Curse of Night (Thorne Hill 5)

Then I blink and that moment goes away.

“Hello, beautiful,” Lucas tells me, stepping away from the stove. He’s dressed in a white t-shirt and—lord have mercy—my favorite gray sweatpants. I want to take him upstairs and make love to him all over again. “Are you hungry?”

“Starving.” I’m still smiling as I go to him. “You wore me out last night.”

He turns the burner down and closes the distance between us. “Ready to do it again?” His arms fold around my waist. “I am.”

“Let me check this first,” I say, fully aware I’m ruining the moment. I slide my hands down his firm chest and pull up the hem of his t-shirt. He’s taken the bandage off, and the cut looks a little better than it did last night. A little. But it still has a long way to go. We definitely won’t be having sex again. I can’t risk him popping a stitch.

“I’m feeling fine,” Lucas says flatly, knowing I’ll ask. “Not better. Not worse.”

“The binding spell buys us some time. But I don’t know how long it will continue to hold until the curse breaks through. I need to get ahold of Evander and have him send me everything he knows about necromancy and curses.”

“Eat first. I Googled typical American breakfasts and something called biscuits and gravy was popular. Do you like it?”

“I love it.”

“I just put the biscuits in the oven.”

“You are so good to me,” I say, letting his shirt fall back into place. I hook my arms around his shoulders and stand on my toes to kiss him.

“Ugh,” Eliza snits. “I don’t want to listen to you two fucking again already.”

I make a face. “Oops. Sorry. I’m used to us being alone.”

“Yeah, I could tell.” Eliza opens the pantry and gets out a box of dog treats. Scarlet is by her feet, tail wagging like mad. “Come on,” she tells the hellhound, patting her leg. “You need to learn some manners.”

I take my eyes off of Lucas and look at Scarlet. “Sit,” I say, and Scarlet listens right away. “Lay down.” The dog quickly lays on the floor. “Roll over. Good girl. Now, go kill demons!”

“You’re speaking Enochian again,” Lucas tells me.

“Really?” I turn back to him.

“Yep.”

“That’s so fucking weird.” I slowly shake my head. “I’m saying the words in English in my head.”

“You did it last night, too. When you were saying the spell to bind the curse. Whatever you said sounded similar to what you said the night you commanded the hellfire.”

“It would be really nice to have some answers.” I look up at the ceiling, mentally calling for my father again. My phone rings, and I break away from Lucas to go get it from my purse that I left in the foyer. It’s Abby, and I feel bad I’ve left her hanging this long.

“Hey,” I say into the phone.

“Hey, Cal. How is Lucas?”

“Pretty much the same.”

“That’s good, in a sense,” she says.

“Yeah, and Kristy’s healing balm helped the wound to start to scab. It’s so weird, Abby.”

“That is. How are you holding up?”

“I’m…I’m okay. I just got up.”

“Are you at your house in Thorne Hill?”

“We are.”

“Good. You have, uh, magical supplies there that can help Lucas?”

“I’m not sure yet. I need to talk to Evander. He’ll be able to at least point me in the right direction. I went through all my books last night and pulled together everything I could about breaking curses. I don’t want to try something generic, though. I’ll have to undo my binding spell in order to break the curse, and if it doesn’t work, more damage could be done before I rebind the curse.”

Abby doesn’t say anything back, and I think maybe the call got dropped. I pull my phone away and check. Nope. We’re still connected.

“Abby?”

“I’m here. Sorry. I was just trying to process everything you said.”

“It’s a lot to take in, I know.”

“Yeah, and you do this all the time. Well, not try to break curses on your new husband, but you know what I mean.”

“Hah. I do.”

“Can Lucas take antibiotics?”

“No, why? Do you think he needs some?” My stomach tightens.

“Maybe. I was thinking about how he could get sick or how the wound could get infected. If he were a human patient, I’d put him on something to prevent an infection.”

“I honestly don’t know what would happen if a vampire tired to eat something like that,” I tell my sister. “What if I took them?”

“And then he drank your blood? Now I honestly have no idea if that would work.”

“If I’m drunk and Lucas drinks my blood, he gets drunk, too.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. It lasts like ten minutes for him, though, and I have to drink a lot. Maybe I can take like a triple dose of antibiotics and then have him—”

“You would kill your stomach, Cal. And I don’t think it works that way, though we’re talking about a vampire who’s been cursed by necromancers. I know nothing.”