by Deanna Chase
I disengaged from Kane and put on my best coven leader attitude. “I need you to help me with a finding spell for all angels within a two-hundred mile radius. In addition to locating Philip, we still need help rescuing Dan. Can you do that?”
Lucien retreated to the back door. “I’d rather not. Angels can get nasty when their privacy is compromised.”
So much for being the nice boss. “Too bad for them. Unless you have an official angel contact list handy, when the coven meets at midnight, we’re performing the spell.”
He pursed his lips and took a deep breath. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“It’s settled then.” I swept past him and tugged Kane into the house. “Let’s go before he comes up with another argument.”
Kane stopped in the middle of the kitchen. “We can’t leave Lailah here. What if she is possessed? You’re the only one powerful enough to do anything if she goes off grid.”
Damn it all if he wasn’t right. “Fine. You do the honors of telling her. If I do it, we’ll have another fight on our hands.”
***
Lailah silently fumed all the way back to Kane’s house. I would’ve happily ignored her, but she kept throwing mental insults in my direction.
At least she was creative. Whoever heard of an angel calling a coven leader a magic-stealing twat waffle?
After dropping Kat off at her apartment, Kane pulled to a stop in front of his shotgun double, Victorian-style home on one of the quieter streets in the French Quarter. I already had my hand wrapped around the door handle when Kane pushed a button, triggering the automatic door locks.
“Before we go inside, I’d like to make a request,” Kane said.
Lailah’s curiosity crawled up my neck, making me long for a shower. After her mental assault, I didn’t want her energy anywhere near me. I eyed Kane suspiciously. “And that would be?”
He turned to catch Lailah’s eye and then stared pointedly at me. “A truce. Until we’re sure Lailah isn’t compromised, the three of us are stuck together. I know after what happened at the club…” he trailed off, no doubt deciding now wasn’t the time to talk about the make-out session the pair of them had in Kane’s office.
Sure, they’d both been under the influence of a demon at the time, but that didn’t mean I’d magically gotten over my shock of seeing them together. Logically, I knew I shouldn’t be mad. Too bad my inner self was still pissed. At Lailah. Probably because she still wanted to get him between the sheets.
“For Goddess’ sake, Jade. I do not!” Lailah yelled from the back seat. “Kane, open the damn door. I have to get out of here.”
“And go where?” I asked coolly.
“Bea’s house. She can babysit me. I don’t want to intrude on your love nest.”
“No. Bea’s still recovering.” My mentor and the former leader of the New Orleans coven was the most powerful witch I’d ever met. Under normal circumstances, Lailah would be fine at her house. But only a week had passed since Bea came perilously close to losing her soul. The last thing she needed right now was another crisis. “You’re welcome here. Besides, we need to learn to work together.”
She closed her eyes and leaned against the window. “Fine, but we’d better find a way to get out of each other’s heads or else this will never work.”
“Agreed.” I held my hand out.
She hesitated for a moment. I waited patiently. She knew if she touched me, I would be able to read her emotions and hear her thoughts more clearly. It wasn’t an easy thing to share with someone. Especially the someone who dated your ex. She squared her shoulders and clasped my hand.
“Truce,” she said.
Relief flooded from her. The tension in my shoulders eased, and I sent her a tentative smile. She didn’t want to feud any more than I did.
We’d make this work. Somehow.
“Can we get out now?” I asked Kane.
He snorted. “You could’ve left any time you wanted to and you know it.”
“True. But I try not to magic my way out of every situation.” I grinned and let a bit of my magical spark fly. Instantly the locks clicked open.
Lailah laughed. I joined her on the curb, and we walked to the house together, leaving Kane to grab the luggage.
***
Kane was called away to meet with a client shortly after we arrived, leaving Lailah and me alone. Perfect. With her in his house, all I could think about was the pair of them sharing his bed sometime in the distant past.
I longed to be holed up in my glass studio right about then making beads. Nothing put my mind at ease faster than losing myself in the miniature creations. It was my sanctuary, the one place I could go and block out everything and anyone who bothered me. But I couldn’t leave Lailah alone.
