“Exactly. The Ley line is raw energy at its finest. If you make it too positive, we’ll be living in a 1950s freak show town of manners and hospitality. Which sounds good, but trust me, too much of a good thing is not a good thing.”
“And if the line is tainted with negative energy…” Lucas makes a face.
“Right. It’ll be bad. That’s why our coven settled here. Not only can the Ley line make people crazy, but if someone taps into it…” I shake my head. “In the wrong hands, it’s a weapon.”
“Does it feel weird now?”
“No, and I know that doesn’t make sense, but this doesn’t make sense either.” I sweep my hand out at the demons.
“Do you think they’re related?”
“I don’t see how.”
Lucas grabs one of the scrappers with a broken neck by the arm and drags it over, tossing the body on top of another. “You said the Ley line is energy. What happens if you touch it?”
“You’d probably die.”
“What about if a demon touched it? Could it do that?” He motions to the scrapper bodies.
I bite my lip. “I don’t know. I mean, that’s one hell of a 1-Up Mushroom.”
Freya and Pandora shadow through the trees. They circle around me, making sure I’m okay, and then take off with Binx to search the rest of the forest.
“Let’s go back to your house,” Lucas piles another body on the stack. “Shower and regroup.”
I nod, eager to get the blood and guts off me. We walk a few feet together in silence. I hold out a hand, trying to get a read on the energy, but all feels normal again. What the hell is going on?
“I’ll let the bank know we have to reschedule,” Lucas says when we get closer to my house.
“No, we’re going. We still have time, right?”
“Yes, our appointment is in twenty minutes.”
“I’ll take a fast shower, and then we’re going to our appointment.”
Lucas steps in front of me, looking into my eyes. “There are demons in your backyard.”
“Yeah, but they’re dead now.” I take Lucas’s hand, which is covered in dried blood. “I’m not letting scrapper demons stop us from getting our house together. I know normal is relative, but we’re doing this one normal thing together tonight.”
“Your rich vampire boyfriend buying you a century-old abandoned house with a body in the attic is normal?” Lucas keeps a straight face.
“Totally normal.”
“Actually,” Lucas gives my hand a squeeze. “It’s one of the more normal things we’ve done together.”
“See? We’re not resurrecting bodies or fighting zombies.” I arch my eyebrows. “Now let’s go buy that house. But first, can you tear out a heart from one of the scrappers?”
“I thought we were doing normal things?”
“Having the heart of my enemy in the vanquishing potion makes it pretty powerful. Just a few drops will be enough to kill any other scrappers.”
Lucas smiles and rushes forward, punching his hand through the chest of a scrapper and pulling out a bloody heart. “This is a kind of normal I can get used to.”
I hold the keys up and smile. Lucas and I just left the title company and are walking hand in hand to his car. The house is officially ours.
“Do you want to start checking off rooms from our list?” Lucas opens the car door for me.
“As excited as I am to christen every square inch of that house,” I start and get into his Mercedes. “I think cleaning out the black mold before I get naked in there is a must.”
Lucas chuckles and moves at vamp speed, going around the car and getting in. “It shouldn’t take too long before it’s safe for you to go in.”
“Really?” I pull the seat belt over my lap. “I thought that stuff took time.”
“When humans do the work, it does.”
“Vampires are faster.”
He smiles again and leans in to kiss me, brushing my hair back. “It’s good seeing you smile, my love.”
I put my hand over his. “You make me smile.” We kiss again before Lucas starts the car. For the hour or so it took to sign all the papers, my thoughts stayed mostly on the house and how soon Lucas and I will be living together and not on why the fuck lower-level demons aren’t so low anymore.
“I’ll grab my stuff and be right out,” I tell Lucas when we pull into my driveway.
“You want to go to dinner tonight?” he asks, killing the ignition.
“We have a fancy dinner reservation to get to.” I smile, but the bad feeling is rising in the pit of my stomach again. I get out of the car and start making my way up to the front porch.
“If you want to go to dinner, I’ll gladly take you. But do you want to leave town, Callie?” He knows me well.
I hesitate. “I do, but I don’t know if I should go.”
“Why not?”
“Someone needs to keep an eye on the Ley line. And if more demons come—especially strong ones—someone needs to fight them.”
“Bu why does that have to be you?”
“Because I can fight them.”
We stop by the porch steps. “That doesn’t mean you have to fight them. This isn’t solely your battle. You told me a while ago that demons are attracted to the Ley line, and your entire coven is here to protect it.”
“That’s true,” I start. “But not everyone has powers like I do.” I hold up my hand, conjuring a string of blue magic.
“You’re humanity’s unsung hero, fighting their fights and getting no recognition.”
I shake my head. “I don’t want recognition.”
“Everyone does.”
“Not me. I mean, a thank you every now and then might be nice, but the world doesn’t need to know about me. This is what I was born to do.”
Lucas studies me for a minute, not even attempting to hide his eyes that wander all over my body. He shifts his gaze to mine again, and having his eyes meet mine is more intimate than knowing what he was thinking about as he looked at breasts. “Is it, though?”
I shrug and shake my head at the same time in an awkward attempt to look like I know what I’m talking about. “I think so.”
“Do the other witches in your coven feel the same way?”
“Not all of them.
“I suppose this is where you and I differ, Callie. You see your powers as a servitude to others, saving them from the things they can’t fight. And I still see them as making you better than everyone around you. I hold to it that you should be worshipped.”
“You worship me.”
He takes me around the waist and pulls me against his body. “And I’ll never stop worshiping you, Callie. Every day. Every night. For the rest of my afterlife. I will always worship you.”
A shiver runs down my back, and I close my eyes, leaning in against Lucas. I hook my arms around his neck and look up, standing on my toes
so I can kiss him.
“I love you,” I whisper.
“And I love you.”
His lips go to my neck, fangs scraping against my skin. “We’ve never made love on your front lawn,” Lucas whispers, deep voice awakening something inside me. He could suggest stripping me down and having his way with me on the street right now and I’d have a hard time saying no.
“We haven’t. I’ve actually never had sex under the stars like that before.”
He cups my face with a devilish glint in his eyes. “I need to change that.”
“You do. Right away.” I let my hands fall down his back. I should get inside and make vanquishing potions, warn the coven, and call Kristy, telling her to stay away from the woods. But dammit, Lucas is making it really difficult to think of anything other than his body on top of mine. “There’s a blanket on the couch we can—”
I cut off when his phone rings. With a huff, Lucas reaches into his pocket to get it. It’s Eliza, and he always answers when she calls. He puts the call on speaker and sets the phone on the steps. He grabs me, picking me up and sitting down on the porch. I’m straddling him, thinking about how good it will feel to have the soft grass beneath the blanket, cushioning us as he drives that big cock in and out of me.
“We have a problem,” Eliza says right away.
“Again?” Lucas asks with a sigh and rests his forehead against mine. “What now?”
“One of our venders just called and said he can’t do business with us anymore.”
“Which one?” Lucas asks, reaching for the phone.
“Black Feather. We’re supposed to put in an order and—”
“Calm down,” Lucas tells her, “We have whiskey, right?”
“Yes, but not enough to get us through tomorrow. It’s that organic shit these hipster losers want.”
“Just focus on tonight,” he says. “Did they give you a reason for discontinuing business? We’ve been using them since they opened.”
“No, but the human on the phone seemed pretty fucking freaked out.”
“If it’s a human, I can find out the exact reason why,” Lucas assures her.