Wes

Wes was still out of breath from their morning sex-capade in the shower.

“Damn girl, I need to put a muzzle on you,” he teased examining the bite mark on his shoulder in the bathroom mirror.

“Don’t be a big baby. You said you wanted to match,” Cali replied, kissing Wes’s shoulder just below where she’d bit him. The feel of her warm lips on his sensitive skin made him ready to start all over.

Last night he and Cali had completed their mating bond. He’d never quite felt anything as exhilarating as biting his mate while exploding into her. His cock twitched just thinking about it. Wes turned, quickly tearing Cali’s towel from her. She gave him the sly smirk he couldn’t resist and he bent her over the counter. “God, I love this ass,” Wes growled into Cali’s ear. “And I love making it mine.”

He lapped gently at the matching bite mark on Cali’s shoulder, loving the taste of him on her. “I want to make you mine all over again, baby.”

Cali wiggled her ass against him in response. “What’s stopping you?”

Wes growled at her taunt and slipped a hand between her legs. Christ, she was ready for him again. Wes had met his match when it came to sexual appetite. There was nothing Cali wouldn’t do and he was about to take her on the bathroom counter when there was a knock at their door. He tried to ignore it but Cali wouldn’t let him.

“What if Izzi needs help?”

“Shit,” Wes growled. “This had better be good.”

He shrugged on a hotel robe and stomped to the door.

Etti was standing there, with Izzi in her arms as Grey walked up behind them. “Sorry to interrupt,” she said looking uncomfortable. “But we need to go to the cemetery.”

“Right,” Wes replied. “Give me five minutes and—”

“No,” Etti interrupted, “We were sorta hoping that you and Cali could babysit Izzi while we go to the cemetery, alone.”

Wes looked perplexed. “Don’t you need Izzi’s blood to call your voodoo queen?”

Etti held up a tiny vial. “I just . . . I think she’ll be safer here with you guys. We’re not sure how this summoning will go. I don’t want to risk Izzi, not knowing who might show up, ya know?”

Cali walked up behind Wes in a floral sundress. “We’d be happy to watch her.”

“Thanks,” Etti replied, kissing Izzi a dozen times before handing her over to Cali.

Wes didn’t miss the distress on Etti’s face. “She’ll be safe with us.”

“Thank you,” Grey said. “We arranged for the first private tour of the day.” He glanced at his watch, then to Etti. “We gotta go, babe.”

Etti grimaced and handed Izzi’s diaper bag to Wes. “We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

“Take as much time as you need,” Wes replied. “We’ll take good care of the precious cargo.”

Etti

“I hate leaving her,” Etti said fighting back tears.

“I know, babe. But Izzi’s safer this way. We couldn’t risk having her with us not knowing how this works.”

“I know,” she replied glumly. “I just hate not having her in my arms.”

Etti knew it would’ve been stupid to take the chance that Esme might show up out of thin air and snatch Izzi for her own gain. She needed to get her game face on. She and Grey needed to be prepared for anything. Etti’s mother only told her how to call her ancestor, not what happened next. For all Etti knew, a coven of witches might show up ready to hex them.

She and Grey had paid a small fortune to get an early private tour of the cemetery containing Marie Laveau’s tomb. Grey planned to distract the guide with questions while Etti smeared an X on her tomb. According to superstition that was how you asked for a blessing from Marie Laveau and her ancestors. You also had to leave an offering, so Etti brought the tiny pink bow the clinic had taped to Izzi’s baby-fine hair after delivery.

So far things were going according to plan. They met their guide at the cemetery gates. She was a chatty old woman with hunched shoulders. She carried a parasol to protect her mottled skin. She seemed to eat up every question Grey had about the history of the ancient burial grounds. The guide looped her frail arm through Grey’s, babbling on as Etti trailed behind.

Etti didn’t have to be told when they were nearing her ancestor’s tomb—she felt it like static electricity in her veins. She could’ve walked through the cemetery blindfolded and still found Marie Laveau’s tomb. When the guide stopped in front of the crumbling crypt, Etti felt a supernatural pull from the pit of her stomach. It was like a tether tugging at something within her—singing in her veins. Suddenly, Etti heard a voice in her mind. Ask your question, child.

Etti caught Grey glancing at her with concern, but gave him a barely discernable nod to keep going with the plan. Etti waited until Grey and the guide moseyed a bit further ahead before she knelt down to deposit Izzi’s bow next to the other offerings at the base of the tomb. She swiftly pulled the vial from her pocket, dipped her finger in and swiped a single X among the many already etched into the battered limestone.

As Etti stood, a cold wind wiped past her, chilling the entire cemetery. The guide stopped ahead and turned to stare at Etti. The air that had been humid and stale moments ago, was now so cold Etti could see the old woman’s breath. A cunning smile slipped across the guide’s face, making her look centuries older than she was.

Grey seemed to sense the sinister shift in the old woman as well. He moved away from her, taking cautious steps back toward Etti.

The old woman cackled. “She’s been waiting for you,” she hissed in her gritty creole accent.

Then, with a crack, she snapped her parasol closed and vanished, taking the chill with her.

Greyson

“What in the hell was that?” Grey muttered after they’d made it clear of the cemetery.

After the old woman vanished into thin air, Grey grabbed Etti and sprinted from the cemetery. Neither of them spoke until they were a good distance away. Grey wasn’t superstitious, but he swore he could still feel the whispered breaths of ghosts at his back.

He glanced at Etti. She looked pale and didn’t respond to his question. Grey pulled her aside, forcing her to sit on a vacant bench in the French Quarter. It was early still, but tourists were already indulging in all New Orleans had to offer, sporting colorful beads and plastic souvenir cups as they passed by unaware of the dangers nearby.

“Babe, are you okay?” Grey asked.

“She spoke to me,” Etti whispered, still not looking like herself.

“I know. I heard the old woman too.”

“No,” Etti murmured. “Not the guide.”

“Who?” Grey prodded.

“I think it was Marie Laveau. She told me to ask my question.”

“What do you mean?”

“When I placed the X on her tomb, I heard her voice in my head telling me to ask my question.”

“And did you?”

Etti nodded slowly. “I asked her if there was a way to save everyone we love from the hunt.”

Grey’s heart was slamming against his chest, not sure he wanted to ask this next question, but unable to stop himself. “And did she give you an answer?”

Again, Etti nodded. “Yes, but you’re not gonna like it.”