Angels of Bourbon Street (12 page)

“What kind of curse?” Bea’s voice had a tremor of fear and, without warning, tears fell unchecked down my cheeks.

Lucien looked as if he might break at any moment. “A black heart curse. As long as I’m alive, she won’t wake up.”

Chapter 10

“And you’re just telling us now?” My voice was laced with a hard edge. Kat’s life was on the line! Magic zipped down my arms, making my fingers ache from holding it back.

“Jade!” Bea scolded. “Take a deep breath and try to calm down. Losing control of your power again isn’t going to help.”

I tamped down the magic. Pain clutched my heart, squeezing until I thought it would shatter right in my chest. Not Kat. She didn’t deserve this.

“Let’s go downstairs and let Lucien explain.” Bea gently took my hand in hers, but I didn’t move.

“No. I won’t leave her.” I physically could not move. Though Kat was lying down with her eyes closed, a small smile tugged at her lips, her complexion as fresh as if she’d spent a day at the spa. Pink skin and rosy cheeks. Peaceful. As though maybe she was having a really pleasant dream.

“She’s fine right now. I promise. Whatever this is, we’ll fix it,” Bea said.

Kane’s warm hands slipped over my shoulders. “Do you want me to stay again?”

My body started to tremble, and coherent thought fled my mind. They were crazy if they thought I’d leave now. I shook my head violently and moved back to sit on the bed beside my best friend. I was the reason she knew witches. If I hadn’t come to town, she never would’ve met Lucien, and this wouldn’t have happened. Of course, she could’ve ended up being controlled by a demon, but that was another matter entirely.

“I’m not leaving,” I said again and placed a protective hand on Kat’s arm.

Bea stared at me.

Lucien hung his head and moved to the door. “I should probably go.”

“Lucien,” a faint voice called from the bed.

Startled, I jerked and peered down at Kat. Her eyes hadn’t opened, but she’d shifted, and her eyebrows were furrowed.

“Kat?” I asked, praying I wasn’t imagining her voice.

“Hmm.” Her eyes fluttered.

“Oh, Jesus,” Lucien uttered and rushed to Kat’s other side. He reached for her but pulled away before he touched her. “Kat? I’m here. I’m so sorry. Can you hear me?”

This time when her eyes fluttered, they stayed opened. She blinked, focusing on him.

Lucien let out a guttural sigh of relief. “There you are,” he said softly.

“Thank the Goddess,” I whispered and pressed my lips softly to her hand. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

“Hey.” She glanced around the room, paused to take me in and once again focused on the man hovering beside her. “What happened?”

“An accident. Something with the spell went wrong. I’m so, so sorry, love.”

Love? I narrowed my eyes at my second in command. What was going on here? Hadn’t Lucien said a black heart curse? What did that mean exactly?

I brushed Kat’s curls from her eyes. “You okay?”

Her hazel eyes met mine, and she gave me a small smile. “You helped me. I can feel it.” She tapped her chest. “In here.”

Tears burned my eyes again, but I blinked them back.

“I’m okay now. Thank you.” She turned her attention to Lucien again. “Would the rest of you mind giving us a moment?”

I sucked in a breath but let Kane guide me toward the door. “We’ll be downstairs if you need us,” he said.

She nodded but didn’t break her gaze from Lucien. He sat there, studying her, appearing heartbreakingly miserable. His entire body was tense as if he were holding himself back. From what? Leaving? Or wrapping her in his arms? I was pretty sure it was the latter.

I forced myself to give them the privacy they obviously craved but paused in the hallway.

“Downstairs,” Bea said. “We need to talk.”

As she followed Meri down to the first floor, I stayed behind outside Kat’s room and glanced up at Kane. My throat closed on a sob. His expression went soft, and he crushed me to his chest. I held on, trembling, but this time my eyes stayed dry.

“What can I do?” he whispered into my ear.

“You’re already doing it.”

We stood together, me clinging to his sturdy frame and him holding me up after another awful day that seemed to never end.

Eventually, I took a deep breath and pulled away just enough so I could see into his rich chocolate eyes. “Thank you.”

“For what, love?” He ran a gentle thumb along my cheek.

“For being here. Letting me do what I need to do without going all caveman on me.”

He chuckled. “Don’t think I haven’t thought about it.”

I laughed. “Really? When?”

