“No, he glamoured his appearance so he looked different.” I shrugged. “I’m not saying I want him to stick around, but it was nice having him on my side last night. I was able to observe everyone better.”
Drew pursed his lips. “Well, at least he did something nice.”
“Hey,” I said. “Paris was nice.”
We both dissolved into laughter. However nice it was, it had also been freaky and had given Drew some insane motion sickness. “What brings you here this morning?” I asked.
“Well,” he said and pulled a folded piece of paper out of his jacket pocket. “I’ve been doing some research.”
The white paper crinkled as he unfolded it and handed it to me. “I’ve been searching all cases of accidental deaths in the county, looking for patterns, and there’s a big one.”
“Oh?” I asked as I took the paper from him. He explained the names and dates listed on the paper.
“Yeah. These are all people that died with an odd coin in their pockets. Most of the coins were given back to families, but in one case, there was no next of kin. The body was cremated, and the ashes were buried cheaply in the town cemetery. I have the coin here.” He pulled a small baggie from his pocket and handed it over.
Sure enough, it looked exactly like the ones we’d found so far. “No,” I breathed.
“Yes, and get this. That death was in the seventies.” He stared at me with his eyebrows up and nostrils flared.
“You guys keep records and personal effects that long?” I asked.
He nodded. “Forever, really. If we run out of room, we’ll rent a storage place or build a shed, but you never know what might come up that you need evidence like this for.” He pointed to the paper. “Case in point.”
Reaching over, Drew took the paper and shuffled it. I hadn’t even realized there was a second page. “This is a list of all deaths that weren’t attributed to natural causes in the county going back to the sixties, no matter if coins were noted or not. Accidents and murders.”
I browsed the list. Most of them were car wrecks. But there were more that were freakish, out of the norm like the umbrella thing or a freak lightning storm. Some of the others included smothered by a pile of winter coats, drowned in a vat of molasses, slipped on an orange peel and broke neck, a firework blew up in one person’s face.
“Holy crap,” I whispered. “This is terrible.” So many people and they all had a coin found on them.
I lifted the bag with the coin up. “Can I take this out? The coin my Yaya found on Mom still had a little of the curse left over. I want to put it in saltwater just to be sure.”
He stared at the coin and nodded. “Yeah, do that.”
Setting the papers on the coffee table I stood and waved Drew to follow. “Step into my magical office.”
He chuckled, but I caught a spark of concern light up his teal eyes for a second. It occurred to me at that moment that he wasn’t used to magic and all the craziness that had happened over the last several months.
I turned to face him, and he stopped short, his hands resting on my hips. My breath caught as heat filled every part of me. “You don’t have to come into the conservatory if it makes you uncomfortable.”
He lifted one hand and ran his knuckles down my cheek. A soft sigh slipped from my lips as I leaned into his touch. It’d been too long since I gave myself over to a man. Clay had been my only lover.
“Magic is a big part of you. Dark, light, and everything in between.” He slid his hand around to cup the back of my head. Then his lips pressed against mine and my world exploded in a rush of power and desire.
He ended the kiss and rested his forehead on mine. “I want all of you, Ava. You never have to hide who you are from me.”
Something bloomed in my heart. For most of my life, I hid what I was, my power. I did it with Clay to keep the peace with his family. Recently, I caught myself doing it with Drew because he was a born hunter. Even though he swore he denied that half of him.
I placed my hand over his heart. “You don’t have to hide who you are either.” I press a finger from my other hand to his lips. “Hunters are born with magic and other abilities. I’ve done some research. You don’t have to hunt down innocent paras just because you’re a hunter. Use your gifts for good.”
A seductive smile formed on his handsome face. “I will if you will.”
“Deal!” I linked my fingers with his and pulled him toward the kitchen. That was when I noticed Alfred standing in the archway to the kitchen, watching us.
Maybe I was crazy, but I sensed emotions coming from him. Concern and protectiveness were the strongest, but there was also caution and dislike. Did Alfred not like Drew?
I stopped in front of him and his gaze softened as he looked at me. Then he handed his tablet to me. On the screen he’d typed, “What would you like for lunch? Dinner?”
“You don’t have to cook all the time. We can order out. Or Drew and I…” I turned to Drew, noticing for the first that he was dressed in plain clothes. A pair of dark blue jeans and a charcoal grey t-shirt. “I guess you aren’t working today. Did you have other plans?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“Looks like we’re spending the day together.” I tugged him through the kitchen to the conservatory. I heard Alfred grunt as he took steaks out of the freezer, making an executive decision about dinner. That was fine with me. I wasn’t picky.
I went straight to the sink and filled a glass bowl with water while pulling out the salt from the shelf over it. From the corner of my eye, I watched Drew drift over to the plants lined up on shelves along the far wall. “Don’t touch the ones on the top shelf. They’re poison.”
He looked at me with a raised brow. “Should I ask why you have poisonous plants?”
I shrugged. “You never know when you need them.” Then I started laughing. “They were Aunt Winnie’s and for some reason lived through the last year without anyone tending to them. So I take it as a sign that they need to stay where they are.”
I sure hoped I’d never have to use them in a spell or on anyone. Killing people by poison was not on my to-do list. Ever. But there were still some nonlethal spells that required them. Until I learned how to use them properly, they would stay on that shelf like little creepers, watching over the others.
Once the saltwater was ready, I took the coin out of the bag and dropped it in the water. The same grey smoke puffed out of the water as soon as the coin went under.
“Was that…?”
“The curse, yes. What was left of it.” I faced him, and he moved closer. His clean cedar scent enveloped me, making me want things I hadn’t had in so long.
“What did you want to do today?”
A few naughty thoughts flashed in my mind. But I said, “I’m open to whatever.”
Desire flashed in his gaze, making my flesh hot. “There is the Founders’ Party going on downtown.”
“That sounds great.” It was the perfect thing I needed to keep my mind off the accidents-slash-murders and the fact that I hadn’t a clue who was doing it. “I just need to clean up and change.”
Clint had wrangled Owen into helping with it, to my delight and his disgruntlement.