Demons in the Bedroom (Paranormal House Flippers Book 1) Page 13

  I looked at the others.

  ARCANA AITHERIUM

  ARCANA WYRD

  “They’re a set,” I said. “One for each of the realms. Wow…there really aren’t many books around with early history of the magical worlds. They were usually burned or lost somewhere along the way.”

  Graham grabbed my hand. “You’re shaking.”

  “These could be…crazy valuable. Like…millions. If they’re not fakes. But…”

  “Millions!? Do you know a buyer, then?”

  For a minute I think we both had dollar signs in our eyes.

  “That’s the thing,” I said. “I don’t trust anyone right now, not when my brother was exiled from Etherium. I can’t take it to the Sinistral council, obviously. I don’t trust the Ethereal council. And Wyrd has no council, but I don’t know jack about the faery queen who rules the roost over there. If there’s something important in this book, I could be putting it right in the hands of someone dangerous.”

  “So…back in the tarp?” he said, only half-joking.

  “I don’t know what to do…and I’ll be honest. You probably should back away from all this. It’s been fun, but…you don’t know much about the magical world and I don’t want to put you in danger. And you already have a life.”

  “Do you really think I can just walk away now?” His hand was still covering mine, and I was still shaking. “This was my grandfather’s book. If there is danger, I can’t just leave you alone with it. I already don’t love the idea of you being alone out here.”

  “Please. I could defeat you on the field of battle.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “For now.”

  “Are you really in this to protect me, or did my mention of millions of dollars have a tiny bit to do with it?”

  “You,” he said, without a moment’s hesitation, and then he kissed me.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Helena

  I don’t know if this house was bad luck or not, but it was certainly getting me a lot of hot tongue action.

  I was surprised for a second, but then I realized I just wanted to kiss him very badly and it didn’t seem to matter whether it was a good idea or not. It was just a kiss. We’d all survive.

  And he tasted so good, so warm and delicious that I grabbed his shirt collar just to signal that he shouldn’t stop. Once I did that, he slipped his arms around me and his tongue thrust deeper into my mouth as his body leaned over mine. The books slid out of our hands. My hair hit the carpet of leaves on the forest floor and now we were just making out like stupid teenagers, except maybe with more experienced kisses.

  For a second I wondered if Byron could come out to the woods, and if he knew about this, but I would just have to break it to him that I needed someone living right now.

  Ugh. That sounded so harsh. Was being a ghost a legitimate reason for cheating on someone you had dream sex with? Because even if he was dead, he definitely had real emotions and we had definitely had some real experiences. I would probably like him even more if I wasn’t trying so hard to hold back. Maybe it was a really crappy way to think, like dating someone in a wheelchair and then ditching him for the next guy who walks. But ghosts were also stuck in place. So what could I do?

  Graham’s hands ran down to the small of my back and then as our lips kept working together in more urgent harmony, he ran a hand over my breast. I was wearing a navy blue wool dress, since I knew he was visiting today and I wanted to look more professional than grubby.

  “Why do you dress like Wednesday Addams?” he said.

  “I do not!”

  “Is this really practical attire for tearing up flooring?”

  “I dressed up because you were coming over. You know I own plenty of jeans and t-shirts. You’ve seen them crumpled in the back of my truck, where you cast a judgmental glare on them.”

  “Not judgmental. Concerned. Do you live in your truck?”

  “No, I live in your grandpa’s house! For now.”

  “You’re wearing a black dress—“

  “It’s navy. I guess you’re color blind.”

  “With a white collar and two long braids. You look like a goth kid trying to grow up.” He grinned at me.

  “Hey!”

  He stood up and offered me a hand. “Let’s go back to the house. I’ll show you something.”

  He wrapped up the books and carried them in one arm. Then he took my hand in his other. A bold move. I swept my eyes from hands to his face.

  “I can’t help it, Helena,” he said. “You’re a very charming woman.”

  I’m going to have to get into it, I thought. I’m going to have to tell him what he is. He was starting to feed on me and he didn’t even know it.

  But I decided to enjoy it for a little while. I gave him my best coy smile and then looked ahead, letting him hold my hand as we walked.

  We reached the house, where I poured myself another glass of wine, wondering what else he might have to show me.

  “Pour me another glass too,” he said. “And then we’ll go to the library. I think they’re still there.”

  “What is this?”

  In the library, he pulled out a manila envelope tucked beside the photograph albums. It was addressed to Fiore Capello and a glossy studio photograph slid out.

  “Ohmigod, is this your class photo?”

  “Senior year.”

  “You hot goth boy!” I shrieked with delighted laughter at the sight of young Graham with choppy shoulder length black hair falling in his eyes, eyeliner, and an all black suit that didn’t really fit his broad shoulders that well.

  “I tease you in good faith,” he said.

  “What year?”

  “1996.”

  “I’m keeping this.”

  “Just don’t put it on the internet.”

  I looked at the photo another long moment and boy, could I pair my teenage self with his teenage self, although unfortunately he was sixteen years older than me, which was nothing in wizard years but just meant I had missed out on the best of the goth kid era. “Damnit. You’re making me actually like you. And then what happened? You ended up in politics? That’s depressing.”