To keep my mind occupied, I grabbed Bea’s spell book and escaped into the kitchen. There had to be some reference to severing a psychic link. The sooner I got Lailah out of my head, the better.
“You’re not going to find anything,” Lailah said.
I jerked. Damn, she was a quiet angel. Wood floors combined with mid-heeled boots should have alerted me to her presence long before she made it to the open doorway. “How would you know? I thought you didn’t work spells the traditional way.”
She half-shrugged. “I don’t, but that doesn’t mean I’m not educated. I come from a family of witches, you know.”
“You do?” How had I not known this? Because we weren’t friends. Our relationship was defined by one mishap after another. First an exorcism, performed by Lailah, had sent Pyper, one of my best friends, into a coma. Then while Lailah had been controlled by a demon—through no fault of her own—she’d poisoned Bea, sexually assaulted Kane, and then abducted him to Purgatory.
It’s no wonder I didn’t have the warm and fuzzies for her. Still, she was Bea’s friend and employee. I’d decided that was enough to give her the benefit of the doubt. That didn’t mean it was easy for me.
Her brow creased in disbelief. “Angels are born into magical families. My father is a witch, and his mother is an angel.”
“What about your mom?” I got up and headed for the refrigerator. After retrieving the pitcher of sweet tea, I filled two glasses and returned to the table.
Lailah sat in my chair, flipping through the spell book, a blank expression on her face.
I set one in front of her and sat. “Lailah?”
“Hmm?”
“Are you okay?”
Her usually guarded emotions slipped past her barriers, prickling me with detachment. Her emotional walls snapped in place and she glanced up. “Fine. Thanks for the tea.”
“You’re welcome.” We sat in silence, sipping our drinks. I took the hint. She didn’t want to talk about her mom.
After spending years not knowing what happened to my own mother, I sympathized. It had never been a topic I’d been comfortable with myself. Whatever it was, I’d respect her privacy.
She picked up the pen and started scribbling in the notebook I’d left open. “There’s an old spell my father used to use to keep psychics from delving into his future. We might be able to modify it to terminate our connection.”
I frowned. “He spelled himself on the slim chance he’d run into a psychic?” Statistically, the odds of witnessing a real seer experiencing a vision were incredibly small. Microscopic. Most people would never experience such a thing, unlike those of us who grew up with one in the family, like I did. The exceptions were people who sought out psychics.
She smiled. “Dad is…eccentric. He closely guards his privacy.” Her smile vanished. “He has his reasons.”
Okay. Dan and I weren’t the only ones with weird family secrets. “All right. Have you ever modified a spell before?”
“Of course.” She pulled her mussed hair back into a bun and secured it with the pen. “It’s Witch Chemistry one-oh-one.”
I swallowed the lump lodged in my throat and tried to ignore the flash of inadequacy running through my brain. I could
barely do any spell, much less modify one.
Oh, I had the power. Plenty of it. That was the problem. I didn’t know how to fully control my magic. “Maybe we should consult Bea.”
She stopped writing and stared at me with hardened eyes. She let her irritation shine through her emotional armor. “I know what I’m doing. Do you have any idea what I do for Bea at The Herbal Connection?”
“Help customers? Stock the shelves? Deal with vendors?” That’s basically what I did at The Grind, the café Pyper owned.
She gritted her teeth. “You think I’m a retail clerk?”
The Herbal Connection is a retail shop. What was I supposed to think? “Umm…”
She stood with an exaggerated huff. “I do the R and D on all the spells she offers. You know the charm when you first walk in? The one that custom-tailors a scent to each patron? I invented it. Me. Not Bea.” She flung a hand in frustration. “I know what the hell I’m doing.”
She stormed off, swallowing her last thoughts. Of course, I heard them anyway. Unlike you. If you don’t kill someone before we find Dan, it’ll be a fuckin’ miracle.
