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Then, the lights shut off abruptly as the darkness takes over.
Goodnight world.
CHAPTER 15
Elodie
Bam!
Taylen collapses beside me, crumpling like those buildings being imploded from the inside and going down in a big, huge dusty pile of rubble. That’s him, minus the dust and rubble. He hits the hardwood floor with a thud, then a smaller thump, which is probably his hand, foot, or something settling, and that’s that.
The brooch is still clutched in his hand, and beneath it, a smear of bright red blood leaks out onto his fingertips.
I don’t think. I just act. I crouch down and grasp the brooch, doing up the pin part, so the bastard doesn’t prick me again. Then, I tuck it in my pocket, pick up Taylen’s hand, and put the tip of his finger into my mouth. It’s a gut reaction since I always end up doing that to my own tiny injuries. The coppery taste on my tongue is strange, seeing as it’s someone else’s, and it jolts me into a better state of awareness.
I mean, sucking on Taylen’s finger doesn’t feel so strange after he just had his uh-huh inside my mm-hmm, but it’s a strange impulse when I need to do something that’s going to help. I mean, he just freaking passed out.
I wave my hand in front of his face. Yup. Eyes closed, soft breath, and not even a flutter of a sign of life. He’s out cold.
I leave him there since there’s no hope of me lifting him, and shaking him doesn’t seem like it will do the trick. Everyone is downstairs, including his big, burly cousins and brother. They can help me get him up onto the bed.
I walk to the top of the staircase and call down, “We have an emergency up here. I need help!” That seems too dramatic, and I don’t want anyone to have a heart attack because that would be a heck of a lot worse than just passing out, so I yell down again, “Taylen passed out. From the curse.”
I wince because yeah, that’s hella heavy on the drama too, but a chorus of heavy footfalls come pounding below me, then all three men are there. I’ve never been so relieved to see Ash, Toren, and Kirian in my life.
“What happened?” Ash asks. “What do you mean?”
“Granny told us all about the curse,” Kirian points out, confirming what Taylen said. His grandmother can’t help but meddle. We know that. We always joked that we were part of the meddling grannies club.
“But how did it make him pass out? None of us passed out,” Ash counters.
“Maybe it’s turning deadly.”
“It’s not,” I cut in. “I don’t think it is.” Best to temper that because I really don’t know what the curse is capable of. It seemed like a good thing before, but maybe it’s morphing. Is that even possible? “It’s just that it’s been appearing in strange places. All of you were downstairs since you got here?”
Toren nods, and I know I can trust him. He’s so serious all the time, and he wouldn’t joke about this. “Granny got us all together for a curse meeting. Since it was Granny and not one of us, we knew shit was real. Usually, only we call curse meetings.”
“How does she even know about those?” Kirian asks.
Toren shrugs. “I don’t even want to know, but she seems to know everything. It’s scary.”
“Omnipresent Granny,” Ash says with a shudder.
“I think you mean omniscient,” Toren corrects.
Kirian rolls his eyes. “Thank you, walking encyclopedia.”
“It should be more like walking internet. No one knows what an encyclopedia is anymore. You’re dating yourself.”
“Thank you so much.” Kirian flips his cousin the bird, Toren rolls his eyes, and Ash sighs.
“Hey, uh, not to be pushy, but Taylen is still passed out on the floor,” I prod gently. “He passed out because he opened the door, and the brooch was just sitting there, right in front of it. If none of you put it there, then how on earth could it have gotten there? The last I knew, it was in our bags. Downstairs. It did that at the motel, too, appearing out of nowhere. Taylen got out of bed and stepped on it.”
The three guys exchange loaded looks. I should have been prepared for it, but I’m not, and I just hope Taylen doesn’t kill me for spilling everything. Because I clearly just stated that we were sharing a bed. By process of elimination and using powers of deduction, they can easily figure out that we must have been in the same room together when Taylen found the brooch and passed out.
I’m sure they were already primed by Taylen’s granny to think that we’re together, but now they have proof. If Taylen were standing here, they’d probably joke about it unmercifully, but it’s me, and they’re too nice to embarrass me like that.
