“I hope so, because I hate being in fear, and I don’t like being so afraid of well…everything.”
“You had a big scare. Come with me to the family room. You sit and relax while I fix breakfast for everyone.” He entwined his fingers with hers. “Are you hungry?” he asked her.
“I think I could eat something.” She managed a small smile. She patted Sam’s head before they left the room.
“Oh, I love breakfast. It’s been a long time since we cooked a big breakfast at our place,” Harper said as she rose from the table and picked up her empty plate.
“Why don’t we cook breakfast?” Erin looked to Harper.
“Because we’re always on different schedules and going different directions,” Jade chimed in.
“That!” Harper nodded.
“Decker makes breakfast on the weekends,” Liam said before shoveling some hash browns into his mouth.
“Lucky you,” Erin smiled at him.
Liam gave her a closed-mouth smile of agreement as he chewed.
“Just so you know, you can cook for us anytime you want, Decker,” Harper informed him as she began to run water in the kitchen sink.
“What are you doing?” Brody asked her.
“Rinsing off my plate before I put it in the dishwasher.” Harper watched him as he opened the dishwasher and stuck his plate in as it was.
“Why?” Brody asked her.
“Men.” Harper rolled her eyes.
“Decker has the rinse off rule too,” Liam provided, grinning at Decker. “Brody hasn’t grasped the concept yet.”
“That’s right. It’s why we don’t eat at Brody’s,” Decker threw in.
Brody snorted. “Yeah, that, and I don’t cook, so…”
Liam chuckled.
“You didn’t eat much,” Decker whispered to Jade as he rose from the table. “Can I make you something else?”
“No, Decker. It was wonderful. I’m just not that hungry. Sorry.”
“No problem. If you get hungry later, you let me know, okay?”
“I will.” Jade gave him a reassuring smile.
“What time is it?” Erin searched the room for a clock.
“Seven on the dot,” Brody offered as he looked at his phone.
“Oh good, I don’t have to start getting ready to go into work for hours. I just love Sundays. Generally, I get more sleep on a Sunday, mind you. But we do have coffee.” Harper shrugged and poured herself another cup. She smiled as she leaned down to inhale the aroma. “The drink of gods…”
“Why don’t we all sit down in the family room where it’s comfortable? We think we have an idea who this guy could be,” Brody announced as he sat on one of the sofas.
Jade looked to Decker. He gave her an encouraging nod, took her hand, and led her to the sofa. He sat down beside her.
“Have a seat, everybody. Grab a drink or coffee, whatever you need.” Liam added in a serious tone.
Decker gave Jade’s fingers a squeeze to reassure her. She looked tense again. After a few moments she leaned back and seemed to relax somewhat.
He looked at her. He hoped like hell that she wouldn’t think the Decker brothers were nutjobs after this explanation. He thought he saw trust in those mossy green eyes earlier, but he couldn’t be sure. Hell, he’d only known her two days.
“We can trace our family roots to Ireland,” Brody began to tell the story. “My mother’s family, the Flynns, go all the way back to ancient Ireland. Mom told us it was her grandfather, who came to America from the old country. That being said, there was some curse involving her family, the Flynns, in Ireland that goes back centuries, I guess. Unfortunately, we can’t find the information my mother used to keep about that curse. She and my father told us very little, only that there was this curse.”
He exhaled and continued, “Mom had planned to tell us more around the holidays the year she and my father were killed in a car accident. Liam was due to be home on leave that Christmas. But that never happened, because our parents were killed in an accident. Mom kept two notebooks, and we haven’t located either one yet. We believe those books will explain what we need to know about this whole thing. What we do know is a demon or old evil human would come after us when…well, when a certain three women come into our lives. They always said the woman meant for Decker would show up first then the demon would make himself known.”
“Since we were old enough to remember, Mom and Dad raised us to know we had a special purpose because we are of the Flynn bloodline. It involves a centuries old curse that we definitely need to know more about, especially the part about the demon. They told that this evil dude would show up when Decker met the woman he was fated to meet, his “one” they called her. Once he met her, this demon would come into the picture and try to keep them apart.” Brody paused to take a sip of his water.
