by Donna Grant
“I’ve never read anything in Dad’s journal about such an instance,” Beau said.
Christian looked at the clock as he realized Vincent, Lincoln, and Ava weren’t there. “Where are the others?”
“Lincoln and Ava took the west,” Davena said.
Olivia pushed her hair back from her face. “Vincent went north. He said he’d be back around two or three.”
That meant Beau had taken the south, which was easy to search quickly and return to the house. It could be hours before Lincoln and Ava returned. Christian wanted to talk to everyone before he said more to Ivy.
“It’s been a long night,” Christian said. “Why don’t we all get some rest? We can talk more in the morning.”
To his surprise, Ivy didn’t argue. She rose with Davena and Olivia. As she followed the women out, her gaze met his.
Christian had the uncontrollable urge to touch her, to let her know that everything was going to be all right. He hated when innocents were caught in the middle of the madness involving the monsters they hunted.
That’s all it was. He was angry that Ivy had been targeted. It had nothing to do with the raw, primal desire that burned through him, demanding that he learn her taste and every inch of her skin.
Once the women were gone, Christian walked around the desk. He sat in the chair and opened a lower drawer to pull out the journal their family had begun keeping from the very beginning. It was a large book that had been re-bound many times with new entries and pictures.
“If there’s an explanation, it’ll be in there,” Beau said as he came to stand next to Christian.
“I know. My worry is if there’s nothing.”
“Then that means Ivy is lying.”
Christian slammed his hand on the desk. “What if she’s not? Why do you have to be so goddamn quick to condemn her?”
“Why are you defending her so strongly?” Beau asked, his gaze narrowed.
Christian shook his head and went back to looking at the journal. “I already explained that.”
“Right. She’s an innocent. You believe her.”
“And you don’t,” Christian answered.
The back door opened as footsteps sounded through the house. Christian looked up as Lincoln and Ava slid to a stop in the foyer when they saw them in the office. A few steps behind the couple was Vincent.
Vincent glanced from the open journal to Christian and Beau. “Why did I hear a Hell Hound close to the house?”
“Because Christian brought a woman here that the beasts want to claim,” Beau answered.
Christian leaned back in the chair when four sets of eyes trained on him. He was used to having everyone looking at him for various reasons. Normally, he shrugged it off, but he knew in his gut that Ivy was innocent.
It was time he took a stand. Who better to do that for than an innocent?
A beautiful innocent with stunning hazel eyes.
CHAPTER FOUR
“There’s nothing,” Linc said as he slammed another book closed and shoved it across the glossy wood slats. He shifted in his spot on the floor and leaned his head back onto the cushions of the sofa.
Christian rubbed his tired eyes. “With all the books we have in this house, there has to be something.”
“Nothing,” Ava said from her spot on the couch. She ran her hands through Lincoln’s long hair while she looked on her laptop. “Not a single thing. Isn’t that odd?”
Vincent sighed heavily from the chair near the fireplace. “Very. Either it really doesn’t happen, or it’s so rare that no one has bothered to mention it.”
“That I don’t believe,” Beau said. “If it happened, then someone, somewhere would have made a record of it.”
Davena made a face before she stretched her arms over her head. “I agree with Beau.”
“I believe Ivy,” Olivia said, smothering a yawn.
Vincent grinned at Olivia. “She might be a very good liar.”
Christian squeezed his eyes closed for a moment. “There’s an explanation for this. We just need to find it.”
“Then we start with Ivy,” Ava said.
Olivia’s face was grim as she gave a nod. “A background check.”
Christian didn’t argue because he knew it was the only way. It didn’t mean he liked it, however. While Ava and Olivia began to search the Internet for anything about Ivy Pierce, Christian kept looking through the journal.
At least the family was willing to help. Beau was the only one who had voiced his concern with the Hounds being so near his woman, but Christian had seen the worry on Vin’s and Linc’s faces, as well.
The only ones who seemed unperturbed by it were Olivia, Ava, and Davena. They’d each come to the Chiasson house while being pursued by the supernatural. Maybe that’s why they understood.
Thirty-five minutes later, Christian glanced at the clock on the wall to see that it was almost five in the morning. No one had gotten any sleep, and Ivy would be awake soon.
“Well,” Ava said. “I think I might have found something.”
Christian set aside the journal. “What is it?”
“When Ivy was three there was an accident in the bayou involving her father and her seven-year-old brother.”
“Ah, damn,” Lincoln murmured.
Ava looked up from the screen. “Both were killed.”
“That left Ivy and her mother,” Olivia said.
Ava lowered her gaze to the computer again. “Yep. Their life was relatively quiet until five years later when Ivy got sick. Very sick.”
Christian’s gut clenched at the news.
“She was in and out of the hospital for the next six years. The doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her. Several times, she nearly died.”
Vincent ran a hand across his jaw. “Is she still sick?”
“No,” Davena said. “She’s healthy as a horse.”
“Then what cured her?” Beau asked.
Ava shrugged. “It doesn’t say. The medical records just stop.”
Olivia nodded. “Ava’s right. The next thing that shows up in any public record is Ivy on the debate team in high school.”
