“That never gets easier,” I grumbled.
“Paying a tithe never does,” Linus said, then took my hand, turning it over in his. He knew better than to offer to take away the pain, and it was too minor for a healing sigil. Before I could tell him so, he guided my finger into his mouth and swirled his tongue across the hurt. “Better?”
I managed a whimper.
“Grier?” He caught me around the waist as my knees liquified. “What’s wrong?”
“Her ovaries exploded,” Lethe called from the living room, having returned from her errand in record time to torment me. “I heard the blast from here.”
“How do you know what happened?” I yelled back at her. “You don’t have super vision.”
“I smell blood, and I heard you gasp, all breathy-like. It wasn’t hard to figure out what you’re up to back there.”
Linus’s cheeks managed to redden within a shade of his hair. “Oh.”
“No, no, no.” Lethe cackled. “It was more like Oooh, Linus.”
I died on the spot. I was dead. Done. That’s how it felt anyway.
“I’m just going to…” I indicated the open door leading downstairs. “Uh, basement.”
The claustrophobic press of a starless night sky swirled around me as I descended into what had been Maud’s private sanctuary. The walls closed in on me, the maw as cruel as my cell in Atramentous, the abyss ready to swallow me whole.
Usually, I darted straight through the enchantment that discouraged nosy visitors to the bottom. Tonight, I lingered in the magical gloom while my blood cooled from Lethe’s taunting.
The problem with hiding in absolute darkness is no one can see where you’re standing.
Linus bumped into me, and I stumbled down a few steps. He caught me in a steely grip and lifted me back onto the stair below his. “I thought I gave you enough time.”
“You did,” I panted, clinging to him now that I had lost my sense of place. “I was dragging my feet.”
More certain in the dark than me, he took my hand and escorted me into the library.
The spell dissipated on the lowest stair, and Woolly flicked on the lights, her consciousness hovering.
“We’re not going to jailbreak,” I assured her. “There’s no way out of the basement.”
Unconvinced, she settled in to watch us start cataloging the treasure trove that was Maud’s life’s work.
“This is where we left off.” Linus dropped a box onto the research table where we had taken our lessons with Maud. “Do you want to skim or sort?”
“You read faster.” I pulled out the chair for him. “I’ll sort. I want to burn off some of this energy.”
Floor-to-ceiling bookcases lined the walls. Scrolls and books and pamphlets overflowed the shelves. We had never paid much attention to the upper rows. I say we, but Linus would have asked about them. She must have kept their contents to herself since he appeared as overwhelmed by the process as me.
Necromancers lived a long time, and we accumulated a lot of junk during those years. People like Maud, the academics, the innovators, collected more than most. Their private thoughts carried weight, and she had safeguarded every single handwritten note by sealing it in the library, the lab, or her private office.
“These are letters from her former lovers.” Linus tossed a packet of envelopes bound with twine on the table. “I would rather not read those if it’s all the same to you.”
Wrinkling my nose at the content, I lifted them with a fingernail hooked through the knotted bow.
I didn’t want to read about more of her exploits in graphic detail. Once was plenty. More than enough. We had stumbled across enough love notes between her and her beaus to realize she enjoyed describing her sexual encounters down to her partners’ recovery time.
A few of the racier excerpts included sketches and read like instruction manuals for new hires.
It was more than any child ever needed to know about a parent.
“I’ll file these under Naughty,” I said, wishing for hand sanitizer, “and we’ll keep going.”
“We’re within two years of when your mother arrived in Savannah,” he offered. “We’re getting closer.”
The goal was to reach the point when Mom and I showed up on Maud’s doorstep. The hope was we could determine if Mom had written to Maud about her condition—or mine—prior to her arrival. Then we could read forward, absorbing Maud’s observations over the years in the hopes we could learn what she had discovered and build our knowledge base on hers.
“Are we not going to talk about Corbin?” Linus asked into the quiet. “You must be reeling.”
With my back to him, I took longer than required to tuck the letters into the correct box.
