Incubus of Bourbon Street (27 page)

My breath caught and I stared up into the desire filling those lovely eyes of his. My body responded the way it always did when he looked at me like that. “Kiss me,” I breathed.

“Gladly.”

He covered my mouth with his and just as our tongues met, the goddamned doorbell rang again.

“Son of a…! Shoot.” I blew out a frustrated breath.

“We could just stay in here,” he said and rolled off me.

“No we can’t. And you know it.” We were still waiting on Pyper and Lailah.

“Yeah, okay.” He pushed himself off the bed and disappeared.

I took a moment to straighten my clothes and then followed him. But when I got to the living room, I stopped dead in my tracks. “Mom? Gwen?”

“Jade!” Mom exclaimed and ran to me, her dark hair flying behind her.

Gwen grinned at me from the doorway. Duke was sitting in front of her, his tongue dragging on the floor in excitement. His head swiveled to the side when Gwen shifted, revealing my ex-stepfather, Marc. He’d raised me until I was seven, when my mother had forced him to leave due to a difference of opinion on how much to tell me about my magical abilities. Marc had been ready to train me from day one. Mom had wanted to keep me in the dark until I was eighty. The last I’d heard, the pair of them weren’t even on speaking terms.

Mom caught me in a hug. “We were so worried.”

“I’m fine,” I said, baffled. “What are you doing here?”

“We missed you.” Mom let go of me and waved to Marc. He took her hand and twined his fingers between hers.

I raised an eyebrow at them. “Something you want to tell me?”

“Well…” Mom smiled almost shyly this time. “Yes, actually, and we wanted to do it in person.” She glanced at Kane. “I hope you don’t mind our intrusion. We did get a hotel room, so we won’t be in your way.”

“They did,” Gwen clarified as she nodded at my parents. “I didn’t.”

“Good,” I said and bypassed everyone to wrap her in a hug. “’Cause my guestroom has your name written all over it.”

Gwen winked. “That’s kinda what I thought. I figured if it was in use, I’d just go to your apartment.”

I laughed. Gwen knew me too well.

Marc wrapped an arm around my shoulders and squeezed me. “It’s good to see you, kiddo.”

“You, too, Dad.” I smiled up at him, loving that I could call him that. “All right, everyone. As much as I’m thrilled to see you, maybe someone wants to fill me in on what’s going on?”

Marc let go of me and moved to Mom’s side. She beamed up at him, her eyes sparkling with more happiness than I’d ever seen. She practically glowed with it.

Love radiated off them in waves. And I knew what was coming before Mom even took her next breath.

She held her left hand out, showing off the large princess-cut diamond ring. “Marc and I are engaged. And we want to get married at your house in Cypress Settlement.”

My lips twitched and then slid into a slow grin. “I can’t think of a better place.”

Chapter 28

With Duke at my feet, music blared from the iPod dock as Kane, Gwen, and I watched Mom and Marc sway to a sappy love song in our small backyard. “How long have they been seeing each other?” I asked Gwen.

“Just a couple of months.” She placed a napkin over the bib of her overalls and then bit into one of my chocolate cream cheese cupcakes. Her curly gray hair bobbed as she nodded her head in satisfaction. “Dang, Jade. I forgot how good these are.”

“I know, right?” I broke a piece of the cupcake off and popped it in my mouth. “Two months? Isn’t that a little fast to get engaged?”

She shrugged. “They were married for almost seven years. It’s not like they don’t know each other.”

“True. But a lot has happened since then.” Like the fact that she’d kept me from him, lied to me about who my real father was, and then spent fifteen years in purgatory. They might have a few issues to work out.

“Try to be happy for them, Jade,” she said gently. “They’ve both lost a lot of years. Sometimes it’s better to just live than to be cautious.”

Her words made me glance at Kane over her head. He was staring at me with an odd expression and then he nodded. “She’s a smart lady, your aunt.”

I turned to look at my parents, caught the love shimmering through them, and said, “Yes, yes she is.”

***

There’s nothing worse than waiting for something when you have no idea how long the wait is supposed to be. It had been twenty-five hours since we’d left Lailah and Pyper in the angel realm. And I’d taken to pacing.

“Jade, you’re not helping,” Gwen gently chided.

“I can’t help it.”

