The Muse (Interracial Mystery Romance) (Dark Art Mystery Series) (34 page)

“Yes. The nice one. She gave me the punch.” Drool leaked out of Michael’s mouth as he screeched. “Fuck! What was in that punch?”

Only Grandma knows.

Michael’s body shook, riding erratic spasms. Ignoring my warning, Elle got on his other side and held his hand until the shaking stopped and Michael seemed to drift off to sleep. “What can we do for him?”

“Nothing. Grandma has to fix it,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” She waved my apology away. “You didn’t do anything. If anything, you’ve been nothing but defending me the whole time.”

“You’ve been here for less than a week and have seen a dead girl, a séance with people dressed in blood, whatever was in Hex’s studio, and your ex-boyfriend drugged. This is a regular week for me, but you must be ready to race out of here on the next plane.”

She formed her lips into a smile. “You’re forgetting that I saw some of the most amazing art installations in the world, hung out at a marvelous party with magicians, circus performers, awesome jazz band, and mind-blowing fireworks. Hex inspired me the one time we painted and made me rethink what life meant to me. Don’t forget I met a spectacular man with two hearts and the need to give me one of them. This week has changed my life.”

I almost sighed, but instead I held it in. “A man with two hearts, huh?”

“Yes. I think he said he was Cuban.”

“Possibly. I’ve heard they have two of them.” I directed my gaze to the floor. “And what are you going to do with the man’s extra heart?”

“He didn’t give it to me yet.”

“Trust me. He did.”

She bit her bottom lip. “I—”

I should have let her finish, but I just couldn’t hear her back out of our relationship. “I don’t want a break or time out. I don’t need time to handle this stuff here. I don’t want you to leave without me or fix whatever you need to fix without me. I have to be with you. If that means getting on the plane with you tonight and leaving all of this behind, I will.”

“I can’t ask you to do that.”

“Who said you asked?” I touched my chest. “Not me. I’ve made my decision. It’s you.”

She opened her lips and then shut them as if unsure of what else to say.

“I love you, Elle.”

She looked down at the sleeping Michael. “You can’t love me already.”

“If I’m not in love, then I’m halfway there. It’s unavoidable now, like a hurricane spinning my way and there’s nowhere to run or hide. And you know what? I don’t give a damn if the hurricane carries me off to destruction.”

She grinned. “My love is like a hurricane?”

“Your love is bigger. I can’t even comprehend it.”

The door opened behind us.

“Hex! Let me go! I won’t fix him! He’s a bad man,” Grandma yelled as Hex pulled her small body into the room. “He wants to take her away from here and that would hurt Alvarez. I protect what’s mine.”

I jumped up. “Hex, go ahead and let her go. Grandma, what did you do? Black goo

leaked out of his mouth, and then he shook for a while and passed out.”

Grandma huffed and rolled her eyes. “Is he taking her?”

“We didn’t get to that.”

“Then when he wakes up and decides to be a good man, I’ll give him the antidote.”

“You’ll give it to him regardless,” I demanded.

“Wait a minute.” Hex raised his hand. “Maybe he could sign a contract releasing Elle from her work with them.”

I waved him away. “You’d better be joking. We’re not going to bully a man into this.”

“Why not?” Hex shrugged. “He’s bullying Elle into not modeling. Why not seize the

opportunity?”

I looked at Elle. “I can’t believe I’m even asking this, but what do you think?”

She faced Grandma. “Will whatever you gave him kill him?”

“Of course not. I’m no killer. I just gave him a basic potion. Whenever he’s being mean, it hurts him. It was supposed to take a while to work, but he’s so bad it probably triggered the magic inside of him.”

I rubbed my eyes. “Go get the antidote. This is ridiculous.”

“Even if I did make it, which I would have to do,” Grandma said. “It would take two days to process. I figured he would stay here and in that time we could convince him—”

“Stay here?” Rage bubbled inside me. “I thought I told you to consult me before you did drastic things.”

“Well, who knew this man was coming when he did? I had to be quick and act fast. He stays. I’ll make the antidote and will give it to him when he signs whatever contract Hex was talking about.”

