Chapter
14
Chloe
The Next Day…
Chloe lay there, staring at a sleeping Kent, wondering just what in the hell she had gotten herself into with the demon, when her cell phone chimed with a text message. It was from Elena.
Going to see psychic.
Say what? Why in the world would her ever practical sister be going to a psychic? She could see Delta doing something like that, but not Elena.
WHY? she texted back.
Because I want to know how many babies there will be to see if my vagina will survive in one piece. Oh, and I want to know their genders, too.
Kent suddenly moaned in his sleep and rolled over to face Chloe. It made her paranoid that he might wake up any moment, and Chloe so didn’t do the morning after situation well. The awkward, “it was nice, thanks” always seemed pitiful somehow. Could she honestly look at Kent and say that what they had done had been “nice”? Hell no.
It had been phenomenal. Earth-shattering. As in, she was worried that no man would ever be able to compare. That was way too many feelings for Chloe. They were also three damn good reasons she needed to get the hell out of here.
And the best part was that her sister had just given her a legitimate reason to bolt.
If Elena was going to a psychic, then Chloe would tag along to ask the psychic about Lulu’s case and how Delta was doing.
Be there in twenty. Don’t leave without me, she texted Elena back.
Gingerly getting out of the bed, trying not to wake the demon, Chloe grabbed her clothes and dressed herself in two minutes flat. Holding her shoes in her hand, she then tip-toed out of the bedroom and made her way toward the front door. Once she was safely outside, she called a cab, and then not so patiently waited for it to show the hell up, telling herself the entire time that she was doing the right thing by leaving Kent without waking him up.
The man had gotten his one and done, and she didn’t want polite platitudes this early in the morning to know he was finished with her.
Not that she cared, she told herself quietly.
Funny how her heart squeezed a little after the thought, as if it was calling her a liar.
An hour later, she was standing in the home of the psychic, doing her best not to laugh at every other word the woman said.
“You want me to tell you if you’re pregnant with more than one baby, and also what the genders are? I’ll do the best I can, but I won’t make any promises. My powers can sometimes be fickle, and I might not be able to answer all your questions.”
Chloe snorted, which earned her three annoyed glares from Elena, Gage, and the crazy-ass “psychic” woman who was sitting across a table from them.
So far, this little trip had been the epitome of entertaining.
Totally worth sneaking out of Kent’s bed for.
Gage and Elena were sitting across the table from the “psychic,” whose name of all things was Rainbow Sky, for God’s sake, while she gave them a big toothy smile and waved a sage stick in the air around them.
“This sage will help cleanse the area of negative energies. I’ll be done in just a second, and then we’ll get started. You should clear your mind in preparation to begin.”
She couldn’t help herself; Chloe snorted, trying to hold a laugh back and failing.
As usual, her mouth ended up overriding her brain and she blurted out, “The only way you’re going to clear his mind is to give him an enema.”
Gage growled, baring all his teeth at Chloe, and Elena punched him in the arm. “Don’t be mean to my sister.”
When Chloe got tired of Gage glaring at her, she murmured, “What? It’s not my fault you’re full of shit.”
The tiger-shifter roared at her, the noise full of frustration and anger, but stopped suddenly when Elena started petting his hand with its claws sheathed into the table.
When Elena saw that she had her ornery tiger’s full attention, she rubbed her belly and pouted. “I’m hungry. Do you have anything to snack on out in the truck?”
Gage moved so fast that he knocked his chair over and didn’t bother to right it before racing out of the house to get his mate food from the cooler he kept fully stocked in his vehicle especially for her. The man was determined to feed her every chance he got, swearing his mate needed more “jiggle.”
As soon as he cleared the door, Elena looked at her and snapped, “You owe me now, heifer! He’s going to be shoving food in my face for the rest of the day. So, do me a favor by shutting your big mouth and behaving!”
Unable to resist the temptation to needle her little sister some more, Chloe pouted back. “What fun would that be?”
A delicate snort sounded from behind her. Turning her head, Chloe looked at the psychic again with a more critical eye. The woman laid her still smoking sage stick lit end down inside an oversized blue glass ashtray that sat on a mahogany antique buffet that would make any hardcore furniture collector drool for years. Rainbow Sky then stepped over to stand in front of a large matching Victorian glass bookcase that was embellished with fantastical engravings of gargoyles.
Chloe wasn’t a furniture collector in any way—she would much rather collect purses and shoes—but she had seen that unique, elaborate engraving on furniture before in the home of a man who thought he could impress her with his wealth and buy her affection. Chloe had listened to the man brag for almost an hour about the rarity of the pieces and how they had cost at least five figures or more, depending on what you bought. The psychic’s quality of furniture matched his.