  “I’m a proud civil servant,” he said. “And why wouldn’t you want to like me? I realize our worlds are different. I’m not asking you to marry me. But if we are going to get thrown together in this strange life, maybe we should have a little fun…”

  “Oooh, you are a devil in disguise,” I said. “And how many women have you said those words to?”

  His brows turned into a defensive wall. “Why would you think I just toss words around?”

  “Graham,” I sighed. “I know what you are. You’ve slept with over a hundred women, haven’t you?”

  His face turned to hard stone. “How do you know that?”

  “You’re an incubus. Sex feeds you. It makes you more powerful. It’s hard for women to resist you.”

  “An incubus,” he repeated. “So women are attracted to me because I’m an incubus. Does that mean it isn’t consensual?” I could only imagine how much a politician didn’t want to let it be known that he had non-consensual sex with lots of women.

  “No, no, it’s consensual,” I said. “I mean, it’s a grey area, I guess, but I’m sure they sleep with you because of all this.” I swirled a hand around his face and body.

  “A grey area!?”

  “Well, that’s why you are considered to be a demon,” I said.

  “I’m a demon. And my grandfather—”

  “It was your grandmother,” I said. “She was a succubus. In the magical world, you’re considered an incubus if you’re at least one-eighth…bus.”

  “What does this mean?” he asked. “I’m bad news? I’ll never settle down?”

  “Not at all. But seduction will come easier than commitment. Your wife would have to be someone really special to you. I’m not saying…there’s anything wrong with having fun. But…”

  The candelabra on the desk suddenly lit up�
��yes, I know, how extra to even have a candelabra on a library desk but Fiore clearly loved candles—and then went crashing to the floor, landing on the rug with a dramatic thud. I had to go stomp out the flames. I glanced around, but I didn’t see Byron.

  “But?” Graham’s chin draped onto his palm. “The ghost is jealous?”

  “Um…yes.”

  “Did you have sex with a ghost?” he chuckled.

  “It’s not funny.”

  “Oh, shit. And I’m the sex demon.”

  “The ghost is also an incubus, Graham! So it’s not funny.”

  “How does ghost sex work, anyway? I didn’t see a potter’s wheel around here.”

  “Oh, a Ghost reference, old man? Haha. You wish. It was way better than a movie,” I said, narrowing my eyes.

  I was going to chalk up his amusement to too much wine at this point, because I was not feeling very amused. I don’t know if it was my fault to be attracted to two incubi. Legends would imply it was somewhat beyond my control, but no self-respecting witch would want to say she was magically seduced either, and I certainly didn’t…not when I actually liked them both.

  Byron actually materialized in front of Graham at the table, in his full demon glory, and said in his low, delicious voice, “Your grandmother was my apprentice, Graham. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Oh…shit.” Graham’s eyes struggled with his first sight of a full demon. The wings, the tail, the horns. Putting the two men side by side just reminded me why I had to attend anti-demon sex seminars. Demons in their full glory were so yummy.

  “So there are two ways this can go…we can compete…or we can cooperate,” Byron said.

  Thank goodness the Sullivan brothers went back to Massachusetts, I thought. This is complicated enough.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Jasper

  “We’ve got your roof all patched up, Miss Olcutt. But you are going to want to try and get it replaced…if you can.” I knew that the young woman couldn’t have much money. Wolf shifters were generally not known for their high-powered jobs and this girl was literally barefoot and pregnant, living in a log cabin.

  “You can just call me Lucy,” she said, shaking her head with a shy grin.

  Jake was hustling down the ladder behind me. “Lucy,” he said, giving her a little lift of his cap, but he seemed more absent-minded than usual. My brother could be such a flirt even with a married woman, and he liked barefoot and pregnant, I suspected. He just liked to be the kind of guy who brings home a deer, chops firewood while his wife stands in the doorway watching him as she stirs cake batter, and teaches his kids how to whittle. “Did Jasper tell you it’ll just be fifty today?”

  “That’s really kind,” Lucy said. “Too kind. I know you had a long drive.”

  “We help our own,” I said.

  The door of the cabin creaked open and a wizened, squinting old woman peered out at us. “Send them in,” she told Lucy.

  “Grandma, are you sure?”

  “Send them in.”

  Jake had taken off his Red Sox cap to wipe sweat off his forehead but now he just tossed it in the back of the truck with a bit of, Aw, damnit, we don’t have time to have tea with old grandma, we need to get back.

  However, we were still wolves and we respected the hierarchy of a clan, even if it wasn’t our own. You had to be respectful to old people, no matter if they were getting senile and smelled weird.

  The cabin was typical of a werewolf home, small and rustic, just a place to lay one’s head surrounded by acres and acres of woods. If a family had been around a long time, they had an old cabin, and newer clans usually had trailers. We had built our house ourselves so it was above the usual standard, but I liked these old cabins. A fire was crackling in the cookstove and all the furniture was old, solid wood stuff, with wool blankets and needlepoint pillows to soften the rougher logs. A ladder led up to the sleeping quarters.

  The old woman sat down in the rocking chair. “You’re the ones I need to tell,” she said.