“I never thought we would meet. That was silly, wasn’t it? He’s immortal. I’m the next best thing. It makes sense that he would seek me out eventually. He would have been curious about me, about his unicorn status, even if his resuscitation happened under normal circumstances.”
“You prioritized. There’s no shame in that. It’s not like you’ve been sitting on your hands all this time.”
“No,” I agreed, facing him. “I’ve been trying to survive.”
“Do you feel drawn to him?” A hint of the clinical seeped into his voice, the professor at work.
“He makes my back teeth ache.” I turned to him and leaned my hip against the box. “Is that normal?”
“Each practitioner has a different response to their progeny. This might be normal for you. It’s hard to say without a second progeny for comparison.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “How do you feel around Keet?”
“My heart gets squishy, and I want to coo at him, even when he’s being a weirdo. Can you believe he barked at Corbin?”
“That’s not what I meant, and yes. I can.”
“Keet and I have been together since I was a kid.” I rolled a shoulder. “I might have grown used to him over the years.” Linus inclined his head, awarding me the point. “What are we going to do about Corbin?”
“We?”
“Pretend this is dodge ball. I picked you first. You’re on my team. Sorry not sorry, Grande Dame.”
“I’m always on your team.” He leaned forward in his seat. “I always have been.”
A burst of warmth ignited in my chest and spread through my limbs. “You’re spoiling me.”
“No.” Wisps of black swirled through his eyes, there and gone. “This is how relationships work.”
The mention of his greater experience doused the heat suffusing my limbs with icy reality.
It was stupid, I was stupid, for wanting him to be a paragon of virtue to spite Boaz. Linus had had a life before I crash-landed back in his. He had no reason to hope he would ever see me again. He had been free to pursue whatever, and whomever, he pleased, and it was obvious he had taken lovers.
He had told me as much himself.
“I bow to your wisdom,” I said lightly. “I don’t have much to compare us to.”
Hands braced on the tabletop, he rose. “I didn’t mean—”
“That wasn’t an invitation to share.” I swatted the air like it might knock down what he wanted to say. “I really don’t want to go down that road with you. Memory Lane is my least favorite street for cruising.”
“All right.” His lips thinned. “Back to the matter at hand. Corbin. What do we do about him?”
“How much trouble will we get in when your mother finds out we aided and abetted him?”
Linus sat. “A significant amount.”
“You have a firmer grasp on the political ramifications of whatever choice I make. What do you think?”
“You sound like you’ve made up your mind to help him disappear.”
“Unless there’s reason to believe he’s a threat to innocents, I won’t return him to a cage. I just…can’t.”
“I know.”
“You have more to lose if this goes south. You don’t have to back up my decision with yo
ur mother.”
“Yes,” he said, his fingers pressing along the peeling edge of his name tag. “I do.”
Unable to resist the temptation, I crossed to him and plopped down on his lap. “I like you.”
“I like you too.” He leaned forward, his mouth an exhalation from mine. “Very much.”
“Kiss me already.” I threaded my fingers through his silky hair and guided his face down to mine, our lips brushing as I spoke. “I’m tired of doing all the work for you.”
“This is a dream.” His cool breath whispered across my cheeks. “That I can touch you, that you want me to touch you...” He laughed softly. “None of this feels real. One wrong move and I’ll find myself in bed, alone.”
The roots of my heart twisted until I worried they might snap. “You haven’t slept since the ball. Not once that I’ve seen. Please tell me this isn’t what’s keeping you up days.”
“I’m afraid of waking.”
“Oh, Linus.” He was breaking my heart. “I’m sorry for this in advance.”
While his brow gathered in neat little rows, I pinched the soft part of his upper arm with a vengeance.
The shock blasted him out of his seat, dumping me on the table as he stood. “Why did you—?”
“Congratulations!” I clapped for him. “You’re wide awake.”
And he had probably bruised my much-abused tailbone. I really had to add some padding back there.