With her high quality, superior shopping alarms now going off like crazy, Chloe looked back at the large round table her sister sat at and had to suppress her gasp at what she did and didn’t see. The table was also from the same expensive line, which was easy to see by the large, elaborate gargoyles ringing the table’s base. But the surprising part was what was missing from the table: Gage’s claw marks from when he had just lost his temper and buried his nails in the wood. Now the surface looked impeccable, as if the whole thing had never happened. How could inch-deep grooves in a hard wood just disappear? Nothing short of magic could accomplish something like that. And that realization had Chloe looking back at the psychic with narrowed eyes.
What was a shabby hippie doing with some of the most expensive furniture in the world that was obviously magically protected? She might not be Sherlock Holmes, but it was starting to become obvious that a game was afoot.
Chloe continued to watch Rainbow Sky as she quickly and efficiently pulled a key out of her skirt pocket and unlocked the bookcase’s doors. The psychic was completely concentrated on what she was doing as she pulled down seven small white candles, oblivious to Chloe’s inspection.
In profile, Chloe could see that the woman looked confident and intelligent as she stood with her back perfectly straight and her movements smooth and competent. Nothing like the shy, hesitant, clumsy persona she had been playing since the moment they had shown up at her house.
As Chloe heard Gage come back inside and hand Elena some sort of food, Chloe watched Rainbow Sky as she turned to face them, reverting to the hunched posture that gave the impression she was harmless, and pasted a timid smile on her face again.
Mama Demos didn’t raise a fool. One time, Chloe had come home and tried to lie about how she had gotten her bruised face from her then boyfriend Jimmy Butowski. That was when Mama had told an angry, young Chloe, “You can’t bullshit a bullshitter.”
Ever since the Jimmy incident she had been conning men. This meant she had spent years making others dance to her proverbial tune. So, the con artist in Chloe was now recognizing the psychic for what she was: a fellow hustler.
When Rainbow Sky saw that she had everybody’s attention, she shuffled toward the table, and then proceeded to trip over her own feet. Gage shot out of his chair and caught the woman before she could hit the table, and Chloe analyzed the woman’s production as he helped the psychic stand up straight again.
While the seemingly awkward woman thanked Gage profusely for saving her, she also tightened her grip on Gage’s arms until her fingertips were white from the pressure she was exerting. Her small, sharp fingernails dug just deep enough to break his skin.
Gage, being the hulking dumb mountain that he was, failed to notice what the psychic was doing and continued to listen to her prattle on about how strong he was.
Chloe rolled her eyes as her sister’s mate soaked up the words and puffed his chest out like he was king of the jungle standing over a kill. It never ceased to amaze her how stupid men were when being fawned over by a woman. Apparently, men of the supernatural origin were no exception.
Gage steered Rainbow Sky to her chair, and Chloe watched the woman loosely ball the hand with Gage’s blood under her nails as if she were trying to keep from smearing the red matter anywhere else. The psychic then asked Gage to have a seat next to Elena so they could continue.
Once Gage was seated, Rainbow Sky placed the seven candles in a circle. Then, going back to her bookcase, she came back with small pieces of white paper with red markings on them and placed those papers underneath the candles. It was as if she were setting up for some ritual instead of doing a standard palm reading.
What exactly was this woman up to?
Without a doubt, Chloe knew after watching the woman purposely obtain Gage’s blood that the she was up to something. As her rather crude, little sister Elena liked to say, “If it smells like shit and looks like shit, then it’s probably shit.” Unfortunately, Chloe didn’t know enough about the supernatural world yet to spew any kind of accusations, so all she could do was sit back and wait for the psychic’s next move.
Reaching over to light the white candles she had placed around the table, Rainbow Sky sat down and asked Elena to close her eyes and concentrate on what it was she desired to learn the most today.
Gage laid his arm along the back of Elena’s chair and wrapped his hand around her shoulder, giving Elena his support as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
While Elena focused her attention internally, Gage’s gaze was glued to his mate. And the look that Chloe saw him give her sister made her breath catch a little in her chest.
His eyes were so filled with warmth, love, and even a spark of amusement toward Elena that Chloe couldn’t help feeling a little jealous. She might come off as a man-hater to the rest of the world, but deep down inside, a small part of her wondered if she could have her own love story. The problem was, she had become so jaded that she was starting to think there wasn’t a man on the planet who could fulfill all her requirements.
The demon could, her conscience whispered.
At that thought, Chloe rolled her eyes. Yeah, right. Kent had been phenomenal in bed, but that didn’t mean he was suited for monogamy. He was probably talking to some other woman now; his night with her already forgotten.
