Angels of Bourbon Street (27 page)

Bea lifted her arms skyward. “From Heaven to Hell and all in between, our circle seeks him who can’t be seen.” She nodded at me, staring at the knife.

I crinkled my nose, brought the sharp blade swiftly across the pad of my thumb, and winced. Blood instantly pooled and ran down into the white ceramic dish. At Bea’s signal, I tipped the bowl and let the blood seep into the spelled earth. When the last drop disappeared into the grass, Meri set the candle in the center of the circle, and the three of us joined hands.

Meri met my eyes, and together, we cried, “
Ignite
!”

Bea’s voice joined us, and as the candle and circle flared to life, sweet magic exploded in my chest, spreading to every nerve ending.

I vibrated with it. “Holy shit,” I breathed.

It wasn’t like anything I’d ever felt before. Bea and I had worked a few spells together, but it had never been this intense. The sensation was all-encompassing, intoxicating even. I could swim in the heady power for days, content never to come up for air.

Bea’s amber eyes flashed with light then she closed them and lifted her head. “Goddesses of this world and the beyond, we ask of you to accept our blood offering. Live it, breathe it, and taste it. We seek knowledge of the creator. We ask only of knowledge, not power. By the power of three to one, may your will be done.”

The candle burned to a bright blue-white, and the circle mimicked the color, illuminating our faces in the brilliant glow. The flame pulsed with the power strumming through me. It filled me up, pressing against my inner walls. I could barely hang on to it as it strained to leave my body, to connect with the witch and angel standing next to me. The power was alive and hungry.

I
was hungry. My body ached for the release. I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched my teeth and fists, desperate to keep riding the tide. It was too potent, just
too
much.

“Now, Jade,” Bea commanded.

My eyes flew open, and right there in the middle of the circle stood the outline of an angel, one I vaguely recognized from my hearing just a few short weeks ago. If the magic sparking through me hadn’t been so strong, I’d have leaped back.

“Release your magic, Jade!” Bea commanded again.

I didn’t hesitate. My magic joined with Meri’s and Bea’s. Bea tugged, siphoning it out of my body, leaving me empty as she twined the tendrils with hers and Meri’s. When she let go, the entire pentagram lit with the brilliance of thousands of stars.

“Whoa.” I blinked.

Meri stared at the angel, now in full form. His shoulder-length blond hair framed his angular face, and he wore cream linen pants paired with a button-down dress shirt. He looked very old-school New Orleans. “Councilman Davidson?” She frowned and glanced at Bea.

Bea tilted her head and cast her eyes heavenward again.

The angel glanced around Bea’s yard and set his lips into a disapproving frown. “Beatrice, may I ask what you think you’re doing, summoning an angel from the high council into your garden?”

I stared at him in total confusion, my mouth hanging open. Why had she summoned
him
? Anger made my body practically vibrate. Soul stealer. He was one of the angels who’d voted to give my soul to Meri.

Bea glanced at me then back at the councilman. “My apologies, Drake. We were doing a routine finding spell, using DNA. We didn’t know who would show up here. You are bound within the circle for our protection…and yours.”

How had this happened? I wasn’t related to this guy. Was I? We’d used the DNA spell. I shook my head. Maybe we’d done it wrong, or the DNA had been contaminated. Unless…

My chest constricted, and my lungs stopped working. I wasn’t even sure I tried to breathe. The spell couldn’t have gone wrong. We’d used my blood, for Goddess’s sake. My head spun. This man was the reason Philip had said my aura was like an angel’s. He was my
father
. And the reason I’d nearly lost my soul.

A faint recognition dawned in his expression as he noted Meri and me. Then he turned confused eyes on Bea. “Forgive me, but whose DNA did you use? I’m under the impression my siblings and their offspring are living on the other side of the country. Washington State, I believe.”

Bea nodded. “They are. I talked to Pamela just last week. They are all well.”

I glanced back and forth between them, still in shock. She knew him. So did my mother.
This
was why she hadn’t wanted to tell me.

His brow crinkled in confusion. “Then I don’t understand.”

Bea turned to me, and her eyes seemed to move past me over my shoulder. Her jaw set with determination as she nodded toward the house. “I believe the witch on my porch might add some perspective.”

