“You’re really getting into this.” I tossed the empty carton into the trash. “I had no idea you enjoyed playing Sherlock Holmes so much.”
“And I had no idea you could devour an entire carton of strawberries without a chocolate chaser.” He pressed his lips to the top of my head. “We’re still learning all sorts of interesting things about one another.” His kisses drifted lower, turned slower. “So far, we’ve checked into our suite, almost gotten checked out at the library, and depleted the fresh fruit stores. What’s next?”
“I left the rest of my ideas up in our room. Specifically, on the bed. Come with me, and I’ll show them to you.”
The pinkening skin beneath his freckles made me want to taste them, but there was no rush. For once, it was just the two of us—plus Cletus—and we had nowhere to be and nothing to do but love one another.
And, you know, hope we didn’t get maimed or murdered in our sleep.
Four
The creak and groan of old wood broke Linus’s concentration. He glanced up from his book to check and see if Grier had heard what sounded like footsteps on the stairs, but her eyes were shut, her lips slightly parted. The clock on the nightstand flashed the time in red numbers. Just after dusk. Most necromancers would still be sleeping at this hour. Most, but not all. Not him.
Setting his e-reader aside, he slid out of bed and padded across the room. Careful not to wake her, he exited into the hall and shut the door behind him. He drew a protective sigil on the frame with his modified pen before going to investigate.
This particular phenomenon was a well-documented one, but he had never experienced it for himself. Intrigued, he walked the length of the hall to the stairs and waited with his ears primed for the slightest noise. He could see ghosts, but not all ghosts could be seen. Residuals weren’t powerful enough. They were mere echoes of past events, usually traumas, doomed to repeat forever as flashes, scents, or noises.
Positioned as he was, he kept an eye on the door leading to their room as well as on the stairs. It was his attention on the bedroom that earned him his first glimpse of the otherworldly since their arrival.
A long shadow broke from the darkness clinging to the corners and took a step toward the door. The instant it made contact with the sigil, it shrieked in a high-pitched yowl that raised the hairs down his nape. Whirling on him, the thing identified the true danger and hissed, baring tiny fangs.
Hands in his pockets, calm mask in place, Linus strolled toward it. “Who are you?”
The creature snarled and spat but made no intelligible sounds.
Having performed an exorcism or two in his day, he moved down the list. “Why are you here?”
Curling in on itself, it dug into the pockets of darkness around it as if searching for the hole it came through.
Close enough to catch a whiff of brimstone, the rotten-egg scent Kylie had complained about, Linus wished for his phone and its flashlight. “What do you want?”
A keening noise rose from the creature, who hunched as small as it could get.
Peculiar behavior for a ghost and far too skittish to be a poltergeist. “Are you…afraid?”
The thing blinked at him then, its eyes yellow and its pupils elongated, as if it understood him.
A sharp slice of pain swiped him from shoulder to hip, and Linus spun to find another creature in retreat. Reaching behind him, he touched his back, and his fingers came away bloody. When he turned to check on the original creature, it was gone.
“Interesting.” Giving the hall one last glance, he murmured, “Very interesting.”
Grier woke as the door to their suite shut behind him, and she snuggled deeper under the covers. “Hi.”
“Hello.” He approached the bed. “Did you sleep well?”
“I was out like a light.” She twisted onto her side toward him. “Did I miss anything?”
“Footsteps on the stairs and this.” He untucked his shirt, exposing his back. “What do you make of it?”
The yawn stretching her mouth transformed into a gasp. “What happened?”
Grier shoved the quilts aside and rose onto her knees, hauling him close to examine the wounds.
“I met one of our resident spooks.” He probed the edges with his fingers. “How does it look?”
“Honestly? Like a cat scratched you.” She popped his hand to get him out of her way. “There are five rows.” She traced the curve of muscle beneath them. “The centermost ones are deepest.” She mapped the length of them with her fingertips. “The reach is impressive. No house cat could have done this.”
“It hissed and spat at me.” He let her guide him onto the bed on his stomach. “Its eyes were feline as well.” Her warm fingers traveled over him, and his gut tightened beneath her touch. “The one I saw, anyway.”
Her exploration paused. “There’s more than one?”
“Apparently so.”