Now Christian knew where she got her argumentative talents. He looked over to see Davena mumbling with her eyes closed. She was doing a spell, but he didn’t know what for. Before he had a chance to ask, Beau was talking.
“We need to know what was wrong with Ivy all those years, as well as how she was cured,” Beau said.
Christian sat back in the chair and glared at his brother. “You think she made a deal with a demon to get better.”
“She was a kid!” Beau shouted. “She was dying. Yes, I think a demon might have found her and offered her a way out.”
“Don’t you think she would’ve remembered that?” Vincent asked.
Beau shrugged. “You’d think.”
“Perhaps she hasn’t put two and two together,” Lincoln offered.
Christian shoved the chair away from the desk so hard it rolled back against the wall behind him. He stood and walked out of the room.
He didn’t understand why everyone was assuming that Ivy was lying. Why couldn’t they see that she might very well be telling the truth?
His name was called, but he was done with the family for the moment. He needed some time alone, some time to collect his thoughts and go over everything that had happened.
Christian walked into his room, closing the door behind him. He fell face first on the bed before he turned his head to the side and closed his eyes.
All he saw was light brown curls and hazel eyes. He heard Ivy’s laughter, felt her fear. He had looked into her clear eyes on the porch and accepted her answer as truth.
Was he wrong? He hadn’t been before. Then again, he hadn’t felt such desire for a woman either. Though that wasn’t what was driving him.
It was the unshakable knowledge that he had to help Ivy. He hadn’t told his brothers that, nor would he. It wasn’t that he was afraid to tell them. It
was because they would think he was interested in her.
Boy was he interested, but only for a night of rousing sex. Other than that, there was nothing.
A flash of her face lined with fear as she pointed her gun at him filled his mind.
She was a handful. She didn’t hide her panic, instead, she worked through it. Showed strength in spite of it. What else could she do after losing her father and brother at such a young age? She probably didn’t remember them, but she certainly remembered all the hospital visits. That alone explained so much about her.
Christian cleared his mind and let sleep claim him.
~ ~ ~
Ivy showered and put her clothes from the previous day back on before she stepped out of the bedroom she had been given for the night. Oddly enough, she had slept like the dead once she’d fallen asleep.
The house was quiet, but a delicious smell was wafting up from the kitchen. She made her way down the stairs and followed her nose to the source.
She saw Beau with his chin-length black hair cooking. He had his back to her, so she took a step back to leave when she ran into someone.
Startled, Ivy whirled around to find another man with the same intense blue eyes and black hair as Christian and Beau.
The man smiled, his long black hair hanging loose to his shoulders. “No need to leave. Beau makes the best waffles around.”
Ivy opened her mouth, trying to come up with an excuse to leave when the man gently took her arm and led her to a chair at the rectangular table in the kitchen.
“I’m Lincoln, by the way. Second eldest. Ava is still asleep. She needs at least eight hours or she is in full-on grouch mode,” he said with a smile.
“Ivy Pierce,” she said with a nod.
Lincoln sat across from her and folded his hands on the table. “Christian filled us in when we got home last night.”
“Do you think I’m lying as Beau does?” she said. No sense in tiptoeing around it.
Beau didn’t so much as twitch at her comment.
Lincoln glanced at Beau, his smile widening. “If you’d come a few months ago, I suspect things would have been different. It wasn’t until recently that we expanded our family. Until then, it was a house of bachelors. Then Olivia returned to Lyons Point when something was killing any woman a Chiasson so much as showed interest in. Vincent had been in love with Olivia since school, and that put her in danger.”
Ivy sat back, interested in the tale.
Lincoln shrugged and reclined in the chair. “We found the culprits and killed them. Although by that time, Vin knew he couldn’t let Olivia go. Then my Ava came to town. She knew Olivia, but she also had her own history here.”
“Anything after her?”
Lincoln’s smile slipped. “A Voodoo priestess who had – has – a grudge against Ava’s father sent our cousin here to kill her.”
Ivy was mortified. “What?”
“Spells were used on Kane. He couldn’t stop what Delphine had done to him.” Lincoln suddenly grinned. “But we saved the day, and I got my Ava.”
Ivy glanced at Beau. She jerked her head to him while looking at Lincoln.
“Beau’s woman, Davena, is from New Orleans. Her mother was a witch, as was her sister, though neither had even a portion of the magic within Davena. They were both killed. Davena’s mother quite some time ago, and Davena’s sister, Delia, more recently when Delphine, the Voodoo priestess who tried to kill Ava, came here for Davena. Beau wouldn’t let that happen. Together, he and Davena won.”
“So, Delphine is dead?” Ivy asked.
Beau snorted loudly. “If only.”
Lincoln caught her gaze. “The point is, Ivy, we’re not a house of bachelors anymore.”
“You each have someone you love. Someone besides family.” She nodded in understanding. “As long as I’m here, the Hell Hounds will be, as well. You’re worried.”
Lincoln lifted one shoulder. “There is always something after us, but Hell Hounds can’t be seen. They’re invisible.”