Seeing the serious looks on the women’s faces, he let go a nervous sigh and continued, “Um, the women meant for Liam and I are supposed to show up after Decker’s does, and the six of us together, the three brothers and the three women, would be able to defeat this demon who has plagued the Flynns for centuries. I know it sounds far-fetched, but the night after Decker met Jade, both Liam and I dreamed about it, and we knew when we met Jade the next day that she was the same person we saw in our dreams.” Brody stopped, looked around at their faces.
“And then he showed up,” Jade whispered.
Liam jumped in. “Yes. We think so. I assure you, Jade, our parents were not crazy. They taught us to be open to our psychic abilities. To feel and read energy. They taught us to pay attention to energy, to trust our gut instincts, and, well, they taught us things normal parents don’t teach their children. I wish we knew more, but this is all we know. Nothing ever came of what our parents told us, and the three of us were grown and making lives of our own. We forgot about this family curse, I guess you’d call it, after they died, until Brody and I dreamed about Decker meeting you.”
Liam focused his attention on Jade. “I’ll admit that Brody and I pressured Decker to go to the shop yesterday so we could meet you. He didn’t want to move too fast, it’s not his style.” Liam paused to look at his brother. “He didn’t want to tell you about the family curse yet because, honestly, he thought you’d think he was crazy. He’s really into you and he didn’t want to lose the chance to get to know you. This morning, we all knew you needed to know the truth, because it’s just not the three of us in danger, Jade. It’s you too, as well as your roommates, and your friends who work at the shop.”
“Maybe we are wrong, maybe this guy isn’t this demon from the curse, but regardless, whoever he is, he’s after you, Jade. And he’s dangerous. Liam’s right, I’m very attracted to you, and I don’t want you to get hurt. I should have told you last night after what happened at the bar, but I was afraid to,” Decker confessed. He took her hand, looked into her eyes and searched for something, anything that would give him a clue what she was feeling and thinking about all of this.
“Right now, I don’t have any choice but to believe you. I can’t deny that it’s either a demon or a psycho that came into my room last night, so thank you for letting us stay here, and thank you for telling us about your family and the demon. We, the three of us,” she moved her hand to include Harper and Erin, “are open-minded. Though I’ve never come face to face with a demon, until possibly last night, I know there are negative spirits and that negative energy exists in the world. I have had some experience with that, and I have heard of people in our field who have encountered demons. Negative energy, seriously bad energy, radiated off the guy at the bar last night. I could feel it. More importantly, your energy is good, Decker. It’s very strong and positive. I do know that.”
Decker had been holding his breath, waiting for Jade or one of her friends to stand up, declare them lunatics, and leave the house. So far, that hadn’t happened. In fact, Jade appeared to be okay with everything.
“So, the creep from the shop and the bar could be this e
vil demon from Ireland where this ancient curse that involves your family began,” Jade surmised. “If he’s some sort of old demon, or human with evil powers, that would explain how he got up on the third floor roof of my apartment. At least I’m assuming a demon could manage something like that.” Jade turned to Decker. He gave her a nod.
She continued, “And his energy at the bar was so bad, so wrong. It was overwhelming, there was so much negativity radiating off him. A demon’s energy, maybe?” She looked to Decker for an answer.
“Yes, he could be this demon, and if he is, it would explain a lot of things about last night. In my opinion, no normal guy could do what was done in Jade’s room without going to a lot of trouble,” Decker agreed. “I’ve never come across a demon before, but I would think his energy would be noticeably different than a normal person’s energy.”
“It would,” Harper agreed. “And this man’s energy was definitely bad! I felt it too.”
“We need to find these notebooks that you told us about,” Harper said. “We need to learn everything about this thing we can.”
“Exactly.” Brody stood. “We do. Right now, we don’t know much about him, and that puts us all at a serious disadvantage.”