What did a girl have to do to find a good man? It wasn’t as if she was asking for much. Just a drop-dead gorgeous beefcake who had a decent job, paid his own damn bills, was not a total slob, did not live in his mother’s basement, and would spend all his time worshipping the ground Chloe walked on. It also wouldn’t hurt if he liked to buy her Manolos on a regular basis, but she knew better than to hope for too much. Hell, she couldn’t find a guy who would talk to her face and not her breasts, so why on earth did she think there would be a man out there who would treat her like a human being instead of a living, breathing inflatable sex doll?
Small, shifty movement from the other side of the table caught Chloe’s attention, bringing her out of her thoughts. Instead of turning her head to investigate what was going on, she shifted her eyes over to the psychic and did her best to watch the woman without Rainbow Sky realizing it.
The frizzy-haired con woman was speaking softly, almost lyrically, instructing Elena to center all her thoughts on what she wanted to know. Her head was tilted back, her eyes closed, and she was rocking slowly side to side, as if she were trying to see into the great unknown or some bullshit.
Those weren’t the movements that interested Chloe, though.
No, what she was worried about was what the woman was doing with her hands underneath the table. Chloe could see Rainbow Sky’s arms flexing and moving subtly, as if she were rubbing them together. Perhaps to spread the little bit of Gage’s blood on her palms?
She briefly remembered reading some of her aunts’ notes about how some witches practiced blood magic, using the life-giving substance to do all sorts of things from small spells to apocalyptic type plagues back in the Middle Ages.
Was this wannabe psychic a dark witch who practiced those things? And if she was, what the hell was she up to now with Gage’s blood?
Chloe was contemplating what she should do when Rainbow Sky broke the quiet.
“Please, give me your hand, Elena.”
Elena opened her eyes, looking sort of sleepy and dazed, and slid her hand across the table toward Rainbow’s waiting one. The psychic held her hand, palm down against the table, presumably to keep the rest of the room from seeing what she guessed would probably be small smears of Gage’s blood on her palms.
Chloe watched her sister’s movements like a hawk, not trusting whatever it was the frumpled mess of a con artist was up to. And it was because she was watching that conniving bitch that she saw the glint of a needle as Rainbow shifted her hand out to grab Elena’s.
Not waiting to see what the supposed psychic would do, Chloe jumped forward and tackled Rainbow out of her chair before the woman could grab Elena’s hand.
Gage roared in surprise at the sudden action, but he didn’t stop Chloe.
As she fell to the ground on top of the struggling woman, she felt a sharp prick in her palm.
Shrieking in disbelief, Chloe reached out and grabbed the woman’s frizzy hair and pulled the supposed psychic’s head back. “You stabbed me, bitch!” Then Chloe punched her in the eye with all of her might, breaking a nail in the process.
Rainbow Sky screeched, “With a sewing needle, you crazy idiot! Get off me! What are you doing!”
Faster than the blink of an eye, Chloe was pulled from her quarry and looking at the rippling muscles of Gage’s back through his T-shirt. He had Rainbow Sky pinned to the wall farthest away from his mate with a hand around her neck. His free hand was planted in Chloe’s belly, keeping her from reaching the scheming psychic again. She didn’t know why her brother-in-law was keeping her from getting her hands on the woman. She only wanted to beat the snot out of the sneaky little shit who had broken one of her precious nails.
Pushing her backward without removing his grip on the woman in front of him, Gage snarled, “Go check on Elena for me.”
While Chloe didn’t normally answer to orders, especially from men, she didn’t think twice about doing what she had been told this time. Her sister was more important than slapping the psychic silly.
Turning back to the table, she found Elena still sitting in the chair, looking blank-faced and completely zoned out.
Walking across the room, Chloe bent over until her face was at the same level as her sister’s before bringing her hand up in front of Elena’s face and snapping them repeatedly. The only response she got was a slow blink.
Turning her head back in the direction of the psychic, she yelled, “What the hell did you do to my sister?”
Gage tightened his grip on the psychic’s throat until she was gasping for air. One could tell the moment Rainbow realized she was truly in trouble because her eyes widened in terror and she used both of her hands to claw at the punishing grip locked around her throat.
Chloe watched as Rainbow’s face started to turn blue from lack of oxygen and winced, yet she felt no sympathy for the woman. Whoever or whatever she was, she had done something to Elena, putting her in some sort of trance, and that was unforgivable. Still, if Gage killed the woman, they would never know what had been done to Elena, who was still sitting there with a dazed look on her face.
Chloe walked over to Gage and put her hand on his back. “Loosen your grip so she can breathe.”
The tiger-shifter leaned into the psychic’s face, flashing his canines, and growled, “What did you do to my mate?”
Chloe watched as Gage’s fingers flexed just enough for the other woman to take a breath, and then she spoke in hoarse voice, “Cooperation spell.”
