Wicked Souls Read Online Free PDF Page B

tamped down the last of his unruly emotions. He
stood for a long moment staring at me, the wheels in his head
turning over whether he should risk leaving me alone or risk
self-combusting if he didn’t. Decision made, he gave me a nod. “I’ll figure something out. Meanwhile, the first sign of Gabriel,
you call. Got it?”
    Back to business seemed the safest course. “Can you, I don’t know, ask around—” I pointed at the floor “—down
there and find out what happened to him? Why he’s here and who
might have put a spell on him?”
    Luc gave me one more downward jerk of his
chin and shimmered out of sight.
    Cain reappeared in the doorway, eyeing the
spot Luc had vacated. Seeing Luc was gone, he gave a disgruntled
sniff and left.
    I shut my eyes, leaned against the counter,
and took a deep breath, my body and mind a complete mess. “Holy
guacamole, Amy. What the Devil have you gotten yourself into?”
    The lion roared in my chest. “Easy girl,” I
said and reached for another Dove chocolate to feed her.
     
     
     
    While eating all of the chocolates in the
bowl to calm my magic, I paced the apartment and tried to figure
everything out. If Gabriel thought I put a spell on him, then he
had to know I’d be the only one who could break it. Why would he
try to kill me? The logical answer was on the edge of my mind when
that strange pressure—half pain, half stone wall—built in my head
again and I suddenly found myself fascinated with the shoes in my
closet.
    I kept each pair in their respective boxes,
lined up neatly and alphabetized by designer. And while the
collection, which took up more space than my clothes, was an
impressive sight, it was also a ridiculous distraction in my
current situation. I shook my head and marched out of the bedroom,
trying to remember what I’d been thinking about. One of my brain
waves theorized it had been Luc, but that didn’t seem right. Adam? That wasn’t right either, and yet my psyche cheered and told me to
go with it.
    The moment I did, however, the pressure/pain
returned, seeming to wrestle my frontal lobe into a submission
hold. My head felt like it was splitting into halves. Pressing my
hands against the sides of my temples, I paced into the living room
and heard someone outside the door murmuring under her breath. The
voice was familiar. I opened the door to find Keisha standing
there, eyes closed and hands raised like a Southern Baptist
preacher blessing his flock, two shakes from the shop in a drink
carrier at her feet. Her lips continued to move in a soft
chant.
    “Are you hexing my apartment or sacrificing
milkshakes to your dead ancestors?”
    Her eyes flew open and she lowered her
hands. “I, uh…” She stooped to pick up the shakes and handed one to
me. “Thought you could use some lunch.”
    “With a side order of a hex?”
    “Not a hex. Protection spell.”
    “No offense,” I said. “But do you really
think your voodoo can protect me from an archangel?”
    She sniffed, reminding me of Cain. “It can’t
hurt and you’d do the same for me.”
    Of course I would. Except I was magic-free. The only protection I could offer her was my physical presence and
my heightened strength. “Who’s watching the shop?”
    “Liddy.”
    Liddy was the sweetest person who’d ever
walked the earth and I adored her. She was not, however, management
material, unless you ran a cattery. “Are you insane?”
    Keisha wiggled the shake in front of my
face. “What could go wrong? In case you haven’t noticed, business
is slow because of all this gloomy weather. She can handle the shop
for half an hour, and she’s got your number on speed dial if she
needs one of us.”
    The right side of my brain argued with the
left about the wisdom of leaving Liddy in charge of the shop, but
before I could get up a full head of steam about it, I sucked on
the shake and the uptight Amy I usually was about my ice cream
business disappeared. Keisha was right. Liddy could handle it.
    The