Drake turned slowly. His eyes went wide with shock for just a moment. Then they sparkled, and his tone shifted to one soft and full of wonder. “Hope?”

“Drake?” Bea said.

He tore his gaze from Mom and focused on Bea. “Yes, Beatrice?”

She held her hand out to me. “I’d like to introduce you to your daughter, Jade.”

Chapter 25

“No!” Mom flew off the porch and ran toward us.

“What?” Drake eyed me in total confusion. “You’re mistaken. This is the witch with the shared soul, is it not? And that’s the angel.” He pointed at Meri.

“Yes,” I spat, my confusion spilling out as anger. He couldn’t be my father. He just couldn’t. Not him. “And you and the damn council were willing to sacrifice my life for the greater good as if I have no value as a person. Who does that?”

Drake ignored my outburst and raised his eyebrows in Bea’s direction.

Coldhearted bastard.

Bea let out an exaggerated sigh and nodded.

Mom came to a stop just on the other side of the illuminated pentagram. It was clear by the frustration on her face that she’d been locked out. “No! You’ve got this all wrong.”

Bea turned to her. “Are you saying Drake isn’t her father?”

Mom placed her hands on her hips and scowled. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

My gaze drifted between Mom and Drake. He couldn’t keep his eyes off her, and she was shooting daggers at him.

“You don’t belong here,” she said through clenched teeth.

“I never did,” he said quietly.

Mom paced behind me. “Send him back.”

“I can’t do that.” Bea cocked her head to the side. “Besides, Jade needs him.”

“No. Not him.”

Bea threw her hands up. “What do you suggest she does then, Hope? Are you going to give her your soul? Because she isn’t going to survive the week if she doesn’t get some help.”

“If I have to.” She glared at all of us, her dark hair loose and framing her face. “He’ll never do the right thing. Look at what he did when she went before the council. He tried to kill her!” Mom’s voice cracked, and tears streamed down her face.

Drake turned his attention to me, and something in his expression shifted. Some small piece of recognition lit in his light green eyes. He frowned then turned his attention to Mom. “Hope, is this true? Is this young lady really my daughter?”

She fell to her knees, wiping the tears from her stained cheeks. “Please just go,” she choked out. “I don’t want you to be her father. Everything about you puts her in danger.” Her eyes were swollen and red with anguish as she met mine. “I didn’t want it to be true. I couldn’t tell you because he’ll hurt you. Because he already has. I’m sorry.”

I felt the blood drain from my face as my body started to tremble. He was my father—the man who’d signed my death sentence. No.
No
. This wasn’t happening. It had to be a mistake. My entire life was a lie. My throat ached with unshed tears. I’d found my father…my angel father.

Hopelessness settled over me, making me almost numb. He’d never give me part of his soul. High angels, for all their soul-saving bullshit, didn’t give a damn about individuals. They’d never risk one of their own for a damaged witch.

I turned and took a step toward the house. I didn’t want any part of his inevitable rejection. He could keep his damned soul. I’d find another way.

Bea’s deceptively strong hand wrapped around my arm, stopping me. “Do not break the circle,” she warned.

Her tone and the fury blazing in her eyes stopped me in my tracks. I studied her, noted the way she glared back and forth between Mom and the angel, and decided her fury wasn’t aimed toward me. Instead, it was directed at two clueless parents.

Drake tried to move forward, but the circle held him in place. “Beatrice, I demand you release me.”

“Not yet.” She shook her head. “Not until you hear Jade out.”

Oh, crap. She was going to make me explain how I needed part of his soul. My insides recoiled at taking anything from him, of baring any part of myself to someone who cared so little for human life. But my friends’ faces materialized in my mind, and I knew I’d do it, no matter how much I wanted to run away screaming. Where was Kane?

As if he’d heard my thought, his steady voice materialized from behind me. “Jade?”

I glanced back at him. “Hi.”
Hi?
Jeez. So eloquent.

“What’s going on?” Kane stared at Mom and frowned, appearing at a loss as to what to do.

I choked out a strangled laugh. “Summoning my father. The one who ordered my soul be given to Meri.”

“What?” His whole body went stiff, and rage blazed in his dark eyes.