Note to self: Eat more churros. Add extra caramel. With a side of chocolate sauce.
So far, I had gained fifteen pounds thanks to the high concentration of Vitamin L in my diet, but I wasn’t as curvy as I used to be even with the blood smoothies Linus blended for me at breakfast. I missed having boobs. A butt would be nice too. Most of my hard-earned weight was settling in my hips and thighs. I never had an hourglass figure, but I was starting to look like the bottom half of one. Until I turned sideways. Oh well. Curves were curves.
Maybe I expected Linus to laugh. Maybe I expected him to rub his arm and scowl. Maybe I expected more sweet words exchanged in whispers. However I expected he would take the wake-up call, it hadn’t been like this.
The darkness in him beat like a second pulse in his temple, his tattered wraith’s cloak a smudge across his shoulders. Black churned in his eyes, devouring the blue, and he flattened his palm against my sternum. He pressed, not hard but firm, forcing me to lie back on the table. Bracing his palms on the wood to either side of my shoulders, he lowered his head until I could have stuck out my tongue and licked his chin. I was tempted to do just that.
Linus gazed down at me, ravenous, a buffet of his favorites he wanted to savor one item at a time.
I joked to cover my nerves. “Cletus isn’t going to get an eyeful of what’s happening down here, is he?”
Mentioning the wraith broke the spell, and Linus blinked his eyes clear. “No.”
Gathering my wrists in his hands, he hauled me into an upright position and claimed my mouth in a blistering kiss full of sharp edges and flavored with hope. I didn’t understand where either came from, but they both cut just as deep. His blood hit my tongue from where my teeth clashed with his lips, and my head spun, my stomach tightening for an entirely different reason.
The force of his embrace had me reclining again, this time with a smile on my face.
Tap-Tap-Tap
“Ignore it,” I breathed into his mouth, hooking my legs around his hips. “Whoever it is will go away.”
“Sun’s up,” Lethe yelled against the door. “Corbin’s out cold. I’m heading to bed.”
Footsteps thumped away from the basement door, and I relaxed into his embrace with a low moan.
“Ha!” Lethe shouted loud enough to raise the dead. “I thought I heard heavy panting down there.”
“I give up.” I dropped my legs, scooched off the table, and sidestepped him. “I’m going to die a virgin.”
“Whoa.” Lethe sucked in a sharp breath. “I’m really going now. As you were, lovebirds.”
More footsteps tromped away from us, but I called out, “No one believes you.”
She answered a heartbeat later, “I was totally leaving that time.”
After jogging up the stairs, I shoved open the door, which bounced off her forehead.
“Fuck.” She rubbed the red spot between her eyes. “That fucking hurts.”
“Such language,” I said sweetly, not feeling the least bit sorry for whacking her. “Think of the baby.”
“You weren’t thinking of the baby when you gave his or her mother brain damage.”
“You’re fine.” I pried her hands away from her face to examine her. “You’ll have a goose egg, but that’s it.”
“I wouldn’t have bothered you if I’d realized that’s what Linus meant about you two staying occupied.” She sighed with her whole body. “Okay, I still would have done it, but I would have quit after the first time.”
“No, you wouldn’t have.” I took the modified pen out of my pocket, grateful each time I used it that I didn’t have to resort to brush and ink to draw on sigils these days. “Hold still.”
“You just want to erase the evidence before Hood sees what you’ve done to his darling mate.”
“You’re not wrong.” I tapped her on the end of her nose. “Now stop wiggling.”
“I have to pee. The baby is jumping up and down on my bladder.”
“You’re not that far along yet.” I narrowed my eyes as she darted a quick glance out the window and then to the door, as if measuring the distance. Motion caught the corner of my eye. Hood, strolling into view as he made his rounds. “You’re trying to beat me to Hood and get me in trouble.”
“You’re not wrong,” she parroted, baring her teeth in a grin. “So long, sucker.”
Faster than anyone on two legs had any right to be, she bolted out the front door.
