His eyes landed on her lips as she bit down on her bottom one and then said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I wasn’t trying to make you angry. I just—”
Cutting her off, he pushed her up against the side of the house and slammed his lips onto hers. He couldn’t take it any longer. He tried and tried to keep his desire for her at bay, but enough was enough, and he had to have what he craved.
Fuck, she felt so good, and he’d missed the way her mouth fit with his. He savored her lips, knowing he should have given in long before. His hands traveled the length of her body, but he stopped as the front door creaked open.
“What the hell is going on here? Well, if it isn’t Cassius Broxsby.”
He hadn’t heard the sound of this particular voice in so long, but albeit, it was a sound he could never forget. Cassius pulled away from Lara, wiping his mouth and stepping back. “Ben, good to see you again after all these years.” He couldn’t have been more sarcastic if he tried.
Ben stepped outside of the house, inching closer to Cassius and Lara. “Is it now? It’s Benji now.”
Cassius raised a brow. “Like the dog?”
Benji narrowed his eyes on Cassius. “Huh?”
Chuckling to himself, Cassius held out a hand, shaking it back and forth. “Forget it.” How could he not know the story of Benji, it had been a classic and one of his favorites growing up. “Anyway, this is my friend, Lara.”
Lara nodded in Benji’s direction, and he waved back in silence.
Taking in Benji’s appearance, Cassius couldn’t deny the fact that he was beyond surprised to see the way he was dressed. Loosely fitting blue jeans sat on his hips while a Metallica shirt covered his top half. Not to mention the messy dirty blond spiky hair... Was this a phase he was going through. Surely, he had lost his mind or something, somewhere down the line as he was studying to become a priest.
“Is that a new look?” Cassius chuckled again, even though he had tried to bite his tongue. But he couldn’t. It was too much fun not to say a word about it.
Lara shot him a look as if she couldn’t believe he’d be so rude. She didn’t know the half of it though. How could she?
Benji rolled his eyes, taking a deep breath. “I was excommunicated from the church.”
Cassius’s eyes widened. “What? Why?”
“What is it always about?” Benji began, then shrugged and said, “Because of a girl... we fell in love, and they caught us in a compromising position.”
Oh, this was music to Cassius’ ears. “Really?”
Benji scowled. “Don’t pretend like you give a rat’s ass.”
“Oh, but I do... who was she?” Cassius edged him on.
Benji took a deep breath and looked over at Lara as he spoke. “She was a nun in training, and I corrupted her.”
Cassius watched Lara as she took in his answer. Yeah, that was something he wasn’t expecting either.
“Well, that’s just grand. You see, Benji. We’re not so different after all.”
Benji’s fists balled up at his sides. “Depends who you ask. What the hell do you want, Cass? Why are you here?”
At that question, Cassius swallowed hard. It was the moment of truth, and he didn’t know if he could count on him like he used to back in the day... before everything went to shit between the two of them. “I need your help.”
Benji’s eyes widened as Cassius’s remark took him aback. “My help?”
Cassius nodded. “That’s right. I need your help to perform an exorcism.”
“An exorcism?” Benji laughed hysterically, and once he caught his breath, he said, “Didn’t you hear me when I said I have been excommunicated from the church? That includes all rites and rituals that priests can perform. Even if I wanted to help you, Cassius, which I can assure you I have no desire to do so, I couldn’t. So just leave. Get back in your car, there, and get lost.” Benji turned his back on Cassius and Lara and began walking back inside his house.
Cassius shut his eyes tightly. He really didn’t want to do it, but he knew he had no choice. He would have to ask one last time and throw their past into it. “Do you remember the time when you needed my help? You know, when your parents were stuck in that burning building. You couldn’t go save them... the firefighters would have never made it to them in time.”
As Cassius’s words left his mouth, Benji froze dead in his tracks. Once again, the vampire card worked wonders. Without spinning back around to face him, Benji said, “Wait right here. I’ll be right back.”
As he disappeared into his house and shut the door behind him, Lara walked up to Cassius. “Is that true?”
“Of course, it’s true. Being a vampire does have its advantages.”
Lara’s eyes twinkled and a wry grin formed on her face. “Well, I’m liking some of those advantages a lot.”
Cassius bit his lip. Fuck, this woman was going to kill him. He wanted her again, right then and right there.
Minutes later, Benji returned, opening the door with two objects in his hands. “Here.”
Cassius took a few steps forward to meet him on the front porch steps. He dropped the items as Benji handed them over to him. “Whoa! Are you trying to kill me?”
“Kill you?” Benji’s eyebrows furrowed. “Oh, the whole vampire thing? Yeah, I forget.” A sinister smile formed on his lips. Cassius knew he’d done it on purpose. “You’d better grab that for him, little lady.”
Lara stepped forward, picking up the rosary and a cross off the ground.
“You’d better take this, too. Good thing I hadn’t handed this over to your boyfriend yet, or it would have destroyed him,” Benji winked at her, handing her a thin metal bottle.
Lara chuckled. “He’s not really my boyfriend.”
Benji shot a look from her to Cassius who just stood there watching. “Not really... yeah, right. I bet you he hasn’t tried to—”
“Can we hurry this up, please?” Cassius interrupted. “What do we do with these items?”
Benji shook his head. “At midnight, she places the rosary around the victim’s neck and places the cross in his hands. Then she takes the holy water from this bottle and does the sign on the cross on his forehead. That should be plenty to extract the spirit from the body. But you will need to find where the body of the ghost or the demon is buried and perform the ritual next to it, since neither of you possesses the support of the church, or its power to expel evil spirits.”
Minutes later, Cassius and Lara loaded up the car and were back on the road.
“Dammit, we have to find the body... God knows where it is.” Cassius made a right turn on the highway. “According to the reports, the body was never found, but you stated he drowned in the lake. How the hell are we going to find him if the cops searched for weeks to no avail?”
Lara sat there quietly, looking at the road straight ahead. He peered over at her from the corner of his eye. She was immobile. Cassius started to get the feeling that she knew more than she had let on.
“Lara?”
“Huh?” She finally twitched, turning to face him.
“How are we going to find your dead husband in a lake that was searched by the police? Any ideas?” Cassius knew she probably wouldn’t have any, but he needed to hear what was going on in her brain. Maybe she knew something he didn’t. Maybe there had been a vital piece of information missing from her statement. Maybe she knew exactly where Milo was, and she wasn’t saying anything.