The amusement faded from his face as he turned stoic. “Every time I see you take your life into your hands to save someone else.”

I sobered. He’d watched me do that on more occasions than I cared to think about. But he had as well. A few months ago he’d followed me into Hell—literally. And I knew he’d do it again.

He pressed his lips to mine, kissing me softly.

“Jade!” Bea called, impatience lining her command.

I blew out an exasperated breath. Couldn’t we have one moment?

Kane pulled away slightly. “How long do you think it will be before she comes up here and drags you away from me?”

I glanced up into his humor-filled face and shook my head. “Mere moments, I’m afraid.”

“That’s a shame.” He winked and tucked my hand in his as he led me to the stairs. “Time for answers.”

I pressed close to his side, wishing I could turn the clock back twenty-four hours. I didn’t want to deal with any more supernatural crap. There was wedding cake to sample back at Kane’s house. If I’d been the only one affected by the day’s crazy events, I would’ve walked out right then and there. But I wasn’t. This was Kat, and I had to know what happened.

As Kane and I rounded the corner to descend the steps, we almost ran smack dab into Bea. Her face was contorted into a frustrated grimace. She stopped on the top step and placed her fists on her hips. “What are you doing?”

“Following your orders and going downstairs,” I huffed, but as I studied her, my irritation vanished. She was breathing heavier than normal, her hair mussed, and her hands were fidgeting. I’d never seen Bea act so uncollected before. The realization terrified me. She’d never failed to supply us with competent solutions to all our issues, even when she’d been the one slowly fading away. Now she seemed flustered. Scared. My heart plummeted into my stomach. “Bea, what’s going on?”

Her face morphed into part relief, part anxiety. She shook her head and turned around. “Follow me. This requires something stronger than tea.”

Once back downstairs, Kane led me to the dining room table. He sat to my right, while Meri followed Bea into the kitchen. The pair of them went to work brewing coffee and slicing a freshly made carrot cake.

“I’m not really hungry,” I said, eyeing the cake as if it was the last crumb of food in a post-apocalyptic world.

Kane chuckled. “No one’s buying it. Cream cheese frosting? Yeah, that carrot cake doesn’t stand a chance.”

Bea sent me a hint of a smile. “You don’t have to eat it, dear. I’ll put it out in case anyone needs something to pick at.”

Meri fished plates out of the cupboards, grabbed some silverware, and took a seat at the table.

Bea sat, and instantly we all gave her our attention. She pushed the carrot cake in my direction. “Here.”

I shook my head, but Kane reached for the plate and grabbed us both generous helpings.

“Carrot cake helps every situation,” he said.

I refrained from rolling my eyes and clutched my warm coffee mug. My insides were cold with trepidation. Whatever Bea had to say, I knew I wasn’t going to like it.

She cleared her throat. “For the time being, I recommend you suspend Lucien’s magic.”

Well, yeah. I’d already figured that one out on my own. I was the coven leader. It was my place to temporarily suspend the magic of any of the members if the need arose. What else was I going to do after he’d almost killed Kat? “Of course. But can you tell me what happened up there?”

She pursed her lips and shook her head. “I’m not exactly sure. I need to talk with Lucien.”

I glanced at the stairs, suddenly worried he might accidentally hurt her again. I pushed the chair back and started to rise.

“Wait.” Bea put her hand over mine. “We need to discuss this before Lucien comes down.”

With my gaze trained on the stairs, I lowered back into the chair. “Okay, but if he takes too long, I’m going back up.”

“Understandable. But back to neutralizing his magic. You can’t be the one to do it. You’ll need to ask someone to take your place.” Her amber gaze never left mine.

“Why?” The spell was a simple, yet powerful one.

“Because with your ghost possession problem and what just happened up there, I’m afraid it’s too much magic to wield. It will leave you even more vulnerable.”

I frowned, not liking the way that sounded at all. “I don’t even know if Rosalee is powerful enough to do something like that.”

Bea shook her head. “She’s not. Besides you, Lucien is the only one who possesses that kind of power, and obviously he can’t suspend himself.”

“That leaves you then.” I grabbed a fork and picked at the walnuts in the carrot cake just to keep my hands busy.

After taking another sip of coffee, she put down her cup and stood. “There’s more. If you ask me to revoke Lucien’s power, in effect you’ll be handing me the coven leadership again.”