Before Woolly could latch it behind her, I leapt over the threshold and skidded across the planks.
Lethe was fast, her feet hitting the grass as she sprinted toward her mate, who stopped to watch our mad dash with an indulgent shake of his head.
“You’re teaching our child to be a tattletale,” Hood warned, amusement brightening his eyes.
Five yards ahead of me, Lethe slid to a stop, almost knocking him to the ground. “I have a boo-boo.”
“Poor baby.” His arms came around her, steadying her. “Did you drop another cookie?”
“That was one time,” she protested, “and it was still warm.”
Mallow hired a new baker last week, and he worked magic on the selection of cookies, brownies, and cake pops they sold. Usually, I was all about the hot chocolate, but Lethe was broadening my horizons.
The incident in question occurred when she promised me the last cookie then waited until I left to pour us glasses of milk before she stole it. Suspecting treachery, I ducked back in the room and caught her with her hand in the glassine bag. I tackled her from behind, and she dropped the prize, which rolled under the coffee table. After a growl to warn me away from her food, she wedged herself under there. When she popped the treat into her mouth, she cracked her head on the underside of the table.
Leaning down, he kissed his mate’s forehead tenderly. “Better?”
“That’s it?” A growl revved up her throat. “I’m injured.”
“The rest is waiting for us at the gate.” He indicated the driveway with his chin. “I ordered breakfast.”
“I love you more than bacon,” she said, peppering his face with kisses. “More than ham. More than hot wings. More than steak.”
“Let’s not go overboard.” He took her hand then pointed a finger at me. “Get in the house.”
“You’re not the boss of me.”
Woolly opened the door, beckoning me back in, but a throat cleared behind us.
Amelie stood in the doorway of the carriage house dressed in nice pants and a cute top with her hair pulled back into a neat tail. “Do you have a minute?”
; Already tired from the early hour and goofing off, I slumped. Her appearance exhausted me. “Sure.”
For the first time since moving her into the carriage house, I entered its living room. I paused on the threshold and shot a glance at the kitchen, but it was just a room filled with appliances. Without Linus, the warmth was gone. The heart of this home now beat in his childhood room in Woolworth House.
“You look nice,” I told her when she didn’t manage to come up with a reason for wanting to see me.
“Online classes.” She smoothed her hands down her pants, and I noticed her feet were bare, her toenails painted a flaking orange color. “Usually I can fudge it with brushed hair and a clean shirt, but tonight I had a presentation.”
“Your brother stopped by,” I said, and I could have strangled myself for providing the segue.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” She reached out, her fingers curling, like she worried I might sprint for the door and she planned on stopping me before I escaped. “Not him, I promise.”
Unable to bring myself to sit, to get that comfortable around her, I stood with the backs of my knees pressed against the couch cushions. “I’m listening.”
“Odette is gone.”
Happy this was one mystery I could solve on the spot, I let the coil of tension in my chest unwind.
“She’s visiting a client,” I informed her. “Trips are so unusual for her, she warned me ahead of time.”
“Her house is empty. There’s nothing left.” She tore her fingernail to the quick. “She’s gone, Grier.”
The room spun, and I was grateful the couch caught me when my knees buckled. “How do you know?”
“I’ve been talking to her every Monday for weeks. This last time, she promised to visit, to teach me control…” She made a vague gesture that I assumed referenced Ambrose, her dybbuk shadow. “I worried when she never got back to me, so I asked Boaz to drive out to Tybee and check on her. That’s why he stopped by tonight.”
“He didn’t say a word about this to me.”
“He brought the matter to his commander’s attention and requested permission to launch an investigation into her disappearance.” She linked her hands at her navel, and her knuckles turned white. “He wasn’t going to bring this to you until he had answers, but Odette is your family. You deserved to know, so I overruled him.” She smiled to herself. “He just doesn’t know it yet.”
How to Live an Undead Lie (The Beginner's Guide to Necromancy Book 5) Page 4
