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Besides, who wouldn’t want to figure out how to get an entire building’s power under your control? It was work that paid well… and that might come in handy somewhere down the line if our current plans to mess with the Frankfords didn’t work out.
Mom hadn’t been able to hide how overjoyed she’d been when I’d told her about the gig. She’d never made any comments about the other ways I’d earned money over the years, but I couldn’t think of many mothers who’d have outrightapprovedof the habits I’d fallen into.
I’d helped keep her afloat after Rose’s dad had kicked her to the curb without severance or even a reference. Made sure her apartment was at least a little less crappy than mine. Until Rose had come back to town, my mother had been the only person in this world I’d still given a damn about.
Going up the steps to her second-floor apartment, hearing the creak of the sagging wood, made me more depressed than usual. It was still a crappy place. Once I settled into this new job and we got rid of the witching threat hanging over us, maybe I could help her out more than I had before. Kick some extra cash toward a down payment on a nicer place. See if I could pull some strings to find her a better job than the one she had cleaning houses for that harassing jerk of a boss.
She was pretty much always home in the evenings. I rapped my knuckles against the door. “Mom? It’s me.”
It took longer than I expected before I heard the shuffle of her feet on the other side. Mom eased the door open. Her eyes had gotten a little sunken over the years, her dark brown hair strung with gray, but normally she brightened when she saw me. Today she gave me a look that was almost dour.
She stepped back to let me in, and I came inside with a frown. “Is everything okay? That asshole didn’t try anything on you again, did he?”
“What?” she said, with honest surprise. “No. No, I just didn’t expect to see you coming around here.”
I stopped by the kitchen doorway, resting my hand on the counter. Her dinner dishes were already in the sink, rinsed, so I hadn’t interrupted her meal. “Why wouldn’t you expect me? I’ve been dropping in all the time since I stopped living with you. I mean, if you want me to start calling first, I can do that, you just always said—”
“No,” she said. “I mean I thought you were too busy with that slut of yours.”
My head snapped around. For a second I could only stare at her. I didn’t think I’deverheard my mother use that word, and I’d hung out with women in the past who openly embraced the label.
“Excuse me?” I said, my tongue stumbling.
“The Hallowell girl,” Mom said, her dark eyes narrowing. “I know you’ve been seeing her. Everyone knows. And not just you. All sorts of young men she’s luring into her home, isn’t she? After what her family did to me… And now she’s stealing you too, at least until she decides to spit you back out.”
I groped for more words. “Mom—why are you talking like this?”
“Because I can’t stand to see you turn into some kind of… ofdegenerate. You deserve better, Damon. You deserve to be better. I can hardly stand to look at you, knowing you’ve gone along with whatever whorish scheme she’s caught you up in.” She drew in a breath that sounded like a sob.
“Mom.” Emotions wrenched through me, tearing me between fury that she’d talk that way about the love of my life and horror that I’d somehow disappointed and disgusted her so much. I grasped her shoulder. “It’s not like that. I swear—”
Mom wrenched away from me and backed up to the table. “Don’t touch me. Not with those hands that’ve been all over that whore. There’s always been something wrong about that family. I should have known. I should have said something from the start.”
“There’s nothing to say,” I said firmly, barely keeping my anger in check. “You can’t talk about Rose that way. You have no idea— She’s the kindest, strongest woman I know, Mom. There are no schemes. I care about her. I go out to see her. Anything else that happens is none of your business anyway.”
“Of course you’d say that,” she mumbled. “Of course. Get out. I don’t want to see you, not when I know you’re probably going running back to her the moment you leave.”
“Mom.”
“Go!” She pointed toward the door, her shoulders shaking.
God help me, what the hell was I supposed to do? I wavered and then went, catching the door a second before I slammed it. My pulse thumped through my veins like the steps rattling under my feet on the way down. I marched off toward my apartment, but that beat didn’t settle. Queasiness pooled in my gut.
What the fuck had gotten into my mom? What had she heard to make her turn on Rose like that? How could she talk like that tome?
I sure as hell wasn’t going to Rose with all this rage rushing through me. No, I’d prefer she saw as little as possible of this side of me.
And when I found out who was spreading this poison about her, I was looking forward to smashing their head in.
Chapter Six
Rose
“Wow,” Jin said as he stepped into the magicking room. His feet whispered over the polished hardwood floor. A glow from the skylight overhead streamed over us, and a whiff of the tangy incense used in one of my most recent magickings hung in the air. “This place definitely has atmosphere.”
“I thought you’d appreciate that,” I said with a smile.
“So, this is where the magic happens?” He turned, taking in the whole space. The room was empty other than the supply cabinet at the far end. “Literally?”
