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DISPELLING THE BARRIER I’d placed around our bedroom, we emerged and headed for the bathrooms. We took separate showers rather than sharing one so we didn’t become distracted again.
Our ghostly sidekicks found us in the kitchen, scoffing down food. “You really know how to ruin our fun,” Winston complained.
Brandi rolled her eyes and attempted to flick her pink hair over her shoulder. As always, her locks didn’t move at all. “You’re such a pervert,” she accused.
“You know you are,” Jonah said solemnly when Winston opened his mouth to protest. “We all know you are. There’s no point trying to deny it.”
“Fine,” the ex-Archivist snapped. “I’m a pervert. There! You made me say it. Are you happy now?” He flounced off in a huff, but not before we all broke into sniggers.
“Do I even want to know what’s got him all worked up?” Mirra asked as she entered the room. She wore one of her tight, low-cut dresses and matching ballet flat shoes. Soft pink, they flattered her olive skin.
“The ghosts walked in on Connor and me having sex,” I told her. “Brandi called him a pervert when he said I’d spoiled his fun for chasing them out.”
“Ah,” she said in understanding and moved to the coffee machine to pour herself a cup. “He is a pervert, though. There’s no question about that. My mother and her friends have all caught him peeking at them while they were bathing.”
Winston stuck his head through the wall to glower at her. “I’m a man, young lady,” he said with as much dignity as he could muster. “Surely, you can’t expect me not to ogle a colony of sirens when they’re naked. No real man could resist their allure.”
“A gentleman would never spy on women,” Mayra said as she sauntered into the room. Her dress was just as tight as her daughter’s, but it was light blue. “Gentlemen have manners.”
“Yes, well, we’ve already established that I’m a pervert and therefore cannot be considered a gentleman,” Winston shot back. “If you’ll excuse me, I have things to do.” With a bow that was ruined since we could only see half of him, he drifted away.
Quin and Jake entered the room, shaking their heads at the tail end of the conversation they’d overheard. “You see what I have to deal with?” our boss said.
“Better you than me, Quin,” Jake said with a grin. Catching sight of me, he narrowed his eyes. “I have a bone to pick with you, young lady.”
Squirming in my chair, I wondered what I’d done to get myself into trouble. “What did I do?” I complained.
He pointed at his face accusingly. “Why do I look so much younger? My laugh lines have disappeared!”
“Oh, that,” I hedged and saw Rudy had just appeared. The leprechaun was perched on the table, swinging his legs in unconcern. “It’s his fault,” I said, pointing at the bearded creature.
“My fault?” Rudy exclaimed, putting a hand on his chest innocently. “How is it my fault?”
“You needed a boost of power and I gave it to you. Jake had to hold you still because you were being such a baby. It wouldn’t have spilled out onto him if you’d manned up.”
“I was not being a baby!” he spluttered in outrage. Holding his hand up dramatically, his fingers were poised to be clicked. “I have half a mind to teach you a lesson, girly,” he said threateningly.
“Go ahead, Rumpelstiltskin,” I said mockingly, holding my own hands ready to cast magic. “I can take you.”
“Enough!” Quin barked, then pinched the bridge of her nose. “What did I do to deserve this?” she asked no one in particular.
“You were born to rule, daughter,” Xavier said as he and his second joined us. He clapped a hand on her shoulder. “If I hadn’t been so thickheaded, I would have seen it when you were still living in my pack.”
Straightening her spine, she met his eyes that were so similar to hers. “Do you have any advice on how to deal with them?” she hiked her thumb in our direction and I hastily lowered my hands. Rudy crossed his arms and tried to look like he wasn’t sulking.
Studying us, Xavier shook his head. “I’m lucky I only have to deal with werewolves. Witches and leprechauns are out of my league.”
“Damn right we are,” Rudy muttered, then withered beneath Quin’s glare.
“Is this permanent?” Jake asked, not letting me off the hook just yet.
“I have no idea,” I told him honestly.
He looked at Connor to see he looked the same as always. “Connor doesn’t change when you give him your energy.” They all must have sensed, heard, or felt what the two of us had been up to.
“He’s a shifter,” I struggled to explain, pushing away my embarrassment at our lack of privacy. “Since Rudy is a leprechaun, I gave him a different combination of energy.”
“What did you give me, girly?” Rudy asked. He was still full of energy and it didn’t look like it was going to wane any time soon.
“A bit of everything,” I confessed guiltily. “I had so much energy inside me that I didn’t have time to sort through it all. I just shoved it all into you and hoped you could take it.”
Jake put a hand on his chest and his gaze turned inwards. “I can feel the energy inside me,” he said in a musing tone. “It’s joined with my fae magic and has changed me, but I’m not sure how yet.”
Mayra crossed to him and halted a couple of steps away. “I have a gift for sensing magical abilities,” she said in her exotic accent. “May I?” she held her hand towards him, waiting for him to nod. Moving even closer, she placed her hand over his heart and delved inside him. “Yes,” she said in a musing tone. “I can feel the essence of many types of magic inside you. They have become fused and would be impossible to extract from each other.”
Falling silent, her brow furrowed as she delved deeper. “There is vast sadness and rage inside you, Jake Everett,” she said at last. Their eyes met and his were haunted. “Yet there is the capacity for greatness as well. I sense you have a destiny that will test you to your limits and beyond. If you are stalwart, you will not fail.” Removing her hand, the siren gave him a flirtatious smile. “Do not worry that you look younger now. Women of all ages will still want to sleep with you.”
Jonah snorted out a laugh at the appalled look on my face. It was doubtful anyone would mistake him for my father now. He now looked more like his mid to late twenties than thirty-six as he was pretending to be.
“Did you come up with a plan?” Connor asked as Jake joined Mirra at the coffee machine.
“No,” Quin replied and took a seat at the table. Her father stood beside her as if he was her second. “Roderick and Stephanie are searching through the Archives, seeking for any information that could be useful. They have the other Archivists searching as well.”
“I doubt they’ll find anything,” Rudy said in a cranky tone. “There’s never been anything like what Von Hades has become before.”
“We need more dragon blood to have any hope of tearing the reaper out of him,” Brandi pointed out. “Since Viper ate the heart, it’s going to be kind of hard to find.”
“Even if we could separate Death from the demon, how are we going to get the mask out of him now that he’s become merged with it?” Jonah added.
My shoulders slumped when it became apparent no one had any real ideas. They’d already been over this and were just repeating themselves.
Realizing my hand was pressed against my chest, I tried not to let my despair flood through the bond to Connor. There was one source of dragon blood left, but using it against our nemesis would be extremely difficult.
Watching my friends and loved ones, I leaned against my mate, savoring the time we had left together. Once we went after Von Hades, it was possible none of us would survive.
