Spell Bound (Darkly Enchanted) (19 page)

“Shea. Did your mom ever say anything about a curse?”

Gabriel’s repeated question cut through her thoughts and she turned to face him, anger beginning to replace shock.

“My mom was difficult to talk to. And she never, ever said anything about a curse.”

Gabriel’s expression remained unreadable. “I guess she felt she had good reason.”

Fuck that. No reason would ever have been good enough to keep this from her.

Jesus, Mom—

“So why’d you leave?” he asked.

Gabriel watched as her mouth tightened as Shea’s gaze disconnected.

“I didn’t know there was a world beyond the forest we lived in until I was twelve.” The bitterness in her tone cut through the air like tiny knives. “A lost hiker somehow found his way through the wards on our property. My dad hustled him away pretty fast, but it was too late. The secret was out.”

She met his gaze then. “Ballet was the one thing my mom and I actually enjoyed doing together. She’d taught me since I was three or four. It was the best part of the day, when my mom and I would go into the studio to dance.”

Her smile turned bittersweet. “When I was twelve, my dad introduced me to the wonders of TV and movies. I must have watched ‘The Red Shoes’ and ‘A Chorus Line’ and ‘Center Stage’ hundreds of times. And I decided I wanted to be a ballerina.

“When I was fifteen, my mom told me I’d never be a ballerina. That I would live the rest of my life alone because no one could be trusted. That’s when I started to plan.”

“Plan what?”

Her hands did that wavy thing again. “My great escape. I was fifteen, after all, and I wanted to see the world. My mom was just as determined to keep me away from it. I started exploring past the boundaries my parents had set. I found out we lived several miles from a small town and I used to sneak there. I was fascinated to see so many people in one place.

“My dad used to leave the door to the communications room open sometimes and I could watch whatever I wanted. I had the biggest crush on David Boreanez from ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ Until I realized he wasn’t a real vampire. You know that whole cross deal is a hoax, right? And the sunlight death?”

Her lopsided smile reached inside his chest and grabbed the air right out of his lungs. Holy shit, he didn’t need this now.

Her smile faded fast. “Anyway, I heard my parents fighting sometimes. About me. I think my mom wanted to lock me in my room and never let me out. I couldn’t understand why she didn’t lo—why she wanted to keep me hidden.”

She stopped pacing to stare at an abstract painting on the wall, her expression tight. What was she thinking? Hell, at this point he didn’t have a clue—

Leo’s terrified scream reverberated through the house and they ran for the bedroom.

Chapter Eight

Lea Tulane’s eyes flashed open, immediately awake from a deep sleep.

She reached out and laid her hand on Brian’s back, sleeping beside her, listening for the sound of his breathing. She released a relieved sigh at his slight wheeze. He was okay.

Brian was only seventy. Not old. Not really.

Oh, hell. Who was she trying to kid? Every morning she woke, she thanked the Great Goddess he was still here.

They’d been lucky. They’d had a good fifty-five years together. This time. But life had started to take its toll. Brian’s blood pressure was too high. His knees creaked and he didn’t recover from their lovemaking as fast as he used to. Not that it wasn’t good.

Alright, at least she could be honest with herself. There hadn’t been enough of it lately to be good. Brian wasn’t as interested in her sexually as he had been. Some of it had to do with the way his body had changed over the years. And some of it had to with the way hers hadn’t.

And there went her chances of getting back to sleep tonight.

Sliding out of bed, she walked to the window, drawn by the light of the almost full moon. Summer treguenda was approaching and she’d thought about returning east to celebrate.

She enjoyed southern California, possibly the only place on earth where she, stuck at twenty-eight, and Brian, at seventy, could live without being stared at. Much. But she wanted to see her sister—

An odd shadow shifted across the grass. Just a palm frond moving in the ocean breeze? Or someone sneaking onto the property?

She shivered, straining to distinguish two a.m. shadows from potential intruders. Brian always told her she worried too much. But after five-hundred years on the run, she figured she could cut herself a little slack.

The shadow moved again, and now she could see it was a palm, one of the large ones flanking the patio—

A floorboard creaked on the first floor.