“That wasn’t in the brochure,” she murmured. “I’m taking a reference photo, and then I’m healing this.”
“It doesn’t hurt.”
“You could be missing your spine, and you’d still claim it didn’t hurt.” She slapped him on the butt, and he didn’t mind the sting. “You have to take better care of yourself.”
Several clicks later, she had their evidence recorded on her phone.
“Hold still.” She straddled his hips and yanked the cap off her modified pen. “This won’t take but a second.”
The tickle of the pen nib sent skitters racing over his skin, but there was no familiar tingle from her magic.
“Um.” She traced the bottommost scratch with her finger. “This isn’t healing.”
Cranking his head toward her, he soaked up her adorable bafflement. “There must be a toxin.”
The analgesic qualities of some venoms might explain why it didn’t hurt as much as it perhaps should.
“Of course, there is.” She blasted out a sigh. “You get in the worst trouble when left unsupervised.”
The same was true of her, but even a new husband knew when to keep his mouth shut.
“I’ll have to break out the big guns.” She sat back, and her weight shifted. “Hold very, very still.”
Linus shut his eyes and rested his chin on top of his hands where they were folded in front of him.
“Ready?”
“Yes.”
The blade of his old pocketknife snicked free of its handle, and Linus caught the faintest whiff of copper.
Murmuring softly, she painted his back with the warmth of her blood. The gentle caresses told him she was outlining each scratch to ensure maximum coverage. With that done, she pressed her palms flat against his shoulder blades and pushed magic into him with effort that left her trembling.
Pins and needles stabbed him, and a bubbly sensation filled his stomach. His skin took on a luminescent quality, and he turned his hand this way and that. He never grew tired of watching Grier work her brand of magic. It amazed him, even now, what miracles she could perform.
“Ha.” She bent down and kissed his spine. “All better.”
“Thank you.”
“Well?” She leaned forward to check in. “How does it feel?”
“The pain is gone.” He twisted around to face her. “Do you think it will scar?”
A reminder of the incident didn’t bother him, but it was a gauge to hold up against how powerful the toxin must have been.
“Normally? Yeah.” She ducked to kiss his cheek. “But you won’t.”
Warmth that had nothing to do with her magic spread through his chest until it hurt to breathe. “I love you.”
“Hmm.” She pretended to consider him. “I suspected as much.”
Happy to play along, he asked, “How could you tell?”
“Oh, you know. Feeding me, saving my life, feeding me, seducing me with your freckles, feeding me. Then there was the whole agreeing-to-marry-me thing.”
“How did I seduce you with my freckles?”
“They’re just there.” She pointed a damning finger at his nose. “All adorable and kissable.”
A frown pinched his forehead. “That counts as seduction?”
“I have trouble keeping my hands to myself around you.” She folded her arms over her chest. “Whose fault do you think that is, Mr. Woolworth?”
With a calculated twist of his hips, Linus flipped Grier onto her side then her back and climbed over her. “Not mine.”
“Are you implying it’s my fault that you are so gorgeous I can’t stop touching you?” She widened her eyes. “How rude.”
“No one else thinks I’m gorgeous.” He smiled down at her. “Perhaps you should borrow my glasses.”
“Pfft.” She jabbed him in the ribs with her thumbs until he laughed. “You’re not that blind.”
“No one saw me until you.” He slid the length of her dark hair through his fingers. “Others wanted my title, my fortune, or my influence. No one wanted me.” He closed his fist around the silky strands. “No one but you.”
“People are dumb.” She cradled his face in her palm. “Trust me, I was dumb for a long time too.”
The reminder her heart had once belonged wholly to Boaz Pritchard throbbed like a sore tooth at the oddest times, but it had grown fainter over the years. The ring on Linus’s finger had helped more than the passage of time. His wedding band was a tangible reminder that Grier had made her choice for all to see.
A loud crash followed by a dull thump brought her jerking upright, almost unseating him, and an eager glint kindled in her eyes. “Let’s go see what we see.”
Linus rolled aside and pulled on dress shoes while she wriggled into holey jeans, a faded tee, and broken-in sneakers.
Out in the hall, he gave the corner where the creature had cowered a long look, but there was no hint of it now. The stairs, which had failed to produce anything of consequence earlier, provided them with an answer for the ruckus.