Decker was amazed that the girls seemed to accept what they told them. They didn’t look uncomfortable or act as if they wanted to leave his house at the next opportunity. It appeared they did believe what he and his brothers explained to them.
“So, you believe us? I was so afraid you wouldn’t,” Decker watched Jade, waiting expectantly for her answer.
“We know there is evil in the world. We’ve experienced a few evil spirits in our day,” Harper told him.
“And one possible demon,” Erin added.
“If what happened last night hadn’t occurred, I might have been a little skeptical, but honestly Decker, I truly don’t know how anyone could get on the third floor roof of our apartment and move so quickly from the skylight to the glass block window. Then there was what happened at the bar. This morning, Liam and Brody didn’t find a rope or a ladder outside my apartment, and apparently, the guy drove off in a dark sedan. There’s nothing on that outer wall to support a person standing at that window like that. No ledge, no tree, nothing.” Jade leaned her head against his arm and looked up at him. “There was also his dark, disturbing energy that I felt at the bar. I was stunned at first by his suddenly appearing in front of me, and then his coming on to me. When he grabbed me and said we needed to leave the bar, I knew his intention was to harm me.”
“I agree. We thought it could possibly be him when Claire, Riley, and Annie told us about the guy at the shop. When he showed up at the bar, we were more inclined to believe it. We are almost positive that the same guy at the bar was the one at your place during the night, and that he is this demon. My guess is this curse, this thing, that apparently involves the four of us started when either, I met you, or when I asked you out.” He looked to Jade. “We went out as a group afterward and he showed up at the bar,” Decker said.
“My guess is he followed Annie, Claire, and Riley when they left the shop,” Harper supplied.
“I think that’s what happened, yeah,” Decker agreed with her. “Connor saw him drive away last night, but he could have followed us to your apartment after we left the bar.”
“When we arrived at your place earlier this morning and heard what happened to Jade, I was sure this guy is not some regular stalker,” Liam said in a quiet, serious tone. “I think it has begun, and he is this demon. Like we’ve told you, our parents always told us that once Decker met his one, he would show up. Decker met Jade, and this creep shows up.”
“Actually, Liam and I suspected something was about to start yesterday morning, after we both dreamed that Decker met Jade. We had to get to know you, Jade. All three of us knew it was important that we keep you safe,” Brody offered.
“You told us that the four of you and two other women, you have no idea who they are, can destroy him, right?” Erin asked.
“That’s right.” Liam nodded.
“Exactly how do you destroy him?” Erin asked and looked to Liam.
“We don’t know. As we explained earlier, our parents were killed in a car accident on the way home from our vacation home in Sedona six years ago, before they could explain everything to us.” Brody shook his head. “The explanation never came, so we have no idea how to destroy this thing. I don’t understand why they waited so long to tell us either. I wish I knew more.”
“I was in Afghanistan at the time, but I was due to come home at the end of the year,” Liam offered.
“They never had the chance to give us the information we need.” Brody fidgeted. “The only way they had prepared us is to tell us there was a curse, and someday the three of us and three women who came into our lives would have what it takes to defeat this demon. How do we defeat him? We don’t have a clue.”
Brody sighed before continuing, “We think we know where one of the books is, but not the other one. I have Mom and Dad’s computer at my place. I’ll get it later and bring it over. Liam and I will go through all of their documents and see if we can find something that will help us. We are at a complete loss in the information department right now.”
“Our mom had made contact with one of her distant cousins in Ireland about two years before she died. We are hoping we find a way to contact him. We do remember her saying she pieced together more of the history of the curse from him,” Decker informed them. “She exchanged emails with him, so we could possibly learn something from those if mom saved any correspondence on her computer.”
“That’s right; you did say this family curse comes from your mom’s side, the Flynns from Ireland, and not the Deckers.” Harper sighed. “We do need to find as much information as we can about this whole situation. If he’s after the three of you and Jade then me, Erin, and the rest of the girls at the shop are in danger too. Just consider Erin and I included in with you. We’ll help you any way we can.”