Adrenaline pumped through her bloodstream, covering her skin in goose bumps.

Her hand crept to the silver chain around her neck and the iron key hanging from it. Someone was in the house. The housekeeper had left hours ago and they didn’t have a security guard, although many who lived in this gated community did.

Brian wouldn’t hear of it. He’d protected her on his own for years. Why would he need help now?

She glanced back at the bed. Brian still slept soundly.

Had Dario’s men finally found her? Should she run? Wake Brian? Draw them away?

Or…was she ready?

Even if it meant death the way Dario dealt it, maybe it was worth it. Brian would soon be taken from her again. She’d spent more than fifty years alone before they’d reunited. Before that, it had been more than a century.

Time was a bitch she couldn’t escape.

Concentrating on the open door to their room, she could just barely hear the scrape of soft-soled shoes on the wool carpet covering the stairs.

If she gave herself to them without a fight, would they leave Brian alone?

No, she knew that was too much to ask. But maybe Dario would make it quick…

She wondered if it would hurt.

Footsteps in the hall now.

Slipping the key from around her neck, she dropped it into her wooden jewelry box. Her sister would find it there. She had to believe that.

* * *

Shea was closer to the bedroom but Gabriel was faster.

He burst through the door, gun in his hand. The room was dark, even with his enhanced sight.

Shea tried to move past him but he barred her way. How the hell could someone have slipped past the wards without him knowing?

He flipped on the light switch, trying to see everything at once. Leo huddled on the bed, pillow clutched to his chest, rocking back and forth.

“Borelli, let me in.” Shea insisted.

“Stay back,” he hissed. “Leo, are you okay?”

“Dark,” Leo whimpered.

“Gabriel, move your ass now.”

Shea’s tone nearly singed his eyebrows. But his given name coming out of her mouth… Well, that singed other, lower places. Since he didn’t sense anyone else in the room, he let her by. She ran for the bed as Leo launched himself at her and clung like a baby monkey as she sat on the side.

“Shh, it’s okay,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”

“Dark,” Leo wimpered.

“I know. I’m sorry. Calm down, bud. Deep breaths.”

Gabriel took a couple of deep breaths to calm his own runaway heartbeat.

Shit, the kid wasn’t being kidnapped or murdered. He was afraid of the dark. And Gabriel had put him in the darkest room of the house.

Fuck.

He caught Shea’s glance, expecting to see condemnation there, but she only shook her head.

“My fault,” she said. “I’m sorry. I should have checked on him. I always leave a light on for him if I’m not here. You didn’t know.”

Because he hadn’t asked.

As Leo clung and drew in deep breaths while Shea held him and rubbed his back, Gabriel complicated the situation by sitting on the bed next to them. He should keep his distance. It was one of the first things his dad had taught him. It was why Davis hadn’t been his mother’s true mate, merely her companion.

“Hey, kid. Wanna know what scares the shit out of me?”

Shea and Leo looked at him. Shea’s mouth tightened at his language, Leo’s eyes still wide and terrified. But after a couple of hitched-in breaths, he nodded.

“Spiders. They freak me out. All those legs and some of them bite. I know they’re tiny and I could crush them before they get to me, but I had to learn how to overcome that fear because sometimes there’s gonna be spiders.”

The terror in Leo’s eyes began to fade as curiosity settled in. He released his death grip from around Shea’s neck and moved a little closer to Gabriel. “How?”

Shea’s indrawn breath drew his gaze for a second before concentrating again on Leo.

“By studying them, learning everything I could. Then they weren’t so scary anymore. If you want, I can teach you some stuff. Maybe then the dark wouldn’t freak you out so much. The dark can be good. We can hide in the dark. And you and me, we can see things in the dark other people can’t.”

Leo’s eyes widened even further.

“Some are kind of cool,” Gabriel continued. “Come here.”

Gabriel stood and held out his hand. Leo stared at him for a second before slipping his small hand in Gabriel’s larger one and sliding off Shea’s lap. Surprise lit her expression for just a second before her eyes narrowed. She watched from the bed as he took Leo to the window but didn’t open the blackout shade.

“Now, I’m going to have your sister turn off the lights, but I’m not going anywhere, okay?”