CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Jared and Nicole stepped into the living room of my new Garden District house where they found me sitting at the dining room table, re-reading Remy’s note. He had left his estate to me. All of it. The house, its possessions, even some money. A sizeable chunk, in fact, though only a small fraction compared to what he had chosen to donate to the city itself; specifically, to families living in the Ninth Ward and others living in poverty.
I glanced up. “It’s done?” I asked.
“Yep, the wicked witch is gone,” Nicole said. “The other witches, too.”
Jared came over and sat down next to me. “She’ll wake up in a motel in Baton Rouge sometime later tonight, wondering what the hell just happened.”
“I hope she doesn’t wonder too much,” I said, “I want her to remember she’s been banished and not even think of coming back to New Orleans.
“You think she will?” Nicole asked. “I mean, she fought a magickal duel and lost—if she breaks the terms of the agreement and comes back, she’ll be weakened. Magick itself will see to that. But do you think that’ll stop her?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t. We should be ready anyway. I’m going to set extra wards up throughout the house tonight, just to be sure.”
“I’ll help you. You don’t have to do this alone,” Nicole said.
“Thank you. I could do with the extra hand.”
“I’ll get started, then,” she said, and she turned and left Jared and I alone in the living room.
“How are you holding up?” he asked.
“I feel like shit. I’m hungry, I need a shower, and probably twenty hours of sleep.”
“You’ll get it. I promise.” He paused. “You don’t really think she’ll come back, do you?”
I slipped Remy’s documents back into the envelope and set it down on the table before looking at Jared. “Whether she comes back or not, I don’t think she’s our biggest problem anyway,” I said.
Jared tilted his head to the side. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, there’s so much we don’t have answers to. Like, why couldn’t we use magick when the vampires first hit us? Why was Tamara acting against us? Did she have anything to do with the first attack? Then there’s also Marie Boucher.”
“Who’s Marie Boucher?”
I stood up from the table and ran my hands through my hair. “When I went to see Jean Luc,” I said, “The night Delphine and I were attacked, he mentioned Marie Boucher to me. She’s the vampire who turned him—he and all of his family. She was also the one who spoke to me on the night of the attack.”
“No shit, that woman turned Jean Luc?”
“Yeah, and she’s still out there, which means she’s still a threat; the bitch and the rest of her brood.”
“So, we aren’t out of the woods yet.”
“As much as I would love to say yes, no, we aren’t out of the woods.”
Jared stood now as well. He walked up to me, placed a hand on my hip and pulled me to him. “All of that can wait, I think. Right now, you need to relax. When was the last time you ate anything?”
“I don’t remember,” I said.
“Which means it’s been too long.”
“Maybe, but I have to put wards up around the house. Otherwise, I won’t sleep easy.”
He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “Tamara is out for the count. Is it really necessary for you to do that tonight?”
“I don’t want to take any chances. Besides, I may be tired, but… I feel like I could still go another few rounds in a magickal duel. I don’t feel as burnt out as I thought I would.”
“Is that… normal?”
I thought about it long and hard, and came to the conclusion that Delphine’s blood wasn’t what was making me feel as energized now as I was. Vampire blood may have healed my body, but I had been able to hold Eliza’s shield for hours even before Delphine fed me some of her blood. Why, I couldn’t say.
I shook my head. “No… it isn’t,” I said, “I’ve been feeling strange ever since the swamp.”
“But it’s a good kind of strange?”
“Yeah.”
“So, maybe don’t question it.” He let me go. “Do what you have to do, then. If you want me to stay over with you, I will.”
“I do want you to stay with me,” I said, reaching for his cheek with my lips and giving it a soft peck. “But I don’t know where the master bedroom is, so you’ll have to go hunting for it.”
Jared nodded. “Alright, I’ll wait for you upstairs.”
He left and headed down the hallway, and then upstairs. After wandering around for a couple of minutes, I found Nicole in the kitchen, shutting the back door and making sure it was locked. When she was satisfied, she pressed the palm of her hand against it and whispered a short phrase in French. I felt a soft wave of magick radiate from her before dissipating a moment later.
“Hey,” I said.
Nicole turned and smiled. “Hey yourself,” she said, “I think I’m done on the ground floor. Gonna head upstairs.
“No, that’s fine,” I said. “You’ve done more than enough tonight. Why don’t you go home and get some sleep?”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’ve got this. Jared and I are gonna spend the night here anyway, so I’ll just finish setting the wards once you’re gone. I wouldn’t want them all to go up with you still in the house, anyway.”
“I guess not.”
I approached, smiling softly. “I want to thank you… for everything you’ve done.”
“You mean abandoning you when you needed me the most?”
“No… that sucked, but don’t be too hard on yourself. You were thinking about your mom, and you had fallen for what Tamara was saying. I get it.”
“Maybe you do, but what I did wasn’t right, and I’m not going to do it again.”
“I know you won’t. How is she, by the way?”
“She’ll recover… with any luck, she’ll get discharged in a couple of days.”
“Let’s go for lunch when she does, okay?”
Nicole nodded and hugged me. “I love you,” she said.
For the first time in days, it felt like, despite all that had happened, there was a way we would all be able to come back from this, maybe even come back stronger than we were before. I hugged her back, and then let her go. When she was gone, I locked up and went around the portals of the house, starting with the front door, willing a magickal barrier into existence around each and every one of them.
After I completed the wards, I headed upstairs and searched for the master bedroom, which was easy enough to find but seemed to take far longer than it should have. Jared was already inside, sitting shirtless on the bed and working at his boots, his ropy back muscles working as he tugged on the laces and pulled a boot off.
Somehow, he made the act of taking one’s shoes off look hot.
I shut the door behind myself, causing him to notice me. “Everything done?” he asked.
“Yeah, the house is protected and Nicole’s gone.”
“Good. I ordered some food for us; it should be here in about twenty minutes.”
“Twenty minutes?”
“That’s right…” he said, rising from the bed and rolling his strong shoulders.
I started walking toward him, but the closer I got, the quicker my legs pulled me in his direction until I found myself dashing across the remainder of the room, and then throwing myself against his chest. Jared caught me, and we kissed deeply. He laid me on the bed and, arching over me, continued the kiss. But we didn’t take it any further than that. Resting in each other’s arms once more, we decided that food and relaxation were our top priorities tonight.
Jared had grabbed my backpack from his place, so I changed, showered, and set my laptop up to watch a movie in bed. It had been a long day, an even longer week, and sleep was glad to take me away to a full night of rest.
But I was robbed of that privilege once again.
Something cold wrapped itself around my ankle and pulled hard. My heart jumped into my throat. I screamed, grabbed hold of the bedsheets to try and stop from moving, but it was no use. I was dragged off the bed by my leg and hit the ground with my chin. I saw stars for an instant, and when I turned around to kick, whoever had grabbed me was quick enough, and strong enough, to make even my most intense efforts to break free, entirely useless.