  “Shoot,” Jake said, taking it in stride, as he did most things.

  “I do not claim to be a true diviner,” the woman said, “but sometimes I see things. And I have seen things, this week. Oh, I have seen things.”

  “Right, and you saw us?” I asked, feeling a little nervous. This was getting weird awfully fast.

  “I did not see you. I just feel that you might be the strangers I need to speak to. I saw a girl with long blonde hair and an expression of defiance. Do you know any girls like that?”

  Jake looked at me. The girl we hadn’t said much about since I kissed her. The girl we were both trying to forget. “Yeah,” he said. “Is she all right?”

  “I saw this girl holding in her hands a great treasure of Sinistral. It glowed with a light so bright that I could not help but sense when it was awake. If I sensed it, I am afraid I’m not the only one. It’s only a matter of time before others realize what she has and try to take it from her and destroy it.”

  “Great…so what is it?” Jake asked, and he sounded like he was humoring her. I frowned at him. He could at least pretend, a little more convincingly, that he believed in random visions.

  “I don’t know…”

  “Of course you don’t,” he whispered.

  “This seems to be a joke to you,” the old woman said. “But it’s always up to you whether you want to heed my warning!”

  “We don’t know you at all,” Jake said, which was not what you said to an elder, but my twin wasn’t always the most mannered guy around.

  “It’s not a joke to us,” I said. “Jake’s just…Jake. Please go on.”

  “You’re the good one,” she said, pointing at me with approval. “I can tell.”

  Yeah, yeah, I was the good one. I made a real mistake in childhood when I decided to not be the snarky brother, because it seemed like Jake had an edge on me, but that was why I didn’t let Helena go without kissing her first.

  “Seers are limited in our vision because the will of the spirits must still be done,” the old woman said. “We mortals are not given all the answers. We have to still use our heads and our hearts. But she will know what it is. I sensed that I should tell you this, and it’s up to you what to do with the information.”

  “That was weird,” Jake muttered, as he waved at Lucy’s kits. They were both little, running around and testing their wolf forms. As humble as this house was, with the clothes drying in the sun and the toys everywhere, it spoke to our animal souls. The clan, the family, the woods and some food, that was all you needed to be happy, and if we got mixed up in some drama with treasure, it would call unwanted attention to our own clan. Werewolves were already looked down upon by everyone. We had always been kept out of Etherium because wolves had never been trusted since the dawn of man, but we weren’t exactly demons either. We weren’t conniving like Sinistral warlocks, we didn’t drain power like incubi, and we didn’t feed on humans like vampires.

  And adding insult to the whole thing, wolves could learn some magic, but mostly we were just…wolves. Our teeth and claws were excellent weapons against ordinary humans, unskilled wizards, and most low demons…but beyond that, we were disadvantaged when the magical races went to war.

  So we didn’t stir up anything.

  “Hel might be in trouble,” I said. I didn’t want to say it. I didn’t want to think about it. But the idea of something happening to that girl…

  “Yeah…we knew there was something about that house. She gets in over her head anyway.”

  “‘A great treasure of Sinistral’ sounds like either nonsense, or something that would attract the councils and put a lot of people in danger.”

  “It’s gotta be nonsense,” Jake said. “What could be that important?”

  Really, Jake? “A lot of things!” I said. “Remember when somebody bought a wizard house in Europe and found that crazy healing crystal that sold for twenty million dollars?”

  “Hmm. But we’re not going to profit
off this. Not our house. Not our business.” He scratched his unshaven chin. “But you really do like Hel, don’t you?”

  “You really like her too.”

  “I’ve come to my senses since that night. I guess the heady smell of bowling shoes got me feeling amorous.”

  “Maybe we should just check on her,” I said.

  “Dad’s birthday party is next week,” Jake said. “If we skip out instead of helping Mom set it up, we’ll have to actually tell her what we’re doing.”

  “Oh yeah…” The great thing about our close-knit families is that we always had each other’s backs in a magical world that didn’t trust us. The bad thing was, we always had stuff going on, plus nosy aunts, nosy cousins, you name it.

  Jake tapped randomly on the steering wheel like he was listening to music, but we were silent. It was driving me nuts.

  “She’s a blue blooded witch,” Jake said. “If she gets into deep shit with the council, her family wouldn’t let her die.”

  “I guess…”

  “Right?”

  “I try not to pay attention to wizard life, but they’ve had a lot of scandals and murders in recent years. I’m not sure anyone is safe if they get on the wrong side of something.”

  “What could this shit be? The Holy Grail? What would we do if we found something like that in a house we were working on? You can’t just sell it, you can’t just hide it…kind of a nightmare, really.” He fiddled with the radio dials, trying to find something out here that wasn’t terrible. “And we wouldn’t even profit from it, so we really better leave it alone.”

  “Yeah.”

  The truck hit the main road, accelerating in speed as the countryside whisked by the dusty windows—this thing needed to be washed, that was for sure. The fall colors were bright in the trees, and my eyes glazed over a blur of yellow and red. I kept thinking about Helena, how good it felt to work with her, the confident way she teased us back when we teased her, her ass in jeans…and that kiss.