Dear God. Will this craziness ever end?

“You’ll give him the antidote regardless.” I gritted my teeth.

Hex raised his hand again. “Maybe we should vote. I say yes to only giving him the

antidote if he signs our special contract.”

I waved his ridiculous idea away. “We’re not voting. This is a man’s life we’re talking about, we can’t just—”

Grandma raised her hand. “I vote yes, too.”

Elle raised hers and displayed a weak smile. “Sorry, Alvarez. I vote yes also. He’ll hold that damn contract over my head for years. For now, all I have is modeling. If he wants to play dirty with me, then I’ll play dirty back. I back Grandma in this decision.”

My grandma smiled.

“You’re outvoted, Al.” Hex clapped his hands.

“I’m not outvoted. I said we don’t get to vote.”

“We should take him upstairs to one of the guest rooms,” Grandma suggested, as if I hadn’t said anything.

“Wait a minute—”

“Okay. When will he wake up?” Elle asked Grandma, completely ignoring me.

“He’ll probably sleep for several hours,” Grandma said. “The vomiting and diarrhea will begin soon after. I gave him some nasty stuff, but at least his system will be nice and clean after these days.”

God help me.

“Okay.” Elle walked over to Michael’s sleeping body. “Let’s get some servants to take him to a room and have one of the guards watch over him. Grandma, do you have all the ingredients for the antidote?”

“Yes. Even the human lungs.”

Elle paused for a minute as if waiting for Grandma to say she was joking, realized that wouldn’t happen, and moved onto Hex. “Okay. Grandma, you make the antidote. Meanwhile, Hex, we need to talk.”

“Do we?” He leaned his head to the side and stuffed his thumb in his mouth.

“Yes. I don’t think you killed anybody, but I do believe you know what’s been going on with everything. When I was talking to Alvarez just now I thought of something.”

“What?”

“You love art installations.”

Hex tensed. It was a subtle movement from him that only someone like me, who’d been around him for years, would have noticed.

“So what? Everyone knows I love art installations. That’s not a big deal.” Hex continued to suck on his thumb.

“When we were in the limo, you told me there was an installation in your collection.

Where is it?” she asked.

Hex didn’t say anything.

“Are these deaths connected to the installation?” She smiled, but no one else in the room even dared to see the brightness in the situation. Whatever Elle had on her mind I couldn’t even comprehend. Grandma and I looked from Hex to each other with confused expressions on our faces.

“Okay, Hex. Let’s talk.” Elle gestured to the door. “In fact, let’s go to your studio so you can show it to me .”

“Will you tell my brother everything?” Hex asked.

“Of course she will,” I replied.

Elle shook her head no. “I’ll have to make that decision once I know everything. I’m not promising anything now.”

What? My own lady has teamed up with my family?

“Okay.” Hex took his thumb out of his mouth. “Let’s go.”

“I’m coming, too.” I trailed behind them.

Elle stopped me with her hand on my chest. “No. It’s only going to be Hex, me, and my guards. If he doesn’t want you to know, then I won’t make him.”

“But—”

“No. You told me something that touched my heart today. You said you would leave with me and give it all up just for my love.” She leaned in and kissed me. “Now, let me show you how much I care for you, by helping you out with this crazy load you call a family.”

I seized her waist. “I don’t need your help.”

“Oh, be quiet, Alvarez, and make sure my spelled ex-boyfriend makes it up to the guest room without vomiting all over your expensive carpet.”

Chapter 27

~Elle

“The first time we talked about your art collection it was in the limo ride to go shopping.

Do you remember that?” I opened the door to Hex’s studio.

Still with the thumb in his mouth, he walked through and nodded.

“You told me about installation art and how when an artist starts the process they first create a mini-model of the whole installation.”

My guards shut the main doors behind us.

“When I saw the mini-model today, it never occurred to me that it could be a model for installation art. I was just on edge and nervous about everything.”

Hex walked into the studio. “What did you think?”

“Nothing clicked. I just got crazy jittery, especially when I saw the tiny figurine of Patricia.”

“How did you recognize her?”

“We hung out during the art gallery opening. She actually wore that same pretty sea green and white flower dress.”

