Page 7 of A Curse in Darkness

One day he was here terrorizing us, the next there was a large patch of freshly turned earth in the far corner of the backyard. No one questioned it.

If Art hadn’t done something, Gran or Else would have. I didn’t care who did it; I was just glad he’d gotten what he more than deserved.

“God, Mom, I can actually see hearts floating around your head like a cartoon character,” Iris said and fed Nia a doggy treat.

Mom held out her hand to me, and when I took it, she tugged me out of my seat. “Couldn’t get a better protector than a hellhound, and my baby needs all the protection she can get.”

Ren flushed, and his jaw got tight. “She doesn’t need him. She has me.”

“Mom,” I growled out under my breath. “I’m more than capable of looking after myself.”

She waved a hand. “Ren knows what I mean.” She dropped a kiss to the top of his head and cupped his whiskered jaw. “Look at this face. This is not the face of a cold-hearted killer.”

Ren flushed hotter, and I winced. Jesus. I gave her a look that I hoped expressed the need for her to stop talking.

She was right, though. Even covered in demon blood, Ren was the kind of good-looking that stopped people in the street. My fox was utterly gorgeous. He’d been a beautiful boy at fourteen, and I’d always known he’d be a heartbreaker when he became a man. He had dark russet hair and chiseled features that were perfectly proportioned. Add in the thick lashes and those great lips—man, I was jealous of those lips—and he was every teenage girl’s fantasy. His square jaw, now covered in a short beard, stopped him from heading too far into pretty territory.

“Warrick scares the hell out of me,” Rose said.

Mom glanced at her. “He’s just man, Roe, like any other.”

If only that were true. If he was just like every other man, then maybe I’d know how to deal with him.

Roe scoffed. “A man whose eyes glow red.”

Mom shrugged. “Only sometimes.” Then she grabbed the bottom of my sweater and tugged it up.

“Mom!” I tried to wrestle it from her. I lost.

“Pish. We’ve seen it all before.”

Ren averted his gaze. Just because he was used to nudity didn’t mean it was okay to stare at a naked woman being ogled by her entire family.

“Let’s see the new ink,” Mags said, moving closer. Bram bobbed on her shoulder and looked away as well. “Oh wow, that one’s seriously awesome.”

“It’s big,” Iris said. “Does it curl around your nip, or start under your boob.”

I sighed. “It starts under my boob and will join up with the one on my hip.”

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” Mags said. “You’re the new Keeper of an untried branch of the coven, what if this isn’t your last task? What if the mother makes you do another one to prove we’re not a bunch of duds of something?”

I rolled my eyes even as something unhappy curled in my gut. Mags had been getting “feelings” about things since she was little, and they’d become more accurate as she’d gotten older. But when it came to Magnolia, you didn’t know which thoughts were just her highly active imagination and which were a developing sixth sense. “That won’t happen.” I turned to Mom. “Right?”

She chewed her lip, something she and Magnolia both did when they were feeling unsure.

“Mom?”

She waved her hand again. “No, I’m sure that won’t happen.”

“Imagine if the next one pops up in the middle of your forehead,” Mags said and snorted, then her eyes widened. “Holy shit, she’d have to bite your head.”

“Anything could happen, we’re in uncharted territory here,” Else said. “And Selene had one covering the entire right side of her face.”

“You’re joking.” She better be goddamn joking.

“You’ve seen the painting in the library, kiddo.”

Shit. I had seen the painting. Selene was a past Keeper of our coven and also Iris’s doppelgänger. The two weren’t just alike; they were scarily identical. “I thought that was something else. Painted or drawn on for a ritual or a spell…”