Maison Plaisir (Spirit World 1)

She screamed, watching his cousin come out of nowhere. “Leave me alone!” She yanked the front door open and fled.

“Bel

le!” Armand wanted to run after her, but Hervé halted him.

“It’s no use. Give her time to cool off. You’ll scare her even more if you chase her right now.”

Armand paused. His cousin was right. Humans weren’t accustomed to seeing supernatural beings like them out in the open. Belle needed some time to sort things out. He whirled around and jabbed a finger in Hervé’s chest. “This is all your fault!”

Chapter Five

As soon as she had bounded from the taxi and stormed into her apartment, Belle locked her front door in haste. Her hands trembled. She bolted to her bedroom and locked that door as well. She slumped by the foot of her bed. A cold chill numbed her.

God. Who are Armand and Hervé? Ordinary people don’t just levitate and wreak havoc at whim. She’d been awakened by a loud boom and crashes and men shouting. She’d thought it was an earthquake when her bed shook violently. When she took a peek at the balcony, she saw Hervé and Armand fighting, trying to kill each other with their psychic power.

She couldn’t really discern what she saw. Psychic-that was the best way to describe it. People didn’t just hover in mid-air and make things fly with simple hand gestures.

God. What had she got herself into? She’d slept with men who clearly weren’t ordinary humans.

Human.

Belle blinked. It occurred to her Madame Chabert had called her human the first time she saw her. Hervé said something about smelling human scent when he found her in Maison Plaisir.

Human. She was human. They weren’t

What the hell were they?

Belle had been a logical person her entire life. She hadn’t believed in the tooth fairy, elves, and even Santa Claus when she was little. But what she’d witnessed couldn’t be explained with any science she knew.

Belle pinched herself until her skin turned blue. Hurt like hell too. No. She wasn’t dreaming. Everything was real.

Groggily, she hoisted herself onto the bed and curled up, until exhausted from thinking, she dozed off. When she woke up, it had turned dark outside. She pulled herself together and took a long shower to clear her mind. Still, everything didn’t make sense. Belle made a sandwich and was about to eat it when her doorbell rang.

She peered through the peek hole. Her heart raced. Armand and Hervé stood by her front door.

“Belle.” Armand’s voice seeped through the door. “We know you’re in there. We just want to talk.”

Belle inhaled a sharp breath.

“We mean you no harm, love,” Hervé’s voice called this time. “You know, we could easily pop into your apartment. I thought we could settle this misunderstanding civilly. Please, open the door.”

Damn. He was right. She couldn’t avoid them forever. Sooner or later, she must face them.

Belle gathered her courage and unlocked her door. She thought she was going to faint when she opened it. Two men who had been her lovers in the past couple of days stood by her threshold, staring at her with great dismay. “Who are you?” she asked sharply.

“Well, love, I’m Hervé and this asshole is my cousin, Armand.”

“I know what your names are,” she snapped. “I mean, what are you?”

“May we come in? Please, Belle? We need to talk,” Armand pleaded.

Belle gulped. “What are you?” Ghosts? Demons? Mutants? After what she’d witnessed today, she wasn’t sure about anything anymore. She started to question her sanity. Everything looked so…surreal. Belle jabbed a finger on Armand’s arm. He was solid. Not just a figment of her imagination. Just to make sure, Belle pinched Armand’s arm as hard as she could.

Armand flinched. “That hurts, you know?”

He was real. And Hervé must be too. She immediately ruled out the ghost theory.

“Answer my question! What the hell are you?”