Ouch. I don’t know what shocked me more. Lailah—an angel—using the F word, or finding out she’d invented the soothing scent spell. Every time someone walked into The Herbal Connection, the scent in the air changed to whatever made the person most happy. My scent shifted from a sea-salted breeze to Kane’s fresh rain cologne. The first time I’d entered the shop I’d been very impressed and had assumed it was Bea’s spell. My assessment of Lailah and her abilities did a one-eighty. It appeared I had a lot to learn about the angel.
Despite my attempts to apologize and offer dinner, Lailah stayed locked in the guest room until right before we left to meet Lucien and the rest of the coven.
Even then she ignored me.
I tried one last time. “Kane brought po’boys. There’s one in the refrigerator for you.”
“No, thank you,” she said, but her interest brushed against my psyche. I stifled a sigh and grabbed the sandwich anyway.
“In case you get hungry.” I held the shrimp sandwich out.
She eyed it and then nodded. “Okay.” She turned to Kane. “Thank you, that was thoughtful.”
“No problem.” He smiled and offered an arm to each of us. “Shall we?”
And even though I wanted to smack him, I said nothing as we both grabbed an arm and the three of us headed to meet the coven.
Chapter 6
The air blowing off the Mississippi held a slight chill, and I shivered as we made our way through the old oak trees to the coven circle. A faint trace of oil and gas mixed with the muddy stench of the river. I covered my nose with the sleeve of my sweater and wished for Lailah’s soothing scent charm.
The trees gave way to the hidden clearing. Candles flickered brightly around the edge of the coven circle, illuminating Lucien and Rosalee as they placed more candles in the center.
“What’s all this?” I gestured, indicating the massive amount of tea lights.
Rosalee, a tiny, wide-eyed witch in her early twenties, faced me. She held up a diagram. “We’re creating a map of the two-hundred-mile radius you want to search.”
“With candles?” I asked.
Lucien crossed the circle, careful to not knock over any tea lights. “Yes. See how we marked each city?”
Rosalee passed me the diagram. I inspected it, finding a candle marker in the circle for every decent-sized city within our target area. I nodded.
“After we work the spell, if any other angels are near, their image will materialize over the candle, representing the city they’re closest to. That will give us a starting point.” Lucien pulled the diagram from my grasp and compared it to the scattering of candles on the ground. “I think we’re almost ready.”
“Really?” I glanced around. “Where’s the rest of the coven?” There were thirteen of us. Spells had a much better success rate if the entire group was present. We could work the spell with the three of us and Lailah, but I’d have less of a collective to draw from. It was likely our reach wouldn’t cover as much distance as I hoped.
Lucien spied his watch. “They’re on their way.”
“Jade!” a familiar voice cried. I spun, finding Kat stalking toward me. “Why didn’t you call me? You’re searching for Philip and you didn’t say anything?”
I stared at Kane, my eyebrows raised in question.
He shook his head and held his hands up in a ‘not me’ motion.
“Sorry, Kat,” I said. “It’s just an information-seeking spell. I figured I’d fill you in on the details tomorrow.”
Irritation swirled around her and then dissipated. She had an uncanny ability to control her emotions, something most people never got a handle on. “Please. Have you ever conducted a spell that didn’t go wrong in some fashion?”
“Hey! That’s not fair. I banished bugs from Kane’s yard. Bea taught me.” I eyed the silent man beside me. “Right?”
A sheepish smile spread over Kane’s face. “Sort of.”
I groaned. “What?”
“You banished them, but when they came back, they tripled in number. I had to call the exterminator.” He grabbed my hand and squeezed lightly. “You never see them because they’re dead.”
“Crap,” I muttered. The spell was supposed to temporarily relocate any vicious type of bugs. You know, fleas, chiggers, red ants. When humans left the yard, they’d come back. My blunder had resulted in a mass genocide of bugs. Icky bugs, but still.
Kat stifled a laugh. “See? You need moral support.”
The words ‘shove it’ were on the tip of my tongue, but I quickly decided it was good to have her around. She was my best friend and had just as big a stake in finding Dan as I did. “Hey, how did you know the coven was meeting?”