“I agree. We have to know how to proceed.” Liam sighed. “Brody and I are going to meet Decker’s friend Jackson and his team at your apartment in a half hour, so I need a key. After we finish up with Jackson’s unit, we’ll go by the grocery store and pick up what we need for our barbeque. When we come back, Brody will go with you two,” he pointed at Erin and Harper, “to the shop and stay with you until you close at five. I will get busy blowing up that license plate on the pictures from last night, and help Decker look for the notebooks.”
“I think we need to work together.” Jade turned to Decker. “I mean, we need to sit together, in a circle, a couple times a week, like we do in our psychic development classes at the shop. There has to be something about our energy combined that can defeat this thing, and we need to find out what that is.”
“That’s a great idea! Since Harper and I are here for the next few days, we can join in and help you out,” Erin offered. She looked to Liam, Brody and Decker before she asked, “So what psychic abilities do you each have? You must have something, right?”
“Decker knows when one of us is in trouble. He always has, even when we were in grade school.” Brody laughed. “Liam and I could never keep anything from him.”
“Brody always knows when Decker starts cooking. He always shows up about five minutes later.” Liam laughed and gave Brody a big grin.
“Brody always knows what’s coming. For example, yesterday, it was Brody who insisted we go by the shop,” Decker offered. “He kept reminding us this guy could show up right away. And he did.”
“What about you, Liam?” Jade asked.
Liam shrugged. “I just know things. Things just come to me. When I saw that guy step out of the bathroom at the bar, I knew he was going to harass you, Jade. Then that drunk girl grabbed my arm and I couldn’t get to you. I woke up just minutes before you called Decker this morning, and I knew something was going on with you girls. I just felt that something was off and you needed us somehow. I was out of my
bed and going down the hall to bang on Decker’s door when his phone rang.”
Liam looked to Decker and continued, “Decker, just knows things too, I’ve noticed it especially when we’re out of the house and in a crowd, or even when he’s driving. He anticipates when someone is going to do something. He doesn’t talk about it, but I know he does. I think all three of us have similar abilities. We all three sense what kind of energy a person has, and can pick up on negative energy, in different ways, but we all can.”
“It’s just intuition, Liam.” Decker shrugged.
“It’s more than that, and you know it, bro.”
“What about you, ladies?” Decker effectively changed the subject. He wasn’t used to talking about his abilities. “Jade told me she is an intuitive medium, and that she sees, hears, feels spirits and energy, and she just knows things. She reads tarot. What gifts do you have?” He looked to Harper and Erin.
“Jade also has a very strong connection to angels and spirit guides,” Erin threw in.
“Yes, I suppose I do.” Jade shrugged. “Erin of course is a healer through massage and Reiki. She also understands and works with astrology. She is our astrology expert, and she definitely communicates with the Earth and the elementals, fairies especially.”
Erin shrugged and nodded. “I’ve never sat and thought about it, but that sounds about right.” She added, “Harper is our crystal expert, though she reads tarot and gives intuitive readings like Jade. She has the gift of communication with rocks, gemstones, and minerals. She also reads the Runes. Jade communicates with angels and guides while giving readings. Harper touches in with people’s family members, and sometimes guides and angels, but when she reads for clients, a deceased family member or friend comes through often in her readings.”
“What things will we be doing in this circle?” Brody asked Jade.
“The whole idea of a circle is to meet regularly. It’s like setting up a meeting with Spirit. It takes time for our energy to meld, things usually happen slowly at first. We’ve found that the more often a group meets, the better the sessions get. We start out by doing different exercises; meditations, psychometry, giving one another messages, doing past-life regressions, there are so many things we can do to work on our psychic development, I couldn’t possibly name them all. We work on internal as well as physical mediumship. We even try table tipping and working with a planchette. The more we work together as a group, the stronger our energy gets. I’m hoping it will bring us much needed answers as to what we need to do regarding this demon.”
Decker's Fate (The Decker Brothers Trilogy Book 1) Page 11