Gage growled again as he shook Rainbow Sky a little. “Why would you do that?”
“Not just a psychic,” the woman squeaked back.
That answer was not a surprise to Chloe, but it caused Gage to roar so loudly that the sound nearly burst her eardrums.
Running out of patience, Chloe laid it all out there to the psychic.
“Listen, lady, I don’t know who you are, but I’m pretty sure you’re a blood witch. What I want to know now is: what you were up to, comprendé?”
Gage snarled in the woman’s face again, before Chloe continued.
“And I suggest you tell us in a hurry before this big guy really gets pissed off.”
“Isn’t he pissed off now?” the witch whispered.
Chloe cocked an impertinent eyebrow at the other woman. “Do you still have all your limbs attached to your body?”
Throwing her hands up in the air in a surrender motion, Rainbow Sky fervently whispered, “Please don’t kill me. Please, please.”
Gage bared his teeth at the woman, only inches from her face, and she flinched in return.
“She’s right! She’s right! I’m a blood witch, but I promise I wasn’t trying to hurt your mate.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, Chloe glared menacingly at the woman. “If you weren’t trying to hurt her, then why the deception? Why not just tell us you are a blood witch to begin with?”
Not giving the witch a chance to respond, Gage tightened his grip on Rainbow Sky’s throat and answered for her. “Because blood witches are rare and highly disliked among our kind for their practices. If word got out to the wrong people who she really is, they would kill her.”
“Please,” the witch pleaded. “Please don’t say anything. I swear I wasn’t out to hurt you or your mate. I was only trying to get the answers she was looking for. I swear to you, if you let me go, I’ll disappear, and you never have to see me again.”
“Why the trance then, witch, if you weren’t going to hurt us?” Gage snarled in the woman’s face.
“Only to make her less aware that I was about to prick her finger. If you let me go, I can prove to you that I meant no harm!”
Chloe put a hand on Gage’s arm. “Perhaps we should test her. Let her prove that what she speaks is true. Elena is the one who wants to know. We can’t leave without something”
It took the tiger-shifter long minutes to slowly loosen his hold on the witch, but he eventually let her go. His claws were still out, though, ready to claw the woman to death if she so much as moved the wrong way toward his mate.
Chloe walked over to where her sister was still sitting, half-dazed now, and used the sewing needle she had taken off the witch to prick one of Elena’s fingers. When a small amount of blood welled up, Chloe held Elena’s hand up to the witch.
“Tell her what she wants to know about the babies. But I swear to God, if you so much as blink the wrong way, I’ll have her mate rip your throat out.”
Rainbow Sky, if that was even her real name, slowly walked over to the chair that was lying on its side and picked it up. The witch was visibly shaking, yet trying to hold her own, something Chloe could respect.
After setting the chair on its feet, she sat and held her hand out beneath Elena’s. Her palm was smeared with Gage’s blood, just as Chloe had suspected before.
“Place a drop of her blood in my palm.”
Chloe turned Elena’s hand over and squeezed her finger until a drop welled up then dripped down onto the witch’s palm to mix with her mate’s dried blood.
Elena, who was quickly coming out of her trance, looked at Chloe in question. “What the hell is going on here?”
The witch ignored the question now that she had what she needed and started to chant under her breath. Flicking both of her hands up in the air, the seven candles flamed to life, causing Chloe to jump a little in shock. That didn’t mean she moved from her sister’s side. No, she was there to protect Elena, and no one was going to get to her pregnant sister.
Still chanting words Chloe couldn’t understand, possibly old Latin words, the witch moved her hands from side to side over the candle flames, making the fire dance to her directions. Then singular lights detached from the candles and floated to their sister candles across the table. Chloe had never seen anything like it and was mesmerized by the sight.
She heard Elena gasp and Gage growl, but nobody tried to stop Rainbow Sky from whatever she was doing.
The witch said a few more words under her breath, and the small spots of detached light moved again, this time to the center of the table, creating a combined big ball of light directly in front of the witch. Rainbow Sky was leaning forward, focus intent on that light, as if it had the answers to the world inside of it. And perhaps it did for her, because suddenly she said in a distant, detached voice, “I see you in the future with two babies alive and well. However, you carry three now.” And just like that, one blood witch inadvertently dropped a bomb on Chloe’s family.
Gage roared in denial.
Elena immediately started sobbing.
And Chloe was left standing there, wondering how she was going to protect her sister from the inevitable future of losing one of her unborn children.
Damn, but the day had gone to hell in a handbasket quickly. And she hadn’t even gotten the chance to ask the psychic about Lulu or Delta. Now wasn’t the time. They needed to get Elena back to their aunts’ house so they could all deal with what was to come.