“I told her,” Lailah said from beside me.
I jumped. She hadn’t spoken once since we’d arrived. I’d almost forgotten she was there. “Why?”
She shrugged. “Does it matter? It’s not like it was a secret.” She walked off in Lucien’s direction.
“Did she call you?” I asked Kat.
“Yep. A couple of hours ago. She had some questions she wanted answered.” She fingered the sterling silver, oak tree pendant at her throat. Kat was an accomplished silversmith; she’d made the piece herself. “The coven thing just came up. I don’t think she was trying to interfere.”
“It doesn’t matter.” I lowered my voice. “What questions did she ask?”
Kat didn’t get a chance to answer. Right then the rest of the coven burst through the trees. Friendly chatter filled the air as they each made their way to their specific spots on the circle.
“Showtime,” I said.
Kane grabbed my wrist, stopping me before I could join the coven. He pulled me to him and clamped his mouth over mine. The hot fierce kiss heated me to my toes.
“What was that for?” I asked, breathless after he released me.
“Luck.”
“With luck like that, what could go wrong?” I quipped. Then frowned. “Sorry. Bad choice of words.”
He shook his head and walked toward a wrought iron bench set in front of one of the giant oaks. Kat gave me a hug and joined him.
“Okay. Let’s do this.” I turned to Lucien. “Do you have the incantation ready?”
He pulled a folded piece of paper from his jeans pocket. “This should do it.”
I focused on the other members, noticing for the first time their casual wear. “No robes?”
He raised one pale eyebrow as his gaze traveled the length of my body.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m not wearing mine either. It’s at home, and I haven’t been back to my apartment since we landed.”
He smiled. “Relax. You were right when you told Kat this spell wasn’t a big deal. Really minor in the grand scheme of things. It should only take a few minutes, and then we’ll have a plan.”
He moved to take his place on the circle, but I touched hi
s arm to stop him. “What about the angels we locate? You said they’d be really unhappy to have their privacy invaded. ‘Angry angels’ doesn’t sound minor to me.”
“True. But you’ll only have to worry about that once you catch up to them.”
“Well, that’s something.” I followed Lucien and took my place at the northernmost point of the circle. Emotions sparked from the members, everything from excitement to boredom to indifference. And maybe even a little irritation. I’d probably be annoyed if my coven leader sprung a meeting on me at the last minute, too.
I clapped my hands and cleared my throat. “Thank you, everyone. I’m sorry if I ruined any plans, but I wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t important.”
Most of them murmured a casual “you’re welcome” or “no problem.” Only one stayed silent, and the irritation I’d felt grew.
Emotional energy is distinct. I can recognize it much the same way I can identify a particular voice or scent. I followed the thread of irritated energy with my mind to a young male witch. Before now, he’d almost always been ecstatic to be working with the coven.
“Joel?” I asked. “Everything okay?”
“Sure…I mean…yeah. Fine,” he stammered, confusion joining the swell of frustration taking over his body. He ran a nervous hand over his face and shuffled his feet.
Rosalee left her post and took Joel aside. She leaned in to whisper in his ear. He nodded, but made eye contact with no one. I bit my lip. His mood hadn’t improved in the slightest. Rosalee wrapped an arm around him, giving him a half-hug, and spoke again. This time whatever she said brought him a reassuring calm. She stepped back, grabbed him by both shoulders, and stared him in the eye. “Ready?”
His gaze found mine. “Yeah.”
“Okay.” Rosalee moved back to her spot next to me. “Let’s find some angels.”
Hmm, what could that have been about? Whatever it was, I made a note to thank Rosalee.
I extended my hands to her and Anne, a tall, graceful witch in her sixties. When we touched, the circle glowed to life, fueled by the coven’s collective power.
Lucien’s voice rose clear in the still night. “Goddess of the light, send your protection to our circle. Guide us in our quest for knowledge. Keep us sheltered from the power of the black. Our hearts are pure, our intentions sound. From north to south to east to west, blessed be in our quest.”