“Do you want to get out of here? Go get lunch maybe?”

I shook my head. “No. I need to be here when they get back. But you should go. Take Mom and Marc out. Get gumbo and hurricanes. Have some fun.”

“Gumbo?” I heard Marc say from the other room.

“Yes,” I called. “Go eat. No need for everyone to wait around here with us.”

“What do you think?” I heard him ask my mom. Then there was a giggle.

Oh, jeez.
Please go
, I silently pleaded.

Gwen laughed and touched my arm. “Don’t worry, we’ll get out of your hair.”

“Thanks.”

Ten minutes later, the three of them were off for a day in the French Quarter while Kane and I settled in for the wait. But just as we started a movie, the front door burst open.

“What did you forget?” I asked absently, fiddling with the volume.

“Just my manners,” Pyper said as she flew across the room and landed on the loveseat in between the two of us.

“Pyper!” I let out a happy squeal and wrapped my arms around her at the same time Kane did. The three of us sat there in a hug for a long moment, laughing and crying. Well, Pyper and I cried. Kane didn’t.

When I finally let go, I fixed my gaze on Lailah, who was standing in the middle of the room, shaking her head at us.

“I told you I’d take care of her,” Lailah said, smiling.

“And so you did.” Pyper beamed at her. “And thank you.”

“Best soul guardian ever.” I got up and gave Lailah a hug.

She stiffened, but when I didn’t relent, she finally hugged me back.

“That wasn’t so hard,” I teased, “now was it?”

She rolled her eyes at me. “No. But don’t get used to it.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” I tugged her over to the two chairs that faced the loveseat. She sat in one, and I sat in the other. Kane and Pyper were across from us. “Okay, now tell me everything.”

Pyper’s smile fell and she glanced away. “Can we maybe talk about it later?”

Every instinct in my body screamed to demand that she give us the details, but I refrained. She’d tell us when she was ready.

Kane frowned in her direction, but didn’t push her either.

“Of course,” I said, “But first, are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m totally fine. I just don’t want to relive the experience right this moment, if you know what I mean.” She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.

“I do. No explanation necessary.” No doubt the soul extraction had been painful. The last thing I wanted to do was make her talk about it. So I turned my attention to Lailah. “How about you? Are you going to tell us what that was all about when you took responsibility for that angel?”

Lailah shrugged. “I’m Pyper’s guardian. I couldn’t let Chessa keep her in the realm.”

“And?” I raised my eyebrows expectantly.

“What makes you think—”

“Lailah. No one puts their life on the line and willingly goes into Hell unless they have a damned good reason. Now spill it.”

She grimaced and then sighed. “I needed a reason to have access to Chessandra and everything she’s been up to. She’s been doing strange things for a while now. First she tried to close the demon portal and ended up causing her sister to get trapped in the void world. Then she sent a bunch of angels into the shadows all at once, which isn’t the way things normally work. And worse, I believe she ordered Avery to check on the shadows when she knew it was dangerous. All of this was done without informing the council. She’s been going rogue, and I want to know why.”

“You think she’s engaging in some dirty dealings?” I asked, taken aback.

“Maybe. I don’t know. What I do know is that she’s keeping a lot to herself. Not to mention there’s been some really strange demon attacks on angels in the last few months. Ones that seem completely random. My gut says something’s off. And I’m going to investigate before something worse happens.”

We all stared at her, not sure what to say. It was no secret I wasn’t Chessandra’s biggest fan. She was a bully and cold-hearted, but I always assumed she was that way for the greater good. But what if she was just an angel all out for herself and willing to roll around in the mud to get whatever she wanted?

“This is extreme fight club, obviously,” she added.

“Understood,” I said. Pyper and Kane nodded their agreement. The information would never leave this room.

She stood abruptly. “I need to get home and then get to work. Pyper, let me know if you need anything or feel anything odd at all. I’ll be around.”

“Sure.” Pyper walked Lailah to the door. “Thanks for everything.”

Lailah smiled. “My pleasure.”

“That was…interesting,” I said after she left.

“And frightening,” Pyper added as she took her spot next to Kane. “I get the feeling Lailah thinks Chessandra’s dealing with demons.”

Kane leaned forward. “Well, if she is, you can be damned sure we’ll bring her down.”