“It was her favorite.” He took his time guiding me to the back room. “I want the guards to be out here while I explain everything to you.”

“That’s fine.”

“Then afterward, I want you to give me a chance to convince you not to tell Al until it’s all done.”

If it’s what I think it is, then you’ll need a lot more than words to convince me.

“Okay, Hex.”

The room was just how I’d left it. I studied the model on the table again. “So this is your art installation?”

“Yes.” He took his thumb out and placed the figurines of the women back into the box they’d been in. “I made this model three months ago.”

“And the little figures of the dead women?” I asked.

“They’re not
all
dead yet.”

That response delivered chills up my spine.

“But yes, once everyone decided their part in the installation, that’s when I created the tiny figures. The women picked their outfits and everything.”

I was still confused, but I kept a neutral mask on my face so he wouldn’t backtrack or try to get out of telling me.

“How many people are involved in this installation?”

“At least thirty.”

“What is it about?”

“I wasn’t a hundred percent sure at the time, not until you and I talked in the limo and I came up with sacrifice. But when we all discussed this installation we pictured a place out in the open, surrounded by nature. We wanted it to be interactive, but involve video footage.” Hex touched one of the numbers in the trees. “Brenda taught me all about cameras, how to work them, where to place them for better lighting, how to create extra emotion. She was an amazing teacher. Toward the end I thought she would’ve opted out of sacrificing herself, but she did it with no hesitation.”

Fear bubbled in my chest. “So these five women who died actually committed suicide?”

“In a way. We agreed to make it as painless as possible. There would be no guns, knives, or anything to suggest violence. We needed the focus to be on the art of death, the beauty of it.”

I cringed. “The beauty of it?”

“Yes. In all of my works I explore death, and in many of my friends’ works too, whether poetry, calligraphy, water colors, video art, etc. We’re all portraying the concept of death and the enchanting wonder of it.”

“Why?” My voice came out as a whisper. My legs wobbled as if I’d just picked up a box full of heavy weights and tried to hold it for hours.

“Artists always create to answer a question, even if they don’t know they are doing it.

Death is the most mysterious question in life. Why not explore it?”

I raked my shivering fingers through my hair. “Okay. Let me get this straight. You

created this huge elaborate video art installation around the castle to explore death?”

“Yes. And we wanted to make it interactive on many layers. As the deaths are happening each night, we’re videotaping the human reaction to it all. We’re even studying how nature reacts to death. Is there a change with a tree when a woman dies under it? Do more leaves fall?

Does the earth rot? Or is it all a continuation of life? So far, I believe nature has subtle reactions to the loss of life. I swear to God the trees seemed to lean toward Brenda when she passed away.

The whole moment was eerie.”

“You were there?”

“We all were the first night. She was scared to die alone. She took the sleeping pills. Laid in the garden in the one area where my brother’s security cameras didn’t monitor, but where all of our video cameras were positioned. Brenda didn’t want us to talk or make any sound. She just asked us to stand around her in a circle and looked down at her face; just give her the image of the only people who loved her, smiling down at her as she died. And that’s what we did. Under the moonlight and hidden in the shadows, we watched her die.”

Oh my god.

I rested my hand on my chest. My heartbeat pounded beneath my breasts.

“She’d been trying to kill herself for years, but never had the heart to go through with it.

Like some of the others, she just wanted to end life, get it over with and see the other side. We talked about what could be there waiting for us. I mentioned Grandma’s gods being on the other side. Some spoke about their beliefs of life after death. Others spoke of colorless worlds where you could fill in color and paint all day, never getting tired or needing to eat. Brenda didn’t care about any of that. She just wanted to see her twin sister, a girl who had died when she was a kid.

Brenda kept saying she felt like half of her being had been cut out, never to be replaced. She claimed to walk around the earth as an empty shell of a woman.”

“So she was killing herself to see her sister again?”

“Yes.”

Patricia’s scarred wrist flashed in my head. She’d said that her group of friends called her healed wrists life lines. At the time I’d found it odd that people would nickname such a tragic thing, but now I understood why. This bunch was not only crazy, they were all suicidal in some way.