Jasper
“Hey, what are those two talking about?” Jake said, noticing the two incubi on the porch before he said one word about the house.
“Hel’s boobs, probably,” I said.
“Man, they better fucking not be.”
“I’m kidding.” Then I laughed. “You’ve really gotten possessive.”
“When I want something, I want it,” Jake said. “Anyway…you know. Don’t play it cool.”
Yeah. I did know. Once we both decided we liked Helena, it was like we realized just how much we’d been noticing her and liking what we saw for the last several years. That’s how it goes sometimes. There’s that moment when everything changes, when something previously veiled becomes so obvious that you can’t stop staring at it.
We were here to win a witch’s heart, and we had already agreed this was a united front. That made just as much sense as anything. Hel was our perfect partner.
I stepped down from the van and pain shot through my leg. I let out a groan of agony through gritted teeth.
“I’ve never seen someone forget they broke their leg this many times,” Jake said.
“I haven’t forgotten. I just keep thinking it won’t be that bad. And it just hurts because we’ve been in the van so long.” My hand slammed against the side of the van, like I could slap out the pain. It also steadied me. “Believe me, I’ll never forget that little bastard’s face when he blasted me.”
If I ever saw Helena’s cousin again, I was going to have a hard time not mauling him, even if he was on the council. Even if I probably would also have a hard time mauling him, because he was clearly more powerful than me.
Damnit.
We wolves were nothing to him. Animals. Lesser beings. I didn’t have a hot temper, but that would have been hard for any man’s pride to take. Jake and I had worked hard all our lives to help our families and our community. What had the wizard council really done for anyone lately? What right did some rich warlock have to claim we didn’t do any good in the world? He was welcomed into a leadership role only on the strength of his family name.
Helena’s mother had knit my skin and bones back together, but it would take a lot more time for the pain to leave me. Several weeks, probably. Magic wasn’t always perfect. I didn’t have time for this, but it would be worse without the healing, so I guess there was that.
I did a few stretches, rubbing my calf, and then tried to walk off the pain. It didn’t really work. I had to take the stairs slowly. Graham and Byron were looking at me.
“Are you all right?” Graham asked. “I heard about the fight.” He sounded genuinely concerned. His shirt was also torn into tatters and he had bloody scratches on his face.
“On the mend.”
“That’s good.”
“Is everything okay here?”
“We fought some ghouls,” Graham said. “Helena is fine. I got the worst of it.”
My image of him as a slick human professional was quickly fading, and I had to give the guy some grudging respect. He was taking all of this in stride.
“Good morning,” Byron said, also trying to be friendly.
“It’s three o’ clock,” Jake said.
“Ah. Well, that makes sense.” Byron shrugged. What did a ghost care? It wasn’t like he had appointments.
“Helena is checking out the house, I guess?” I asked. “Whose truck is that?”
“There have been some complications,” Graham said.
To say the least. He relayed the story and then Jake tilted his head toward the side of the house.
“Let’s scope out the land,” he said. “We’ll come in through the back.”
Of course, Jake was always interested in a good piece of land. It was a perk if we had some hunting grounds to roam while we were flipping a house. We liked to keep our wolf instincts honed, and a fresh rabbit made for a good dinner too, although Helena might not appreciate the catch. We’d behaved ourselves at Lockwood House, but Jake was ready to show her who we really were.
The house was surrounded by a cleared area to support the gardens and outbuildings and some overgrown pasture for horses. In fact, in the far distance I saw a man riding a horse, but he was so far away he must be a neighbor. I still wasn’t sure I liked the idea of neighbors in view. If he was human, he could be trouble. If he was a wizard, even worse.
Old live oak trees drooping heavy branches toward the ground, shading everything. I smelled swampy water and I could tell we were near a river or lake. I saw what might have been an old path, wide enough for a carriage, disappearing through some trees. Maybe that led to the water. No thick forest for hunting, though.
Jake pointed in the other direction, toward the square of iron fencing that circled an old graveyard, the moss-covered vaults sagging in uneven directions over lumpy soil. There must be flooding here now and then since the tombs were all above ground.
“We’re looking for Byron’s bones, aren’t we?” he said. “I wonder if that spot has anything useful. Maybe his friends buried him where they already had a plot?”
“Sure, maybe,” I said. “But count me out.”
“You afraid of old bones?”
“About as much as you are,” I said. “Which I have a feeling is a decent amount.”
As we were speaking, several big white swans flew down and landed on the tombstones, staring at us.
Swans? What the hell were swans doing hanging out on the tombstones? It would have been less creepy to see ravens. They were here just to weird us out.
“Graham can do it,” Jake said.
“Exactly.”
Jake hustled to the screen door in the back and tried the handle of the solid door behind it. It was locked, but after a second, Hel opened it. I limped behind him as fast I could, cursing under my breath the whole way.
Was it just my wishful thinking, or did Helena’s whole face brighten when she saw us come in?
“Hey guys! You made it! Isn’t this place amazing? We haven’t seen the upstairs yet.”
“It’s something, all right,” Jake said. We stepped inside to a large workroom. He peered through the nearest doorways to peek at some of the other rooms. “Where is the kitchen?”
“We were just talking about that,” Helena said. “So…there’s no kitchen…”
“A blank slate,” Jake said, clearly relishing the thought. “Man, this place is hideous inside. We’re going to have to—”
“Oh, no,” Helena waved her hands. “No, we were just thinking that if we sell it to the faeries we can spare a lot of work. Faeries like bright colors and old-fashioned decor.”
“When have you been interviewing faeries about their design choices, Baroness?” Jake asked. “And where are you going to find these faeries?”
“Through my brother,” she said, with perfect confidence. “He works at Merlin College, which as you know, is now a parallel to the faery realm. They have contact with the faery queen and she wants and needs to expand her territory. Hence—” She rubbed her fingers together in the sign for money. “Less work, more money.”
“What does Billie think of all this?” I asked, extending a hand to the redheaded girl. “Hello, by the way. I’m Jasper Sullivan. Graham told us what happened.”
“So you’re the wolf twins. Well, okay,” Billie said, on an approving up-note. “You won’t be so bad to work with.”
“Sorry, sister, you’re cute but I’m here to seduce a Habsburg,” Jake said, and i grabbed him and shoved him toward a side table while Helena covered her face with embarrassment and Billie’s mouth dropped open.
“Jake! Don’t be an ass. I’m tired of covering for you. You don’t have to say everything you’re thinking all the time.”
“Not sorry,” Jake said. “I just want to make it clear that I’m not here to waste time. A man gets to thinking on the road. I’m not driving all the way to Louisiana to work below my usual rate just to be coy. I want a wife who shares all my passions.”
Well, that line definitely worked on Helena. Even through her outward embarrassment, I could see that she was riveted by how forward Jake was being. It drove me absolutely crazy how he could get away with anything.
“All these men want you?” Billie was steaming now. “I am not going to work around these four dudes flirting with you and fighting over you all day.”
“No, no, it’s not like that! Ignore Jake. He’s just a shit-stirrer,” Helena said. “I’m here to work.”
“Me too,” I said. “We’ll put Jake outside and make him work on the porch and the soffits. I saw that you have some rot.”
“And Graham and Byron aren’t here to do anything,” Helena said. “We’ll make them leave.”
Billie looked skeptical of this, and I was too. They looked pretty comfortable standing on that porch.
“Graham has an election,” Helena said, more uncertainly. “But since you’re all here…”
“Are you ready for this?” Billie asked, her blue eyes turning harder as they skimmed over all of us. “Let’s talk about Pandora’s Box. And I hope you’re still in, because if you’re not, I’ll have to kill you.”