I couldn’t imagine what kind of epic battle we’d have to engage in if Chessandra turned out to be one of the bad guys. But Kane was right—if she was dealing in evil, we’d take her down one way or another.

“Jade?” Pyper called.

“Yeah?”

“Can you come sit over here for a minute?” She was smiling like she had a secret.

“Sure.”

Kane patted his lap and held his arms out to me.

I slid onto his lap and wrapped my arm around his shoulders. “Okay. What’s up?”

Pyper was staring at the chair Lailah had been sitting in, and after a moment she nodded. Turning back to us, she said, “So, about this medium thing…”

“Is it true?” I asked, intensely curious. “Can you still see spirits now that you’re back to only having your soul?”

“It’s true. And yes, my guides are still with me. I’m told that since I’ve invited them into my life, they’ll be there as long as I wish.”

I met Kane’s eyes and saw the same awe I felt reflected back at me. “That’s cool.”

She nodded. “But I have something cooler for both of you right now.”

Kane gave her a curious look. “And what might that be, Pyps?”

“Mamaw is here,” she said. “Right over there.”

Kane and I both stared at the chair across from us. The look on his face went from mildly interested to heartfelt and gutted. “Mamaw?” he asked.

“Yes.” Pyper positively glowed with happiness. “She wants you to know you picked a good wife and she can’t wait for grandbabies to watch over during the night.”

“Grandbabies?” I blurted out.

Kane grinned at me. “I’m certainly willing to practice.”

Pyper cut her eyes to Kane. “Mamaw says if you’re gonna be disrespectful, she’s gonna smack the back of your head.”

I laughed, and Kane sobered.

“She’s really here,” he said.

“Of course she is. I said she was, didn’t I?” Pyper patted his arm. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.”

He shook his head. “No, I don’t think so.” Then he gazed at the chair she’d indicated his grandmother was occupying. “Damn, Mamaw, I miss the hell out of you.” The words came out hoarse and full of emotion.

Tears filled Pyper’s eyes, but she laughed. “She’s cursing you for making her cry. And she says she misses your hugs most of all.”

That rendered Kane speechless.

I bent and whispered in his ear, “You do give the best hugs.”

“And Jade?” Pyper added.

“Yes?”

“Mamaw says she knows you’ll take care of her boy and that she loved your wedding. Especially the minister.”

Laughing, I nodded toward the chair. “I’m very glad you were there. Kane missed you.”

“I’m always here when you need me,” an older wobbly voice said from the direction of the chair.

I let out a small gasp as Kane’s head shot up. “Mamaw?” he asked.

Pyper shook her head. “She’s gone now.”

“But I just heard her. You did, too, right?” he asked me.

“Yes. I did.”

Pyper stood and smiled down at us. “It was her gift to both of you.” She bent and gave Kane a kiss on his cheek and then did the same to me. “I’m going home now.”

I caught her hand. “You can’t. You just got back.”

She moved to the front door. “I can. And I need to. All I want is a hot bath and my own bed.”

“Take care of yourself, friend,” Kane said.

“You, too.” Pyper blew us a kiss and slipped out the front door.

I stared down into the face of my overwhelmed husband. “Looks like it’s just you and me for now.”

His arms tightened around me as he buried his head into my neck. “I can’t believe I heard her.”

I stroked my hand through his hair. “She loves you.”

He shuddered a tiny bit at my words. Then after a moment he started laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

He looked up at me. “I was just wondering how often she’s here watching us.”

“Oh, jeez. Don’t go there.”

His grin widened. “She’s gone now. Pyper said so.”

“Stop. That’s not right.”

“She did ask for grandbabies.” He waggled his eyebrows at me.

I shook my head. “If you think—”

His lips caught mine and the next thing I knew, he had me wrapped in a powerful kiss. Everything left my mind except him and the incredible connection between us. Power flowed from him to me and filled me up, made my heart almost burst from joy. And when he pulled away, I whispered, “I love you, Kane Rouquette.”

“I love you, too, Mrs. Rouquette.” Then he picked me up and without any more words, he took me to our bedroom and laid me on our bed. “You’re the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen,” he said, carefully unbuttoning my cotton shirt.

I said nothing as I watched him undress me.

When he was done, he stepped back and eyed my naked body. “Gorgeous.”