura.”
“Sorry.” I leaned back in my chair. “I kinda couldn’t help it.”
She tilted her head to the side and considered me. “You are very good.”
My cheeks warmed as I looked out at the crowd again. “Only because you’re helping.”
“Have you thought about what you’re going to do after high school?” she asked, surprising me.
I shrugged. “I had originally planned to go into MMA fighting but—”
“That’s changed?”
I looked down at my cup and nodded. “Ever since the possession, I can’t stand the idea of getting into the ring again.”
“That’s understandable,” she said, her tone smooth and soothing. “Have you thought about utilizing your new gift?”
I raised an eyebrow. “How? It’s not that useful.”
She smiled softly. “Empaths and aura readers make excellent therapists.”
My eyebrows shot up. “A therapist?”
“Yes.”
I shook my head. “Me? A therapist? Have you met me? I’m not that smart.”
“You’re smarter than you give yourself credit for.” She gestured at the single woman still window shopping. “Most people might have thought she was being abused by someone. But you thought of the fact she was avoiding others, watching the crowd. It was clever.”
My cheeks warmed as I took a sip of my coffee.
“Just, think about it,” she said. “You could help people. Make a difference.”
Help people? Me?
“I heard about Asher’s house catching fire.” Uma said before taking a sip of her coffee.
“Yeah, did you know that Ethan was jumped just a few days before that? It doesn’t seem like coincidence to me,” I muttered.
Uma nodded. “Well, let’s look at the facts. Is there anything to tie Jadis to the fire?”
“Only Asher’s connection to Lexie,” I countered.
“Are there any other suspects?” Uma asked.
I blew out a long breath. I knew she was going to ask that. “Yeah, but he’s pretty stupid.”
“Perhaps it was him, perhaps not,” she said. “What about the woman, three tables down behind me?” she whispered. “Look without looking.”
I kept my eyes on her and focused on seeing the woman she mentioned out of the corner of my eye. “I got nothing.”
Uma nodded. “That’s because she’s a witch and her barriers are up. She’s hiding that she’s a witch too much.”
“What do you mean?”
“Everyone has an aura,” she said as she got to her feet.
I picked up my cup as I joined her.
She took my arm and started us down the street. “If someone doesn’t, it’s because they know about auras and are hiding something. That means witch, psychic, or some other kind of sensitive.”
We moved through the crowd. The hair on the back of my neck rose. “You think she works for Jadis?”
“Uh-huh. And she’s following us.”
“What do we do?” I whispered.
“We’re going to duck into the alley and you’re going to run to the car,” Uma said in a low voice.
“And leave you here?” I scowled up at her.
“I’m a full-grown witch, Isaac,” she hissed as she put the car keys in my hand. “I’ve got this covered. However, if they get their hands on you, Lexie will tear the world apart looking for you. Remember the lengths she went to in New Orleans?”
Oh yeah, I remembered. Lexie had used herself as bait and jerked some poor guy’s soul to the Veil before threatening to kill him. My girlfriend could be scary as hell. “Good point.”
“Once we turn the corner, run,” she whispered. “Get the car running.”
She steered me into the alley. I took off in a sprint. Heart pounding, arms pumping, I did as she said and hauled ass down the trash-strewn alley.
A fireball whooshed past me. I ducked my head a little and kept running. Curses and Latin filled the alley as I turned the corner and headed for Uma’s car. A loud bang, like a gunshot, echoed through town. People ducked as I ran past. The small sedan came into view. Hands trembling, I unlocked the door and slid into the driver’s seat. I had the car running by the time the passenger side door opened and Uma slid calmly into the seat.
“Go,” she ordered.
I pulled out onto the road and started toward Miles’ house as fast as I could without getting a ticket. Fuck. We couldn’t even go into town now? “What the hell were they trying to do?”
“Either take you or follow us back to the house.” Uma looked over her shoulder out the back window.
“Then let's lose them.” I pressed down on the accelerator.
Lexie
I had just walked into the house when I was brought up short. Hades was waiting in the foyer. Miles hurried past us and into the long hallway without a word, heading back to the conservatory.
I sighed. “What now?”
He shook his head. “You are still upset with me.”
I sighed. “Yeah, Hades. Me not liking what you did isn’t just going to go away.”
His eyes narrowed. “I don’t understand. I did my job. I protected you. Why are you angry?”
I drug my hand through my hair. “It’s not that you did your job, it’s how you did your job.”
He blinked at me. “You don’t like the way I’ve done my job?”
“Bingo.” Finally, we’re on the same page.
His jaw clenched and unclenched as he stepped closer and lowered his voice. “My job is to protect you at all costs.”
“I know.”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t believe you do understand. You are the only person who can stop whoever accessed the Veil the first time. Without you, the world might have fallen apart.”
I swallowed hard as his words sunk in. Okay, yeah, I was important. But still … “I don’t know what you want from me.”
“I want you to understand what my job is, and to accept that I have to protect you.”
“And I don’t want you to kill people!” I snapped. “Don't kill. Is that so freaking hard for you to understand? Do I have to order you to stop protecting me to make you understand?”
His jaw dropped. “You’d rebuke me?
”
“I don’t even know what that means!” I lost it. “You’ve never explained how this works!”
“It means, you’d fire me from being your familiar,” he rasped. “Could you really do that?”
I shook my head, at a loss for words. “I don’t know. I don’t know how I feel about you staying in my bedroom, I don’t know how I feel about you lying to me for a year.”
“I was a pup,” he stated. “I was a baby when I came to you.”
“But you’re a grown man now and—” I held my hands palm up. “I don’t know what this is, how it works, or how I even feel about it. You’ve just got to give me some time and space.”
We stood like that for a heartbeat, neither of us willing to be the first to back down or walk away.
“Who the hell is that?” Jessica’s voice sent us both turning toward the long hallway.
“Jessica?” Hades raised an eyebrow before turning back to me.
“Do I know you?” Jessica’s face scrunched.
I sighed. “This is Hades. He’s a magical species of dog that has a human form.”
The blood drained from her face. “Your dog Hades?”
“Yeah.” I turned back to Hades, not knowing what else to say.
Apparently, neither did he. His face was hard as he moved past me out of the house. The slamming door made my chest ache.
“Can’t you have anything normal?” Jessica asked before she disappeared into the long hallway.
I guess not. I sat on the stairs and tried to just be still. Since Miles had taken over the conservatory, my meditation space had moved to anywhere I could manage it. The stairs probably weren’t the best place, but it was quiet at the moment.
I took several deep breaths and focused on letting thoughts drift in and out of my head without paying them attention.
That was interrupted when Isaac came down the stairs. “I was just looking for you. Dinner’s ready.”
I shook my head, not ready to get up yet.
He sat beside me. “What’s wrong?”
“I just had another fight with Hades.” I turned to him. “And Miles just wrote off his father’s funeral.”
When the Grave Calls Page 6
