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“David, please. It’s not that big of a deal. We’ll handle it.”
“Thank you, Ellie. I know we’ve only been together a short time, but I’ve grown very attached to you and I don’t want to jeopardize our relationship.” He picked up my hand and kissed it. “I would never intentionally hurt you. I want you to know that.”
Guilt gnawed at my gut. I didn’t deserve this man, but I was going to do everything in my power to change that. I knew I should tell him about kissing Collin earlier. I just couldn’t. “I do.” I choked out.
“Now what did you want to tell me?”
I was a Curse Keeper because Ananias Dare had done everything in his power to protect his family, even if he’d inadvertently destroyed them in the process. I wouldn’t destroy David. I needed him too much, in every possible way. But I had to tell him something about meeting Collin. I owed him at least that much. “I saw Collin at the beach today.”
He was silent for a moment, and then he forced a smile. “It’s okay, Ellie. He’s the other Curse Keeper. I know you’re going to see him sometimes.”
“You don’t want to know anything else about me seeing him?”
He hesitated again, swallowing before he answered. “No. I trust you.”
Did he have reason to trust me? I’d only kissed Collin, but I’d wanted so much more. It killed me that my carnal need for Collin simmered under the surface of my subconscious no matter what the commonsense part of me wanted. I knew I should tell David the full story, but would it help anything? It would probably just hurt him without helping either of us. Still, I couldn’t ignore the fact that burying my feelings meant that I was breaking my own cardinal rule for our relationship.
No secrets.
Chapter7
The sun dipped close to the horizon as David pulled into the driveway of a tiny bungalow. “Here it is,” he said, opening his car door.
“It’s cute,” I said, climbing out and staring at the front porch covered in vines. Somehow I’d pictured him in a more contemporary house, not an older one with so much character. But after seeing the place, I realized it fit him perfectly.
David moved to the trunk and popped the lid. “Let’s get the door marked and get inside before we stumble upon any nasty surprises.”
“You think there’s a chance that we’d find any spirits or demons this far from Manteo?”
He already had his bag slung over his shoulder and my bag in his hand. “Honestly, I don’t know,” he said as he closed the trunk. “But I’d rather not hang outside and find out.”
He led me down a short cobblestone path to the stone-covered front steps, and I noticed that two wicker chairs had been arranged on one side. Several flowerpots with dead plants were in one of the corners.
“You had flowers?” I asked.
He cast a glance at the containers and shrugged before placing his key in the doorknob. “Yeah, they reminded me of my mother’s garden back home.”
“Do you miss your family?” His mother and father lived in London, and he saw them no more than once or twice a year.
“Sometimes. I was feeling a bit nostalgic at the beginning of the summer. I told you I was going through a rough patch.”
He pushed the door open and stepped inside to turn on a light. A warm glow lit up the sheer curtains in the windows.
I grabbed a piece of charcoal from my purse and tossed the bag on the porch. David came back out, his gaze dropping to my hand. I lifted it and shrugged. “I came prepared. Why don’t you go inside and I’ll start marking.”
He moved behind me, standing on the top step as if guarding my back. “And leave you out here alone? I’d rather not. Besides, I like to watch you mark the doors. It’s like watching a ceremony.”
I gave him a small smile, though his comment made me think of how I’d felt when I first saw Collin marking my door. “How many exterior doors are there?”
“Two.”
I nodded and then began, making the marks for the elements around the perimeter of the door, starting with the four corners. As I applied the signs to the door, I asked the moon to lend its protection through the night, for the sun to add its strength to the moon as it watched over us, for the air to protect us from the wind gods. And in the center of each edge, I placed my own symbol for water along with David’s initials—the two people I was asking the elements to protect. In the very center of the door, I placed the new mark that Collin had begun to add, a diamond with anxin the center—the symbol that would keep the gods and spirits from invading our dreams.
When I finished, I stepped back and made sure it looked complete. The black charcoal marks on the red door were really going to stick out tomorrow in the daylight.
“What are your neighbors going to think?” I asked.
He chuckled. “They know I’m a professor of Native American studies. They probably won’t think anything of it. Besides, we’ll only be here two nights. Now let’s go mark the back door so we can give all of my neighbors something to talk about.”
