Eighth Grave After Dark

“Probably.” I shook off his hold and gripped the sledgehammer again. “And I have no idea who it was. I smelled something weird, though.” I straightened and thought about it. “Like lavender or something.” I bent to my task again.

He stepped to me, curled his fingers under my chin, and lifted my face to his. “Who was it?” The moment he stepped forward, I felt consumed by fire, like I’d been swallowed by a blazing inferno.

“What were you talking to Angel about?” When he didn’t answer yet again, I stepped out of his grasp and pointed in the general direction of the living room. “Go stand in the corner with Mr. Wong.”

Cookie had joined us then, doing her best to look over Osh’s shoulder. “Is she trying it again?”

Reyes turned from me then as though frustrated. “Why is he here?”

“Mr. Wong? I have no idea.” But I stopped to wonder as Osh and Reyes eyed each other. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Why is such a powerful being in the house?” Osh asked.

“No. Well, yes—that, too—but I was thinking he needed to get out more. Maybe meet a girl. Try the singles scene. He seems awfully lonely.”

I pulled on the hammer again, raising it about two inches off the floor, and swung with all my might. It tapped lightly on the door, the sound barely audible above the sound of the spin cycle.

Then someone else joined us. Gemma stood behind Garrett, but I didn’t think the high-pitched screech that nigh drew blood from my ears was coming from her. Nope. It came from none other than my stepmother.

“What are you doing?” she yelled, pushing her way into the room.

Ignoring her, Reyes shook off his misgivings about Mr. Wong, the sweetest man alive, or, well, dead, and stepped to me again. “Are you okay?” he asked, taking my arm and caressing it.

His touch liquefied my insides. “I’m fine.”

“A sledgehammer?” Denise howled. “What are you doing letting her lift a sledgehammer?”

“I’m calling Katherine,” Reyes continued, unfazed by Denise’s rant. “I think we need to be sure.”

“Katherine the Midwife,” I corrected. Since we couldn’t take me to a medical team to give birth, we’d brought a medical team here. We even had one of the downstairs rooms outfitted with everything a modern midwife would need.

Denise ripped the handle away from me. “Do you know what that could do to the baby?”

Was she kidding? “The baby is the safest person in this room, Denise.”

“Charley, you can’t lift something this heavy.”

“Yes, I can. Not very far, but—”

A slap echoed along the walls and I realized my face stung. The moment was so shocking, so surreal, everyone stood in complete silence. Even Denise. She seemed the most shocked of all.

Reyes reacted first. His heat exploded around me and I slowed time to watch a hand lift to Denise’s throat. He would snap her neck in a heartbeat, before he even knew what he was doing, his anger was so great. I stepped in front of him, put my hands on his wide chest, and pushed with all my might. Then I allowed time to bounce back with my hands still on his chest, my body braced for impact.

It crashed around me, and Reyes, not expecting my influence, took an involuntary step back. I’d hardly fazed him. He started for Denise again, but I put my hands on his face and drew his attention to me.

“Mom!” Gemma yelled, tackling the big guys blocking the doorway to get inside. She didn’t know what Reyes was, but she knew he was supernatural and she knew he was as deadly as they came. She got between Reyes and Denise and held up her hands to fend him off.

“I’m sorry,” Denise said, trying to calm him.

“Reyes,” I said, my voice soft, soothing. “It’s okay.”

His anger physically hurt, it was so hot.

“You have to calm down.” I smiled, trying to lighten the mood. “You’re boiling me alive.”

He sobered instantly, his eyes shimmering with emotion. A telltale wetness gathered between his thick lashes as he glared at me. Then, ever so slowly, he came to his senses.

I wiped at a tear that slipped past its glistening cage, but he turned from me, embarrassed and furious and, I suspected, afraid of what he would do.

“Are you okay?” I asked Denise.

Both hands were covering her mouth. “Charley, I’m so—!”

“Get her the fuck out of my house.” Reyes didn’t turn around when he spoke.

“Come on,” Gemma said, rushing Denise out of the room.

Garrett helped, ushering them out, and then he and Osh blocked the door in case Reyes changed his mind.

“I’m okay,” he said to them, but they didn’t move.

Cookie looked on the verge of tears herself.

“We’re okay, hon,” I promised her.

Even unconvinced, she took that as her cue to leave.

“Reyes,” I said, placing a hand on the small of his back. It scorched my skin. “What is going on? You’re so hot. Your temper is like a ticking time bomb. You leave and you’re gone for hours. And then when you do come back, you stay away from me for the rest of the night. I don’t understand.” I couldn’t even imagine how he’d react when I told him about the Loehrs. The very thought filled me with an all-encompassing dread.

“Tell her,” Osh said, leaning against the doorjamb.

“Is it—?” I lowered my head, so afraid of his answer. “Is it me? Is it … how I look?”