Drake was studying me now. “How old are you?”

“How old do you think?” I snapped. “Twenty-seven.”

His already pale face drained of all color, the moon making him appear almost translucent. “Hope?” he asked, desperation clear in his voice, “is Jade my daughter?”

“Biologically, but you’ll never be her father. Not in the way it counts,” Mom said weakly. “You were gone. You left us.”

“Us,” he breathed. His eyes darted to me, and this time he took me in, as if memorizing every detail of my face.

I stared back at him, uncomfortable and a little bit awed. He was tall, illuminated by more than the moonlight and shining with an ethereal glow. This was no low-level angel like Meri, Philip, and Lailah. He was the real deal, a full-fledged angel who didn’t live in our world. Funny, I hadn’t noticed the glow while we were in the angel realm. Maybe it was only obvious when he stood among humans.

His eyes turned cold and hard as he pinned Mom with his gaze. “You kept her from me.”

A sharp pain lanced through my heart, and I swear it was bursting into a million pieces. That was two fathers Mom hadn’t given me a chance to know. I felt as broken as she looked, crumpled on the lawn. If she hadn’t kept this secret, would the angel council have voted differently, knowing who I was? Would Drake have? I clutched my chest and concentrated on breathing.

Mom stood on shaky legs. Her hands flexed and then curled into tight balls. “You left me. Didn’t want me. You said it plainly enough. ‘Hope, thank you for our time together, but you knew all along this was temporary. I have my place, and you have yours.’ Then you left. Not an ‘I love you’ or a kiss goodbye. You just walked out the door and never looked back.” She sniffed back the tears and hastily dried her eyes. “I was temporary.
We
were temporary. I wouldn’t let you be temporary in Jade’s life. Not then, not ever. You never even checked on me. Not once. I gave you four years of my life, and you just left.”

“You know why,” Drake said, steel in his voice.

“Yeah, I know
all
about why you left,” she said, sarcasm dripping from her lips. You weren’t going to be there for her anyway. And worse, you would’ve hurt her the way you hurt me. That’s why I never told you. She didn’t know either until five minutes ago. And I swear to the Goddess, if you try to take her back to the realm, I’ll come at you with everything I have, even if I have to enlist Hell for help.”

Whoa. Four years? Mom had dated my father for four years, and I’d never heard one word about him.

He jerked back, shocked by her outburst, then narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean, you know all about why I left? I was called to the order. You know that.”

“You
bastard
.” Her bravado left her in one fell swoop. “You’re lying. I know you found your mate. And I know you left me because of her.” She turned on her heel and stalked back to the house.

Drake pressed forward but once again was stopped by the wall of the circle. “Let me out,” he demanded, staring after Mom.

“We have some negotiating to do first,” Bea said mildly.

He glared at her. “This isn’t the time.”

“Now is the perfect time,” I said, sympathy for Mom thawing some of my anger. Damn angels and their stupid mates. After all these years, Mom was still crushed. No matter what choices she’d made, it was clear she hadn’t made them lightly. “Because of you and your council, I’m living with half a soul, which apparently means I’m susceptible to ghost possession. And so are a few of my friends who I’ve shared some energy with over the years.”

His pale eyebrows rose. “Possession?”

“Yes,” Bea said. “Since Jade lost Hope for a number of years to Purgatory, she didn’t find out about her witch status until recently. But she was an empath and learned she could help people by transferring calming energy. What she didn’t know was that she was also giving up some of her essence each time. A ghost has created a bond with Jade, and because her soul is weakened, she can’t break it. Now the ghost is taking turns possessing her friends to get Jade’s body.” Bea placed her hands on her hips. “There’s a solution, of course.”

Drake frowned. “You’re not suggesting…?”

“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting.” Bea’s tone went from patient friend to authoritative coven leader in the blink of an eye. “And judging by the state of things, I’d say you owe this young lady a lot more than a portion of your soul.”

Drake shook his head slowly. “This is against council policy. I cannot do what you ask.” He cast a pained look my way. “Not even for my only daughter.”

“You could ask for a hearing,” Meri said, speaking for the first time. “You could bring Jade before them and present her case. There is a precedent of exceptions to the bylaws in certain cases regarding souls.”