My body turned cold, and an odd sense of loss filtered through me. Give her back the coven leadership? I slumped in the chair. I hadn’t even agreed to transfer power, and I was already having a physical reaction. The shock of it startled me. When had the coven become so important to me? “I don’t understand. Why does that matter?”

Kane’s hand moved to my neck, his fingers soothing my tense muscles. I cast him a soft glance, grateful for the support.

“You’ll be giving me power over your members.” Bea tapped her nails on the table, almost nervously. “Remember when you reinstated Lailah’s power? You were already the coven leader. You had to do it. If I’d tried, it would have undermined your leadership, weakened it, and left you all vulnerable. The same will happen if I take over without a power switch.”

“And if we were to switch roles for just long enough for you to neutralize Lucien?” I held my breath. I wasn’t sure why I cared so much. I hadn’t wanted it when she’d given it to me. But the current that ran through me when we worked together was comforting. More comforting than almost anything, except my connection to Kane.

“We could do that.” She eyed me thoughtfully. “But are you sure you want to?”

Anger flared deep inside me, an anger that made me almost flinch. Where had that come from? “Are you saying you want the coven back?”

“No. Not at all.” She pressed her lips into a thin straight line then picked up a thick leather volume I recognized as a spell book. “I gave you my personal copy because I was ready to retire. I was and am ready to let the coven go. But you’re compromised. If something happens to you, if for some reason you end up possessed, that ghost will have access to the coven. With Lucien out of commission, no one will be able to stop her.”

Crap on toast. I hadn’t even considered that. As much as I didn’t want to transfer power, I had a responsibility to keep everyone safe. Bea was powerful and exceptionally knowledgeable, which certainly made her the best choice. “Let’s do it.”

“Now?” she asked.

“Yes.” Before I had time to change my mind, I stood, gesturing to Meri, and we all headed outside to Bea’s unmarked circle in her backyard. She kept the marks covered with enchanted grass. That seemed awfully convenient.

Meri paused on the porch. “Is it cool if I stay here?”

“Should be fine,” Bea called over her shoulder. “This won’t take long.”

My feet dragged as I made my way across the perfectly manicured yard. The almost-full moon illuminated Bea’s flowerbeds. One was full of white and pink blooming annuals.

Bea raised her hands, and a pentagram flickered to life under her feet. I stopped when I was directly across from her in the middle of it.

“Take my hands,” she said.

I pressed my hands to hers. The spell was simple. All it took was a declaration of intent and a spark of magic. “Ready?”

She squeezed my fingers. “I know it’s hard to give up.” Her voice was low enough that I was certain Kane and Meri couldn’t hear. “The connection is unexplainable. Trust me. I’m aware this isn’t easy, but it’s only temporary until we find a solution to the possession.”

“Yeah.” What else could I say? As far as I knew, until my soul was complete, I’d be forever vulnerable to wayward ghosts. Damn angel council! This was their fault. I tamped down the mounting anger and focused. Bea didn’t need to get zapped because I couldn’t control my emotions.

I gripped Bea’s warm hands with my cold ones and focused. My magic sparked in my chest, warm and familiar. “I, Jade Calhoun, hereby transfer the leadership of the New Orleans coven to Beatrice Kelton, effective immediately.” Power zinged from my fingers to Bea’s, and I jumped back, ripping my hands from her grip. “Shit! I did it wrong.”

Bea’s eyebrows pinched, and she took a step forward. “What makes you say that?”

The acute loss of the coven collective left me hollow and raw with emotions, and I had trouble forming words. “Last time…um…” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “When I gave Lailah back her power, I created a connection. I think my magic just did the same thing.”

Bea smiled. “No, Jade. It didn’t.” She patted my arm. “You did it perfectly. The zing is supposed to happen with this transfer. We’re no more connected than we were before. Well, maybe a little bit. You’re still part of the coven. If I call on you, you’ll feel it.”

“Oh.” I didn’t remember the zing from when she’d transferred the coven to me, but we’d been battling black magic at the time. My memory was hazy. “Okay. I guess we better get Lucien so you can bench him before anything else happens.”

Bea gave me a sad smile. “I always hated this part of the job.” She slipped her arm through mine, and we walked back up to Meri and Kane, who were still waiting on the porch.