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A spasm shot through me. Roman? No…please. I’d just seen him yesterday. I didn’t have any reason to dislike him. We’d simply been a bad fit, and the breakup had been as amicable as such things could be.
I was so wrapped up in my thoughts I almost missed what she said. “Wait, what? Which ex-boyfriend?”
“Thomas,” she repeated. “Thomas the Turd.”
Chapter 12
Tessa had made it clear from the first time she’d met my second boyfriend, Thomas Chartres, that she didn’t care for him one tiny whit. Unfortunately, it had taken me almost two months to see what she’d seen—that he was a charming asshole, manipulative and controlling, and, I later learned, an abusive one as well. He never reached the point of physical violence with me, though, mostly because I discovered he was also a cheating jerk, and I told him to get lost. However, the breakup had been an ugly one—he slashed the tires on my car, stole one of my credit cards, and spread vicious and ugly rumors about me in an attempt to get me fired from the PD. Luckily I had a fairly solid reputation as a quiet homebody who kept to herself, so nobody—or at least, nobody who mattered—believed his stories wherein I supposedly had wild public sexcapades with strange men in exchange for drugs. Eventually, I had to resort to a restraining order. And when he broke into my car and stole one of my guns, I took a great and terrible pleasure in obtaining the surveillance video that clearly showed him doing so, and I made sure that he was arrested for it. Since the theft of the gun automatically made it an aggravated burglary—a felony—he went to jail, and the only lasting injury I sustained was the shredding of my self-esteem.
So, can I blame him for the fact that I now have a demonic lord as a fuckbuddy? I thought with a sour smile as I raced to my aunt’s house.
I made it there in just over fifteen minutes, thanks to reckless disregard for speed limits, and not-so-judicious use of lights and siren to get through intersections and around cars. I slowed as I turned onto Tessa’s street. There were several emergency vehicles clustered in the vicinity of her house, and a number of neighbors milled about in their front yards in an effort to see what was marring the normal calm of their neighborhood.
I parked as close as I could and jogged up to my aunt’s house. Crime scene tape had been strung around the front yard and driveway. Low screens had been set up on her lawn to shield the body from the neighbors’ too-curious eyes. Jill was on scene, taking measurements. Sergeant Crawford stood nearby, speaking to Detective Pellini, who, apparently, had been on call tonight. Sarge caught my eye and gave me a slight nod, then returned to his discussion with Pellini. He’d get up with me later to fill me in. That was fine with me.
I headed over to where my aunt stood. She was off to the side of her house and near the sidewalk—outside of her wards, I noticed. A neighbor stood with her, an older woman who had her arm slipped around my aunt in what was clearly meant to be a comforting gesture. For an instant I thought that having someone die in her yard had been more of a shock to Tessa than I’d expected, because she was sure as hell giving the impression of someone who was shaken and distraught. Then she looked up, caught my eye, and winked before slipping back into her role of slightly fragile, overwrought woman.
I hid a grin as I approached. “Oh, Aunt Tessa! You poor thing!” I exclaimed, pulling her away from the other woman’s arm as I wrapped her in a dramatic hug of my own. “Such a terrible shock!”
“Don’t oversell it, sweetling,” she muttered, but I could hear the laughter in her voice.
I gave the neighbor a smile full of false gratitude, then steered Tessa away and closer to the crime scene tape—out of earshot. “Tell me everything,” I demanded in a low voice.
“First, I must thank you for getting me away from that inane woman,” Tessa replied tartly. “What a dingbat! She kept wanting me to pray with her ‘for strength.’ ” She gave a slight shudder. “Anyway, I was in the front sitting room when I thought I felt a ping from the wards. I figured it was just a neighbor trying to drop by and visit, so I pretty much ignored it since the aversions would take care of that for me.”
I nodded impatiently and resisted the urge to tell her to get to what happened.
“But they pinged again, which meant that whoever was trying to approach the house had more will to get to the house than the aversion could overcome. I looked out the window and saw someone in the front yard, so I turned on the lights. I didn’t realize it was Thomas, otherwise I’d have called nine one one right then and told them to bring the K-9s and their Tasers.” Her lips pressed together in distaste. “He was moving forward but fighting every step of the way.” She shook her head, brow furrowed. “I figured the defensive wards would get the message across, but he didn’t make it that far. Instead…he—”
“Grabbed his head, screamed, then keeled over?” I finished for her, a sick sensation building in my stomach that had nothing to do with the cuff on my wrist. At least, I didn’t think so.
She gave a brisk nod, eyes on me. “The other two. They died the same way, I take it.”
“I wasn’t there when Barry Landrieu died, but Evelyn sure did. And she and Barry both had the same kind of strokes.” My gaze slid to the shielded body. I had no doubt Doc would find signs of stroke in him too.
“I pulled the aversions back so that your people could work,” she said, nose wrinkling in annoyance.
“I’m sure they appreciate it, even if they don’t realize it,” I said, frowning. Before I’d left the house I’d popped some painkillers that had successfully squashed my headache. I’d also taken a few minutes to pee on the pregnancy test stick—which had come up with a nice, lovely result of Not Preggers. Now, with less pain and stress, I could think again, and I didn’t like what I was coming up with. “I think there’s another connection between these three—not just the fact that I knew them all.”
“And could conceivably have motive to want them dead?” she added.
I grimaced, nodded. Trust Tessa to get right to the point. “Yes. But Thomas was trying to get into your house. You have a portal in there.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Awhile back I found an old and buried portal in the detective’s parking lot at the PD. There was a lightning strike, and it made a hole.…They covered it with asphalt so I didn’t think about it.”
Even in the dim light I could see that Tessa had gone pale. “And the first body?”
I hugged my coat closer around me, suddenly chilled. “I felt something off, but couldn’t pin it down. But I’d be willing to bet one of my measly paychecks that there’s a portal somewhere in that area as well.” I eyed her. “What are they for? I thought the one in your library was random, but it’s not, is it?”
“I’m not sure,” she said, which surprised me. I’d somehow assumed she knew exactly what it was for and why it was there. “I only know that protecting it has always been of paramount importance. I inherited the place from my Great Aunt Nikki, even though I’d never met the woman, and she had children of her own. But she’d clearly been an arcane practitioner as well, because with the house came the contents of the library, along with a completely vague and rambling letter that maundered on and on about how vital it was that the portal be guarded and the wards maintained.” Tessa gave a low snort. “She was ninety-eight when she died, and I think her mind had gone bye-bye several years before.”
“Or maybe she didn’t know why it needed to be protected either,” I pointed out.
Tessa gave a quick bark of laughter. “Now that’s a possibility as well! When I get the chance I’ll have to look and see how she came into possession of this place.” Squaring her shoulders, she said, “But for now I need you to stay here and make sure all this is taken care of.” Tessa waved her hand at the goings-on in her front yard. “And if I’m not back by the time they finish up, can you please reactivate the outer wards?”
“Sure thing. But where are you going to be?”
She gave me a hard smile. “I think that Carl and I are going to go on a nature walk.”
After Tessa left, I waited for Sarge to get a free minute to talk to me. Since I had a personal involvement, I didn’t want to go beyond the crime scene tape.
