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At least I wasn’t at risk of blacking out. If I was right, and I was positive I was, I’d met these souls before. I was prepared for what they’d fire at me. Unfortunately, that first time I’d lost consciousness when confronted by souls wasn’t the last. Thankfully, I only passed out now if a soul was putting out incredibly strong and volatile emotions and I hadn’t prepared for it.

I quickly finished up and then stood there, trying to gather the courage to walk back into the living room completely naked in every possible way. Nakedness wasn’t new to me. Witches often had to strip to work certain spells. We worshipped Mother Nature, so it came with the territory. I’d just never done this in front of a male I was deeply in love with, a male who wanted to fuck everyone but me. To say I was self-conscious was a freaking understatement.

Shoulders back, tits up.

Zinnia’s voice filled my head—my fearless-as-fuck sister. The way she’d confronted Death, her courage and attitude. She amazed me. I’d always been painfully shy. Yes, I’d been conquering that part of myself more and more over the last couple years, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still there. Ren was counting on me, though. He needed me. I could do this. I had to.

I’d wanted to be like Zinnia my whole life, and if she were me, she’d walk into that room with all the confidence in the world. She wouldn’t try to cover herself, and she sure as hell wouldn’t blush.

I straightened my spine, opened the door, and strode down the hall. Without pausing, I walked into the living room.

Ren turned. “Fuck,” he bit out, startled, then froze completely. Well, except for his gaze that sliced down my body and back before quickly darting away.

“I should’ve warned you,” I said. “I thought you knew what I was doing.”

“No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to, uh…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Look.”

I took a steadying breath. “Lie on the rug, Ren.”

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Chapter 9

Jasmine

* * *

“So how does this whole thing work? You want to talk to a soul and you just summon them to you?”

“It depends. All spirits are called to one of three places—Heaven, Limbo, or Hell. Once a soul’s in Heaven, they can stay there or choose to become spirit guides or ‘guardian angels,’ and yeah, most can be called on to commune with. Limbo, however, is a little like Hotel California—you can never leave. Spirits in Limbo can’t be guides, and they can’t be reached by someone like me. Hell, well, that’s a little fuzzy. We can speak to some of those spirits, but I have no idea how or why that is.” I had to assume they had different levels of evil, and access was denied or granted on those grounds. None of the hounds or Willow could tell me, so I assumed it was on a need-to-know basis. “Most souls are greeted with a light, though, that leads them to Heaven. The rest are collected by reapers like Magnolia and taken to either Limbo or Hell.” I pulled the rest of what I’d need from my bag. “But some linger, tied to a person or a location. This can be for a lot of different reasons.” I held his gaze. “I think that’s what we’re dealing with here—”

“You don’t know, though,” he said roughly. “Not until you talk to them.”

I shook my head, but inside I was certain these were the first souls who came to me, the ones with a message for Ren, something we’d never talked about since.

Taking a roll of twine and some sprigs of rosemary from my bag, I laid the twine around Ren in a wide circle just outside the salt line, layering up the protection, always, and then muttered a powerful protection spell as I wrapped the twine around each of the four sprigs of rosemary lying at the midpoints between each candle. The herb had many uses, but in this instance I was using it for its cleansing, purification, and, most importantly, its protection properties.

Ren was breathing heavily, his fists clenched at his sides, body so tense that he looked close to snapping, to jumping up and running out of here. I got it; I used to be terrified as well. Now, I refused to let what I was rule my life in a negative way. What he faced was different, of course, but I knew how to ease his fears and help start his healing. Hopefully he’d let me this time.

“It’s going to be okay, Ren, I promise,” I said as I walked over and kneeled just above his head. Sitting back on my heels, I placed my hands on the sides of his face, my palms on his cheeks, my fingers against his beard.

He looked up at me, into my eyes, purposely not at my nakedness. “What are you doing?” he rasped.

I sent a healing rush into him. The more contact the better, but this was a start and would ease his fears for now. “Calming you down. The calmer you are, the calmer they’ll be.”

He nodded stiffly.

I smiled, projecting as much warmth and comfort as I could, and gently sent more power through my hands. “Breathe in for me, nice and slow. That’s it, now let it out, slowly. Slow it all down. You’re safe in this circle. They won’t cross over the line; the salt, the rosemary, and candles are warding them off.” His eyes hadn’t left mine. “Another deep breath for me,” I whispered as I slid a hand higher, working my way to his third eye, right between his eyebrows, and massaged there with two fingers while I cupped his jaw with the other hand, giving him a sense of being held, cocooned in warmth and comfort. “How you doing?”

He released a shuddery breath, but his breathing had slowed, his fingers no longer curled in tight fists. “Yeah…” He cleared his throat. “I’m good.”

“Awesome.” I smiled and slowly slid my hand from his bristled jaw and stood. “No matter what happens, I need you to stay where you are, okay?”

His gaze came to me. “What if they come after you.”

“I’m safe. I promise.”

He nodded, but he was clearly worried.