So that’s why she hadn’t been able to see them!
“I didn’t sell my soul,” Ivy repeated.
Lincoln leaned forward and covered her hand with one of his. “I never said you did. I just wanted to explain why some might be acting a certain way.”
Ivy couldn’t exactly fault Beau for wanting to protect Davena. “I understand.”
“Now,” Lincoln said as he once more reclined. “Let’s catch you up on us. Vin is the eldest, and I’m next in line. After that is Christian, then Beau. Bringing up the rear of the Chiasson children is Riley, our only sister. Fortunately, she’s not here to be in the middle of all of this.”
Ivy was raised as an only child. The concept of siblings was as foreign to her as the supernatural.
She listened as Lincoln went on to talk of the house and all the wards that would keep her protected. Davena was going to extend the wards to cover the back yard, in order to give them all some room to walk.
Ivy was about to thank Lincoln when her neck heated. She touched her hand to it before she turned her head to find Christian in the doorway staring at her.
Their gazes met, held. He was freshly showered, his hair still damp. And he looked too damn gorgeous for his own good.
If she thought his eyes were vivid the night before, in the light of day, they were so bright she couldn’t look away.
“Did you sleep well?” Christian asked as he walked into the kitchen and over to the coffee pot on the counter.
“Yes.” Why was her voice so breathless? “You?”
He shrugged before turning and setting a mug of coffee in front of her. “I slept.”
She frowned since he’d said it as if that answered everything. Ivy wrapped her hands around the mug. She looked down into the dark liquid. “I’ll understand if y’all want me to leave. You have something precious here, and it shouldn’t be shattered.”
There was a moment of silence. Then a chair scraped on the floor as Christian pulled it out and sat.
Ivy finally gave in and looked up. Christian was once more staring at her.
“You’re not going anywhere, darlin’.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Christian stared at Ivy from the kitchen window as she stood on the porch, her gaze directed toward the bayou. There was a slight chill to the morning that was quickly disappearing with the rising sun.
Beau came to stand beside him. “We need to know more about her illness.”
“In other words, you want me to talk to her,” Christian said.
“You brought her here.”
Christian sighed because he knew Beau was right. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk to Ivy. No, it was that he did want to talk to her. That alone had kept him from going to her all morning.
“You look at her as if you don’t know what to do with her,” Beau said with a snort. “We all know you’ve never had a problem with women.”
Christian watched as Ivy let out a deep breath, her shoulders sagging. Beau was talking again, but Christian wasn’t paying attention.
He pushed away from the window, walked around Beau and exited the house. Christian didn’t like the way Ivy tensed when she heard the door.
“Would you rather be alone?”
She shook her head. “I’ve been expecting someone to want to talk more. It’s just that I don’t like being under a microscope with everyone watching me.”
He knew that had to do with her times in the hospital. Christian walked to the other side of the porch to give her some room. He didn’t want to crowd her, plus, the more distance between them, the better.
“I’m going to help you with this problem,” he said.
Ivy turned her head, a slight smile pulling at her lips. “I believe you’re going to try. I did my own research this morning on Hell Hounds. There is no helping me.”
The sunlight bathed her in a red-orange light that turned her hair auburn. For an instant, she looked otherworldly, as if she didn’t belong on Earth.
Then she ducked her head before returning her gaze to the bayou. The sun continued its ascent, and the moment was lost.
But Christian would forever hold the memory.
He swallowed and remembered why he was out there with her. “Demons aren’t just vicious and cruel. They’re also cunning and crafty. They’re calculating, and if they see an opportunity, they’ll do whatever they need to in order to get what they want.”
“You think I was tricked?”
“It’s a possibility. I need details, Ivy.”
“About my life?”
He couldn’t take his eyes from her. Christian leaned a shoulder against one of the porch’s columns and crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes.”
“There’s not much to tell.” She faced him then. “My father and brother died in an accident out in the bayou when I was three. It was just my mother and me until last year. She had a heart attack.”
“I’m sorry.” Life certainly hadn’t been kind to her, but then again, fate had a way of knowing who could handle such things. Ivy was a strong person. It was evident in everything about her.
Ivy shrugged. “It happens.”
“Yes, it does. My parents were killed when I was just a boy. They died on the same night.”
Their eyes locked. Her gaze wasn’t filled with pity. It was filled with understanding, as only someone who had experienced such things could have.
“It’s been just us five for a long time,” Christian continued.
“At least y’all had each other.”
“Yeah. My brothers are a pain in the ass, but I wouldn’t have survived that night without them. We needed to be strong for Riley, too. She was so young. She didn’t really comprehend it all at first.”
“She’s very lucky to have you.”
Christian wasn’t so sure his sister felt that way, not after the latest fiasco. How could they have been so wrapped up in things that they hadn’t realized she had graduated from the University of Texas?
“She came home recently. We had just defeated Delphine for a second time, and we never wanted Riley involved with the family business.” Christian ran a hand down his face. What was it about Ivy that made him want to spill his guts? “We didn’t exactly give her a warm welcome. In fact, I’m pretty sure Vin told her to return to Austin immediately.”
